Pastoral Prayer for Transfiguration Sunday

Posted on February 24, 2020 by patrick h wrisley

Father of Tender Mercies, we come as your people today expecting to meet you in this place and at this time. As you greet us, our lives will reflect back from your countenance the depth or shallowness of our lives grounded in you. Dear God, use this time to deepen us, strengthen us, and illumine us in the shadowy dark places of our soul and restore us to your precious side.

Jesus, we come to this Transfiguration Sunday and pray you will reveal your true and full glory to us. Help us to see nuances of you and the Gospel we’ve never experienced or understood; in doing so, enlarge our hearts towards our neighbor and their plight and to the injustices in our world we willingly or unwillingly perpetuate. Please reveal to us our own complicity in the evils of bigotry, consumerism, environmental exploitation, or political rancorousness. Let us see the faces of sisters and brothers in the world versus opponents, competitors or enemies.

Spirit of Life and Love, fill and transform us from the inside out this day. Enable each of us and this church as a whole to be Light in a world of shadows and ambiguity. May we truly live so that people will know we are Christians by our love, by our love. Breathe into us your illumined understanding to life’s vexing problems and concerns; fill us with your Presence that we may faithfully love the unlovely, that we may be attentive at the bedside of those who are ill, that we will have the right touch and the right word to those who are facing fear from medical conditions or who are suffering the loss of a loved one. Help us, Spirit to see beyond ourselves and to see your working in the lives of those around each of us. Grant us awareness as individuals, as a Church, as neighbors and fellow citizens to the power of our words and how they can bring life or cause death in another’s soul.

We come, Triune God, this day and place our lives, our needs, our hopes, and dreams before you.  Hear us as we silently pray.

 

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What do you see when you look into the mirror? Some thoughts on Salt and Light, Matthew 5:12-15

Posted on February 12, 2020 by patrick h wrisley

Sermon:        What do you see when you look in the mirror?
Scripture:     Matthew 5:13-15
Preacher:      Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Location:      First Presbyterian Church Fort Lauderdale
Date:             February 9, 2020

This week we are reading from what is often called the Sermon on the Mount.  It begins with the recitation of the Beatitudes in Matthew 5 and extends to the end of chapter 7 with Jesus’ teaching. The Beatitudes outline for Jesus the characteristics of the people who comprise the Kingdom of Heaven.  Kingdom people are gentle, pure in heart, humble, meek and will be persecuted for what they believe. Turn in your Bible with me to Matthew 5.13 and following.

Matthew 5.13-15

13 ‘You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled underfoot.

14 ‘You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.[1]

Most people can remember the great commission at the end of Matthew’s gospel where the resurrected Jesus tells his disciples that they are to go out into all the world, preach the Good News, and baptize people in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What most people do not remember is that the Great Commission occurs much earlier in Matthew’s Gospel in today’s text.  Our three verses in Matthew 5 is Jesus’ commissioning his followers to go out and change the world. He is telling them to go live into their identity as people of God. How? They are to go and be salt and light to the world. Scholar Dale Bruner from Whitworth University calls our text the vitally important “You ares!” of Matthew’s gospel.[2] These “you ares” shape our identity as God’s people.

So far in Matthew’s story, Jesus has been baptized, he has been tempted, and he has assembled a team. Jesus has provided them an outline of what it means to live in God’s realm with the Beatitudes. Today, Jesus gives his first marching orders to the Church: You are salt and light to the world. These marching orders are where the church finds her identity.

You and I are the salt of the world. We live in a world where salt is discouraged and we are encouraged to live a low-sodium diet. The challenge is that Jesus is calling us to live into our identity as high-sodium disciples flavoring the world. Salt enhances flavor. Salt is used to preserve things like food. Salt is necessary for our bodies to function metabolically. Salt in and of itself is not a bad thing but too much of it is. If you go to Fresh Market and buy a beautiful standing rib roast and slather it with too much salt and serve it up, you will not be able to eat it! It becomes a wasted culinary moment!

The same can be said for light.  Light is a good thing.  It lights up shadows, it helps us navigate. It gives the body needed vitamins and helps produce positive chemical levels in our brains. And yet, too much or too little light is not good for us or others.  Too much light pointed in a concentrated area can cause blindness. Exposure to too much light can cause damage to the body in the form of skin cancers and melanomas. And yet, too little light is a problem, too!

