January 10, 2021 – Baptism of our Lord                                       Text:  Genesis 1:1-5

Dear Friends in Christ,

            Currently we have 5 to 6 of our members who are gone.  Left the area.  Headed south.  Mainly to find warmth but they all are somewhere near water.  Last winter Toni and I took a trip and we just drove until we found significant climate change.  We eventually stopped 100 feet from the Gulf of Mexico – water.  What do we do to relax – hot bath, hot shower, or even better sit in a whirlpool.  Toni and I have stayed at a place with a pool in the room.  Wow!  Even your sound machines and little gadgets that are supposed to calm your nerves revolve around water – ocean waves, a rolling brook, water bubbling and falling down some rocks.  We find comfort in water.

            It didn’t take long for God to put this in place on earth – we’ve got water by the 2^nd verse of Genesis.  He was “hovering over the face of the waters.”  Maybe this calmed God as He was creating the world.   He knew that water was important from the beginning. 

            It seems that week after week our world gets more chaotic.  Sickness and vaccines and special elections and fighting.  Throw in a cloud of fog that enveloped us, homes without electricity, tree branches ready to snap and fall wherever, and the general malaise of winter.  We’ve got to keep fighting our perspective or we are all going to go crazy.  We are on the brink.  Please, help us Lord.

“BREAKING THE CHAOS”

            Water is you and me.  It transports, it dissolves, and replenishes nutrients and organic material while carrying away waste.  We have a brain – 70% water.  Lungs – 90% water.  Blood – 83% water.  We drink water and need water.  The dying person in film always asks for a drink. 

            God knew all this before He started his craftsmanship of world and man.  2 Peter 3:5 says, “the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God.”  The Holy Spirit used water to make things as they are.  Scientifically we know this…there is no life apart from the element of water.  The heavens and the earth came into being, exist now, and are preserved only because God has so commanded and ordered all things.  The heavens and the earth are preserved through the Word of God alone.  The only One who can break the chaos is God because He controls what He has made.

            Don’t let your mind play tricks with your thoughts.  God continues to work in the midst of His creation.  His ways are not your ways.  What is the opposite of chaos?  Order.  We call it the Order of Creation.  God had a plan and He saw that it came to be.  In our text “God saw that the light was good.”  He never said darkness was good.  He doesn’t promote sin or people who want to change what He created.  He doesn’t want to see you and I living in darkness.  He sent Christ to be the “light of the world.”  He had a plan for the chaos.

            In our Gospel lesson John baptizes Jesus.  The same Spirit that was at creation descended on him like a dove.  Then a voice from heaven:  “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”  We sin.  Jesus didn’t.  Yet, He is baptized with a baptism for sinners.  Jesus takes our sin upon Himself.  Heaven is torn open.  The Savior breaks the chaos.

            Jesus had to deal with chaos, didn’t He?  The smarter-than-thou crowd always questioning His words.  Chaos in the streets of his hometown.  Confidants turning their back on Him.  Friends and family of Jesus dying.  Politicians who didn’t just want to make His life miserable but who wanted Him dead.  Sickness and disease and is He the Messiah?  Crowds that always surrounded Him and few moments to be alone.  And in some of those alone times where did He find Himself – on or near the water.  He created it.  He enjoyed it.  When it got too rough – He calmed it with just His Word.

            He gives that same peace to you and I.  God’s Word and water when first sprinkled or dumped or dunked into brought us from the chaos of our sinful nature to the peace of forgiveness.  It took us from the scariness of death to the beauty and promise of eternal life.  Paul writes in our Epistle, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Rom. 6:4)  This is an everyday pledge that we carry in our DNA.  This water and Word never left your body. 

            Let all of this calm you down.  Let in flow in you and around you, as the chaos is broken.  God created the heavens and the earth.  Not man.  Not some happy accident.  The Creator spoke the Word and it was done.  The void was filled.  He does the same for you.  His Word…His water…all speak to a void you may have.  Order in the midst of chaos.  He’s here.  He has to be because all of this belongs to Him. 

