title: Why Is He Coming?

themes: advent-expectation admitting-need brokenness-of-the-world joy secularization salvation

text:
**Scripture:** Isaiah 61:1-4; Isaiah 61:8-11; John 14:6
**Series:** 2020

> Third in an Advent series on the four questions of Advent, this Gaudete Sunday sermon asks 'Why is he coming?' Pruitt opens with personal stories of his teenage refusal to admit need (living on beans and rice, learning ASCII to avoid repairing a broken laptop) to argue that if you never admit a need, no one—not even Jesus—can save you. He addresses why a savior is still needed in a modern, secularizing world of 'Nones,' calling Christians to seek truth and tear down obstacles to belief rather than judge. Drawing on Isaiah 61's good news to the poor, brokenhearted, captive, and mourning, he insists the world is not as it should be: death, decay, and brokenness touch everyone. God's answer was not to fix the world with a snap (which would erase human freedom) but to enter it as a needy child, beginning the work of new creation. The 'why' is that the world is broken; ongoing brokenness marks not God's failure but the continuing need for redemption. He commends the Stephen Ministers as a way to be active participants in God's transformation, closing with joy as gift and the promise that Jesus is coming soon.

**Illustrations:** teenage-independence-limiting-needs, ascii-charts-broken-laptop, gaudete-sunday-pink-candle, cs-lewis-surprised-by-joy, dominique-collin-event-for-me, maxed-out-retirement-529-plans, needy-newborn-vs-teenager, stephen-ministers-program, god-sized-hole

---

# December 13

## Why is he coming

	Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

When I was a teenager, I had an independent streak, as most teenagers do in their own way. A period of self-discovery and finding yourself. For different people, this manifests in different ways depending on your circumstance. I have two older siblings who are different from me and they responded in their teenage years in a different way from me. My way of independence, instead of pushing against my parents, instead of breaking curfew or going out all the time was that, i just didn’t do those things. I didn’t go out. I didn’t spend money. I didn’t want money. I realized, if I could limit my needs, I was a lot more free. I wasn’t dependent on people. This continued in college. Instead of getting a college job, I decided to live off of beans and rice. My grandparents and parents had generously supported tuition and housing but my parents expected me to get a job to pay for college activities. Whereas I found the catch by not doing things that cost money. As an example, in college, I spilled coffee on my laptop keyboard, and so instead of going to get it repaired, I taught myself the ASCII charts in order to type term papers without a function b, k, l, or n letter. I thought, “I will stubborn myself through this instead of admitting a need.”

If you never admit you have a need, you can’t let anyone help you. If you never admit you have a need, you can never be forgiven for anything. If you never admit a need, then no one can save you, not even Jesus.

My friends, we are continuing our series on the four questions of advent, about why this season is different. Two weeks ago, we talked about who is coming. How it is Jesus, the anointed one of God. God-with-us. How advent is about the arrival of God into the world, not in power, but in the form of a child. Last week, we talked about when he is coming and  how God’s time is different from our time. And how Christ’s coming is not just in the past but in the future. And so today we get to why. Why is he coming?

Another way to ask why is to ask, what is the need for this. Do we really need a savior? Do we still need Jesus in this world? The world is a different place than it was 2000 years ago. The world is a different place than it was 20 years ago. Technology has come a long way. Medicine has come a long way. One of the biggest changes had to do with infant mortality rate. So many children and women died in childbirth in the ancient world in a way that doesn’t happen anymore. How amazing and beautiful and miraculous that is. We have so many people who can live long lives, who can seek fulfillment. It used to be that you had to be in the top 1% of the 1% in order to travel pretty much anywhere. You don’t have to be in that bracket to travel (post-covid). The world is smaller.

As well, people have moved away from church. Fifty years ago in Texas, there was nothing to do on Sunday morning. Now, there are a lot of things to do every morning. A lot of activities for kids that only happen on Sunday morning. Many fewer Gen Xers and Millenials and Zoomers participate in church than folks in prior generations. That is a reality. I have a lot of ideas about why this is the case, both with why the church in the US peaked in 1960 and why kids are not as eager to participate, but we must admit that there is a significant population of Nones in our world and in our community, even in Spicewood, even in western Travis County, that are not interested in church. So why is Jesus necessary? What is the need? Those of you who grew up in the church may not have asked that question very often. Why? Why is Jesus coming? Why does he matter? But it is an important question for us.

Paul writes and tells us to always be able to give an account of our faith. Not to have every answer, but to be able to give an account of the faith that we believe. Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the light.” If we really believe that Jesus is the truth, than seeking the truth is only going to get us closer to Jesus. Seeking the truth in arguments about God, seeking the truth in why people are choosing not to believe today. Seeking the truth will only lead us closer to God.

We must have a willingness to have conversations with our friends and our kids and our grandkids and not be judgmental or dismissive of their points of view. Jesus never says, “Judge everyone who disagrees with you.” Pretty much the opposite. As well, my why is not going to be your why for Jesus. As Dominique Collin wrote, “to be a Christian is to believe that the event opened up by the Good News of Jesus Christ can also become an event for me.”

The Holy Spirit is the one inside of us moving us with our past experiences, moving us, drawing us closer to God, even those who don’t yet believe. Our job as Christians is not to prove the existence of God  beyond a shadow of a doubt, but instead to work, as we can, to tear down obstacles to belief, assumptions about Christians that are not true to who Jesus is.

So we get to the why. Today, I want us to hold on to the why that Isaiah points to. Isaiah 61:1-4
> The Lord God’s spirit is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to bring good news to the poor,
And there are poor in this world, my brothers and sisters. There are people who are poor who lack resources of money, but also lack resources of hope and peace. There are people who lack resources of love.
>     to bind up the brokenhearted,
And, oh boy, are there brokenhearted people in this world. Brokenhearted around the world.
>     to proclaim release for captives, and liberation for prisoners,
As well, there are people who are captive to many, many things, my brothers and sisters. People who are captive to their own ideology. People who are captive to their own expectations about who they should be, about what they should look like. About what they should get in this world. And they are being pulled apart in that captivity.
>     to comfort all who mourn,
We are still mourning in 2020. We are mourning for a lot. And there is a deep need for comfort.

Isaiah points out this deep need. That even if you have your life altogether. If all your retirements are maxed out, all of your grandkids have maxed out 529 plans, you still cannot save yourself. In this broken world, death is coming. Decay and hurt and brokenness that we see. And the rain falls on the just as well as the unjust. This brokenness and captivity and poverty that impacts us all.

So what can Jesus do about it? How does this child born 2000 years ago make any impact on this brokenness. Because, looking around, there is still brokenness. There is still hurt. There are still people starving in the streets. There are still children getting sick. There are still families breaking up and people losing jobs and people suffering from addiction and depression and deprivation.

I can’t answer this fully today. We can’t even attempt the answer, though, if we don’t admit the question. The answer begins by admitting, whoever you are and whatever faith you have, that this world is not what it could be. This world is not as it should be. Something needs to change.

For Christians, that something that needs to happen in order to heal this brokenness has already begun. Jesus came to heal this brokenness and we see glimpses of Christ's healing in the joys we are able to find. We should not be surprised by pain but surprised by joy, as CS Lewis wrote. Joy does not come because we work hard enough for it or because we deserve it. Today is Gaudete Sunday, the day of rejoicing. The pink candle. Joy is a gift. When we admit the need for healing in this world, that the world is. It what it could be, we can see joy as a gift. Peace as a gift.

True rest, true peace, does not come from our own work but from the God who created everything, and the God who created everything did not see fit to change the world at the proverbial snap of a fingers, which would eradicate the image of God in us, our freedom and identity. But instead, God entered into the world as a needy child. And unlike teenagers, newborns let us know their need. God became a needy infant in order to fill our need for God. God became man to dwell among us. To begin the process of new creation, of redemption, to bring about the kingdom of God here. So that we can see now our future together in God’s new creation with people who are drawn together, not because we like each other, but because we admit that we are imperfect people. We admit that we need something. And that there is no political party, there is no sports team, there is no job, there is no lifestyle that can fill the God-sized whole inside of us. The why is that this world is broken.

Thanks be to God that Jesus came. Thanks be to God that his work is not finished, that the brokenness we still see today is not a mark of God’s failure but a mark of the continuing need for redemption and transformation.

One of the things the coming of Christ offers us is not just to be passive recipients of God’s mercy, but active participants in God’s transformation. This is what the life of the church is about. Receiving mercy and going out to seek justice. Worshipping God and loving neighbor. One of the ways we are able to do this in this congregation is through the Stephen Ministers program. Stephen Ministers walk with people, they don’t try to fix brokenness. They stand with others. They listen. They pray. If you know someone in your life who is going through some acute brokenness in this season, some sorrow, some grief. Please consider talking to them or to me about a Stephen Minister or about becoming one. The training takes time and is serious because the work is serious. Caring for folks who are hurting is serious, but is worthwhile. As Christians, we are not asked to fix the world or to fix others but to point in our lives to the one who does.

