Who Are We

WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
December 23rd 2007
Fourth Sunday in Advent
Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
“Who Are We?”
Isaiah 7:10-16, Matthew 1:18-25

It must be rather shocking to find out that your fiancé is pregnant. And, on top of this the baby is not yours. The circumstances around Joseph receiving this news are the sort of thing which is common fare on Jerry Springer and other shows of this sort. However, what we know is that Joseph, after a good night’s rest, does not intend to publically embarrass her. Instead he will do the righteous thing and walk away. But his plans were interrupted. In a dream, everything changes.
In our bible study we have been talking a great deal about angels. On thing we all seem to agree upon is that if we ever encounter an angel, we would be afraid. That places us in good company since angels, at least in the Gospel of Luke, always open with the words: “Do not fear.” However, unlike most people in Luke’s gospel, the angel does not tell Joseph not to fear. It looks as if Joseph is either not afraid, or that the message is so abrupt that he does not have time to fear. But either way, this dream encounter changes his course of action.
Joseph, the righteous man, goes from being willing to walk away from his fiancé to deciding to raise the child as his own simply because an angel quotes some scripture. So, what happened? While it is not spelled out I believe there is a rather simple answer. When Joseph encounters this angel and hears the scriptures, he knows that what has happened is a part of God’s long history with his family. In other words, this new miracle is part of a larger story, his story. Joseph knows who he is and where he has come from and as a result he is able to respond positively to this shocking news. Joseph knows that God works in the most unexpected places and people bringing abut new life and liberation.
While this might seem like a rather bold or overstated claim it is not if we consider the first seventeen verses in this chapter of Matthew’s gospel. Those seventeen verses contain a genealogy that most of us simply skip over to get to the good part. However, this genealogy is the good part. It is a story which begins with Abraham, ends with Joseph. Along the way it tells us the story of how God has worked through some pretty unlikely characters. After all, this is a genealogy which includes thieves, liars, murderers, and adulterers. And, by the way, that was only King David. But this genealogy also includes four women who survived in the most difficult circumstances and end up being celebrated for their faithfulness.
So, when Joseph encounters the angels in his dreams he knows who he is and where he has come from. He has come from people like: Tamar, who has to survive as a prostitute because her father-in-law will not give her what, is legally hers. And, Rahab who is also prostitute becomes the savior of the people of God at Jericho. Or, Ruth, the immigrant woman who does what she has to do to save her mother-in-law and herself. In the process she becomes the epitome of faith and the great-grandmother of King David. And finally there is Bathsheba who is only identified as the wife of Uriah. It is a reminder that even though King David takes advantage of his neighbor and kills her husband, God can still bring good out of such a mess. Each one of these are stories shows that God is at work, defying our expectations making a way where there is no way. Joseph is able to follow the call of the angel because he knows these stories. He knows who is and where he has come from.
But that is not the end of the story. This passage is also an invitation to each person who hears the story. The question we must ask is: Who are we? None of us can claim to be part of Joseph’s family tree, at least in the traditional sense. However, the good news is that in Jesus Christ, we are adopted into this family tree, this story. We are part of the family of God. When we know this truth, this story, we know who we are and we know that God can work even in the most difficult of circumstances of our lives.
When Joseph awakes from his dream he has a choice to make. His choice is whether or not he will put down his preconceived notions about the world and be prepared to receive Jesus into his home. While the proper thing to do might have been to walk away, the angel reminds him of what he already knows. In order to receive Jesus into his life and household he had to make a choice to put down anything which would stand in his way. As we stand on the threshold of Christmas, there are things, ideas, beliefs, that each one of us are carrying around that we too need to discard or put down. I do not know what they are for each one of us but I know that we all carry them. So, this morning immediately following the end of the sermon we are going to do that, symbolically. You are invited, as you are moved, to take one of the colored cloths that are around the sanctuary. Then come forward and place the cloth in the basket, or make-shift cradle. In doing so we are joining with Joseph in preparing our hearts to receive Jesus this Christmas. May this simple action help prepare each one of us to welcome Jesus this Christmas. Because, we know who we are. Amen.

