Grace to you and
peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. Amen
May all kings bow down before him, and all
the nations do him service.
For the king delivers the poor who cry out
in distress, the oppressed, and those who have no helper.
He has compassion on the lowly and poor, and
preserves the lives of the needy.
From oppression and violence he redeems
their lives, and precious is their blood in his sight.
In the Gospel of
John it is written:
He was in the world, and the world came into
being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own,
and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who
believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God. . .
Epiphany is the
day we remember the Wisemen coming from afar to pay homage to the Christ child,
born in Bethlehem.
It’s remarkable
in its contrasts.
Foreigners sought
out the one born to be King of the Jews so that they might pay him homage.
While Herod, the
King of the Jews, also sought him, that he might kill him.
“He came to what was his own, and his own
people did not accept him.”
One of the
reasons that the story of the Wisemen was so important to the early church was
that it anticipated what happened to Jesus and who was to follow him.
At the manger
were the shepherds, the poor, and the Wisemen, foreigners.
Following Jesus’
resurrection the Gospel spread, but not among his own people.
The Church in
Jerusalem, by all historical counts, quickly faded from the scene.
It was Paul’s
mission to the Gentiles that resulted in the growth of the Church.
Jesus, born King
of the Jews, the Messiah, and yet of all the people, the Jews did not accept
him. That is a simple historical fact.
Our Psalm points
to another factor, that the poor and oppressed have a favored status in God’s
sight, and for that reason, it is often those outcast by society that have
embraced the message of Jesus more than others.
This message of
Jesus, as Good News to the poor, is reflected in Mary’s song, the Magnificat:
He has brought down the powerful from their
thrones,and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,and
sent the rich away empty.
The rich and the
powerful have often had trouble with Jesus.
And if they don’t, it’s probably that they are not listening.
And now, fast
forward to today.
Pope Francis is
an interesting leader.
One of the most intriguing
dimensions of his leadership is that he is the first Pope from Latin America
and his perspective shows it.
He charged right
into the fray of the Presidential elections last year with his admonition to
build bridges, not walls. His words were
far more popular, I imagine, in Mexico that in the USA.
Pope Francis is
adored by the world’s poor and oppressed.
Not so much by the rich and powerful.
Some would say
that Pope Francis has been too political, and that his politics are too closely
aligned with Latin American perspectives, which of course is his background.
There is another
possibility.
It could be that
he is in tune with a dimension of Jesus’ message that simply is not as popular
with the rich and powerful, nations such as our own.
This is the thing
though, it’s not just that Pope Francis is a renegade Christian from a third
world country, whose message should be tamed by the Christians in the more
established part of the Church.
Pope Francis
represents a global trend in that the center of Christianity is no longer in
Europe and North America, where it historically has been, but rather south of
the Equator.
There are over
twice as many Christians in Africa as there are in the United States.
The same can be
said of Latin America.
Meanwhile in
Europe and North America the Church is in a major decline.
Jesus said
something that should make us uncomfortable.
"Truly I tell you, it will be hard for
a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier
for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to
enter the kingdom of God."
When I consider
these words of Jesus, and think about how it is in Africa and Latin America
that Christianity is flourishing, I wonder if he’s speaking directly to us as a
nation.
Can we be both
rich and Christian?
Or will our
wealth as a nation lead us away from Christianity?
And if so, why?
One reason maybe
that we have simply become so distracted by our own lives.
Our prosperity
has allowed us to fill our lives with so many things, so much activity, that
there is less and less time for Jesus.
I’ve noticed this
in a very specific way over the course of my ministry.
Confirmation
classes.
When do you
schedule confirmation classes?
There was a time
when Wednesday nights were set apart by the school districts across the nation
as “church night”, and that’s when we’d have confirmation classes.
That has largely
fallen by the wayside.
Now, today, it is
a challenge to find an opening in the schedule for youth activities.
Even Sunday
mornings are filled with soccer games, or swimming meets, and other such
activities.
In my first
parish I was humored by one of our parents who asked me in all seriousness why
we didn’t have our kids in the swim team.
Now the swim team involved traveling all over the state to meets, every
weekend throughout the summer. It didn’t
even occur to them that I, as a pastor, couldn’t do that.
Have we in our
society, simply become too busy for Jesus?
Life has become a
distraction from things spiritual.
Of that I am
quite convinced.
Even devout
Christians have a difficult time making regular worship a priority.
In contrast to
this, I remember a story told by Dr. David Preus regarding the Church in
Africa. People would journey, most often
by foot, from miles around to attend church on Sundays. And having made that journey, their
expectation was that they would spend the whole day worshipping.
He even related
the story of one man, born without legs, who walked on his hands to
church.
I think about
that. In contrast to that, there is the “wisdom”
that has been shared with us regarding our evangelism efforts.
In evaluating our
congregation, one of the conclusions as to why we are not growing is that all
of the growth in our area is in Liberty Lake, and people will simply not cross
over the freeway and the river to go to church.
Africans walk ten
miles or so to go to church. We’re
concerned about driving across the freeway.
But there is
another reason, more important, which explains why the Gospel is so important
to the poor and the oppressed, and not so much to the rich and powerful.
I believe Martin
Luther said it best in his last words spoken before he died.
“We are beggars,
it is true.”
Beggars are not
popular in our country.
I have to admit
my own prejudice against them.
I don’t stop to
give a hand out to those who are almost always present at the freeway off ramps
in downtown Spokane.
They're drug
addicts. Drunks. And all sorts of other derogatory thoughts
come across my mind.
I felt a bit
different when I encountered beggars in Russia.
But even then, I’d
been told that they were pimped out, meaning that because of their disability
they had been put their to collect donations which were then turned over to
their “protector”, their pimp, who profited from their misfortune.
So I didn’t give.
WE are
beggars, this is true.
This is the
essence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, according to Martin Luther.
We have
nothing. We are totally dependent on the
grace of God shown us in Christ Jesus.
It’s a handout to
the unworthy.
And this is
probably why, it is so hard for the wealthy to fully embrace the Gospel. We are too self reliant. We can take care of ourselves.
How many
Americans are capable of truly believing that “We are beggars, this is true”?
And yet, before
God, we have nothing.
We stand, side by
side, with the poorest of the poor in the world, dependent on the riches of God’s
grace, not our own.
It may be easier,
for the poor and oppressed to accept the grace of God for they recognize they
need it.
It is hard for
us to accept a gift because we don’t often have the experience of really
needing it.
I know for
myself that the hardest thing I have ever had to do is admit that I needed
help, that I couldn’t do it myself.
It’s hard to
accept Jesus as your savior if you do not recognize your own need for
saving.
Maybe this is why
Africa has embraced Christianity.
After all, isn’t
that a continent that has been continually dependent on aid and assistance from
others? I mean, think of all the famines
and strife that continent has experienced.
They have learned
to accept a gift in the process.
And perhaps, more
than anything else, that’s what we can learn from them.
“We are beggars,
this is true.”
May all kings bow down before him, and all
the nations do him service.
For the king delivers the poor who cry out
in distress, the oppressed, and those who have no helper.
He has compassion on the lowly and poor, and
preserves the lives of the needy.
From oppression and violence he redeems
their lives, and precious is their blood in his sight.
Amen
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