I never knew until I lived in the Pacific Northwest that there is such a thing as Happy Lights but after living there one full winter, I understood why they were on sale in the stores!  In the PNW winters, you go to work in the dark and come home in the dark because the days are so much shorter; it starts to turn dusk at 4:30 in the afternoon.  Add to that the rain, the clouds, and the cold – at times it feels claustrophobic. For nine months residents of the Puget Sound region suffer through dark, dank, dreary weather. If by chance the sun makes its way out during those nine months, people flock out of their office buildings and go sit in the sun to get a sun break. It can be thirty degrees outside but people are out sunbathing getting as much vitamin D as they can! People crave the light! So, someone figured out Happy Lights which you place in front of you for an hour a day and they keep you less depressed. I had a coworker bring her dog to work one day because it was feeling sick. I looked at the dog and said, “So she’s depressed?” My friend shot back, “Oh yes! How’d you know?”  I pointed to the Happy Light she had placed on the floor in front of her dog’s face. I may be from Georgia but I sure can pick up on the signs!

Members of the church are called to an identity of being salt and light to the world.  We are to enhance people’s lives. We are to season the culture with the virtues listed in the Beatitudes.  We are to shine a light on injustice and hatred. We are to reveal the Good News about the wonderful reign of God in our lives so others can experience the same. We are to shine hope where there is despair. We are called to be salt and light: That is our commission!

Yet, sisters and brothers, we are to use our saltiness, our light strategically and not wastefully or carelessly.  As we have noted, too little or too much salt and/or light can be a bad thing, too. We live in a culture that believes if a little is good, then more is obviously better; however, in the case of our Christian commission and the way we season and light the world with the flavor and colors of Jesus, it matters how much we use.

Think for a moment with me of those Christians you know that are too salty and too bright for people to taste and see the Lord is good or can see Jesus for who he is. They use all the right Christian words, dress a certain way, and have a sense of personal piety that smells like a woman who has sprayed on way too much gardenia perfume!  Overly salty Christianity, a Christian walk that’s “too bright” for others to look at, smell or experience, is not what Jesus is praying for us to demonstrate. Fundamentalism in any form from conservative or progressive is a misuse of Jesus’ high sodium discipleship and light. Salt and light are to be used strategically.

Today we celebrate our Scottish heritage as a church.  Presbyterians emerge from a down-to-earth, common sense, practical understanding of faith.

As Presbyterians we don’t believe in checking our brains at the door of the church but that God gave us an intellect and a faith that can stand up to any intellectual probing we apply to it.

As Presbyterians, we are known as people of the Middle Way; in other words, we are known for prayerfully studying the scriptures to determine the way and will of God.  You see, we believe we can better discern God’s voice through the many as opposed to just the one.

As Presbyterians, we embrace that God is God and is sovereign and that we are not; therefore, we commit everyone and everything to God’s Providential care and oversight.  We may not be able to understand the “whys” to cancer, depression, or assaults on culture’s most innocent, but we Presbyterians do believe that God has all those knots and problems in the midst of His hands and is sorting them out in ways we both cannot nor understand.

As Presbyterians, we are known as a people who are focusing on Jesus first, issues second; at least, it used to be that way. Nowadays, though, Mainline Churches have let social agendas determine the course of the Gospel.  We have removed Christ from the center, the Head of the Church and have displaced him with our personal cause. We forget that it was our Scottish ancestors in the Presbyterian Church who sought and fought to maintain the separation of the Church and the State and here we are in the 21st century America wrapping the two back up together again.

As Presbyterians, we know the world and its issues cannot be easily separated into white and black, this or that, or conservative or liberal; Presbyterians are comfortable with the uncomfortability of wading into the graywater of life and its murkiness in order to find solutions to problems.

