title: The Far Country: God's Journey to Us

series: Christmas

themes: incarnation scandal-of-particularity prodigal-son grace-and-forgiveness kenosis

text:
**Scripture:** Isaiah 9:2-7; Luke 2:1-14; Luke 15:11-32; Luke 15:3-7; Luke 15:8-10
**Series:** Christmas

> A Christmas Eve sermon built on Barth's image of 'the journey of the Son of Man into the far country.' Opening with the pastor's own 2000-mile Appalachian Trail hike, it argues no distance compares to the gap God crossed in the incarnation, becoming not a universal human but a particular Jewish child in a particular place and time. Reading the prodigal son alongside the lost sheep, it claims the far country is where we all live, having spent our divine inheritance prodigiously. The good news: Jesus does not merely wait like the father but goes into the far country to seek us, bearing its judgment without losing himself, so that on Christmas God comes for you, offering forgiveness and life.

**Illustrations:** appalachian-trail-thru-hike, karl-barth-far-country, prenatal-class-ice-cube, clint-briggs-spirited, nouwen-return-prodigal-son, john-brown-harpers-ferry, stonewall-jackson-fremont, mary-joseph-walking-bethlehem, manger-dirty-feed-trough

---

# December 24
### Isaiah 9:2-7
### Luke 2:1-14

The people who walked in darkness
    have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
    on them light has shined.
You have multiplied exultation;
    you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
    as with joy at the harvest,
    as people exult when dividing plunder.
For the yoke of their burden
    and the bar across their shoulders,
    the rod of their oppressor,
    you have broken as on the day of Midian.
For all the boots of the tramping warriors
    and all the garments rolled in blood
    shall be burned as fuel for the fire.
For a child has been born for us,
    a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders,
    and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Great will be his authority,
    and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.
    He will establish and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
    from this time onward and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. - Isaiah 9:2-7

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no place in the guest room.
Now in that same region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” - Luke 2:1-14

I love hiking with my family, I especially love backpacking with them. Before I was married, before I even went to seminary, I went backpacking for four and half months. I took a bus from Austin to the middle of Maine and started walking south. I ended up in the north of Georgia. It was over 2000 miles of walking. I journeyed over a lot of different parts of America. I saw a lot of different cultures from Hanover, New Hampshire, where Dartmouth is, through the mud of Vermont, the switchbackless trails of New England, through the rocks of Central Pennsylvania, past Harper's Ferry in West Virginia where John Brown had his raid. I went past the valleys where Stonewall Jackson outwitted John Frémont in the civil war, through the Shenandoas of Central Virginia, into the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina and finally to the north of Georgia and Springer Mountain. Like I said, it was a long hike. Georgia is different from Maine, North Carolina from Massachusetts. The people in each of these places were different.
There are longer hikes than people can take. The continental divide trail is the longest trail in the United States. There are less organized trails and journeys across Asia, across Africa. None of these distances compare to the distance between God and us. The distance between transcendence and finitude.

Karl Barth was a Swiss Theologian in the middle of the 20th century. He was a leader of the underground Confessing Church in Germany and helped write the Barmen declaration in 1933 against the Reichskerke which had acquiesced to the Nazi regime. Barth’s greatest work was the Church Dogmatics. They take up a lot of space. This is literally all of them. My favorite volume is IV:1 on the doctrine of reconciliation. In the middle of this volume is a chapter titled the journey of the Son of Man into the far country.

I love this language about Jesus journeying into the far country. This is a greater journey than any trail, any road, any distance. It is not just physical. For God did not just come to us fully formed. God came to us as one of us and put on what is part of us, our bodies.

Or as Barth says,

>The Word did not simply become any "flesh," any man humbled and suffering. It became Jewish flesh. The Church's whole doctrine of the incarnation and the atonement becomes abstract and valueless and meaningless to the extent that this comes to be regarded as something accidental and incidental.

Jesus did not become a universal human but a particular one in a particular place and time. None of us are universal. We all were born in particular places to particular parents. No childbirth is “general” or “universal.”

Before our oldest, Dominic was born, my wife, Alina and I, attended a few prenatal classes together. In one of them, we each held an ice cube in our hands to mimic the pain of a contraction. My understanding, though, is that actual contractions are much more pointed and painful than an ice cube. It is a particular pain for a particular reason and the particular birth of a particular person.

Each child is unique. Each birth is unique. I belabor this point because it is essential for our understanding of Christmas. Jesus is often turned into this general idea of niceness that ignores the concrete power of his coming.

In talking about Jesus, Karl Barth uses the language of the far country. The journey of the son of man into the far country.

>The incarnation, the taking of the form of a servant, means not only God's becoming a creature, becoming a man…but it means His giving Himself up to the contradiction of man against Him, His placing Himself under the judgment under which man has fallen in this contradiction, under the curse of death which rests upon Him. The meaning of the incarnation is revealed in the question of Jesus on the cross: My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?

The language of the far country points to the parable of the prodigal son.

The Parable of the Prodigal Son takes place in Luke chapter 15 as Jesus is explaining what the kingdom of heaven is like. The first parable he gives is the one of the shepherd who is willing to leave the 99 sheep who listened and came home in order to find the one who is lost. The shepherd goes out in an incredibly inefficient moment very few of us would do. Most would just write off the lost sheep. Think to ourselves, “Oh, well, a coyote got it. Let's move on with our lives.” However, like this shepherd, God does not write off the lost.
The second parable is of the lost coin, the woman who has ten coins and loses one and spends the whole night looking for it and rejoices when she finds it. It's hard to spend 30 minutes looking for something, let alone the whole night, knowing that you were just going to be exhausted and the next day is going to be horrible, an image that takes me back to college all nighters and the mistakes made.
Finally, there is the parable of the Prodigal Son. There's a father who has two sons and the younger son wants to move on with his life. The younger son wants to act like his father is dead and get his inheritance. And so the father gives it to him.
This is when the son goes into the far country and spends the inheritance prodigiously. That's where we get the name “prodigal.” The son could have gone away in a lot of different ways. We could imagine another situation where he went off and used that money to become a slaver or to set up a jewel thief business, or to be a public relations maven like Clint Briggs in the update of a Christmas Carol called Spirited. Clint functions as the Scrooge figure and is marked as an unredeemable. This might be what his older brother in the prodigal son thinks, too. Whether the younger brother spends his money prodigiously or uses people prodigiously, he still hollows himself out in the far country away from where he needed to be.
He eventually finds himself sleeping with pigs and decides to go home to beg to work at his father’s ranch. At the moment of reunion, the father  forgives him, which is beautiful. It's this this amazing moment of mercy and grace. Instead of like trying to teach the son a lesson, like, “oh, you should have listened to me.” No, the father forgives him and has a feast, a celebration. and the older son is like, wait, that's not fair. I've been here the whole time. And the father has this great line: you will always be there for me, but this son of mine was dead and now he's come back. He was lost and now he is found.

Now, this is an incredibly rich parable. There's so many ways to think about it and interpret it. There's this wonderful book by Henri Nouwen, which I recommend for everybody, called the Return of the Prodigal Son. In it, he puts himself in the position of each of the three main figures of the parable: younger son, the older son, and the father. But the far country is what I want us to think about tonight.

The far country is the place that the prodigal son goes to. The far country is where he spends his inheritance prodigiously The far country is where we all live The far country is where we all live. Where we have spent our divine inheritance prodigiously.

Wherever we are in our life, in our journey of faith or journey without faith, we have spent the good gifts that we have received. And in this way, we can understand this parable in a new light. and what this reading and understanding of the parable of the prodigal son is not just the Father waiting around for the younger son to come back.

Barth has helped me to see is how Jesus embodies this, not as the Father waiting, but going into the far country with the son. It's this combination of the lost sheep and the prodigal son together, searching and seeking and being willing to bear the judgment of the far country, the judgment of the prodigious waste of the gift of goodness, of love, the prodigious practice of of pride and self destruction. And in coming to the far country to find us, Jesus doesn’t lose himself.

>God gives Himself, but He does not give Himself away. He does not give up being God in becoming a creature, in becoming man. He does not cease to be God. He does not come into conflict with Himself. He does not sin when in unity with the man Jesus He mingles with sinners and takes their place. And when He dies in His unity with this man, death does not gain any power over Him.[^1]

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.