The ‘why’ is that this world is broken. The who is Jesus Christ, son of the living God. God took on our sin, took on our hurt, took on our brokenness to start the transformation of everything. May God give you peace this advent season. Jesus is coming soon.

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


site: sermons

title: You Are Strong

author: Wilson Pruitt

church: bee-creek-umc

themes: living-in-the-present christus-victor discernment prudence courage knowing-god encouragement-to-the-young

text:
**Scripture:** 1 John 2:12-14
**Series:** 2020

> An Evensong meditation on 1 John 2:12-14, addressed especially to young people ('νεανίσκοι, you are strong'). John affirms believers not for who they will become but for who they already are: children who know the Father, parents who know Jesus, young people who are strong and have already conquered the evil one. The sermon detours through the ancient virtues of prudence (a practiced judgment of good and bad) and courage (fearing the right fear) as tools for discerning good advice from bad, then lands on John's encouragement: the victory is already won in Christ, so the struggle continues but the war is not ours to win.

**Illustrations:** advice-for-the-graduate, ancient-virtue-prudence, fearlessness-versus-courage

---

# October 25

People are going to give you a lot of advice. What to study, where to go to college, what to be when you grow up. Advice comes early.

In the reading for today, John writes to the young people, νεανίσκοι, you are strong. You are strong not because of who you will be but because of you are right now.

Little children, I write to you because you know the Father. Parents, I write to you because you have known the one who has existed from the beginning. Young people, I write to you because you are strong, the word of God remains in you, and you have conquered the evil one. 1 John 2:14

The graduate

How do we know the difference between good advice from bad advice?

The ancients talked about prudence. Prudence is judging the good and the bad. Prudence is not something you are born with. it is something you practice.

Another ancient virtue was courage.
Fearlessness versus courage

Fearing the right fear.

And this gets us to the advice given by John in the passage for today. It is filled with encouragement. It is filled with offering advice not about tomorrow but today.

Children, you know the Father. Parents, you know Jesus. Young folks, you are strong. You have already conquered evil.

The battle is behind us. The war is already won. Christ has already won the victory. That doesn’t mean the struggle is over, but we don’t have to win the victory.

You know God, this is what John is saying. You already know God. You already know Jesus is the Son of God. You are strong.

method: authored, not translated

license_apparatus: CC BY-NC 4.0


title: You Can Never Have Too Much Love

themes: gods-love-for-the-world gods-unconditional-love sacraments doing-gods-will forgiveness

text:
**Scripture:** 1 John 2:15-17
**Series:** 2020

> A short Evensong message for All Saints Day (Nov 1, 2020) on 1 John 2:15-17. Using candy and an all-you-can-eat buffet as foils, the preacher contrasts worldly things—which are good but can be abused and yield diminishing returns—with God's love, which lasts forever and of which you can never have too much. Loving the world means abusing good things; doing God's will (loving neighbor, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked) lasts forever and is possible only because God is with us. Grounded in baptism, communion, and All Saints Day, the message proclaims that the forgiven and loved are free, welcomed, and given eternal grace without price.

**Illustrations:** too-much-candy, buffet-diminishing-marginal-utility

---

# November 1

Candy is fun. (Favorite Candies)

Being sick from candy is not fun. There is only so much candy you can physically eat.

You can never have too much love. What lasts forever is God’s love. And we see it in baptism.

1 John 2:15-17 CEB

I have not been to an all-you-eat Buffet in a long time.
Game the system. Avocado, sushi,
I saw it as a challenge.

Buffets work with the economic theory of the law of diminishing marginal utility
Candy

What does it mean to love the world or the things of the world?
Many things in the world are good but they can be abused. Everything can be abused. Humans have an amazing ability to distort everything they touch.

Doing the will of God: loving neighbor, feed the hungry, clothing the naked, not letting the right hand know what the left is doing, this lasts forever. And we can only do it, we can only do the things of God because God is with us.

Because you are forgiven. You are loved. You don't need to seek the things that make you seek. You are free.
Baptism, communion, all saints day. We welcome and are welcomed, we receive and give, and we remember.

All free. All eternal. All offered to us without price.


title: A Sermon on Endings: The Patience of Simeon

themes: advent-expectation delayed-gratification lament suffering-and-divine-solidarity endings-and-goodbyes incarnation christus-victor

text:
**Scripture:** Luke 2:22-35; Psalm 69:1-3; Psalm 88:13-18; Psalm 22:1
**Series:** 2021

> Preached on December 26, 2021, this sermon on Luke 2:22-35 reflects on Simeon, who waited his whole life to see the Lord's Christ. Drawing on sports fandom, Formula 1's unjust endings, and the contrast between good and bad story endings, Pruitt frames much of life as feeling like a blowout rather than a close game. Through the laments of Psalms 69 and 88, and Jesus quoting Psalm 22 from the cross, he argues that God in Christ stands inside our pain rather than hurling help from safety above. Like Simeon, we can receive God's salvation now even amid brokenness, knowing Christ has already won, and step into the arena with him by loving enemies and daring greatly in the new year.

**Illustrations:** bowl-games-championship-fandom, astros-world-series-loss, formula-1-drive-to-survive, schumacher-last-race-trickery, verstappen-hamilton-last-lap, man-in-the-arena, lost-versus-good-endings, father-delayed-gratification, sound-of-silence-darkness, sonderegger-christ-in-the-pit

---

# December 26

When the time came for their ritual cleansing, in accordance with the Law from Moses, they brought Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. (It’s written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male will be dedicated to the Lord.”) They offered a sacrifice in keeping with what’s stated in the Law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. A man named Simeon was in Jerusalem. He was righteous and devout. He eagerly anticipated the restoration of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. The Holy Spirit revealed to him that he wouldn’t die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. Led by the Spirit, he went into the temple area. Meanwhile, Jesus’ parents brought the child to the temple so that they could do what was customary under the Law. Simeon took Jesus in his arms and praised God. He said, “Now, master, let your servant go in peace according to your word, because my eyes have seen your salvation. You prepared this salvation in the presence of all peoples. It’s a light for revelation to the Gentiles and a glory for your people Israel.” His father and mother were amazed by what was said about him. Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “This boy is assigned to be the cause of the falling and rising of many in Israel and to be a sign that generates opposition so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your innermost being too.”
Luke 2:22-35

We are in the Bowl season of college football. We are getting close to the playoffs in professional football. When I was in college and growing up, I  wasn't a big fan of bowl games. I thought it was either get your chip, get your championship, or it was not a great season. I grew up in College Station with these solid RC Slocum Aggie teams that were always competitive, but never fantastic. Then at UT, we had Vince Young and our one shining moment. We had some solid basketball teams some College World Series trips, but the year was only seen as a success if we won a national championship.

I’ve really mellowed a lot as I've gotten older in that championships are a lot less important to me. I want to have fun. Bowl games are fun. I’ve been to a lot of Alamo bowls. They're fun. They're easy to get to. San Antonio is a great town. It's nice. During some seasons of college football, everyone knows who is going to win at the beginning of the year. Some years are more predictable than others.
There are some games that you know from the very beginning that they are going to be close, others, you know are going to be blow outs. You know that it's not going to happen.
After the first few games of the world series this past year, I knew the Astros weren't going to win. Yordan Alvarez was not hitting well. And that was it. The only issue was how long until the suffering would stop. For too much of my life, I invested too much of my identity in a sport played by millionaires whom I had never met. I was tired of caring so much.

It was about that time that I got into Formula 1 racing. I'd never really gotten into cars or auto racing of any kind but then I watched the Netflix series Drive to Survive, and I was hooked. It was interesting on a competition level, a personality level, an engineering level, and a cosmopolitan world-traversing level.

Formula 1 has this points system where you get 25 points per win, 18 for second place, and so on up until 10th place. And so that's what it means when someone says you are in the points. If you're lower than 10th, you don't get any points. Therefore, you know, if your car is falling apart, just stop. It doesn't matter. Like the difference between 11th of 20th is nothing. There's no difference.
There have been years in Formula 1 when trickery has happened on the last race to let someone win. It happened in 1994 with Michael Schumacher and the Benetton team. This was the same year when Aylton Senna died in a crash driving for Williams. Damien Hill was the other driver for Williams. And he just came on strong and turned things around but it didn’t matter. On the last day, Schumacher knocked him out of the race. The same thing almost happened again in 1997 when Schumacher crashed into Jacques Villeneuve on the last day of the race, but Villeneuve was able to finish and Schumacher was disqualified. Those wins leave a bad taste in the mouth.
This past year in Formula 1, the title was decided on the last lap of the last race thanks to the race director changing the rules at the last minute to let passed cars overtake the safety car and Max Verstappen was then able to overtake Lewis Hamilton on fresher tires. It is unjust and unfair.