I think of our beloved city’s woes with its sewage systems. I can never get out of my head the picture of the scuba diver who put on his helmet and air hose and dropped below the water in the Himmarshee Canal as the broken sewage pipe was spewing god-only-knows-what into the water.  It is a dirty job and not many people would line up to do what that diver did, but someone had to do it. In order for the pipe to be fixed, in order for the sewage to stop spewing into our city’s waterways, someone had to get wet and smelly under the water to set things right.  As Presbyterians, we are like that diver in Himmarshee Canal[3]: the majority of the people in culture are standing on the side of life’s problems, critiquing what should’ve been done, what needs to be done, and whose fault it is and was, to begin with, but unless someone has the courageous humbleness to wade into the gray-water, to wade into the sewage, nothing is going to be addressed and nothing will be fixed. That’s why I am proud to be a Presbyterian. We may not always be popular, but we realize that to be salt and light in our contemporary world means strategically going to address broken pipes in our world that others will not touch.

Beloved, today I ask you to go home and look in a mirror.  Who do you see? Are you a flavor enhancer? Are you a grace-full light bearer? Let’s live into our heritage. Amen.
Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder
First Presbyterian Church
401 SE 15th Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
patrickw@firstpres.cc
patrickhwrisley.net

© 2020 Patrick H. Wrisley. 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] The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, 1995 by 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] Dale Fredrick Bruner, Matthew, Volume 1, The Christ-Book.

[3] Please see https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/sewer-line-ruptures-in-himmarshee-canal/2167505/.

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Shaping Our Identity, Micah 6:1-8

Posted on February 4, 2020 by patrick h wrisley

Sermon:        Jesus asks no more from us than he gives of himself
Scripture:     Micah 6:1-8
Preacher:      Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Location:      First Presbyterian Church Fort Lauderdale
Date:              February 2, 2020, Communion Sunday

Living in a village west of Jerusalem some 800 years before Jesus was born, lived a minor prophet named Micah. Micah has spent five chapters outlining the specific problems God has with Israel. The people’s living faith has morphed into a dead shell of religion very similar to an empty cicada shell that is left on a tree: The outside shell is pristine but the inside of it is empty and vacuous.

Today’s scene is a courtroom. God is leveling charges against the nation of Israel and is reminding the people of how he saved them from slavery and led them to the Promised Land. It’s there the people turned their back on the Lord. Israel gets defensive against the charges leveled against her and shakes her fist at God in effect crying, “What else do you want us to do for you?” God’s reply is simple and straightforward:  Quit playing at religion and start living a vital faith.  Hear the Word of the Lord!

Micah 6:1-8

6.1Hear what the Lord says:
Rise, plead your case before the mountains,
and let the hills hear your voice.
2 Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the Lord,
and you enduring foundations of the earth;
for the Lord has a controversy with his people,
and he will contend with Israel.

3 “O my people, what have I done to you?
In what have I wearied you? Answer me!
4 For I brought you up from the land of Egypt,
and redeemed you from the house of slavery;
and I sent before you Moses,
Aaron, and Miriam.
5 O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised,
what Balaam son of Beor answered him,
and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal,
that you may know the saving acts of the Lord.”

6 “With what shall I come before the Lord,
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God? [1]

Scholar Carol Dempsey writes, “The people seem to have forgotten their “story” (and identity), and, in doing so, have forgotten their saving God. Thus the people have fallen out of “right” relationship with their God and consequently with one another because of a lack of mindfulness.”[2] Friends, our scripture paints the picture of what a true disciple of God in Christ looks like. Micah answers the central question of “What does it looks like for you and me to live a holy life?”

The answer from today’s courtroom scene is a definitive and hearty “NO!” to the notion of living with an overly developed sense of personal piety; on the contrary, we are told that what is required is both a personal and communal transformation of how we relate with God and with other people and even creation itself.  The people have already demonstrated their inability to live a holy life. A ‘holy life’ is best translated to mean a life that is visibly different and separate from the rest of the world and is intentionally seeking to live according to God’s way at the core of who we are as human beings. It’s not a question of what we do to earn God’s love and attention; the issue is how we have let our lives be transformed and shaped by the Spirit of God in each of us and in this community.

It does not matter how many calves, goats, rams, or bulls we sacrifice to God; that will not prove our love.  It does not matter how many gallons and rivers of oil or sacrificed blood flow before the throne of the Lord; the fruit of another’s life will not prove our love to God. You see, God is telling Israel that it is way too easy for them to sacrifice something else to show their love to God. It’s easy to sacrifice your goat or ram as it doesn’t require you to sacrifice your own blood; it’s easy to throw in what’s in your pocket for an offering and say, “That’s all I got!” instead of developing a heart for radical giving in all aspects of life. God is telling the people, “Remember who you are! Remember how I have rescued you! Remember the price I paid for you! Remember, you are a beloved, chosen children of God!”

