Epiphany II – Ted Hackett
It’s nice to be back at this pulpit again…
To those who know me…I appreciate your prayers.
For others who do not know, the short story is that I fell at a convenience store, hit my head on a pile of firewood and…as it turns out…had a bad concussion and a couple of minor strokes at the same time. I have been spending lots of time with various physicians and the bottom line is…“do the prescribed exercises, rest a lot, wait…perhaps a year…and hope for the best.”
I am better now, but still suffer from short-term memory difficulties and even if I know you well I may not have your name at the tip of my tongue…
Be charitable with me….it is not because you are not important to me!
I won’t say more…enough is enough!
Now then…a Sermon.
Today is the second Sunday after Epiphany…
The time right after the Epiphany in the Church year is dedicated to exploring who Jesus is…particularly to the Gentiles because Jews had very strong ideas about the Messiah who would rescue them…though Rabbis often disagreed with each other about what and when and how the Messiah would do that.
So today…two weeks into the Season of Epiphany…we get this sort of long passage from the Gospel of John which declares over and over, in different ways…that Jesus is the Messiah…
Jesus is the Savior and not just of the Jews, but of everyone!
That’s why the Wise Men who visit Him at the manger, represent the three different races of the world…
He is the Savior of the world!
So if you want, take your bulletin and turn to the page toward the back and follow along as we look at the Gospel reading together. I’ll wait.
First thing…John…the prophet who some people thought was Messiah…declares that Jesus is Messiah…
He calls Him the “Lamb of God.”
The Lamb of course, by Jesus’ time, had become the most important sacrificial animal.
Lambs were killed…sacrifices…just before Passover and were eaten at the Passover meals.
So Jesus’ sacrifice is foreshadowed…
He is the Lamb of God.
Then the Gospel speaks of Jesus’ Divine Status…His eternal being…The Baptist says: “After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because He was before me”…This you see, refers back to the hymn John quotes in the first words of his Gospel…
“In the beginning was the Word…
And the Word was with God…
And the Word was God!”
Jesus is…somehow…God…
Then John “testifies”…“I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and it remained on him.”
It’s important to remember the dove is a symbol of the Holy Spirit.
If you have ever been to St. Mark’s Square in Venice you will have had pigeons “descend” on you….and if it doesn’t creep you out, they land very gently. This is where we get all the Church banners and windows with the Dove in them.
And toward the end of the reading, Andrew…the Apostle Peter’s brother, says to Peter. “We have found the Messiah!”…
John can’t be much clearer than that…
Jesus is the Messiah, the One who has the Holy Spirit…
The One who is Divine…
Who is eternally Divine…
Who will make the great Sacrifice that will deliver us from Sin and death?!
Who will be the Lamb of God
If you want to push it…You could say, along with Martin Luther…
That “God suffered death in order that we might live!”
“Forever!”
So, really, in less than a full page, John tells us very clearly that Jesus is divine… in fact, probably God!
God who is willing to become a human being and to be a sacrificial victim…a lamb, for our sake. That he is anointed and ordained by the Holy Spirit…
And that he is, in fact, the long-awaited Messiah who will deliver Israel…and all of us…from bondage…the bondage of sin…and will give everyone everlasting life!
That’s a lot packed into one page of scripture…
And it’s wonderful stuff…
By enduring a lamb-like death… Jesus takes away our sin…
And Satan’s evil is undone…
Alleluia! …
But…
There is a big problem…
Hundreds dying in Ukraine…
Women and children fleeing while their country is reduced to rubble…
And all over the world people…many children…starving because Ukrainian wheat fields are now rubble.
And if American U.S. voters make certain decisions…Ukrainian resistance will be killed off…
Women are being ground under the heel of a perverted, medieval Muslim regime in Afghanistan…
Poor people are shivering on the streets of Atlanta…
Some died in the recent sub-zero temperatures.
In Africa…people are killing one another in the cause of political power…
And in this country…there is no shortage of people who will cynically play the American people off against each other…simply to gain the illusion of power…
And political and economic power is always an illusion…
Powerful people are usually scared…
A reporter once asked the billionaire J. Paul Getty if he had enough money…
Getty said: “No, I need just a little more to be safe!”
Greed comes from fear…
And the fear comes from thinking we are all alone…
Thinking we have to take care of ourselves…
And, of course, there is never enough to ensure safety…
Jesus told the parable of the rich man who spent his life piling up riches to be secure…
And when he had an enormous amount…
He died in his sleep!
We can’t protect ourselves from fear and anxiety…
And fear and anxiety are the Devil’s tools…
As he tempted Jesus with power and wealth…
So he tempts us with self-sufficiency and the illusion of security…
So what does that have to do with Jesus?…
God and Human, walking around in Palestine talking about the “Kingdom of God?”…
What does it have to do with a man in simple clothes and no possessions telling people, in effect, to sell their possessions, give them to the poor…and trust God?
Certainly he isn’t telling us to do that…
That’s crazy…that’s stupid…
That’s…unrealistic…
But Jesus says….over and over….that …somehow…
This is the Kingdom of God…
The strange freedom that St. Frances and others have found when they gave everything over to God…
They knew…we know that the Kingdom of God…in its perfection…is not here…
And it doesn’t look like it will come soon…though we just spent Advent praying for it to come…
And under the circumstances,
Very few of us can sell all that we have to follow our Lord…
Because what really binds us…
What really haunts us at night…
What really prevents us from taking care of others…
What really prevents us from loving…
Loving our neighbors…
Loving those different from us…
Even loving those who are mean,
What prevents us….is…fear and distrust…
The Kingdom of God…
Sure…not the Kingdom in its fullness…
When the Lion shall lie down with the Lamb…
But a little piece of the Kingdom…
A momentary flash like lightning when the Landscape of the Kingdom of God is revealed to us…and then goes dark again…
A foretaste of that kingdom of perfect fulfillment and grace…
The kind absence of fear and anxiety…
The experience of peace and joy that we may have glimpsed on Christmas…
The Peace of God that passes all understanding
The unutterable joy of the Kingdom of God!
Jesus said: “The Kingdom of God is among you”…
In those wonderful moments when you watch your granddaughter see the Christmas tree and her eyes widen…
When you give someone you love a gift they have wanted…
When you visit the woman in jail who has no family…
When you work a food kitchen…
When you bend to speak to a homeless beggar…
In those countless moments of grace
There is the Kingdom of God…
There is a glimpse of the Peace of God that passes all understanding!
And you become the bearer of the Kingdom…
If I may dare to say it…
In those moments…you like the Blessed Mary…Are the bearer of Jesus Christ. You are a sign of God’s Kingdom!