Building Together--Isaiah 49:1-7. Sermon preached on January 18, 2026

            As we continue using multiple texts, I wonder, how high, or how deep, is your calling from the Lord? 

            We have been thinking about call language for a few weeks now. 

            The Magi were called to follow and their calling was deep. It is wide and it required great faith on their part to listen to the voice of the Lord when others who encountered them might doubt their story. God’s voice lead them through the desert, to King Herod, and to Jesus where they presented their gifts him. Their calling required a depth that allowed them to hear God’s voice in a dream and go home via a different route. 

Last week we learned that God’s call to us to repent can only be lived out as we experience the One who discloses the divine name, takes us by the hand, and simultaneously reassures us as we take bold steps in our faith. For we cannot resist sin on our own. It is not possible. We fail when we attempt to do this alone. 

As you can see, we are building upon each text. 

Now this week we uncover and we consider the Servant Song of Isaiah 49. And I wonder, how far does the Lord God take us when He calls us? For as I read this week, “We are destined for more than what we [initially think].”[1] God’s call in your life is deep and wide. 

God places us in situations, around people, and in moments, that we do not have to understand. Yet in those moments, the steadfastness of the Lord is present; it can be felt in all three of the scriptural readings that we read, and said, today. 

I want to begin with the words of the Prophet Isaiah.

Move 1- servant song

            While sounding like words from Psalm 139, Isaiah 49’s language is also found in Isaiah 44. In all three places, we hear that God forms us. God knits us together before we were born. And in this moment of creation, and attention, according to Isaiah, God performed the intimate act of naming us. Such attention to detail by the Creator. Such. . . individual attention to each of us by our Lord. 

            Isaiah 49 begins with words that feel like they were addressed only to you… only to me. As if the exiles hearing these words were not the intended audience so many years ago. Instead, God wanted to hand them, pen them perhaps, personally, to one single person. In this case: YOU. 

            “I formed you. . . I knit you together. . . I named you.” The Lord says. These are all Singular verbs from a singular God who cares for us in a remarkably personal way which we can see and experience in our calling. 

            Yet the understanding of our calling takes times to understand and unpack. And as we spend the time with the Lord and as we serve the Lord and are faithful to the Lord, verse 4 comes into focus for us and it becomes another aspect for us. 

            Verse 4. This verse is a prayer. Since the author, and by extension, the audience, has come to trust in God and their faith has developed, they offer God an honest prayer.

            “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;” 

Then the prayer shifts tonally. . . 

            “yet surely my cause is with the Lord, and my reward with my God.”

            In the first half of the verse, we read an affirmation that many of us make. It is a confessional statement if you like. 

Isaiah has the church, the people, stand before God and confess the feeling that we have done our best and it seems that our best is not enough in that moment. The work we have done feels like it was done for nothing. And while we all know that we are nothing that we do in the Lord’s name is done for nothing, there are times when our heads hang a bit lower than we would like, and we. . . wonder. 

            To be able to stand before God and confess this is cathartic. It is cleansing. It can be healing. For God knows this and I wonder if God is the one who helped us to discover it. Like Paul the scales fell off, and we saw how we truly felt. Not sugar-coating it; we were honest with God. 

            Then the power of the verse hits: “our reward is with God.” And what Isaiah is saying here relates directly to the very character of God. It would be like saying, “and the very character of God is with me and that is my reward.” This is a word of union both of belief and of practice. 
            And in all of this, from the knowledge that God formed, knit, and named us, to the confession of our reward is with God, even when we feel like the work we have done has felt like it was for naught, the servant is both faithful and obedient in the community and to their high calling from God.

Move 2- Psalm 40

            This is no small feat to consider. 

            For as we go all the way back to the very first text we read together in worship, the Psalm of the Day, we hear that God drew each of us up out of the pit, the clay, to bog. Regardless of what that looks like in your individual life, God was there to pull you out of that place of separation and set you on a new place. God places us on a new path because, again using Isaiah’s language, you were knit, formed, and named by God. You were given a reward that is so personal and it is the very character of God that is with you. 

            And the blessing, the reward, is not just to pull you out of the struggles of your day, but as God reached down, God has taken the very person who he named by the hand, and the Lord then helped you confess that His character is with you, a new song was placed in your heart. 

            I wonder what that song sounds like? What does it resemble? 

            This takes us back up again to the Isaiah text. This takes us back again to of the idea of a reward. 

For when any of us hear that “our reward is with God” we immediately begin thinking of victory. We start thinking in terms of wins and losses—to use a sports analogy. If my reward is with God, and if God is drawing me out of where I suffer, then my extension those who do not… whatever do not “looks” like or resembles… well they do not get what I get do they? 

            That is not what this says.  

            Instead, today, God invites us to see how deeply our calling for the Lord runs

Move 3- 1 Corinthians

            This takes us finally into the church at Corinth. 

