If Jesus Showed Up Today

          If Jesus showed up at your school today and asked you to follow him what would you do? If Jesus walked by your house and said, “Come, follow me,” would you?

Just what would it mean to follow Jesus today? What would it mean today to drop what you’re doing now and follow Jesus? Who would Jesus call today, you…me…your neighbor?

What would it mean, what does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus the Christ? What do we have to repent of? What do we need to change? Are we ready to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit? Do we believe that the world cares about the nearness of the kingdom of God? Are we willing to risk following Jesus when he calls us?

Listen to this poem by Rev. Roddy Hamilton:

Will you follow me he asked—and we never hesitated because it was an adventure, and we never tired of those, the risk, the randomness, the gamble.

Will you follow me he asked—and we dropped everything that we held, and which held us dear at the prospect of fresh bait and rich pickings at his side.

Will you follow me he asked—and we defied convention and conviction, traded waves for dusty roads to weather new storms.

Much later, will you still follow me, he asked—and we hesitated because it had become hard. He spoke in riddles, tangled our thoughts like well-worn nets and slipped through our hands like wriggling fish.

And then he talked of death and of betrayal, and we realized that it was no longer an adventure but a one-way path to danger we were on. And we watched friends turn away, unwilling to forfeit any more for one who spoke of sacrifice as the only way, and cursed our disbelief as the work of the devil.

And yet we could not turn back. Whether out of fear or out of habit or out of curiosity we stayed with him, harboring our doubts, hedging our bets, trying hard to trust in the one for whom we had so readily, so carelessly abandoned our security, for there was nowhere else to go but onwards. There was nothing else to do but finish this journey. There was no-one else but he who chose us. Will you still follow me, he asked. And we did.

Friends, Jesus is still calling disciples to follow him today. Will you answer his call to drop everything and follow him?

Cast a Stone into the Water; Make a Ripple

When you were a kid did you ever toss a stone or rock into a pond? What is created from that action, ripples? How far do they travel? If we take the time to notice we’ll see that the little waves generated by the rock hitting the water travel all the way to the shore. The waves keep going until they run into something solid. The energy created by the rock keeps going until it is transferred somewhere else.

Last week we remembered and celebrated Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist at the Jordan River. Today’s gospel lesson from John tells us Jesus went back to the river and there John gives testimony that Jesus is the One they’ve been waiting for, the Messiah.

Because he testifies that Jesus is the Messiah two of John’s disciples leave him and follow Jesus. Jesus notices and stops and asks them what they want. They reply that they want to know where he’s staying. So, he invites them to follow him and they spend the afternoon with him. Then they go back home.

It doesn’t end there. Andrew, one of the disciples, goes to his brother, Simon, and tells him they have found the Messiah. The next day they go back to where Jesus is and Jesus gives Simon a new name, Cephas (Peter). And the reading for today ends there but that’s not the end of the story, is it.

In the gospel of John we read that he goes back to the river and he invites Philip to follow him. And Philip went to find his friend Nathanael and invited him to come and see the Messiah. Nathanael was skeptical. He didn’t believe a rabbi could come from the small village of Nazareth.

Jesus’ said, as he approached, “There’s a real Israelite, not a false bone in his body.” Of course Nathanael wanted to know why he said that and Jesus told him how he’d observed him beneath the fig tree. That’s all it took. He was convinced that Jesus was the One, the Messiah everyone had been waiting for. So, he followed him.

These men were the first called by Jesus to follow him. They stayed with him until he was arrested and taken away to be crucified.  They committed their lives to being his disciples.

Because they wanted to be like Jesus and learn everything he had to teach them we are here this morning listening to the Word being read and the Message being proclaimed. 

God cast a rock, Jesus, into the pool of humanity and the ripples are still being carried to the distant corners of the world. The energy created when Jesus began his ministry still hasn’t dissipated. I don’t believe it ever will.

I may need to qualify that statement. It never will as long as there are people committed to giving their testimony to others who may be skeptical like Nathanael.

If the Story quits being shared I can’t imagine what God will do then. Maybe that will be when Jesus will return. I wonder.

I want to go back to the part of the story where Andrew and his friend follow Jesus. Have you ever wondered why they would leave John and follow Jesus? What prompted them to do that?

Jesus and his disciples were all from Galilee. In Acts, when the Holy Spirit descends on the disciples gathered in the upper room, the disciples begin to speak in different languages and the people outside cannot understand how they knew how to do that because they were all Galileans. They implied that people from Galilee weren’t intelligent enough to learn other languages.

