All Rise--Micah 6. Sermon preached on February 1, 2026

NOTE: Because of a second winter storm that affected York County, Bethesda's worship service was canceled this week. So, this message was preached as part of a virtual morning worship service that was broadcast on YouTube. For the whole service, please visit our YouTube channel and consider supporting Bethesda's ongoing work in the this community. 

 

            The Book of Micah is only seven chapters in length, and it usually takes up about 5 pages in your Bible. That makes it a quick read for most people. But the substance of Micah, his message, is anything but simple or easy. Micah contains some of the strongest themes in the Old Testament for the Church. In Micah we read expressions of hope alongside of announcements of doom.[1]  

            This is all setup as part of a courtroom exchange between three parties. God. The prophet. And the audience (Israel). Back and forth this dialogue goes until it reaches our text today, and the famous words of 6:8 that everyone recalls where we are asked, “What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

Move 1- tenderness

            In the midst of a courtroom drama, in a place where tensions could be high, the Lord expresses, tenderness towards his people. Not anger. 

            Although our text begins with a harsh opening: “Stand up and state your case…” the poet, the prophet has the Lord quickly begin expressing a different tone when speaking of his people.

            Verse 3: “O my people.” When the Lord calls the Hebrews, “my people” He is indicating several things. First, God is claiming a covenantal relationship with them similar to what He created on Sinai. This is a term that reminds Israel that they are God’s treasured possession. We are God’s treasured possession. It stresses kinship and not political unity. 

            These people are together with God in a tender way that the Lord is protecting as the Lord has established with them. As such there is an ethical mandate in this tender relationship that God does not have directly speak about. It is just there. . . For instance, Moses might just know that he stands on Holy Ground because God is there. 

            So right when God plans to present His case against the people, a case that we know would feel right and just, for God is right and just, He begins with words that are tender, kind, and warm. He begins by reminding them of their treasured place in the Lord’s heart.

Move 2- Core memory

            And further God’s response to the complaint filed by the Israelites, is THE core memory of his people. Not judgment or rebuke which we might think that a righteous God who is angered by our sin might this is right and proper. No, God remembers how He heard them and how he came. 

When God presents a rebuttal to their argument, He reminds them of THE core memory of Israel: Egypt. 

Still in verse 3, God remembers hearing His people in their most desperate hour cry out. Their most isolated hour they prayed to him. The hour when, as a people, that they needed God to come to their aid. If there was ever a time in Israel’s life that God needed to step in, it was when they cried out to Him in Egypt, and God heard and God came. “O my people, I came…” The Lord says. 

            This is not just their core memory, but perhaps it is a beloved memory of God’s as well that the Lord holds onto also. Perhaps stories like this have a special place in God’s heart as well. Perhaps it is a time when God and His people walked very closely together, tenderly.

            And as such, God wants to remind these people of the dearness of this story. . .

 

            Yet notice the charge that the people bring against God. Notice what God just said in this verse. Right in the middle of all this tender affirmation and core memory sharing, God says: “What have I done to make you. . . tired of me?” 

            And as Micah was read to the people, and reread over the years, a gentle pause fills the room. And silence fills the air. . . tired of God? Tired of this relationship? Tired of being cared for in this manner? 

I wonder when was the last time you were ‘tired of God?’

Now no one, then and no one now, says that they are ‘tired of God,’ but are we? Do we live like that? Truly, are we? And while the church who stands in the divine courtroom that Micah is setting up might seek to escape the reflection by stating that this is just a rhetorical device the prophet is using, that it is just a word play, I wonder, if in practice, could it be true? 

With your own core memory of how God touched your life, delivered a miracle around you, are there times in your faith walk that you could say your practices of faith, and your devotion to the Lord demonstrate that you are tired of God? 

            Do our practices demonstrate that we are wearied of the Lord? 

            Are we frustrated reading the scriptures? 

            What about how we care for one another? 

            Go back into Micah 6 with me? As God asks this question and as it homes for them. The Lord shows in verses 4-5 He continually stepped in to provide care and guidance in the form of others to support a people who would continue to fall short of the relationship of “O my people.” 

            Moses. Aaron. Miriam. Baalam. God sent them to protect His people knowing that the Hebrews would continually undermine the relationship that God seeks to build with us. The Lord goes with His people to Gilgal and every place that they travel. For God wishes to ‘teach us about His faithfulness’ if we are willing to learn. 

