The Call; Mark 1:14-20

Posted on January 25, 2021 by patrick h wrisley

A sermon preached by Patrick H. Wrisley, January 24, 2021. 

       Last nightKelly and I sat on the back patio looking up at the sky while listening to music by Canadian pianist, Michael Jones. He has a beautiful, dancing light touch upon the keys and as I listened, the music took me outside of myself and I travelled back some thirty-seven years ago and ended up at Hunter’s Restaurant on a cold winter late Saturday morning in Highlands, North Carolina. Kelly and I lived down in the valley in Rabun Gap, Georgia at the time and the twenty-minute drive to Highlands was a nice escape. The day was very cold and gray and the warmth of this rustic restaurant with comfort food and hot coffee made for good visiting. Throughout our lunch, Michael Jones played. I will never forget that afternoon in Highlands because as we sat there talking and talking, refilling on hot coffee, we both came to the same conclusion about a life-changing decision. “Are you ready for this?” I asked her. She nodded asking me in turn, “Are you?” Swallowing hard, I meekly replied something about knowing it was what we were supposed to do but that I was scared. Our pastor’s words haunted me as he told me two weeks before, “Son, you don’t want to do this.  It’ll break your heart.”  Still, both of us knew what we had to do and that was quit our jobs and move to Decatur, Georgia and begin school at Columbia Theological Seminary. I gave my job notice and one week later discovered Kelly was pregnant with our first daughter. Every single time I hear Michael Jones I am transported back to that time when we responded to the call of Jesus to “follow me.”

            So last night, looking at the stars listening to Michael’s Jones’ Pianoscapes, I reflected upon this morning’s scripture about answering the call. Hear the Word of the Lord!

Mark 1:14-20

14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good newsof God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

16 As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19 As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20 Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.[1]

            Mark outlines two different call stories in our brief text.  One is a call to general discipleship. It’s a call to all who will hear that the Kingdom of God has come near and its very presence demands that we stop where we are, reset our priorities and life to these Kingdom goals, and follow the path Jesus is laying out for us.  But there is another call story within our Story.  Yes, there is a call to discipleship but there is a call for particular service. Jesus tells them, “I will make you fishers of men and women!”

            What’s a call anyway? A call is that inner pulling confirmed by those outside of yourself that God is asking you to take a path or to step out in particular service. A call is a gift and invitation for new life; it’s also a demand that will not let you loose as Spirit compels you to transform your commitment to following Jesus into a dedication to intentionally love and serve others in his name. When Jesus calls, all of us are responding to two different calls. One is a call to follow and live like Jesus.  The second is a call to serve in his name.

            This morning, Jesus is calling out men and women from our congregation to answer a call. They were chosen by you, members of this great church, because they in their lives have indicated they have said, “YES!” to Jesus’ bidding to, “Follow me.” You have seen evidence in their lives of the gifts and graces Spirit has given them and so today, they listen to the call of Christ through you, the Church, to respond to the call of serving others in Jesus’ name.

            Like Andrew, Simon Peter, and those Zebedee boys, the folks being set aside for ordination and installation into service today are just broken, fallible followers of Jesus like you and me. One teaches piano. Another is a professor. One is a travel agent and another is businesswoman who runs and international company. Still another is a recovering addict who devotes his life to helping people get sober.  They are all ordinary people chosen by God through you to lead and nurture this Church and community in a call to service. If you were to ask any of them what they thought about their “worthiness” in answering this call to service, they each would say to a person, “I’m not qualified to be a deacon or elder but I place myself at the disposal of God’s beckoning Spirit.”  The call of God and our response to that call are both acts of grace.

            This morning as we receive our latest class of church officers, each of us is invited to reflect upon our own sense of call. Think, beloved, of the time when Jesus invited you to come and follow. How did you respond to that invitation? Have you responded to that invitation? Yet, friends, I also want you to reflect upon not only your call to follow Jesus but how you have been called out to serve Jesus in the world.

There are two calls in our Story today and both calls have to be responded to in order to live a full-life as a Christian man, woman, boy or girl. This morning, we celebrate those who are publicly responding to both!  Pray with me.

© 2021 Patrick H. Wrisley, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, 401 SE 15th Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL. 33301.  Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

[1] New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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A First Century Lesson for a Twenty-First Century Church; John 1:43-51

Posted on January 19, 2021 by patrick h wrisley

A sermon delivered by Patrick H. Wrisley on 1/17/2021.