In the midst of a history, a man set out from his workhouse with his beloved. He was walking—they were both walking—south. There is no donkey in the Bible. They walked. She was tired with pregnancy and could not keep up. He lifted her and helped her along.

They did not find a place to stay, a place to rest, save for a stable, but it was enough. When the child was born, there was no crib to put the baby, but a feed trough filled with animal saliva and food parts. Animal feed 2000 years ago did not come from Petco. In this particular trough, in this dirty manger, Jesus lay. The birth of Jesus was one of the least hygienic moments in history and yet in that God came for us that particular time, the particular place to a particular people. In that journey beyond any journey we could go on, God came to us. God came for you. However you have spent your divine gifts that you were created for: love, compassion, justice, however, you have spent these, you are forgiven and loved and God is here for you.
May you be blessed this Christmas. May you receive God’s blessing. May you remember that you are forgiven, and that God has sent his son all the way to the far country, to the land of prodigious spending and brokenness and pain, so that you will have life.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

[^1]: CD IV:1


site: sermons

title: The Foolishness of the Cross: Jesus Cleanses the Temple

author: Wilson Pruitt

church: covenant-umc

series: Lent

themes: temple-cleansing the-cross jesus-as-temple sermon-on-the-mount service-and-mission self-examination

text:
**Scripture:** John 2:13-22; 1 Corinthians 1:18-25; Matthew 5:10-11
**Series:** Lent

> Preaching on Jesus driving the animals and money changers from the temple, Wilson argues the Bible never actually calls Jesus angry; we project anger onto the scene to justify our own. The temple was a blood-soaked place of legitimate sacrifice, and the money changers and animal sellers served real religious needs, so Jesus' real objection was not their practice but 'mission creep'—holy ground gradually overrun. Instead of modeling anger, Jesus models the foolishness of the cross (1 Corinthians 1): willingness to make a scene, look a fool, and take a stand for justice. The deeper claim is that Jesus himself is the temple, torn down and raised in three days, now the source of holiness and reconciliation given freely for all. In Lent, the call is to let the cross break our own status quo rather than mine scripture to rationalize worldly anger.

**Illustrations:** iliad-wrath-of-achilles, the-waterboy-funneled-anger, temple-as-butcher-shop, money-changers-graven-images, mission-creep, colts-owner-oppressed-billionaires

---

# March 3, 2024
## 3rd Sunday in Lent
## John 2:13-22

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
    and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of the proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews ask for signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. - 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, with the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. - John 2:13-22

Anger had a very important position in the ancient world. The beginning of the Iliad, almost the Bible to the Greeks starts with the word for anger or wrath.

>“Wrath—sing, goddess, of the ruinous wrath of Peleus’ son Achilles, that inflicted woes without number upon the Achaeans,”

The whole long poem is about anger, different levels of anger.
A lot of pagan mythology is about anger and righteous indignation. Modern mythology is filled with positive portrayals of anger. The classic film from the 90s, The Waterboy, turns around a young Louisiana man funneling his anger towards football and hitting people.
Anger is not as prominent in the Hebrew scriptures, in the Christian scriptures. It takes place from time to time, but it is not essential.

When we talk about Jesus, anger virtually absent. The one exception, often mentioned, is this passage today.
Jesus is going to the temple. There are animals all over the place as well as money changers seated. The posture of the money changers is important because to sit in the temple is the position someone takes when they are reading Torah. It is a holy position. This is a contextual situation.

If we take away the context of second temple Judaism, this whole episode seems like a strange affair. If we put ourselves and our church in Jesus's shoes, we could also understand anger at the situation. Imagine lots and lots of tables of money changers and cows and doves and goats all peeing and pooping throughout the sanctuary, right?
Like it's pretty repulsive. It's a lot worse than someone having a cup of coffee in the sanctuary, right?

What we need to hold on to is that the temple in ancient times was filled not with cleanliness, but with animal blood. There was a lot of animal blood. There was a need for animal blood. There were a lot of sacrifices going on.
The high priest, in second temple Judaism, was very close to a modern butcher. Not in the pejorative sense, but in a proper sense. The High Priest was like a butcher who can take a cow and turn it into beautiful cuts of meat and can separate all of the parts swiftly and thoroughly.
There's a sense that the temple at the time of Jesus looked more like a hot butcher shop than any church we have today. I mean hot because there was no air conditioning, and so it was open air, but it's not a cool room to prevent infection. There's probably some infection going on.
There were also money changers. The name itself sounds wicked to the ears of folks who grew up in the church. Money changers were a necessity because there were Jews of the diaspora who had come from all over the world to visit Jerusalem for the festival of Passover. These visitors brought a bunch of different money from around the world. There wasn't a Euro. There wasn't a dollar. Almost every different region had a ruler who minted their own money. Many of which had said ruler’s face on the coin.
There was a concern for many Jews about giving any money to the temple which had the image of a person on it because of the 10 Commandments where it says, “thou shall not make graven images.” So people wanted to change money from graven images to non graven images so that they could get animals to sacrifice. The money changers helped people follow the Ten Commandments.
Another issue visitors to the temple was acquiring the right animals for the sacrifice. People didn't travel from Alexandria to Jerusalem bringing their turtle doves with them for their sacrifice. There was an industry set up in Jerusalem that raised animals in order to be sacrificed. Like any small business, they couldn't just give the animals away. They had to feed for their family, right?
Jesus' actions in the temple was not against the practice of money changing or the practice of animal sacrifice. He had sacrificed animals before. His family had made sacrifices before when he was a baby and came and offered at the temple, his parents paid for the sacrifices. The angel Gabriel didn't tell Mary, “don't sacrifice anything for your child.” No, she made the sacrifices. That was the practice of her faith.
Jesus' issue in the temple is not with the sacrifices. It is not with the animals. It is not with the money changers.

This passage has been read in a very anti-Catholic fashion for the last four or 500 years with the Catholics representing the priests and the money changers at the same time. Martin Luther makes a big deal about this passage, but I think Martin Luther is missing the point.
I think a better understanding of Jesus's frustration is mission creep.
Mission creep is a term that was first coined in the early 90s around US involvement in the Somali Civil War, though it is a fairly obvious idea once you hear it. It takes place when people are given a mission and said mission slowly expands over time if unchecked.
Mission Creep is the “is the gradual or incremental expansion of an intervention, project or mission, beyond its original scope, focus or goals.”[^1]
The folks who raised the animals had grown comfortable inside the temple. The money changers had grown comfortable inside the temple and their function had creeped to become a larger part of the temple practice. The performed a function that was helpful and necessary. The issue was not their practice, but the boundaries and self-understanding about where the normal world ended and the temple began. Where was the holy ground? Where did it start?
I think many of us want Jesus to be angry in this moment, if we're being honest with ourselves. We want Jesus to be angry like Achilles was angry because then it justifies our own moments of anger and frustration. Maybe we can't love our enemies like Jesus, but surely we can be angry like Jesus.

The Bible never describes Jesus as angry anyway. We read into it that all his actions are from anger, but it doesn't say that Jesus is frustrated with what has happened to the temple. He pours out the money from the money changers. He drives the animals out of the temple. He drives the animals out, not the people. He gets a whip that's designed for animals. It's a specific word in Greek for an animal whip. It's not a person whip. He sends animals out. He cleans house. Instead of anger, what we need to realize is that Jesus is looking foolish. He is not accepting the status quo. He is not letting boys be boys in the Temple.
The righteous practices of the temple have suffered mission creep and have expanded so that there are money changers in the temple and animals being sold in the temple. This is not the intention of Torah. Jesus is frustrated with the status quo and he's not just going to let it continue.

I think this is what Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians when he says that “the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.”

Jesus does not give us an example of anger. He doesn't give us an excuse for our anger. He gives us an example of the foolishness of the cross that is willing to make a scene, to take a stand for justice. He gives us an example of someone who is willing to be lampooned for justice.
In our world today, it is easy to look out and to see your perspective, Whatever your perspective is, under attack. They are against it. However, you see the world, however you see politics, however you see faith in public life, they are attacking you. They are attacking your beliefs.
There's evidence of almost every political or religious perspective under attack. Very few times is there an editorial or a viral video where someone is like, you know what? My demographic? we're good. The owner of the Indianapolis Colts gave an interview that said, billionaires are the most oppressed group in the country.
If anyone wants to be angry about something, they can easily find something to be angry about.

