Home by Another Way
Based on our Gospel text for this coming weekend (read Matthew 2:1-12), singer-songwriter James Taylor offers this somewhat playful sketch in his classic song: “Home by Another Way.” Listen in…
“Those magic men the Magi; some people call them wise.
Or Oriental, even kings; Well anyway, those guys.
They visited with Jesus; They sure enjoyed their stay.
Then warned in a dream of King Herod’s scheme
They went home by another way.” (fr. Never Die Young; Cut #8)
Indeed, the “Story of the Magi” ranks right up there with other amazing biblical stories–such as “David and Goliath” or “Jesus Calming the Storm on Lake Galilee”–in terms of capturing the human spirit or imagination. Poets as diverse as Wm. Butler Yeats and Garrison Keillor have sought to wrap words around the visit of the Wise Men who followed the yonder star to a strawy manger in Bethlehem, cradling the promised Messiah, the newborn King: Jesus the Christ. The American poet Henri Wadsworth Longfellow even gave them names: Melchoir, Gaspar, and Balthasar. Hundreds of painters as well have sought to capture the scene: including Botticelli and Rembrandt. So much has been made of this story of which we know so little.
A Study for the Adoration of the Magi (ca. 1481)
Image courtesy of LeonardoDavinci.net
And yet…and yet, I think a very telling commentary can be found in another “sketch.” Not that of James Taylor or Yeats or Botticelli, but rather one that is faintly drawn by Leonardo Da Vinci, entitled “A Study for the Adoration of the Magi.” As you’ll see here, its backdrop is that of a ravaged world–with ruined buildings, fighting horsemen, and war. Like the star at its center, that seems to have crashed to earth, the picture’s meaning is clear and manifest: the world into which Jesus, the Messiah, has come is one of great chaos and decay. It’s found dead-to-rights by sin and death. It (that’s us) needs a Savior.
Come and join the family and friends of First Lutheran Church this weekend, as we follow the star with the Wise Men, to see and hear the One for whom its light comes…from heaven to earth…to rest upon. Yes, come and worship, stretching out your hands at his manger, and hear anew (in this new year) his life-giving, sin-forgiving, hope-renewing word: “This is my body, given for you.”
May the swaddling cloths of our Savior’s love–Jesus the Christ–enfold you once more with “comfort and joy.” In this New Year, and always…
j.r. christopherson
Senior Pastor
Shame, Enemies, and Rejoicing
Advent is truly a time of preparation, expectation, and longing. Advent carries a somber tone and soon-but-not-yet feeling, yet these descriptors give us the idea that there is no joy presently and we are just waiting for the real event to begin. That, I suppose, is why Advent is for most people just a placeholder for Christmas. It is the starvation diet you endure in order to pig out at the party. No wonder there is such a strong pull to call Advent the “Holiday Season”—because everyone is always looking for more joy!
Fear not, and rejoice! The Prophet Zephaniah (3:14-20) has come to rescue you from the dark, dreary, and joyless Advent. Sing loudly with exaltation and gladness. Shout with all your heart about the great and powerful God who has claimed you, for God is doing the same about you. God rejoices over his people and saves them from shame and despair, changing them into praise, renown, and jubilation.
But you say, “But I don’t always feel it.” Of course not. Don’t be fooled so easily. We don’t always have the joy of Christmas or the warmth of summer or the constant care and support of family and friends. When we do, it’s natural to sing and rejoice, but Advent and Zephaniah remind us that we don’t praise God only when we feel and experience good things. We rejoice even in exile and longing.
Sing aloud, shout with joy! For in all times we have a great and mighty God who loves us in Jesus Christ.
~Pastor Lars
Beginnings and Endings
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:8)
This assigned text from the book of Revelation signals the conclusion of the church year: Christ the King Sunday. It bears witness that God in Christ is the Author and Redeemer of all things: the Alpha (the first letter of the Greek alphabet, symbolizing “beginnings”) and the Omega (the last letter of the Greek alphabet, symbolizing “endings”). This is to say, every “tick” and every “tock” of time and history has its source and being in God. And nothing, not even the “dead ends” of death or decay in our lives, are beyond the redeeming reach of God’s restorative power.
One of Martin Luther’s famous sayings is that: “Next to Holy Scripture, music deserves the highest praise” (TR 4441, 7034, 968). And so I’d like to draw upon God’s great gift of music, come this Christ the King Sunday, to serve as an instrument in sounding God’s Word of saving grace for you…moving up and down life’s scale.
I’ll begin the sermon with a true story about an old cowboy named Bill, whom I met back in 1980, while riding on an Am Trak train that took me from St. Paul, MN, to the northwest corner of Montana. Something happened in our conversation that triggered some thoughts, now some 40 years later, that I’d like for you to mull over between now and this weekend at worship.
Here’s the heart of it…The musical scale, on which is built every melody ever hummed or sung or written or played, is a simple mathematical structure of 8 steps (sing them with me): DO-RE-MI-FA-SOL-LA-TI-DO. The first and the eighth step sound the same don’t they? DO-DO. The beginning and the end are alike. Right? We can hear that likeness and continuity between start and finish. And in relation to God the same is true (cf. Revelation 1:8).
The Bible itself reflects this reassuring message at its start and at its finish. Think about it…From the very first page to the last, God is at work in a way that’s wonderfully consistent: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). This is the first verse of the Bible. Near the finish, almost at the end of the book of Revelation, St. John the seer says: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more…for the home of God is among us…mourning and crying and [death] will be no more, for the first things have passed away” (Revelation 21:1-4).
In the same way, the Bible speaks of Jesus as the “pioneer and perfecter” of our faith; the King James Version says “author and finisher” (Hebrews 12:2), the first and the last – the One who begins and the One who completes our trek, our pilgrimage that comes from and returns to God (Psalm 121). And so, in the beginning: “the heavens and the earth.” And in the end: “a new heaven and a new earth.” DO-DO. Let this sound a wonderful homing, tonic chord for your soul this day – in this Season of Thanksgiving – joining into one grand scale, from heaven to earth come down, all the Re-s, the Mi-s, and the Fa Sol La Ti-s!
I greatly look forward to sharing the STORY with you this coming, Christ the King Sunday.
j. r. christopherson
Senior Pastor