            Paul had a very special relationship with the church at Corinth—and it was not always positive. As we know Corinth was a church in conflict, a church in strife. It was a body of who could not agree on anything worship. 

            So much of Paul’s first words to them attempt to help them find a path toward unity and harmony as a church. Here at the beginning of his letter, Paul gently steers them away from their faults and towards their faith. 

            Notice verse 7, “so that you are not lacking any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.” If you consider why would Paul write these words in this way, then it becomes clear. They were lacking. They did not have the revelation of Jesus Christ in their midst. 

            So, they need to patience. Gentleness. “When Paul admonishes them for their faults (as he will do often in this book) and (their) failures, he does so because he is calling them to be who God has called them to be.”[2] Paul is inviting them to remember that they are called by God and even if they are weak, flawed, divided, sinful, they are still knit together by God. 

            They are still named by God. God has still drawn them up out of the miry clay and set their feet on the solid ground. Even if yesterday, or even this morning, they were quite sinful, their high calling is deep. . . it is wide. It calls them onward to greater things than they realize. 

            They church must just trust in the Lord who began that good work in them. 

Conclusion

            As must we. God has done so many great things in our midst. Things that we did not think God could do. That statement invites reflection and consideration. In what remains of our time together today, and as our ministry time begins again this week, I hope you will take these three texts with you and consider them and consider your calling. 

            For we are building together. 

 

DM

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[1] Jennifer Powell McNutt.

 

[2] Harry B. Adams. 

Leading--Matthew 3:11-17. Sermon preached on January 11, 2026. The Baptism of the Lord

            Does God have the power to protect us or even care for us when our enemies surround us? 

            Now you and I might answer that question in a resoundingly positive manner, but when the Israelites ask it, when their God seems to have been surrounded by the Babylonian pantheon of gods (and they appear to have won against our God), a probing question such as this is hard to answer. 

            Does God have the power to protect us or even care for us when we are still recovering from the work we did as a church, Bethesda, yesterday—glorious work as it was?

            For a testimony about the coming together as the Body of Christ is wonderful, but. . . but what we did together was hard. And I can stand here and boldly tell you how God is with us, how God watched over us, how God gave us the strength and energy. . . but.

            Does God have the power? Does God take us by the hand and lead us when we need the Lord the most? 

            Just like last week Isaiah will provide the theology and teaching and Matthew will illustrate what the Lord is doing for us. 

Move 1- the Divine Name

            The book of Isaiah is divided into three subsections—traditionally called first, second, and third Isaiah. The part that where our text is located is labelled as II Isaiah: chapters 40-55. Outside of Genesis 1 where we read the story of Creation, there is more about God as the Creator in this section of Isaiah than in any other place in the entire cannon of the Bible here.

            Of particular note is verse 8 of our text today where we have a profoundly simple statement or verse from the prophet. “I am the Lord, that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to idols.”[1]

            The first thing to note in this verse is the I AM designation. Every Hebrew hearing this message would have picked up on it and it would touch their hearts. This is the covenantal introduction that you and I are the most familiar with in scripture. It is now God reveals Himself to his people. It is not polytheistic. It is not vague. I AM. This is God’s self-revelation.  

            This is followed up in the very next word by the divinely revealed name of God, the name God chooses to disclose to us—Yahweh. Both are sacred terms and both are worthy of reverence and worship. Yahweh. The word with no vowels. That which cannot be spoken either in the home or in worship. Rather Hebrews often opt to say Adoni—the Lord. 

            Yet in our text today, Isaiah has God disclose it to His people—the very people that God just took by the hand. Such a profound coming together. In verse 6 God takes us by the hand, He reminds us of his covenant and then holds His people close as he states his name. 

Move 2- Matthew 3

            The power of this moment, God holding our hand, disclosing His name, become even more potent, as God leads us to the River which is the place of transformation. 

            Traditionally this is the moment where we start wondering about repentance and forgiveness in verse 11. This is where some will wonder why Jesus needs to come to the River for was he not sinless?  

            The weight of what is taking place here begins in verse 11 as John is preaching and teaching the crowds who have come to hear him. At this moment John tells the assembled people that, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming is mightier…” It is the word ‘repentance’ that always hangs us up here. 

            The Oxford dictionary defines repentance as: “sincere regret or remorse.” That is exactly how I imagine you and I would think of repenting if we were not thinking about it in a Chirstian or church context. We sincerely regret doing something bad when we think back upon the action that we are repenting. 

            But for a Hebrew, reading Matthew’s gospel, and considering the weight of what John was saying, there is far more happening here. 

            For Hebrews repentance implies remorse. It does include sincere regret. But it also requires a full turning away from the action that caused us to sin in the first place. As an example, biblical repentance, as John was speaking about it means that if I were to say, push you over. I feel sorry for it. I tell you I am sorry for I feel great remorse for it. And I do everything in my power to make sure that I will never again push you down. 

            I turn away fully from the sin, and the choice, that lead me in the wrong direction. 

