Worship at First Presbyterian Church of Marion, Illinois

Matthew 3:1-17

 John the Baptist asks a key question that we don’t always ask. We should, but we don’t. Why are you coming to be baptized?Who warned us to flee the wrath that is coming? Are we being baptized just to flee wrath, or do we repent?

And what brings Jesus to be baptized? John has it right when he essentially asks Jesus what is going on,that John should be baptized by Jesus. What brings Jesus to the waters?

The simple answer is that it was prophesied, which is awfully close to that predestination answer. Jesus doesn’t need to repent. Jesus doesn’t need to have John be a part of things. So what’s the point? Why does Jesus get baptized?

The answer is found when the cloud opens up. John needs to hear what God says about Jesus. The crowds need to hear it. We need to hear it. This should be why we come to the waters – because we hear God saying that we are God’s beloved. Come to the waters, not because you fear God, but because you are loved by God.

Matthew 2:1-23

            You may know about the Magi. You may know the trivia (were there 3?) or you may know the jokes (it took 2 years and they brought impractical gifts because they were wise men). They come to see the child, they visit the palace, and are warned in a dream to go home by another way.

Nevertheless, Herod is infuriated and decides to protect his power. Again, in a dream, an angel appears and sends the holy family to Egypt. Again, against their will the family chosen by God gets sent to Egypt, and again they will need to come out of Egypt to return to the promised land.

Fear still afflicts Joseph, as it afflicted Zechariah. The family returns, after hesitation, and settles in Nazareth.

From the beginning, the promise of the Messiah is under threat from the powers of this world. From the beginning,God’s plan works through people willing to listen, to hear, and to act, in order that God’s will may be done. It takes magi who turn down Herod and go home by another way. It takes a family willing to again do something absurd,and pick up and move not once, but twice, and to go back into harm’s way.

How has God moved us, called us from place to place and situation to situation? How have we made hard decisions, and answered to God first about our lives? 

Granger Odum – Revelation 21

Psalm 96:7-10, Luke 2:1-20

Isaiah 42:1-9,Matthew 1:18-25

Isaiah is perhaps the ancient version of the 5 pounds of ads that show up in the paper on Thanksgiving, or the wave of advertising emails that show up the week of Thanksgiving. They are all there telling us to get ready for what is coming. They hype us up, they build up the anticipation.

Imagine, if you will, what the people who hear this passage are expecting. Hear the language that describes the one who is coming. Are you excited yet?

Now, come into the Matthew passage.It’s kind of anti-climactic. It’s like the toy of the year 4 days after Christmas, or when the batteries die. And she bore a son, and he named him Jesus. Seriously? That’s all we get from Matthew? After the build up in Isaiah, I expect more, we expect more, the people of God expect more.

So, how do we maintain the excitement of the anticipation? How do we not get sucked into the post holiday,“it’s here, so now what” blahs? Tomorrow we will gather and tell the story of the birth of Jesus. I’d suggest that if those songs are enough to get us to sing with great joy and gusto, the one they are written about should be enough as well, no matter how anticlimactic the arrival may be. Sing, live, pray,laugh, weep, with the joy of the coming of God.

Esther 4:1-17

The Esther story is one that we sort of know. Often we study it because it has a woman lead, and we think that’s rare (it’s not). We think it’s the exception to the rule, and a one off type of story.

If we knew our history, we’d know it isn’t. This isn’t the first time that we hear this type of story. We hear it again in the William Tell story of Switzerland. We hear it again in the ghettoization of Europe and the later Holocaust. We see it in the iconic picture of one person standing in front of a tank in Tiananmen Square. We hear different aspects of this story again and again, whether it being one person who stands up or a people who are threatened with being exterminated. (Think Rwanda, think Cambodia, think Jesus on the cross)

           As we follow this familiar story, familiar both in Esther and in life, we come to the end of this passage. Esther asks Mordecai to have the community pray for her for three days before she goes to the king, risking death. Does that part of the story sound familiar? Given the amounts of stories we can connect to this story and its themes, are there stories of our own lives that we can connect? What is our for such a time?

Habakkuk 1:1-7;2:1-4; 3:[3b-6], 17-19
To start with, prophets are generally not sent to places in good times. The times may be bad for the people the prophet is sent to, or the times may be bad from the perspective of the one sending the prophet. In this case, we get the indication that the people are not happy with the situation. It isn’t a protest of what is happening to the speaker, as much as it is what happens around the speaker. God’s response is that God is going to do something, but not what we might like or expect. God is going to bring war, terror, loss, a sea of Babylonians, not something anyone wants to see. Habakkuk then responds to God, and ends up saying that he (the prophet) will stand, watch and wait, to see God’s answer.

After God responds, Habakkuk prays. It isn’t a soft prayer. It’s a hard prayer. It isn’t easy to read. It’s hard. It’s harsh. It’s awesome. It is faithful. Ultimately Habakkuk prays that he will rejoice in God regardless of what else happens, because God is his savior, and he will wait patiently for God to be God and to deliver. Patiently, but not silently. Endurance, and a commitment to faith that says God cares. A prayer from the tough times, for the tough times, and with hope in the One who is over all.

Micah 1:3-5, 5:2-5a, 6:6-8

Isaiah 2:1-4, 36:1-3, 13-20; 37:1-7