Keeping the Faith

January 15^th, 2017   “Keeping the Faith”    Rev. Heather Jepsen

John 1:29-42 with Psalm 40:1-11

          Upon first examination, our scripture reading for this Sunday looks much like the material we covered last week.  Here again, we read of the baptism of Jesus and the start of his public ministry.  But of course, last week we were reading the gospel of Matthew’s account of the story, and this week we are reading the story as told in the gospel of John.  The differences in the readings are significant.

          When John tells the story, he is not narrating the events of the baptism like Matthew does.  Instead, he has his character John the Baptist, tell the story of Jesus’ baptism in his own voice.  John spots Jesus in the crowd and starts telling everyone how important he is.  John says that he did not know Jesus, and yet at the baptismal event, the Spirit descended upon Jesus and this was the sign that he was the holy one.

          Isn’t that an interesting detail, that John did not know Jesus?  Since we often find ourselves reading this story right after Christmas time, we always assume that John the Baptist and Jesus knew each other.  After Mary and Elizabeth’s connection, and the sharing of a family bloodline, we just naturally put Jesus and John together in our minds.  But of course the Mary and Elizabeth connection is not part of the story that the gospel of John is telling, we get those ideas from the gospel of Luke.

          In John’s gospel we just have John the Baptist, out at the river Jordan.  He is busy baptizing one person after another and waiting and hoping to see the Christ among them.  I wonder how long John was out there.  We only talk about him for a month or so, and I realized this week, then when I imagined the story I only imagined him out there for about that long, a month or so.  That doesn’t make any sense really, as the text doesn’t say anything about that.  The writer of the gospel just says that John is out there, baptizing and preaching . . . out there, waiting for the Messiah.

          I wonder if perhaps he wasn’t out there for years.  John could have spent years hoping, and waiting, and watching.  He could have lived by the river for years.  Waiting for people to come, preaching repentance in a world that seemed to have gone mad, and hoping with each person he dunked that there would finally be a sign and he would finally know that this one was “the one”.  It’s an image of deep faithfulness in the face of uncertainty.

          When Jesus does come, and John does experience the revelation, he doesn’t hesitate to tell others who Jesus is.  “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”  Twice John declares he did not know him, but that he was revealed as the Messiah in baptism.  Jesus must not look like the Messiah; he must not seem like the one who was expected.  It is almost with astonishment that John declares, “I myself did not know him.”  It is like Jesus was hidden in plain sight.  Which of course John implies might be the case as he declares “Among you stands one you do not know.”

          As the reading continues John is visiting with his followers as Jesus passes by.  John is quick again, to point out the Messiah to others.  It is only after he is pointed out and declared the Lamb of God that John’s disciples seek to follow the new teacher.  Again, the reader of the text is left to wonder at just how easily Jesus is concealed.  Those who will be his disciples, including Andrew, don’t even notice Jesus when he walks by.  Here is the Son of God, in our midst, and yet no one sees him unless someone else first points him out.

          This idea got me wondering about how many times we might miss Jesus in our midst.  Where might he be hidden in plain sight in our world?  Where might we meet God in unexpected places?  How might our lives look if we lived them always ready and expecting to see God around the next corner?  Sometimes we may fear that God has left us alone in our mess.  But if we approach life in hope, looking for God everywhere, then perhaps we will encounter God in ways we never imagined.

          Of course a huge part of looking for God is waiting for that sign, that moment, that break through.  And waiting is all about faithfulness which in turn is about action.  How do we keep living our lives, how do we keep going, in faith, as we await the next revelation of God?

          The scriptures are full of faithful people who kept going as they waited for a word or a sign.  Not just John the Baptist waiting at the river Jordan for the one he was sure was coming.  There are also countless people who have waited for healing for years.  There are numerous barren women who have prayed daily for the miracle of life to grow in their wombs.  There are the prophets who have preached the justice of God, and waited through lifetimes of injustice and unfaithful leaders.  There are apostles who have gone out into the world to preach the news of the Christ, who find themselves waiting for their next welcome and hot meal.  There are the Israelites, wandering in the desert, waiting an entire generation, for the time to be right for God to finally lead them into the Promised Land.  The scriptures are full of people waiting in faithfulness.

          Our reading from the book of Psalms also encourages us to wait in faithfulness.  “I waited patiently for the Lord; God inclined to me and heard my cry.”  The Psalmist describes themselves as living in the desolate pit and the miry bog.  I can imagine myself there sometimes, in the miry bog, can you?  The Psalmist is down in the hole, waiting patiently for the Lord.  I’m not sure how patient I would be down in the hole, but I am sure there is not much else to do there other than to wait. 

