Justice and Mercy with Humility

Scripture: Micah 6:1-8  • 

Psalm 15  • 1 Corinthians 1:18-31  • Matthew 5:1-12

 Today, as in the time of the prophet Micah, justice continues to be elusive.  Katrina Whitley tells us “Justice is bought by the rich in courts that preserve those who have money and punish those who are poor and unprotected. The few who truly do justice are called fools and radicals and are even forbidden in many cases from feeding the hungry and from giving shelter to refugees. Loving-kindness and mercy are laughed at. They are for the weak, for those who, in derision, are called bleeding hearts. Millions are being spent on weapons that kill people and destroy cities because mercy is no longer a virtue but an enemy of power. And humility has become alien in a world where people are strutting about armed to the hilt, threatening with violence and death those who do practice humility.” 

What are we charged to do? Read “He Has Told You, O Mortal, What Is Good .” Jesus gives us his answer in his Sermon on the Mount, this Sunday's gospel. Read more about the prophet Micah in Dan Clendenin's "Who Is A God Like You?"

You Hear What You're Listening For

 Scripture: Isaiah 9:1-4  • Psalm 27:1, 4-9  • 1 Corinthians 1:10-18  • Matthew 4:12-23

The  gospel this week is Matthew's account of Jesus calling disciples to be fishers of men. What is involved in answering the call? Why did the disciples leave their net immediately and follow Jesus?  How do we "fish" for people? What is involved? Read Debie Thomas' "I Will Make You..."

First, you have to be open to hear the call. The farmer in Barrington Bates' story, hearing a cricket chirp on his visit to the City in the midst of sirens blaring, said "I figure you hear what you're listening for." Are we listening for the call? What are we listening, or looking for? Bates says Jesus gives us clear directives on what we need to do. Read his "Repent, Look For Signs Of The Kingdom, And Follow Jesus ."

What are you looking for? What do you need?

 Scripture: Isaiah 49:1-7 -1 Corinthians 1:1-9 - John 1:29-42 - Psalm 40:1-12

This week's gospel in the second week of the Epiphany seaon has Jesus calling his disciples to be fishers of men. What makes them drop their fishing nets to follow him? In "What Are You Looking For?" Debie Thomas peels back the Scripture to help us answer Jesus' call to discipleship. Looking, Seeing, Finding. It requires looking, seeking, and seeing, not once, or twice, but constantly, to Jesus' invitation to "Come and see."

 Leaving comfort zones, examining ourselves honestly and thoroughly is not easy, but the journey helps us to find our true selves with the presence of Christ to help us find what God has in store for us. It is saving. It is life fulfilling. It is a gracious vision. It is about forgiving and seeing as Jesus sees. Loving as Jesus loves. Later Jesus would say that in losing ourselves we will find ourselves. What does that mean? Accept Jesus' invitation to  "come and see," and all that that entails.

In "Be Called," Dr. Sharon Fennema says we are called into becoming aware of the contours of God moving in our midst, from John in his gospel exclaiming, "Behold the Lamb of God," the presence of the grace of God, embodied in Jesus. Jesus, who, in John's gospel, before performing any miracle, or casting out any demon, asks "What are you looking for?" He's asking "What do you need?" From the"ends of the earth" passage in our reading from the prophet Isaiah, to Jesus's call to leave the familiar behind, we see God is doing a new thing, and calls us to do the same. The calling is liberating and collective. It was never just an insular individual calling. God will not be boxed in, and through God's grace in the redemptive and freeing love of Christ, neither are we. Such is the freedom of the ἐξουσία (authority which liberates - gives choices instead of domination) of Jesus. Jesus, whose name means "he who saves," the deliverer, the Messiah.

Epiphany Season's First Sunday

 Scripture: Isaiah 60:1-6  • Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14  • Ephesians 3:1-12  • Matthew 2:1-1

The first Sunday in the season of Epiphany follows other extraordinary "enlightenings" with Jesus's baptism. In "Stepping In," Debi Thomas says, "The word “epiphany” comes from the Greek, "epiphaneia," meaning "appearing" or "revealing."  During this brief liturgical season between Christmas and Lent, we’re invited to leave miraculous births and angel choirs behind, and seek the love, majesty, and power of God in seemingly mundane things.  Rivers.  Voices.  Doves.  Clouds.  Holy hands covering ours, lowering us into the water of repentance and new life.  In the Gospel stories we read during this season, God parts the curtain for brief, shimmering moments, allowing us to look beneath and beyond the ordinary surfaces of our lives, and catch glimpses of the extraordinary.  Which is perhaps another way of describing the sacrament of baptism, one of the thin places where the "extraordinary" of God's grace blesses the ordinary water we stand in.  

The Rev. Charles Hoffacker says, "The Epiphany Season is a time in the church year when we focus on many epiphanies, shinings forth of the glory of Christ, among them his manifestation to Gentiles as an infant, the time at Cana when he supplied wine for a wedding, and his mountaintop transfiguration shortly before his death. On this first Sunday of the season, we recall yet another epiphany, how Jesus declared his solidarity with suffering, sinful humanity by accepting baptism at the hands of John—not because he needed it, but because we needed him to be baptized for us. Read why he says the manifestation of God’s glory to, for, and in us is more like "Johnny Appleseed Christianity " than "Jack And The Beanstalk Christianity."

Dan Clendenin, in "Why Do You Come To Me?," says "the biggest bombshell of the baptismal story — the stupendous claim of a trinitarian confession is Jesus' baptismal solidarity with broken people was confirmed by God's affirmation and empowerment. Still wet with water after John had plunged him beneath the Jordan River, Jesus heard a voice and saw a vision — the declaration of God the Father that Jesus was his beloved son, and the descent of God the Spirit in the form of a dove. The vision and the voice punctuated the baptismal event. They signaled the meaning, the message and the mission of Jesus as he went public after thirty years of invisibility — that by the power of the Spirit, the Son of God embodied his Father's unconditional embrace of all people everywhere."

Holy Name Sunday - What is in a Name?

 Scripture: Numbers 6:22-27  • Psalm 8  • Galatians 4:4-7 or Philippians 2:5-11  • Luke 2:15-21

What's in a name? The authors of this week's homilies tell us about the name of Jesus this Holy Name Sunday. Read The Rt. Rev. Frank Logue's "God Knows You By Name."

What's your name? Is it meaningful to you? If you could change your name, what would it be?

What names does God know us by? Read The Rev. Monica Wainwright's "God’s Name For You."