It is one thing to be on the sidelines. It is another to play in the big game. Athletes I know love the Teddy Roosevelt speech he gave in 1913 that is often subtitled, “The Man in the Arena,”

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

It is one thing to watch the game. Another to play it. To live it. To win or lose together.

Whether we play or watch, there are differences between a good ending and a bad ending. In sports and in movies and books, there is a differences between a good ending and bad ending. There are movies that are great all the way through. And then, at the very end, the story is sloppy and you walk away with a bad taste. The TV show, Lost, started off strong. The end wasn't there because there really wasn't any substance to begin with. They were making it up as they go along. Whereas, in movies like The Usual Suspects or Knives Out or a good mystery where the end actually makes all of it make sense, the whole of the story is so much better.
Friends, this is not a series today, but a sermon on endings. This is a sermon on saying goodbye.
We don't know much about Simeon. Other than this moment, we don't know who he was. There's no record of Simeon outside of the Gospel of Luke. He is an older man, a holy man. He was waiting for something. Simeon is waiting. He's waiting for the Messiah. He has been waiting his whole life for the anointed one of God to come. More than that, he’s waiting for what his fathers and his grandfather's and his father's father's fathers have been waiting for: God's promise fulfilled. And in a lot of that waiting, it does not seem like a close game. It does not look like the good guys are going to win. The life of the Hebrew people looks like a blowout. Honestly, a lot of life seems like a blow out.
There are a lot of moments in life that don't seem like close games. When someone you love is dying, it doesn't seem like a close game.
When someone you love has changed in such a way that they no longer act the same or treat you like they used to, it does not seem like close game.

We may think or prayer to God, “Okay if you were so great, God, if you are so wonderful, why can't you just save us right now? Why the trickery, why the mystery, just save us?”

How long, oh Lord? This is not a stupid question.

My father would often talk of how the mark of maturity is found in delayed gratification. Instant gratification is the mark of a child. I want it all. I want it all. And I want it now. It is one thing to seek gratification from a position of comfort. It is another to seek comfort from a position of pain and longing.

How long, O Lord?

The Psalms are filled with questions like this.

Save me, God,
    because the waters have reached my neck!
I have sunk into deep mud.
    My feet can’t touch the bottom!
I have entered deep water;
    the flood has swept me up.
I am tired of crying.
    My throat is hoarse.
    My eyes are exhausted with waiting for my God. (Psalm 69-14)

It does not seem like a close game for the Psalmist. It feels more like a blowout. Or Psalm 88

 But I cry out to you, Lord!
    My prayer meets you first thing in the morning!
Why do you reject my very being, Lord?
    Why do you hide your face from me?
Since I was young I’ve been afflicted, I’ve been dying.
    I’ve endured your terrors. I’m lifeless.
Your fiery anger has overwhelmed me;
    your terrors have destroyed me.
They surround me all day long like water;
    they engulf me completely.
You’ve made my loved ones and companions distant.
    My only friend is darkness.. (Psalm 88:13-18)

This is the end of Psalm 88. It is the only Psalm with such a sad ending. This is where the Simon and Garfunkel song comes from

Hello Darkness my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again.

How long O Lord?

And yet what if God has heard our cry? What if God, in fact, is also crying out? What if the words of the Psalmist are the words of the Lord? From the cross, Jesus quotes the words of Psalm 22, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Christ in speaking those words becomes the speaker of the words. The Psalms of lament cease to be a dialogue between humans and God and become the words of Jesus to the Father for us. Jesus stands in solidarity with us: with our pain, with our doubt, with our worry. As Katherine Sonderegger said, “Christ bears this burden, not His own, until the end, the last end of sinners…He becomes the lost, so powerfully evoked in Psalm 88…In this, the darkest of laments, the psalmist never directly proclaims the LOrd’s consolation…This is what the Lord of the covenant assumes for his very own: the darkest pitch of grief.”

She goes on,
“It matters to the suffering that the helper does not stand far from danger, merely hurling a line down into the pit from perfect safety above. It matters that this Helper has tasted the bitter gall. He, the Lord, is not outside but rather inside the “problem of pain,” inside the suffering that is unrelieved and without consolation…Even in the pit, the forgotten and erased, even and especially there, this Incarnate One is Eternal Life even in death.”

When Simeon announces, “Lord now your servant may go in peace,” he sees that God is with us in this child. God is with us from the heights of joy to the depths of sorrow. God never says that story is too sad. God never denies the pain of others because God stood in that pain for us and said, “no more.” God stood in that death for us and said, “not again.”

How long O Lord?

Our redemption has been won through Jesus. Simeon understood it even as the old world still stood. We can understand it today, even when the brokenness around us still stands.

We can still pray as the Psalmist yearning for a savior, but we must be willing to realize that our salvation has come. God has come. And our salvation may not look how we want it to. It may not look like the world would look if we were in charge.

And yet this is an ending worth seeking. The odds seem against us at first, but the truth is that Christ has already won. We know what happens at the end of the game. We checked the score. Even still, we don’t have to passively watch it play out. We can be a part of Christ’s victory. We can be in the arena with Christ. We can dare greatly with Christ and with each other.

May you see in Christ that God is with us. May you see in Christ that you have not waited in vain. May you step into the arena with Christ and be a part of God’s victory by loving your enemies, praying for those who persecute you, and stepping outside of your comfort zone this day and in this new year.

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, forgive us for the times that we have given up our wait. Forgive us for the times we have distracted ourselves from thinking of you. Help us to have the patience of Simeon to rejoice in your coming, to receive your peace, and join you in the arena of this world, where your victory is assured. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.


title: Ash Wednesday

themes: fasting freedom-from-sin forgiveness love-of-neighbor growth-in-holiness

text:
**Scripture:** Matthew 6:1-6; Matthew 6:16-21; Isaiah 58:2-11
**Series:** 2021

> An Ash Wednesday sermon preached during the February 2021 Texas ERCOT blackout. Pruitt sets Matthew 6's teaching on secret almsgiving, prayer, and fasting alongside Isaiah 58's vision of the fast God chooses—freeing the oppressed, sharing bread, sheltering the homeless. He argues Lent's purpose is not guilt or self-improvement but freedom in Christ from enslavement to sin and self-centeredness. Drawing heavily on Schmemann, he frames fasting as liberation from the dictatorship of flesh, mercy/forgiveness as the breaking of sin's division, and patience (even through repeated failure) as the divine virtue on the road to holiness, so the heart may soften toward communion with God.

**Illustrations:** texas-ercot-blackout, hot-water-to-neighbor, orthodox-staged-fast, brothers-keeper

---

# Ash Wednesday

## February 17, 2021

“Be careful that you don’t practice your religion in front of people to draw their attention. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Whenever you give to the poor, don’t blow your trumpet as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets so that they may get praise from people. I assure you, that’s the only reward they’ll get. But when you give to the poor, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that you may give to the poor in secret. Your Father who sees what you do in secret will reward you. “When you pray, don’t be like hypocrites. They love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners so that people will see them. I assure you, that’s the only reward they’ll get. But when you pray, go to your room, shut the door, and pray to your Father who is present in that secret place. Your Father who sees what you do in secret will reward you. “And when you fast, don’t put on a sad face like the hypocrites. They distort their faces so people will know they are fasting. I assure you that they have their reward. When you fast, brush your hair and wash your face. Then you won’t look like you are fasting to people, but only to your Father who is present in that secret place. Your Father who sees in secret will reward you. “Stop collecting treasures for your own benefit on earth, where moth and rust eat them and where thieves break in and steal them. Instead, collect treasures for yourselves in heaven, where moth and rust don’t eat them and where thieves don’t break in and steal them. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. - Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

It is cold outside

For those in Texas, our lives and comfort are being dictated by ERCOT. Some have power who waste it, or others turned their heat to 55 and have lost power for three days. To paraphrase Jesus, blackouts fall on the just as well as the unjust.

Today is Ash Wednesday. A day that begins the season of lent, a season of prayer and fasting and mercy.

My normal ash Wednesday message talks about different ways to fast and not be conformed to the world.

Today we are all surviving a confluence of extreme situations. How are we responding?

I will get back to Matthew 6, but I want to read a good chunk from Isaiah 58 which spoke to me deeply this morning.

