Sermon delivered on the Feast of the Presentation of Christ at the Temple or Candlemas (transferred), Sunday, January 29, 2017, at St. Augustine’s Anglican Church, Westerville, OH.

If you prefer to listen to the audio podcast of today’s sermon, click here.

Lectionary texts:  Malachi 3.1-5; Psalm 24.1-10; Hebrews 2.14-18; Luke 2.22-40.

In the name of God: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Christian message is foolishness to our world. But God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom. Christians can only boast in God, and not in ourselves.

Imagine yourself a member of God’s heavenly selection committee. God has given us the job of putting together a pro?le of the sort of person that Heaven is looking for.

What sort of person should we be keen to select?

Smart people? — God knows everything (Omniscient). Surely he’ll want to surround himself with intelligence.

Good looking people? — God is beautiful in his holiness, so it makes sense to select attractive people.

Powerful people? —  God is Omnipotent, so Go-getters! Movers and shakers sounds good. People who know what they want and how to get it. People who know how to get things done.

Wealthy people‘? — Power comes from wealth doesn’t it? Better get some rich folk in.

Noble people? — You know — people of impeccable breeding; upper class. You just can’t surround God with low class you know.

We submit the list to God’s office, only to get it back. Ripped to shreds.

So what sort of person is God looking for?

The problem in the Corinthian church is that they thought God was using that sort of list.

They were a very talented, spiritually gifted church, but they’ve become proud of themselves and they’Ve lost sight of the importance of Jesus.

They’ve displaced Christ with wisdom. Replacing the cross, with their human ability. They have been patting or slapping themselves on the back for their own wisdom. But as we heard from the epistle, Paul’s pulled the rug out from under them. He’s turned their world upside down.

For the word/message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. —1 Corinthians 1.18-25

Paul wants to tell the Corinthians and us today two things.

Firstly, he wants to demonstrate the truth of the gospel being foolish to the world, and that God chooses and uses weak foolish people by the world’s standards to show himself as wise and powerful.

And secondly, he Wants to tell them about real Christian wisdom, a wisdom that comes from God, and not from humans.

Paul starts by reminding them of what God has done in and with them.

For consider your calling, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. —1 Corinthians 1.26

Paul is holding up a mirror to the Corinthians. You’re proud of your new wisdom and gifts from God — but don’t forget where you started from. Remember — you weren’t wise by human standards. You weren’t powerful. You didn’t have noble origins.

Paul is saying God chose a bunch of nobodies. The overlooked, the ignored, the unwanted.

God doesn’t choose how we would. “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are” (1 Corinthians 1.27-28).

Why does God do this? Is he just perverse in his selection criteria?

The reason God chooses the people he does is so that his people are on the same footing: “so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1 Corinthians 1.29).

That no human being might boast before God. God is the rescuer. God is the wise one. The mighty one. God chooses people to show to them, and the whole universe, that he is God. He owes nothing to anyone. He’s not won over by human wisdom or power.

God wants the world to know he’s God, and the one who saves. “He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Therefore, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord’” (1 Corinthians 1.30-31).

God has made Jesus life for the dead. Wisdom for the unwise. Righteous for the Unrighteous. Sancti?cation for the Unholy. Redemption for captives.

We contribute nothing. God chooses who he wants on his own terms — not ours. And he loves to surprise the world by choosing the people the world overlooks.

Think with me for a moment the our old Testament lesson for today, in a nation that was required by law to care for its prophets, it is ironic that God turned to ravens (unclean birds) and a widow (a foreigner from Jezebel’s home territory) to care for Elijah. God has help where we least expect it. He provides for us in ways that go beyond our narrow de?nitions or expectations. No matter how bitter our trials or how seemingly hopeless our situations, we should look for God’s caring touch. we may ?nd his providence in some strange places!

When the widow of Zeraphath met Elijah, she thought she was preparing her last meal, but a simple act of faith produced a miracle. she trusted Elijah and gave all she had to eat to him. faith is the step between promise and assurance. miracles seem so out of reach for our feeble faith. but every miracle, large or small, begins with an act of obedience. we may not see the solution until we take the first step of faith.

Todays gospel is about the first miracle Jesus perfomed. it seemed foolish to be told to fill the jars with water. as if that is not enough when they are full they are told to draw some and take it to the chief servant.

“He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sancti?cation and redemption. Therefore, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord’ ” (1 Corinthians 1.30-31).