In the sermon on the mount, Jesus says, ”“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.“
Matthew 5:10-11 NRSV

Jesus doesn’t say, “get angry about it.” If that is what he wanted us to do, the sermon on the mount would be the perfect opportunity to say it. Anybody can find anything to be angry about. Jesus is showing us the foolishness of the cross.

When we think about the foolishness of the cross, we cannot fall in the trap of thinking about the us and them. The foolishness of the cross is foolishness to you. It breaks your status quo, your assumptions.

The most important thing about the money changers and the animals is not the money changers and the animals. It is the temple. It is Jesus' claim that he is the temple. There's this transfer that takes place that many of us have trouble with. It goes from the temple of God being a place that should be protected to the temple of God being a person whom we should worship. It is the evidence of the crucifixion and resurrection, that he is the temple. He is the source of holiness, and that is what the temple was. The temple was the source of holiness. The temple was the way that Jews could set themselves apart from the world. The temple was the way that Jews could make themselves right again.  When they sinned, they could go to the temple and find reconciliation.
All of that is now found in the person of Jesus Christ. He is the temple torn down and rebuilt. and he is not in Jerusalem. He is not in Washington dc. He is not in downtown Austin. He is here for you. He is not asking you to be angry. He is not giving you an excuse for your anger. He is offering you new life. The temple has been rebuilt and it is given for you.
In this season of Lent, may we not look at the Bible as ways to justify our desires, but see in it an offering of life given freely. Even in the midst of unrighteousness and injustice, life has been given freely for not just us, but for all.

Let us pray,

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the life you have given us. Help us not to rationalize worldly anger but to be willing to look a fool for Christ so that others can see the truth of his love. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen

[^1]: [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission\_creep](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_creep)

method: authored, not translated

license_apparatus: CC BY-NC 4.0


title: The Opposite of Hypocrisy

series: After Pentecost

themes: hypocrisy doers-not-hearers sympathetic-reading-of-pharisees torah-and-law sin-as-missing-the-mark means-of-grace prevenient-grace

text:
**Scripture:** James 1:17-27; Mark 7:1-8; Isaiah 29:13-16; Romans 7:15-19; 1 John 3:2-3; 2 Corinthians 3:5-6; 1 Corinthians 9:14; Romans 5:23
**Series:** After Pentecost

> Preaching on James 1:17-27 and Mark 7:1-8, the sermon argues that hypocrisy is one of the easiest human inclinations, evidenced from Cain through David, Solomon, and even Paul's confession in Romans 7. It urges a sympathetic reading of the Pharisees (earnest God-followers who held to human tradition over the heart of the law) rather than a good-guy/bad-guy dualism that fed Christian antisemitism. Drawing on Isaiah 29, 2 Corinthians 3, and Torah as 'the Way' fulfilled in Christ, it names integrity as the opposite of hypocrisy: being doers of the word, honoring God with both lips and heart. Such integrity is possible only by grace, since every good gift comes from God (who works even through non-Christians), and the church is called to grow in it through worship, giving, serving, Scripture, and prayer.

**Illustrations:** hypocrisy-like-laziness, football-center-perfect-snaps-blowout-loss, parenting-do-as-i-say

---

# September 1
## The Opposite of Hypocrisy
## James 1:17-27
## Mark 7:1-8

Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave birth to us by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
You must understand this, my beloved brothers and sisters: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger, for human anger does not produce God’s righteousness. Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.
But be doers of the word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.
If any think they are religious and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world. - James 1:17-27

Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders, and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash, and there are also many other traditions that they observe: the washing of cups and pots and bronze kettles and beds.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat with defiled hands?” He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,
‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.’
“You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.” - Mark 7:1-8

One thing that's not often talked about is how easy it is to be a hypocrite. It's one of the easiest things in the world. It's like being lazy. You don't wake up one day and struggle to do less. People don't wake up one day and struggle to be a hypocrite. I mean, you can habituate yourself out of it, but I think there's a natural human inclination to say one thing and do another: to say you're gonna do something and not really wanna do it. To know what the right thing to do is and not quite follow up. I'm not saying we're all hypocrites, I'm just saying it's not hard to be a hypocrite. Like we shouldn't be surprised by hypocrisy in this world. It's been around since the beginning. Think Cain and Abel “Am I my brother’s keeper? Adam and Eve, Adam and Eve saying one thing and doing another.
The Old Testament is full of hypocrites. Jacob, King David, King Solomon, all great examples of hypocrisy. Even in the letters of Paul in Romans seven, near the end of his life, Paul makes this acknowledgment of hypocrisy in Romans 7.
“I know the good I should do, but I don't do it. And the thing I don't know I shouldn't do, I do.”
There's a bias towards hypocrisy in the fallen human heart.
Hypocrisy is not an attractive quality in another person. We don't like it when we see it in other people, but we need to understand that it's easy to fall into that trap.

## Mark
When we read, in Mark 7, about the Pharisees challenging Jesus, it's easy to judge the Pharisees from this distance of time. The Pharisees were a group of non-priestly Jews. The priesthood in Israel during second temple Judaism was a dynastic system. It was an aristocracy of sorts. You had to be from a certain kind of family to be a priest. But there were other Jews who felt like following God was super important and wanted to follow God in a really strong way. These were the Pharisees.
And so they taught and lived in certain ways to follow God in ways that they thought were faithful and clear according to the Bible. This is why modern Judaism doesn't have priests. They have rabbis, teachers, because a priest is a specific claim in Judaism to specific sacrificial practices and to a specific genealogy. Without the temple and without pure genealogical records, no one can claim to be a priest.

In order to read Mark 7, and all of the New Testament, really, we need to start from a position of sympathy towards the Pharisees. If we don’t, it will turn into this good guy, bad guy thing that masks what is going on in the Bible. The history of Christian antisemitism came from bad readings of the Bible that ignored the actual words of Jesus in favor of winners and losers. Jesus explodes those expectations and understandings of the world. There's a good side and a bad side is really doesn't have much place in the Christian Gospels. There are other religions that are dualistic if that is what you are into. Zoroastrianism is a great example of a perfectly dualistic religion. There's a good God and a bad God. Gnosticism, which came out out of Christianity, but is a different religion, in Gnosticism there's a good and a bad and it's super clear and pretty.
When we read the Bible, we see that, in some ways, we're all bad guys, and in some ways, we all have the possibility of good. It's how we are phrasing it, how we're looking at it. What is the situation. Like in Romans 5, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Or 1 John 3

“Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
1 John 3:2-3 NABRE

When we think about the Pharisees in a positive light, they are people earnestly trying to follow God to the utmost of their understanding and will, and they notice Jesus and the followers of Jesus, and something looks off. And it looks like these people are following God, but they're mistaken because the followers of Jesus aren't living the way they should live. And the Pharisees call them out on it, “why your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands.

Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat with defiled hands?

This isn’t an indictment of the disciples but of Jesus, because Jesus is the authority figure. Jesus is the Rabbi. And the Rabbi should be the one correcting his students, that's what disciples are or students. So the Rabbi should correct his students. “Why are you not correcting your students? Why are they acting in this way?”

And so Jesus responds,

Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’ “You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”

The Pharisees are missing the point by holding to human traditions here. The passage Jesus is quoting from is Isaiah 29. Let’s hear a little more from this passage,

The Lord said:
Because these people draw near with their mouths
    and honor me with their lips,
    while their hearts are far from me
and their worship of me is a human commandment learned by rote,
so I will again do
    amazing things with this people,
    shocking and amazing.
The wisdom of their wise shall perish,
    and the discernment of the discerning shall be hidden.
Woe to those who hide a plan too deep for the Lord,
    whose deeds are in the dark,
    and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”
You turn things upside down!
    Shall the potter be regarded as the clay?
Shall the thing made say of its maker,
    “He did not make me,”
or the thing formed say of the one who formed it,
    “He has no understanding”?
Isaiah 29:13-16

Jesus is calling the Pharisees hypocrites in a specific way. He's not saying that they are claiming to follow God and not following God. He is saying that they are holding on to the parts of faith that don't matter as much. They are missing the point. It is like watching a football game and celebrating that the center never fumbled a snap when the team loses 72-6. Sure, it is good for the center not to fumble, but you are missing the forest for the trees.

This connects directly to Paul’s description in 2 Corinthians 3 about how the letter kills but the spirit gives life. Paul writes: our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

What is the point of Torah? What is the point of the way, of Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament, the holiest books in Judaism. Torah can be translated as law and as way. I think way is a helpful understanding. Torah is a journey with God.