Move 3- What is required?

            This leads us to the end of our text and to the memorial ending of Micah 6: What does the Lord require of us? 

            Well, leading up to this moment, the people have consistently misunderstood what a right relationship with God looks like. As they have misunderstood, they have asked the respond incorrectly. Does the Lord truly want thousands of rams offered or tens of thousands of rivers of olive oil or even the sacrifice of the firstborn? 

            None of those actions were stipulated in the law of Moses that the Hebrews cherish and uphold. And while the sacrifice of the firstborn occurred once, it was not something to be repeated. 

These laws were never taught the Israelites by Moses, and again, if you said, ‘well this is just a rhetorical tool for this courtroom scene,' I am not sure that the people felt this way. Rather I think they misunderstood what God wants from His people. And that is something that feels familiar to us as well. This is another question that we could wonder about also. A misunderstanding of what God wants from us each day.

            So, what is required if we as a church and as Christians are going to live faithfully? What does it look like live like you understand what the Lord means when he calls you ‘O my people’ and sends you from this place to be among others who may not understand what is necessary or asked of you? 

            We find the answers in verse 8. 

            To know loving kindness is to know God’s loving kindness first. And more than just to be able to academically speak about what this text means, to know what this loving kindness is all about is to share that loving kindness with the people of this community that you come into contact with and not to keep it for yourself or for people who deem worthy of it.

            We are to walk humbly with God by listening to God’s voice in every encounter that we have both here in the church and outside of here. Something we can do at times, but do we do it always and often? 

We are to learn how to make sense of the varying voice that we hear and to help others discern the voice of God that they hear. For each of us know that God is speaking to us, at times, but we must extend that learning and helps others with it. We must have the courage to hear God’s voice whether it is whispered quietly or written on the pages of His word. For both instances are right and proper. 

            We are to be faithful to what it means to be the Body of Christ by sharing who Jesus is and what Jesus calls us to be and become as a church and as persons who have learned what it feels like and what it means to be ‘God’s people.’       

Conclusion 

Having the right answer is a matter of perspective, but for Micah, we remember the places that God created a core memory with us. And you each have those memories in your days.

            And so as the courtroom scene ends, God leaves his people not in judgment but in reflection asking each person who finds this text to take stock of their lives, and as they take stock of their faith, they also are asked to remember how calls us to respond. 

            What does the Lord require of you? 

DM

       

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[1] James Limburg. Interpretations: Micah, p. 159.

Sharing Memories

Today our son JonMark turns 24. Shocking but true. Jennifer and I are so proud of the man that he has become. He is a great man and a great husband. One day he will be a great father as well. 

Last night he and Autumn had us over for supper to celebrate his birthday. It was a nice evening but the highlight for me was after the meal. As the table was cleared, Jennifer returned to her crocheting and we sat back to chat and to visit. It was not long before JonMark began telling stories and asking questions. 

One after another they came. 

Stories from our past as a family. Stories that only the three of us experienced. His first bedroom in Savannah, Ohio with the trains stenciled at eye level for him. Stories of his bunkbed that Papa (my dad) made for him. We talked about how he and I moved to Wellsville, Ohio before Jennifer and Emma joined us so that he could go to kindergarten at East Liverpool Christian School. He and I did not have much to do in the evenings so the two of us played games together on my first Playstation (the very first one they ever released). Jet Moto--a Jet ski game. He loved that game. 

We talked how sick he got once and how we sat up all night with him in the hospital as we tried to move into our house in Ashland, Ohio, 

His remembered his loft bed in Wellsville that he loved and the game chair we got him for that room. The memories came fast and furious. His smile was broad and wide. Jennifer and I saw our 6 pound 6 ounce boy last night again.

We laughed and laughed. We talked about how he would always beat Emma playing Pretty, Pretty Princess (look it up on Amazon). Autumn saw the tender side of him yet again. 

I share these stories because, as you know, stories have the power to shift everything in our lives. They shift our perspective and they change our mindset. When I finish this post I will then return to my preparations for chapel with the children of our daycare. When I talk with them I always want to tell them a story because if the story is good, I know they will add something to it, and together, we will learn a lesson about God. 

So as you prepare for the weekend what story is God asking you to share with one another?

