United Church of Two Harbors

2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2

"You can't handle the truth!" Jack Nicholson famously rants at the climax of A Few Good Men, saying that we live in a world of walls.

In contrast, Christ says, "The truth shall set you free."

In many ways our life walk teeters between these views of the truth... we want the truth, but we are at the same time afraid the truth might be too awful for us to bear. We veil ourselves from the truth and these veils serve both to shield ourselves from the truth outside us and to keep people from seeing the truth within us. We are doubly afraid. Afraid the external truth might be too much to bear and that the truth of ourselves may be too terrible for others to bear.

On this Transfiguration Sunday let us remember that when Jesus was revealed to his friends there was reverence and awe, but there was also rejoicing. The truth may be convicting, but it is also liberating.

There is much discussion in our society about how much truth we are entitled to or how much we can bear. There is fear that if we knew the truth it may destroy us.

On this score I side with the gospel, the truth sets us free. It may make us miserable first, however. I fully accept that, but that discomfort is probably on the whole a good thing. It brings our lives back in line with the truth of our situation. And there is so much realignment to be done.

Bear witness, then, to the truth! Both truth within and truth without. Remove the veil that shields you from the truth and walk free. This is our hope and our duty.

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Luke 6:17-26

"It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: 'And this, too, shall pass away.' How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!"

In Jesus' blessings and woes as recorded in Luke we are thrown into spiritual vertigo. Jesus tells us over and over that seeming blessings are actually woes and seeming woes are actually blessings. It is a list designed to drive us mad. What can we depend on if health and riches do not bring lasting joy?

Jesus is reminding us of the transitory nature of existence. States of being are always in flux. One thing is always becoming another. The truth of life is that, like the Lincoln quote above, "this, too, shall pass."

Attachment to the things of this world only bring hardship, pain, misery, and, even worse, spiritual death. What can we depend on?

At the risk of sounding sappy on the weekend before Valentine's Day, I would posit there is only one thing that lasts - love. God's steadfast love for us and our reflection of this primeval love for others is the only thing that has any lasting value. It cannot be kept or boxed or stuffed into an envelope and given to your sweetie. It is intangible and yet perhaps the most real thing we know.

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Luke 4:14-21

The future ain't what it used to be. When I was young I was promised that the future would be rocketships to Mars, hotels on the Moon, jet packs, robots, and cell phones. Well, we got the cell phones at least.

This disappointment in the future could be heard on a recent episode of Weekend America. Commentator John Ridley deemed the news of the testing of a heat ray by the United States "the best news ever." "Since childhood," he mused, "how long have you been waiting to say 'set phasers to stun?'" To him it seemed like we are finally getting part of the future we were promised.

In the passage for today Jesus seems to be thwarting the future hope of his audience when he reads from the prophet Isaiah. He reads the part about bringing "good news to the poor" and "release to the captives" and proclaiming "the year of the Lord's favor" but Jesus stops short of the passage which promises "a day of vengeance." Abruptly, in the middle of a sentence, he closes the scroll and denies his audience perhaps what they wanted more than anything - revenge.

And can't we relate? Don't we want our heat rays? Don't we want our grievances redressed? Don't we want our enemies to suffer?

But instead Jesus offers something more immediate. He says, "today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." Jesus offers not only hope for the future, but for the present. Today is the day of "good news to the poor." Now is the time for release of the captives. This is the year of the Lord's favor.

Our hope rests not only in a future redemption, but in a present redemption. The world we hope for tomorrow we realize in our actions today.

[Image: Cover art from Captain Future and the Space Emperor by Edmond Hamilton first published in the Winter of 1940.]

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John 2:1-11

In today's reading from John Jesus performs the first of his miracles at a wedding in Cana. When the wedding runs out of wine Jesus bids the servants to take six water jars for the rites of purification and fill them with water. When they take a sample of the water they've drawn to the head steward not only has it turned into wine, it is a wine surpassing that which they had before.

While it would be easy to let this text devolve into trying to figure out how this was done, I would encourage the reader to suspend disbelief and try to understand how this miracle teaches us who Jesus is and what his mission was all about.

Covenant - This first of Christ's miracles takes place in the context of covenant making. In wedding the couple promises something they do not have the power to back up - eternal love. This just isn't something people can rationally promise to one another. Hence, God's presence is necessary to see through this human covenant. Our love runs out. God's love is infinite. Our wine runs out. God's doesn't. This first miracle is a reminder that God keeps covenant with us.