            Biblical repentance is an act of transformation. Of turning away. And that choice is impossible on our own. I may not want to ever sin again. I may want to always make a better choice, but by sinful-self will always draw me back to sin. 

            It is in that moment where I need someone to take me by the hand. I need someone who has revealed himself to me as fully divine, someone who has chosen union with me when He did not have to do that at all. I need someone to give me the strength when I do not have any strength on my own to do things that my nature in itself cries out that I cannot do. 

            Jesus at the Jordan, in his baptism, comes to us and as the heavens are opened and God’s Spirit descends, he comes upon us and with us, and He gives us His very self as a preparation for what is to come—both in life and in the ministry that we, to go back to last week, being prepared to do.

            The Triune God choosing union with us, choosing to lead us, choosing to dwell with us, choosing to disclose himself to us, because left alone we cannot repent and make things right on our own. All of this is happening at the River, and it all happens as we come to repent.

Move 3- community.

            But Jesus does not stay at the Jordan River, and neither can we. For as we talked about last week, we have been gathered by the Lord just as the Magi were. Today, we have been led by the revelation of God’s name, and we are taken by the hand by the Lord in an act that we are not worthy of—expect for the truth that God loves us. 

            This was all done to prepare us to be sent out to share the gospel message with others. For they too are gathered and led by God. 

            Stanley Hauerwas writes that Christians are called to be a community capable of forming people with virtue sufficient to witness God’s truth in the world. And so on the Sunday were we consider the Baptism of our Lord, I wonder, how might our church be—or become—a community capable of forming people who witnessed to God’s truth?[2]

            Where are the places, and who are the people who God is bringing into your midst that you can share this message with? 

Conclusion

            For this week, the message of the Lord invites us to consider the places and moments where our union with Jesus becomes different, deeper and different. 

            For God does have the power and the presence to protect and care for us as our enemies surround and encircle us. 

 

 

DM

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[1] Isaiah 42:8 NRSV. 

[2] Feasting on the Word. Year A. Volume 1. Homiletic Section

Gathering--Matthew 2:1-12. Sermon preached on January 4, 2026

            Although our advent season is complete, one final story remains in this journey. The story you know comes last: the Magi. For today we read their story, and we consider they mystery of how they have come a great distance following a star that was visible to everyone, but a star that only they seemed to recognize as sent by God. 

             In that revelation we could have a message to consider today. But it is not the message for today. 

            Today before we come to the Table of the Lord, I want to take the two texts that we read (Isaiah and Matthew) and hold them up together. Isaiah is the theology/teaching and Matthew is the illustration. 

For God calls the church to do two things: arise and be ready for the work of gathering that God is doing in us. And the Magi demonstrate this to us in their story. 

Move 1- Gathering Language

The very first word that the prophet gives us in this new year is: Arise. And whether the act of rising comes from something as simple as ‘getting out of bed in the morning,’ or as dramatic as ‘being called by the Lord to service in His name,’ Isaiah calls the dispersed people of God to move. They/we are called to move from one position of inactivity into, or toward, another. Isaiah 60 begins with a word of commissioning which is not always what the church wants to hear, but it is the most applicable word to start our new year. 

In 2026, I wonder where can you already feel God commissioning you forward into a new station as a Christian? A new position? I wonder where can you sense of call that is deeper than what it was last week? 

            Arise… This is the word that Isaiah begins with.

            Telling exiled people to Arise would be particularly hard for the exiled Israelites to repeatedly hear for not only have they struggled with the reality of exile and the deep memories of what they entailed, but now as Isaiah ends, and the prophet in chapters 60-66 offers words of restoration and hope, these people will have to content with stronger call language. 

Isaiah starts with Arise, but he is about to give them more. Call them to more. Arise mixed with a responsibility in that call for as we Arise, Isaiah says something else will happen.

            People will be coming to the Israelites. Specifically, the Lord says that the nations will be gathered around them by God’s choice and God’s call. That’s a hard idea to wrestle with. Not only does Isaiah say that the exiled Israelites must arise, but they must be ready for those who will be coming to them—as must we. 

For the prophet will repeat the gathering language from a different perspective in verse 3-6. Over and over in these verses God tells us that although we might not feel ready for what is to come, or who is to come, they are being gathered to us. Six times in those four verse God says this.

            For the people are a light—verse 3. 

            The leaders of those people will see that the people who Arise are light to others—verse 3 still. 

            In verse 4 families, sons and daughters, come from a far. They come to the people of the Lord. 

            And in verse 5 the gathering continues as the radiance of our relationship with the Lord brings others to the Lord. It is all there. 

            Just as the Magi are experiencing as they come to the Holy Land following the star in verse 6 as the arrival of the Magi is prophesied. Arise and be ready… for the gathering work of God is going to be done with us. 

