The Favor of God – 28 December 2014 – First Sunday after Christmas

We have arrived at the Sunday that always feels to me like the “denouement” of a story. The highpoint has come and gone and we are left with events that bring the action to a safe place where it is possible to imagine actually going on. We do not have to look forward to another mountaintop experience for a while. All is calm. All is bright.

In a 2008 essay in Homily Service, Pastor Kolderup asked some questions for the preacher to consider: 

• How do we move with Paul from the adoration of the Child to responding with thanksgiving and commitment to our own adoption as God’s children?

• After the ‘‘Silent Night,’’ what do we now need to say in these twelve days of Christmas? Is there a world that did not gather by the manger but still needs to hear that God is with us?

• What time is it: the first Sunday after Christmas; the time appointed for Jesus’ presentation; a time for a guest preacher while the pastor takes a vacation? For Simeon it was the culmination (and a consolation and a deliverance) of a lifetime of waiting for God’s promised salvation. For Anna it was a time to praise and speak of redemption. So once again, what time is it for you and the congregation? 

              – Stephen C. Kolderup

Luke 2:22-40

“This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel.” Joseph R. Jeter noted in his book Crisis Preaching (Nashville: Abingdon, 1998) that he had never heard –– and presumably had never preached –– a sermon on the relationship between Joseph and Mary with a focus on their having endured all the stresses that accompanied the story of Jesus’ birth. Professor Jeter did not seem to be suggesting a psychologizing of the holy couple, but an emphasis on the ways in which, together, we aid each other through the mire that is often our lives. In particular, how parents shore each other up.

Mary heard a hard word from Simeon. Because her child would be opposed, he told her, “a sword will pierce your own soul too.” Surely this is a reality for many parents, watching with expectant joy and fear as children grow up and go on.

But the child was a “sign” that so thrilled Simeon and Anna, they lifted their voices in thanks to God. We, too, see the salvation which the Lord has “prepared in the presence of all people, a light for revelation… and for glory.”

Isaiah 61:10 –– 62:3

Pastor Myers notes the change in voice in Isaiah which may mirror a name change promised in 62:2. 

Is it possible that verses 10 and 11 of chapter 61 are verses from one section spoken by one voice, ‘‘I,’’ while the following few verses of chapter 62 represent a break and are spoken by another voice, also ‘‘I’’? Could it be that the first two verses are the prophet’s poetic song of praise for what God will do one day only to be followed by words of God spoken through the prophet of what God will finally do when God’s long silence is broken? Or are all the verses in today’s lectionary spoken by one voice, the prophet Isaiah? It is unclear and commentators will not agree. 

One thing is clear. A new name will be given to the city, and a change in name is significant, for name represents meaning and purpose. Just as Jacob became Israel and Abram and Sarai became Abraham and Sarah, Jerusalem will be given a new name, a new way, a new day. The newly named city will be treated like royalty and be respected by all. The city of Jerusalem now lying in ruins will one day shine like a brand-new, glistening crown. This new name—this new status—will be given by God. This salvation—this change of name—is reason for great rejoicing. 

            – Eric T. Myers

A new name is given to all to whom the holy child is revealed, including you and me. And because of our new baptismal identity, having been presented ourselves to the church, we have been altered.

Galatians 4:4-7

Paul reminds the Galatians and us that in God’s time God sent his Son. It was God’s doing. God sent the Son to redeem the law-laden. God has made adoption possible. The slave is now a child, an heir. The child who calls God Abba—Daddy—will be loved forever. 

            – Eric T. Myers

With the Christ child, an heir, we are also heirs, loved and comforted.

Stephen C. Kolderup is a pastor serving South Jacksonville Presbyterian Church in Florida.

Eric T. Myers serves as pastor to the Frederick Presbyterian Church in Frederick, Maryland and is a former church musician and adjunct professor of worship at Wesley Theological Seminary.

Homily Service 42, no. 1 (2008): 58-66.

The Future is Now – 14 December 2014 – Third Sunday of Advent

One of the tricky parts of Advent is the conflation of time. We await the coming of the savior but we know the savior has already come. We hear John the Baptist tell us someone is about to appear who is more powerful than he is and yet we know Jesus has already lived among us, died, and rose from the dead. Jesus’ ministry is about to begin, as we speak of it in the Advent season, but it is also already past. And we also proclaim the presence of the one who was, and is, and is to come. 