The Corinthians have been boasting in all the wrong things. They think they are mature, but Paul is telling them to grow up. To boast in God and not themselves. And Paul also wants to remind them of when he first proclaimed the Gospel in Corinth. “Remember how I came to you. In weakness and fear. In much trembling.”

Sometimes God is merciful to the wise, and powerful of our age. But that’s the exception, not the rule. And for them to become a Christian actually means denying that God chooses them on the basis of their wisdom, power or position. For both the Corinthian Christians, and in Paul’s ministry, God wanted people to boast in him, not themselves. To acknowledge and respond on the basis of his power, and not their own.

The Christian message is foolishness to our world. But God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom. Christians can only boast in God, and not in ourselves. And Christians maturity is about having God’s Spirit, not our own wisdom. It’s about having the mind of Christ.

Let me ask these questions:

What are you taking pride in? Maybe you don’t admire secular wisdom, but is there something you boast in other than God? For me, there’s the temptation that I’ll look to my theological training. That what I learn about God becomes more important than knowing God himself. Or that I trust in my work with chaplaincy rather than in Christ.

What are you boasting in? How long you have been a Christian? Coming to St Agustine‘s Anglican Church? How much you give?

What are you trusting in? We need to hear Paul again: “He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sancti?cation and redemption. Therefore, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’”

Thus says the LORD, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the LORD. —Jeremiah 9.23-24

Let us sing prayerfully, How Deep the Father’s Love for Us, The Christian Life Hymnal, 157

How deep the Father’s love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the man upon a cross
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

Psalm 36

Your love, 0 Lord, reaches to the heavens –
and your faithfulness to the clouds.
Your righteousness stands like the strong mountains,
your justice like the great deep; –
you, Lord, shall save both man and beast.
How precious is your loving mercy, O God! °
All mortal ?esh shall take refuge
under the shadow of your wings.
They shall be satis?ed with the abundance of your house; –
they shall drink from the river of your delights.
For with you is the well of life –
and in your light shall we see light.
O continue your loving-kindness to those who know you –
and your righteousness to those who are true of heart.

In the name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen

Sermon delivered on Epiphany 3A, Sunday, January 22, 2017, at St. Augustine’s Anglican Church, Westerville, OH.

The apostle Paul tells us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12.2). But what does that mean and how do we let that happen? Check out what Fr. Bowser has to say about it all, especially his thoughts on the “Sacred Why,” and then let the Spirit begin to transform you by the renewing of your mind.

Lectionary texts: Isaiah 9.1-4; Psalm 27.1, 4-12; 1 Corinthians 1.10-18; Matthew 4.12-23.

Listen to the audio podcast of today’s sermon. There is no written text.

Sermon delivered on Epiphany 2A, Sunday, January 15, 2017, at St. Augustine’s Anglican Church, Westerville, OH.

If you prefer to listen to the audio podcast of today’s sermon, usually somewhat different from the text below, click here.

Lectionary texts: Isaiah 49.1-7; Psalm 40.1-11; 1 Corinthians 1.1-9; John 1.29-42.

In the name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Who is the Servant in our OT lesson today? Is he Israel? The prophet? Someone else? Why should we care? This is what I want us to look at this morning.

In our lesson from Isaiah, we read the second of the so-called “Servant Songs” that describe the person and character of the “Servant of the Lord” (see also Isaiah 42.1-4, 50.4-9, and 52.13-53.12). But who is this person? The prophet at first identifies him as Israel (v.3), but later in our passage the servant is to rescue Israel (v.5). How can God call Israel to rescue itself? Is the prophet just really confused here? Maybe had some bad coffee or something?

Whoever Isaiah had in mind, Christians of course believe that Jesus is the Servant, in part, because we believe Jesus is the light of the world before whom one day every knee will bow and every tongue confess as Lord (Phil. 2.9-11). And as we saw in our gospel lesson this morning, John the Baptist certainly saw Jesus fulfilling the role of the Servant (and more). After seeing the Spirit descend from heaven and stay on Jesus, the baptizer declared Jesus to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This, of course, alluded to God’s call to Israel to be God’s light to the world. God had called his people Israel through the patriarch Abraham to bring God’s healing love to a sin-sick and evil-infested world, but Israel had proven itself to be every bit as sin-sick and evil-infected as the world to which God had called his people to heal. But now at Jesus’ baptism, we see the confirmation of our Lord’s vocation to be for Israel and the world what Israel could not be for itself—God’s faithful one who would bring God’s healing love to the nations, to folks like you and me. While John doesn’t tell us here, Jesus would take away the sin of the world by bearing its collective weight himself on the cross. In Jesus we see God in person coming to his world to free us from our sin sickness and to defeat the dark powers that had thoroughly corrupted God’s world and God’s image-bearing creatures. We know this because the baptizer used Passover language in describing Jesus as being the Lamb of God. Just as God’s ancient people had been commanded to smear on the posts of their doors some of the blood of the lamb slaughtered so that the Destroyer would pass over their homes and spare their lives as God began to rescue them from their bondage to slavery in Egypt, so we who put our whole hope and trust in Jesus’ blood shed for us will be rescued from a far darker bondage to sin and be spared from the ultimate evil of death, thanks be to God!

