Showing posts with label Matthew 3. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Matthew 3. Show all posts
Thursday, July 21, 2016
Not One, Not Two, But Three
Matthew 3:16-17
And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do
Two can be as bad as one
It's the loneliest number since the number one
"One" by Harry Nilsson recorded by Three Dog Night from their self titled first album
This reading is usually read on Baptism of the Lord Sunday, but today it has a message for Trinity Sunday. This is the first time in scripture that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are found together in scripture.
In this moment, when Jesus joins in our plight through the waters of human earthly baptism, in this moment the Spirit descends like a dove and the voice from heaven proclaim "this is my son." In this moment, literally all is right in the world. In our world it won't stay that way for long, but in this moment all is right.
Even in the place where God lives, one is the loneliest number. Even in the place where God lives two can be as bad as one, it's the loneliest number since the number one. But when the three-in-one come together, something special happens. God is lonely when God is one, it takes the eternal Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit, to make God complete. Yet, even in Godly perfection, God wants more. God's overflowing love longs for a recipient. That's where we come in.
God has a plan for us. That plan begins in the creation story. God is so filled with love that the only way to make love complete is to share it. This is where creation comes in, God created everything so that love could be shared. God created humanity to share that love, to dance eternally with the three-in-one God. God created us to share the love.
God cannot exist alone and neither can we. One is truly the loneliest number. We need one another in community as the Lord needs the three persons of God. All of us together, we all need one another. That's the glory of the Trinity, and the glory of our place in God's creation.
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Lovin' John the Baptist
Baptism of the Lord Sunday
Matthew 3:4-11
Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
“I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
-----------------------------------------------
I walked forty-seven miles of barbed wire,
I got a cobra snake for a necktie
A brand new house on the road side,
and it's made out of rattlesnake hide
Got a band new chimney put on top,
and it's made out of human skull
Come on take a little walk with me child,
tell me who do you love?
"Who Do You Love" written by Bo Diddley, recorded by George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyers on their "Move It on Over" album. This version recorded live in Germany.
John came from the wilderness of Judea, which meant to everyone who knew the formal politics of the region that he was nobody. There is another thing that Matthew’s gospel tells us that shows that John is a great big nobody, his clothes.
So consider then as John comes wandering out of the wilderness and into a group of people. Some of them are the well heeled folks from the seats of power; others are rural folk trying to scratch out a living in the hinterlands. He doesn’t look much like either group. He is wearing camel hair clothes with a leather belt. In a fashion forward way, it sounds like he’s a sharp dressed man. In truth, the clothes he was wearing would look to us like a rough camel skin poncho tied with a leather thong. There is no mention of sandals and certainly no mention of boxers or briefs. He doesn’t have the big bucks haircut and a comb would probably surrender the moment it saw his head.
It seems he would be familiar with a man with a cobra snake for a necktie.
He’s wild, he’s unruly, he looks dangerous, and he’s attracting crowds, crowds who have come to confess their sins and be baptized by him in the Jordan. The contrast between John from the wilderness and all of the people who came from Jerusalem and Judea to see him was deep, deep indeed, but there is one more thing that we must remember. The well heeled people came out to the wilderness to go see John.
Style never goes out of style, and when a trend is to be followed; leave it to the trend setters to spot the good ones and latch on like a leech.
If the best defense is a good offense, John was the most offensive of all. He knows why they’re coming. He knows that they want to see the show and become a part of the show. The Pharisees and Sadducees figure that they’ll be able to tell their good friends and not-so-friendly rivals that “they were there” and “they saw it all” when John the Baptist was getting started.
John of course isn’t having it. “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee the coming wrath?” He not only doubts their intentions, he invokes an animal which is associated with the fall of humanity from grace into sin and for good measure isn’t kosher. He not only calls them insincere and insignificant, he calls them unclean. I say that the well crafted insult with a well placed word says much more with far less, and John demonstrates this today.
Then he even derails their first line of defense, who they are with the authority they receive from the synagogues and the temple. John cries out “Don’t say to yourselves, ‘Abraham is our father,’” You know they want to answer back “How dare he! Doesn’t he know who we are?” John warns them not to go there, not to invoke their status as the sons of Abraham because God can raise children from nothing. Their lofty status and their expensive suits and fine shoes mean nothing to John the Baptist. John may be the original king of “what have you done for me lately?” Yes, the leaders of the temple and the synagogues have been important to the nation, but what have you done for me lately?
John’s take, you are nothing, nothing to the kingdom of God.