You see, beloved, Micah is having them remember their identity as beloved children of God and springing from that sense of identity, emerging from who they are as God’s chosen and beloved, is how they are to live out their life.

Their identity as children of God means they are to intentionally seek out ways to live justly.  Dempsey writes, “Justice is a transformative virtue that seeks to establish or restore the community, while aiming to balance personal good with the common good.”[3]

Their identity as children of God means to love God and others from the center of who they are! Loving-kindness is more than showing affection to God and neighbor, it is an ethical love physically demonstrated to them.

Their identity as children of God means they generously allow God to be God; in other words, the people know their place – they are the created and not the Creator. This humbleness allows them to give themselves, the sum total of their lives, generously to God.

I love what Old Testament professor, Patricia Tull says when she writes, “What God sought from the Israelites, what faith says God still seeks from us, is to cultivate capabilities we have seen in our Maker, capabilities we who are made in God’s image already possess: a warm heart for all, a passion for fairness, and the flexibility to learn as we go in this complex matter of seeking grace alongside justice.”[4]  This is why, my friends, the message title today is, “Jesus asks no more from us than he gives himself.”  Jesus treated people justly. Jesus shared loving kindness to all he met. Jesus walked humbly before His Father and generously gave himself totally so that all might have life.  Isn’t this what the meal before us demonstrates?

Where do you derive your identity, Church? This past May, your Session began crafting its identity of who we are as a church. Your elders believe this church is called by God to share the Good News of Jesus and that we are to be an inspiring Christ-centered presence in this community, transforming Fort Lauderdale and beyond. Did you hear that? Our identity is to be sharing, inspiring, and transforming people. You do, notice don’t you, that this identity of who we are is all “other” directed. It’s all about who we are in sharing, inspiriting, and transforming those “others” out in the larger community. If this is who we are as a congregation, then how are we going to achieve that?

My dream as your pastor is that we will live into our identity as a sharing, inspiring, and transforming congregation by following Jesus’ model for transforming our personal self and this very congregation by

Living intentionally;
Loving unconditionally;
and Giving generously.

Living intentionally is our growing our faith and Christian character through the Thirty Core Competencies; it’s in building micro-Christian communities that are incubators for ministry in the world.

Loving unconditionally means we are to reach out to society’s “Other” whoever they are; we are to be the serving hands and feet of Jesus in and around this place; we are the voice who addresses systems of injustice and intolerance.

Giving generously means we shall give our time for missional work; it means we each use our spiritual gifts for the larger good of the Church; it means we understand that all we have belongs to God and we place it humbly before him to do Kingdom of Heaven work.

Faith comes alive doesn’t cut it. It needs to be fleshed out. How does our faith come alive? Well, by

Living intentionally.  Loving unconditionally.  Giving generously. This, my beloved, is how we shall share the good news, inspire others, and transform our world. This is how we will do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God. This is how we are going to live like Jesus has already lived himself.  And all of God’s people say, Amen.

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder
First Presbyterian Church
401 SE 15th Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

patrickw@firstpres.cc

© 2020 Patrick H. Wrisley. 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] The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, 1995 by 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] Bartlett, David L.; Taylor, Barbara Brown. Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 1: Advent through Transfiguration (Feasting on the Word: Year A volume) (Kindle Locations 10505-10507). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.

[3] Bartlett, David L.; Taylor, Barbara Brown. Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 1: Advent through Transfiguration (Feasting on the Word: Year A volume) (Kindle Locations 10526-10532). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.

[4] Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship (p. 211). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.

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Were You Ever Taught How to Fish? A Look at Evangelism, Matthew 4:12-25

Posted on January 28, 2020 by patrick h wrisley

Sermon:        Were you ever taught how to fish?
Scripture:     Matthew 4:12-25
Preacher:      Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Location:      First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Date:              January 26, 2020, Epiphany 3, Year A

 Matthew 4:12-25, (MSG)

                  12-17 When Jesus got word that John had been arrested, he returned to Galilee. He moved from his hometown, Nazareth, to the lakeside village Capernaum, nestled at the base of the Zebulun and Naphtali hills. This move completed Isaiah’s sermon:

Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,
road to the sea, over Jordan,
Galilee, crossroads for the nations.
People sitting out their lives in the dark
saw a huge light;
Sitting in that dark, dark country of death,
they watched the sun come up.