At this point, we tell ourselves it’s all good. God is doing for us what we can’t do for ourselves—freeing us from our slavery to sin and death. Time to kick back, pour ourselves a drink, and relax, basking in the glory of God and the knowledge that we are God’s special people. After all, as we have just seen, Jesus is the true Servant celebrated in the Servant Songs, the one who will bring God’s light to the nations and rescue the world from all that ails it. Not so fast, say the NT writers! Don’t get too comfy, dudes. While it is true that Jesus is the light of the world, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and rescues us from our slavery to the dark powers and death, this doesn’t give us license to be passive observers. No, worryingly enough we are also called to be servants in the manner of our Lord Jesus himself.

Why is that you ask? Because as the whole of Scripture attests, God in his strange and astonishing wisdom has always called human beings to run his world in wise and just ways on God’s behalf. That’s why God created us in his image in the first place. But almost right from the start, we didn’t get that memo and decided to run the world on our own authority, not God’s, and we all know how well that’s turned out. So God in his wisdom and mercy ultimately became human to defeat the dark powers who used our sin and rebellion to usurp God’s rule over his world and to free us from their grasp. We’ve just talked about all that. But as Paul tells us in our epistle lesson, until Jesus returns to complete the redemptive work he started at his first coming, we as his rescued people are called to carry on his healing and saving work on his behalf.

But, but, we want to protest and whine. We are not equipped to do that work. We’re not perfect like Jesus. We’re a bunch of sad-sack ragamuffins and losers, some more than other. We can’t possibly be Jesus’ light to the world on his behalf. Sure you can, comes our Lord’s reply. Of course you are ragamuffins and losers and can’t possibly do what I ask on your own power. But here’s the thing. You are not operating on your own power! I have poured out my Spirit on you to heal and transform you so that you can bring my mercy, love, and justice to each other and the world.

Paul tells us the same thing. We are God’s Church, he reminds us, the very body of Christ. We are called to do the healing work of Christ together as the Church and only secondarily as individuals. In other words, God has called those of us who believe in the saving and healing work of Christ to shed his light on others like us who desperately need that light. Before we can do that, we must first and foremost remember Whose we are because we are not our own. Paul tells us we are God’s saints, God’s called-out people, who are to be Christ’s light-bearers. This too makes us really nervous because when we think of saints, we think of goody-two shoes who never do anything wrong and who have very little fun in the process. But this is a lie and a delusion. We must remember that Paul wrote these words to a church that was plagued by internal divisions, sexual immorality, discrimination, divorce, and other sins. In other words, the church at Corinth consisted of a bunch of ragamuffins and losers just like us! Never mind that, Paul exhorts! Put all that behind you! God has called you to be his people in Jesus. Despite your faults and foibles, you are God’s called-out, Spirit-filled people, and you are given the power, however imperfectly you display it, to love each other, to forgive each other, and to bring God’s love to the world on behalf of your Lord who loves you and gave himself for you.

How do we do this? Like the baptizer and his disciples, we first and foremost proclaim to the world that Jesus is Lord and therefore we have chosen to follow him and his ways, not the world and its evil ways. We call on his name to help us look out for each other as much as we look out for ourselves. We laugh with each other, cry with each other, support each other, and build up each other, even (or perhaps especially) when we don’t necessarily like each other! We choose to forgive each other when we are wronged and we ask others to forgive us when we wrong them. We don’t make us and our desires God, worshiping ourselves and doing whatever it takes to fulfill our needs. We look to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God, taking care of those who are the least and the lost, the poorest and the weakest. We don’t do this perfectly and like the prophet in our OT lesson, we sometimes wonder if the good we do in Jesus’ name makes any difference. Of course it does, our Lord reassures us. Is using you as my light to the world too difficult for me? I created this vast cosmos! I conquered death! So have a little humility, consider my mighty acts, and have faith in my ability to be good to my word and use your work to help bring about my kingdom, even if it remains obscure to you..

