1 Samuel 3: 1-10 "Speak, for your servant is listening."

             Did you ever hear the story about the boy who cried wolf? I am sure that we all have heard the theme of the story, if we don’t know the story specifically. The boy in the story is supposed to be watching the hen house. He is told “If you see the wolves coming, call us and we will come running.”
            The boy tries it out a few times. He cries wolf and immediately the people come running. This goes on for a few times and finally the wolf does come. The boy is serious and shouts “WOLF” and what do the people do? They ignore his cries that the wolf is REALLY there.
            This is kind of like our story today in 1 Samuel. Eli is the priest in the temple and he is teaching Samuel the ways of the Lord. Now, Eli’s sons were not the most stand-up people, but Eli was faithful. He took Samuel under his wing and spent a lot of time with him, teaching him about God, learning the ways of their faith, and the required sacrifices. Samuel is doing all that he believes he is supposed to do; and Eli is a good teacher. Eli prays with people, sits with them, in fact when Samuel’s mother came to Eli afraid that she could not have a child, Eli gave her the Lord’s blessing and Samuel was born.
            So they are going through this routine of learning. I am sure there were moments when it got tedious, moments that may have seemed to drag on. Samuel was going to be here all his life, so there was plenty of time for learning, leading, and maybe even doing some teaching on Samuel's part; ya know, teaching new kids that came in after him.
            Time passed and Eli got older; and as Eli got older, Samuel earned God’s favor. It was time for the younger Samuel to begin to minister; and scripture says that visions were rare in those days. It may have been that the sound of God’s voice or the vision that God shared seemed distant to the people. But, Samuel remained faithful to God. HE continued doing what he was taught. And then one night it happened. Samuel heard his name being called. He thinks its Eli so he goes to Eli and says, “what do ya want?” This happens three times, there’s a familiar number, and three times Eli says it is not him.
            I think we can all relate to this story. How many times have we played that game as a child with our parent or with a child “Guess what? That’s what.” I am sure we have all played it at some time or another.  I know that after a few times we get tired because we know the response that is coming and continuing and so to carry on the game becomes pointless. The result is that we get tired, we become numb, and eventually we block out the game.
            It is kind of the same thing in our faith lives. In the scripture reading, Samuel is being called. He thinks its Eli and all three times he goes over to Eli. Eli says “it’s not me calling you.” But all three times, Samuel gets up and goes. We go through the same thing in our faith lives. We are taught to respond to God’s Word, and we do. In the church we have established many things that we do. Our liturgy is arranged to give thanks and praise to God because that is what scripture calls us to do. We sing hymns that lift up our voices in praise, we say prayers for the community, and we celebrate the blessings of God’s ultimate sacrifice, Jesus Christ on the cross.
            The problem is that things can become so routine that we turn it off. We go through the motions of singing, praying, and even listening to a wonderful sermon by an energetic pastor (Not speaking of myself, of course), that there are times when it just becomes routine. We do the activities that traditionally do as a church, ministries that we do and it can just feel routine. Don’t get me wrong, these are not bad things. All the things we do are God inspired things and they are good. I am just saying that there are some times in our lives when it just seems routine.
            Samuel shows us a different way to look at our faith. Rather than getting up and saying “Here I am, what do you want now?” Eli teaches Samuel a different response. Eli tells Samuel the next time you hear the call, answer by saying “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”
           This is a game changer for us folks. These words are important because it requires something new on our part. It means that we are not to just give what we think is the correct response out of habit, out of repetition; rather, we are to take the time to stop and put ourselves in a position where we can hear what God calls us to do. It means that we are to put aside everything, stop multitasking and give our full attention to what God is saying. It means that the spirit could move us to stop this worship service right now because we may hear God calling us to do something, and discuss what it is that God is calling us to.
         That can be a pretty scary thing to do. It’s scary because that means that we have to listen. It means that we all, not some, would have to put ourselves in the vulnerable position to listen to God; even if the God’s calling may be faint and only heard by some. It is scary because it means that we have to listen to each other, talk to one another, get to know each other that much more. It may seem scary but it is not impossible because we know that with God, all things are possible. And we know that we gather as brothers and sisters of a loving God who gave so much…at the cost of God’s only Son, Jesus Christ, to show us God’s love.
            It is also scary for another reason. It is scary because listening takes time. Sometimes God’s call can be very clear and seem like a no brainer. Sometimes it takes a little longer. When it takes longer, we become anxious, nervous, we don’t like to wait. Society is teaching us that we should have answers to all questions right away. We, as a society, don’t like to wait. None of us do and to have to wait and take the intentional time to listen just isn’t who we want to be.
            It is at this time where the words of Jesus and all the angels comes to mind so quickly. “Fear not, for I am with you.” Those are the words God spoke to Moses. The angels tell the shepherds to “fear not” for they brought Good News. Gabriel told Mary not to fear and the list goes on and on. The Good News in all of this is that Eli teaches Samuel to slow down. Take the time…the intentional time to listen; listen for what God is going to call you to do, where God will call you as a person, brother/sister in Christ, as the body of Christ, and as Immanuel Lutheran Church. It is a blessing to take the time and listen because God is here “as we his people.”
            This morning, God’s Son Jesus is calling us to Come and Follow. Here we are Lord! Speak, for your servants are listening: AMEN!

