Sermons
Rejoice in the Lord always! Again, I say, rejoice! We rejoice, as our collect says, in the bountiful grace and mercy with which our God comes among us to speedily help us and deliver us. And we rejoice in the powerful imagery of restoration provided by the prophet Isaiah.
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What Paul reminds us of today is that these stories, and our traditions at this dreary and cold time of the year, are meant as lights for us, guiding, encouraging, reminding us of what is to come, offering hope. The coming of God into our world in the form of a human baby, the Creator of the Universe incarnate, dwelling here among us, as one of us, has ENORMOUS and everlasting implications.
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Imagine you are in Palestine when Jesus was proclaiming the Good News. You are not in one of the cities or large towns. You most likely haven’t ever seen a king or a Caesar. You know the stories of King David and King Solomon. They were heroic men, but flawed. In their kingdoms there was suffering and hunger, greed and deceit. One day, a stranger comes to your village and there’s much talk about it, about his teachings and his deeds. You go to the synagogue in curiosity, and you hear him teach about the kingdom of God. It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened. And you leave the synagogue perplexed at its meaning.
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In his letter to the Ephesians Paul prays that the “God of our Lord Jesus Christ may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you.“ What is that hope to which we’ve been called? For that matter, what is hope?