It might be an old story and it might be a familiar one. But you never know how deeply it will touch the life of someone else? 

Finding Each Other--Matthew 4:12-23. Sermon preached on January 25, 2026

*NOTE* This week because of a winter storm, Bethesda did not meet in person for worship. This message part of our abridged service that was only available on YouTube. For the whole service visit our YouTube page.

            Throughout the month of January, I have been thinking about our calling as a church. Last week I asked you how deep, and how wide, is your calling to follow the Lord. And I know that it is not something easy to consider because thinking about our calling necessitates a response from us. Today we will finish that conversation.  

            Today in the gospel reading from Matthew, Jesus begins his earthly ministry by calling disciples to follow him. 

            The call of Jesus on the beach that we read about together is not about future salvation—that is for a later text that we will read and consider. Today the call of Jesus is a call to action, and what I mean by that is: the call of Jesus is to fish for human beings. 

            In a metaphorical sense, the call to Jesus is to stand before the dark places, the dark moments that you face each day, with our community, and to live out your calling. You and I are called by God to participate in the work of Jesus… literally to “follow me, and I will make you fish for men.”

            And while that is easier to say from the pulpit on this chilly day, the hard work stands before us because while it is easy to read about the calling of these four individuals in Matthew 4, and think of them fondly, we read more than one text today—and in there was a challenge in that first reading. 

Move 1- Deep Darkness

            As I have been doing this month, I want to bring both the prophet and the gospel together in this reflection. 

            Normally we read Isaiah 9 in advent as you and I prepare for the birth of our Savior. When Isaiah 9 is read; we light candles. We acknowledge the joy that Jesus will bring around the Christmas season. The Isaiah 9 reading today is part of a larger lection (8:21-9:7) which would have been quite hard to process for the Israelites—I think. 

            Historically at this time in Israel’s life, Assyria was not threatening them, as we might like to think or consider. No, Assyria was in the land. Assyria occupied the region. So, when the prophet says things like, “There will be no gloom for those in anguish,” these people felt the anguish in their community, they lived the gloom. Each day the question of what is the future going to look like, and where is God, was first and foremost on their mind?

            They asked these questions… and they asked more: “where is the Lord that we confess and pray to in worship when we need Him?” 

            When the prophet offered these words of hope that I read with you and said that light was coming in the recesses of darkness (and I bet the Hebrews felt dark) I bet they felt like they were sitting in a land of ‘deep darkness’ as verse 2 states. I suspect that any sense of faith in Yahweh, any hope that Yahweh was listening, was hard to muster for them. 

            For hope is often hard to muster when the previous evidence that supported, and grew, and testified to, the hope has been taken away. Faith is easy to practice when we look out and see the fruit of our faith practice right before our eyes.

            But for these Israelites, and perhaps for you and I as we think about our calling in the new year, light, and faith, and hope, might have been replaced by a sense of darkness… of deep darkness… perhaps at one point your faith was strong and sturdy and your sense of call was so strong that whatever God asked you to do was an easy step. You would do it in a heartbeat. No one even had to ask. It just happened. Your sense of call, and the understanding of it, what the Word said, was deep and wide.

            Yet at some point that became. . . well it became. . . what it became. And now deep darkness, a darkness that makes it hard to see a pathway forward is present before your eyes.

            But even in the darkest of places, when it seems that the invading forces, like Assyria, are controlling the future of your faith, and especially when you and I do not feel like Being the Church any longer, we must follow the Light. 

            This is the good news of advent; it is why we read this text during that season as we prepare for the Incarnation. And paired with Matthew 4 today, we find even better good news for those who are willing to admit that while deep darkness was once their companion, Jesus has a word for us in the gospel. And the word is: follow me.

Move 2- Follow me

            This is the place where the gospel’s message truly begins to take shape. For Jesus does not only call us out of the darkness as Isaiah prophesies, but Jesus invites us into the participatory practice of ministry that define the church that Jesus initiates. Follow me, he says. 

            Now in this text we learn that Jesus’ ministry builds off of John’s work at the River in verse 17. Let’s look at the actual steps that Jesus takes.

As soon as Jesus’ heard that John was arrested, things began to change. 

            First, we read that Jesus withdrew… isn’t that interesting! 

