Rev. Dustin ParkerWinter in SoCal versus..real winter
Concordia Lutheran Church
January 22, 2011
React to the Light
Matthew 4:12-25
In Jesus Name
May you truly grasp how God is at work in the word of the Cross, for it is the power of God by which you are being saved!
Have We forgotten the cold and darkness
The weather this week has reminded me of my first winter in California, 29 years ago. Then, straight from the mountains of New Hampshire, I would walk through the center of Villa Park high school amazed. Here it was – beautiful sunny days, with temperatures in the fifties, and my friends were wearing snow jackets, and hats, and gloves!
Of course, they probably thought I was nuts, wearing just a polo shirt and shorts, sunglasses and sneakers, as they huddled in masses to conserve warmth!
It’s as my cousin Randy whined this week, as he posted a question. He was visiting his in-laws in one of those M states. You know – where their teeth wrattle as they say the name of their state. M-m-m-minne ne ne sota, Mi Mi Mi Mi chigan. Mm mm mmm Mon ttt a nnnna. Randy wanted to know why they kept asking him to move there, when there was a 80 degree temperature difference between his home in Florida – and theirs in M m m m m m …. the place where it is to cold to use the term “brrrrr”. Where sunlight in the winter lasts perhaps 6 hours in the winter, as it did in New Hampshire where I grew up.
I have to admit, I probably couldn’t survive back in New Hampshire, where they had another storm drop 28 inches of snow this week. Though I still laugh a little at the twenty-ish year old gal wearing mittens and a snow-jacket yesterday, as us non-natives where wearing short sleeves and sandles, enjoying the sun’s warmth and the great cool morning weather!
We sometimes forget how much we have acclimated to our surroundings, and to our presuppositions. It’s winter – even here in California. It gets dark earlier, it is colder than August, and so we toss on jackets and those boots… the ughs… and pretend to be jealous of people with snow.
I think there is something like that which happens to us as believers. Somehow, we forget what it is like in the darkness we were delivered from in our baptism. Somehow, we forget what it is like, to be in doubt of God’s love, or to not even know He exists. Sometimes we come close, when we forget what He has done, what He is doing… only to be called back into the light and warmth of Christ’s incredible love.
The Darkness of Galilee
Sitting Paralyzed
Driven towards death
Society today
In Isaiah’s prophecy, the depth of spiritual darkness, of spiritual cold and death was pictured to be the area of Galilee, and the prophecies tell that Jesus will invade and shatter the darkness at its harshest point.
In Isaiah’s time, and even more in Jesus day, the area in northern Israel was as dark as mankind could descend. Immorality was not just the order of the day for the government, and for many people. The descendants of those led into the holy land no longer worshipped in the place, or even the manner God had set apart. No longer would they let Him gather them to His sanctuary, no longer did they worry about sin, never mind desiring to be free from it. Their religion said if they were just good enough, their golden calf gods would bless them. When that didn’t happen, they tried harder, and still failed, and fell into darker despair.
They became a culture driven by their hopelessness towards death, even if they justified it by partaking in pleasure, knowing the cost for such would be life. The life of their nation, the lives of others, their own lives, the lives of their children, but they didn’t care. They needed an escape from the emptiness, from the isolation, they needed to come in from the cold. Those who claimed to worship the gods of Israel, confused the living God who loved them, with those gods that were man-made and shiny, and promised abundant blessings, but not love, not peace, not a life walked with God.
While society today may not have seemed to slip that far, without Christ, it is that dark out there in Cerritos. Perhaps we, walking in the light of Christ, don’t realize it, or we assume it is only in New York, and Chicago, and Washington D.C. and in bad places where people are caught in such darkness and despair. There is such darkness here, and even we can see it, as the pressures of life, can distract us, as it sends a chill down our back, as the clouds try to blot out the power of the sun.
It is those times, that we need to grasp, as Paul told the Corinthians, the power God, as He reveals to us Christ-Crucified, for us.
Christ’s invasion
God’s compassion
The call and gifting of a repentance
Not Just Turning Around
Since I cannot darken this sanctuary completely, I would ask you, for 30 seconds, to be as still as possible, with your eyes closed, that no light would enter in, and as minimal sound as possible would be heard. Ready?
(wait)
Jesus.. (soft whisper)
Some of you, within five seconds, started to show a little anxiety. Imagine instead of twenty seconds, yeah – I didn’t go 30 – some of you couldn’t take it. Instead of 20 seconds, we went 20 minutes, or 20 hours? Or forty years in such darkness, and in total silence. Spiritually, it is even more dramatic, to hear the name of Christ, to realize that He invaded the darkness, with one purpose.