Go and Tell

WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
December 16th 2007
Third Sunday in Advent
Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
“Go and Tell”
Isaiah 35: 1-10, Matthew 11:2-14

Hope is dangerous… And hope that knows the current arrangement of the world is, in the words of Daniel Berrigan, a mirage, is the most dangerous of all. Isaiah speaks the powerful vision-message of God with beautiful poetic imagery. He tells us that the jackals and lions and beast of the world have done a good job of making the people of God compliant to the current arrangement of the world. The power of these beasts has numbed the ability of the people of God to recognize that imperial myth is nothing more than a grand distraction.
For some, the numbing has come from soft robes, compromised beliefs, or crumbs from the masters tables. For others, it meant living in the world as less than human. Either way, the trouble, the wrong doing of the world drives us down an unfortunate path. For many, and varied, reasons we begin to avert our eyes or to close our ears and before we know our ability to speak out, our voice is gone. It doesn’t take long before we no longer even walk with the same confidence and bounce in our step that used to drive us along. It is for this reason that Jesus tells John’s disciples to:
Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.
Jesus tells the disciples of John that people are no longer numb and are indeed being liberated.
But before we get there, we have to admit that on many days, if we are paying attention, it is not a very pretty picture. It is not easy to keep our eyes open to the hunger and violence at our doorstep. How long can any of us continue to listen to the stories of inequality that looks to be part of the very fabric of our society? What shall we do when children are used as pawns in the games of adults? What shall we do when we spend a lifetime seeking change only to feel like we are slipping backwards? Well, I can tell you that yelling at the television is not particularly effective and the latest distraction doesn’t work all that well either.
So this is where we find ourselves as we approach the doorstep of Christmas. And, at this time of year we have some choices to make. In this season where the list of things to complete becomes ever longer being attentive is not easy. However, trying to ignore the discord between the message of the good news in Jesus birth and the message of our consumer culture is not a particularly healthy choice. No matter how often we, as people of the great good news try, the voice of Isaiah, the voice of John the Baptist, and the voice of Jesus will not allow us to remain in despair or to ignore their message of hope.
Hope is like the image of grass growing up in the cracks of a sidewalk. Hope tells another story about the jackals, lions, and beasts of the world. The beasts who feast on those most vulnerable are not welcome in the kingdom of God. It is a surprising message of exclusion from Isaiah. Unless they abandon their predatory practices these beast are barred from the holy mountain of God. As you might imagine this is not welcome news for the jackals, beasts, and lions. So when John the Baptist comes along proclaiming this vision of God and inviting others to join in this new, yet ancient, way, the beast throws John in prison.
And from the lonely place of prison John might just wonder what has happened. Jesus has indeed come, but the new day which is supposed to have dawn appears to be delayed. The Romans are still in power; the religious leaders are still working closely with them and on top of this John is in Jail. It is safe to assume that the questions began to arise in John’s head. Wasn’t Jesus supposed to change all this? Where are the armies of God? Where are the fruits of the new age where injustice is supposed to end? In order to deal with his questions, John goes strait to the source. He sends his disciples to Jesus with this question: “Are you the one who is to come? Or are we to wait for another?” In other words you can hear him thinking: If you are the one who is to come this is not what we expected. This question comes from the voice crying out in the wilderness that is seeking some clarity and possibly reassurance.
Jesus sends words of reminder and encouragement. Go and tell John what you have seen. Testify to John that the grass is growing up in the crack of the sidewalk. Rome may still be in power but the people can now see that the peace of Empire is a charade. The religious leadership may be corrupt but people are hearing the Good News anyway. And, you may be in prison, but your work was not in vain. It lives on in the testimony of your disciples. After all, Jesus says, you are the messenger and did prepare a way in the wilderness for all of this to happen.
It is a message of good news but we know that it is not easy news. Encountering John the Baptist and the voice of Isaiah in advent can seem rather out of place. However, their witness is an invitation to all of us. It is an invitation to go and tell, to testify to the places in the world where we have seen grass growing in the cracks of the sidewalk. Testify to the good news you hear which reminds us there is hope even now. Testify to the places where your eyes have been opened, your ears have heard and you have been set free. Because people are hungry we must go and tell how this good news story has moved us and has brought us to new life. Go and tell! Amen? Amen.