Then, at this point in John’s wilderness sermon, I imagine he drops his voice to a different level as he tells the world what’s coming next. He hints that there is a change on the way. He hints that someone who will do the work of redeeming creation is coming. He is coming with the Holy Spirit and fire. The name is unknown, the person is unknown to John at this moment, but we know who he is hinting at, he’s hinting at Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus who is the Christ.
He hints that while the baptism he celebrates is a ritual bath cleaning us for repentance for sins. The baptism that is coming will serve as a refiner’s fire. The baptism of the one who comes will separate us from our impurities like the flames eliminate the chaff from the wheat leaving only the kernel of truth behind. He tells us that the fire is unquenchable, but the wind that blows, the Holy Spirit of God, we know that this wind will never quit blowing either.
George and John both ask all who are tuned in "who do you love." Only John says who loves us too.
Matthew 3:4-11
Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
“I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
-----------------------------------------------
I walked forty-seven miles of barbed wire,
I got a cobra snake for a necktie
A brand new house on the road side,
and it's made out of rattlesnake hide
Got a band new chimney put on top,
and it's made out of human skull
Come on take a little walk with me child,
tell me who do you love?
"Who Do You Love" written by Bo Diddley, recorded by George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyers on their "Move It on Over" album. This version recorded live in Germany.
John came from the wilderness of Judea, which meant to everyone who knew the formal politics of the region that he was nobody. There is another thing that Matthew’s gospel tells us that shows that John is a great big nobody, his clothes.
So consider then as John comes wandering out of the wilderness and into a group of people. Some of them are the well heeled folks from the seats of power; others are rural folk trying to scratch out a living in the hinterlands. He doesn’t look much like either group. He is wearing camel hair clothes with a leather belt. In a fashion forward way, it sounds like he’s a sharp dressed man. In truth, the clothes he was wearing would look to us like a rough camel skin poncho tied with a leather thong. There is no mention of sandals and certainly no mention of boxers or briefs. He doesn’t have the big bucks haircut and a comb would probably surrender the moment it saw his head.
It seems he would be familiar with a man with a cobra snake for a necktie.
He’s wild, he’s unruly, he looks dangerous, and he’s attracting crowds, crowds who have come to confess their sins and be baptized by him in the Jordan. The contrast between John from the wilderness and all of the people who came from Jerusalem and Judea to see him was deep, deep indeed, but there is one more thing that we must remember. The well heeled people came out to the wilderness to go see John.
Style never goes out of style, and when a trend is to be followed; leave it to the trend setters to spot the good ones and latch on like a leech.
If the best defense is a good offense, John was the most offensive of all. He knows why they’re coming. He knows that they want to see the show and become a part of the show. The Pharisees and Sadducees figure that they’ll be able to tell their good friends and not-so-friendly rivals that “they were there” and “they saw it all” when John the Baptist was getting started.
John of course isn’t having it. “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee the coming wrath?” He not only doubts their intentions, he invokes an animal which is associated with the fall of humanity from grace into sin and for good measure isn’t kosher. He not only calls them insincere and insignificant, he calls them unclean. I say that the well crafted insult with a well placed word says much more with far less, and John demonstrates this today.
Then he even derails their first line of defense, who they are with the authority they receive from the synagogues and the temple. John cries out “Don’t say to yourselves, ‘Abraham is our father,’” You know they want to answer back “How dare he! Doesn’t he know who we are?” John warns them not to go there, not to invoke their status as the sons of Abraham because God can raise children from nothing. Their lofty status and their expensive suits and fine shoes mean nothing to John the Baptist. John may be the original king of “what have you done for me lately?” Yes, the leaders of the temple and the synagogues have been important to the nation, but what have you done for me lately?
John’s take, you are nothing, nothing to the kingdom of God.
Then, at this point in John’s wilderness sermon, I imagine he drops his voice to a different level as he tells the world what’s coming next. He hints that there is a change on the way. He hints that someone who will do the work of redeeming creation is coming. He is coming with the Holy Spirit and fire. The name is unknown, the person is unknown to John at this moment, but we know who he is hinting at, he’s hinting at Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus who is the Christ.
He hints that while the baptism he celebrates is a ritual bath cleaning us for repentance for sins. The baptism that is coming will serve as a refiner’s fire. The baptism of the one who comes will separate us from our impurities like the flames eliminate the chaff from the wheat leaving only the kernel of truth behind. He tells us that the fire is unquenchable, but the wind that blows, the Holy Spirit of God, we know that this wind will never quit blowing either.
George and John both ask all who are tuned in "who do you love." Only John says who loves us too.
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