> They seek me day after day,
>     desiring knowledge of my ways
>     like a nation that acted righteously,
>     that didn’t abandon their God.
> They ask me for righteous judgments,
>     wanting to be close to God.
> 3 “Why do we fast and you don’t see;
>     why afflict ourselves and you don’t notice?”
> Yet on your fast day you do whatever you want,
>     and oppress all your workers.
> 4 You quarrel and brawl, and then you fast;
>     you hit each other violently with your fists.
> You shouldn’t fast as you are doing today
>     if you want to make your voice heard on high.
> 5 Is this the kind of fast I choose,
>     a day of self-affliction,
>     of bending one’s head like a reed
>     and of lying down in mourning clothing and ashes?
>     Is this what you call a fast,
>         a day acceptable to the Lord?
> 6 Isn’t this the fast I choose:
>     releasing wicked restraints, untying the ropes of a yoke,
>     setting free the mistreated,
>     and breaking every yoke?
> 7 Isn’t it sharing your bread with the hungry
>     and bringing the homeless poor into your house,
>     covering the naked when you see them,
>     and not hiding from your own family?
> 8 Then your light will break out like the dawn,
>     and you will be healed quickly.
> Your own righteousness will walk before you,
>     and the Lord’s glory will be your rear guard.
> 9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
>     you will cry for help, and God will say, “I’m here.”
> If you remove the yoke from among you,
>     the finger-pointing, the wicked speech;
> 10     if you open your heart to the hungry,
>     and provide abundantly for those who are afflicted,
>     your light will shine in the darkness,
>     and your gloom will be like the noon.
> 11 The Lord will guide you continually
>     and provide for you, even in parched places.
>     He will rescue your bones.
> You will be like a watered garden,
>     like a spring of water that won’t run dry.

Our faith, any righteousness we have or love we’ve felt is not for us alone. When we see our faith as performance for others or an excuse to be cruel or selfish. When tough times come and we fixate on ourselves and refuse to think of those near by us in need, when we have power and our neighbor does not, and we think to ourselves, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

I walked a mile and a half the other day to bring hot water to a neighbor whom I knew did not have a camping stove, but I could have done more. Did God’s light shine in me? Or, like the people, did I ask for righteous judgments from God only to excuse my selfishness?

The entire season of lent is an opportunity to be free in Christ as we prepare for Holy Week. The point is not guilt but freedom in Christ. But the journey to freedom in Christ means letting go of our slaveries to the pridefulness of the world. We cannot control what happens to us. We can buy a generator and be prepared, but we can’t control the weather and the power forever. We can’t control how people act.

Lent is the liberation of our enslavement to sin. Sin is the prison of the world. Sin which centers us on ourselves and justifies any action we do no matter how harmful or hurtful, no matter how divisive or destructive. We need freedom.  The Gospel lesson from Matthew sets the conditions for that liberation.

Jesus starts by discussing fasting.

Fasting is the refusal to accept the desires and urges of our fallen nature as normal, the effort to free ourselves from the dictatorship of flesh and matter over the spirit.

The point of a fast is not the what but the why. You can fast from candy or beer or like the Eastern Orthodox, give up meat one week, and the dairy the next, and then even oil. “What then is fasting for us Christians? It is our entrance and participation in that experience of Christ Himself in which He liberates us from the total dependence on food, matter, and the world. (96)

The next key tool for lent is mercy: The triumph of sin, the main sign of its rule over the world, is division, opposition, separation, hatred. Therefore, to first break through this fortress of sin we must forgive. We must forgive the people who could have helped but didn’t. We must forgive the people we blame for everything going wrong. Forgiveness is not the evasion of accountability but the reorienting of our heart. To forgive is to put between me and my “enemy” the radiant forgiveness of God Himself.
(28)

The lenten fast is not a cleanse diet or an attempt at self-actualization. The goal is not to improve yourself but to grow closer to Christ as Christ's body.

We should not ignore the challenges of fasting nor speak glibly of it. And fasts aren't just for some people. We do not fast for God as a sacrifice to him. God gives us the fast for our own benefit. We don't earn our salvation, we experience grace.

After all this is said, one must still remember that however limited our fasting, if it is true fasting it will lead to temptation, weakness, doubt, and irritation. In other terms, it will be a real fight and probably we shall fail many times. But the very discovery of Christian life as fight and effort is the essential aspect of fasting. A faith which has not overcome doubts and temptation is seldom a real faith…Too many people start fasting with enthusiasm and give up after the first failure. I would say that it is at this first failure that the real test comes. If after having failed and surrendered to our appetites and passions we start all over again and do not give up no matter how many times we fail, sooner or later our fasting will bear its spiritual fruit. Between holiness and disenchanted cynicism lies the great and divine virtue of patience—patience, first of all, with ourselves. There is no short-cut to holiness. (98-99)

The purpose of lent is not to force on us a few formal obligations, but to “soften” our heart so that it may open itself to the realities of the Spirit, to experience the hidden “thirst and hunger” for communion with God.

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


title: Big Boat

themes: salvation-history church-as-refuge means-of-grace love-of-neighbor grace-not-merit generosity radical-welcome

text:
**Scripture:** Genesis 7:1-5; Romans 8:38-39; Matthew 11:28; Exodus 16:13-20
**Series:** 2021

> Part of the 2021 'Songs of the Bible' children's-music series, this sermon on Genesis 7:1-5 moves past Noah's ark as merely a cute story of animals and obedience. Using Hugh of St. Victor's medieval reading of four arks—Noah's boat, the church, wisdom, and grace—Wilson argues the ark matters here and now: Jesus calls all the diverse 'animals' into the church for protection; Wesley's works of piety (prayer, fasting, Scripture, communion, Christian conferencing) keep us afloat as the ark of wisdom; and grace is the only power by which we love neighbor and enemy. Like manna, this grace and peace cannot be hoarded but must be shared, calling the world two by two into a 'great big boat' of welcome and love.

**Illustrations:** kids-animal-noises-ice-cream, hepburn-tracy-antediluvian, global-flood-myths, archaeologists-finding-ark, han-solo-carbonite, kant-duty-morality, hugh-st-victor-four-arks, barbecue-ark-pit, diverse-animals-ark, christian-conferencing-grow-group, offering-song-lost, manna-wilderness, index-fund-real-estate

---

# June 13
## Big Boat

The Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark with your whole household, because among this generation I’ve seen that you are a moral man. From every clean animal, take seven pairs, a male and his mate; and from every unclean animal, take one pair, a male and his mate; and from the birds in the sky as well, take seven pairs, male and female, so that their offspring will survive throughout the earth. In seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. I will wipe off from the fertile land every living thing that I have made.” Noah did everything the Lord commanded him. Genesis 7:1-5

Kids love ice cream. It is an amazing moment to watch a child eat ice cream for the first time. Especially on a hot day. They love it! Something else kids love are animal noises. I think part of it is any excuse to be loud, but kids love animal noises. I didn’t really think about this until I started writing children’s songs. This is even more true for smaller kids, 1 and 2 year olds. They can make an animal sound before they can speak. Noah saved the animals two by two. But is there anything else to the story of Noah beyond an excuse to make some animal noises?

My friends, we're continuing the series on songs of the Bible that looks through the scriptures in a way guided and retold in music. There are a lot of explicit songs in the Bible, but it all can be turned into song. For God’s love for us is so great that we cannot help but sing.
Today we are looking at Noah’s Big, Big Boat.

I have never preached a sermon on Noah. I have alluded to him from time to time, but never focused on this story. Usually, it is seen as just a story. An old word that you hear in old movies is Ante-diluvian, which means before the flood. It means something that is very old. I can just see Katherine Hepburn telling Spencer Tracy, you’re being so ante-diluvian” Another place the flood comes up is in some really bad interpretations of the Bible which talk about the curse of Ham and use that as an excuse to justify slavery and racism, but that is not what is going on here.

On the surface, with Noah, we have a nice story. There is a righteous man who obeys God and he and his family are saved. We also have a lot of animals, which are fun to think about conceptually.

A global flood is not a unique story to the Hebrew People. The epic of Gilgamesh from Babylon contains a global flood. The choctaw people had a flood myth. The Cree and the Inuit had a flood myth. The Egyptians had a flood myth, as did people in India and in what is now Malaysia.

The flood is not unique. The boat is not unique. Other myths had boats.Every once in a while, there will be news reports that Archeologists have found Noah’s Arc. This is fine, but our faith is not in the wooden remains of a giant boat but in the God made evident there. As a teacher of mine said in a different context, if you need evidence of a giant boat to believe in God, worship that evidence, don’t worship God. The point of the bible is not to offer us a series of facts about the world. The bible is God’s word to us. That doesn’t make it less true but more true. God’s word is not frozen in carbonate like Han Solo. God speaks to us this day from these words that are true.

