Blog Archives - St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church

Geneology

12/18/2014

Matthew 1:1-17 click here for the reading

Genealogies are boring! I read through this every year and every year I plow through it. However, the more I read and repeat it and find these names in past sections of scripture it reminds me that there is something more going on than repeating who was the father of who or who was related to who.

The thing that stands out to me in this reading is that the genealogy of Jesus makes certain that all who hear it understand that all the preparations of the past are now complete....the messiah is here and his name is Jesus. Think about that for one moment, from Abraham to David, David to the exiles, and now in a small town comes the Savior of the world. The anticipation of this event of Jesus birth has been foretold and waited upon for generations and now God takes on flesh and blood to be with us.

In reverse, our lives can feel like all of the things we have been preparing for in the past never come to fruition. Yet Matthew does not provide a revisionist history, he doesn't gloss over the lowest points of Israel's history, or make greater mention of the highest. God works out God's purpose with power and timing, through the highs and the lows.

Yes genealogies are boring, but in the background of all that is being prepared is now being made complete. The time of anticipation is no longer lingering, it is here. Jesus, the messiah has come to be among us.

Lord from your family tree we find our identity, made perfect in the coming of your beloved son.

God with us

12/17/2014

Matthew 1:18-25 Click here for the reading

"All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: "Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us." - Matthew 1:22-23

In the surface reading of this Scripture, it is easy to ask an obvious question: If they were supposed to call him Emmanuel, how did he get to be named Jesus? The short of it is, Jesus is a rendering of Joshua which means God saves. Through Jesus God saves, not only his chosen people but the entire world.

The other question that arises for us as people of faith is "isn't God always with us?" This questions shapes our attention from Advent to Christmas. In the context of this scripture, Jesus came to save his people. And who are his people (read Matthew 1:1-17)? We find in the genealogy of Jesus to remind us of the words of the prophets. The genealogy weaves its way through the patriarchs of faith, women, and even kings of Babylon to allow us, the readers and hearers, that the people God has come to save are in exile; exile in Babylon, exile in rome, exile now. Wherever God has been, or may be, the people are in exile.

As one commentator put it; "And they are waiting to be delivered from the missteps that have landed them there, repeatedly.
These people are our ancestors by faith. Like them, wherever we find ourselves, we are waiting to be delivered from our sense of God's absence to a time and place where we know that God is with us." (Holly Hearon)

As the season of advent comes to a close, we wait to be delivered by the God who has come to be with us.....Emmanuel, Jesus!

Restoration and protection promised

12/15/2014

Isaiah 43 click here for the reading

Isaiah 43 has some beautiful poetry.

“Don’t be afraid, I’ve redeemed you.
    I’ve called your name. You’re mine.
When you’re in over your head, I’ll be there with you.
    When you’re in rough waters, you will not go down."

In all the things happening to people in exile, the promise God made from the beginning is sent as a reminder, "I have claimed you, you are mine." As part of our baptismal understanding, we use this as our mission: "Marked with the cross of Christ forever, we are claimed, gathered, and sent for the sake of the world" - Mission statement of the ELCA. Good to remember when feeling in over your head. God provides God's presence and protection to a people feeling constantly persecuted.

“Forget about what’s happened;
    don’t keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new.
    It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?

God is gonna do a new thing! In this time of advent, we are expecting God to come and be among us. This time of anticipation is bursting out! We can see it if we are alert to God's presence, making ourselves present to the God who does claim us as God's own.

Because I provided water in the desert,
    rivers through the sun-baked earth,
Drinking water for the people I chose,
    the people I made especially for myself,
    a people custom-made to praise me.

God reminds God's people about the impossible tasks previously undertaken, leading them out of slavery, providing water and food in the desert as "fuel for the journey." (shameless plug for the name of a great blogger I know, click here to read his devotions). God harkens back to the gift of creation, we were custom-made to praise God.

It wasn’t that I asked that much from you.
    I didn’t expect expensive presents.
But you didn’t even do the minimum--
    so stingy with me, so closefisted.
Yet you haven’t been stingy with your sins.
    You’ve been plenty generous with them—and I’m fed up.

Yet Isaiah also reminds the exiles why they have found themselves between a rock and a hard place. Choosing the generosity of sinning over making themselves available to the God who claims them as God's own. God is fed up! This must be why God intends to do a new thing. The present relationship is not working. God is gonna have to come down here and fix this.