            A first century lesson for a twenty-first century Church.  Will we take heed and listen to it? It’s not a difficult lesson to learn and it’s a lesson we desperately need to learn since the Church is facing a time of unprecedented uncertainty. 

            Speaking with another local pastor recently, he asked me, “Patrick, do you think they’re ever going to come back?”  I pressed him a bit to better understand what he was asking. He went on to tell me that he fears his people have become too comfortable waking up in their jammies and flipping on the TV and will never come back to the worshipping community once the pandemic is over.  I smiled at him and said, “You know, I’m hopeful. The pushback I’m receiving for having to suspend in-person worship again because the rolling two week average for positivity rates in Broward County is over 10% tells me people are missing and longing for community!” I reminded him that unprecedented times calls for unprecedented measures and that for safety’s sake, this is but a momentary separation and is all temporary. I learned long ago that a Church is not a building but a living, breathing, Holy Spirit-driven group of people taking what they gather from community and spreading it in the world.

            Even so, my friend’s question points us to the lesson we can learn from the first century Church in these unprecedented times and it’s a lesson straight from our Story in John’s Gospel today.  Turn to John 1 and we will pick up with verse 43.

            Thus far in John’s Story, John has described how the Divine Logos was born into our world via Jesus. We are then introduced to a passionate preacher named John the Baptist who points people to the Lamb of God, who is Jesus.  A few disciples listen to John and follow Jesus and one of them, Andrew, goes home to his brother, Simon, and simply says, “You won’t believe who I met!”  Simon goes to find out for himself and gets a new name: Rocky[1]. The very next day, we come to our morning’s text. Listen for the Word of the Lord!

John 1:43-51

43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” 46 Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” 47 When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” 48 Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” 49 Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” 50 Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” 51 And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”[2]

            Church, are you hearing this first-century lesson we are to be learning in the twenty-first century church? Here in the first chapter of John’s Story we get glimpses of the Church’s birth and growth. It’s John’s version of the Church’s creation Story. The Church’s creation did not begin with mass crusades preceded by fancy marketing campaigns and gimmicks. There were no special tricks or techniques for learning how to successfully plant a church in 90 days; no, we learn today the Church began, like the universe began, with the speaking of the Word, the Logos at creation.  “Let there be light! and there was Light.”  And John reminds us that the Word that spoke Creation into the form of the man Jesus. And from the speaking about the Word, the Church began to take form itself. First, one brother speaks words to his own brother about Jesus and then that brother explores those words on his own. The first lesson we get is that in the first-century Church, the Living Word of Jesus was spoken about in the home among people who were related to one another.

            What is the second lesson we hear? We learn that when Philip hears the Story and is introduced to the Word he goes and finds a friend of his and shares what he has discovered for himself. Again, Philip simply tells his bookish friend, Nathaniel, that the one Nathaniel is looking for in all his books is nearby. Philip doesn’t delve into providing proofs or theological abstracts to his friend, Nathaniel. No, he simply models what Jesus said first to Andrew, “Come and see.”

            Come and see.  Now that’s about as a heavy-handed form of evangelism as I’ve ever heard of in my life!

            Come and see.

            Philip didn’t tell Nathaniel, “If you don’t repent, you’re going to hell!”  He didn’t say, “If you don’t believe just like me, you’ve missed the boat!”  He didn’t say, “If you don’t come, you’re a loser and are hopeless.” No, he simply related what he has experienced and invites someone he knows, i.e. Nathaniel, and meets him where he is (in the books) and simply says, “Come and see.” 

            It’s funny to note that when Nathaniel hears Philip the first words out of his mouth were a skosh cynical.  “Can anything good out of Nazareth?” Nathaniel mutters. Nathaniel was from Cana and Nazareth was a seen as a backwater dot on the map a mere four miles away to the west.  Nothing good comes from there! The Messiah doesn’t come from a place that would be the equivalent of Clewiston, Florida!

            Philip simply replies, “Come and see.”

            Beloved, we may be physically distanced from each other during our time of worship but we are hearing the Word where you we eat, sleep and live – at home! This is where the Church began centuries ago! It began in the family rooms of homes when people spoke the Word – think, Stories – to those they already had a relationship with! Andrew didn’t force his brother to believe, he simply shared what he experienced and let Peter decide what to do with it.