To deliver us from the power of darkness, from the deliberating sense of powerlessness that sin, and the fear of death brings upon us. To rescue us from hopeless and guilt and shame, which could have resulted in our driving or drinking or doing drugs or working ourselves to death or any of 1000 other ways people choose to try and find meaning and life in the darkness. Freud was pretty much right on, when he described life, except that he didn’t know the darkness was invaded by the Son of God. That in what many claim would be his darkest hours, in the garden, as He was nailed and hung on the cross, the darkness of this world was shattered and no longer binds us.
That rescue, and the change in our lives, is what truly defines repentance. I have heard it said, but never by a theologian, that repentance is a turning in the opposite direction – you are heading this way, and you do a u-turn and head in the other direction. But the concept is deeper than that – it literally is two words combined – the first being change, and the second mind – a spiritual mind transplant, a mind based in the very concept that Jesus reigns, that He has come and saved us from the power of darkness,
It is why Paul will encourage to have the mind of Christ, which we will talk about in Sunday School, and Peter encourages us to deal with trials as this same mind. It is why Luke tells us in the book of Acts that God granted the early believers, and the Gentiles the repentance,
It is what happens, as we and our sin are united with Christ’s death, that we can be united with His resurrection. It, as in calling us to life from death in sin, and the forgiveness of sin, is what God does in us.
On
Example of Repentance – Come with me!
The Sets of Brothers
The Crowd – they need so much more..
And we see it in the reaction to the Son’s light, as the apostles just drop everything, and take Jesus up on His invitation to follow! First Peter and Andrew, recognize Christ’s reign and in faith leave their catching fish behind, to catch men and women with the gospel. Then John and James, and I still wonder what their Father is saying, as they leave him net-less, and perhaps thinking what has gotten into my sons’ minds! Or did they simply lose theirs!
Having been granted repentance by God, having realized He reigns. The crowds will realize this too, as they too begin to follow Jesus, early in His ministry, His serving them. There is no one else in who to hope, not the corrupt political process, not the empty promises of the leaders of the man-centered religions of that time, or this.
It’s Jesus. He reigns. He leads them from the empty darkness and they follow…they repent… even as He granted us repentance, and faith, and called us to fish for the men, woman, and children still caught in the darkness.
For our world, our community, our neighbors and friends and family need to grasp what happened to us as He sprinkled us with water, and replaced our hearts and minds, and breathed into us His Holy Spirit,
Causing us to react to the light and warmth and love of Christ.
Where we bask in in peace, His peace, our hearts and minds guarded in and by Christ, as we do a little fishing..
AMEN?
January 22, 2011
React to the Light
Matthew 4:12-25
In Jesus Name
May you truly grasp how God is at work in the word of the Cross, for it is the power of God by which you are being saved!
Have We forgotten the cold and darkness
The weather this week has reminded me of my first winter in California, 29 years ago. Then, straight from the mountains of New Hampshire, I would walk through the center of Villa Park high school amazed. Here it was – beautiful sunny days, with temperatures in the fifties, and my friends were wearing snow jackets, and hats, and gloves!
Of course, they probably thought I was nuts, wearing just a polo shirt and shorts, sunglasses and sneakers, as they huddled in masses to conserve warmth!
It’s as my cousin Randy whined this week, as he posted a question. He was visiting his in-laws in one of those M states. You know – where their teeth wrattle as they say the name of their state. M-m-m-minne ne ne sota, Mi Mi Mi Mi chigan. Mm mm mmm Mon ttt a nnnna. Randy wanted to know why they kept asking him to move there, when there was a 80 degree temperature difference between his home in Florida – and theirs in M m m m m m …. the place where it is to cold to use the term “brrrrr”. Where sunlight in the winter lasts perhaps 6 hours in the winter, as it did in New Hampshire where I grew up.
I have to admit, I probably couldn’t survive back in New Hampshire, where they had another storm drop 28 inches of snow this week. Though I still laugh a little at the twenty-ish year old gal wearing mittens and a snow-jacket yesterday, as us non-natives where wearing short sleeves and sandles, enjoying the sun’s warmth and the great cool morning weather!
We sometimes forget how much we have acclimated to our surroundings, and to our presuppositions. It’s winter – even here in California. It gets dark earlier, it is colder than August, and so we toss on jackets and those boots… the ughs… and pretend to be jealous of people with snow.
I think there is something like that which happens to us as believers. Somehow, we forget what it is like in the darkness we were delivered from in our baptism. Somehow, we forget what it is like, to be in doubt of God’s love, or to not even know He exists. Sometimes we come close, when we forget what He has done, what He is doing… only to be called back into the light and warmth of Christ’s incredible love.
The Darkness of Galilee
Sitting Paralyzed
Driven towards death
Society today
In Isaiah’s prophecy, the depth of spiritual darkness, of spiritual cold and death was pictured to be the area of Galilee, and the prophecies tell that Jesus will invade and shatter the darkness at its harshest point.
