The Mysterious Word

Scripture: John 1.1-14; Hebrews 1.1-4

I stand here before you as one who believes in the power of words. I try to choose my words carefully, so that “none will fall to the ground”. I believe that preaching matters. I believe everybody should use care with their words, say what they mean and mean what they say. More people used to think this way than maybe do now. Words use to carry great power.

For example, have you seen A Christmas Story with Ralphie, the boy who wants a Red Rider BB Gun for Christmas? Have you seen. . .of course you have – they’re running a 24 hour marathon of it. So you know the scene where Ralphie and his friends are out on the school playground at recess and one of the boys tells them that if you stick your tongue on a frozen pole it’ll stick there. And the one of the other boys says, “Oh that’s baloney.”

“No really, my dad told me.”

“Your full of it and so’s your old man!” Strong words these.

But here comes the poetry.

“Oh yeah, well then you do it.”

“I don’t have to. It’s stupid.”

“That’s ‘cause you’re scared.”

“Scared? I ain’t scared.”

“Well then do it! I double dare you!” Oh no! the infamous double dare.

The other boy – “NO, it’s stupid. Why should I put my tongue on a . . .”

“I TRIPLE DOG DARE YA!” Oooooh, the dare of all dares, the triple dog dare. There was now no refusing, no going back. The gauntlet had been laid down. If the daree was going to show his around the playground again, he would have to accept the challenge.

That’s the power of words. Well, used to be. It’s harder to get people’s attention these days. Lord knows, the Lord’s been trying.

Long ago, the writer of Hebrews starts out, God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways. People ask why doesn’t God say something if He’s real. From God perspective, I imagine, it feels like He’s been talking for several thousand years. That’s a long sermon, even by my standards. Maybe God got frustrated. Maybe a new plan was called for. Because God did change his tactics. Before, when the Lord spoke it was loudly and clearly in pretty easy to understand messages. (See Eden, Noah, Sodom, Nineveh, etc.) and when God acted it was pretty clear what he wanted and what He did. But in the New Testament God’s word comes in mystery. To be sure the prophets had been hinting at this mystery for hundreds of years, talking about Messiah who would come. But that only heightened the drama and the longing for God to do it.

You’ve experienced drama last night and early this morning – especially you parents of small children. I can see the drama in your puffy eyes. What is better than that first look at the Christmas tree and all those wrapped packages underneath? I realized the other day while I was wrapping, that the wrapping is half the fun – I mean we don’t just put stuff underneath the tree, as is. We wrap the gifts because it adds mystery and magic. The wrapping heightens the drama. You just don’t know what could be in that package until you open it.

The Jewish people looked and waited for God to speak and fulfill his promise. They were waiting for Christmas before anyone had heard the word. They had expectations of what the Gift would look like when He came. Is it so surprising that they still didn’t know what they had got as He stood before them teaching and preaching? Starting with Mary and Joseph, many pondered what exactly they were getting in this child called Jesus.

This what Hebrews says we got – “the reflection of God’s glory, the exact imprint of God’s very being.”

Pretty good, huh. And as I said, Jesus came preaching and teaching. His words were more powerful than any words anyone else had ever heard. People said to each other, “The Rabbi never sounded like this!”

But here’s the thing. Even though Jesus is called The Word of God; and as powerful and important as Jesus words are, and they have power to save our very souls; this day is not about words alone.

After all, the Word didn’t become words. The Word became flesh. And He dwelt among us and we have beheld him. This day is about the presence of God in our lives and our experience of Him. Today is not called the ChristWord; it is Christmas, the ChristMass, which means His presence, His flesh.

They mysterious word to us, to our world and universe is, God so loved His people that He chose to become one of them so that they would find life in Him.

Live with Jesus today.

Servants Wanted: Inquire Within

Luke 2.1-20

You see the signs in windows of restaurants and stores at the mall – Help Wanted. And what they want are dishwashers, waitresses, sales clerks, fry cooks, etc.. Now these are all worthy jobs, but truth to be told, they are not the most attractive jobs to many. They are not attractive because they do not pay as well as many jobs and usually have few benefits that come with them. They don’t pay well because the skills involved are deemed not as difficult as better paying jobs in our economy.

Our society puts a special premium on special talents, even if that talent can only be summed up as “the talent to make more money.” So we live in a world where one can be considered successful for making money, no matter what the means, and even “famous for being famous.” Which leads to more money.