The Way is also a central word for Christians, because one of the early names for Christians before they were called Christians was followers of the way.
And it's this sense that for Christians, and especially Jewish Christians at this time, Torah is fully revealed in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We understand it fully. There are only pieces in the scriptures, but they're fully made alive in this human flesh. God with us, Emmanuel, who reveals that there are ways of living that follow scripture which are hypocritical, that we can do the things and miss the point.
We can praise God with our lips, we can honor God with our lips, but our hearts can be far away from God. We can focus on the Center position in the football game, connecting on every snap and ignore the whole game.
I think the letter of James is helpful here and clarifying about what's going on in following God.

>Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights…be doers of the word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.

This is it. Be doers of the word and not just hearers. Don't honor God with your lips and keep your heart far from him. Get hypocrisy as easy to fall into. It was easy for the Pharisees, it was easy for the early Christians. It is easy for contemporary Christians. It's one of those temptations that's just right there.
It's easy as a parent. The old saying, do as I say, not as I do, which we all know how far that goes. If our kids hear us saying one thing and acting another way, what are they gonna latch onto? Right? What do they see that's important? If we don't make a priority of it, what priority are they going to make of it?
It is in the way we react to people and act. We call someone out for something, but if we do it ourselves. How are they gonna respond? Are they gonna trust us?

The opposite of hypocrisy is integrity. A life of integrity is being a doer of the word and not just a hearer. A life of integrity is someone who honors God with their lips and honors God with their hearts. A life of integrity is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:14: So also, the Lord has appointed to those proclaiming the gospel to live from the gospel.

A life of integrity, of true and full integrity, is possible thanks to grace. Because every good gift comes from God the Father. This is one of the great faith claims of Christianity. If there's a good in the world, if there is something good going on, it comes from God. If we see someone out in the world who's not a Christian and they're doing good, they're being gifted by God, even if they don't know it. God uses them. God works through them. The God who is love is present with everyone. God is not restricted by religion or creed. We're the ones who make these restrictions. God does not.

But if goodness can be found wherever God wills, why should we go through the trouble of being doers? Why not just be a hypocrite and then accidentally do good every once in a while?

The reason also comes back to integrity. God offers us a gift of an integrated life of life through grace to live in the kingdom of God now. We don’t have to wait. Because while there are goods in the world, the human heart leans towards hypocrisy and self-destruction. Grace offers us new life here to see the world rightly and serve God’s kingdom through the means of grace. By becoming holy, set apart for love here and now. By letting go of destructive habits. But growing in grace. We do this through worshipping together, through giving. Through serving. Through reading the Bible together and praying together. Do these things. Praise God with your lips and your hearts. Be a doer. Our church was founded on being doers and not just hearers. Serve! Give! Love! Witness! Show up when others don’t. Care when others don’t. Live for God. Don’t just receive and feel better. Do. Be a doer! Remember you are loved. You are included. You are forgiven. Go and offer that in this world.

In the name of the Father and the Som and the Holy Spirit. Amen.


title: The Transfiguration

themes: identity-of-jesus christology mountaintop-and-valley idolatry presence-of-god

scripture: Matthew 17:1-9

text:
**Scripture:** Matthew 17:1-9

> A Transfiguration Sunday sermon (preached the week Lent begins) using Matthew 17:1-9 to press the question 'Who is Jesus?' rather than 'What does Jesus do for me?' The preacher argues the Transfiguration reveals Christ as fully God and fully human, that Moses and Elijah came for their own sake to worship him, and that Peter's wish to build shrines and stay misses the call to descend into the valley toward the cross. The deepest Christian question is not what you believe but whom you follow, guarding against idolatry and false saviors. Mountaintop experiences are valid but must be held within God's larger call; God still gives signs of presence to sustain us through the valley. Sufjan Stevens' song 'The Transfiguration' frames the message and closes worship.

**Illustrations:** sufjan-stevens-transfiguration, casimir-pulaski-day, contracts-title-agents, combed-woolen-cloth, influencers-celebrities-life-tricks, augustine-holy-desire, walk-to-emmaus

---

# February 11, 2024
## The Transfiguration

Six days later Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and brought them to the top of a very high mountain. He was transformed in front of them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light. Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Jesus. Peter reacted to all of this by saying to Jesus, “Lord, it’s good that we’re here. If you want, I’ll make three shrines: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, look, a bright cloud overshadowed them. A voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son whom I dearly love. I am very pleased with him. Listen to him!” Hearing this, the disciples fell on their faces, filled with awe. But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, “Don’t tell anybody about the vision until the Human One is raised from the dead.” - Matthew 17:1-19

Who is Jesus? This is always the question that comes to me when I read the story of the Transfiguration. This moment in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, was not very important to me or my faith for a long time. It really wasn't until the Sufjan Stevens song, the Transfiguration, came out, that I started thinking about this moment in the life of Jesus. The early church spent a lot of time on the Transfiguration. Protestants, not as much. What is lost when we don't pay attention to the transfiguration is this question of who was Jesus?
Oftentimes, Jesus is instrumentalized into what he does for me. What does Jesus do for me? It is the theological version of “what have you done for me lately?” which many of us fall prey to with God even when we have the best of intentions.
If you do this, Jesus will do that and you're golden. Pray this way, you’ve got a friend in Jesus. Do these things, Jesus will do these other things for you.

The word made flesh does not offer us a quid pro quo. Salvation does not include a contract with closing documents. Contracts and title agents mark our world with its lack of trust. Jesus offers something different. We see this with the transfiguration.

Lent starts this week. The last thing Jesus does before he turns his face to Jerusalem and walks to that city is to take some disciples up to the mountain to pray. Then the identity of Christ is revealed to them. This ‘who’ of Christ. That he is God and human. Fully, not partially.
Now, there have been hints at this earlier, in the gospels, but the transfiguration lays it out in the open and this matters so deeply for our faith. If God did not become man in Jesus Christ, then none of it really matters. We can't be saved. The kingdom of heaven isn't here. Mercy is a waste of time. Let’s eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die.

Jesus takes his disciples and goes up to a mountain and prays. During that time, a great brilliance shines over him. In Greek, it is a whiteness of a woolen cloth that has been combed thousands of times. A great brilliance.
And there's a vision of Moses and Elijah present, as well. Why were they there? It seems kind of excessive. We need to linger on this moment.
We have this great revealing of God and Jesus Christ fully, not just the humble carpenter's son, but a brilliant vision of the presence of God, and then Moses and Elijah are there also.
I think Moses and Elijah are there not for the sake of Peter and John, but for their own sake. So that they too can see Jesus Christ, that this prophet is the God man. Maybe they also had to see him to believe him. So they, too, could worship him.

We rarely reflect on the desires of the patriarchs after they passed. Scripture is not explicit on this point, but I think it is important for us to remember that Elijah and Moses were not simply dramatic illustrations. They weren’t holograms. They were there on the mountain for a reason. I think they wanted to be there because what was taking place turned all of created history.

Peter misses the point as we have often missed the point of this day. Peter wants to build a house and stay up there. This is the preeminent mountaintop experience. It is transformational. They have encountered the living God and they want to stay in that moment forever. It is the walk to Emmaus moment. It is conversion at its fullest. They want to stay there. Peter wants to stay there, but Jesus rebukes him. They have to go back down the mountain. They have to go into the valley of sorrow that leads to the cross. There's a great distance between transfiguration and resurrection, but the identity of Jesus is the same. Christ is God for us.
Do we live any differently knowing who Jesus really is,? That God in God's fullness became flesh in Jesus Christ. Does that change anything?

Peter, the eager disciple wanted to build a house and yet, soon enough, he was denying Jesus three times. Does it change anything?
The deepest question of the Christian faith is not what you believe, but who do you follow? Make sure you're following the right person. This is where the great challenge of idolatry comes in. There's lots of people who say they can save you. How do you know you're following the right one? There's lots of religions that say they can save you or say there is no salvation or say anything like that.
There's lots of people who say God is dead. Who say follow yourself. There are lots of influencers and celebrities who want to sell you on the right trick to living. Some of these paths lead up what feels like a mountain, but they do not lead back down. Christ reveals himself, offers a spiritual experience of overflowing praise, but then shows us a path to follow of humility, sacrifice, and service.