Actually the opposite was true. Galilee produced most of the rabbis how taught in the temple of Jerusalem and in the synagogues in the villages. All the boys and girls went to school to study the Torah, to memorize it word for word. Then at about 10 or 12 the girls stayed home to learn how to keep house and the boys continued to study.

If they were the best of the best of the Beth Midrash then they would seek a rabbi they respected and wanted to learn from. They’d ask to follow him.  These young men were called the talmidim. They would leave everything they had and follow the rabbi so that they could learn to be like him. They listened, they watched, and they imitated their rabbi. The talmid wanted to be exactly like their rabbi.

If they were dedicated and disciplined enough they would become teachers themselves and pass along what they had learned from their rabbi.

Now we understand why Jesus’ disciples dropped their nets and left their families to follow him. They called Jesus ‘Rabbi’ out of respect for him as a person and a great teacher.

Jesus had such a huge following because he fit the description of a 1^st century rabbi who was at the most advance level of learning. They were many talmidim who wanted to learn from him. That’s another reason why there were so many around him when he was teaching on the mountain or at the lake. And that’s why the Pharisees were so afraid of him.

He taught like someone who had received training from the best of the best. That’s why they questioned by what authority he taught because there were many who had his knowledge of the scriptures.

And that’s why people still gather in worship to hear the lessons from the Scriptures. They desire to learn from Jesus. They want to hear again his word. They want to imitate him, to be like him.

And when they learn it all they will teach others. They will give testimony and the ripples will continue until everyone has heard the Story of God’s love for the world in Jesus, the Christ.

Water & Grace

Why did Jesus go to the Jordan River to be baptized by John? Why do some parents want to have their children baptized in the first months of their lives and other parents want to wait until their children are older maybe even until they are ready to be confirmed? Why is it important for believers of Jesus Christ to be baptized?

Does pouring water on someone’s head give them supernatural powers to resist temptations, and not sin? Does being baptized mean that we’re saved and our sins forgiven?

We know that the water poured into the font is water that came from the tap that came from the water treatment plant downtown. It is safe to drink. It can be used to wash our cars, water our gardens, and take baths or showers. It is just ordinary water. There is nothing special or magical about this water.

So, what is it that makes the sacrament of baptism so special, so important to our faith? Why do we celebrate and remember Jesus’ baptism every year?

One of the first things I learned when I entered elementary school was that I should wash my hands, often.  I didn’t know that it was so important to have clean hands but my teachers apparently thought we needed to be educated about cleanliness. So, they taught us how to wash our hands properly.

We know now that, especially at this time of year, it’s very important to wash our hands often to minimize the transmission of germs. Even then we still cannot escape getting colds and flu viruses.

Water is vital to the process of cleansing our bodies and removing the things that would make us ill. Baptism with water symbolizes that same process of cleansing, washing away that which would make us ill.

Water provides nourishment for us and for all living things here on earth, plants, animals, and people. Without water nothing survives. Without water the planet and everything on it will die.

Baptism by immersion is symbolic with dying, going under the water as Christ was buried in the tomb and coming up out of the water gasping for air is symbolic of  conquering death just as Jesus did when he rose from the tomb in the garden.

Last Sunday we witnessed the baptism of two children and were asked to remember our own baptism. As part of the service we all professed our faith and stated that we would commit to guide, nurture, and encourage these young folks to know and follow Jesus the Christ and to faithful members of his church.

This is a serious commitment we all made. It was a serious commitment Jesus made when he was baptized by John in the Jordan. From that time on his life was given wholly to doing God’s will here on earth. We promise to love and serve God for the rest of our lives too.

The gospels don’t say much about Jesus’ life from his birth until his baptism except for Luke giving us the story about him staying behind in the temple, at the age of twelve, in Jerusalem talking with the religious teachers. All that time in between was preparation for this great ministry to the people of Galilee.

So, this day when Jesus went to the River was an important day. It truly was the beginning of the rest of his life. It was the beginning of the rest of our lives too.

The day we were baptized was the beginning of the rest of our lives too. And everyday we work to improve on the day before asking God, trusting in God’s covenant of grace, to forgive us for our failures to live fully into his covenant.

At the font we recognize that we are united with all churches in baptism. We may not all be allowed to participate in the Lord’s Supper together but if we have been baptized we are accepted into any congregation as one of God’s children.

When Jesus was baptized is one of the few times that God was present as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Have you ever wondered

what grace sounds like?

I think it sounds like water:

Water lapping on a beach is like a lullaby.

Water burbling in a stream is like laughter.

Water dripping from leaves

sounds like falling tears.

Water pouring from a jug

is the opposite of thirst.

Water splashing into a font

is soaked with the loch-deep fullness

of the love of God saying,

“This is my beloved”.

