Introduction 

Epiphany is a season of revealing who God is. Today’s big reveal or “showing” comes from the voice of John who twice in our gospel points to Jesus and says, “Look, the Lamb of God.”

Speaking of God’s anointed one, the Prophet Isaiah says in the  53rd chapter (verse 7): 

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

John announces as Jesus walks toward him, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

And a second time, the next day, John says again, “Look, here is the Lamb of God.”

John echos the language of the Prophet Isaiah. He even says it two times.

What do we mean when we say that Jesus is the “Lamb of God”? I want to take, perhaps, a different route than what we're used to when talking about Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. 

What did John mean when he pointed to Christ and said, “Look, the Lamb of God”? If you aren’t spontaneously or naturally curious about our gospel texts when we read them, I invite you to think of other times when we talk about Jesus being the Lamb of God such as when we sing about it as we come forward to receive Holy Communion. O Lamb of God, we sing, who bore the sin of all the world away…have mercy on us.

Our associations with Jesus being the lamb of God often center on one word: sacrifice. Jesus was the sacrifice for our sins.

Our understanding might be partial because as soon as you say “Lamb of God” you quickly loop in words like sin and blood and we don’t often like to talk about these themes. It doesn’t make for polite conversation or warm, fuzzy feelings.

But here’s my main contention: We might feel a little uncomfortable talking about it in large part because it’s been misunderstood. 

Christians in our day might say something like this: God’s justice demands a blood sacrifice to pay the penalty of sin. Jesus steps in to be that sacrifice in place of us. The sins of the world are placed on Jesus and he dies for our sins. And now God’s disposition toward us has changed from anger to love because of what Jesus did.

Yes, lambs were offered to God as sacrifices under the Old Covenant. They were a part of the sometimes elaborate sacrificial system which was designed by God as a way to manage the sin problem that was present with God’s people so God could dwell with his people. But that description sounds more like Zeus or Moloch than Yahweh, the God of the Bible.

Think of it this way…For that “Lamb of God” metaphor to hold up, then we would expect that there would be an actual lamb in the Old Covenant (Old Testament) that receives the sins of the people and then is killed to eliminate the sins. Nowhere in Scripture are sins placed on an animal and then that animal is killed as a sacrifice.

To be the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” means something much, much different. The God of Christianity as revealed in Scripture and Tradition is slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and comes to us in our time of need instead of requiring us to appease his wrath with blood sacrifices.

Two Goats/Lambs

The idea comes from Leviticus 16 where God gives instruction for the Day of Atonement which is the foundation for “Yom Kippur" - the most holy of the Jewish high holy days. In that chapter we see not one goat, but two. And what those goats do, is exactly what Jesus does. Let’s take a look.

Hope in a Dark Time

It is not lost on me that we gathered for worship on Tuesday night, held our candles, and sang the comforting words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu…

Goodness is stronger than evil 

Love is stronger than hate 

Light is stronger than darkness 

Life is stronger than death 

Victory is ours, victory is ours through God who loves us.

And then in the morning hours on Wednesday, a little more than 12 hours later, further chaos broke out in Minneapolis when Renee Good was shot and killed by a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent.

The contrast between these two movements in such close succession shocked me.

• What do we do when it seems we and the world around us take one step forward and two steps back? It seems like we have a reprieve and then we’re hit with another round of bad news.

• What do we do when our faith in the goodness of God is so quickly challenged by events around us?

• What do we do when our faith in the victory in God is not obvious when we listen to the nightly news?

I have two ideas and they both come from the words pronounced from the heavens at Jesus’ baptism: “This is my Son, the beloved, in whom I am well pleased.”

1. In troubling times, this phrase reminds us of who we really are because the same can be said of us as well. We are “beloved children of God” too.

1 John 3:1-3 “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now.”

Father Henri Nouwen was a Dutch author and priest who wrote a great deal on this aspect of our spiritual life in Christ. In a book entitled You Are the Beloved he wrote, “

“Every time you feel hurt, offended, or rejected, you have to dare to say to yourself: “These feelings, strong as they may be, are not telling me the truth about myself. The truth, even though I cannot feel it right now, is that I am the chosen child of God, precious in God’s eyes, called the Beloved from all eternity, and held safe in an everlasting embrace.”