A simple sermon about the flood is that Noah was obedient to God and we should be obedient, also. Even when the rest of the world is crazy or is laughing at us while we build a great, big boat

I think this is good for what it is, but “obey God!” doesn’t make for a good children’s song. Kids aren’t engaged by singing about obeying God or obeying their parents, no matter how much parents might enjoy hearing our kids sing joyfully about obeying us.

Some versions of faith move little beyond obedience. The Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it. In the same vain, some philosophers (Kant) say that you can only do good for the sake of doing good or out of duty for it. For instance, they would argue that if you work at the Farmacy because you enjoy gardening, it isn’t morally good. To be morally good would be to work at the garden especially if you didn’t enjoy it. This is not how God shows us to live in the Bible.

When we dig a little deeper, we find a lot more than obedience and duty in the story of Noah and the Ark.

The vast tradition of the church shows us ways of joyfully finding God in the Scriptures in surprising places. For instance, the medieval Hugh of St. Victor read in Noah’s ark four arks that we should pay attention to.

The first is the ark that Noah made with his hatchets and axes, using wood and pitch. The second is the ark that Christ made by gathering his church together. The third is the ark that wisdom builds in our heart by the means of grace. And the fourth ark is what grace gives us to love powerfully in this world. The first is Noah’s ark, the second is the ark of the church, the third is the ark of wisdom and the fourth the ark of grace.

This story takes on a lot more depth now. We are not just talking about something happening a long time ago or fun animal sounds. Here and now, the ark matters for us.

The first ark of Noah matters because it shows the promise of God to the faithful. As well, the promise of the rainbow that God will not destroy the earth again. Barbeque lovers should also be big fans of Noah’s ark because it is after the flood that God allows humans to eat animals. I bet clever welders could design a pit that looked like an ark.

This is good and true but it is not the end of God’s message for us.

The second ark, the ark of the church, matters because when we read Genesis this way, we see Jesus as Noah and you and I as the animals being brought into the ark. We have been called by Jesus into the safety of the church in order to be protected and healed and comforted in the midst of the floods of this world that can tear at us. And so in the song, when Noah finds two monkeys and two bears, we are the ones Jesus finds. God includes the vast diversity of humanity within the ark of the church. The ark is not just filled with cute puppies and nothing else, but sheep and lions, bears and platypi. God tells Noah to find two of every kind, not two of all the good kinds. Snakes and wolves are there, too. We don’t pick who belongs to the church. The church is not a place for the in and hip crowd or folks who have their lives all together. Jesus calls us all. If we are truly being the church, when we look around at each other in worship, it only makes sense that we are together because of Jesus. The church is not a social club but the body of Christ called together here and now.

We next move to the 3rd ark, the ark of wisdom. Here, we can read in this story how John Wesley’s works of piety offer us an ark from the dangers of this world. That is, praying, fasting, studying the Bible, worshipping together, sharing communion, all of these keep us close to God so that we can hold on to the wisdom of God. We are not saved by works but once we see God’s love, we can understand that doing the things of God keeps us safe in the midst of this world. Prayer is always an act of faith. Prayer is an absurd action if there is no God. Prayer reminds us of God’s presence and love. Prayer keeps us afloat. Fasting is a practice that keeps us afloat when done out of faith. Fasting reminds us that we do not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Studying the Bible, reading, taking time with God keeps us afloat. Wesley saw Christian conferencing as a means of Grace. That does not mean going to Christian conferences, but participating in something akin to a grow group: a transformational conversation about where God is and what God is doing in your life.

Finally, we have the fourth ark, the ark of grace and power, the ark of God’s graciously offered love. We need God’s grace to truly love and give of ourselves. This ark is not one that we build on our own. We are given the plans to love our neighbor, and the tools to do so: Grace. Grace is how we love our neighbor. Grace is how we love our enemies. Grace is offered to us so that we can rise above the flood waters of selfishness and narcissism. We are given the plans to love our neighbor, but we have to invite our neighbor out of love. And some neighbors are two monkeys, some are two bears, some are walruses, some are two hare’s or rabbits. Loving our neighbor is not about moral fortitude or finding the easy people to love. It is grace all the way down. We are offered grace in God’s power to love even when we are weak and feel like we are drowning in a flood.

God said to Noah build a great big boat. God says to us, you can’t do this alone, here is the heart of Jesus. Where you fall short, Jesus holds you fast. Where you are weak, he is strong. Where you are lost, he will find you. Like in the offering song, Lord I'm lost, be my way back again. Oh Lord I'm lost, be my way back. God offers us this shelter.

Jesus says, “go and love your neighbor. Go and feed the hungry. Go and clothe the naked. Not just for duty or obedience but to find me there.”

We are offered the great privilege of calling others into life with God amidst the turmoil of this world. The world of Noah was threatened by an overwhelming flood. What do we need protection from today? That is a deep and important question. People try to stoke our fears on social media, on the news, in politics, about who are enemies are and who we are threatened by. Who is the threat? Who is the enemy?

What we find in Jesus and in faith is that the threats that the world complain about do not come close to threatening the body of Christ. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ. Not sword nor famine nor the war on Christmas, nor mainstream media, nor democrats nor republicans, nor Hollywood nor social media. Nothing can separate us from Christ’s love. Jesus said come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Jesus offers us rest and peace in the ark that is the life of faith. The peace does not last if we hoard it. Like the people of Israel with Mannah in the wilderness. The Hebrews were freed from slavery in Egypt by God. They were wandering in the desert. They were hungry. They were tired. God heard their cries and offered them food, but only what they needed. God gave them manna every morning, enough for them to survive. On Friday, God gave them twice enough so they wouldn’t have to gather on Saturday, the Sabbath. But not everyone listened to God. Some gathered more than they needed and stored it up. And what happened to this Manna? It rotted away.

The grace and peace, the security of the arc of Christ is offered to us not as a storehouse for us to hoard but so that we can, in turn, be the body of Christ calling the world two by two into the safety and rest of Christ’s love. We cannot put God’s love into an index fund. We can’t put God’s love into a new real estate venture. Like the Manna, God’s love is offered for us to share. God offers us an ark in the church to share love. We can receive. We can share it. We cannot hoard it. We cannot deny God’s love to others or else we will start to lose it. The church is not perfect. We are not perfect. We don’t have it all together. I don’t have it all together. And I’m talking about the real, nitty gritty, down in the weeds love of meltdowns and tragedies and life changes and self-doubt. God wants us to be there for each other on this boat especially when we look and around and we are surprised by who we see. We are an imperfect people made whole by the perfect love of God. We are not complete. We have more room on this boat. Let us go and gather folks two by two or three by five or however many it need be.

God said to Noah build a great big boat. God wants our church to be a great big boat. You are loved by God. You are welcome here.

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


title: Christmas Eve: Why Now?

themes: incarnation divine-timing kenosis new-life-in-christ grace-and-forgiveness facing-fear

text:
**Scripture:** Luke 2:1-12; Ezekiel 1:5-7
**Series:** 2021

> A Christmas Eve sermon on Luke 2:1-12 built around the recurring human question 'Why now?' Drawing on a personal story of Israeli airport security interrogating his wife Alina, Pruitt traces 'why now?' through Mary, Joseph, the oppressed Hebrew people, and the weary night-shepherds. He argues that love and sacrifice are inconvenient, and that God answered our question by coming not in burning glory (which would consume us as it nearly did Moses) but in the most humble form, a sticky newborn. The incarnation means now is the time for something new: forgiveness, grace, mercy, and freedom claimed by faith, as the shepherds claimed it by going at once to Bethlehem.

**Illustrations:** alina-israeli-security-why-now, augustine-chaste-but-not-yet, new-years-2022-fresh-start, dr-matt-sheep-are-stupid, dont-freak-out-warning, newborn-baby-on-off-communication, moses-glory-would-burn

---

# Christmas Eve
## Luke 2:1-12

In those days Caesar Augustus declared that everyone throughout the empire should be enrolled in the tax lists. This first enrollment occurred when Quirinius governed Syria. Everyone went to their own cities to be enrolled. Since Joseph belonged to David’s house and family line, he went up from the city of Nazareth in Galilee to David’s city, called Bethlehem, in Judea. He went to be enrolled together with Mary, who was promised to him in marriage and who was pregnant. While they were there, the time came for Mary to have her baby. She gave birth to her firstborn child, a son, wrapped him snugly, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the guest-room. Nearby shepherds were living in the fields, guarding their sheep at night. The Lord’s angel stood before them, the Lord’s glory shone around them, and they were terrified. The angel said, “Don’t be afraid! Look! I bring good news to you—wonderful, joyous news for all people. Your savior is born today in David’s city. He is Christ the Lord. This is a sign for you: you will find a newborn baby wrapped snugly and lying in a manger.”
Luke 2:1-12

My wife, Alina, grew up in Israel. Her family had immigrated, when she was two-years-old from Bucharest, Romania to Israel. It's a long and fascinating story. She's an amazing, wonderful person. She spent many years in Israel, went to elementary school in Israel, and then her family immigrated to the United States, but she still has an uncle and cousins in Israel.
Soon after we were married, I traveled with Alina and her Dad to the Holy Land for the first time. I had never been on a tour there and was super excited. At seminary, I studied the region in depth, but I was also looking forward to meeting the family. And if you've ever flown to Israel from anywhere in the world, you have gone through Israeli security. Israel doesn’t have their own version of TSA agents. They have, IDF officers and soldiers at every airport in the world that flies to Israel. These are people who are fluent in multiple languages. They are mostly officers. It is a priority posting.