An article appeared in New York magazine entitled, “Are Jews Smarter?” It’s a bold question. That begs another question, “Smarter than whom?” Anytime you begin to talk about groups and races in this country you better tread lightly with the angels. This particular book tries to make the case that Jews are smarter and richer and just do better than the rest. And this doesn’t sound right to most of us because of a predisposition that we Americans have. This country is founded on some key propositions, not the least of which says, “We believe that all men are created equal.” But are all in fact equal in our society? Are all of us equally skilled, equally creative, equally smart? Are we all equally beautiful, equally moral, equally articulate? The answer to those questions is most assuredly, no. And in this sense some have called the proposition of all men being equal, “our founding mythology.”

But that’s not the whole story. The Founding Fathers established that proposition based, not on the above criteria of intelligence, talent, or goodness, but on this criterion alone – we have equal value because our Creator made us so. Period.

It just so happens that our story tonight is about a young Jewish girl who seemingly had no special distinction except that she was caught up (or chosen) in supernatural events that involved her and her fiancé. “Greetings favored one!” Is what the angel said to her. And Mary rightly wondered what was coming next. This favor would bring her no money, distinction, power, or immediate fame. In fact, this child brought by the Holy Spirit would bring public shame and ridicule. This child would also bring danger, so much so that Mary and Joseph would have to flee the country from a king who wanted them dead.

Mary had a decision to make. How would she react to this news? Would she scream and run? Would she demand to know what was in it for her? Would she simply turn her back on the angel and the child? There was a lot that rested on the choices of Mary. In fact, all of human history comes down to this point – the choice of a humble teenage Jewish girl.
Have you ever seen the program, “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”? I watched it the other day. It was that, or one of the many permutations of the show: Shopping Sprees of the Rich and Famous, Vacation Homes of the Rich and Famous, Favorite Pet Spas of the Rich and Famous. The edition I was watching focused on the biggest spending frenzies of the recently Rich and Famous. You know, new bling. I quit watching after they showed me the 1.5 million dollar watch that looked kind of like the one I had just bought at Target for twenty bucks. Watching the show was making me nauseous. Was it because I don’t want other people to have a lot of money? No. It’s because you watch that show and a hundred shows like it and you are told, in so many words, these things, this lifestyle, is the best that life has to offer. You are told – this is what life is about.

And I remembered, when I bought my twenty dollar watch at Target, running into two ladies I know who were also shopping there. The one lady is advanced in years, to use the biblical language. She can’t drive herself places. When she walks she has to be very careful not to fall down. The other lady with her, who is much younger, helps her with these things. She doesn’t just help her occasionally, but in fact, spends a good chunk of her life with the other. I have watched the caregiver helping the other many times. I have seen them going many places – for groceries, for haircuts, to church. I have never seen the caregiver show anything but care and patience and goodness. I said to that caregiver in Target, “I want you know you are doing a good job – I was thinking that the other day- and wanted you to know that.” She thanked me for saying so and assured me that there are times of impatience and argument. But I know she does this well. And I even felt my eyes fill up a little as I looked at her.

What is life about? Is it about what those tv shows tell us? Or is it about what my eyes told me the other day in Target?

Maybe the answer can be found in Mary’s story tonight. Maybe it’s who God picked to share this “favor” with that answers our question for us. God didn’t pick the powerful, the famous, the wealthy, the influential or the articulate to share his good news with. He gave it to a teenage girl who carried it with her for nine months and gave birth to this News outside an inn, in a barn, amid the hay and dust and manure. Everything about this story says humility. Don’t forget it was a manger throne, a palace of straw, for that child king. That’s no accident.

Mary’s answer to God at the announcement, at the birth, and yes, at the cross was “I am the Lord’s servant.” What say you to God’s news in your life? Talents and smarts and skills are great, but what the Lord really wants are hearts turned to him. The Lord asks if you will serve.

Will you follow the path that the world says will make you happy or are you ready to answer the call of God in your life?

Servants are wanted – inquire within.

Why Is Tom Cruise So Excited?

Scripture: John 1.6-8, 19-28; Isaiah 61.1-4, 8-11


Why is Tom Cruise so excited? Why is he jumping up and down on Oprah’s couch? Well, it has something to do with being in love with Katie Holmes, “Joey” from Dawson’s Creek fame. Tom and Katie are getting married and having a baby, although not in that order. Tom is excited.