                                                                                                                                    Amen.          

January 3, 2021 – Epiphany                                                                    Text:  Matthew 2:1-12

Dear Friends in Christ,

            Can’t you picture the Epiphany story played out in a silent movie with the exciting music in the background?  The setting exotic.  The characters are royal, magical, mysterious.  You’ve got the essential ingredients.  You’ve got a villain in King Herod who is trying to trick the Wise Men who are dashing in their bright clothes.  If we could we would be booing Herod and cheering on the Wise Men as they make their way to Jesus.  Good over evil as the Magi complete their quest.  We could just leave it at that and the sermon would be over, but that won’t do.

            This isn’t an overboard melodrama.  These are not larger-than-life characters playing their parts.  There is something ordinary and real life about this narrative.  The storyboard is complete so let’s watch it play out . . .

“EPIPHANY MELODRAMA”

            We get right to some of the main characters right away.  Wise men come to Herod looking for the one born King of the Jews.  This disturbs Herod and it seems the whole city . . . the drama starts to build.

            Herod is a dichotomy, which means he has many aspects to his personality.  We always play up his ruthlessness and his killings of his family but as with many dictators he also did some noble things.  He built the last temple.  He eased people’s taxes when times got tough.  He used his own wealth to feed starving people.  Under the surface this guy did not respect human life.  He felt power meant he had to destroy those who threatened him.  Whether they did or not they had to go.  And so it is with Jesus.

            The Wise Men were perhaps remarkable men of their day, but by no means unique.  They were philosophers and astrologers and soothsayers.  These Magi may have been sincere seekers of the truth but it wasn’t their great wisdom that got them to Bethlehem.

            God put the star in the sky.  Did you see what they call the Christmas star in the sky two weeks ago?  Didn’t it look like the star as you have always seen it or imagined it?  I stood on our deck, looked southwest and marveled at this occurrence.  I thought to myself, “Thank you Lord, in the midst of everything surrounding us, you shine a star as a reminder that it is your working in our daily lives that leads us on.” 

            That is what God did with the Wise Men.  These Gentiles are led by God something that the Lord has been doing for thousands of years.  The encompassing love of God for the world and every human being is played out again and again.  He wants all to come to a knowledge of His truth and under the shelter of salvation in Christ.

            How were they brought to Bethlehem?  Not by their astrology knowledge.  It was God and God alone.  He spoke to them with a star, something they were looking for.  What a wonderful backdrop to our melodrama.  God had prepared the world for the coming of the Prince of Peace.  When we are not seeking Him, He finds us.  This is what the Magi were brought to see – their salvation and ours, as the Son of God had been born in the likeness of men.

            Could the opposition prevail against God’s practical love?  Nada.  No.  Herod actually enlightened these Gentiles with the truth of which he and his people were custodians – the truth of God’s Word, profitable for correction, reproof, and teaching because God inspires it.  Micah centuries ago had directed people to the town of Bethlehem and the clans of Judah.  The prophet still points the way for us.  And God’s grace is not thwarted.

            In the drama the Wise Men finally arrive and we rejoice with them.  What is their response?  They had great joy.  Then they worshipped.  Then they gave their gifts.  They are not paying a price they are paying homage to a King. 

            This King would eventually gift us the gift of redemption, not with silver and gold, but with His holy, precious blood and innocent suffering and death.  This brings us great joy day after day after day.  We are part of the story.  We too worship.  We too give our gifts.  We too have been led to the star and the main character of the melodrama – Jesus the Christ. 

            Many of the silent movies always had “The End.”  This was so you knew when to leave.  We have no such thing.  This screenplay continues on.  We have an eternity waiting for us.  We are going to be with the star forever.  That is a drama I can’t wait for, what about you?

                                                Amen.