Who Told You

WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
December 2nd 2007
Second Sunday in Advent
Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
“Who Told You?”
Isaiah 11:1-11, Matthew 3:1-12

In case you haven’t noticed, a new season has begun. But the season I am talking about is not Christmas, or Advent, or even winter. The season I am talking, which is well underway, is the upcoming presidential election. Much like Christmas, it seems to come earlier and earlier each time. We know that the season has begun because of all the nice things that those running for president will say about one another.
One of the traditions of this season is the “stump speech.” It is a particular speech which candidates use in order to frame the debate and to tell their story. For the candidates who win elections, the stump speech becomes the official transcript of political reality. So the “stump speech” is the one which lays out the way the world is, for those in power.
When the prophet Isaiah uses language about the stump he is not giving a political campaign speech. However, it still conveyed the official transcript of political reality. The language about the stump of Jesse was image which acknowledged that Israel was no longer a military power. The tree from which the great king David had come was cut down. From all appearances the tree of Jesse was dead. As a result, despair reigned supreme. The political reality or the givens of Isaiah’s time were well known. Snakes, bears, wolves, leopards, and lions always destroy; lambs, oxen, calves, and children. The stump speech of conventional wisdom was clear: Violence, chaos, and death had the last word.
But along came the Word of God through the voice of an unwelcome prophet. Isaiah was unwelcome because his stump speech said that the stump wasn’t dead. There was a pesky little shoot that was going to rise up and undermine the official transcript. The stump speech of Isaiah had the audacity to claim that that there would be a day when the predators and the prey of the world will live in harmony as equals. The vision of God’s intended plan is that kings, rulers, and leaders will actually use their power to ensure justice and shalom for all people, not just those at the top. And, the most outrageous claim of all was this: When people really learn the ways of God violence, destruction, and even war will end. So Isaiah was unwelcome and even dangerous because his stump speech told another reality, the reality of God.
While it was for different reasons, John the Baptist’s stump speech was just as dangerous to the established order. John is located in the wilderness and calls people to repentance, to turn from their ways. The whole event is rich with intended symbolism of the Exodus from Egypt. In the Exodus, the people of God were liberated from the slavery of the Egyptian Empire. However, this was not just a physical release from captivity; it was also intended to free the mind as well. The habits learned in captivity, the internalized oppression, had to be challenged and changed. The rough ways of wilderness life was the perfect setting for just such a change.
Like the Israelites in the wilderness, John had turned from the ways of empire, the ways of domination, and the ways of violence. John’s stump speech was made the audacious claim that God was doing a new thing outside of Jerusalem, the religious center of the faith. The stump speech of John even makes the claims that God doesn’t need the religious leadership or that God’s favor is not a privilege of the few. John’s stump speech was rather popular drawing large crowds of people hungry for the freedom and new life promised by this wild wilderness preacher who wore camel hair and ate bugs.
At first glance it is easy to miss that the official transcript of the empire is present. Often times the arrival of the religious leadership, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, is seen as their endorsement of John’s work. However, their arrival can really be translated to read that they were coming against the baptism of John. Even as they came to be baptized themselves, they are standing against it. In other words, while they were participating in the action they were coming out to oversee, or maybe even co-opt this troublesome wilderness preacher. But, the Baptist would have none of it. All attempts to conform or control this stump speech failed. And that is why he will end up beheaded at the request of the king.
It was clear that the draw of this wilderness preacher was strong. The Sprit was at work again. From the stump of Jesse to the desert places outside of Jerusalem, the givens of the world are being upended. “Who told you?” This question, while directed toward the religious leadership, is a question to all who encounter the message of John the Baptist and the vision of Isaiah. It is a call for all of us to reconsider the givens, the official transcripts, and yes even the stump speeches in light of the new life God brings in the midst of the places we believed there was only death. In this season as we wait for the fulfillment of God’s promises let us keep focused on the long history of God acting in powerful ways to bring life out of death. Let that memory be the guiding force as we encounter the places of violence and opposition which seems to permeate our lives. Contrary to the stump speeches of this world, God is at work, even in the places of death, bringing new life. Violence does not have the last word, chaos does not have the last word, war does not have the last word, and death is not the end. Amen.