“The entire life of a good Christian is in fact an exercise of holy desire. You do not yet see what you long for, but the very act of desiring prepares you, so that when he comes you may see and be utterly satisfied.” He comes like a brilliant, transformative light. He comes like the poor and broken of the earth. We must be ready for both visions. Jesus brings us up the mountain and then Jesus sends us back down.

The disciples followed Jesus up the mountain. They saw a great sight and they heard a great sound.
The fact that Peter goes on to deny Jesus does not negate his experience of God. On the mountain, they have this experience that is overflowing, that cannot be contained. They see who they are following. They see God with us.

Jesus tells them not to share what happened until after resurrection, which is how it comes to us. It shows us how Christ is revealed by a sign and by a voice. This sign, the lamb of God, offers us peace by showing us that God is here for us. It offers us encouragement as we go back down the mountain.

God shows us signs in our life of God’s presence. They may not be as brilliantly bright as the transfiguration, but they are there. In order to see them, we have to look for them. God is here for you. You are good enough. There is a valley still to cross, but God is here for you.

Our closing Praise Song  is The Transfiguration by Sufjan Stevens. You won’t find it on Christian Radio. Sufjan was one of the biggest Indy artists when I was in seminary. His album about the state of Illinois, “Come on Feel the Illinoise”, won the pitchfork album of the year in 2005, which was the height of hipstersdom. That album includes a song called Casimir Pulaski Day which is about a girlfriend dying of cancer and the struggle of faith in the midst of suffering. It was such a complex and interesting song which dealt with hope and faith and love in complex ways that I had to find everything this guy had written. One of his early albums was called Seven Swans that was inspired by a spiritual experience but had this song on the transfiguration.

As I said in the beginning of my sermon, this song changed my own view of this passage of scripture. The moment is vital for what happens next. When we skip over the mountain, we make the depth of the valley of the shadow of death shallower.

The mountain top prepares for the valley. The mountaintop prepares for the cross.

Some of us have been called to the mountain top. Some of us have experienced God in that direct way. Your faith is valid whether you’ve been to the mountaintop or not because your faith is about Jesus, not about your own experiences. God uses our experiences as tools to draw us closer, but they can easily be misunderstood, just like they were for Peter. We need to put our experiences of God within the context of God’s call on us and God’s purpose for us.

God shows us the mountain. God shows us that we are loved and forgiven. God shows us that we are worthy. God shows us God’s power. And then we are sent down the mountain, and we need to remember who God is because the valley will have challenges. There will be struggles. There will be doubts, but God sent us down and God is with us even in the darkness.

The Transfiguration song ends with the heavenly chorus singing praises together. This is the main part for us to sing together. We may not be on a mountain anymore. But we need to be ready to look for a sign. We need to be ready to listen for a voice. God is revealing God’s love for you. Look for the sign. Receive the blessing. Even in going down the mountain towards lent and towards the cross, you are not alone. God is with you. Thanks be to god.

Let us pray,

Great God of dazzling beauty and overshadowing majesty, in Jesus Christ, your beloved Son, we glimpse the image of your glory. Teach us to listen to him so that we may hear your voice and follow your holy way; in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.


title: This Teaching is Difficult

themes: spiritual-warfare scripture-interpretation real-presence loving-enemies faithful-perseverance spiritual-deception peters-confession

text:
**Scripture:** John 6:56-69; Ephesians 6:10-20; Luke 14:26; 1 Thessalonians 5:8; Matthew 11:28-30
**Series:** After Pentecost

> Preaching from John 6:56-69 and Ephesians 6:10-20, Wilson argues that the teachings of Jesus are genuinely difficult and that it is honest to admit so. Opening with how protective gear (lab goggles, X-ray shielding, football helmets, military gear) always signals danger, he frames the armor of God as the protective equipment for facing the hard demands of faith: believing bread and juice are Christ's body and blood, loving enemies, and following Jesus when many disciples turn back. Surveying denominational views of communion and Wesley's Duty of Constant Communion, he affirms that difficulty doesn't mean avoidance. Peter's confession ('Lord, to whom can we go?') models faithful perseverance. The armor of God, especially the belt of truth (God's love for you), guards against the world's deceptions, and the sermon closes with the invitation that even hard discipleship finds rest in Christ's easy yoke.

**Illustrations:** xray-protective-gear, ephraim-flag-football-helmet, ut-football-championship, military-law-enforcement-gear, wesley-duty-constant-communion, just-bread-from-heb, enemy-you-avoid-at-heb, rich-young-ruler, john-outruns-peter, find-your-crystals

---

# August 25
## This Teaching is Difficult

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power; put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, for our struggle is not against blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on the evil day and, having prevailed against everything, to stand firm. Stand, therefore, and belt your waist with truth and put on the breastplate of righteousness and lace up your sandals in preparation for the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. Pray also for me, so that when I speak a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.
Ephesians 6:10-20

Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which the ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” He said these things while he was teaching in a synagogue at Capernaum.
When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who were the ones who did not believe and who was the one who would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.”

Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” - John 6:56-69

If you have to wear protective gear of any kind, your activity is probably not easy. Even in school science labs, you may have to wear gloves. You get into science or engineering and you may need to have a full body suit covering you. You go to the doctor and get an X-ray, you have to cover some of your body. As well, everybody else leaves the room except you. Those are the moments that seem fishy. It comes off like,
“I'm gonna take a picture of you, but it's so toxic that I can't be here.”
“Wait, you can't be here, but I'm here?”
“Yes, you stay in the loud metal tube for an hour that is just throwing radiation into you as if you're flying out of the atmosphere. I will be over here in this cool, little protected room. Try not to panic and go insane!”

There is also protective gear in many sports.  You know things aren’t perfectly safe when people wear extra gear.

Ephraim, our youngest son, his flag football season just started. He started practice and they have helmets now, these soft helmets for flag football, which is great.
It's not all the gear that is going on as we get ready for UT football and our national championship run to start this year, but it's something.

In law enforcement or the military, it's not an easy thing if you have to spend time putting the gear on. Imagine if you're in law enforcement and you have to go to a situation where you need to wear some extra gear.
It's not an easy situation. Those of you who have been in the military have served, whether in in Air Force or the Navy or the Army, have been in situations where either you wore the gear or you knew somebody who was wearing gear.

The one underlying current in all forms of protective equipment is that they're protecting you from something. In chemistry, the goggles, the gloves protect you from the chemical reactions that could burn or splatter. They could affect your eyes in a different way than they would affect the rest of your body and football protective gear to protect you from the other team smashing into you in specific ways.
In the military or law enforcement, the gear protects you from an antagonist, an enemy of sorts.

## Ephesians
At the end of the letter to the Ephesians, Paul lays out fully this concept of the armor of God. He briefly touched on it in an earlier letter in the end of First Thessalonians. We recently finished that letter in my Bible study on the letters of Paul, and it was really fascinating to go through the text super slowly and intentionally and see how Paul's argument was being developed and the ending in this crescendo of sorts, this, he is getting louder and more powerful. He's going from writing to preaching, to singing words of praise. Near the very end of 1 Thessalonians, Paul describes putting on the breastplate of justice, but here in Ephesians, he lays out the different levels of the armor of God. Shield of faith. Breastplate of justice or righteousness. Belt of truth.

The passage from Ephesians is super connected to the end of John six that I read for the gospel reading because in the end of John six, Jesus is laying out his understanding of communion, of offering his body and blood to people.
It's scandalous, it's literally scandalous. Scandal is the Greek word here. It is scandalous is offering his body and blood and if you eat his body and blood, you will have eternal life. There is a lot of grumbling going on and the disciples say, “People are saying, Jesus, this is difficult.”
This is difficult. It's a difficult teaching. It's hard. There's a challenge to it. We may need to put some other armor on, some protective gear, in order to really face the challenge on our own.
In this world, it is sometimes too hard to face the difficulties of the teachings of Jesus on our own. Just you, by yourself, in this world, it's hard to love your enemy as yourself. First of all, you have to admit you have enemies. This is something we don't like to do today, and I define enemies in a lot of, in broad way, but I think it's important to define it.
The enemy is the person whom you don't want to see at HEB. The person you don't want to see at your front door. The number you don't want to pick up when they call, it may not be someone you're intentionally trying to tear down, but someone you're trying to avoid. Someone whom you feel, if you never saw them again for the rest of your life, your life would improve. It is a difficult teaching to love them, yet this is what Jesus commands us to do.
It is a difficult teaching to see bread and juice as the body of Christ.
Different denominations emphasize communion in different ways. The Catholics and the Orthodox have an understanding of the real presence of Jesus that is articulated in a specific way. For Catholics, it's specifically articulated using the language the philosophical language of Aristotle, and so they talk about substance and accidents. If you grew Catholic, you may remember some of this.