But I’m not referring to that excitement. I’m thinking of Cruise’s appearance on the Today Show with Matt Lauer some months ago when the two guys got into a heated exchange over modern psychiatry and Brooke Shield’s post-partum depression. I’m not sure what all that was about, but Cruise took offense with Lauer gently challenging some of his charges against psychiatry and prescription drugs. Cruise ended up saying things like, “Matt, you’re so glib. You don’t know. I’ve studied these things. I know.”

You see, Cruise doesn’t believe is psychiatry or prescribing Ritalin to kids. Cruise is a Scientologist. Scientology is a religion birthed from the writings of L. Ron Hubbard. You may recall, L. Ron Hubbard wrote the book Dianetics, the Modern Science of Mental Health, in the late 1940’s. Dianetics was the original self-help book. But it became more than that as it developed a following among the wealthy and famous. Detractors, including Hubbard’s own son, say that Hubbard only turned it into the religion of Scientology to avoid paying taxes as a nonprofit. The way the religion works is, you pay a lot of money to have a moral and spiritual inventory taken of you on a regular basis. So, you can see the appeal. If I’ve forked over a lot of money, it must be real.

Dianetics captures the American spiritual scene quite well. Many people express themselves this way, “I’m not religious, but I’m spiritual.” You know what that means. They don’t want to be too closely identified with religious authority, orthodoxy, or institution. They want to pick and choose their beliefs, ala carte, if you will, from a broad spectrum of religions, gurus, books, and poems they might read on the Internet. Phillip Jenkins, a professor of history at Penn State notes that this is not a new thing – American History is lit with the fire of self-proclaimed therapies, movements, prophets, and true ways, from Unitarianism and Mormonism to Christian Science to the Heaven’s Gate cult. As Charles Ferguson wearily remarked in the 1920’s, “It should be obvious to any man who is not one himself that the land is overrun with messiahs.”

If you understand this about American history, then you can understand the times and culture in which John the Baptist emerges in first century Palestine. He is classic desert prophet and preacher - unkempt appearance, fiery visage, uncompromising message. He would give Tom Cruise a run for his dianetics money.

So you can understand the priests and Pharisees who come out to the Jordan where the Baptist is baptizing. Understand, these religious leaders are not all bad, as we sometimes make them out to be. There were would-be messiahs in their day too. What with Roman oppression and all the Old Testament prophecies people were longing for a Savior, there were many pretenders willing to oblige. So the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem hear of this John the Baptist and they send a few guys out to investigate. They think they’ve seen his kind before. They too are weary of all the messiahs around. They are Matt Lauer to this Tom Cruise. They are not openly hostile, but they consider the trip a Risky Business at best, Mission Impossible at worst.

It turns out, JB had them at hello. See, there is something different about the Baptist. That something is actual sanity, humility even. The Baptist says something shockingly different than most of the pretenders around, he says, “I’m not the Messiah.”

Come again?

“I’m not him.”

“Well, who are you then, Elijah?”

“No.”

“Who are you? We need to fill in the blanks on the report we’re filing.”

Put your report down and listen. I’m not the One. But there is One even right now, in your midst, closer than you think, (though as yet undetected by you), who is going to change everything.

A prophet before John, Isaiah, referred to this same One as “anointed.” The Messiah is the “Anointed One.” He is the One who is filled with the Spirit of God. The Anointed One is the visitation of God in human form. John the Baptist asked his audience then and perhaps now, “Are you ready to recognize his appearance?”

See, there are so many things clamoring for our attention. There are so many things we look to for our peace, our happiness, our meaning. Our Messiah can be the latest self-help book. It can be a new car, a vacation, or a pepperoni pizza. As long as we think we can be reasonably satisfied and happy with whatever means are at our disposal, we will not recognize or make room for the True Messiah. Just because there are a lot of pretenders around doesn’t make the Real Messiah less true or less needed.

In C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, one of the children asks Mr. and Mrs. Beaver about Aslan The Lion:

“Is Aslan quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”

“That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver. “If there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or just plain silly.”

“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver, “Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

The real Messiah is more dangerous than any imposter or crackpot, but for entirely different reasons. Jesus is dangerous because He’s true and He’s good and once we turn our lives over to him we are never the same. And I believe, anyone who does that will never regret it.

Now that’s something to get excited about it.

Ready to Live in Jesus

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1.3-9

Have you ever noticed that when you are around your family words are like dynamite? What I mean is, because these people know you so well, every little thing that’s said has a story or history behind it, every little nuance has significance. Like for example, “Gee mom, the turkey is really moist this year.”