I’m very American looking with an American name, passport, etc. I went through security pretty easily. My father-in-law, Yoni, is an  IDF veteran. He fought in the Lebanon conflict. And he still had his Israeli passport, so it was pretty simple for him to go through. And then there was my wonderful wife, Alina. They had sterner questions for her. Like, “why didn't you serve your country? Why did you leave?” You know, all these kinds of things. But one of the questions they asked that stuck out to us, that we had never heard traveling before was: why now?” Alina said something to the effect of, “I just got married and I want my family to meet my husband.” Why now? It's hard to convey the sternness of he tone which this IDF officer used on Alina, but it is a good, good question. There are many times in life, many places in life where we should be asking that question. Why now?
2000 years ago, when a man named Joseph, a carpenter, was to marry a young girl named Mary, when he heard news of her pregnancy, he may have been asking, “why now?” Mary definitely asked, when confronted by the angel Gabriel, why now?
“Why me? Why now? Why not later when I'm married? Like this is not a good time. God, it's not a good time!” The Hebrew people, oppressed under Roman occupation, having been exiled to Babylon and Assyria, asked again and again, “why not now? Oh God, why not? Now would be great. Life is hard. Can’t you come soon?”

## Christmas Eve
Today is Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve happens every year. It's easy to know when Christmas is going to be. It's not as easy to know when Easter is going to be. That is a trickier one. It has to do with the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring Equinox. It is hard to remember. It is also different from the Eastern Orthodox Easter, which is more timed with Passover. The root word of computer actually comes from people trying to figure out when to celebrate Easter, it is that complicated, but we know when Christmas Eve will be. We are not surprised when December 24 rolls around.
That being said, Joseph and Mary did not expect a holiday to come from their trip south. They came from Nazareth to a town called Bethlehem; the city of David. They could not find space. They may have thought, “why now, God? Why can't we do this somewhere more comfortable? Why can’t we do this when we're not nine months pregnant?” It was inconvenient.
Love is inconvenient. Sacrifice is inconvenient. Jesus says, later in the Gospels, “what good is it, if you love someone who can love you back, I mean, anybody can do that. It's another thing to love those who don't love you back.”
It's inconvenient to love. To love someone means that you are no longer the center of your universe. You have to take them into consideration. Why Now? Saint Augustine said, “Lord make me chaste, but not yet.” Many of us are ready for new life, but not yet. Why now? Can’t it be next week? I mean, next week is New Year’s Day. That's a good date to start something new. 2022. The year of the new me. Why not then? Why now? I mean, there's so many things going on. The holidays are busy. Why now?
### Shepherds
Shepherds were in their fields, keeping watch over their flocks at night. They were tired shepherds. They were night shepherds. It's a hard job. I've heard from good sources that sheep are stupid animals. It's a quote from Dr. Matt. Sheep are not smart. They get stuck a lot. They hurt themselves a lot. They put their head in places it does not need to go. You have night shepherds because those sheets cannot be trusted, even at night. They can't even be trusted to go to sleep. The sheep should be counting themselves jumping, but now they're out there in the fields.
Those shepherds, those night shepherds, probably thought to themselves “why now? I don't want to do another night shift. I’m tired of this. Why won’t these sheep go to sleep. Can't those wolves come and take them all. Why now?”
And they look up and they see the Lord's messenger before them surrounded by glory. And they were terrified. Why now?
## Angels
Angels in the Bible are almost always depicted as scary, scary creatures. Oftentimes they're not described in detail. And when they are, it's like in Ezekiel 1 and says:

Each had the form of a human being, though each had four faces and four wings. Their feet looked like proper feet, but the soles of their feet were like calves’ hooves, and they shone like burnished bronze..

It's a gruesome thing. It is hard to handle an Angel. Most often, when they speak, their first words are, “don't be afraid” or “don't freak out, Guys. Don't freak out.” If a child comes up to you and says, “now mom, dad, don't freak out, but...” you know where that's going. It's obviously going to a situation where there is something to be freaked out about. If a friend texts you, “Don’t freak out,” the next line can go in a many bad directions, few of them good. An angel comes. Why now?
“Don't be afraid. I bring good news to you.”
“Wait, good news. But you're an angel. Like, I thought God was condemning us.”
“Shepherds, listen to me, we bring good, joyous, wonderful news. Your savior is born today in David's City. He is Christ the Lord. He is the Messiah of God.
The Shepherds may have responded by saying, “Why this day? Why now?”

They saw an angel. The angel came to them, meager night-shepherds, not to the king, not to the rulers, not to Caesar, to them, right where they were in the middle of a hard, hard night.
I think, most often, our human response to God is why now?  Whether we believe or we don’t, when hard things happen, our question is, why now?
This Christmas, I want you all to consider the amazing possibility that now is the time for something new. You may have a lot of Christmas traditions going back a long time. You may have a special dish you make or eat. You may have a special movie you watch as a family. You may have been in church a long time and been to a lot of Christmas Eve services, but now is the time for something new.
Now is the time for God's plan to be fulfilled. That's the point of Christmas. That is why we celebrate God’s incarnation. It is the time when God humbled Godself to become human in Jesus Christ. The God that created everything took on flesh, not just any flesh, a baby's flesh. Babies are super soft, but also kind of sticky when they are first born, but babies aren't the best communicators in the world. They're kind of bullying in their communication style. It's either on or off. It's like they are saying nothing, then screaming, then nothing.
The God who created everything came in this form. The most humble of forms, not the most proud of forms, not the most glorious of forms. The most humble of forms.
We could not handle God coming in glory. It would burn us up. It almost burned Moses up. This is the answer to the question, if God is real, why doesn’t he show himself to us? God came in the form Jesus because that was the only way we could receive the glory of the God who created everything. God didn’t ask us to reach up to heaven. God came down for us.

Now is God's time for us. A son is born for us. A child is given now for is. This day is a time when you can realize that your past is not who you are, that your mistakes are not who you are. Now is a time when you can receive mercy, when you can receive grace. There's nothing to stop you at other times in your life from receiving grace or mercy or starting something new, but those times weren't the right times.
Why not? Because it didn’t happen. Now is the time, but it takes faith to claim your now.
The shepherds, after hearing the words of the angels, say to each other, “let us go right now to Bethlehem and see what's happened. Let's confirm what the Lord has revealed to us. Let's go right now to see.” They take a chance.
Why now? Because God has offered Godself for you. Why now? Because the God of all creation became human so that humans may be forgiven and redeemed. If God had not assumed humanity, humanity could not be saved. God chose not to take away our freedom, but to restore it, to restore us the freedom to truly love God, to truly love our neighbors, to not be slaves to our own desires. Why now?
Because you are loved now. You are forgiven now. And you have a chance for new life now. You are not alone now. You are not your past now. You can live in freedom now. You can care for others now. You can forgive others now. You can forgive yourself because now God has forgiven you.
Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, your right time brought Jesus into the world. Forgive us for the excuses we have made that keep us from loving you. Forgive us for the excuses we have made that keep us from loving our neighbor. Help us to see that our lives can change now because you love us. In the name of the Father and the son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.


title: Come and See

themes: seeking-god trust-in-god discipleship restlessness prayer transformation

text:
**Scripture:** John 1:35-42; Romans 7:15; Ecclesiastes 1:9
**Series:** 2021

> Launching the 'One Weird Trick' series, this sermon takes the two-word command 'Come and see' from John 1:35-42 as the trick that can change your life. Building from the question Jesus asks the disciples ('What are you seeking?'), Pastor explores trust and identity: we are not our intentions but what we actually do, and our restless hearts are ultimately seeking God whether we realize it or not. Preached on the 20th anniversary of 9/11, it weaves in his own memory of the attacks at UT and a candlelight vigil where Amazing Grace brought unexpected peace, arguing tragedy can clarify whom we seek. The invitation is to come and see where Jesus is, found in worship, prayer, service, and mentorship rather than in podcasts or social media, and to declutter the heart so God can be its center.

