'The Sound of His Voice"

                   

Jan 22, 2017 Readings:  Psalm 27    1 Corinthians 1: 10 -18    Matt 4: 12-23

How many of us here today remember listening to the TV or radio show “Art Linkletter and the Kids”  Art was interviewing children with a bible school quiz.

Here are some funny answers given by children.   

Who was Noah's wife:  A lad calls out,   she was Joan of the Ark.
What’s A myth:  another calls out, I know!!  a female moth.
Why is it that sometimes it is difficult to hear in church: Another pips up  “the agnostics aren’t good.”
Where does the Pope live:   in the vacuum.
Who knows the Fifth Commandment:   "Humor your father and mother."
This is my favorite of all:  This is a hard one,  anyone know about LOTS wife.
one of the older ones replied, Oh Ya  I know. “ She was a pillar of salt by day and my dad said but it bet she was a ball of fire by night. “Kids say the funniest things don’t  they”

When I was growing up there was a show on TV that I liked it was called “Wild Kingdom”.  There was one episode I remember as being quite fascinating.  The camera focused on a Mother seal and her  pup, who had just been born.  Soon after birthing her baby, the mother abandoned the pup on the shore in search of food in the rich waters off the coast.  Other seal Mom’s had done the same.  The camera stayed focused on her while out in the ocean,  but when the mother returned she didn’t return to the same shore line and there were hundreds of other seals and pups there.  I remember thinking they all looked the same, they will never find each other again.   The camera continued to follow that Mother as she called to her pup and listened for the response.  Following each others voice and sent soon Mother and pup were reunited.  The host explained that from birth, the sent and sound of the pup seal is imprinted in the Mother’s memory, and the sent and sound of the Mother is imprinted in the pups memory.   It’s a mystery of nature and know one really knows for sure how it works we just know it works. 

 Do you suppose, that’s the way it is us and God?   We are somehow imprinted with a memory of God, and God is imprinted with a memory of us, and even if it takes a life time we will find each other.  Jesus’ public ministry began with the use of his voice.  He called out to the first four of his disciples, fisherman.   Out of the many voices these men would have heard up to this particular time in their lives, none were heard with such authority, this voice was to change their lives forever.    What do you suppose was different here, what was so special about Jesus’ voice, what made His voice different?   Now that’s a question I want you to take home with you today, think about it, read about it, spend time in search.  As readers, we are struck by the idea, that immediately these men left what was familiar, easy and safe to begin a new life and follow a man they never really known or had met before.   It was as if the voice they heard that day was imprinted upon their memory, their very souls.  They were not only compelled to follow Him,  but it seems as though they had unconsciously been waiting to hear it.  As strange as it seems too many, this voice caused them to leave everything, family, friends, and careers, to become as He said “fishers of men.”

Augustine writes “our hearts are restless until they rest in thee”  Indeed it would seem that these fisherman had restless hearts.  So restless that when they head the voice of Jesus calling to them, they could do nothing else but obey.   Are you restless these days?  Have you ever experienced this longing to know, have you ever thought to yourself, is this all there is?  Has that inner small voice been speaking to you?   Causing you to go seeking, searching for something more, something that seems to be missing in your life? 

I wish the task of discernment was that easy for us today.   But truly I tell you, for many life and faith are complicated.   There are many voices competing for our attention and loyalty today.   Voices that are calling out to us:   this way, that way, enjoyment and happiness can be found here.  Follow me I know the best way, come here, go there, buy this, get that, this is what you need.   Have you felt the pressure folks?   Well maybe within the last verse of Matthew this morning,  we can find a clue to help save us from the many worldly voices that are calling out for attention.   It is so important for us to hear the voice of God speaking to us and take it in.  The reading doesn’t end with the disciples just following Jesus, for many are claiming to do this, yet are still not free.   The reading ends by reminding us what Jesus sets out for us to do.  What his voice has called us to be and to do.  It is not enough just to say were are listening to the message and are his followers, it’s not enough to say “I study the word.”  It is not enough to say “I attend Sunday morning worship services regularly”.   It more than that, for we are called out, out of our comfortable lives, our of our comfortable pew, to let others know that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.  We enter the Kingdom now not later, not after death folks, we enter in the here and the now.  This is accomplished not just by following His voice but by doing his work.  We are called to discipleship meaning we are called to find and feed the poor, to find and cloth the naked, to visit the sick, and to encourage others to call upon His name, the one who heels the broken hearted.  We are all called by God, through Jesus to discipleship.  God’s voice is imprinted in our genes folks, it in the human DNA and we are marked for service to one another.  It truly is the only way to freedom, it is the only way into to the Kingdom.     