Move 2- the Magi

            Now without knowing it, I suspect, the Magi follow the format of Isaiah’s message. They arise and they submit to the call of the Lord. We know that they follow the star a great distance. They wander into the Holy City, and they speak with Herod and cause all sorts of fear and tension to erupt around Jerusalem. And as you have probably heard before they likely traveled from modern day Iran or Iraq all the way to Israel seeking the child who was just a few miles away in his home. 

            But it is what the Magi plan to do when the find Jesus that links Isaiah 60 with the Matthew 2 text that we just read. The Magi come to pay Jesus homage… perhaps your translation rendered the word worship. 

Regardless of which word you read with me in your Bible, the word signifies a deep truth that Matthew’s hearers, and us today, must remember and take with us from this service. The worship the Magi have come to Jerusalem to enact, belongs solely and totally to God. And every act of worship is to be done for God’s glory alone. 

            Whether you believe these Magi knew that Jesus was the Son of God or not as they travelled this great distance, this does not matter in this moment as they come before his family and offer their historic gifts. 

They have come to find him, and they have come worship him as we today are here to worship him. They were faithful in their journey and consistent in their work—both hard tasks in this day and age. We come, as they came, to acknowledge his full divinity as the Son of God sent for us. 

They arose. They were gathered by God. And that act of gathering lead them into a place, a posture if you prefer, of worship. 

Move 3- stopping a star

            And because of this choice, because of this posture, either from the Magi, or the exiled Israelites, or you and I, miracles can happen. God has the space in each of our lives to do extraordinary things if allow the Lord the space and room in us. For like the Magi every step that we take in faithful practice leads us closer to God. 

            In Matthew’s gospel, God will move in the lives of His people a number of times through dreams when God saw that their lives were open and ready to receive him. This is one of the defining aspects of the Matthew 1 and 2 and it will help to reinforce the power of God’s Spirit with his people. Listen again to the larger narrative. 

            In 1:20, Joseph will be told to take Mary as his wife and not to be afraid of what is to come. A hard task, but Joseph did it. And the story continued. 

            In today’s text, 2:12, the Magi will be warned not to return to Herod in a dream. Have you ever wondered why or how they trusted this voice from heaven that came in a dream when they might not have known who God was or is?  

            God will again speak to Jospeh in dreams in 2:13, 2:19, 2:22. All three of these occurrences serve as both assurances and forms of protection. But in all five accounts of a dream, God gathered the people that He was using and continued His mission to redeem the world through Jesus. 

            I wonder if that would have been possible if those very same people would not have arisen and been ready to be gathered by God in their own way? They responded and God found willing servants who could carry his message, both literally and figuratively, onward. 

            While I doubt that God will ask us to live and work in the same fashion, I do believe that God does call us to be ready in this new year to trust him. And in trusting him, miracles can happen that seemed impossible as the story began. 

Conclusion

            I do not commit to New Year’s resolution because as you know they do not stick. So do not call this a resolution. But together, as we come to the Table, let us resolve to arise, to be ready for those whom God will gather around us, and let us pay God homage. Let us worship God. Who knows a miracle might just happen around us… 

 

DM

Seeking--Matthew 11:2-11. Sermon preached on December 14, 2025

            This week our advent journey takes us back to John the Baptist and the peculiarity of what he does. Last week John was the ‘voice in the wilderness’ calling us to confess our sins, now we see John acting like us. John, and those who follow him are seeking to become disciples. 

As we consider John’s message, and ‘his seeking,’ I want to place John in conversation with Mary’s words from Luke 1 where she praises the Lord for the blessing that He has bestowed upon her following her visit to cousin, Elizabeth.

            In our work to be disciples, as we seek to follow Jesus, we all face the same problem. When Jesus does not respond, in the way we want Him to, it can be hard to keep seeking Him. It can be hard to find a voice that wants to praise the Lord. 

But that is reality of our lives, Jesus seldom responds or acts the way that we insist that He should. Unfortunately, this choice by our Lord, well. . . it is infuriating that God is not acting like we want. But that realization is part of being a disciple too. 

            But we will get there. . .  

Move 1- John’s question

Our story begins with the Baptist sending some of his followers to Jesus with a most peculiar question: Are you the one to come?

            It is strange at one level because we would think that witnessing heaven and earth open at Jesus’ baptism, the faith of John’s followers would be locked fully into place. No doubts left to fester. But apparently the miraculous baptismal act of Jesus was not enough to accomplish this. 

In Matthew 11 John is in prison, and he sends his followers to inquire of Jesus. They need a bit of reassurance—it’s a strange thing, but John does it anyway. 

            The strangeness is compounded by the fact Jesus answers them plainly (something he often does not do in the gospel) . . . But more than simply answering, our Savior responds in a way that is basically, well, not Messianic. And here is what I mean. And let me say right from the beginning, we will be jumping around the gospel narrative a bit. 

            When Jesus begins his earthly ministry in Luke’s gospel, Jesus reads Isaiah 61:1-2 to the people of his hometown of Nazareth. Now you will recall that after reading this text, these people will get angry and attempt to throw him off the hill on which the town sits. Something set them off.  