**Illustrations:** one-weird-trick-ads, hiking-shelter-trust, serious-musician-lightness, vonnegut-mother-night, doordash-satisfaction, nine-eleven-ut-vigil, cousin-kazakhstan, prayer-useless-time, hoarders-of-the-heart

---

# September 12
## Come and See

The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”
So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon. Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter). - John 1:35-42

Who do you trust? If they say something, will you believe them? Who do you trust in your life? People say trust is hard to earn and easy to lose. Who do you trust in your life? A few times in my life, in my experiences, I have had ways of trusting others. One example is when I was hiking every day and I was hiking more than anyone else, except for a few people in the world. During that time, I could easily tell someone who was with me and someone who was not, who could I trust to have my back, to always make room in a shelter for me. Music is another area where I've been able to trust pretty quickly because of my experience. I have different judgments of a real musician. What is it like to take the music seriously. For serious musicians, there's a lightness to them and to the music because they're not as concerned or anxious about the notes. The notes are already taken care of. They focus beyond the notes, the expression, the intention of it all. When you're at the stage of music where you are more interested in expression than execution, because the execution is taken care of, you can sense that pretty quickly.
Who do you trust? Who do you listen to? What podcasts do you trust? Or YouTube or TV shows. What is the source of that trust?
About 10 years ago, there was a web advertising phenomenon called one weird trick. Use this one weird trick to lose 30 pounds or by using by this one, weird trick, you will sleep better at night or nail that interview. It was an advertising gimmick, the federal trade commission clamped down on it because the one weird trick didn’t do anything, but what if it could? What if there was one thing you could do that would radically change your life? That's the name of the sermon series that I'm starting today, one weird trick. Each week, we’re going to look at one thing we can do to change our life. One moment in the life of Jesus that can transform where we are and who we are. Today, we are thinking about, come and see.

So first off, I'm not following my own rule because “come and see” is two things, not one thing. So today we have two weird tricks to change your life. When Jesus comes to the disciples of John the Baptist and they say, behold, the lamb of God, they come and follow Jesus. And Jesus turns and sees them and says, what are you seeking? And they say, rabbi, that's the end of the answer. The word Rabbi is important. Today it is seen as equivalent to the word pastor, but that is not the case.

The root related to the word rabbi first occurs in the Hebrew Bible in chapter 1 of the Book of Genesis, in verbal form, Hebrew: פרו ורבו, romanized: peru u rebu, lit. 'be fruitful and multiply'. This phrase is interpreted to mean "bear children, and raise them" (or "to make them great"). This mitzvah (commandment) of "raising" is given to fathers, but can be partially fulfilled through agency by appointing a mentor. "Rov" is a verb meaning "to raise" or to "make great", and the "Rav" is one who consciously takes on the role of "raising" sons

They see a teacher, a master, one who can raise them up. To say Rabbi is to say my master.
They then say, where are you staying? And Jesus says to them, come and see. Who are you seeking? In all the aspects of our life and the direction our life is going and what we need in our life begins with this. What are you seeking in your life? Where are you going?
Who are you trying to be? This is such an important because we may think we are going one way in life and we come to find out we have been on a completely different path.
There is a great Kurt Vonnegut novel that was turned into a pretty good movie with Nick Nolte, but it's called mother night. And it's about a GI, who is serving as a double agent during World War II. And he's officially working for the Nazis as a radio broadcaster for the propaganda wing of the party, a cross between Hannoi Hannah and a shock jock. The secret, though, is that he is really  working for the OSS, the predecessor organization to the CIA, and through his broadcasts, he is using a secret code to share Wehrmacht troop positions. But after the war, his handlers die and there's no record of his working for the OSS. He was so confidential that all records were destroyed. And so the story ends in this situation where the only people who remember him were Nazis, who had escaped and thought what he said was true. And they agreed with his antisemitism and they agreed with his hate, and they are the only ones who care for him as he's dying. The book has this line that I’ll never forget: be careful of who you pretend to be because in the end you are who you pretend to be.
We are not our intentions. How we live shapes who we are. We can have the best of intentions and the most wonderful ideas of who we are, but it is so easy to lose sight of our true goal. We need to remember our why. We need to remember our destination. Just because we do it, doesn’t make it good. Just because something used to be good, doesn’t make it good today.

There is often a disconnect between how we think about ourselves and what we actually do in our lives. Paul points this out in Romans 7 when he says, “I do the things I don’t want to do, and I don’t do the things I want to do.”

Through all of this, we can’t know what we are doing unless we know where we are going. Who are you seeking? Who are you trying to be?
Jesus has an answer for this. Are you seeking purpose in your life? Are you seeking a happy home? Are you seeking satisfaction with who you are and your place in the world? Maybe you are seeking this for your kids or your family. Who are you seeking?

What Jesus shows us is that we are ultimately seeking God, even when we don’t realize it. All that we desire that is good is good in its connection to God. As well, our hearts are restless until they find rest in God. We are restless spirits, restless in our soul until we find what we are looking for. The peace that passes understanding. Have you felt that peace? When you are content and satisfied.
But often, we want that to come to us. We want to Doordash life satisfaction right to us. We don’t want to change or we want to be control of our change. We want four-hour work week change. We want a trick so that we can keep doing the same things but get different results. That’s not how it works. Change takes time and attention and remembering who we are seeking.

As well, change often takes place after tragedy. During good times, we don’t like to think about bad things that could happen. We can fall into the deception that the trajectory which we are on will last forever. Our life will keep getting better. Our kids lives will keep getting better. Maybe we have it seen all we need to see. Maybe as it says in Ecclesiastes, there is nothing new under the sun. We cannot avoid or hide from the brokenness of this world. Jesus never does.

The anniversary of 9/11 was yesterday. 20 years. I was a freshman at UT. I was in the gym for the first time, probably ever in my life. The small gym under DKR that normal students could use then (Gregory was too much for me). And I saw the first tower of the World Trade Center on fire. My world had already changed by leaving home, and then it changed again. It was a Tuesday because I had orchestra that night. There was a candlelight vigil on the mall. The tower was off. The only lights were from the candles.

We sang amazing grace. I felt a hand on my should but no one was there. I received a peace I hadn’t felt in a long time. A peace that God was God and even though this world is broken, God’s love is everlasting. Who are you seeking? It was a hard day for many. Some received their last call to go into those buildings. Some received new orders to go oversees. It has been a hard 20 years for those who have served and for those who know those who served. I know it was always scary when my cousin was stationed in Kazakhstan and flew over enemy airspace. Tragedy and trauma are not good in themselves. God does not like them or cause them but God can use them to clarify this question: Who are you seeking?

Jesus asks, who are you seeking? They say, Rabbi. We are seeking a master. We are seeking one to learn from. We're seeking the lamb of God. He has responded to us: come and see.
The one weird trick to change your life this Sunday is come and see. Come and see what the Lord is doing. Come and see where the Lord is living. If you want to change your life, you need to let go and come and see. You need to find where Jesus is.
One of the places where Jesus is is worship, it is the Lord's table. It is singing praises to God. One of the places where Jesus is is prayer and taking the time of prayer. One of my teachers talks about prayer as entirely useless time. There's nothing productive about prayer. You don't gain extra points on your heavenly resume and prayer and said prayer at its best is like lingering at the beach with someone you love longingly, spending time with them as if there's no one else in the world. come and see.

Take a step of faith in service and giving of yourself and giving up your time, in taking time out of your day and out of your week for others, not for your own benefits. Time for serving in the church, time for serving in the community. Come and see. Take the time to talk. Come and see. Come talk to me and pastor Matt, find a time or find someone else you respect in the faith. Do you have a mentor in your faith? Do you have someone whom you respect, who you can with and listen to.
Come and see? Do you want to know where God is going? Do you want to know who to trust in this world? Because ultimately, our trust is not in podcasts or YouTube or Facebook posts or Twitter. This is not where God is found. It may be a tool but it is not the point.
God doesn't say perform piety for others. Instead Jesus exposes the hypocrisy of it of performed piety. When Jesus talks about prayer, he mentions the Pharisees in the streets praying loudly, seeking acknowledgement from others. When he talks about fasting, Jesus mentions the Pharisees who complain about how hard their fasts are.

Jesus does not call us to seek praise from others but to seek God in our quiet place. Come and see. We don’t have to leave our house to find Jesus. The quiet room God calls us to is in our own hearts. Come and see Jesus here. (Point to chest). The problem is that we are hoarders of the heart. We fill our hearts with so many desires that that the space is cramped. We need to declutter our hearts so that we remember that God can be the center of our life, that love can be the center of our life.
Memorials can be a chance to declutter our hearts, to remember what matters most in this world. To give thanks for those who have served others and those who have served us. To remember that we are not alone. God calls us to new life right where we are, but God does not leave us there. Let us pray...