"Could The Writings Be Bias"?

                                "Truth often requires us to have a para-dime shift in our thinking"

The vast majority of people throughout history has been poor, disabled, or oppressed in some way (i.e., “on the bottom”) and would have experienced history in terms of a need for change. The people who wrote the books and controlled the social institutions, however, have almost always been the comfortable people on the top. Much of history has been recorded from the side of the winners, except for the unique revelation of the Bible, which is an alternative history from the bottom: from the side of the enslaved, the dominated, the oppressed, and the poor, culminating in the scapegoat figure of Jesus himself.

We see in the Gospels that it’s those on the bottom who tend to follow Jesus: the lame, the poor, the blind, the prostitutes, the drunkards, the tax collectors, the sinners, the outsiders, and the foreigners. It is demonstrably those on the inside and the top who crucify him: elders, chief priests, teachers of the Law, scribes, and Roman occupiers. Shouldn’t that tell us something really important about perspective? Every viewpoint is a view from a point, and we need to critique our own perspective if we are to see and follow the truth all the way through.

Western Christians fail to appreciate liberation theology because of seventeen hundred years of interpreting the Scriptures from the perspective of the empowered clergy class, rather than from the perspective of the marginalized, who first received the Gospel message with such excitement. Once Christianity became the established religion of the Roman Empire (after AD 313), we largely stopped reading the Bible from the side of the poor and the oppressed. This is why our present Pope Francis is such a monumental breakthrough, holding together both prophet and priest, both bottom and top. He is sure to suffer much for attempting to do what Jesus did.

For the first 300 years after Jesus’ death, Christians were the oppressed minority; we were rebels hiding in catacombs. But by the year 400, Christians had changed places. We moved from the catacombs to the basilicas. That is when we started reading the Bible not as subversive literature but as establishment literature. Once we were in a position of power and privilege, we couldn’t read or understand many Scriptures (for example, the Sermon on the Mount) because we had to maintain our empire, and in this direction the Scriptures give us little support or consolation

But when Scripture is read through the eyes of vulnerability—what we call the “preferential option for the poor” or the bias from the bottom—it will always be liberating and transformative. Scripture will not be used to oppress or impress. The question is no longer “How can I maintain the status quo?” (which just happens to benefit me), but “How can we all grow and change together?” Now we have no top to protect, and the so-called “bottom” becomes the place of education, real change, and transformation.

The bottom, or what Jesus calls “the poor in Spirit” (Matthew 5:3) in his opening address, is where we have no privilege to prove or protect but much to seek and become. Dorothy Day said, “The only way to live in any true security is to live so close to the bottom that when you fall you do not have far to drop, you do not have much to lose.” [1] From that place, we can be used as instruments of transformation and liberation for the rest of the world.

  

References:

[1] Dorothy Day, Loaves and Fishes: The Inspiring Story of the Catholic Worker Movement (Orbis Books: 1997), 86.

Adapted from Richard Rohr, Yes, And . . . : Daily Meditations (Franciscan Media: 2013), 37, 39; and
 

"Baptism Is It Really Necessary?"

                                           

"Not necessarily but it is right to do this" Matthew 3: 15

Jan 8 2017   Baptism    

Readings:   Isaiah 42: 1-9 Psalm 29  Matthew 3: 13-17

Let us take a moment to reflect on the writings from Isaiah 42: 1-9 this morning, 

We were made and called to serve one another.  Both Israel and the Messiah are often referred to as servant.  In the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible Israel was often referred to as God’s servant.  Israel meaning all of its Jewish counterparts, {the people of Israel}.   At that time in world history, they were the chosen nation, who were to help bring the world to a knowing of the one and only of God, Yahweh.    The Messiah, or Jesus of the New Testament was to be servant to all, not only to the Jews but also to the non-Jew or the Gentiles as they were referred to.  Through the resurrection, Jesus now the resurrected Christ would shine the light of the one God through himself to all peoples of the world.  Part of Christ’s mission on earth while housed in the body of Jesus, was to demonstrate God’s righteousness and to be a guiding light for all.   Through the risen Christ, all people would have the opportunity to share in Jesus’ mission.  God calls us, you and I, to be servants of his Son, demonstrating God’s righteousness and bringing his light, the light of Christ to others.   Jesus was to become the light of the world and so we who follow Him are called to be a reflection of that light.  We bring that reflection to others as we express and demonstrate the hope peace, joy and love that Jesus taught to us.  These are the attributes that we are to take on from our Christmas experience.  Or at least that is supposed to be our experience of the season.  

