Mercy for Exiles – 3 January 2016 – Second Sunday after Christmas

As Ephesians explains our faith: “In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of God’s grace lavished on us.” We are to know the great blessings of the incarnation.

Yet we are called to answer questions asked by this world: Who is Jesus? Really. A memory? A miracle? A metaphor? Is his role in our lives defined by history or philosophy, art or another kind of experienced feeling?

This Sunday gives us Christ in images of light. We are preparing for Epiphany. And somehow the light is described by the bringing together of exiles. Is Christ about mercy toward the stranger? Could this be a word from God specifically for our time?

John 1:1-18

Eugene Peterson in his The Message translation renders John 1:10 this way: “He was in the world, and the world was there through him, and yet the world didn't even notice.” And yet the world didn't even notice. It's an odd note to sound in the wake of a month-long celebration of the birth of Christ, but the reality is the world has noticed Christmas, while there is serious doubt as to whether it has noticed Christ.

Of course, that's what the church's witness has been about, ever since the day John the Baptist came out of the wilderness, especially since the day he pointed to Jesus as the Christ: “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me'” (v 15). Not many people got it then, and not many people get it now.

The problem is, because it is so difficult to get people to see Jesus as the Christ of the scriptures, we in the church are tempted to make it easier for them by presenting a more visible and palatable savior. This is not a fault simply of liberals or conservatives, liturgicals or evangelicals, mainliners or megachurches; we are all guilty. We all try to present Christ in a way that is attractive to our niche of the culture. Though somewhat necessary, we must be careful not to bend Jesus out of shape, not to turn the Gospel into something it isn't. This text is a reminder to us of the unlikeliness of the story of Jesus and of our call to tell it as it is, trusting God to use our telling to open eyes and change lives.

Let us endeavor only to be faithful to the vision set before us. Nothing that outstrips Jesus of the hard edges of his witness will feed us in the end. We must listen to John who tells us that believing in the Word is life, even though the words about the Word can be misconstrued.

Jeremiah 31:7-14

How are people of faith to find our way in this world guided by the Word?

Consistent with the deepest values of the covenant, God will include those in the community who are most vulnerable (the blind, the lame, and those in labor). God guides the people through the desert by brooks of water and along straight paths on which they will not stumble. To a people in a semiarid land, the reference to brooks signifies that God provides all that they need even in the face of threat. God becomes a parent to Israel. The community is no longer orphaned (as in the exile) but is a part of God's family: they have a place and a protector.

. . . . The people will be radiant in the presence of overflowing produce, “life shall become like a watered garden” (a new Eden), young women and young men will be dancing and exchanging mourning for gladness, and “satisfied with [God's] bounty.”

Ephesians 1:3-14

Today's reading is a berakah, a traditional Jewish form of prayer that blesses God. . . . God is acting through Christ to adopt the Ephesians into God's family in the coming new world (the realm of God). Indeed, God had planned this adoption from the beginning of history and is now bringing it about. . . . God has given the Ephesians the Holy Spirit as a seal of the divine promise.

We await the redemption of this world, freedom for those who suffer under tyrants, peace for those whose villages are assaulted by the ruthless, food enough and shelter for those who wander without a home. But we know, as well, that where the Word resides, compassion has found its home for the infinitude of the Alpha and Omega has come to dwell with us in our finitude. Alleluia!

Contributing to this commentary:

Ronald J. Allen, professor of preaching and New Testament at Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis, Indiana. Delmer L. Chilton, assistant to the bishop of the Southeastern Synod of the ELCA in Atlanta. Aaron J. Couch, co-pastor of First Immanuel Lutheran Church, Portland, Oregon. Virginia S. Wendel, Health Care Coodinator for the Cenacle Sisters, Chicago, Illinois.  

Homily Service 43, no. 1 (2009): 74-81.