Mark 1: 4-11 No matter how far away we think we are...God is here.

            Take a moment to think about something very important to you. You may not have seen it as important at the time, but then again some of you have. AND you might have seen it as a life changing event. I am talking, of course, about our baptisms.

            Many of us may not be able to remember our baptism. Our church has had the history of baptizing when many of us were babies. So we don’t remember that day. We may have heard stories about how we cried, spit up, or slept, OR other embarrassing things that may have occurred that day. We may have pictures with the family gathered around in their “Sunday best.” For some of us, we were present in our bodies, but mentally, we weren’t capable of comprehending the moment when the pastor, who was acting on behalf of God, put the water on our head and marked our heads with the sign of the cross and saying those all-important words, “You have been sealed with the cross of Christ forever.”

            Today, we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus. This is the beginning of Jesus public ministry as God’s son. This is the day that Jesus does remember. He comes down to the water, meets his cousin at the river Jordan, and in receives the most precious gift of all, being claimed by God. I know it sounds dramatic and it should sound dramatic. The reason why is something that I will get to in a moment.

            As soon as he comes out of the water, the heavens are torn apart. They are not just opened like a curtain but it is a violent tearing! That is important because this is God tearing into the world…God breaking into the world and sending the Holy Spirit on Jesus like a dove, just like this dove is breaking through the chancel (if you don’t see it, I invite you to come up and look during communion or after the service); then we get those words “You are my Son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased.” Listen to those words again, “You are my Son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased.” I can guarantee you will hear those words again.

            What does that say about Jesus? It says a few things that we know. God is identifying Jesus and claiming Jesus as God’s child. There are no questions as to who Jesus is; he is God’s child. There is no question that God is claiming ownership of this young man that is still a child! This is not just some moment in the swimming hole. Imagine that you went down to the river to meet your cousin and he were to dunk you under the water and as soon as you stood up, the heavens opened up, and imagine you heard God’s Words calling you beloved! Wouldn’t that take your breath away, wouldn’t that make you think that you were special.

            Again it sounds dramatic and it is meant to sound that way, because that is exactly what happened to you at your baptism. For those who don’t remember it, I have got some news for you. The pastor is not the one who claimed you. The pastor was the instrument…God’s instrument so that God named you “child of God” and it was God who claims you and what I like to call, “the eternal hug.” God grabs a hold of you and never lets go.

            For those of you who do remember your baptism, I hope it was the day that you felt that your life changed and would never be the same in a very Good way. I hope that you felt the presence of God going into every pore of your skin, knowing that, now, God, has claimed you and will never let you go; that you hear the words “you are my child now, the beloved, with you I am well pleased.” You see, when we are baptized that is what God says to us.

            There are people in this world who are not baptized. If you are here this morning and have not been baptized, this day and this time is when God invites us all into the community…the family of God’s children. It is a community that promises to love and support each other and lift one another up in prayer and I would love to speak with you about this life changing event.

