Each week I try to read the gospel story for the following week early in the week, so that I have a chance to think on it before it comes time to sit down and put together the message for the week. As I left for work this past Wednesday morning I had this passage firmly in mind. I'm driving into work and I'm listening to the news. The news in our world today is very intertwined with this gospel lesson. Think about the gospel lesson - on the one hand you have a story about light. You have the visit of the Magi to the Christ child. The Magi are scholars from the East see this phenomena this light in the sky, a star in the sky...some bright celestial object. They study it and somehow in their minds, because they are pretty deeply studied, they connect it to events over in Israel. So they travel from elsewhere. They come to the land of Israel and they see the star going in that direction and they see the star passing through Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the capital of Israel so it makes sense that they might inquire there to see if others have seen the same thing they have seen and see what they know about it. So through that they run into some of the 'wise men' of Israel including the kind, Herod. As they confer back and forth...yet in contrast to that story is a story of incredible worldly darkness...

Today's message is based upon scripture in Deuteronomy. Ascribed to Moses. It's a wonderful cautionary tale. The context is Moses has encountered God in the burning bush, he went to Egypt, had an interaction with Pharaoh, and eventually the people of Israel were released from their captivity in Egypt. They fled across the Red Sea into the Sinai Peninsula where they wandered for many many years. Moses did a lot of things right during those years, but he did some things wrong too. Thus, in Deuteronomy when they come up to the Jordan river and on the other side of the Jordan River is this long promised land Moses is told he may not enter that promised land. He is told because of his lack of faith earlier in the Exodus he is not allowed to go into the promised land. So, the book of Deuteronomy is Moses giving this last sermon to the people of Israel...

This past summer my wife and I went on a fishing trip to Alaska. We went to a small airport terminal and waited for a float plane to take us from where we were to the lodge where we were hoping to be... We got there pretty early and as we sat there others going to the same place came in, they would introduce themselves to one another and it was a good time to meet people from all over...all of a sudden a man presented himself in the room. The man came in and he thought he was the cat's meow. He was some kind of high end doctor. I'm sure he was a very good doctor, but after listening to him for 3 minutes I was wondering why he was waiting on a float plane I thought he could walk on water and just go on his own...days later after fishing was over we used the same float plane back to the airport just so happened that we were the first ones back to the terminal. We gathered in the terminal again to await for the shuttle bus to our hotel...mr. and mrs. wonderful were on the second flight to the terminal they barged through the crowd and plowed through to where the shuttle bus was about to come. Shuttle bus drove up and was obviously being driven by someone who wasn't the usual driver. This woman was pitching in trying to help as the regular driver had called in sick...I asked if I could help and she more than gladly let me. I packed carefully and there was room for 1 person, but not enough room for all of the luggage. It would require a second trip. In contrast, one of the best parts of my summer was visiting with all of the different workers I met along the way. What some in our culture might call the "little people." The shuttle driver, the housekeepers, the floatplane pilot was from Greybull. The wait staff, the autoparts guy I met, campground groundskeeper, highway patrolman camping. They often saw people struggle with a small task and jumped right in to help. A willingness to yield oneself to God's hand and to God's action in our lives. Especially when it comes to serving other people. Today is the last Sunday of waiting. The last Sunday of Advent...

“I AM...Not”

"...when you go back there, you tell them I AM is sending you." And, somehow those words got Moses convinced that he did need to go back to Egypt. And, indeed through a series of encounters with Pharaoh Moses does lead the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt and begins their journey to the Promised Land. Now, the Hebrew tradition, the Jewish tradition and the Christian tradition all use that encounter to form their most clear concept of who God is. Both traditions think of God as the GREAT I AM. The thing that cannot be described...that is beyond creation. God is the GREAT I AM. In the gospel of John, Jesus connects himself with that GREAT I AM in the burning bush. Seven different times in the gospel of John Jesus defines himself beginning with those words: "I AM...

>>> ...the bread of life."
>>> ...the light of the world."
>>> ...the door," or "the gate," (the means by which people access God)
>>> ...the good shepherd."
>>> ...the resurrection and the life."
>>> ...the way, the truth, and the life. And that no one gains access to the father but through him."
>>> ...true vine, and only by being grafted into me do you gain the life that comes through God the Father."

John the Baptist gains our attention, not by saying who he is, but by saying who he is NOT...

You cannot think of John the Baptist without encountering immediately the word 'sin.' According to John Himself John's sole task is to prepare the way for Jesus, for the Messiah. And the primary way he does this is for people to identify their own sin. Their own failings. Then leading them in a process by which they turn from that sin. The fancy word for that is repentance, which literally means you are going one way and you turn and go the other way. John is leading people to identify the wrong ways in which they are going and to turn around and head the other direction. And then he washes them with water. Baptizing them. Symbolically enacting the washing away of that which is dirty or wrong about them and starting them off clean with a fresh start - going a new direction.

Depending on one's point of view John's message is either meaningful and life giving or
it is offensive and off-putting.

For example, people flock from Jerusalem all the way out to the Jordanian wilderness to hear John's message and to be baptized by him. That was no small feat. If you've ever been in Jerusalem and gone out to the Jordan where John was baptizing you go over a short stretch of hills going into evermore increasingly dry and desolate land, then you drop down into the Jordan River valley and it is hot and dry and not a very appealing place until you come to the oasis' that exist along the Jordan River.

During the season of Advent a very common thing in the lectionary is to give us passages that are apocolyptic. They speak of a time to come, and some of those apocolyptic passages are very troubling and hard to hear. But, we're going to be hearing a few of them in the upcoming weeks. A good example of one of the more longing and eager ones is our passage today from Isaiah 64:1-9.

Have you ever been out driving along maybe on a long road trip? Maybe coming back from Billings or up from Casper and you've had a full day - it's been very active. And, you're eager to get home. Perhaps you're thinking about what happened that day or what you have to do tomorrow. And before you know it your car starts violently vibrating wildly as you drift toward the shoulder. Your wheels contact the rumble strips...