          God eventually hears the cry of the Psalmist and draws them out of the pits of despair.  The Psalmist is placed on dry ground, on the rock of safety, and from there they begin to sing praise of God.  The Psalmist sings and sings, telling the wonderful news of salvation to everyone they know.  “I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation . . . I have not hidden your saving help . . . I have spoken of your faithfulness . . . I have not concealed your steadfast love.”  Faithful in waiting for deliverance, the Psalmist is now faithful in preaching the gospel

          Like those in the scriptures, from the Psalmist to John the Baptist, we are called to wait.  Not just simply sit on our backsides and watch the world pass by, but to wait in faith and action.  As the world around us seems to move farther and farther away from God’s justice, we are called to keep the faith.  We are called to pray, to worship, to preach the good news of justice and peace, and to look for God in unexpected places.  In this uncertain day and age, we are called to wait in faithfulness and hope.  And when we do see Jesus, we are called to point him out, just like the Psalmist and John the Baptist do.  We are called to say “look, here is God, in the stranger, in the refugee, in our children, and in each other.”

          This weekend our nation honors one of our greatest spiritual leaders, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.  He is a wonderful example of someone who waited in faith and hope.  He did the work, he preached the gospel, and he inspired folks to look for God in the world.  Though he saw progress, he never saw the just treatment of people that he imagined.  He never saw the beloved community he dared to believe in.  We still haven’t gotten there.  And yet, his life and legacy inspire us to keep working, to keep preaching, to keep looking for God in the world.  This isn’t a sitting down, standing by kind of waiting.  This isn’t letting someone else do the work.  Instead this is a waiting in faithful action.  Like Martin Luther King, we are called to do the work of God while we wait for the long arc of the moral universe to bend ever closer to justice.

          This week, I invite you to reconsider the story of John the Baptist.  I invite you to wonder about how long he might have camped out at the river waiting in faithfulness for the Messiah he was looking for.  Was it months, years, decades?  I invite you to consider his astonishment as suddenly he found the Spirit descending upon Jesus, someone he would never have expected.  “I myself did not know him.”  And I invite you to consider his boldness, in turning around and telling everyone what he had seen.  This one, the one we never expected, was the Messiah, hiding here in plain sight.

          This week, may we live lives of faith as we wait to see God in our world.  May we be aware that God may be hiding in plain sight even now.  And may we declare and point out God in our midst as grace and justice are revealed.  Amen.

A Call of the Heart

January 8^th, 2017     “A Call of the Heart”      Rev. Heather Jepsen

Matthew 3:13-17 with Isaiah 42:1-9

          I hope that you had a wonderfully blessed Christmas and New Year with your families and friends.  I know the Jepsens had a fun two weeks together at home.  One gift that we particularly loved was the large assortment of generous gift cards from all of you.  While Powell Gardens may need to wait for warmer weather, we enjoyed a trip to the movies this week, thanks to you.

          On Monday, when the church office was closed for New Year, the Jepsens headed out to see the new Disney movie, “Moana”.  I loved this movie so much.  If you haven’t seen it I encourage you to go.  Moana is a classic call narrative.  A young girl is chosen to lead the tribe, and while she is being groomed to stay on her island, her heart is calling her to the ocean.  In fact, the ocean itself is calling her to go on a mission to save her people.  While most people are telling her to stay in place, her heart is telling her to follow her calling.  It is a wonderful example of hearing a call for your life, taking a time of discernment, and then trying to faithfully navigate a response. 

          Our scripture readings this morning are also all about call.  Today we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord, this is the moment that marks the adult Jesus’ entry into ministry.  We know that Jesus will struggle to continue to navigate his personal call, as evidenced by his time in the wilderness, but this is the moment when he publically steps forward.  Jesus joins the ranks of sinners, makes himself one with humanity, and in that act is marked as God’s own.  In choosing to join with us in our sinfulness, the heavens are opened, the spirit descends, and Jesus is declared a beloved child of God.

          John too is answering a call in this reading.  His calling is to be the voice crying in the wilderness, and to prepare the way for the one who is to come.  When Jesus appears at the Jordan, John is understandably confused.  He knows who should be in charge here as he asks, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”  Jesus insists that yes, that is the divine plan.  Jesus’ path is one of humility, and it begins by submitting to baptism by John.