Why? Was last year’s too dry? I try to make it right.

Sometimes things just shouldn’t be said. Like when I saw my nephew the other night and said boldly, “I heard you’re in love!” Now, that was wrong because my information was over a year old. The girl he was in love with is no longer in the picture. Oops.

Sometimes what is not said carries a lot of meaning. Or as Allison Krauss sings, “You say it best when you say nothing at all.”

When Paul addresses the Corinthians in this letter, it’s what’s not said that is almost as important as what is said. See, greetings in those days, and especially written greetings observed a certain form and content, always. You commended your audience or recipient for some thing specific to them. You wished them grace and peace (both a Greek and Jewish influence), but you went beyond that to what they specifically mean to you. Paul does that but doesn’t do it. The focus of what he says is, “I thank God for all of you for what God is doing for you.” Notice the emphasis, what God is doing.

Now, that’s good theology and that’s a thankful attitude. We must always first start with God and what He has started in us. The initiative has always belonged to the Lord. But what goes unsaid in this greeting is that the Corinthians have failed to do their part.
Somewhere along the line, they have just not followed through and grown from the promising start they have been given in the Lord.

If you don’t see what I mean in this, check out how Paul addresses the Thessalonians. Paul says some of the same things to them about how God has blessed them, but he goes on to say that he is thankful that they “have become imitators of me as I am of Christ.” There is a maturity and a fruitfulness to the Thessalonian Christians that is not there at Corinth.

As we’ve said, it’s not because God has shortchanged them. “The word is strong among you,” Paul says. “You have every spiritual gift you need.” And yet the Corinthians seemed to get bogged down with their old sins and pointless controversies about things that don’t really matter. (Read chapter 12 about spiritual gifts).

This should be a red flag and a word of caution for us. We too have been given everything we need. I believe we possess every spiritual gift in this congregation. Are we using them to the glory of God? Or are we hiding them under a bushel or hiding them in our own self-centeredness? Are we boldly stepping out in faith and action? Or is our power sapped by our sins and our faith stolen by stupid arguments over things that don’t matter?

We have received so much preaching and teaching in our lives. What have we done with it? Is “the word strong among us”? I was listening to NPR on my way to Williamsport the other day and they were replaying an interview from 1997 with Johnny Cash. They discussed Johnny’s resurgence at the time in popularity as a new generation discovered his music. He was nothing but thankful and blessed to be able to do what he was gifted to do and love to do. When the interview was over the interviewer, said, Mr. Cash thank you so much for taking the time, and here’s what this giant music legend said to this reporter, “Well, I thank you for talking to me. You are very good at what you do and I want you to know I appreciate you.” See, that’s the word of God strong in a person. Then they played an interview with June Carter and they asked her, “Were you afraid to get mixed up with a man who so famously had chemical dependencies?”

“Of course I was,” she said. “So I asked him do you think you can give that up for me, and he said he thought he could. And so I agreed to marry him and I said to him, ‘If you’re gonna die I’m gonna be right there with you and if you’re gonna live I want to live with you too.’ I made a commitment and I stuck to it.”

“Do you have any advice for women who are with men who have been drug abusers or violent, how they might get through it?” the interviewer asked.

“Well, I don’t know how you get through it if you’re not a praying woman. When you pray you know that there is power there. And you are given power to overcome the situation,“ June Carter answered.

Now NPR is not known as a Christian radio station. I mean this is the radio program in which one of its editorialists said a few years ago he thought that “we ought to just get rid of all the Christians” because they’re so difficult and bad and narrow-minded. So for John and June Carter Cash to be speaking these words on this station, well, it was the word of God strong among us.

Then NPR followed that story with a story about how the Salvation Army and other church groups were so much more effective in bringing aid to the Gulf coast than FEMA and other agencies. I thought to myself, maybe I need to rethink what I think about NPR.

Is the word of God strong in you?

See, when Christians do what they say they believe otherwise skeptical people take notice. And really, we can not afford to do otherwise. When we fall short of the promise that we have been given to heal the sick and feed the hungry and preach good news to the poor, well, people die and souls wither. We have a “call” and we must answer in real terms. Are we ready to live, really live in Jesus? Or are we content to give lip service to our religion? The difference is not always in what is said, but it is always in what is done.

Pilgrims and a Moveable Feast

Scripture: Matthew 25.31-46

Theme: For the Christian, nowhere is home on this earth, and everywhere is home.