These are the words that Jesus reads before he preaches: 

“The spirit of the Lord God is upon me
    because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
    to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives
    and release to the prisoners,
 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
    and the day of vengeance of our God,
    to comfort all who mourn,[1]”

            I bring this up because this text from Isaiah is where Jesus states clearly why He was sent by God to us. This is as clear as it gets. This is Jesus’ mission statement. After he reads these words, the next thing that Jesus says in Luke 4 is: “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” That is plain as Jesus gets in the gospel when He says why he is here. Again… this is his mission.

            Now back to Matthew 11. When the followers of John come to Jesus and ask him for proof that He is the one who was sent by God and that they do not need to seek another, it stands to reason that Jesus would offer them the words from Isaiah 61 that are clear and precise. . . But Jesus does not do this. 

            Further, the story from Luke 4, where Jesus uses Isaiah 61 has already taken place by the time Matthew 11 is recorded. So why not repeat the message and remind us of His mission? 

            Instead, Jesus uses these words that make up verse 5 of todays’ text: 

“The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleanses, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel reached to them.”

            We like these words. We nod at these words. We say, ‘Yes, this is why Jesus is here.’ But those words come from two places in Isaiah… 28 and 35 and neither are part of any Messianic passages that Isaiah writes for us. 

            Again, Jesus not giving us what we want and not responding in a way that we would like him to. He tells what He wants to tell us and it not always what we want to hear.  

Move 2- 

            You see when God does not respond in a way that you like, when you think you know what you want to hear, and you practiced the prayer, and write out the script either in your heart or on paper, you’ve prepared the speech as John’s followers did in Matthew 11, and then Jesus does not follow it and uses words from a different part of the prophet that no one anticipated, in that moment it can feel very hard. . . very confusing. . .. It can feel almost impossible to locate the faith in your heart . . . to speak like Mary in Luke 1. 

It can feel almost impossible to find any place in your heart to offer a word of praise to God when it feels like God is not offering you want you wanted to hear from the Lord. And that is the challenge for us today as it was also the challenge of John’s disciples in Matthew 11, and the challenge of Mary following her time with Elizabeth in Luke 1, and as she processed the message from the angel who told her that she would bear the Son of God. 

            It can be hard, in the moment, to remember that God choose to dwell with the weak and the lowly when we want to hear that God is going to sweep down among us and make it all right. . . right now.

            In his thoughts on Mary’s Magnificat Bonhoeffer said this: 

“God is not ashamed of human lowliness [and weakness] but goes right into the middle of it, chooses someone as [an] instrument, and performs the miracle right where they least expect. God draws near the lowly, loving the lost, the unnoticed, the unremarkable, the excluded, the powerless, and broken.”[2]

            And I would add. . . God dwells with those who come to Him with struggles, with questions, when they find that God is not answering them in a way that they expect, and when we feel confused by the whole thing. Mary tells us again, “God helps His servant.” These two stories tell me, they tell us, that God is there—that God is here—for anyone who continues to seek the Lord in that moment. Even if their questions are unnecessary and speak of a lack of faith and a lack of understanding, God is there. 

            And especially if the answers from Jesus feel confusing and those answers seem to defy our expectations of who Jesus is supposed to be and how He is supposed to respond. . . Jesus is here for us. These two stories tell us this clearly. And that is the miracle for us today on the third week of Advent.

Move 3- the Miracle

            The miracle is that knowing all of this, and how it can feel uncertain, and even if it feels unhelpful at times, young Mary, seemingly insignificant Mary, is able to say, ‘my soul magnifies the Lord.” What a response. 

            So, can we be like Mary as a church and like families? 

Can we take our place among the lowly, the least, and at times the lost and see how God is with the lowliness as a child in the manger? For He has done a mighty thing this season. He has shown us mercy and given us His presence as he did with the followers of John in Matthew 11 who should have known better than to ask what they were asking. And Mary teaches us this as well in the reading from Luke 1. 

            Where people see despicable and messy, God brought forth blessing to us. This is something you and I can offer to those who come to us in what remains of the advent season, as the followers of John did to Jesus with questions that confuse and confound. 

For they come with so many questions, and while those questions seem unnecessary to our hearts at times, and we wonder if they have ever been listening to a single thing we’ve said or read to them from God’s Word, and the answers that we give them from God’s word seem clear to us. . . to them it just feels more confusing. 

            We are called to point people once again back to Jesus as John did even if the message seems lost or cloudy to us and as Mary sang about to God as well. 

Conclusion

            I know that each of us comes to Jesus with questions. But can we put those aside and simply worship God? The questions will still be there. The struggles will wait. For today it is enough to remember that God chooses to be with the weak, the lowly, and anyone who has a question that seems to have no answer, because in that place Jesus is already there with us. 

 

 

DM

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[1] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2061%3A1-2&version=NRSVUE

[2] Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The Connected Sermons of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Edited and Introduced by Isabel Best, (Fortress Press: Minneapolis, 2012), 118-9.