Healing Envisioned – 25 October 2015 – Lectionary 30/ Proper 25

Major upheavals are imaged in the readings today. In Jeremiah, the exiles return. The image in Mark is the healing of blindness. Both of these are about restoration to wholeness, but we should be careful not to lean too much on physical disability in the preaching.

In our time, linking blindness with ignorance or white with goodness (and other such metaphors) has raised healthy cautions about marginalizing people who are blind or of a race/ethnicity other than white. Here is one antidote:

The preacher should . . . help the congregation appreciate that it is the blind man who sees beyond visible reality with spiritual insight, while the disciples (who seem to have no problems with physical sight) remain unable to recognize what sort of savior Jesus truly is. – Aaron Couch

In Holy Ground (Augsburg Fortress, 2003) Gordon Lathrop addresses this Gospel text even further: “Here is the ‘son’ of Timaeus [Bartimaeus = son of Timaeus], Plato’s Timaeus, and, ironically, he is himself blind, crying out in lament, seeing nothing, going nowhere.” (p. 31)

Bartimaeus sits by the side of the road in the perspective of his people: a Greek rendition of the universe which holds that sight is paramount and that the heavens are the location of perfect and best.

But when he “sees” Jesus, he throws off the mantle of the teaching he has received and cries out to a new way. Jesus heals his vision. His new sight reverses the wisdom of the Greeks who found truth in an order that is not here on earth. Jesus, fully divine, fully human, represents a different perspective, a new way of living that is “hidden under the form of disorder and loss… on the earth, in the way of Jesus Christ, ‘seen’ in faith.” (Lathrop, 33)

Mark 10:46-52

Mark pictures Jesus as having passed through Jericho, about 15 miles from Jerusalem, when Bartimaeus calls out to him, addressing him as “Son of David.” Mark has not used this messianic title before. At this point in the story it reminds the reader that Jesus is on his way to the city of David. Although he is David's heir and comes “in the name of the Lord” (11:9), the religious authorities will reject him.

Bartimaeus, though, recognizes Jesus and calls out for mercy. When Jesus calls him, he throws off his cloak, jumps up and comes to Jesus. After Jesus heals him, he follows Jesus “on the way,” suggesting both the way to the cross and the way of discipleship. The reader may be reminded, by contrast, of the rich man who asked Jesus how to inherit eternal life (10:17–22). The rich man and the blind beggar occupied opposite ends of Judean society. Their responses to Jesus were equally different. The rich man could not part with his possessions, but Bartimaeus threw off his cloak (perhaps his only possession) to approach Jesus. The rich man went away grieving, but Bartimaeus followed Jesus—joyfully, one may imagine! – Aaron Couch

Jeremiah 31:7-9

The first reading is a portion of “The Book of Consolation,” chapters 30–33 of Jeremiah. In contrast to the consistent message of doom through the rest of the book, these chapters announce the saving work of God to restore Israel after years of defeat and exile. The prophet calls on God's people to sing and celebrate God's faithfulness. They may only be a remnant of the former nation (v 7), but they will still be a great company (v 8). God has neither forgotten nor abandoned them. God exalts them so that they are the “chief of the nations.” The people may weep for what has been lost, but they will also weep for joy as God leads them home again.

Thematically it is the reference to God gathering the blind and lame that links this passage to the gospel reading. It is worth noting that while Leviticus excludes the blind and lame from presenting an offering at the altar of the Lord (21:18), Jeremiah names them first among the great company that God will bring back. – Aaron Couch

Hebrews 7:23-28

With Jeremiah promising rescue to the distraught and Mark’s Gospel imaging a deep insight coming to one who, on the surface, had no sight, the reading from Hebrews announces a priest  who is eternal, “able for all time to save those who approach God…” This is a Savior who leaves no one behind.

How many gospel stories record people who have been left out of the holiness code of Israel who were reclaimed by the personal and responsive work of Jesus? The disciples themselves along with many of those who were attracted to follow Jesus offer ample evidence of crowds of disaffected Israelites who were changed by the high priestly service Jesus performed. – H. Gregory Waldrop

Aaron Couch is a co-pastor of First Immanuel Lutheran Church in Portland, Oregon.