Abundance - We often operate out of a notion of scarcity, of not having enough. God's kingdom operates by different rules. When I found out that I was going to have a second child I worried that I wouldn't have enough love for two children. I couldn't imagine I could love another child as much as I loved my daughter. This, of course, was a foolish worry. But we do that to ourselves, don't we? We worry that we can spread our love too thin. Christ reminds us that there is always plenty to share.

Party! - God's kingdom is about joy. We may come to Christ out of fear, sorrow, or shame, but we should stay for the party. Christ acts to keep the party going. Why? Well, despite theological pretensions, can't we say that Christ just likes a good party? A joyfilled and abundant life is a sign of God's kingdom drawing near.

So let's keep the party going!

[Image used with permission of the artist, Hanna-Cheriyan Varghese who is preparing to have her show A Batik Bible at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music from January 29 - March 23. This image was found on the Asian Women's Resource Centre for Cuture and Theology.]

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Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

When we talk about "parting the waters" we typically think of Moses at the Red Sea leading the people out of slavery into freedom.

We may also think of Joshua at the River Jordan leading the people out of wandering into the promised land.

In a similar way when the heavens were opened at Jesus' baptism I argue that there was another kind of parting of the waters, but not one we in our 21st century mindset would necessarily be attuned to. The 1st century cosmological view was of a three tiered universe where the earth on which we live is surrounded by water, above and below. When the heavens are parted then, in fact, the heavenly waters are parted.

The significance of this is that Jesus is a kind of second Moses, leading the people to liberation, and a second Joshua, leading the people to the promised land, but instead of a lateral and temporal movement, his aim is higher and of eternal significance. Instead of settling for a short term military or political solution to the ills of his people, Jesus takes the long view and looks to bring peace and reconcilation between all peoples and God.

It is not the Messiah that the people were looking for. But in many ways Jesus exceeded their expectations. We often desire a God who descends from above, like Superman, to solve all our problems, smite the bad guys, and bless the good guys. Or we want a God who will make war on our enemies. But God's power in the Baptism of Jesus is made manifest in a dove.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it Superman? Nope, it's a bird. And not even a cool bird of prey, but a dove, a symbol of peace, a symbol of God's covenant.

And so, in our own baptisms, we are called to resist evil and fight injustice, but with a long view of reconciliation and peace.

Continue reading "Parting the Waters" »

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What would you say if I told you that the legend of the Three Kings is only that... a legend with no biblical basis whatsover? The "wise men" (or magi or astrologers) are only mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew and they are not numbered and are never refered to as kings. They are said to come from the east with three gifts for the newborn king.

In my sermon today I proposed that the tradition of the Three Kings probably grew more out of pairing up this reading from Matthew with Psalm 72 which speaks of kings from three distant lands bringing gifts to a king of Israel. This also explains why so often these three kings in our nativity scenes are often depicted as being African, Oriental, and Hispanic.

More important than all this Biblical trivia and archeology is what the Three Kings represent. The work of God in the world was discerned first not by the wise of Israel, not by those who should be in the know, not by the "righteous," but by foreigners from distant lands with other religions. In this spirit I encourage us to remember that we learn best when we listen to others, even those whose faith backgrounds are different than ours. I hope that 2007 will be a year when we can hear the wisdom of those outside of our own faith and we can better discern God's work in the world.

[Today's Call to Worship can be found on Leiturgia.]

[Image: Three Kings by J. C. Leyendecker]

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In my sermon this Sunday I spoke about how Muhammad Yunus, this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, started the Grameen Bank by loaning $27 out of his pocket and thus started what is now known as microloans.

I compared his transformative business model to that of George Bailey in the perenial favorite, It's a Wonderful Life. In the end, George understood what a difference his life made by simply faithfully tending what seemed to be small things. But, in fact, his "nickel and dime Savings and Loan" and his life had a big impact on his community and many other lives.

Likewise, Mary - an unwed, teenage mother in a backwater part of the ancient world - shouldn't even qualify as a footnote to history. And yet because she was faithful in little, her impact is felt through the ages.

Finally, I noted that this day is the centenial anniversary of the first radio transmission of voice and music. Before December 24, 1906 radio was only used for morse code signals. Imagine the surprise of the morse code workers out in the Atlantic hearing that voice through the code! Imagine, further, the surprise of that first broadcaster if he could see what broadcasting has become 100 years later.

As insignificant or impotent as we may feel, it is good this time of year to remember that we are called to be faithful in small things, and these little things may lead to big things.

Micah 5:2-5a
Luke 1:46b-55 (The Magnificat)

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