A Birthday Gift

Well, I have turned 50. It was a wonderful birthday. Surrounded by my wife, children, and daughter-in-law was all I wanted and I got it. I want to share with you one of the gifts I received as well. Emma and Jennifer came together and sent me to play golf. 

18 holes. Cart included of course (my knees would not appreciate walking the course... sorry dad, we rode this one). 

Having a birthday in December made golf during this time of the year previously impossible for me. Living in Ohio and Pennsylvania I was confronted with rain and snow often. But here in South Carolina, I do not have that issue! So Emma and I loaded up our clubs and headed to the course. 

But it was cloudy, and it was rainy that day. 

As Emma and I pulled up to the first hole, the rain began to fall in earnest. Emma was not to be deterred. She only learned to play this year and her game is coming along quite well. She does not hit it far but she is remarkably good at hitting it straight (I hate her... I mean seriously who hits it straight on their first ever swing!). 

As we drove down the first fairway, with rain coming down, Emma made the call... we needed Christmas music to brighten the round. For the next 5 holes Christmas music played on her phone. We sang and played in the rain and it was glorious. 

By the 6th hole our Christmas joy chased the rain away and only the clouds remained. 

This makes we wonder. . . Are the places and moments in your Advent preparations that you could inject some joy and infuse some hope? For Christ is with you!  

We played well that day. Emma almost made her first par! But it was the music that helped us forget the cold and the rain and remember that we were together. That made all the difference. 

Prepare--Matthew 3:1-12. Sermon preached on December 7, 2025

            By now I wonder, how many Christmas carols have you listened to? Not time amount, but how many actual Christmas songs could you name if we took the time to list them this morning?

            In my kitchen as Emma and I baked and prepared meals together, we routinely asked our virtual assistant, and I won’t say their names for fear of whose listening on YouTube, “so and so play some traditional Christmas music.” And then I enjoyed smoking chicken drumsticks and baking pies. Emma made bread and yeast rolls. We mashed potatoes and prepared deviled eggs while one of us sang—and it wasn’t Emma who sang.

            Yes, as early as Thanksgiving Day, we did this with Jennifer tasting our work to make sure we weren’t messing anything up. Amazon’s virtual assistant in the kitchen, and Apple’s in the Den, they were our DJ cycling through all the classics that you could think of. . . even the Grinch.

            So again, I wonder if you’ve joined me in this practice of enjoying everything from White Christmas to Joy to the World to… whatever your favorite Christmas carol or song is? Don’t say them out loud now either. 

            But as you listened to these selections, whether out in packed stores or at home like me, did you ever hear a message like the one from Matthew 3? Did you hear of John the Baptizer in those songs or consider the potency of what John said to his assembled congregation by the Jordan River?

            Every year the church reads about John the Baptist at some point in our Advent journey. Every year, we pause to consider how John helps us to prepare ourselves for the birth of Jesus. And while you might be tempted to think that John’s message is out of place among Christmas lights and the joy of the holiday season, this message is important because it speaks to the orientation of our hearts.

Move 1- The difference

            While the first three gospels all speak about John, it is only Matthew who gives us the potency of, “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” Mark barely touches the message of John and Luke gives us more depth to the message; it is Matthew who provides the passion that we all remember. Matthew makes the difference. Matthew challenges us in the Christmas season to examine our lives, honestly, and fully. 

            And after we examine our lives, after we look ourselves fully and notice the places where we fall short… our response becomes clear, we should repent. 

            The language Matthew uses in this place/moment is stark.

“Repentance, or metanoia, to use the Greek word, refers to far more than a simply being or saying one is sorry for past sins, far more than mere regret or remorse for such sins. It refers to a turning away from the past way of life and the inauguration of a new one, in this case initialized by an act of baptism.[1]”

            Everyone likes to say, ‘sorry about that. Didn’t mean to say that or do that.’ But biblical repentance. The type of repentance that Matthew’s John is preaching to his congregation in today’s text, is one that calls out a deep, meaningful, reflection and analysis—a deep response. 

The message from John the Baptist that we read in Matthew’s gospel wants each person who comes to the Jordan, and each follower of Christ who reads this message later, and each members of the church in Advent now, to pause, make deliberate space in their day, and consider how their lives have not lined up to how God calls them to live. 

            And while this does not feel like a message suited to, ‘Have a holly, jolly, Christmas, cause it’s the best time of the year,’ perhaps this is exactly the right message that the Church who will silently come to the manger needs to hear and consider. 

            Perhaps the reading of Matthew 3 makes all the difference as Advent begins this year—even if it seems to feel out of place. 

Move 2- Jesus makes that difference.

            For as we make the space to repent, we draw ourselves close to the Lord. . . and in our drawing close to the Lord, we notice something happening around us in our relationship with God.