This Isaiah-prophesied sermon came to life in Galilee the moment Jesus started preaching. He picked up where John left off: “Change your life. God’s kingdom is here.”

                  18-20 Walking along the beach of Lake Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers: Simon (later called Peter) and Andrew. They were fishing, throwing their nets into the lake. It was their regular work. Jesus said to them, “Come with me. I’ll make a new kind of fisherman out of you. I’ll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass.” They didn’t ask questions, but simply dropped their nets and followed.

                  21-22 A short distance down the beach they came upon another pair of brothers, James and John, Zebedee’s sons. These two were sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, mending their fishnets. Jesus made the same offer to them, and they were just as quick to follow, abandoning boat and father.

                  23-25 From there he went all over Galilee. He used synagogues for meeting places and taught people the truth of God. God’s kingdom was his theme—that beginning right now they were under God’s government, a good government! He also healed people of their diseases and of the bad effects of their bad lives. Word got around the entire Roman province of Syria. People brought anybody with an ailment, whether mental, emotional, or physical. Jesus healed them, one and all. More and more people came, the momentum gathering. Besides those from Galilee, crowds came from the “Ten Towns” across the lake, others up from Jerusalem and Judea, still others from across the Jordan. [1]

This morning’s text is where one part of the Matthew Story finishes and a new phase of the book begins. Up until now, the Story has focused upon the preparation of the setting and scene.  But today we hear the ominous portent, “That John had been arrested.” Already the Good News of repentance and Messiah was burning holes of bad news into the ears of the religious and political government. John the Baptist has violently left the Story and now the full spotlight is on Jesus. It’s at this point that Jesus now gets down to work and the first thing he does is to gather others around him to learn the Way and to help him out on his mission.

He takes a walk along the beach. He sees Andrew and Simon Peter casting nets into the sea because they were fishermen. Jesus calls out to them, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of people!” and then immediately left their fishing gear and followed. A bit further down the beach, he sees the Zebedee brothers with their dad in a boat mending nets. Again, Jesus calls out, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of people!” and James and John left their gear and their daddy in the boat and followed Jesus.

It’s at this point, Church, we are to hear the first reality of following Jesus. When we say “yes” to following Jesus it’s also our way of saying a firm “no” to our former way of life. Our story says the first four disciples abandoned everything and left to follow Jesus’ call. They left livelihood, family, and the safety of predictability. When they hopped out of their boats, they were immediately put in a position of reassessing everything in their life from what security means, what their faith really required, and how they are to relate with the political systems and injustice. Following Jesus is not for the faint of heart, beloved.

Matthew spells it out pretty clearly: Change your life. God’s kingdom and reign are among you. I’m going to make a new type of fisherman out of you. There is no sense of status quo in Jesus’ words to the four fishermen. Everything changes when we say “yes” to the call of God in Christ.

This morning I want to spend some time on the one requirement Jesus places upon his first four called disciples. It’s a reorienting of their perspective from being focused on what they can get out of life for themselves towards being intent on showing others the presence of God in their midst. I love how Peterson translates verses 19 and 20: Come with me. I’ll make a new kind of fisherman out of you. I’ll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass.

Were you ever taught how to fish my friends?  I wasn’t. I had to figure it out on my own by reading, watching, trying it out and failing. Well, actually, you never really fail in fishing. Just the act of fishing is a win in and of itself. Fishing is a wonderful metaphor for our work as disciples, Church. Fishing is the biblical metaphor for evangelism. If you are like me, you may not have been taught evangelism, that is, how to fish for people. We watch others do it and we find it off-putting so we don’t try our own fishing techniques out. We don’t understand what evangelism is.  So today, my friends, let’s have a brief lesson in fishing for men and women.  I promise you, it’s not hard.

Let’s begin by addressing what we need to know and to have in order to be successful fishers-of-people. Interestingly, it’s the same information we need to be good fishermen or fisherwomen going after fish!