But we need to be reminded, because we forget. That’s why I suggest we turn this phrase into a simple prayer that we can say when we’re troubled. Maybe something like this: You call me beloved, and I believe what you say. In this way the phrase spoken over Jesus in his baptism becomes the prayer of our hearts. [Deb, Troy, Maggie, Ed, those we name in our prayers, and everyone else.] God says, “You are my beloved child, in whom I am well-pleased.” 

This becomes our anchor. This becomes our center. When all else goes wrong, we can return again and again to this promise that we are the beloved of God. 

Not only is it comforting to remind ourselves who we really are when our faith in the goodness and victory in God is brought into question. It is true. We are God’s beloved and we are going to be OK.

1. In troubling times, we declare this phrase to the world. 

At Jesus’ baptism the declaration of Jesus’ identity was declared to the world. This is God’s Son, the beloved. Heaven is opened and the Spirit descends. Though the world may be filled with violence and trouble, the answer to the way back to God for all of us is to spread that belovedness to all of God’s children. 

To remind them just as we remind ourselves that…The heart of God is love, not hate. The heart of God is life, not death. The heart of God is light, not darkness. And the root of our identity in this beloved belonging is found in the Word Made Flesh - Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

We continue to spread the message of God’s belovedness because as Dr. Martin Luther King said, “Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” 

Yes, we may have to go back to the well and dig deep to find hope in dark times because we are not saved from dark times, we are saved through dark times. But the promise of God in Christ is that there is a well that never shall run dry and it springs up with waters unto eternal life. 

What is the Word?

• The Word is God’s communication to us. 

In language spoken. In language written. In language embedded in creation. The Word is God’s communication to us.

That’s it. If someone asks you, “What is God’s Word?” Or, “Why do we call Jesus the Word of God?” The answer is this: God is too big to understand, but God communicates to us and we call that the Word of God.

You might be saying, “That’s it? Bryce, that was a whole lot of build up for something so simple.”

Just you wait. There’s more.

I said it this way… In language spoken. In language written. In language embedded in creation. 

The first two parts we understand - language spoken and language written. But that third part is where it gets a little fuzzy so I’d like to spend a few minutes there.

Expanded: Language Embedded in Creation

In language embedded in creation.

• The idea is this… there are logical, intelligible patterns in the created order which can be observed and understood.

• It comes from the Greek word λόγος (logos) which was a philosophical concept long before John used it in this gospel. 

• There is a design to the created world. Rules that all of creation lives by. The way the world is put together isn't just random. It is orderly and intelligible.

• The Word is the logic of creation. It’s how stuff works.

Examples of the Logic of Creation

• Weather (the art of knowing what weather is coming and preparing for it. This is tracking the seasons, the smell in the air before it rains, joint pain (like knees and hips) before the weather changes. Also beginning attempts were the Farmers Almanac, now we have radar and satellites and more…)

• Navigation (the art of finding one's way from place to place using context clues, stars, and cardinal directions. We use these less now because of GPS)

• Human behavior (the art of navigating conflicts between people and nations, business acumen, family management, even incorporating atypical behaviors and understanding them to a limited degree)

• Biology (human and animal anatomy, organ function, medicines, interventions that lead to life)

• Engineering (weight loads and angles, and material strengths and structures, math and physics)

THREE IMPLICATIONS

1.There IS a Logic to the Universe

To understand the world in this way is to stand in contrast with some who insist the world is incomplete, broken, and chaotic. They say… 

• “See! There's no God. There's no one running this thing.” 

• “If there was a God, then stuff like this wouldn't happen.”

• “See, the world is just too big to conceive of something that is consistent and constant throughout the entire creation.”

But the evidence is strong in the opposite direction. 

• The presence of patterns and governing laws in every arena of life points to the fact that things that are out of order are simply not yet in line with the order that is there. 

• The existence of chaos speaks to our desire for order. 

• The existence of undiscovered areas of knowledge points to how big God truly is.

2.Study and Give Praise to God

There is truth everywhere to be learned and celebrated. In a sense, when we study “the way things work” we are encountering that Word of God that is present in the creative order. 

Sermon given by Bryce Hewlett.

St. James Lutheran Church Christmas Day Recording.