So Catholics think that it's all Jesus. Lutherans have this under kind of understanding that the bread is both Jesus and bread, Calvinists, reformed Presbyterians have a different understanding of communion.
That has to do with the presence of Jesus at the table and in the world.
Methodist theology of the table is a little less precise than these other traditions. That doesn't mean it's unintentional. John Wesley has this sermon called the Duty of constant communion. He answers the question: why do we do communion? First, because Jesus tells us to. Do this in remembrance of me. Second,  because it's good, and so why should we keep ourselves from gifts? Why should we keep ourselves from good things?

But all those things are difficult. They are not easy. In the modern world, people may think or say to a Christian about communion: “you guys are weird superstitious tools to say that bread is something other than bread. It's just bread, man. You just bought it at a HEB, it's a grape juice. Why are you saying it's wine when it's, when it's grape juice, it's not blood. I've seen blood, blood is kind of salty. It has a metallic aftertaste. That is juice.

This teaching is difficult. I think it is okay to admit that the teachings of Jesus can be difficult. They are not easy. They are not simple.

The easy life the world tells us is a life of pure pleasure. Seek out your own good. Find it wherever you can. Define your own good, define your own truth, define it wherever you can. If something challenges that, change your definition, move on. Manifest your will into the world. Find your crystals. Find your real you.

That's not the message of Jesus. It's really not.
This teaching is difficult. As Jesus says in Luke, Anyone who does not hate mother and father, brother and sister, even like himself cannot be my disciple. This teaching is difficult.
When the rich young ruler comes to Jesus says, what must I do? Have you followed the law? I said, yes, go sell all that you have and give to the poor and then come and follow me, and he doesn't sell everything, he simply walks away because the teaching is too difficult.
In the face of these challenges, Jesus asks the disciples this question, well, what do you want to do then? Yeah, it's difficult. What do you wanna do? Do you wanna go away? And they say, Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the holy one of God.
This is an incredible act of faith that Peter exhibits in this moment. John usually doesn't give Peter a lot of good lines. There is that race after the resurrection where John kind of gloats about how he is faster than Peter, but John gives Peter this really good line, Lord, to whom can we go? Where else are we gonna go from here?

Peter understands that saying something is difficult doesn’t mean we should avoid it.

Just because things are difficult though doesn't mean that they're not worth doing. In fact,
I don't know about you, but at least in my own life, I've found that the things in life that aren't difficult are the ones that are not worth doing.
A challenge gives us purpose and demands some kind of overcoming. A life without challenge is a life of lies.
This is where the armor of God comes in. The armor of God is there for us to face the challenges of this world and the challenges of this faith, fully remembering that we are not alone, and that despite it being difficult, it is not impossible because we have been given these tools to face the challenges of faith and of this world.
What makes living faithfully difficult is specifically the deceptions of the world.

We have been given tools to face the deceptions of this world, which are the cause of our challenges, the deceptions, the lies, the lies around us, the lies that tell us we're not good enough. The lies that tell us that you are what you do, the lies that tell us that you are what you're able to do, and if you're not able to do something, you're a failure. Those lies, the armor of God helps us to face those lies that tell us that the words of Jesus are difficult. Those lies that tell us that loving our enemies is difficult. It really is a lie.
We can face that with the armor of God. It is the protective gear of faith. It is the gloves and goggles. It is the helmet and pads.
We put them on by doing the things of God. By praying, by serving, by giving, by letting go of our worries. Put on the belt of truth which protects you from lies. The belt of truth is God’s love for you. You are loved. No one can take that away.

You have protective gear on. You have been offered it by God. You are protected. You are loved. So serve. Give. Believe. Come to Jesus, even when it seems hard. Love your enemies. Forgive. Let go. Don’t hold on to anger. Let go. Hear the call of Jesus. Come to me all who are weary and d heavy laden and I will give rest. Even when it seems hard, there is rest for you in Jesus. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.


title: Trinity Sunday

themes: trinity holy-spirit ineffability-of-god new-birth wesleyan-grace love-as-desire

text:
**Scripture:** Romans 8:12-17; John 3:1-17; Isaiah 6:1-3
**Series:** After Pentecost

> A Trinity Sunday sermon (also Memorial Day weekend) on Romans 8:12-17 and John 3:1-17 arguing that the Trinity, like the unspeakable losses of war recalled through the preacher's two grandfathers, is real yet ineffable—participated in rather than fully understood. Using the Augustinian Lover/Beloved/Love and McCabe's eternal parent/child/joy images, Pruitt frames the Holy Spirit as the divine love that conjoins heaven and earth and makes reconciliation possible. We are all 'little Nicodemi' questioning Jesus' hard commands; new birth by the Spirit is conversion. Drawing on Wesleyan prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying grace and Augustine's 'love what deserves to be loved,' he calls hearers to examine their time and budgets and to make space in their hearts for the Spirit's new work.

**Illustrations:** grandfather-huebel-iwo-jima, grandfather-pruitt-death-camp, memorial-day-decoration-day-origins, marriage-vows-better-and-worse, evolutionary-parent-child-love, lover-beloved-love-trinity-image, mccabe-eternal-parent-child-joy, little-nicodemi, all-things-considered-age-ten, budget-reveals-desire

---

# May 26, 2024
## Trinity Sunday
### Romans 8:12-17
### John 3:1-17

So then, brothers and sisters, we are obligated, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if we in fact suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. - Romans 8:12-17

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with that person.” Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
“Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen, yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him. - John 3:1-17

One of my grandfather’s, John Huebel, used to tell funny stories about what was happening on Iwo Jima during World War II. He was an officer in the Army, an Aggie Class of 1940, the last and only time A&M won a national championship. His degree was officially in chemical warfare, a department that was changed to chemical engineering soon after the war.

He wasn’t in the thick of the fighting at Iwo. He landed two days after the initial Marine invasion and worked at the airport. The purpose of Iwo Jima was to be an emergency landing site for B-29 bombers. It was also an active battlefield for over a month. The invasion happened on February 19, 1945. The famous flag raising picture took place on February 23 and the island was clear on March 26. My grandfather arrived around February 21.

He told funny stories about foxholes and defecation and pranks. There were other stories he didn’t tell.

My other grandfather, Mack Pruitt, was an enlisted man in the Army Air Corps. He landed in France right after D-Day. He drove a truck. He didn’t tell stories, not to his family. He didn’t speak of what he saw to us. Sometimes, later in life, he would talk to non-relatives, but only with brevity. He helped evacuate a death camp, but he didn’t talk about it.

Today is Trinity Sunday. The week after Pentecost, we remember and acknowledge the three-fold nature of God this day.

The Trinity is one of those notoriously difficult concepts to understand. There is no pithy answer to the questions around it. Trinity has been a stumbling block for many people over the centuries. Many Jews and Muslims have called Christians tritheists because of our insistence on the Trinity. Many atheists called Christians polytheists for the Trinity.

Trinity, is something else.

Trinity is a way to to seek to understand who God is, but not fully. You can never fully understand who God is. The nature of God is always beyond our grasp because God created everything from nothing. What theologians call the creator/creature distinction keeps a limit on what we can know about God.

There are different levels of understanding things. Because of our experiences, we have different ways of understanding who God is.

Today we also celebrate Memorial Day. Memorial Day began after the Civil War when people were noticing military graves being forgotten and vandalized. It was originally called Decoration Day as a way to honor the graves of fallen soldiers. Memorial Day Weekend usually doesn’t fall on Trinity Sunday, and yet there is a connection between the two.

I never served in the armed forces. I never saw battle or had friends die next to me. Those are not my own experiences nor my stories to tell. What I do know, from the experience of my grandfathers especially, is that the loss of friends in battle is difficult to talk about. There are different levels to it.

Veterans can tell different stories to fellow veterans than they cannot tell to civilians like me. No matter how much you speak about it, though, there is an ineffability to these forms of loss. No amount of words capture it fully and there are some stories that are nearly impossible to speak aloud.

Just because it is hard to talk about it, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk about it. This also works with talking about the Trinity.