What a rare privilege it is to help the Messiah fulfill His mission.  Servant hood is a way of life and by seeking Jesus and His righteousness we demonstrate it to others.  As His light shines in our lives we then become a beacon of light for others.  We have come through the preparation of Advent, and to Christmas at the manger.  We have celebrated the birth, singing songs of praises to our new King, The Christ Child, the Messiah and our Prince of Peace.    

The reading from Matthew today brings us to a new place in our faiths history.  Jesus no longer a child but now a fully grown man is being readied to fulfill the promise.   Here is where the ministry of our Savior, Christ the LORD begins, and it begins with His baptism by John in the river Jordan.   This truly is where we begin to see Jesus in a new light, no longer as a child, or a clever boy, but now as a young man.  Not just an ordinary man though, because for all who would turn to him, He would become for them, truly Gods only Son, the Christ and the Savior not just for the Jews but for all humankind.   Christianity could take a lesson from this truth if we have the eyes and ears to take it in.   For it is in this moment of baptism, that the mystery and ministry of the trinity comes to light.   Jesus being present in human form,  God the Fathers anointing voice speaking to his Son, and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descending upon him, confirming his ministry.     John had been explaining that Jesus’ baptism would be much greater than his.  John baptized by water as a sign that they had asked God to forgive their sins and had decided to live as God wanted them to live.  Baptism was an outward sign of an inward commitment, not just of the mind but a total commitment of body mind and spirit.  To be effective it had to be accompanied by an inward change of attitude, leading to a change of life, like new eyes to see things as they really are, a new mind that seeks to know and teach this new wisdom, and a new heart that is full of compassion and love for all that God has created.   John said that Jesus on the other hand would baptize, differently, He would baptize not with water but with the Holy Spirit and fire.   Folks think about this for a moment, may I suggest!  that many of you have already had this baptism.  Some are not fully aware of it yet, you just know that something has changed in you.  It may be that you may feel a new awareness towards life, a lifting of a burden, a calming during a storm, or you sense life going in a new direction and you know things can never be the same again.  Many say they begin to feel holy nudges.   Not the audible voice of God but being nudged or pushed to do or say something you never would have done or said.   You begin to accept and see the truth about yourself and the people around you.  Some begin to feel the call to authentic mission, to do something not on your behalf but on behalf of God.  In other words, not taking credit for the good deeds you do, but giving credit to the one who made good in you.   This is a tough one because to humble yourself before God isn’t easy even for those who have been baptized in the Spirit.   This baptism is not performed by Clergy, Priest, or any human being, it can happen anywhere and at any time.  It happens in the midst of great joy, or it can happen during a terrible tragedy.  It has been reported to have happened in a moment of prayer under personal distress, as the peace that passes all understanding calms the soul.   Jesus comes to John and asked to be Baptized, John feels unqualified and wants Jesus to baptize him, Jesus knows John has already been baptized by the Spirit, it is showing all over him, for he is on fire for the Lord, he is active in authentic mission and he sees the truth.  John the Baptist like many of us, just might not understand or realize it.  If you haven’t had this experience yet you will, for ALL SHALL SEE the glory of the Lord the scriptures tell us.   Pray for it, ask in the name of Christ and it shall be yours the bible tells us.  No greater thing on earth can you receive than this baptism.   Baptism of the Holy Spirit is offered freely by the resurrected Christ.  Why then did Jesus need to be baptized by John an ordinary man you might ask?  Wouldn't you think holy baptism by the spirit would be enough?    But Jesus himself says” Let it be, for it is proper for us to do this, to fulfill all righteousness Matthew 3: 15.   To fulfill all righteousness, means to accomplish God’s mission.   Jesus saw his baptism by man as advancing God’s work. Baptism for us is a first step in a total commitment to following in “The Way”.  Jesus accepted baptism in this manor to be in obedient service to God, and God shows His approval.   We in the Church follow the same tradition as was laid out that very day in the Jordan.   To encompass the trinity we say “I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.   Baptism being the sign of new life, “an outward sign of an inward experience.  It truly is a mystery, what takes place between God and the baptized.  I have been asked in the past why do I feel that it is so necessary, because Jesus said in Mathew 3:15  “it proper for us to do this to fulfill all Righteousness.”   Baptism is God’s will for all of us.