Water of Jordan,

pouring over the head of Christ

willingly, needlessly welcomed,

one with us, echoes still in every baptism.

When we hear the water of baptism

poured

over the head of one of us,

adult or child,

that splash and drip and pour,

we hear all that.

We hear that echo of the grace of God

and we are welcomed willingly,

one with Christ,

beloved,

we recall that we are beloved.

I think grace sounds like water.

Water

Water pours
pours a story
a story of grace
a grace for all
for all the world
the world is given
is given a hope
a hope of new life
new life from old
from old into new
into new ways of living
ways of living rightly
living rightly with each other
with each other we journey
we journey here and now
here and now to the water
to the water of life
the life of the one
the one baptized
baptized with the name
with the name: Jesus

Rev. Roddy Hamilton, New Kilpatrick Parish Church

Thanks be to God for his cleansing grace. Amen.

Light...and Joy

Light and joy, these two just seem to go together like chocolate and almonds, like ice cream and Hersey’s chocolate syrup.

John begins his gospel by going way back before the beginning of time, the time when there was chaos, a time when the Word and God were one and through the Word and God all things came into being.

In the Word was life and in that life was the light that drove back the darkness. It was light that no amount of darkness could overcome, not even the blackest dead star in the universe. This Light was the creator of that star that died but still lived in the darkness…and this Light could restore that star to life.

The Light of the World, the Word, brings joy to a dark and dismal world, much like new babies make those holding them radiate joy. The Light of the World finds the chink in the darkness and breaks through and fills the void with light.

The One who was the Light became flesh, became human, and lived among us. John came to testify to the Light and then to decrease so the Light could increase. 

Think of John as the summer solstice, the longest day of the year with the most light. After that day the amount of daylight decreases until the winter solstice, the time when we celebrate and remember the birth of the Light and from that day on the Light begins to increase as Christ’s ministry increased.

John testified about the One who would surpass him, the One who would increase as John’s ministry decreased.

On this day of bitter cold our hope is that as the days lengthen the rays of light will strengthen and the land will come alive with the warmth and power received from the light.

May the Light of Jesus Christ that streams from heaven make us come alive with the grace and power of Jesus through the Holy Spirit. May it be so.

Thanks be to God for sending the Light into the world. Amen.

The Gaps

          This is the last Sunday of this year. It’s the Sunday that falls in between two Wednesday holidays.  And on the liturgical calendar we are in between the birth of the Messiah and the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee.

          There’s a gap, a bit of downtime, a silence, between the two events. In the gospel lesson for today we heard of Joseph’s dreams, the atrocious slaughter of the infants by Herod, a refugee family fleeing into exile and their return. All that and yet we can see that from the beginning of these events to the end of the last one many years have passed. These are gaps in time we know nothing about. We can only guess what might have taken place. There are spaces in time missing from this story.

Today, for a moment, reflect on the gaps we encounter: the times of silence in our lives, the empty time when we’re between jobs, the uncertain time when we’ve retired and yet haven’t planned how we’ll fill our idle time, the pauses when we read a sentence of scripture when we come to a comma or a semi-colon, the interludes in a piece of music. What do we do with the gaps, the silences when we encounter them? Do we try to fill the void or do we leave it alone? What do we do with them?

The other side of this reflection is how do we feel when there’s a gap in time or there’s absolute silence? Are we comfortable or not so comfortable with the gaps? Do we feel alone, abandoned, anxious, or fearful or do we get a sense that we’re not alone?

I think many times when the pauses are too long, the silence to deep, the spoken words too far apart we have a strong tendency to rush in and fill the void. We have a low tolerance to the long, quiet stillnesses, the gaps in time because we feel like we’re alone.

My friends, what I pray that we learn today is that, we’re never alone. The presence of God is always with us, even when we feel as if He’s abandoned us because of some wrong we think He’d never forgive us for. Even then He’s with us.

What we learn from those who have chosen lives of quiet and contemplation is that often it’s in the silence when God speaks to us.

Isaiah 30:15. There you find God speaking to the people of Israel and he says, “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength…”

If you read on you’ll find that God’s children wouldn’t have any of that and so they suffered. In verse 18 we then read how God “longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!”

That may be where we fall down. We’re too impatient to wait. We can’t abide the silences and the gaps. We feel alone in the silence. And so we impulsively forge ahead, many times doing the wrong things and we end up hurt just like the people of Israel and Judah, the chosen children of God.

Even with all their rebellion God never left their side, never completely abandoned them. In fact that’s why Jesus came to earth as a baby.