          In our reading from Isaiah, we get a sense of the call that Jesus is following in his heart.  This is one of Isaiah’s servant songs, which details the life of the Messiah who was to come.  While the servant will have God’s spirit upon him and the power to bring forth justice in the nations, his ministry will be one of compassion and gentleness.  “A bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench.”  This leader will not respond to weakness with a crushing blow, rather he will respond with nurturing and care.  Such is the call of the servant savior.

          When we talk about call within the Presbyterian Church, we talk not only about a personal call of the heart, but we also look for a call that is echoed in the voice of the community.  In the movie Moana, though most of the community does not see the hero’s call to save the island, there is one voice that lifts Moana up and carries her forward.  Moana’s grandmother Tala is the one who has seen the ocean’s call and who will then echo that call for Moana in her moments of doubt.

          In the call story of John the Baptist, it is the people who gather at the river who echo the call of his heart back to him.  It is the gathered crowds who help him to understand his role in the community.  So too, when Jesus requests that John baptize him, even though he is the Son of God, Jesus echoes back to John his call to be The Baptizer.

          Jesus’ own call of the heart is echoed back in his baptism by John the Baptist who declares the Jesus is the one to baptize with fire and with the Holy Spirit.  Of course, Jesus also receives an even louder echo of his call as the voice from heaven declares his beloved status as the Son of God.

          In our own lives, we too are asked to listen and discern a call of the heart.  As we join with Jesus in baptism, we also join with him and others in the experience of call in our lives.  In the Presbyterian tradition we believe in the Priesthood of all Believers, which states that all people receive a call from God to service.  Some folks like me, are called to the ministry of the word and sacrament.  Many other folks are called to serve the church through the role of deacons, elders, and on committees of the small church and the larger denomination.

          Today we honor and install those who have chosen to answer that call of the heart for 2017.  Bill, Teresa, and Laurie have served the church as elders in the past.  Today they agree again, that God is calling them to a ministry of leadership and we as a church echo that call back to them through this service of prayer and installation.  So too Susan and Cheryl, are responding to God’s call to serve this community through the caring ministry of deacons, and the church community echoes that call back as we install them with prayer.  In fact, many folks here today are responding to God’s call in their heart through actions of care and leadership in this church family and in their personal lives.

          Though answering a divine call may seem like a daunting challenge, God does not leave us alone in our ministry.  We are lifted up and encouraged by each other’s faith and friendship.  More importantly we are nourished for the work ahead by coming to the table of grace.  When we gather to celebrate the sacrament of communion, we remember Jesus’ response to the call of his heart, a call that led him to dark and difficult places.  And we honor God’s echo of that call, in accompanying Jesus to the grave and raising him again to new life.  At the table we join our hearts again with Jesus and we receive the energy to continue following the call God has placed in each of our own lives.   

          Throughout our days in this crazy world, God is singing a song to our hearts.  God is calling us to respond to love, by sharing the love of God with the world around us.  This is such a universal experience that we can find it in the heart of the person sitting next to us in the pew, as well as in the latest Disney movie.  All around us God is calling us and lifting us up to serve the community and the world.  All that remains is to answer the question.  How will you follow the call of God in your heart in this New Year?  Amen.

Finding Hope in the Nightmare

January 1^st, 2017    “Finding Hope in the Nightmare”      Rev. Heather Jepsen

Matthew 2:13-23

          The Earth has completed another rotation on its axis and it is time again that we declare “Happy New Year!”  2016 is a year that many of us have longed to see the back of.  From the absolute non-stop presidential campaign, to the increasingly divided state of the “united” states, to the seemingly unending list of beloved celebrities and friends who have died, 2016 was a big bummer.  It was definitely a year for the record books, and not in a good way.

          The arrival of the New Year is a time that often trumpets hope in our midst.  We can be hopeful that this year will be better than the last.  But realistically, it seems that hope for a fresh new year is pretty bleak this time around.  With the arrival of the new administration, things will be changing in these United States.  Those of us who stand on the side of social justice; who preach peace, equality, human rights, help for the poor, and environmental conservation will need to remain vigilant.  This will be a year to lift our voices and preach the truth to power, especially as the question “what is truth?” continues to be raised in new and troubling ways.

          No matter what happens to us politically, the specter of death will continue to march across our lives.  I am certain we will lose another round of beloved celebrities in 2017.  Not to mention our own personal losses that aren’t even a shadow on our days yet.  From car accidents to cancer, this coming year will be as bad as any that have gone before.

          Of course, we aren’t the first people to live through a nightmare of death, violence, corrupt dictatorships, and the threat of lost hope.  In fact, that is exactly the place where we find the young holy family this morning.  In the story that Matthew tells, the wise men have come and gone.  While they have brought gifts for the child, they also bring a cloud of danger around them, as the one who sent them, Herod, has no intention of worshipping this threat to the empire.