H. Gregory Waldrop was baptized in Mayfield, Kentucky in 1954 and ordained in Atwood, Tennessee in 1981. He is a United Methodist pastor serving Fountain Avenue United Methodist Church in Paducah, Kentucky.

Homily Service 39, no. 11 (2006): 46-55.

To See Jesus –22 March 2015 – Fifth Sunday in Lent

A parishioner once told me that her measure for whether or not a sermon was any good was all about whether she could “see Jesus.” That’s a tall order and a helpful clue for what is needed. Even in John’s Gospel we encounter soon-to-be disciples whose first urge is to “see Jesus.”

The preacher’s task is to figure out what that means and shape it for the assembly. Who is the Jesus who must be seen? What is it about this Jesus that is most necessary for people to hear? What in the story or narrative can make Jesus’ essential qualities most palpable?

This is important for the sustenance of faith. We do not come to worship on Sunday so much because we are perfect believers but because we need to hear again who Jesus is so that we can believe.

John 12:20-33

Walter Brueggeman preached on the verse, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus,” noting it offers the strongest rationale for a Christocentric theory of homiletic. The role of the homilist, particularly, is to offer a message that is transparent to the person of Jesus.   . . . The gospel writer notes that many in the crowd wonder about Jesus, but they do not yet believe in him. – Jeffrey VanderWilt

My vocation is to teach a new generation of preachers, pastors and teachers about all the other aspects of liturgical leadership, but not to preach. Yet one cannot neglect such a central act of worship in classes such as “Introduction to Christian Worship.” And so each year, I gird up my loins and lecture on preaching “as one without authority.” I always begin by invoking John 12:21, “Sir, we would see Jesus.”

Nothing more, nothing less is the call of the preacher—to bring the people face to face with Jesus. It is not our cleverness that sustains, nor the brilliance of our exegesis. It is the One who fell to earth, lost his life, rose again and who like a tree bears an abundance of ripe, nourishing fruit. Let this One be recognized in the retelling of the stories, in the interpretation, in the breaking of the bread—and then perhaps the people, like those two demoralized followers at the end of Luke’s gospel who left their companions and their vocation to return home after their teacher died, may, with restored hope, and burning hearts, risk being witnesses to the Life that death cannot end, to the Love that is stronger than the grave. – Scott Haldeman

Jeremiah 31:31-34

The prophet announces a covenant that will not be something to learn, something to memorize, some rules to know. Rather, the covenant with God is written on the heart. The people will be united in a knowing that is deeper than cognition.

“Seeing” and “knowing” Jesus is, similarly, a heart-involved experience that is an on-going, ever-changing, always-evolving relationship with the One who is Love.

That relationship involves prayer, and so the letter to the Hebrews helps the assembly “see” Jesus also in its own prayerful communion with God.

Hebrews 5:5-10

Jesus prayed to the one who could save him from death, and yet he died, even death on a cross. Thomas Moore reminds us that prayer works, but not because we get the answer we want:

A billboard near an old house of mine displayed in six-foot type: “Pray. It works.” I always thought this was the ultimate in American pragmatism. If it doesn’t work, do you stop praying? What does it mean to say prayer works? You get what you want? Life gets better? My billboard would say: “Pray. It may not work.”

Prayer is an alternative to working hard to get what you want. One discovers eventually that what you want is almost always what you don’t need. Pray—period! Don’t expect anything. Or, better, expect nothing. Prayer cleanses us of expectations and allows holy will, providence, and life itself an entry. What could be more worth the effort—or, the non-effort? (Thomas Moore, Meditations: On the Monk Who Dwells in Daily Life (New York: HarperCollins, 1994), 19.)

– Scott Haldeman

Scott Haldeman is associate professor of worship at Chicago Theological Seminary, Chicago, Illinois. 