None of this happens automatically, of course. We have to do our part. We have to put in our sweat equity so that we can be reminded of God’s truth and saving action in the world. This means we have to learn the story of Scripture and where and how we fit into it all. It means we come to worship God each week and be changed and refreshed. It means we partake in the eucharist each week to literally consume Jesus to be changed and strengthened by him to do his work.. It means we take an active role in our fellowship with one another so that we can support each other and build each other up. It means we are people who pray regularly that God’s will be done on earth as in heaven and are willing to let God use us to help carry out his will. Sacred privileges, those. And participating actively in those privileges are the ordinary means of grace God uses to equip us to do the work he calls us to do as his people.

As we begin 2017, let us rededicate ourselves to be Jesus’ people, new creations in Christ’s love for us (2 Corinthians 5.17), who gladly and joyfully proclaim our Lord Jesus’ name to the world as we are transformed little by little into his perfect image and equipped to work alongside him as his servants. The work won’t always be easy. But what a sacred privilege! The world will hate us. But we are called to take heart because Jesus has overcome the world in his death, resurrection, and ascension. This the Good News we are to live and proclaim in 2017 and for all eternity. To him be honor, praise, and glory forever and ever.

In the name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sermon preached on the feast of the Epiphany (transferred), Sunday, January 8, 2017, at St. Augustine’s Anglican Church, Westerville, OH.

If you prefer to listen to the audio podcast of today’s sermon, click here.

Lectionary texts: Isaiah 60.1-6; Psalm 72.1-15; Ephesians 3.1-12; Matthew 2.1-12.

“Eureka!” The lightbulb has gone off over the head. Aha! Of course! How could I have been so blind? Duh! Eureka! I have found it!

Sometimes we don’t even know what we have gone looking for before we find the exact thing we truly needed all along. Like the man who goes fishing for the sweet meat of a few bluegills just to feed himself one meal, and then he hooks into the monster fish large enough to feed everyone in his home, sometimes we get more than we might have set off looking for.

These are some of the thoughts I have when I read Matthew chapter 2, verses 8-10. Several wise and learned men from the east have journeyed a long way because of a prophecy. There is something happening at the end of the journey in the direction of the star that illumines the dark night skies. What is this something? What will we find when we finally reach our journey’s end?  Whatever this is at the end of our road, it is something that we must find. It is surely a treasure of great value. Their full attention has been seized by this beautiful light that has appeared before the eyes of all.

In Jerusalem these wise and scholarly men encounter Herod the Great, a real scoundrel of a man. He is a non-Jewish King in this region, and he has a laundry list of horrible things he has done in the past. Recently, he ordered the deaths of all the male children being born in the area so as to maintain his throne as illegitimate king over this place. Upon meeting Herod, the wise men tell him what they are looking for according to prophecy. They are looking for the one about whom it has been foretold that he would be a ruler and shepherd of Gods people in the Davidic spiritual and familial line. Herod has already gone on about the infanticide he used to protect his throne, and he’s also killed of scores of his own family to prevent them from ascending to the throne. There’s no doubt that when he asked to know where this child is to so that he may go and worship him, he’s really planning on snuffing out whatever he finds in that place so that he can continue on in power, unbothered by others’ claims, ruling as the tyrant he is.

So the Magi press on down the road, still following after that bright and beautiful star, their time spent in the darkness being shined upon by whatever this star means, by whatever the greater thing beneath it is. These men are tired, they are worn, they have been walking and riding for miles upon miles, and much of it at night when it isn’t particularly safe to go around. Getting to this place of the star is surely taking its toll on their bodies. Their feet are sore, covered with blisters. They don’t often have opportunity to stop and bathe when they find themselves in the midst of the dark and lonely parts of the journey where no one else is around, except maybe for those who would rob and maybe kill them for the things they have.

Yet, they are driven on further by the curiosity that has been building up within them throughout the whole trek. We must find this king and bow before him, and present him with our gifts. This is our mission, a mission we have been lead to follow after and accomplish, and we shall not relent.

Upon reaching their destination they saw that the star had stopped. This was the moment of discovery for these wearied travellers from the east. Their eyes would now behold him for whom they had come to see. And their hearts were overjoyed. The men rejoiced that they have now finally reached the end of the long and treacherous road journey that they have paid for in their bodies. And there he was, right inside the quaint little home, sitting with his mother, Mary. With Mary holding her son Jesus, and with Jesus clinging to his momma, the Magi bow down in humble submission and out of due reverence for the one of whom the prophecy foretold: “And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.” Before their very eyes, within the same room, the promised one enrobed in human flesh, sits gently upon his mothers lap. He is so young, and so precious to his mother. The flesh of her own flesh, her little baby boy. His name is “he will deliver,” “he will save,” “he will rescue,” Yeshua, Joshua, Jesus. He will save his people from their sins.