Advent is, for all these reasons, a marvelous time to play with time, to think about words that can bring to life in the present what is past and future. The preacher knows that scripture tells us what some people experienced before it happened, while we live in the aftermath of all that transpired. 

The temptation is to speak of what will be while the preacher really needs to help the assembly see what is here now, in our lives today. 

John 1:6-8, 19-28

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ is a strange-looking person only some people would call a “foodie” whose message brings the people from farm and city to admit their need for cleansing. We can imagine all we want about what, in John, so compelled people. But perhaps it was not so much John himself as the fact that his message of the coming one for whom everyone ought to prepare resonated with the people. They knew, as do we, that at the bottom of things, we are in need of cleansing. We need to be what we are not. In a sense, this is how John defined himself to others. 

Mark’s Gospel tells us: “This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.” (vs. 28) 

The Christian God acts in history; God is not just an abstract concept or philosophical truth. The writer of John made the effort to localize his words—a particular time and place. The act of preaching is another instance of such localizing . . . We should be cautious but not afraid of saying … [we saw that] God has indeed been at work among us?

- Jon Keune 

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

We live between that first Pentecost and the final Advent. But that means we live in the Spirit. Even in the Christmas rush, the Spirit opens us to hear these voices. Past, present, and future come into the light of God. Faith looks back to God's promises. Hope looks forward to God fulfilling them. And love is faith and hope active in the present, sharing the light here and now. 

And so we can join with Isaiah, who rejoices not in what God has done but in what God promises to do in the future. And with the Magnificat, as Mary rejoices in what God is going to do in her, and speaks as if it has already happened. And St. Paul urges the Thessalonians to rejoice always, in all circumstances, anticipating the coming of our LORD Jesus Christ. 

Advent joy is counting our chickens before they hatch, celebrating victory at half time with our team down fifty points.  . . .  When you clean the house for the coming guests, you can either hide all the junk behind closed doors and under beds, or you can hear John's call to make the way straight, which means exposing all the junk, bringing it into the light, where it can be sorted, gotten rid of, or cleansed.

Mother Mary teaches us to rejoice . . . as if each of us bore within us a new and fragile being, as if each of us carried another's greatness that makes us the fragile, lowly one that is blessed. . . . 

That is cause for rejoicing. In our community of faith, in our neighborhood, good things can happen, things that last beyond the world's ephemeral holiday season, things that truly come from the holy day when Christ comes among us. It's in the light of that coming that St. Paul's voice cries out: rejoice, pray, give thanks, quench not, do not despise, test, hold fast, abstain. They all sound somewhat reachable, but on our own we can't rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, abstain from every form of evil.

It will take the God of peace to sanctify us entirely. The Spirit that anoints Jesus, the Spirit who is not quenched by our sins, the Spirit who rejoices—that same Spirit empowers us to be witnesses to testify to the light, to be God's planting, a winter garden that grows into rejoicing in righteousness and praise. For this is the year of the LORD's favor. And our spirit rejoices. 

– Paul Bieber  

1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

Paul’s letter tells an early church community: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (vss. 16–18) Rejoicing requires gratitude, and that is the fundamental posture of Christian spirituality. 

And yet, how hard it can be to sustain our grateful prayers. They are vital, however, to being able to see past the present moment toward the generosity of others.

We live, as the early church did, with the same need for gratitude, the same questions, awaiting the peace that surpasses all understanding, the end to destruction, the reconciliation of all nations. Just as in our time when unspeakable horrors visit nation after nation, following the Holocaust, people cried out, “Where were you, God?” Some rabbis understood that God’s response was to ask, “Where were you?” 

John the Baptist stands tall on this Sunday as: witness to the light, not the Messiah, not Elijah, not the prophet, but the voice crying out, the one who was not worthy. Many images lead us to see through them today the mystery that is Christ Jesus. We see through one who was not Jesus but who was, nevertheless, the finger pointing, the preacher who shows us the face of love. We have the same proclamation to make. 

Paul Bieber is pastor of All Saints Lutheran Church, San Diego, California.  

Jon Keune is a postdoctoral fellow in India Studies at the University of Houston and is approved for ordination as a pastor in the ELCA. 

Homily Service 39, no. 1 (2005): 3-14.