The Trinity is worth thinking about expressing even when we can’t fully capture it. There are different levels of understanding God’s nature as triune. Sometimes we admit to things; we see things and we say things and don’t quite understand, yet we still do them.

This also works for marriage. When two people are married, they don’t really understand what is going on. We try to prepare them for it. When I do marriage counseling, I try to prepare people for the vows they are about to take. Some people have an idea of what ‘for better’ looks like, some have an idea of what ‘for worse’ looks like, but I would imagine for all of you who have been married, the ‘better’ was very different from what you thought it would be. As well, the worse was very different than you thought it would be. When you made those vows, you did not know what you were getting into, but that does not mean that they were false.

With the Trinity, rather than a language which we can learn to find the right words, we need to admit that we will never find the right words. In this, the Trinity is more like love. It is something in which we participate without fully understanding.

The love of a child for a parent or a parent for a child goes beyond our understanding. We can have an evolutionary rationalization for it. We can say, okay, according to evolutionary theory parents should look after children because that is how the race survives, but that is a very surface level view that does not seem to describe my relationships with my kids and my relationships with my parents.

There is so much more there than just survival of the fittest.

Love is central and key to our understanding of the Holy Spirit. My favorite illustration of the Trinity is Lover, Beloved, and Love. The Lover being God the Father, who brings all into being. The beloved of the Father is the Son through whom all things came into being. And the love between the Father and the Son is the Holy Spirit. Or another way to say it is, as Herbert McCabe does: God the eternal parent. God the eternal child. God the eternal joy. All of these illustrations break down, but we see in this description something essential to why we believe that the Holy Spirit is God. That it is not just because it is written in a book or is taught in confirmation classes, but because it describes how we experience God to be. How we experience God as truly found in the love between neighbors and the love between spouses and the amazing possibility of love between enemies and reconciliation taking place.

In the Gospel of John for today, we see the story of Nicodemus. It is one of my favorites stories of the New Testament. We have Nicodemus the Pharisee taking Jesus literally. This is a literal interpretation of Jesus when he says you must be born again. And Nicodemus, quite earnestly, like a child says, “do you mean that I must go back into my mother’s belly?”

And Jesus says, “No.” Jesus says that you must be born again by the Spirit. We must be ready for the change that happens when love enters our life. The change that happens is what we call conversion. The change when life is going one way and our life turns and goes another direction.

We often want control of any change we make in our life, but there are many factors outside of our control: factors external and internal. There are some things we want to turn away from.

A life of self-destruction, a life of pride or indifference that turns, that turns around. We are all, my friends, little Nicodemi (the plural of Nicodemus). We are all little Nicodemi coming to Jesus in the night.

Any of us who have ever called Jesus Lord have had these little questions, we have had these little clarifications. “You know you say this, but do you really mean it, Jesus? You know, you tell me to love my enemy, do you really mean it? You know Jesus, you tell me to give to the poor, do you really mean it? Do you know it is hard to do some of the things you ask us, Jesus, don’t you realize it's hard?”

How do we see that big picture? How do we see that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is for us. That is by the Holy Spirit, God with us. Heaven and earth are conjoined through the Spirit. We see this in the reading from Isaiah 6 and the Holy, Holy, Holy, the Sanctus. The Heavens and the earth coming together. The Spirit is what draws the heavens and the earth together and makes the possibility of reconciliation, the possibility of friendship and love available to us. This is what we are opening up when we talk about the Holy Spirit as God. That this preparer, this comforter, this advocate is also coequal with the Father and the Son. God is here. God is here. The consequence of believing that the Holy Spirit is God is not just this one time awareness. Like that time when I was 10 and realized that All Things Considered meant that all things were being considered. It is not this one time just like faith is not this one time thing. Faith is not this one time decision. In the Wesleyan tradition, we believe in a continuum of grace. In the grace that comes before. In prevenient grace, the preparer. In the grace that makes us righteous, in the grace that makes us just, the grace that makes us right with our neighbor. Justifying grace,  the grace of the moment. And the grace that continually shapes us and conforms us, Sanctifying grace. The grace that allows us to be holy.

In the words of Saint Augustine, the grace that lets us love what deserves to be loved. This is what holiness is. This is what we are being prepared for. By living the Christian faith. By becoming disciples of Jesus Christ. By having our heart set on Christ, we are learning how to love what deserves to be loved.

Love and desire are part of all human interactions. We always do what we think is good whether or not it is good. If we look at how we spend our time, we will see what we desire to be good. If we look through our week, if we look through the 24 hours of each day, we will be able to see what we value. What matters to us. Some of us don’t like to think about it. Some of us are in positions where we may not have a lot of choices about what we spend our time on or what we do. Or we may not be in the place we think we need to be, how frustrating that is. We long to be in a better place.

We see this when we look at our own personal budgets. Yes, the Holy Spirit has to do with our budgets, too. We see when we look at our own individual budgets, where we spend our money, where we don’t spend our money. Where we are generous. Where we are scarce. Whether or not we practice a philosophy of generosity or of scarcity. A philosophy of hope or of fear. Because the Holy Spirit is God. Because God is Father Son and Spirit, there are consequences for how our lives can be led. Not in the sense of guilt or fear in what we are doing, but in the possibility that you, even you, and I, even I, can love what is deserving of love. That the relationships that I have made can be sanctified. That we can have true friendship with each other. That we can have true fellowship with one another. That we can be a household of God. That we can offer to God what we have out of hope and faith and belief that God really is with us. Not only is God going to take care of us in the future but God is taking care of us right now. How large a space do you have in your heart for the Holy Spirit to start something new. How large a space do you have in your heart for that fire of pentecost to catch on you. The Trinity is not about big words or complex thoughts. It is about who you are and whose you are. You are a beloved child of God. In loving our neighbor, in loving our Lord, God is with us. Let us turn to our Lord. Let us become more of what we can be and show this world the possibilities of love.

Let us pray,
Loving God, you sent your son Jesus to lead us in faith to everlasting life. Give us new birth by water and the Spirit so that we may enter your eternal realm; In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.


title: Two Economies: Heavenly Abundance and the Widow's Mite

themes: divine-economics generosity self-reliance-versus-trust wealth-and-greed stewardship

text:
**Scripture:** Mark 12:38-44; Ruth 1:12-18; Luke 16:19-31; Ephesians 3:2; Colossians 1:25; Hebrews 11:1; Matthew 6:3
**Series:** After Pentecost

> Preaching on the widow's mite (Mark 12) alongside Ruth's loyalty to Naomi (Ruth 1), Pruitt contrasts two economies. Using marginal utility and his buffet habits as a foil, he argues that heavenly abundance is not measured by worldly surplus value or material impact: the widow's two coins make no budgetary difference, yet Jesus exalts her because she gives out of faith, believing more in God than in herself. Tracing the Greek oikonomia through Paul, the shrewd manager, and Lazarus and the rich man, he warns that wealth can blind us to our neighbor and to God. Ruth, like the widow, gives up everything in faith; Orpah and the rich man do not. The call is to live by faith, receive forgiveness in Christ, and give and serve out of that grace rather than out of surplus.

**Illustrations:** buffet-marginal-utility, pascals-wager-hedging

---

# November 10

### Ruth 1:12-18
### Mark 12:38-44

Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me, even if I should have a husband tonight and bear sons, would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, it has been far more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the Lord has turned against me.” Then they wept aloud again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.

So she said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” But Ruth said,

“Do not press me to leave you,
    to turn back from following you!
Where you go, I will go;
    where you lodge, I will lodge;
your people shall be my people
    and your God my God.
Where you die, I will die,
    and there will I be buried.
May the Lord do thus to me,
   and more as well,
if even death parts me from you!”
When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her. - Ruth 1:12-18

As he taught, he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

He sat down opposite the treasury and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” - Mark 12:38-44

I have enjoyed buffets since I was a child. We used to go to the Golden Corral in College Station as a kid. I always tried to eat as much as I could, even when I didn’t pay. I saw it as a challenge. We have other buffet options in Austin. There's a Middle Eastern buffet by the church, Dimassi’s, that we love as a family. I love Middle Eastern food. I love this hummus and falafel and especially Dolmas, or stuffed grape leaves. I learned to make Dolmas because it's hard for me to eat enough dolma and they can be expensive to purchase outside of a buffet situation.  Five of them might cost five dollars. I don’t want to eat five. More like five plates, but this gets back to the issue of the buffet.