            In God’s naming and claiming our lives change because we now belong to God. We are children of the God who created the Heavens and the Earth, we are children of the God who delivered the Israelites out of captivity and into the Promised Land. AND we are children of the God who brought Jesus into the world.

AND that is where things can get a little skewed for us. We know who Jesus is; He is the perfect Son, he knows and hears God’s voice very clearly. HE listens to what God tells him to do and where God calls him to be. Jesus, God’s Son, obeys his Father in heaven. He stands up for what God sees as things that should not be taking place in the world. He, Jesus, reaches out to the poor, heals the sick and suffering, and offers grace and mercy to all the people he comes in contact with; he goes out to the people on the fringes, that might live in darkness and bring them into the light of God’s love. He bridges boundaries, makes connections, and forms relationships…always talking about God’s love.

We are not quite as perfect as Jesus. In fact we are nowhere near as perfect. We are human. While we bask in the time of our baptism, at whatever age, we walk away from this time and place at the baptismal font. We go into the world and the world doesn’t allow and sometimes does not want us to be so attentive to God’s word or God’s calling. As we move further away from our baptism in time, we also move away in space. Our lives become filled with other things; other things that distract us from who we are…from the one who claims us.

There are numerous things that distract us. When we are young, our friends want all our time. As we grow older, there are sports activities, then there is school events, jobs, parenting, and children. This is a small list but there is so much that goes into this list. I am not saying that they are bad things either. It is good to be active in our lives, but they do draw us away from that moment hear at the font. As we get drawn away we see God as that far off person we may have left at the font and that we only see on Sundays.

But that is not the case. When we are baptized, God grabs a hold of us and never lets us go. That means that when we walk away from this font, God is still with us. When life starts to happen, God is with us in our words and deeds and the Good News is that God is not about to let us go, no matter what! Our baptism means that God has got that tight hold on us and is always there with us when we make some good decision and when we make some bad decisions. When we make wise choices and when we make bonehead mistakes.

What we don’t realize is that God does not leave us. I had a friend who once suggested that when a mistake or string of mistakes that God would see it coming and they used the metaphor that God would stand outside the door and wait till you are done with the mistake and then wait for you to open the door again. That’s not what happens. Because of the waters of baptism, God remains with us even when we make the mistakes; in the good times and the difficult times. God makes the promise to us that we will not be left alone and God backs it up with friends, family, and each other.

As I said at Christmas, this is not a church of perfect people. But through this baptism of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, we are a forgiven people. We are a people, that despite our mistakes and decisions, God remains with us…holding on to us and promising to never let go. I hope that we realize just how “life changing” Jesus’ baptism and ours really is: AMEN!

Matthew 2: 1-12 "Magi" The Story is not what it seems, but its Good!