            Spouses with pre-Christian partners, don’t try to convert him or her; just authentically be like Jesus yourself.  Parents with children, don’t beat your kids over the head about the faith, simply read them the biblical stories, remember the true meaning of the holidays, and tell them about Jesus. Say your prayers at mealtimes and bedtimes. All these simple acts are creating and building the Church!

            Philip meets Nathaniel where Nathaniel is most comfortable and at home and for Nathaniel it was knowing the sacred books of Jewish scripture. All Philip did was tease Nathaniel with, “I’ve met the one you are reading about in those Books of Moses…Come and see.”  Friends, Philip didn’t force Nathaniel to conform to his understanding of who Jesus was; on the contrary, Philip met his cynical friend at the point of his cynicism and invites Nathaniel to discover his own response to the meeting of Jesus.

            The first chapter of John’s Gospel outlines the lesson of the birth of the early church. As scholar Dale Bruner notes, “The Church’s birth begins with a preacher’s honest enthusiasm (John the Baptist), it continues with family sharing (Andrew to Peter), and it comes full-term in a friendly, enthusiastic conversation.”[3] 

            This my friends is the first-century lesson to the twenty-first century church. The Church of Jesus Christ grows when its members are stuck in their pandemic homes with family and are ensconced safely with their pandemic buddies trying to create a new normal for life. Are the words about Jesus and your spiritual walk winsome and inviting so those pandemic buddies can see beyond the chaos of this present moment to see the new life you are experiencing right now? Are we trying to convince those we know they must believe MY Story or are we inviting them to come along with us and discover their own?

            You, beloved, are the seeds for the growth of the Church. The question as to whether or not people will come back to the churches when this pandemic is over will be determined whether you and I are sharing those seeds with people we know and rub shoulders with every single day. If the churches across this country remain empty, then we have to wonder if it’s because you and I are really not that excited about our new life in Jesus after all. Do you want the Church to grow? Do you want others to experience the new life in Christ as you have? Then simply repeat these three words to people you know already: Come and see.

            Amen.

© 2021 Patrick H. Wrisley, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, 401 SE 15th Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL. 33301.  Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

[1] Frederick Dale Bruner, The Gospel of John. A Commentary (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans’s Publishing Company, 2012), 116.

[2] New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[3] Bruner, 109.

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Emerging from the Chaos, Genesis 1:1-5

Posted on January 11, 2021 by patrick h wrisley

A sermon by the Rev. Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.

It’s late one summer afternoon and there is a storm building in the distance,  There is nothing like an afternoon thunderstorm while at the beach. All our senses are alive: You taste the salt in the air; you can smell the storm as it approaches; you hear the wind pick up and thunder beginning to rumble in the distance; you see the miles high clouds begin to collapse into a wall of dark grayish blue; and you can begin to feel the wind and rain once the storm begins. Can you experience this moment?

Now, imagine you have two friends with you during all this. One is a scientist, a meteorologist in fact. The other friend is a poet. How would each describe the storm to you? The scientist will describe what she sees and explain in great details how two convergent fronts have slammed together which causes this or that to happen and would give rational explanations to why you are experiencing all those sensations with your senses. Contrast with how a poet like Billy Collins might describe the experience. The poet’s description may not be as scientifically factual as the meteorologist’s but it’s no less beautiful or true. They are both looking at the same, singular event through two different lenses. Both see the same thing but how they describe it is based upon their point of view.

This morning’s text is from the very opening scene in the Bible in Genesis. There are two different creation stories in the first two chapters of the Bible. People’s tendency to read these stories as science overshadows the power of the Creation’s deeper meaning and purpose; I propose we return to reading the Creation accounts as they were first meant to be read; not as science per se but rather as poetry. When we do so, we move beyond ‘just the facts’ and we begin to experience the deeper questions and issues that arise from scripture with all our faculties.

This morning’s reading is the very first paragraph from the first creation account. Its beauty and power come from its simplicity. Listen to the Word of the Lord!

Genesis 1:1-5

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.[1]

A scientist will talk about the sequence of events – could this have happened in this particular order? Who or what is “God” in this story? Was there an inky darkness before there was light? Is this describing the BIG BANG?

A poet, however, revels in the story simply for what it describes. A poet doesn’t try to define God’s reality but simply accepts that in the story there is a Divine Other who is a cause and is a part of our cosmic order; he or she ponders on a God who is intentional in its participation with this new creation. The poet notes that this Divine Other, or God, is giving attention to the details in the creation itself. The poet sees God as not some un-phased unmoved Mover but rather sees a God who is an artist who cannot help but create and the more It creates, invitations are given for other things, and eventually people, to enter into the artistry of Creation.