Musicians: Steve Abel, Madlyn Wulgaert

Vicar: Bryce Hewlett

Reader: Anna Forari

“Joseph’s Dilemma”

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the Season of Advent and with it a fresh start. For those who are new to the game: Advent simply means “coming” or “arrival.” During this season we put the arrival of Jesus in full view. Today, and for the next few days, the arrival of Jesus sits right in front of our faces. And we wait.

• Last week we read and heard my wife speak on Mary’s perspective of the arrival of the baby Jesus  found in Luke’s gospel. Today we hear Joseph’s perspective on that same arrival.

• I confess I have a certain fondness for Joseph in this predicament. Tradition tells us Joseph was probably close to 40-years-old when he was engaged to Mary. 

• A man of a certain age with certain experiences goes about making decisions in a certain kind of way. Making decisions at 40 is more akin to making decisions at 60 than it is to making decisions at 20. Faithfulness to God and attentiveness to one’s circumstances produces a certain kind of maturity that may be absent at 20, but not quite in its fullness at 60 or 80.

• What’s more, untimely pregnancy for mothers in their teen years are circumstances close to my heart. I’ve not experienced the same thing at Joseph, but his age and the nature of his dilemma intrigue me on a personal level.

• So I present to you today Joseph’s Dilemma. What is Joseph to do with the situation on his hands? His young, engaged spouse has become pregnant sometime after they became engaged and before they lived together. What is Joseph to do? What is the faithful response?

Mike Goodwin - Comedian

I imagine Joseph’s prayerful attention to these circumstances considered all of the available options he knew of.

On a much lighter note, my mind was taken to the humorous considerations from comedian Mike Goodwin. You might have seen this reel on the socials. It’s kind-of an old-school church humor so we’ll see how it plays out with us this morning. He opens a segment of his standup routine this way…

My grandma said there's only two things in life you got to worry about: whether you're healthy or whether you're sick. 

If you're healthy, you have nothin’ to worry about. 

If you're sick, you only have two things to worry about. 

If you're going to get better or if you're going to get worse. 

If you’re going to get better, you got nothin’ to worry about. 

If you're going to get worse, you got two things to worry about.

If you're going to live or you're going to die.

If you're going to live, you got nothing to worry about. 

It's going to die, you got two things to worry about.

If you're going to heaven or if you're going to hell.

If you're going to heaven, you got nothing to worry about. 

If you're going to hell, you got two things to worry about. 

Original or extra crispy.

JOSEPH’S DILEMMA IN DETAIL

Joseph’s thought process…

• Women don’t get pregnant unless they have intercorse.

1. If she has Intercourse it either happened consensually or non-consensually

1. If it happened consensually then she has behaved dishonorably and I have two choices

1. I could marry her 

1. and keep it quiet, but then I'd be raising another man's baby knowing she was unfaithful 

2. and make it public, but that would bring her disgrace and questions about me.

2. I could not marry her…

1. and make a public spectacle of it (that’s allowed by Torah)

2. do it quietly

1. perhaps this would lead to a way to help her move forward with the least amount of trouble for her and her child in the future.

Joseph’s Faithfulness

In the end, of course, God knows all things. God knows the truth and that's all that matters. So what is the faithful action I need to take in this situation?

You see, Joseph was stuck. This was a difficult situation and there didn't seem to be a good way out. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place - or, maybe, between original and extra crispy.

All things considered, Joseph chose not to maintain the relationship with her, but also not to make it a public matter, though he could lawfully do so.

In the end he chose mercy.

Thanks for joining our podcast today!

We had a wonderful guest speaker talk to us about Mary, Mother of Jesus, for our third week of Advent.

Guest Speaker: Kim Hewlett

“Let the Fire of Your Justice Burn”

Main point: John comes to us with a message of repentance. Our justice is bent. We need to agree with the justice revealed in Christ.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the Season of Advent and with it a fresh start. For those who are new to the game: Advent simply means arrival. During this season we put the arrival of Jesus in full view. Today, and for the next two weeks, the pending arrival of Jesus sits right in front of our faces.

During Advent we certainly remember the arrival of Jesus in his birth in Bethlehem, we also look forward to his arrival in glory in the future - at the end of this age. In that way, the themes of Advent are twofold. Two arrivals in one - with appropriate themes to match. 

Today we… meet John the Baptizer who brings a message of fire.

JOHN THE BAPTIZER

John comes blazing on the scene this morning with a fiery message to prepare the way for the Lord. John brings integrity, grit, intensity, and a sobering look at our compromised moral condition.