I would like to recommend a little light reading for you – “A History of Hicks Memorial United Methodist Church” by Cloyd Neely. The history was prepared by Cloyd (with the help of a committee) at the 1984 centennial celebration of the Methodist Church. I perused this history the other day in preparation of our Anniversary Sunday and found some interesting notes. Our church dates back to 1856 and the circuit riding preachers who came through the area. The building that predates this one is next door, the Capitol Printing Press building. It was the Duncansville Methodist Episcopal Church.

With a little over $20,000 the family of Captain Alfred Hicks and the leadership of the church built our present structure in 1920. The twenties and thirties saw real growth in the church in numbers and ministry. There was a class or group known as the Knights of Methodism whose stated goal was to win every young man in the area for Christ who was not already churched. This group sponsored both a baseball team and a tennis team. And they built tennis courts in Duncansville on the John Kyle property. Then and later were established area Sunday Schools - one in the borough, one in Foot of Ten, in Newry, and as far away as Claysburg. Each Sunday School had its leader, which I take, served as director and in some sense, spiritual leader. This is the model that John Wesley started, and today we would call them cell groups, or Home Fellowships. The Foot of Ten Sunday School, for reasons not made clear in this brief history, was in 1956 incorporated into the Foot of Ten Independent Bible Church. How about that? There was a Sunday Class that met in this building which called themselves the C.B.’s and the U.B.’s – the Claimed Beauties and the Unclaimed Beauties. I liked that one.

All of which is to say that we don’t have a monopoly these days on creative outreach and ministry. Our forebears were doing some pretty good stuff. No doubt some of their methods would also seem outdated to us (C.B. and U.B. class anyone?) but that’s just how it goes in life and ministry. Methods and styles change, but the mission does not.

Just as ministry is marked by the times in which we live, ministry is also characterized by the country and culture in which we are raised. To be a Christian in America is different from being a Christian in the Czech Republic or in Nigeria. And know that God watches over the nations and God knows what is on the evening news.

We should remember a couple things. Americans are no more special in God’s eyes than citizens of Nigeria or the Czech Republic. But that does not mean that God is indifferent to what our Founding Fathers called, “the American Experiment.” The lowliest beggar on the streets of Calcutta is as precious in God’s eyes as the President of the United States. And it is precisely because God cares about the littlest and least that warrants our belief he takes an interest in the realities that affect billions of people on earth. America and its role in the world is such a reality.
When the Pilgrims came to this country they looked on it as coming not only to a fresh start, but in their imagination, as coming to Jerusalem, maybe even the New Jerusalem. And for better and for worse they were married to this land which welcomed them as exiles and vagabonds. And these exiles had their feast and thanked the Creator who in his divine plan brought them here. Ever since our country has been “a home for the homeless.” We are a nation of strangers and pilgrims in search of a spiritual home. G.K. Chesterton said, “America is a nation with the soul of a church.”

I think he is right. But I also think “to whom much is given, much is required.” Someday we will be accountable for what we have done as country with the power and resources at our disposal. We do have a special responsibility as a power in our world. On judgment day, we will finally know the truth about how we did. With the War in Iraq, the Global Aids Crisis, Poverty and Hunger, threats of new viruses and pandemics, and ongoing genocides, we will see what the nation with the soul of a church did with its time of opportunity.

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.”

If you are wondering, what does all this mean to me, what can I do about it? Here’s the thing. Jesus follows his glorious pronouncement of judgment with a very individual and personal story. “When I hungry, you fed me; when I was lonely you visited me.” Or, “when I was thirsty you never offered me drink; when I was sick you never came to see me.” The locus of responsibility goes from nations and continents all the way down to what you and I do.

Jesus put this way in another story about a victim of assault and a Samaritan who did the right thing. “Who then acted as this man’s neighbor?” The one who helped him, even though he had no family, race, or religious tie to him. Who then is our neighbor? Whoever needs our help, wherever they are.

“To the God who marks every sparrow that falls, everything and everyone matters.”


We are strangers in a strange land. Since nowhere in this world is our true home, then anywhere and everywhere can be a temporary home. Places and faces, times and methods change, and we change with them. We take our thanksgiving feast wherever God leads, with whatever he provides. It’s a moveable feast. Remember, we show our true allegiance by the little things that we do – the hungry we feed, the sick and the prisoner we visit, the sinner we forgive. It is by our deeds, more than our words by which we know and are known.