Heavenly Father, you came to us in your Son Jesus, give us the strength to come to you. When we are happy or sad, when we are grieving or dancing, give us the courage to come and see, to seek the God who is love.

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


title: Come and See

themes: seeking-god following-jesus call-to-discipleship restlessness prayer faithfulness-amid-trials self-examination

text:
**Scripture:** John 1:35-42; Romans 7:15; Ecclesiastes 1:9; Genesis 1:28
**Series:** 2021

> Launching the 'One Weird Trick' series, this 9/11-twentieth-anniversary sermon on John 1:35-42 asks 'Who are you seeking?' Jesus' invitation 'Come and see' is the trick: real change means following Jesus to where he is found—worship, the Lord's table, prayer, service, and mentorship—rather than chasing instant satisfaction or the approval of others (or trusting podcasts, YouTube, and social media). Drawing on Augustine's restless heart, Vonnegut's Mother Night, Romans 7, and his own UT 9/11 vigil where he felt God's peace, the preacher argues tragedy clarifies what we truly seek, and calls listeners to declutter their hearts so God's love sits at the center.

**Illustrations:** one-weird-trick-ads, vonnegut-mother-night, doordash-satisfaction, wilson-911-ut-vigil, cousin-kazakhstan-airspace, prayer-beach-with-beloved, hoarders-of-the-heart

---

# September 12 (Preaching Copy)
## Come and See

The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”
So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon. Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter). - John 1:35-42

Who do you trust? If they say something, will you believe them? Who do you trust in your life? People say trust is hard to earn and easy to lose. Who do you trust in your life? A few times in my life,

- Hiking
- Music

Who do you trust? Who do you listen to? What podcasts do you trust? Or YouTube or TV shows. What is the source of that trust?
About 10 years ago, there was a web advertising phenomenon called one weird trick. Use this one weird trick to lose 30 pounds or by using by this one, weird trick, you will sleep better at night or nail that interview. It was an advertising gimmick, the federal trade commission clamped down on it because the one weird trick didn’t do anything, but what if it could? What if there was one thing you could do that would radically change your life? That's the name of the sermon series that I'm starting today, one weird trick. Each week, we’re going to look at one thing we can do to change our life. One moment in the life of Jesus that can transform where we are and who we are. Today, we are thinking about, come and see.

So first off, I'm not following my own rule because “come and see” is two things, not one thing. So today we have two weird tricks to change your life. When Jesus comes to the disciples of John the Baptist and they say, behold, the lamb of God, they come and follow Jesus. And Jesus turns and sees them and says, what are you seeking? And they say, rabbi, that's the end of the answer. The word Rabbi is important. Today it is seen as equivalent to the word pastor, but that is not the case.

The root related to the word rabbi first occurs in the Hebrew Bible in chapter 1 of the Book of Genesis, in verbal form, Hebrew: פרו ורבו, romanized: peru u rebu, lit. 'be fruitful and multiply'. This phrase is interpreted to mean "bear children, and raise them" (or "to make them great"). This mitzvah (commandment) of "raising" is given to fathers, but can be partially fulfilled through agency by appointing a mentor. "Rov" is a verb meaning "to raise" or to "make great", and the "Rav" is one who consciously takes on the role of "raising" sons

They see a teacher, a master, one who can raise them up. To say Rabbi is to say my master.
They then say, where are you staying? And Jesus says to them, come and see. Who are you seeking? In all the aspects of our life and the direction our life is going and what we need in our life begins with this. What are you seeking in your life? Where are you going?
Who are you trying to be? This is such an important because we may think we are going one way in life and we come to find out we have been on a completely different path.

- Mother Night

The book has this line that I’ll never forget: be careful of who you pretend to be because in the end you are who you pretend to be.
We are not our intentions. How we live shapes who we are. We can have the best of intentions and the most wonderful ideas of who we are, but it is so easy to lose sight of our true goal. We need to remember our why. We need to remember our destination. Just because we do it, doesn’t make it good. Just because something used to be good, doesn’t make it good today.

There is often a disconnect between how we think about ourselves and what we actually do in our lives. Paul points this out in Romans 7 when he says, “I do the things I don’t want to do, and I don’t do the things I want to do.”

Through all of this, we can’t know what we are doing unless we know where we are going. Who are you seeking? Who are you trying to be?
Jesus has an answer for this. Are you seeking purpose in your life? Are you seeking a happy home? Are you seeking satisfaction with who you are and your place in the world? Maybe you are seeking this for your kids or your family. Who are you seeking?

What Jesus shows us is that we are ultimately seeking God, even when we don’t realize it. All that we desire that is good is good in its connection to God. As well, our hearts are restless until they find rest in God. We are restless spirits, restless in our soul until we find what we are looking for. The peace that passes understanding. Have you felt that peace? When you are content and satisfied.
But often, we want that to come to us. We want to Doordash life satisfaction right to us. We don’t want to change or we want to be control of our change. We want four-hour work week change. That's not how it works. Change takes time and attention and remembering who we are seeking.

As well, change often takes place after tragedy. During good times, we don’t like to think about bad things happening. We can fall into the deception that the trajectory which we are on will last forever. Our life will keep getting better. Our kids lives will keep getting better. Maybe we have seen all we need to see. Maybe as it says in Ecclesiastes, there is nothing new under the sun. We cannot avoid or hide from the brokenness of this world. Jesus never does.

The anniversary of 9/11 was yesterday. 20 years. I was a freshman at UT. I was in the gym for the first time, probably ever in my life. The small gym under DKR that normal students could use then (Gregory was too much for me). And I saw the first tower of the World Trade Center on fire. My world had already changed by leaving home, and then it changed again. It was a Tuesday because I had orchestra that night. There was a candlelight vigil on the mall. The tower was off. The only lights were from the candles.

We sang amazing grace. I felt a hand on my should but no one was there. I received a peace I hadn’t felt in a long time. A peace that God was God and even though this world is broken, God’s love is everlasting. Who are you seeking? It was a hard day for many. It has been a hard 20 years for those who have served and for those who know those who served. I know it was always scary when my cousin was stationed in Kazakhstan and flew over enemy airspace. Tragedy and trauma are not good. God does not like them or cause them but God can use them to clarify this question: Who are you seeking?

Jesus ask, who are you seeking? They say, Rabbi. We are seeking a master. We are seeking one to learn from. We're seeking the lamb of God. He has responded to us: come and see.
The one weird trick to change your life this Sunday is come and see. Come and see what the Lord is doing. Come and see where the Lord is living. If you want to change your life, you need to let go and come and see. You need to find where Jesus is.
One of the places where Jesus is is worship, it is the Lord's table. It is singing praises to God. One of the places where Jesus is is prayer and taking the time of prayer. One of my teachers talks about prayer as entirely useless time. There's nothing productive about prayer. You don't gain extra points on your heavenly resume and prayer and said prayer at its best is like lingering at the beach with someone you love longingly, spending time with them as if there's no one else in the world. come and see.

Take a step of faith in service and giving of yourself and giving up your time, in taking time out of your day and out of your week for others, not for your own benefits. Time for serving in the church, time for serving in the community. Come and see. Take the time to talk. Come and see. Come talk to me and pastor Matt, find a time or find someone else you respect in the faith. Do you have a mentor in your faith? Do you have someone whom you respect, who you can with and listen to.
Come and see? Do you want to know where God is going? Do you want to know who to trust in this world? Because ultimately, our trust is not in podcasts or YouTube or Facebook posts or Twitter. This is not where God is found. It may be a tool but it is not the point.
God doesn't say perform piety for others. Instead Jesus exposes the hypocrisy of it of performed piety. When Jesus talks about prayer, he mentions the Pharisees in the streets praying loudly, seeking acknowledgement from others. When he talks about fasting, Jesus mentions the Pharisees who complain about how hard their fasts are.

Jesus does not call us to seek praise from others but to seek God in our quiet place. Come and see. We don’t have to leave our house to find Jesus. The quiet room God calls us to is in our own hearts. Come and see Jesus here. (Point to chest). The problem is that we are hoarders of the heart. We fill our hearts with so many desires that that the space is cramped. We need to declutter our hearts so that we remember that God can be the center of our life, that love can be the center of our life.
Memorials can be a chance to declutter our hearts, to remember what matters most in this world. To give thanks for those who have served others and those who have served us. To remember that we are not alone. God calls us to new life right where we are, but God does not leave us there. Let us pray...

Heavenly Father, you came to us in your Son Jesus, give us the strength to come to you. When we are happy or sad, when we are grieving or dancing, give us the courage to come and see, to seek the God who is love.

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