A New and Better Wilderness--Isaiah 35

vss. 1, 10 The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom... And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sadness shall flee away.

As an encouragement for the people in slavery in Babylon to return to Jerusalem through the inhospitable Sinai Peninsula, Isaiah tells of his God-inspired vision that the wilderness will be transformed to accommodate their travels through it back to freedom. This poem that describes the blossoming of a barren place and ordering of a an unsafe place for the sake of home-coming and freedom is beautiful. And as Christians, we look back at this beautiful, hopeful poem through the prism of the New Testament and claim it as a promise being fulfilled in Christ.

Read this whole chapter and ask yourself, how can I be a part of this transformation of creation that God promises? How can I be a part of this blossoming and ordering process?

It is perfect that this text falls on Human Rights Sunday. Just as the Jews were enslaved in Babylon, many are enslaved today. Some are enslaved for sex, some to produce goods, some for soldiering and some to work off debts. Estimates for slavery in the world are between 27 and 50 million people. Many slaves are children. There is slavery in our own country.

How can we as the church witness to the transformation of creation by "setting the captives free?"

Camel's Hair and a Leather Belt--Matthew 3:1-12

Next Sunday is the second Sunday in Advent. The Advent season is given over to waiting expectantly for Christ's birth, and the second Sunday usually is given over to reflections on the ministry of John the Baptist who encouraged the people to prepare for the coming of the Messiah through baptism, repentance and change of life.

Last week I heard the comedian Will Farrell commenting on the now iconic sketch from his SNL days involving the cowbell. If you haven't seen it, you can probably check it out on YouTube or the NBC website. Farrell's superb physical comedy skills and Christopher Walken's suberb acting skills join together to make a hilarious sketch.

Yet in the interview, Farrell says that in rehearsals the sketch was not funny at all. It was just strange. Then he put on a shirt that was way too small, and the skit was suddenly transformed. The skit was not just strange anymore; it was so strange that it was funny.

Sometimes a simple, subtle change can make all the difference. This is probably as true in life as it is in comedy.

Matthew takes time to mention, in his description of John's baptizing ministry, that John dressed in camel's hair and wore a leather belt. I find it odd that Matthew would point that out. He never mentions what Jesus wears during his ministry.

What do you think is the significance of John's attire? How does his attire affect his message? What is Matthew telling us about John here?

Thanksgiving, Colossians 1:11-20

God has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers--all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

On this last Sunday of the church year, we celebrate Christ the King, the sovereign Lord of all creation. God has picked us up out of the kingdom of darkness and positioned us squarely in Christ's kingdom, the kingdom of order and light. In him, the entire universe holds together and can be trusted. We can find our home here.

God has created, ordered and is present through Christ in this world, according to this great hymn of the early church. Can you make out God's hand in the world and in your own life?

In the confirmation class I'm teaching, the student's workbooks ask them to reflect on Christ's presence in their lives. That's a challenge. It requires that they develop spiritual eyesight. Even for adults, mature in their faith, this can be difficult. At presbytery meeting this week, I plopped down in a chair for dinner, introduced myself to a woman I'd never met sitting next to me and the first thing she said was: "So, Wes, what fantastic things is God doing in your life right now?"

It wasn't the question that immediately discombobulated me. You sometimes get this question when you are hanging out with gregarious religious folk. No, it was her complete enthusiasm and certainty of a positive response, that I would proclaim with great wonder and praise the magnificent workings of God in my life. I stammered a bit, assured her that everything was going so well in my family and church, and asked her to pass the butter.

Developing spiritual eyesight is necessary for a robust prayer life, because so much prayer should be simply giving thanks. Abraham Lincoln, through great personal and national pain, developed that eyesight and proclaimed the first Thanksgiving holiday back in 1863. This week, what are you thankful for?

In Praise of Idleness, 2 Thess. 3:6

Now we command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us.

Idle hands are the devil's workshop (not found in the Bible but, who knows, maybe inspired by 2 Thessalonians).

I preached a sermon once about Jesus the moocher. Jesus, during the three years of his ministry anyway, was always a guest at the table of others. He always seemed to be going from house to house eating other people's food. The only time he was the host was at the last supper with his disciples.

Apparently, there were folks in the church in Thessalonica who were trying to imitate the savior. They didn't work but simply mooched off of others in the community. Maybe they were lazy. Maybe they thought they were important teachers and shouldn't have to work. Maybe they were waiting for the imminent return of Christ and thought working to be a distraction from appropriate spiritual preparations. Whatever the reason, the writer of this letter--perhaps Paul--chastised them for not pulling their weight in the church.