Could this be? How could I have been so blind! Aha! Boy oh Boy! Eureka! I have found it!

Looking for a child who would be a shepherd and ruler for his people, they also found revealed before them God in the flesh, the one who will save, not through military might, but through himself and his sacrifice for the sins of all the people; for his blood family, the Jews, and for the others outside of Israel, the Gentiles, of which these men are. “I have found it, and didn’t know I was looking for all this!”

In their due reverence they brought to him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Gold, a symbol of light and royalty, fit for a king of his proper standing in Israel. Frankincense, a recognition that Jesus is a priest, and in this case we can say God himself, enfleshed for us and like us, used to offer up prayers to God as a sweet fragrance reminding the user of how sweet the prayers of the people are in the nostrils of God. And myrrh, the one which is most interesting.

This holy oil, the myrrh, is scented oil that is commonly used in the preparation of the dead prior to burial. It would help to hide the scent of death before the one on whom it is used could be buried.

See Mary, receiving this gift of myrrh for her little boy, Jesus. She accepts the gift, but with a deep question in her heart. Is my son going to die before me? What is going to happen? Why would they give such a gift? What deep pain and questioning must have gone through the Blessed Mary’s mind, questions that would be answered for her in 33 years when the purpose of Jesus, the God-Man wrapped in human flesh, were revealed in their final spectacularity.

He is the one who was prophesied, and about whom the Psalmist wrote, when he said:

 72:1 Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a king’s son.

72:2 May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice.

72:3 May the mountains yield prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness.

72:4 May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor.

72:5 May he live while the sun endures, and as long as the moon, throughout all generations.

72:6 May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth.

72:7 In his days may righteousness flourish and peace abound, until the moon is no more.

72:10 May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles render him tribute, may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts.

72:11 May all kings fall down before him, all nations give him service.

72:12 For he delivers the needy when they call, the poor and those who have no helper.

72:13 He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy.

72:14 From oppression and violence he redeems their life; and precious is their blood in his sight.

Jesus is all that God has promised to us his creation, who has come to set us free. Have we found it? Have we discovered who Jesus really is? Not just some baby with a claim to an earthly throne, but the God in flesh who shall be a prophet, priest, and King. The one, and the only one, who when being discovered causes men and women from the depths of their hearts and souls to proclaim aloud, and with great joy, “Eureka! I have found it!”

We have gathered here today in this assembly not by accident, but because we were drawn by light. Something about this light just can’t be shaken off and ignored. It is too hard not to notice, and it’s almost as if, by some sort of providence—God’s providence, we could say—that we have been brought together on this day, in this place, to hear of a God who has been joined together with his human creation in the flesh. What a great and curious thing that a holy God would take on the weakness of the flesh of a little baby to reveal himself to all humankind.

But this is exactly what he has done. And his heart and flesh will be tested by Satan, by the pressing in of the pressures of life lived amongst sinful humanity, and by those who would seek to kill him. And this God-Man, this one whom we have sought, and whom we realize first loved us enough to come amongst us, will be handed off by his own kin to be killed on a torture device built by those not of his own people. At any time we could think he could call it all off and accomplish the redemption of the world by some other means—except that he wouldn’t, because that’s the price he was willing to pay to continue to bring all of us into his everlasting covenant of peace. This peace bought for us through the marring of his flesh, the spilling of his blood upon the ground, and the excruciatingly painful death he would die. Yes, he brought us peace through his death, and in rising he won for us who are called by his name, Christians, victory over evil, sin, and death. All of this will happen to the one to whom the Holy Spirit has lead us to in this place, on this day. We might have come looking for something else, but we have indeed encountered our Savior and our God.

Close: And the only reason any of us could have ever found him is because he caused himself to be found by taking on fragile human flesh, uniting us to himself, and leading us to true knowledge of him by the Holy Spirit whom he also sent according to his good promise. May we ever remember that what, or more properly who, we have found is worth getting to know better more and more every single day.

To him who revealed himself to us in the flesh, the bright and morning star who breaks through the darkness to light our path and give all people saving knowledge of the one true God, be the glory now and forever. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Eureka! We have found him! Amen.