First, you need to know what you are fishing for, to begin with.  What you are fishing for determines the bait you use, which lure you put on the line.  Are you fishing for fish that are along the shoreline or do you need a boat to go out to where they are and like to hang out?

Once you know what you are fishing for, then you have to select the body of water to go fishing in; we will not find mountain trout seven miles off the coast of the Keys. If we are fishing for trout, then we get a fly rod and head to the mountains of North Carolina or Montana. If we are fishing for grouper, we need a different kind of pole, bait, and location to catch reel them in.

Once we know what we are fishing for, once we decide where we will drop our lines into fish, then we adapt our equipment to our needs. These are three basic items we need to know and do before we leave the house and go fishing.

What else do we need to know before leaving the house to go fishing? We need to realize that it can get uncomfortable, that it can get messy, and that it will demand we develop patience.

Fishing can be uncomfortable. If you’re deep-sea fishing and the water is rough, your stomach may feel like it’s up in your mouth. You can get sunburned and hot. If you are wading in the water, your waders may have a hole in them that leaks cold winter onto your feet and you find it hard to put a fly on the line.

Fishing can be messy. One of my favorite things to watch is a child bait a hook with a squiggly red worm. You know what I’m talking about! Cleaning fish is not that pleasant either – all the guts, blood, and smell! Your clothes get all nasty as you wipe your hands on your shirt or pants to get the goo off.  For evangelism, fishing for people can be messy because you will hear stories from others that will break your heart.  They are stories of pain and loss, as well as stories of hope and redemption.

Fishing demands patience, too. The fish will bite when they are ready to bite. It takes time to learn where the fish are hiding. It requires a person to be able to be within him or herself and remain still and unflappable. It requires us to wait.  So, it is with evangelism; Church, we need to get over the notion that we cause the fish to bite.  All we can do is drop our line into the water.  All we can do is show what God has done in our own lives and let the Spirit determine which fish come into the nets.  Patience is required because we understand that the starting point of our fishing is not so that we can catch people, gut them, clean them and eat them; on the contrary, our job as fishermen and fisherwomen is to attract people to Jesus’ Kingdom theme.  We can’t force a fish to take the bait; all we can do is make sure the right bait, that is, good news, presented to lure other fish to bite.  That requires patience. So, fishing can be uncomfortable, messy, and demand patience.

I wonder if it’s these reasons why the Church has done such a poor job at it.  The Church has failed teaching her children the benefits of fishing; it has failed to remind us that we fish in order to expand God’s Kingdom theme and work in the world. So, what can we learn?

Well, Church, we are to learn that we need to decide what type of fish are we fishing for in the first place. It requires that the Church and that as individuals we look around us and note the types of schools of fish in our pond. There are thousands of apartments coming online in Fort Lauderdale and Broward, have we cast a line in that pool? Maybe it’s the pool of support staff and workers who bust their hump to keep our local businesses open and thriving. Just perhaps we build on our success at Happyland and develop ministries for young families. Is it the burgeoning homeless population that offers us an opportunity to bring the good news?  Who is it we are fishing for?

For each of us personally, those who we are fishing for is determined by where you find yourselves day in and day out.  If you are a corporate lawyer, the pool you fish from does not necessarily mean you are handing out tracts on the street; no, you are fishing in your circle of influence as legal counsel through places like Rotary, the club, and professional associations. If you are a teacher, the pool you fish from is with your parents, fellow teachers, students, PTA, field trips…you name it. If you are retired, your pool may be the health center, your doctor’s office, your bridge club or sports activities.

Friends, the reality is this:  The Christian Church has abandoned its responsibility for fishing and exhibiting the Kingdom of God to the world.  We have become lazy and let the cultural nets of politics, entertainment, individualism, and violence to drop their nets in our fishing spots.  Beloved, Jesus is looking for you and me, this church, to get off our deck chairs and drop the lines and cast the nets!  All of us, every one of us, is an angler for Christ’s Kingdom.  Remember friends, we don’t try to convert, coerce or cajole.  We simply drop the line of a winsome gospel.  Amen.

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder
First Presbyterian Church
401 SE 15th Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

© 2020 Patrick H. Wrisley. 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]The Message (MSG). Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson.