Jeffery VanderWilt, author of Communion with Non-Catholic Christians (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2003), teaches at Santa Margarita Catholic High school in Southern California.

Homily Service 39, no. 5 (2006): 2-8.

Word of Light – 4 January 2015 – Second Sunday of Christmas

Words have tremendous power, for good or for harm. I’ve seen a child on the playground reduced to a sobbing puddle of tears by the taunts and teasing of classmates, volunteers energized by inspiring words from a leader. Words have the power to create reality, which I suppose is why scripture pictures the whole of creation as the work of God’s word.

            – Aaron J. Couch

In Pastor Couch’s words from a 2010 Homily Service essay, I hear the whispers of a question that has haunted me: What is the origin of the imagery of Jesus as the Word? Is it God-inspired brilliant truth or hubris on the part of humans who like to write and had visions? Who chose the image? Word, logos, light, grace, glory––all filled with expanses of mystery.

Connecting Jesus with spoken language that creates universes is almost too gigantic to entertain. Surely this is one reason we can count on it being true.

John 1:[1-9] 10-18

In The Message, Eugene Peterson’s translation of the Bible, John 1:10 reads like this: ‘‘He was in the world, and the world was there through him, and yet the world didn’t even notice.’’

And yet the world didn’t even notice. It’s an odd note to sound in the wake of a month-long celebration of the birth of Christ, but the reality is the world has noticed Christmas, while there is serious doubt as to whether it has noticed Christ.

Of course, that’s what the church’s witness has been about, ever since the day John the Baptist . . . pointed to Jesus as the Christ . . . Not many people got it then, and not many people get it now.

. . . [B]ecause it is so difficult to get people to see Jesus as the Christ of the scriptures, we in the church are tempted to make it easier for them by presenting a more visible and palatable savior. This is not a fault simply of liberals or conservatives, liturgicals or evangelicals, mainliners or megachurches; we are all guilty. We all try to present Christ in a way that is attractive to our niche of the culture. Though somewhat necessary, we must be careful not to bend Jesus out of shape, not to turn the Gospel into something it isn’t. This text is a reminder to us of the unlikeliness of the story of Jesus and of our call to tell it as it is, trusting God to use our telling to open eyes and change lives.

            – Delmer L. Chilton

Jeremiah 31:7-14

Telling the story “as it is” can take many forms. For the prophet Jeremiah the story is about God’s promise in the future to gather the people who have been estranged from one another in exile. When this gathering comes, the people “shall become like a watered garden, and they shall never languish again.”

Ephesians 1:3-14

Likewise, the epistle to the church identifies us, along with the church of Ephesus, as people who are alone and estranged and in need of adoption. We will be gathered up, God’s word says, along with “all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth.

In these readings a spectacular consistency abounds: The word of God brings to all creation the joy of living according to a purpose that is beyond ourselves, beyond our ability to solve all ambiguities.

God is word and creator, savior and companion in the flesh.

Often, the word comes to us in words—the words of scripture that tell about Jesus’ teaching, and his command that we love each other. They picture for us his example of forgiveness and compassion, the stories of his ministry, healing the sick and feeding the hungry, how he suffered and died, and how God raised him to life on the third day. And the word still comes to us in the lives of believers who have an impact on us.

. . . Bill was a sponsor for the youth group; Ray, a professor who gave of himself, whether to usher or to paint the Sunday School rooms; Cole, the track coach at a rival high school, always had time to be interested in what I was doing. These adults, and others, gave me a glimpse of what a life of integrity looks like, what a Christ-like life looks like. Through them, the light of God’s love shone. It wasn’t that they were perfect people, . . . [b]ut their lives gave voice to God’s word, in the flesh.

            – Aaron J. Couch

Aaron J. Couch is co-pastor of First Immanuel Lutheran Church in Portland, Oregon.

Delmer L. Chilton is assistant to the bishop of the Southeastern Synod of the ELCA in Atlanta, Georgia.

Homily Service 43, no. 1 (2010): 74-81.