            So, here we are on the Sunday before the actual date of Epiphany. Technically, Epiphany is on this coming Tuesday, January 6th … that is the 12^th day after Christmas. So the question becomes “why are we celebrating Epiphany tonight/today? It is a good question… which I will get to later. I have more questions with regard to this reading: This says that three wise men came from the East; who were these wise men?
            Let’s make things a little more complicated. It would be too easy to say that this, this, and this are the answers then we could all go home. That would be pretty simple, right? Things are not what they seem in this scripture reading. For this we have to go back into the original language of the Gospel. The entire New Testament was written in Greek, not English or Hebrew. So there are some things that need to be clarified with regard to this story that seems to be so familiar.
            Let’s start with the identity of these three people. Our translations today indicate that it was three wise men. The Greek language uses one word to describe these strangers; the word is “Magi”. I am sure that we have all heard that word before. Time and story has identified these three people as “wise men”, yet, they are only identified as “magi.” So what was a magi? How wise are these people that come from the East?
            Well, I have got some good news and bad news. The good news is that they arrived on this day of Epiphany to see this child who was a King, who is God’s Son. The Good News is that they bring gifts that will help this family to escape the punishment that Herod is about to exact on the first born of this land that God gave to God’s chosen people. They have these gifts that will help them and bring them home and these gifts (especially Myrrh and Frankensence) that could be considered anointing oils, but that is a sermon for another time.
            Now for the bad news. The stories that have trickled through time would have us believe that these visitors are kings. No one knows how that notion got started, but they are not Kings. They are not even nobility. We might think that because they visit King Herod to find out where this new King is; it could be they thought that this star was leading them to a child of the King’s…who knows. But these are not noble people, or of the elite, or wealthy. In fact they are magi. Magi is where the word “Magician” comes from. To be more specific, our modern day culture equates these visitors as more like stargazers or astrologers…you know…the people who read horoscopes and tell you what your future might be.
            There you have it. As the Mythbuster’s might say that this story is busted. Can you believe after all this time and the story getting passed down for so long, that when we go to scripture to break this story down, there it is; we have placed such importance on this part of the story that it is all blown apart by the Greek. I am sure that there is a feeling of dejection in hearing this story in a different way. I know that when I learned this, I felt shocked, dejected, and a little angry. I felt like, “how could we get this SO wrong, and what do we do about this?”
            Well, I don’t think that there is anything that I personally could do about this. I could write my own version of the bible making this change but that won’t accomplish much. I could sit and go around preaching on the corner how incorrect this is, write news articles, try to go on television, stand here and preach my whole ministry about how wrong we got it… and I am sure that you would all sit here intently, taking a few breaks to listen to me drone on and on about this one topic. That would be fun, wouldn’t it?
            There is one more thing that I could do. I and we could look at this, not as bad news, that this story has gone so wrong, BUT look at this story from a “big picture” perspective. Think about it, yes, these people were astrologers, but who is in power? Herod is in power, yet these three magi were distracted from their stargazing by this one star in particular. They found something in this star that indicated something big is happening, something so important that they need to get up and begin following this star. This star was leading them in a new direction, towards a place. It would lead them to a place where darkness will not be predominant BUT light will overcome all darkness.
            This big picture moves these three to a place an understanding that they play an important role in the birth of Jesus Christ. They play an important role in helping this family have the funds to flea what is about to happen. They play an important role in recognizing that God’s Son, Jesus, Immanuel – God with us – is now in the world. They are important in showing that with Jesus in the world, their lives and our lives will never be the same again. This is only part of the big picture that they help reveal to us.
            The other part of the big picture is the realization that they did not just pick a star. God revealed to these visitors that something big is going on and God used a star to get their attention – the star is their main resource for doing their job. God called these people who are nothing more than astrologers to go and see what God has done. We have heard this part of the story before because God uses a stable to house God’s Son, calls on a virgin to carry this light of the world, a carpenter to ensure the honor of mother and child (and to protect this child), calls on shepherds (a dirty job) to go into Bethlehem and see this child.
            God is using all these people that are considered marginal in respectability to be witnesses to God’s Son, Jesus coming into the world. If God is going to use these people who society, at the time, did not see as respectable, what is God going to do next? IS God going to come to people who may not be in a relationship with God to do God’s work? IS God going to love people who might be considered unclean in the world to reveal God’s love and grace? Is God going to use people who fall short of God’s glory? Is God going to use people in a moderately small town near the Maryland/Pennsylvania line to reach out to those who are in need, who might need food, clothing, or shelter? I do believe the answer to these questions is, of course, a resounding yes!
            Just as God calls all these unlikely people together to witness God with us, we too are unlikely people called to be witnesses. Despite our shortfalls, mistakes, bad decisions God calls us to witness to the light of the world in this tiny child. Despite Epiphany being this coming Tuesday, we are gathered and called to come and see that now the light is in the world, the darkness will not overcome God’s light through God’s Son, Jesus the Christ. We are called to go tell it on the mountain and everywhere! We are called to sing to the highest heaven, Glory to God in the highest; and in a few moments we will sing Star of Wonder, Star of night! We will sing of this wonderful journey that these three “wise men” made wise by God leading them to this stable to see what God has done and we WILL REJOICE AND BE GLAD IN IT!
            So, I don’t know about you, but I do think this story is all about Good News. I acknowledge the Greek term Magi and embrace it because it means that if they are called to be a witness, then so are we and that is definitely good company to be in: AMEN!