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Message: Good Old Joe, Matthew 2:13-23

Posted on December 31, 2019 by patrick h wrisley

Sermon:        Good Old Joe
Scripture:     Matthew 2:13-23
Preacher:      Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Location:      First Presbyterian Church Fort Lauderdale
Date:             December 29, 2019, First Sunday of Christmas Year A

It dawned upon me this week that this is the last sermon I will write and preach in this decade! It seems like yesterday when the world was on edge as the new millennium and Y2K brought us to the decade of the double aughts or better, the oh-ohs, which later became the uh-ohs. Then we entered the teens and what an economic, political, cultural ride it has been.  Now, we are on the eve of what some are calling the new Roaring 20’s.[1]

Our lectionary text is appropriate for today in that it is honest and gritty, not the type of text you would expect the biblical writers to throw in just days after Christmas. But here it is, a text that can be heard in one of three ways; it either epitomizes the realities of the last decade or, it’s a text which points us to the realities of the next. How you answer it determines if you’re an optimist, a pessimist, or a realist.

Unlike the Gospel of Luke and his detailed versions of the immaculate conception and the constant angelic reconnaissance missions to Zechariah, Elizabeth, and Mary, Matthew’s description of the baby’s birth is pretty straightforward: But he (Joseph) had no marital relations with her (Mary) until she had borne a son, and he named him Jesus (1.25); in fact, initially, the only angelic visitation that comes in Matthew’s gospel is to Joseph before Jesus was born.

Today, we are going to spend some time looking at an oft-neglected biblical character who does not get as much press as other people in the Christmas narrative and that is Joseph.  Joseph is often seen as an inconsequential foil character to the real action of the story between Mary and Jesus. Joseph is often portrayed as the typical nervous and naïve daddy waiting in the waiting room for news of his child’s birth like it used to be in the 1950s.

Joseph has much to teach us as we approach this new version of the Roaring Twenties. Listen to the Word of God and let’s learn three vital truths Joseph is asking us to embrace this new decade. In biblical storytime, we pick up in the Story when Jesus is already between an infant and two years old and the three wise men have come to bring him gifts. Hear the Word of the Lord:

Matthew 2:13-23

                  13Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, 15and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”

                  16When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. 17Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: 18“A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”

                  19When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, 20“Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.” 21Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. 22But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. 23There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He will be called a Nazorean.” [2]

Our text today covers several years of life events in the young Jesus. He has been paid a visit by three wise men and scientist types from Persia; his birth has rankled the nerves of an erratic Jewish despot, Herod; an entire region’s baby boys under 24 months-old were slaughtered; the holy family has been sent into exile and then repatriated Israel to Galilee. Through it, all is this constant figure of Joseph who is does not say a word but in whose life faith comes alive. For a church that strives to live into that reality as “A place where faith comes alive!”, Joseph teaches us three vital traits for us as a church and as Christ-followers heading into a new decade.

Joseph was obedient.

Joseph was timely in his response.

Joseph was familiar with God.

First, Joseph was obedient. In Matthew one and two, an angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream. The first time, the angel says, “No fear! Mary’s pregnant and it’s a child from God. Get up and marry her!” The second time, following the wise men’s visit, an angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream and says, “Get up! Jesus has been targeted for assassination! Take Mary and Jesus and get down to Egypt and lay low awhile!”  The third time an angel of the Lord appears and tells him it’s all clear and he’s to get up and take his family back to Israel.  Joseph goes but, on the way, he’s got a funny gut-level feeling about this new King in Judah, Archelaus, who is Herod’s son. For a fourth time, an angel appears to him in a dream and tells him to change his route and go another direction. At first glance, we may think Joseph simply sleeps all the time as the only time God speaks to him is when he is asleep! What we are to see is Joseph’s trait of obedience.

We tend to think of obedience as a negative thing in our world today.  If you are told, “Be obedient to me!” it almost comes across as a threat or a demand to be subjugated under the power of another. This is the reason why we don’t use to obey in wedding services anymore. I like playing with Bride at wedding rehearsals and ask them to say, “I will obey my husband.” You should see the looks on their bride’s face!  Oh, if looks could kill! First, I would never ask a man or woman to obey anyone but God, and secondly, I need to clarify what obey really means to begin with! To “obey” someone is not to blindly follow them; the word obey comes from the Latin word which means ‘to hear or to listen.’ Joseph, beloved, was listening to God! His listening compelled him to follow God’s instructions.