In the beginning, God created. Ponder on the beauty and the wonder of those words! Presbyterian pastor and biblical linguist, the late Eugene Peterson, has a beautiful paraphrase of these opening lines that really capture what the Hebrew says. He describes it:

1 1-2 First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don’t see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God’s Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss.[2]

The older versions of the text used to use the word ‘brood’ instead of the NRSV’s ‘swept over.’[3] I think brood is a better option because to brood over means you hover over, flutter over in an unhurried way and manor.  It’s a though God flitted and slowly fluttered about looking at all aspects of the chaotic void like a humming bird and began to piece together a loving tapestry of order and life from the inky blackness. From the swirling primordial ooze of nothingness and chaos God creates life and beauty.  And as we read the entire creation account in chapter 1, we see that God took God’s time in doing it. Creation takes an intentional process and careful attention, and though it does take time, all that process and work is heading somewhere to fulfillment.

Today throughout the worldwide Church, we celebrate the baptism of Jesus on this first Sunday after Epiphany.  It’s a Sunday where once again we remind ourselves that the Spirit of God enters into our realm of time and claims that Jesus is the One. For the people in the first century, God was Creating a new order of relating with His beloved. God anoints Jesus and declares him His Son. So both of our Stories today are how God intentionally sets order in the midst of the cosmic chaos as well as in the midst of cultural, religious, economic and political chaos through Jesus.  

The Good News of our faith reminds us that God is still creating now.  The Good News of our faith is that God is still brooding over our lives and our swirly, chaotic world and is still intentionally bringing order, life from the midst of the void and chaos. God did this at Creation and we believe God is still involved with us through the Spirit of Jesus today.

Why do I bring all this up? Because we need a reminder that God baptizes and claims his creation and our world.  God is a very present help in moments of trouble. God indeed is that rock and refuge, that fortress of strength and protection we can retreat into. But we also know that God will lead us out from behind our protective walls into a chaotic, seemingly void-less world where God empowers us through Spirit to create beauty and form. But here’s the deal: We are to be just as strategic and intentional about it as God was, is, and will be!

Friends, let’s all stop and take a breath. With high hopes that COVID, racial strife, economic hardship and Karen-induced entitlement would be in the rearview mirror by now, 2021 has proven to be an ongoing of 2020.  Like my brother told me yesterday, he refuses to call this a new year and proclaims that we are still living in the 41st day of December 2020!

This week, our nation and the world gasped and watched chaos unfold before our eyes at our nation’s Capital. Conspiracies abound with the events that took place leading up to this week and how what should be one of the most secured buildings in the world become violated. Our nation is tired. We are scratching our heads wondering why and how.  Friends, our text today speaks words of comfort and challenge to us.

Our Story reminds us that God is present with us, brooding over this mess of a world of ours and is thoughtfully, patiently, painstakingly creating form and purpose from the chaos. The Baptism of Jesus reminds us for both our national and personal need to repent; it reminds us to shed the ways of chaos and enter into the work of creating new realities with God.  Our texts today are demanding that you and I cease being idle bystanders in the bleachers beside the chaos and dive into it with the Spirit’s wings and brood over, flutter over, hover over the chaos waters and see what we can do nationally, as a church community and as a personal follower of Jesus to bring order out of disorder.

You can try to say, “I can’t do anything about the pandemic or Washington politics!”  God says, “Nuts! Brood over, contemplate over your part of the world and be a part of weaving order from disorder; you can wear a mask and keep your distance from folks; you can enter into dialogue instead of diatribe with those of different political leanings than you; you can control what you post on social media and assess if you are a problem in fanning the flames of chaos or not.” 

Beloved, for the next minute of silence, I want each of us to enter into a time of contemplation asking the Spirit to reveal to each of us how we can be a part of weaving our chaos into a tapestry of grace.  I want the Spirit to haunt each of us as we reflect on how we are passively part of the problem or are we actively hovering over the chaos trying to bring it form and beauty.  Church, it’s time we quit blaming “those other people” and take responsibility ourself. Pray with me.

© 2021, January 10, 2021. Patrick H. Wrisley, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, 401 SE 15th Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL. 33301. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

[1] New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[2] The Message.