So, my friends, in the silence we’re not alone. In the gaps in time in our lives we’re never really alone. Jesus, Immanuel, God is always with us.

And these gaps, these silences aren’t bad things even though we may not like them anymore than we like change. In the silences, if we listen, God may speak to us. In the gaps of our lives we are never alone because God is with us, Immanuel.

The gaps, the silences are necessary for us. Just as rests in music gives us a place to breathe, the silences, the gaps, give God a chance to speak to us. As we sit breathing in and out in the silence paying attention to the rhythm of our breaths God comes to sit with us, becoming one with us in the silence.

As we become one with God and God with us we become attuned to the thoughts of God. The more time we spend in the silence the more opportunities God has to converse with us.

This isn’t so far fetched as some may think. If a couple has been married for quite a while we notice that sometimes one or the other finishes sentences the other one’s started. It’s almost like they know what the other is thinking. 

Our relationship with God is the same, I think. The more time we spend with God the more we grow in God’s likeness. It’s almost like we know what God’s thinking. And we know that God knows what we’re thinking, if we believe in God. That’s the key, believing.

My friends, I ask that you believe that God is always with you, never abandons you, and is speaking to you in the gaps and the silences. Embrace that silence and listen as God speaks his word to you.

Thanks be to God for his grace. Amen.

God Cares

Listening to these readings from the Bible the one overriding theme that speaks to us, I think, is that God cares. He cares whether we’re thirsty. He cares whether we’re scared; he cared enough to send his Son, Jesus, to save the world, a world that was pretty messed up then and I think you’d agree is still pretty messed up today.

God loved us enough to send us an Advocate, his Holy Spirit, after Jesus ascended into heaven, which means we’re never alone. God is always with us.

For some folks that gives them hope and for others it leaves them uncomfortable because if God is always with us he knows every mistake we’ve ever made.  By the same token he also knows how often we’ve succeeded in walking in the Way of Jesus.

God knows our needs before we ever get around to talking to him in prayer. His invitation to us is always an open invitation to “come” when we’re thirsty, when we’re hungry, when we’re too scared to step out alone, when we’re grieving a loved one dying.

God has told us time and again to not be afraid, but we still are.  Even though we forget, even when we try to go it alone, even then God still cares. He never abandons us. God’s always ready to give us his best.

And there’s no hidden agenda with God. He just asks us to come, listen, seek, and believe. 

In this season of Advent when nights are too long and days are too short we are reminded that God sent his Son to be the Light of the World, a world that was hiding in the darkness, a world that still hides in the darkness.  In John’s gospel reading Jesus says, “whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.” God cared for this world so much he sent the Light into the world to drive back the darkness.

          God cares. God cares that a family is missing their mother, their grandmother, their great-grandmother, their friend. God cares, that’s why he has us gather together to celebrate the lives of these saints so we can support each other, so God’s love can flow from friends to family and back again.

God cares. He cared for Norma and he cares for her family. And he cares for every one of you gathered here this morning. And my friends, that the Good News for us, God cares for us. God loves us. God desires an intimate relationship with us.

Thanks be to God for his loving grace. Amen.

Believe

          In this Christmas season, a time of long nights and short days, a time of too much darkness and not enough light, we need to hear the words of Paul to the people of Thessalonica, “…do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. ¹⁴ For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.”  

          And also John’s words that say, “whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life… Light has come into the world… whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.” “…whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life… the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.”

          My friends, these words give us hope…if we believe. There’s the key…believe. If we believe we shall have eternal life. If we believe we shall not perish. If we believe we will hear the voice of Jesus.

          Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.”

          Believe in God, believe in his Son, Jesus the Christ. My friends, the good news is that if we believe we shall not die but shall rise again just as Jesus did…and live.

          Where God is there are many rooms and Jesus has prepared rooms for us in that place. Beulavon has a room all ready created just for her.

          Jesus said, “…if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” I believe that’s exactly what will happen. Jesus will come back and we will all join our friends and our families again…and sing praises to our God.

          A very long time ago when I worshipped at Silver Creek EUB church I learned my ABC’s, “ask, believe, and confess.” The good news for all of us gathered here today is that if we believe we will not die but will live eternally with God in a place that he has prepared for us, if we believe.

          I can’t tell you how God will accomplish this wonderful thing, that’s a mystery to me, but I do believe that God can and will do what Jesus promised. Because 95 years isn’t enough time for us to get to know each other…and God.

          So, believe in Jesus’ words and trust in the way, the truth, and the life of Jesus the Christ and believe that one day we will all be together in one place, a new heaven and a new earth.

          Thanks be to God for his grace…and peace. Amen.