          The very night the wise men leave, Joseph has a nightmare.  Herod longs to kill his son and so he is ordered to take Mary and the child and to flee into Egypt.  We need to remind ourselves that in Matthew’s story, the Holy Family is originally from Bethlehem.  They are now called to run from their homeland by night, and to hide out in a foreign country under assumed names.  Mary, Joseph, and the baby are illegal immigrants.  They are refugees fleeing violence in their homeland.

          And of course the violence comes and it is brutally merciless.  Joseph may have woken from his dream but the reality of his nightmare is enacted on the families of Bethlehem.  Herod has all the children searched out, and all of those two years old or younger are killed.  The mothers are inconsolable as they mourn the loss of their hearts very joy, their children are no more.

          It’s no wonder that we forget this part of the story every year.  The wise men come to our nativity scenes but we rarely honor the flight to Egypt.  And while if we look hard enough we may find artistic representations of the holy family fleeing in the night, we don’t often see or imagine the graves of Bethlehem’s other children.  We conveniently forget that the prince of peace was born into a world of violence, and that violence will mark his life on this earth, even from such a tender age.

          When Herod finally dies, Joseph again dreams and is called to return home to Bethlehem.  But it is not long into their travels when they realize they will not be returning home after all for it is not a safe place.  Instead, they must shift again, heading into the region of Galilee.  Unable to return to the safety and familiarity of home, the refugee family seeks to make a new life in Nazareth.   

          While we imagine him as a baby, scholars think that Jesus was probably two when the wise men visited.  Logically then, he would be old enough to remember his flight in the night, crossing dangerous borders and watching for soldiers and guards.  So too would he remember the aborted return home, and how the powers that rule the land dictate the life of him and his small family.  Life as a refugee would have been a formative experience for our Lord, and yet it is a story that we conveniently ignore and overlook.  It’s much harder for us to celebrate Jesus the middle-eastern refugee kid, than Jesus the tiny baby in swaddling.

          While it is New Year’s Day outside these doors, in the church we don’t celebrate the New Year.  Instead we mark this time as Epiphany.  Epiphany is the “season of light” and we need that light in our world now more than ever.  An Epiphany of course, is a realization, and perhaps our realization for 2017 is that the Christ child of the scriptures looks a lot more like a Syrian refugee, than like the blonde-haired blue-eyed babe of our mangers.

          As with Joseph, the world around us is starting to look like a nightmare.  These are dark days indeed, and yet the writer of the gospel of John reminds us that “What has come into being in Christ was life, and the life was the light of all people.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”

          Although his days were dark and full of fear and real danger, Joseph did not abandon hope.  He did not let go of the light that was burning in his heart.  When I read the paper every morning I can admit I could be tempted to lose hope in this world, and yet even a small candle of light burns in my heart these days for the New Year. 

          Those of us, who were present Christmas Eve, remember how one candle of light can spread to fill the whole room with its glow as we share the light together.  It is my dream that in this coming year, the small glimmer of hope in my heart will unite with the glimmer of hope in yours.  Together we can make it through these trying times and perhaps we can even make the world a better place.

          As Matthew tells the story of our Savior, the days from this point on pass quickly and are unrecorded.  The next event is the arrival of John the Baptist at the river Jordan, preaching repentance and advocating baptism.  The candle of hope must have burned in the holy family for decades, and now hope comes to fruition as Jesus comes to the waters prepared to answer the call to begin a ministry that will forever change the world.

          The holy family lived through a violent nightmare, brought about by the birth of their son, Jesus.  And yet, in the midst of threats and fear, they held on to a candle of hope.  It seems that we, as a people of privilege living upon this planet ought to be able to do the same.  We too, need to hold on to that candle of hope and to look for the light in the darkness.  Maybe this coming year will be unrecorded in the great book of history but maybe not.  Maybe 2017 will be our best year ever.  Perhaps the state of the world will call us to action in ways we never imagined.  Perhaps we will share the gospel in ways we have never considered before.  Perhaps we will lead the lives of faith we have only dreamed of.  Perhaps this is the year when we rise up and declare “We are the people of God, and we have come to bring about the kingdom of God, on earth as it is in heaven.”  I certainly hope so.

          We can do all of these things, but only if we gather together as the body of Christ.  This coming year, 2017, God is calling us to live out our faith in bold and exciting new ways.  May God bless this New Year, and may we bless the world around us by sharing the light of love that burns within our hearts.  Amen.