In verse 12, as the news reaches our Savior of John’s arrest, Jesus takes a divisive step, not a passive one. Again, he withdraws. In the moment where the church can seem to take a step back, its first teacher is arrested, Jesus acts in an act that we should emulate in our faith.

Every time this word occurs in Greek, it takes place at the direction of God. God initiated. And it always unfolds as part of God’s sovereign plan for redemption for humanity. This is not Jesus backing up or taking a minute to clear His head based on what he heard about happening in John’s life— shocking as it could have been to his heart. Jesus is not surprised here. He is not running away.  The withdrawal is not an action based on fear or even the darkness that we heard about in Isaiah. 

            Rather the withdrawing of Jesus indicates space is being created for meditation and prayer. Jesus is getting ready for what is to come spiritually by taking steps to spend time with His Father. As the world around Jesus feels a bit darker because John is arrested, Jesus withdraws so that he can pray and spend time with His Father in heaven. 

            And then, once the time of prayer and meditation is complete, Jesus begins the work that he was sent to do and he calls the church, he initiates the church’s work. . . “Follow me,” he says. 

Simon and Andrew, James and John. Immediately, Matthew says, they leave everything behind and they follow him. Matthew records no conversation taking place as these four people follow, they just go with Him. 

            Jesus knows the motivation of their heart. He knows them already, and not just because He is the Son of God, and he calls them to come with him. Jesus knows that He has found people who will respond to the high calling that God has placed upon their hearts.

            Now we know that James and John left the family business and their father Zebedee behind. That must have been a bit hard, but we do not hear a single word about that sacrifice. We also do not know the cost that Simon and Andrew would pay, but in both cases, it does not matter. They follow because Jesus calls and they follow because Jesus withdraws to spend time with His Father in heaven—this is a practice that we are called into as well. 

            Using Isaiah’s imagery, they followed the light out of the dark place where they were and it made all the difference for them, and ultimately, for us. They follow Jesus.

Move 3- We must follow also.

            You too, both as a church, and as families, must follow the light even if right now you think you are in the dark. You too must find the space in the darkness that we live and work to withdraw to be with the Lord who asks each of us to Follow Him. 

Even if the places where you go tomorrow feel dark—regardless of how ‘darkness’ is defined. If those places, and around those people, you wonder if God is present, God calls each of us to look toward him and follow the Light out. 

            There will always be the temptation to look at these moments and feel like the Assyrians in Isaiah are all around us, but the call of Jesus to follow him and fish for people leads us towards of God. 

Conclusion 

            Although we will move to a new topic soon, I hope that you will continue to consider your call from the Lord. I hope that as you encounter people, and notice how dark, hard, and… whatever the world get, you will also look out and hear the call of the Lord to follow me and I will make you fishers of men. 

 

 

DM

The place we find the Lord matters

Since 2026 began things have been different at Bethesda. And while I know that you were tempted to read that as a statement of judgment, it is instead simply a statement of fact. For God has been with us in a very personal way--a way that we have needed. I have been greatly blessed by the ministry of the church and I am thankful for how God has moved in this body of believers. 

As I think about how things have changed in 2026, I am impacted by the very location that I am sitting in right now: the sanctuary.

I’m sitting here waiting for the children of the daycare to come and visit with me as we have our weekly chapel session. It is one of the highlights of my week. We will laugh together, they will challenge me, and together we will find the Lord, in this place. I have a lesson planned (a series of questions that will lead them to the Tower of Babel). But just because I have planned something to talk about with these children, does not mean that this is where the Lord will lead our conversation. I have learned that when God shows up you let God take the wheel.

But back to place.

As I said, I am in the sanctuary. It is the place where I have witnessed the church Being the Church. We have mourned together in here. We’ve celebrated in this space. We have encouraged one another in the sanctuary. And together we have wondered where is God calling us forward in the New Year. This is sacred work and work that I take very seriously. 

And so today as I write to you, I wonder about your placement with the Lord today? I wonder where you are right now as you think about how God is with you because the place matters where you encounter the Lord. The place where you find the Lord is important. 

As I sit here in silence, looking out into the worship space, waiting for the children who will arrive momentarily, I wonder…. Well, that’s something that God and I will talk together alone… 

But I wonder what do you and God talk about in the places that God takes you each day? I hope that as you spend time with the Lord tomorrow, or perhaps later today, you could answer the question as I have. For the place that you encounter the Lord is important as well. 

  

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