In Isaiah’s time, and even more in Jesus day, the area in northern Israel was as dark as mankind could descend. Immorality was not just the order of the day for the government, and for many people. The descendants of those led into the holy land no longer worshipped in the place, or even the manner God had set apart. No longer would they let Him gather them to His sanctuary, no longer did they worry about sin, never mind desiring to be free from it. Their religion said if they were just good enough, their golden calf gods would bless them. When that didn’t happen, they tried harder, and still failed, and fell into darker despair.
They became a culture driven by their hopelessness towards death, even if they justified it by partaking in pleasure, knowing the cost for such would be life. The life of their nation, the lives of others, their own lives, the lives of their children, but they didn’t care. They needed an escape from the emptiness, from the isolation, they needed to come in from the cold. Those who claimed to worship the gods of Israel, confused the living God who loved them, with those gods that were man-made and shiny, and promised abundant blessings, but not love, not peace, not a life walked with God.
While society today may not have seemed to slip that far, without Christ, it is that dark out there in Cerritos. Perhaps we, walking in the light of Christ, don’t realize it, or we assume it is only in New York, and Chicago, and Washington D.C. and in bad places where people are caught in such darkness and despair. There is such darkness here, and even we can see it, as the pressures of life, can distract us, as it sends a chill down our back, as the clouds try to blot out the power of the sun.
It is those times, that we need to grasp, as Paul told the Corinthians, the power God, as He reveals to us Christ-Crucified, for us.
Christ’s invasion
God’s compassion
The call and gifting of a repentance
Not Just Turning Around
Since I cannot darken this sanctuary completely, I would ask you, for 30 seconds, to be as still as possible, with your eyes closed, that no light would enter in, and as minimal sound as possible would be heard. Ready?
(wait)
Jesus.. (soft whisper)
Some of you, within five seconds, started to show a little anxiety. Imagine instead of twenty seconds, yeah – I didn’t go 30 – some of you couldn’t take it. Instead of 20 seconds, we went 20 minutes, or 20 hours? Or forty years in such darkness, and in total silence. Spiritually, it is even more dramatic, to hear the name of Christ, to realize that He invaded the darkness, with one purpose.
To deliver us from the power of darkness, from the deliberating sense of powerlessness that sin, and the fear of death brings upon us. To rescue us from hopeless and guilt and shame, which could have resulted in our driving or drinking or doing drugs or working ourselves to death or any of 1000 other ways people choose to try and find meaning and life in the darkness. Freud was pretty much right on, when he described life, except that he didn’t know the darkness was invaded by the Son of God. That in what many claim would be his darkest hours, in the garden, as He was nailed and hung on the cross, the darkness of this world was shattered and no longer binds us.
That rescue, and the change in our lives, is what truly defines repentance. I have heard it said, but never by a theologian, that repentance is a turning in the opposite direction – you are heading this way, and you do a u-turn and head in the other direction. But the concept is deeper than that – it literally is two words combined – the first being change, and the second mind – a spiritual mind transplant, a mind based in the very concept that Jesus reigns, that He has come and saved us from the power of darkness,
It is why Paul will encourage to have the mind of Christ, which we will talk about in Sunday School, and Peter encourages us to deal with trials as this same mind. It is why Luke tells us in the book of Acts that God granted the early believers, and the Gentiles the repentance,
It is what happens, as we and our sin are united with Christ’s death, that we can be united with His resurrection. It, as in calling us to life from death in sin, and the forgiveness of sin, is what God does in us.
On
Example of Repentance – Come with me!
The Sets of Brothers
The Crowd – they need so much more..
And we see it in the reaction to the Son’s light, as the apostles just drop everything, and take Jesus up on His invitation to follow! First Peter and Andrew, recognize Christ’s reign and in faith leave their catching fish behind, to catch men and women with the gospel. Then John and James, and I still wonder what their Father is saying, as they leave him net-less, and perhaps thinking what has gotten into my sons’ minds! Or did they simply lose theirs!
Having been granted repentance by God, having realized He reigns. The crowds will realize this too, as they too begin to follow Jesus, early in His ministry, His serving them. There is no one else in who to hope, not the corrupt political process, not the empty promises of the leaders of the man-centered religions of that time, or this.
It’s Jesus. He reigns. He leads them from the empty darkness and they follow…they repent… even as He granted us repentance, and faith, and called us to fish for the men, woman, and children still caught in the darkness.
For our world, our community, our neighbors and friends and family need to grasp what happened to us as He sprinkled us with water, and replaced our hearts and minds, and breathed into us His Holy Spirit,
Causing us to react to the light and warmth and love of Christ.
Where we bask in in peace, His peace, our hearts and minds guarded in and by Christ, as we do a little fishing..
AMEN?
