Why are You Here?

Biblical Text: Luke 7:18-28

There is typically a 2nd Sunday of John the Baptist in Advent. I’m not sure what people who insist on sticking with the Gaudete Sunday theme do with this text. You have to get to the Joy on the other side of the pit. And maybe that is really the answer. I pick up from last week with the thought that you have to go through John the Baptist to get to the manger. Last week we talked about the apocalyptic and the preparation. This week picks up from there, but confronts the reality that as immediate as the apocalyptic is, the life of faith is nowhere near as immediate. In fact, it often throws you in the pit, with John. And it causes you to ask questions like John’s, “Are you the Christ, or should we look for another?”

What this sermon attempts to do is preach a faith that moves from the fear of God to the love of God. And to love something you have to know it. The text is a self-revelation of God. The Kingdom of Heaven that draws near in Jesus is good news for the poor. It comes humbly. It comes under the cross. This Kingdom, as humble as it is, also comes in no other way. It comes in the person of Jesus. “Blessed in the one who is not offended at me.”

Which leads to Jesus turning the crowds – turning to us. Why are you here? Why have you come to the place that is of no earthly good? You know the answer. Will you live it?

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Scandalized by Me

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Biblical Text: Luke 7:18-28

This is a stand alone sermon (most of mine are) but with John the Baptist at the center it is something of a pair with last week. It is a scene of taking stock. John’s in prison and going to lose his head. Has his work been at all meaningful? The one he said must increase doesn’t look exactly like what he was proclaiming the loudest. Jesus, are you sure what you are doing? Is the prophet and his prophetic words true? Does this grace that can be seen in this hour align with that word? How do grace and truth go together? They go together in the one Christ. Blessed is the one who is not scandalized by me.

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One Thing is Needful

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Biblical Text: Luke 10:38-42

The text is Mary and Martha which has had an outsized influence on Christian history. It is not stretching it to think that the interpretation of this passage shaped Christianity from the 200’s to the Reformation. What I’m speaking of is the separation of the Christian Life into the Active and the Contemplative. But that division, isn’t really fair either to the historical reality or to the larger reality presented in all of Luke 10.

What this sermon attempts to do is understand Mary and Martha in the full context of Luke 10. It ponders how and why Mary represents the one thing needful, while at the same time giving Martha her place as one addressed doubly “Martha, Martha” by the LORD. (Ponder for a second the full list of those addressed this way. It is like finding yourself on a list with Babe Ruth, Ted Williams and Barry Bonds.) And then it answers how we move from an anxious and troubled place, to the place of holding the one thing needful.

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Grace was Never Practical

Biblical Text: Mark 10:2-26
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This sermon is a little longer than my typical one. The subject from the gospel text is marriage and divorce. Because the contextual density of the topic and because of its high profile in our general culture this sermon takes its time and spells out all the steps. I believe I arrive at the proclamation of the gospel, but it might not be the gospel we always want to hear.

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The Christ Who Can Be Found

Biblical Text: Mark 1:29-39
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I slipped into something of a philosophical frame of mind this past week – I suppose I should apologize to the congregation for that. Some of it has to do with events and people. Some of it has to do with this year’s gospel – the gospel of Mark. If you are anything like most Christians your image of Jesus comes primarily from John – the good shepherd, the wise and all powerful Word. And we round out that picture from the Gospel of Matthew with the Sermon on the Mount. We bring in some parables from Luke like the Good Samaritan. Looking at Mark is sometimes like looking at a fun-house mirror. Many of the same stories are there, but they way more subversive. How Mark places them in context give meanings or allusions that are slightly different.

One of the big things about Mark that you notice is that unless you are directly healed by Jesus in the course of the narrative (like Simon’s mother-in-law), you end up way off course. You think you are following Jesus, but then you realize a mile has opened up between you. Mark seems to be a gospel for these post-modern times. Because ultimately it all rests upon Jesus, not an idea but a person. We’d like to stay as close as possible in that discipleship walk, but sometimes it doesn’t happen. Ultimately it is Jesus that crosses that gap between the ideal and where we are at. It is Jesus who came to us – that is why he came, to preach. It is Jesus who has the authority. We might despair of knowing Truth in the way the gospel of John talks truth. We might be hopelessly misguided. But Jesus still has the authority. Jesus still heals and has cast out this worlds demons. The response is ours to figure out. And there are better responses. But the healing is pure grace, and it all rests upon Jesus.

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