We are reminded that though Jesus may come to us as a cute, innocent baby - he also comes as a good and perfect judge. With fire. When Jesus comes on the scene it’s not just warm feelings and sentimentality - it’s also accountability for those who abuse power, distort justice, and manipulate the people around them. It’s accountability for gross evil. And lest we think this is some other person who is far away instead of me - here - today, John tells us to take account of the ways our justice is bent. Today we are called to task. We run, smack dab, into a person with so much integrity and fervor that it makes us take a hard look at ourselves - to make adjustments to prepare the way for the Lord today.

Is it just me, or does John see to come out of nowhere? He seems to pop on the scene and it seems so out of the blue. Where does this message of fire come from?

To answer that question, we have to back up and tell a bit more of the story -  because John is a man in context. 

POINT 1: John speaks with the Voice

John doesn’t come out of nowhere. He comes 1) from a long line of prophets who spoke truth to the people around them and called people in power back to fidelity to the ways of God. He also speaks 2) with the Voice that laid the foundation of the world from its very beginning. The Word of God. The voice that said, “Let there be light.” The prophets - John the Baptizer among them - spoke in agreement with the voice that laid the foundation of the world. 

Wisdom, mercy, and justice are baked into the created order - and they are baked into us. 

It only takes us a short reflection to see how this plays out as we look at the world and assess what is going on - whether we agree with things or disagree with things, whether we think the world is going along ok or whether we think things are not so good.

We can’t hardly string three sentences together without referencing fairness about our situation or values of good and bad as we look at the world. At the heart of values is justice. Notice it the next time you’re talking to someone, even casually.

• “It doesn’t seem right that…(you finish the sentence)” That’s justice.

• “I can’t believe that person would say that to me.” That’s justice.

• Just yesterday I was sitting at a birthday party and the conversation turned to food pantries and SNAP benefits and the worthiness of people to receive or not receive government assistance. The heart of that conversation was justice.

• Even rooting for Indiana over Ohio State in the BIg Ten football championship yesterday carries with it a bit of justice. Indiana’s football program has been the underdog for years. Beating Ohio State felt like a bit of cosmic justice. Unless you’re an Ohio State fan. In which case you’re looking at justice from the other side of the coin.

• We feel justice deep in our gut. And for good reason. Justice is built into us.

“Come, Lord Jesus, but not just yet”

Main point: The era we live in (the last days) gives us time to repent and return to Christ.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the Season of Advent and with it a fresh start. Next week when we are back together in-person, you’ll notice some things have switched around in our sanctuary and in our worship. Our colors are blue. Some of our liturgical music is new. We’re lighting Advent candles and we’re singing O Come, O Come Emmanuel. All for this fresh start in Advent.

For those who are new to the game: Advent simply means arrival. During this season we put the arrival of Jesus in full view. Today, and for the next three weeks, the arrival of Jesus sits right in front of our faces.

For many of us, the arrival of Jesus only means one thing: his birth in a manger 2000 years ago. But there’s more. During Advent we certainly remember the arrival of Jesus in his birth in Bethlehem, we also look forward to his arrival in glory in the future - at the end of this age. In that way, the themes of Advent are twofold. 

On the one hand, we prepare to celebrate the arrival of Jesus in the world when he was born as a baby. We rejoice in all his birth means for us - in our time and in our place - as well as for the whole world. His arrival was a gift to the world - unlike any other gift. It brings us hope. It brings us peace. It brings us courage to do good in the world.

On the other hand, the full extent of the blessings of that gift have not permeated our world completely. When we look around at the state of the world, we might wonder if the blessing of Christ truly extends as far as the curse is found - as the old Christmas carol states so beautifully.

Two arrivals in one - with appropriate themes to match. Today we especially look at the arrival of Christ that has not happened yet. The arrival in the future.

FROM THE TEXT

In our gospel on this first week of Advent we see a teaching which anticipates that future arrival. “Keep awake,” “because we do not know the day our Lord will come.” So we must “be ready.”

To welcome the arrival of Christ, we must be ready. 

Are we ready? I confess to you that I am not ready today.

• It’s like…I’m throwing a dinner party and my house isn’t clean, the food is still in the oven, and the first guests have just arrived at my door. 