            Jesus has draws himself close to us in response before we could even begin our movement toward him. Jesus will choose us and, in His choice, we are blessed, changed, and ultimately forgiven. And John’s message foreshadows this choice of our Savior in verse 11 even if Jesus has not walked onto the stage of life yet for us, we can hear and feel Him drawing close to us. 

            “But he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.’”[2]

            You see, even with the potency of John’s fiery message to repent, we cannot lose track of Jesus and the forgiveness that comes in Him to those who spend the time, engage in the work of repentance, and turn fully to Jesus. No justification offered. Just presence and honestly before the Lord. Not judgement and separation, just unity with the one who heals us when we are honest with him.

            For the Christian experience of forgiveness can be something wonderful… if we are honest with the Lord about who we are and how we have fallen short. As we embrace the presence of Jesus ‘with us’ the miracle has space to take that potency from John and work its own miracle of healing in our lives.

William Muehl tells this story that underlines the presence that is possible in this moment. Rather than experiencing separation in our repentance, or placation, even in the pain that these actions can present, we can find peace and unity with the Lord if we linger and notice what is happening.  

            “One December afternoon. . . a group of parents stood in the lobby of a nursery school waiting to claim their children after the last pre-Christmas class session. As the youngsters ran from their lockers, each one carried in [their] hands the ‘surprise,’ the brightly wrapped package on which [they] had been working diligently for weeks. One small boy, trying to run, put on his coat, and wave to his parents, all at the same time, slipped and fell. The ‘surprise’ flew from his grasp, landed on the floor and broke with an obvious ceramic crash. 

            The child. . . began to cry inconsolably. His father, trying to minimize the incident and comfort the boy, patted his head and muttered, ‘Now, that’s all right, son. It doesn’t matter. It really doesn’t matter at all.’

            But the boy’s mother, somewhat wiser in such situations, swept the boy into her arms and said, ‘Oh, but it does. It matters a great deal.’ And she wept with her son.”[3]

            This story illustrates that the church has a responsibility to come together and remind each other that the pain that we feel as we examine our sin and our short comings, it matters so much to God and to each other. Let us not minimize this moment but embrace it. 

This moment is not about judgment and/or the separation that comes when we confess or sins. But rather, as the mother took her son in her arms in solidarity, Jesus takes us up in his arms, and He weeps with us as we realize how sinful we are as we abide in God’s presence. He does not pat us on the head and brush us on our way. . .R Rather Jesus, holds us close as we realize how deeply our sin cuts us and wounds our relationship with God and with each other.

            In this way, the potency of John’s message that calls us to repent, calls us to examine ourselves faithfully and fully, and with all the sting that we read about in the text today, it meets the grace of God in the person of Jesus who is with us and who comes to the Jordan to meet John in the gospel, and whose birth we celebrate this season, and He weeps with us as we confess that sin fully. 

Conclusion

            As we prepare to install and ordain Ruling Elders for the class of 2028 and place them in leadership at this church, I hope the message of John will stick with them, and with you. 

            This is not a word that is only to be considered once a year, but it should remain in our hearts and lives. For each day, we need to make the space and create the time to recall John and his message. We need to wonder about where the places and the moments are where we need to repent… and more than just repent, where do we need to extend forgiveness and feel that extension in our lives. 

            For that practice must extend outside of this space and this moment. It must be carried with us from here and touch the lives of others in this community. For Christ was born for all of us. 

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[1] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/second-sunday-of-advent/commentary-on-matthew-31-12  

 

[2] Matthew 3:11 ESV

[3] Feasting on the Word Year A. Volume 1. Page 46. 

Going up--Isaiah 2:1-5. Sermon preached on November 30, 2025

            As we begin Advent for this year, I want to start with a history lesson that dwells behind the text that I read with you. It helps set the table for what we will experience in this season. 

            The history of Isaiah 1-39 is important for the world where Isaiah writes was tense. Assyria, the dominant power of the day decided that they would extend their reach, and their dominance, all the way through the Fertile Crescent, and out into Egypt. Moving through modern day Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, the Assyrians swept aside everyone who stood in their way. Now they were bearing down on Israel. Their army easily dispatched the Northern Kingdom of Israel’s capital city of Samaria in 700 BC.  

            But as they moved south and conquered, word came from back home—civil war had broken out in Assyria. Unrest at home. So, the Assyrian army packed up and marched itself back home to put down that rebellion before resuming the ultimate goal of conquest into Egypt. 

As the Assyrians pull back from the Southern Kingdom of Judah, we can imagine the feelings of Jerusalem—the capital city. They were rejoicing. They heard what happened up north and we can be sure they were anxious about their future. But God heard their prayers! They were spared. They were saved. Peace! The covenant with Abraham protected them! 

            But in 722 BC, Assyria was back and Jerusalem fell just as quickly as every other city did. Under the Assyrians. 

            Yet for the 22 years between Israel and Judah falling, during the lull in the conquest, the people start hearing and believing that peace was the only option. God would only bring them peace. It is their right as His people. Some might even have whispered: “We deserve this.”