[3] Joel B Green. Connections: Year B, Volume 1 (Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship) (p. 325). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.

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The Message: The Big Reveal!, Matthew 2:1-12, Epiphany

Posted on January 4, 2021 by patrick h wrisley

A sermon preached by Patrick H. Wrisley, January 3, 2021

The popular trend of gender reveals has taken off in our country.  This is when a young couple is expecting a child and they throw a party to reveal whether the baby is a boy or girl. The big reveals can come with a simple cutting of a cake to reveal blue or pink filling but they’ve lately become quite elaborate and in some instances, flat out dangerous! 

One couple used fireworks to reveal their baby’s gender and it resulted in the El Dorado fire in California this September that took the lives of 25 people and burned upwards of 8,000 acres. Another woman died when a piece of metal hit her in the head after her family’s exploding reveal party because they unintentionally built a homemade pipe-bomb! The favorite one I saw was a Florida Man who gathered his friends to circle around a ten foot gator.  Florida Man kept swatting the gator on the nose to get it to open its mouth so the man could toss a Jell-O-infused watermelon into its mouth so when the gator bit down, either pink or blue Jell-O would fill the gator’s mouth. In the video I watched, the gator was none-too-pleased. I am not sure if these reveal parties say more about the parents’ ability to be parents or the revelation the child’s sex.[1]

Our text this morning is a Story of a Big Reveal as well. It’s not a gender reveal but it is a revealing, an unveiling, that led to locally tragic events later in Matthew 2 but reveled wonderful cosmic revelations. We know this as the Story of the Magi. Listen to Matthew 2.1-12!

Matthew 2:1-12

2.1 In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” 3When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; 4and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: 6‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.’” 7Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. 8Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.”

9When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.[2]

Historically, Church has wrapped the Three Kings story up into the Christmas narrative which is unfortunate. First, it throws the timing off of the real events which took possibly a year or so after Jesus’ birth. The magi, or astrologers, from modern Iraq or Iran would have taken several months to travel on foot to get to Bethlehem.  We tend to think they showed up the night after the shepherds did at the manger. Second, we tend to focus on the three gifts they bring the baby because we associate gifts with the Christmas story. This is unfortunate because it draws attention away from the real thrust of the Story which is the Big Reveal as opposed to gift giving. The Big Reveal has a technical name; the Church calls it Epiphany.

Let us look at the Epiphanies, the several unveilings and revelations in our text. We are going to do this by looking at the Story’s characters and then reflect upon how our personal epiphanies shape us. As we look at these, I want to plant the nagging voice in the back of your mind, “Where am I in this Story? What are the revelations, the unveilings, the ah-ha’s God has for me? How do my epiphanies affect my discipleship?”

The first key to unlocking our text is to look at the characters in our Story. There are essentially three main characters and they are the Magi, King Herod, and the baby Jesus. Three different realities are exposed in and through each of these characters. The Magi, pagan astrologers who were in search of Truth were led by God’s grace to discover that even they, if they are sincere in learning and worshipping God and not the stars, will be accepted and received into God’s covenant family. Our Story reveals that God takes people where they are, even those outside the covenant family of Israel, and they can be adopted into the family if they worship the Christ. The Story reveals the ultimate outsider can be embraced as God’s insider.

The next character is King Herod. When Herod hears these emissaries from the East are looking to worship a new king, you and I can begin to see how our human nature often responds to God’s Divine Intentions: We push back. God’s impending presence makes us squirm a bit; it should make us uncomfortable but sadly, most times it does not.  At least Herod understood the ramifications of what a young, new king would mean for his own leadership! It forces you and me to ponder on how we encounter God’s presence and revelations in our own lives. Perhaps God’s revealing and unveiling his presence and purpose in our lives should make us quake in our boots a little bit.  Maybe we need to think of what it means to have a new claim on our lives from a leader in but not of this world. The whole irony about Herod and his religious leaders is the people who should see what’s going on didn’t. Those to whom it would have been easiest to check out the facts, i.e. the religious officials in Jerusalem, did not go six miles to Bethlehem to find out for themselves. Those who should’ve been excited, the Jewish nation and their leaders, were instead afraid and anxious and their anxiety reveals the object of their true worship which is a corrupt king and safety of the status quo. It makes us stop and reflect on what our own anxieties reveal about what or whom we worship!