Whenever I go to a buffet, I always try to make sure I get my money's worth. I want to eat more food than the cost of the buffet so that I am a net negative on the establishment. I have nothing against restaurant owners, it is only this small way to arbitrage surplus value, in economic language. When we are a family, I make the kids go back for one extra plate because we are at a buffet. We gotta make it worth coming here because we could've gone somewhere else and just ordered a meal or cooked it ourselves.

There's this concept in economics called marginal utility, which means “in economics, the additional satisfaction or benefit (utility) that a consumer derives from buying an additional unit of a commodity or service.”[^1]

The marginal utility of an item changes depending on a number of factors, but most specifically it changes based on how much of an item you have consumed.

Food is a great example of this. The first bite of pizza has a different marginal utility than the tenth. The first dessert tastes different than the third. Or for me, the first dolma has a different marginal utility than the 30th. Once we start getting to the 31st or the 32nd dolma of our buffet experience, now we're veering down into negative marginal utility, which means that it's worse for me to eat another one. It is harming me to eat another one. I really should stop at 33 but then there's just one more I gotta try.

When you get to that level of consumption, sticking to food or buffets, and you are completely full, so full that can't physically open your mouth for another bite, is that abundance?

In the gospel of Mark Jesus uses the language of abundance in an economic way.

The rich person gives out of abundance, gives out of excess, gives out of what is left over. The poor widow gives out of her needs. Surely, the rich person giving out of abundance is going to cover a lot more bills the temple has. It's gonna cover a lot more of the workers. Its going to help pay for materials for repairs. That is not what Jesus lifts up. Instead, he lifts up the widow.

The material difference between her gift and someone who gives nothing at all is very small. It would look identical at just the level of the world and the material operation of the temple They aren't going to be able to do any extra things because of the two cents she gave. They couldn’t buy a new knife or repair a leak or cover meals for staff.

If they were doing a budget reconciliation with modern accounting standards, not practiced in 30 AD, but still, if they were doing a budget reconciliation and the difference between the budget versus the actual was two pennies, nobody would've sweated it or questioned anyone. They would have zeroed it out. It is fine. It won't make a difference.

These words of Jesus offer a different view of money and abundance and giving. It seems like it'd be a lot easier for churches to run if there were a Bible verse where Jesus says explicitly that you should give 15%. Let's be optimistic: 15% of all the money you get before taxes or else you're going to hell. Right? I mean, I think there's some preachers who say that, but if Jesus had just said that explicitly, church stewardship drives might be a little easier.

But then again, Jesus wouldn't ever say something like that because the kingdom of heaven functions a different economy than the kingdom of the world. The economy of the kingdom of heaven doesn't make it any easier to run a church in this kingdom of the world because Jesus offers a different vision of the world. Jesus inaugurates a different vision where giving is not just about a budget, but is a spiritual practice.

The poor widow was practicing her faith. She believes more in God than she believes in herself. She doesn't have the answer directly in front of her. She's practicing what it says in Hebrews 11: Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen. She is believing in something unseen by giving something that's seen away. She is not thinking about the marginal utility for the Temple. She is not trying to make a difference or practice efficiency. She is not really letting her left hand know what her right hand is doing, as Jesus says in the sermon on the Mount.

In this, she is practice heavenly abundance. The economy of the kingdom of heaven is different.

The word economy comes from the Greek oikonomia, which literally means law of the home. Oikos means home and nomos, law.

Paul uses the word a few times, none of them having to do with money. In Ephesians 3:2, Paul talks about “the oikonomia of God’s grace which was given to me for you.”

In a similar fashion in Colossians 1:25, Paul writes Of this church I was made a minister according to the oikonomia from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God.”

Luke uses it in a different way in Chapter 16 with the parable of the shrewd manager. And it is, assuredly, one of the more confusing parables

Manager is the common translation of oikonome. The manager is praised as shrewd because he is dishonest with wealth, and the Jesus says that you can’t serve God and money.

But the end of Luke 16 offers us a little clarity with the parable of Lazarus and the rich man.

>““There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man's table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ He said, ‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father's house— for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ””
Luke 16:19-31 NRSV

The two economies have different views of abundance and different measures of growth. In Mark, Jesus is kind of coy about it, but the heart of the matter is still the same. If you think the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of all
Creation, views abundance in the same way the world does, you will be sorely mistaken.

Heavenly abundance is not based on marginal utility or surplus value added. It is not even based on what you give to the church or non-profits. It isn’t based on what you leave to your family.

Heavenly abundance begins with believing more in God than in ourselves. It is believing more what God has done in Jesus Christ, than what I have done with my career.

The parable of Lazarus and the rich man is not about money but how money can blind us to our neighbor. Money can keep us from love. Money can keep us from hearing God. This can happen to individuals. It can happen to churches.

It can happen even when we give. The human heart has an amazing capacity to turn good things bad.

The rich man in the parable was blind to heavenly abundance. The rich man in Mark 12 who gives out of his earthly abundance is blind to heavenly abundance. He is diversifying his investments. Or in the language of Pascal’s wager, he is hedging his bets. He is betting on God’s existence, but he is also betting on God not existing by keeping his principle secure.

The poor widow bets everything on God. She gives her principle to God. It is not about making a difference to the temple, but making a difference to her heart. She gives everything because her heart is filled with the abundance of God, no matter the money she has.

Ruth is an example of heavenly abundance. She gives up everything to stay with Naomi out of faith.

Getting back to Mark 12, the rich people are not saved by their gift nor the poor widow by hers. Jesus isn’t pointing out good works but faith. The widow gave out of faith. The rich man did not.

Ruth left out of faith. Orpah did not.

Wherever you are in life and in this world, live by faith. God has come in Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins. Believe in that forgiveness. Receive it. Live into it. Serve because of it. Give because of it. Share good news because of it. Be encouraged because of it. You don’t need anything to give. You have everything you need to share and love. God has already empowered you.

Go forth and do likewise.
In the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[^1]: [https://www.britannica.com/money/marginal-utility](https://www.britannica.com/money/marginal-utility)


title: Waiting on a Miracle

series: Advent

themes: god-with-us incarnation advent-expectation kenosis you-are-not-alone divine-providence

text:
**Scripture:** Luke 1:30-31; Isaiah 52:7; Isaiah 60:1-2
**Series:** Advent

> An Advent sermon on Luke 1:30-31 (with Isaiah 52:7 and 60:1-2) whose refrain is 'God is here for you.' It proclaims Jesus as Emmanuel, God with us, who crossed the infinite distance between Creator and creature by taking flesh through Mary. Because God is present, we need not save ourselves, exact our own justice, or feel alone in the darkness. The incarnation is framed as divine self-emptying: the all-powerful Word gives up omnipotence to come as a speechless poor child rather than as king or warlord. The sermon closes by assuring hearers that God is not finished with them but has a plan, purpose, and life for them.

**Illustrations:** god-comes-as-weak-child

---

# December 15
## Waiting on a Miracle

God is here for you. This is the heart of the Christmas story. One of the names of Jesus is Emmanuel, which means God with us. God is here for you.
You have received an invitation to a miracle The miracle is that God is here for you. And not you exclusively, God is here for us all.

The songs we've sung today all point to this. “Your Light Has Come.” “My soul rejoices.” The scriptures we've read today all point to this.

>“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”” Isaiah 52:7 NRSV

The Good News is that God is here for you.

>“Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you.” Isaiah 60:1-2 NRSV

The Lord will arise upon you because God is here for you.

>“The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.” Luke 1:30-31 NRSV

God did not find the impossible distance between the infinite and the finite tolerable and so the second person of the Trinity took on flesh through Mary to be with us.

God is here for you. Whatever your history with God, your history with the church, your history with the Bible, God is here for you.

What this means is that you don't have to save yourself. You don't have to exact justice in this world, God will. You are not alone, even when the world feels only of darkness.

When God comes into the world, God doesn't come on a chariot or in power as a king, a warlord, a rich tycoon, no, but as the weakest among us: a poor child who cannot speak. The word of God out of which all creation was made gives up the omnipotent Voice to be with us. God, the source in whom we live and move and have our being, who created everything from nothing the all powerful gives up that power to be with us. This is why we sing. This is why we pray. This is why we celebrate.

In this Advent Season, as you prepare for the coming of Christmas, may you remember the God is there for you; that you are not alone. As well, may you remember that God is not finished with you, God has a plan for you, a purpose for you, a life for you. May you hear this good news at Christmas. May you hear this good news this day.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.