ENTER JESUS: Isaiah prophesies about the one suffering servant who will come and right a broken relationship with God. Jesus will be the continuation of the promise and protection God has continuously provided for God's people. God will take on this responsibility to, once and for all, make right the relationship with God and God's people.

So it is advantageous (Pun intended....during Advent) for us to cry out in the midst of our own exile; "Come Lord Jesus!"

Israel's disobedience

12/14/2014

Isaiah 42:21-25 click here for the reading

"Their life is in ruins but they still did not take heart."

Israel is in exile, looking for some answer as to what happened. The prophet Isaiah speaks into this situation and reminding them that the Lord has allowed this to happened to them because (AGAIN) they disobeyed the Lord's commands, and continued to reject their relationship with God.

Some of us have to learn lessons the hard way. The Bible speaks of our relationship with God like children and parent. God being the benevolent parent and we God's children. So it goes, sometimes children misbehave and disobey.

As a parent, on more than one occasion I have found myself allowing my children to do things I know that might hurt them (not severely mind you) so that they might learn from them. When they inevitably do hurt themselves, I might even say "that'll learn ya."

Israel is in a learning process here because they took advantage of God's promises, thinking God will always protect them even when they refuse to do as God commands them. God allows the exile to happen upon God's children because the current system of relationship is not working. God commands and promises covenant relationship and the people break that covenant and reject God, hoping God will do something for them anyway.

Isaiah prophesies judgment upon Israel, but also promises a svior to come and change the way we know God. God will come down from heaven and dwell among us....so that we can be in intimate relationship.

Lord, benevolent God, loving parent, guide us as your children so that we may learn to follow you and your commands more clearly.

A New Song

12/11/2014

Isaiah 42:10-20 Click here for the reading

Sing a new song to the Lord!

Isaiah and the psalmist (Psalms 40, 96, 98 etc.) repeat this anthem. New songs are necessary. They help us articulate in new ways the same old song. I recently was reflecting on the hymn, "I love to tell the story."

"I love to tell the story, for those who know it best
Seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest;
And when in scenes of glory I sing the new, new song,
’Twill be the old, old story that I have loved so long."

The new song reflects the old story.

Yet in every community I have ever served, there is always a fear and hesitation of singing new songs. We don't know them, we are unfamiliar with them, they don't sound great right off the bat. We are much better off singing the 5 songs we like.

But the end of this hymn of praise, Isaiah articulate the reason the new song exists: "You hear with your ears but you really don't listen."

New songs help us hear God's word again, for the first time.

Lord, open our ears to not only hear you but to listen to what you are saying.

A light to the nations

12/10/2014

Isaiah 42:1-9 click here for the reading

"I, the Lord, have called you to demonstrate my righteousness.I will take you by the hand and guard you, and I will give you to my people, Israel,as a symbol of my covenant with them. And you will be a light to guide the nations." -Isaiah 42:6

Where is God? This question arises out of all pain, all tragedy, all dis-ease, all sorrow. It is the same question God's people asked in the midst of their own exile, when they were forcefully removed from their land, their temple, and their God. From far away places, they shout in darkness.

In the brokenness, in the pain, and in the darkness, God sends a savior to be a light to the nations.....and that this savior will help God's chosen people fulfill the promise given them through Abraham; they are blessed to be a blessing to others. God's people then will also be a light in the darkness.

One of my favorite stories is about one of my favorite authors growing up; Robert Louis Stevenson (he wrote Treasure Island). As a young boy in Scotland, Robert would sit out on his window at night waiting for the lamplighters to come and light the gas lamps along the streets. One night, one of the lamplighters saw him staring at what they were doing and called down to him; 'what are you doing young man?" Robert responded, "I'm watching you poke holes in the darkness."

In this advent season, we wait for Jesus, our Savior, to poke holes in the darkness of our world. Isaiah foretold that the people who walk in darkness have seen a great light. We take that to mean that because we know Christ we can see the light in the darkness. However, the people that walk in darkness, walk in darkness because darkness is all they know. The savior brings light to the nations. Jesus calls us to carry this light of salvation into the world.

What darkness do we know that needs the light of Christ? Where are we willing to carry this light into the dark places of our world?