• It’s like…My child is finishing high school and wants to go to college, but we haven’t sent in all of the necessary paperwork and we haven’t saved up enough money for them to go.

• It’s like… it’s Christmas Eve and Amazon tells me the gift I bought for my parents three weeks ago is still in transit.

I’m not ready. That is why I say in anticipation of the arrival of Jesus Christ

…Come, Lord Jesus, but not just yet. I wonder if you feel the same way.

LAMENTATION

God, grant us time to be ready.

Come, Lord Jesus, but not just yet.

Give us time to return to you.

Our lives have grown distracted and overwhelmed in our pursuits. We’ve been chasing after things that we think will make us happy, but they haven’t made us happy. In some ways, we have received what we wanted, but it hasn’t fulfilled us. Not in the deepest ways we desire to be fulfilled. In other ways we have not yet received what we pursue and we’re still chasing. We think when we find it, we will be happy, but in the meantime, our hearts are restless because they have not found their rest in you. Be patient with us a little longer to put down our distractions and pursuits that don’t lead us to you.

God, grant us a little more time so that we may be ready.

We say: Come, Lord Jesus, but not just yet.

“Who is this King of Glory?”

Main point: We see Jesus revealed to us as a trustworthy king today. He is our King of Glory.

INTRODUCTION

Christ is King and there is no other. King? Really??? I've never lived under a king, so what's that all about?

Kings get a bad rap in our representative democracy, so, first,...A Word on Kings

What do Moses, Plato, and Thomas Aquinas all have in common? Answer: they all thought monarchy was A OK.

Monarchy/kings, as a form of government, are not inherently bad. It's actually good, or, at least, permissible. 

I know…shocker.

When we look at history, Christians around the world (and our Jewish ancestors in the faith before them) have lived under monarchs for most of our existence. It’s the reality they lived in. In nearly every era of the Church, we - Christians - have lived in lands ultimately ruled by some sort of supreme monarch. 

Consider Moses from the Bible who lived about 3500 years ago. Even long ago under Moses when God gave the Torah (or “Law”), God made provision for the Israelites when they entered the promised land and got a king. It’s at the end of Deuteronomy, chapter 17, if you want to read it on your own. God made provision for it. Kings must be at least permissible.

Even the Greek philosophers who came after Moses, such as Plato about 2300 years ago, they reasoned that philosopher-kings would govern mostly benevolently, efficiently, and justly.

Then in the 13th Century, about 800 years ago, Thomas Acquanas, theologian and Doctor of the Church, described monarchy as the very best form of government citing its efficiency and efficacy to affect the common good as its chief asset. 

You might not be convinced yet, but monarchy/kings, as a form of government, are not inherently bad. It's actually good, or, at least, permissible.

Monarch is Risky

The reason we don't like Kings is not because having a king is inherently bad, the problem is the risk of getting the wrong kind of king. If the history of monarchs in the world tells us anything, it's that good kings who reign with justice and peace are the ultra-slim minority, not the rule. 

Consider this: If efficiency is the virtue of monarchy, you can be assured, you're gonna get somewhere quickly, but you might not like it when you get there. Having a king may be OK. Having the wrong kind of king is devastating. 

We don’t like Kings

I say all of this because we here in the United States have a particular distaste for kings. Whether it’s our Pilgrim heritage, the “No More Kings” song from Schoolhouse Rock, or the recent No Kings protests - we don’t like the idea of a king. It’s in our DNA. And yet, Christ comes to us today - from Scripture and Tradition - as King.

BECAUSE of our distaste for kings, we might balk at the very idea that Jesus - the one who taught, demonstrated, and accomplished forgiveness, peace, love and mercy - would even come to us as a King. In a word: our distaste for Kings might make us dismiss the King of Kings himself. Jesus Christ. The King of Glory.

But to that disposition we can say this: Jesus is a decidedly different King than all those who call themselves kings in human history.

WHO IS THIS KING OF GLORY?

So, with the psalmist who penned today’s psalm we ask the same question: Who is this King of Glory? And the answer to our question comes to us in our readings today.

Answer #1: The Prophet Jeremiah

The first answer comes from the prophet Jeremiah in our first reading. It says…this king rules with wisdom and executes justice and righteousness. He brings safety. His name is Jehovah-Tsidkenu which means “The LORD our righteousness.”