Most of us today probably have the opposite problem--we work too much. The church sometimes sends a mixed message. We encourage people to pause, pray, meditate, nap, etc., while at the same time calling (coercing?) people to work on behalf of Christ in the church and the world. Its like watching kids play the old game Red Light, Green Light.

In one scene in the movie Chariots of Fire, the Scottish runner Eric Liddell is in conversation with his sister who challenges Eric's decision to put mission work on hold to train for the Olympic Games. Eric says, "But, Jennie, I know God made me for China someday, but he also made me fast. I feel his pleasure when I run."

Maybe the question is not how much to be active and how much to be idle. Maybe the question is, what activity allows me to feel God's pleasure?

Life after Death, Luke 20:27-38

I was intrigued by the recent story of the Ballard businessman who witnessed a car accident outside his store. As one car burst into flames, he ran to the vehicle, opened the door and pulled out a three-year-old girl, saving her life. The driver, the girl's father, could not be saved.

A few nights later, according to this hero, he was visited by the man who died in the fire. In this vision, the man asked the hero to visit his place of work and tell everyone not to be angry with the driver who caused the accident. This businessman did just that. The deceased man's co-workers, still in a state of grief, were thankful for his visit.

Stories like this make me wonder. Is there an afterlife? If there is an afterlife, is the veil between the living and unliving so thin that at times they interact?

In Luke's gospel the Sadducees come to Jesus to try to discredit him before the people. They didn't believe in the resurrection, not because they didn't have faith in God, but because they believed in strict adherence to the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, and the Torah doesn't give mention to an afterlife. They hoped to trap Jesus by showing the resurrection is illogical, using Moses' Law that a women who is widowed is to marry her deceased husband's brother. The Sadducees take this to an extreme, asking Jesus whose husband she would be in heaven if each brother she married after being widowed also died.

Jesus used the Torah in answering. While the Sadducees drew upon an explicit teaching of the Torah to ask the question, he points to a truth implicit in the language of the story of Moses and the burning bush to craft his response. God, in speaking to Moses, says, "I am the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob." They must have somehow still been alive to use the language, Jesus reasons. He also tells them that their question makes no sense since there is no marrying in heaven.

Do you think Jesus' answer is convincing? What do you think about life after death?

Zacchaeus--Luke 19:1-10

This Sunday is Reformation Sunday. One of the gospel truths that the reformers tried to communicate is that Christ meets us where we are. We don't need the intermediary work of a priest or even, as important as it is, the Church. There were a number of cultural developments in Europe at the time of the Reformation that helped Luther, Calvin and others to recognize importance of the individual's place before God. There was the Renaissance and, of course, the development of the printing press. All this went into the proclamation of the "priesthood of all believers."

The gospel reading for this Sunday fits this theme perfectly. Zacchaeus climbs a tree to see Jesus, presumably because he is short so he can't see over the crowd that envelopes Jesus. But also we know that Zacchaeus is a sinner, the chief tax collector for the Romans in Jericho. Therefore, he was hated by the townspeople, who considered him a traitor, a very rich traitor. So maybe up a tree serves the purpose for Zacchaeus of being a safe distance from those who dislike him and also a safe distance from the one holy man who could really deride him if this man knew of his occupation.

Jesus' actions are rather shocking. He calls Zacchaeus to come down from his safe, removed place. He calls him to hospitality by saying that he is coming to Zacchaeus' house. The text says that Zacchaeus came down immediately and received Jesus joyfully. All the good folks of Jericho no doubt left wagging their heads, but Zacchaeus is overcome with thanksgiving by Jesus' initiation of closeness with him. His subsequent commitment to the poor reveal his gratitude.

How is Christ close to you now? Are you safely up a tree or are you receiving the Christ joyfully?

Truer than Truth--2 Timothy 3:16

All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

To sustain a journey of faith, an ongoing interaction with scripture is essential. Yet it is hard for us to stay engaged with the Bible. It was written so long ago by a people who understood the world differently than we do. It is full of fantastic stories and strange literary conventions. It is hard to know how to approach it. Should we operate by our modern minds 95% of the time and then shift into a pre-modern mindset when we read scripture or come to church, so that we can somehow affirm a six day creation and believe that Jonah survived in a whale? Is 2 Timothy ruined for us as a spiritual authority if we acknowledge that Paul, though his name is on it, probably didn't write it, but rather it was written by one of his disciples or maybe even someone who just knew of his life and figured that if Paul were writing to Timothy now, this is what he would say? Should we consider this book fraudulent? In what way can we say that the Bible is true?

Think about these questions. I'll be addressing them in the sermon on Sunday. Also think about your own conversation with scripture. Is it satisfying? Is it nurturing your faith? What could make it better?