Esther saves her people

12/10/2014

Esther 7:1—8:17 click here for the reading

The book of Esther is a book about God's faithfulness, especially in the midst of persecution and struggle. As exiles in a land not their own, Mordecai and Esther are faithful to God at work in their lives.

In this reading we here Esther call Haman, "an enemy, an adversary." Ha satan....the adversary is always at work against God and God's people. This is evil that is present. Satan is constantly attempting to defy God and God's people and draw God's people further and further away.

Mordecai and Esther certainly have already experienced this in the exile from Judah, but now experience it first hand through one man's hatred. Haman represents the demonic forces of this world. But before getting to caught up in seeing his demise, Paul reminds us in the book of Ephesians that "it is not flesh and blood that we fight against but powers and principalities of an unseen dark world."

God works through Mordecai and Esther...."for such a time as this."

Kairos moments (God's timing) like this provide us to ask one another two questions:
1) What is God calling you to?
2) What are YOU going to do about it?

Strengthen us each day Lord as we continue to be embattled by the enemy, even as the one we know may fall away, the enemy is ever present before us. Empower us and protect us.

The old switcharoo

12/10/2014

Esther 6:1-14 click here for the reading

This section of the story reads a lot like the parable that the prophet Nathan shares with king David about what should be done to a man who steals from another man who only has one little ewe lamb, but this time instead of judgement it is one of honor. Both David and Haman suggest the fate of what should be done. David suggests it for another. Haman suggests it for himself. Haman's pride and boastfulness lavish Mordecai (his enemy) with the things Haman believes he deserves for himself.

Jesus said "Love the lord with all your heart, with all your strength, and with all your might. And love your neighbor as you love yourself."

In this advent season, there are desires of our hearts for the things we may wish to have, and honors that might be bestowed upon us. Go ahead and let yourself claim what it is that you desire.

Do you desire new fancy things? Someone to acknowledge your hard work? New technology? Craft beer?

NOW....what if you could take those desires and bestow them on someone else? Or gave these things to the people you really cannot stand?

The lesson of humility in this chapter goes beyond Haman's pride but tackles God's grace in a way that we think inconceivable.

Lord, for the wisdom you provide in switching things around for us, we thank you?!?

Esther's banquet

12/10/2014

Esther 5:1-14 Click here for the reading

It seems strange that since the king asks Esther what it is that she wants, AND he offers to give her up to half the kingdom, why she doesn't ask for what she wants right then and there. What she wants is deliverance of her people.

Lord we thank you for the drama that ensues in the story of our lives that reflect your greater story.

Plotting and scheming to destroy the Jews

12/7/2014

Esther 3:1-15 Click here for the reading

After Esther is promoted to queen and Mordecai to palace officer, Haman is promoted to become the highest ranking official for King Xerxes. Haman now holds the position similiar to that of a Prime minister. Haman is named as an "Agagite" previously mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures as a foe to King Saul, a tribe associated with being a foe against the Jews. (See Exodus 17:14; Deuteronomy 25:17-19). The readers of this story know that Haman will play the enemy of the Jews and Esther sets up Esther, Mordecai, and Haman in perfect symmetry for the story about to be told.

Tending the the overall narrative and story, where Agag was once the downfall of Saul (1 Samuel 15:7-35), now Mordecai becomes the downfall of Haman. A reversal of the story.

Mordecai, much like Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego from the book of Daniel, refuse to bow down to anyone other than God. This begins the irrational response of Haman; instead of making an example of Mordecai, he intends to wipe out Mordecai's entire race; the Jews.

As Jews in Exile (scattered away from Judah and Jerusalem because they were overtaken), there is a loss of identity and of power. Haman exploits this and feels threatened by nonconformity.

Immediately our hearts and minds race to Adolf Hitler, a similar threat from years past. For me this is too easy because it allows us to feel like we have overcome this issue of just getting rid of people who are not like us, who have different skin colors or who have differing view points or people who may not bow down to me.

The sinfulness of Haman is repeated in the world around us, see police brutality, death of children shot by those who are supposed to protect them, current racial and class issues that confront american society. The melting pot is exploding.

But the Good news in this story is that God DOES save God's people. The reversal of previous downfalls happens the other way around, good does triumph over evil. It is hard for us to see in the story that is unfolding before us because we, if we are honest, might feel a bit more like Haman than Mordecai.

God helps us in the midst of great conflict in our country, remind us that you will come and save us and remind us that your kingdom will ultimately reign.