And finally, we have the character Jesus.  Jesus gloriously reveals that God is with us. God has pierced time and space and now resides alongside his beloved children.  Three epiphanies revealed in each of the three characters: God loves and searches for the outcast, the ‘pagan’; Herod reveals to us that our human tendency to push back on God’s new revelations and presence; and the cooing baby Jesus, nursing upon Mary’s breast, reveals to us that God is truly among us, not in the rich and mighty, but with the poor and the humble.

Next, let’s shift a moment a reflect upon how the Magi’s epiphany, how the Big Reveal they experienced shaped them as people and what it says about you and me.  For the Magi, the unveiling and the discovery of who God really was changed their lives.  Once they discovered the true Source of worship, everything in their lives were turned upside down.As scholar James Howell writes, “We have (before us) a blueprint for what happens in our discipleship. Once we find the Christ, we worship him and go back home a different way, (on) a different road. We have to roll out new maps to (in order to) look for new routes.”[3]

To put it bluntly, when we encounter and see the revelation of Jesus in our lives, our lives will either remain the same and we become like Herod and the religious officials who are diffident and uncomfortable or our lives will be transformed and the old ways we live, see, encounter and journey in life will fall away.  As Jesus is revealed to us, we become changed people and the old roads we once took loose their luster and need. We strike out on new roads because we know the old roads are not safe or beneficial anymore because Herod is on the prowl.

T.S. Eliot in his beloved poem, The Journey of the Magi, has one of the Magi reflect this way on his journey home after going to Bethlehem:          

We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,

But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,

With an alien people clutching their gods.

I should be glad of another death.[4]

Beloved, our Story today reminds us that when God is revealed to us in Jesus, we are forced to respond in some way. We either remain cynical, crusty Herods or we become uneasy Magi who realize that meeting Jesus changes everything, even the roads we take home and the people we encounter on the way. God give us all a radical, transforming epiphany revealing the Lord Christ to each of us where we need to see him.  Amen.

© 2021 Patrick H. Wrisley, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, 401 SE 15th Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL. 33301.  Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

[1] See https://people.com/human-interest/gender-reveals-gone-wrong-videos/.

[2] New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[3] Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 1: Advent through Transfiguration (Feasting on the Word: Year B volume) . Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.

[4] T.S. Eliot, The Journey of the Magi. See https://www.poetryinvoice.com/poems/journey-magi.

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The Pastoral Prayer for First Sunday After Christmas, December 27, 2020

Posted on December 28, 2020 by patrick h wrisley

Timeless God, Ancient of Days, You have bowed and pierced time and space and have personally entered into our human realm and dared to live among us. The Angel Gabriel reminds us that there is nothing that is impossible with the Lord Almighty, and we tenaciously grasp to that hope with both hands. In the flurries of our anxious world, we look for the peace that only the babe of Mary can provide. Help us to let go of what occupies our minds and hearts, enable us to still the noises of the world and the negative self-talk in our heads so that we can hear the coos of the sweet baby’s breath. For little Aubrey’s baptism today that reminds us you stand and eagerly await for your children to become part of the family, we thank you! For those of us new on this walk with Christ, be born in our hearts this day. For those of us who have journeyed long on this pilgrimage of faith, be reborn in our hearts. For the Church you have set in the midst of a broken and shadowy world, be reborn in us today!  For nothing is impossible with You!

Jesus, we celebrate the respite of joy the last few days as we have celebrated your birth. We acknowledge that for some, joy may have been elusive due to illness, the death of a loved-one, or the lingering memories of a deceased husband, wife, son or daughter who are no longer at the dinner table and whose stocking, although hung with care, is no longer filled. We are mindful of those families who are on a death-watch for a loved-one who is about to enter Easter. We pray for the elderly whose minds are tormented with dementia and for their caregivers who are exhausted and show unintentional  impatience. We come and pray for all our medical personnel – doctors, nurses, technicians, lab workers, and paramedics – all who are placing their lives on the line as this pandemic seems to burn unchecked through our nation and world. We humbly ask, Jesus, that you would be reborn in the hearts, lives and minds of our national, state, and local leaders in the form of justice and mercy for the ones struggling to pay rent, eat, and educate their children today; replace rancorous politics with broken hearts for the least of these our brothers and sisters among us. For Lord, nothing is impossible with you!

© 2020 Patrick H. Wrisley, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, 401 SE 15th Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL. 33301.  Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

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