            But like I said, this peace is temporary. 

Move 1- Middle space

And so, the first lesson of Isaiah 2 is that we find the people hearing the text, and maybe ourselves as well on the first Sunday of Advent, dwelling in a liminal space; a middle space. Operating between two poles. 

They don’t know it at this moment, but we the readers do. We know the whole of history around them. Like I said, we know that Assyria will be back soon. We know in 20 years life in Israel will be far worse off than before. Now an angry army will be back to finish what they started. 

            That’s how these things often feel in the moment: like nothing will ever change, like what we see, and what we experience, is the only plausible experience and choice available. Again, in the moment. It’s always going to be this way; our way. Our limited worldview, our limited understanding is the only answer to whatever we see in this very second of our lives and in our work for the Lord. 

            But if in this case that the peace that we are experiencing, is temporary then what we do in the moment, in the day, be the experience good or bad, is also very important. 

How we practice our faith, live out our calling before the Lord, worship God, hold on to what we believe when times are tough, in this time is of great significance. Do we sit idly back and do nothing resting on our senses of spiritual entitlement? Do we reflect on where we have been passively dwelling and not working hard to grow our faith and deepen our discipleship? 

Or using Isaiah 2, and the call to return to the Lord and go up the Mountain of the Lord, do we wonder about how do we could create tools of community building when others around us only seek to divide and not reflect on the presence of Jesus who is with us? 

This becomes important because none of us know at what point things around us will change. We do not know when the middle space that we occupy right now will change and God will call us to come together as the church, as the community, and care for one another in a way or in a ministry that we did not see happening or even being conceived of a short time ago.

            In this middle space, going up the Mountain of the Lord is an act of worship, an act of devotion, it is an invitation to make the time to learn the ways of God once again so that we might Lord continue to grow and be molded by God. 

Move 2- God’s Word

            For as we come to the Mountain of the Lord, we encounter God, in His word. We hear this in verse 3. “For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”[1]

            In this middle space, as well as in the space where Assyria is pressing down upon God’s people in time when Isaiah 2 was written, the Word of God, makes the difference for all. Yes, in verse 4 we hear God’s word used by the Lord as the defining tool of judgement, but God’s word also is the instructional tool that helps us grow. God’s word assists us in our practice of discernment as we work hard to change our lives and serve our community faithfully in response to the revelation of God with us.

            For the Word of the Lord makes the difference in the lives of the church—certainly. But the Word of the Lord also makes a difference in all of life of Creation also. God’s word is that strong and that powerful.

            We know that each of us needs the daily instruction from God that is found in His Word. We need it during the hard times, such as we have walked through together over the past month. We need the instruction of God as we now move through advent together and celebrate the welcome to incarnate Son of God who will call us to be different together. 

            We need God’s word to learn from God about how be disciples in our future—wherever that takes. To hear from God takes discipline. 

            Humanity always needs God’s Word and that is why we are called to come to the mountain of God in this text, not just today, but as often as we can, we are called to return to God and to learn from God in His word as we stand before God. 

Now yes, there is judgment here in this text, we cannot deny the power and conviction of the first part of verse 4, but there is also a sense of continual learning and growth taking place here. As God is with us always—in the prosperity, in the suffering, and as the Israelites were dwelling in this text, in the middle space between the Assyrian invasions and the uncertainty that came along with that invasion. 

            Because each of us knows that God’s Word is the light that draws us forward and reminds us, and calls us, to welcome the newborn King.

Move 3- mystery

            Nevertheless, we are going up the mountain of the Lord, we are holding fast the Word of the Lord, yet none of this means that the mystery of this very moment is downplayed. For the citizens of Judah, the people of Jerusalem, those who lived in that middle space of peace, they would experience the return of Assyria. And once again they would suffer. 

            Worshipping God, studying His Word, committing to practices of discipleship, they are crucially important. Here in this space, we will light our candles and sing our carols together in praise. In a few short weeks, we will sing Silent Night and a quiet joy will fill our lives. 

            But that does not mean that one day, each of us will leave our own middle space and face another hard day or hard season. 

            And that is the mystery of the Christian faith. For while living in the lull period when life seems good, it is tempting to think that we, that they, will always live in that place and space. But that is not true and it is not meant to be. Instead, we press into the mystery once again, return, even daily, to the study of God’s word, to the power of it, and the worship that comes up on the Mountain of God knowing how difficult we will find life—at times. 

            However, this conclusion is good. Because the righteous one is coming. The one who teaches us how to be ministers of peace of wholeness is with us. The one who invites us to take another step towards himself and in his life, is with us. We are challenged to live and work knowing this truth is right before us inviting us to be different when the world offers us a challenge: can we find hope in a hopeless place and time. 

Conclusion

These people were not ready for what God might call them to next and so when life changed, they were not ready. I wonder if we are ready to return to God? Return to his word? And find the mystery and hope that God is always with us. 

DM

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[1] Isaiah 2:3 ESV.