Question: Looking into the next year and the Roaring 20’s, how well are you listening, are we as a church, listening to God? How well are we obeying the Ancient of Days?

The second trait we learn from Joseph is that when he listened, when he obeyed, he acted on it in a timely fashion. God says, “Joseph, get up!” and Joseph gets up and goes.  Our English versions do not communicate this clearly, but our scripture indicates that when the angel of the Lord said, “Get up!”, Joseph immediately got up, took his family and went. He did not wait until morning, he immediately got up and got moving! As the Young’s Literal Translation says in verse 14: 14 And he, having risen, took the child and his mother by night, and withdrew to Egypt. Joseph did not wait until the next morning to do what God asked. Joseph immediately followed the Lord’s instructions.

It’s like what Driver’s Ed teacher, Coach Arthur T. Letchus always told while driving, “Once you commit to making a turn or going, go! Don’t’ hesitate but go!”  Why would he tell us that?  Because if you are at an intersection about to pull into traffic, should you hesitate, you may get hit by another car!

Question: How well do we follow the Lord’s directions when prompted from a dream, from your Bible Study, Men’s or Women’s group, or from worship? Do we like to sit and stew on it to determine its convenience on the impact it might have on our life or do we act? Putting it frankly: Are you and I pew-sitters or are we actively engaged in discipleship that makes a difference?

The third valuable trait Joseph shares with us is the importance of cultivating a personal relationship with the Lord. No, we don’t hear anything about Joseph’s worship or devotional life.  No, we do not hear Joseph quoting scriptures like a good first century Baptist. All we know of Joseph’s spiritual life is through his sleep! From scripture, we can surmise that Joseph was a mystic of sorts.  A mystic is someone who has worked hard at cultivating a relationship with the Divine in the course of her or his everyday life so that when God does speak, the mystic hears and knows without a doubt what they have experienced! Joseph, as scripture reminds us, is a righteous man (1.19) and the only way to become that way in his very being is to live that way. Joseph was familiar with the ways of God and God’s love and character. It was within this familiarity Joseph is able to discern the subtle but unmistakable voice of the Lord.

I’ve been told I have a pretty decent voice and that I should sing for the church, but the problem is, I have no sense of pitch! I cannot read one note from another and would not know what a note was if it bit me on my backside! Unlike me, our friend Nic understands pitch and notes. Nic proudly asserted in an executive team meeting to us that even when he was dating Amy in high school, he carried a pitch pipe along with him wherever he went!  Pam, Steve and I looked at each other with our eyes rolling and said out loud, “You carried a pitch-pipe with you in high school? Lawd!” Nic assured us he doesn’t anymore! The reality is, he does not have to carry one around.  Through his years of practice singing and playing instruments, he can pull a note or a pitch out of thin air!

Hear that again: Over a period of time and training and repetition, you become familiar with the right notes and the right pitch.  So, it is with God.  The more we spend time with the Lord in prayer, scripture, worship, and service, the more we are able to discern the Lord’s voice and separate it from what our culture is trying to say it is.

Question:  How familiar are you with the various nuances and subtilties of God? Are you, are we as a church and as a nation familiar enough in our relationship with the Lord and are able to separate the Divine Voice from the voices of our own opinions, biases, party affiliations, prejudices, and wish dreams?

Good old Joe. Mary’s husband does not say a lot but he sure tells us loads about the traits of a healthy Christian disciple. A follower of Jesus is obedient, acts on what he or she knows to be true and is familiar with the Spirit’s voice and movement in their lives because they have cultivated that relationship. I don’t know about you, but I think Joseph sets the bar on how we are to approach a new year and the Roaring Twenties!  Amen.

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder
First Presbyterian Church
401 SE 15th Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
patrickw@firstpres.cc
patrickhwrisley.net

© 2019 Patrick H. Wrisley. 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] ANALYSIS-Recession, robots and rockets: another roaring 20s for world markets? by Reuters, Friday, 27 December 2019 10:09 GMT. See http://news.trust.org/item/20191227093756-u0bly.

[2] The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, 1995 by 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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