Are We Hungry?

WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
December 2nd 2007
First Sunday in Advent / Communion Sunday
Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
“Are We Hungry?”
Isaiah 2:1-5; Matthew 24:36-44

“If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.” It is a line from one of my all time favorite bumper-stickers. I have come to believe that these words really express what is at the heart of the Advent season. These words do not represent random or generalized anger. Instead, they are the expression of someone who can acknowledge the realities around us: We are at war, housing foreclosures have become epidemic, pensions are disappearing, health care is a privilege for the few, Full-time work at the minimum wage cannot lift even a small family out of poverty and yet tax breaks have been established for estates over $5 million dollars. In other words, when confronted with this sort of reality we can either become a little outraged or numb. Either way the words of theologian Neal Plantinga ring true; this is: “Not the Way it is Supposed to Be.”
Now, it is a common misunderstanding that Advent is about our waiting and preparing for Christmas. While Advent is a season of waiting, we are most certainly not waiting for Christmas. This season in the church year is a time for us to take a break from the ways we numb ourselves from that which would lead us to outrage. It is the time when we are called to open our eyes and really see what is happening. It is a time when we hope, and act out of that hope, for the time when death and violence will not have the last word. It is a time where we remember that peace is God’s will for all people. So, Advent is really a time to reevaluate and reorder our lives in light of the reality that: This is not the way it is supposed to be.
With millions and millions of copies of the Left Behind fiction series in print, one cannot help but reading this passage from the Gospel of Matthew and begin to think it has something to do with who gets to go to heaven. The nice part about such passages is that they are obscure enough to allow for such speculation. As a result, we can walk away from this passage believing that is all Jesus has to say. However, such conclusions cause us to miss the much more earth shattering, and frankly, important issues at work in both Matthew’s Gospel and the vision from Isaiah.
The vision from Isaiah shows a deep longing and hunger for a new way. And while we all hunger for an end to war, the longing in this passage is not utopian or the result of some cataclysmic or divine action. It is not a call to wish for a new day but instead it is a call to action. Notice that the whole war economy is dismantled; the weapons of war are transformed into farm implements. The wars for water, or trade or oil come to an end and people, the whole world, works together so that death, and violence and hunger are no more. It is an ancient vision with more contemporary relevance than we can even grasp. There is no magic formula here. Instead, this vision happens as a result of people coming together and learning about God’s ways. And, they learn the radical good news that God does not will war and violence.
When Jesus speaks in Matthew’s passage from this morning, he is teaching the disciples how to live in the in-between time. It is a teaching for those who understand that the world as it is right now is not what God intended. The reference to the “Time of Noah” is a clue. It is a reference to the judgment that falls upon the people in the “Time of Noah.” If we were to turn to the book of Genesis, we would find out that the days of Noah were extremely violent and it appears that most people had simply become numb to the violence all around them. It is a wake up call to the disciples of Jesus. ‘Stay awake!’ and live lives which not only acknowledge, but run counter to the violence all around you.
In this season of Advent, as we seek to acknowledge the places of our hungers and the hungers of our world, we must be aware that this awareness might lead us to be a bit outraged. In fact, anger is really a better word. So when anger arises, do not be surprised, simply use that energy to remain committed to the waiting time. I find particular encouragement in this season of Advent in these words from my preaching professor Church Campbell. He writes:
No wonder the powers seek to make human beings numb! Once anger arises, the powers begin to lose their grip’ their deadly ways have been discerned, and human resistance has begun.
It is a powerful remind to the ways in which we are all susceptible to the numbness and the real need for us to stay awake. In this season of Advent, this season of waiting, let us not numb that hunger for the time when violence will no longer have the last word. Instead, let us find a little room for the outrage that leads us to work for another way that we know is possible. Amen? Amen.