When I moved to my first job, my first call on the West coast in Eugene, Oregon, I knew that we weren’t far from the Pacific Ocean. On the first day that I had off work, my wife, new little baby and I were going to go west and over to the coast and Pacific Ocean to see it for the first time. We hopped into our little l963 white Volkswagen bug and we headed over to the town of Florence on the coast.

When we got to Florence, we couldn’t see the Pacific Ocean. I was a little disappointed. So I took a right on Highway 101 and drove north for several miles but I still couldn’t see the Pacific Ocean. I can remember this moment as if it were yesterday. Then Highway 101 took a left and went West towards the ocean. The highway climbed higher and higher and higher and there at the top of this enormous hill, the road turned right and standing in front of us, we saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time. It was on a clear, sunny, blue sky day. It was just awesome. In a moment, my heart was captured by the beauty I saw. We jumped out of the car. I took my camera out, looked south and saw the magnificent stretch of ocean beach lined with white ocean waves crashing into the sands. I took that picture, with my wife and first child all wrapped up in her quilt, and we still have that picture to this day. That picture is a favorite.

Do you know what we did that night? I did what anybody from Minnesota would do. I called my mother and father that night and said, “Mom and Dad. You’ve got to come and see. You’ve got to come and see the Pacific Ocean. North of Florence. It is beautiful like you have never seen before. It is awesome. It is incredible. Pictures don’t do it justice. Postcards don’t capture it. What I tell you over the telephone won’t do it. You gotta come and see it for yourself.”

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For some people, baptism is “just joining the Jesus club.”  Everyone knows what it means to join a club such as Brownies or Boy Scouts,  the Chamber or Kiwanis, the Elks or Elephants. We have all joined clubs and every club has its rules and regulations. Baptism is joining the ‘Jesus club” and we now have to follow the “Jesus rules” as suggested by this particular congregation.

For others, baptism is like “hell insurance.” I’ll never forget Grandma Prudence insisting that her grand daughter was baptized because the family was going on a trip. Grandma didn’t want to have that baby be in a car accident, get killed and go to hell. Baptism is like hell insurance. I remember that day, we made a mistake and didn’t have the baptismal certificate completed. Grandma Prudence insisted that we do so on Monday morning, so they would have a “hell insurance card” before the car trip to Montana to guarantee the baby was baptized.

For others, infant baptism is so unimportant that they refuse to baptize infants. Such interdenominational churches and Baptist churches want to wait until a child is older to be baptized. They want to let the child grow up until they are old enough to “make a decision for themselves.”

I am also aware that members of our congregation grow up, get married, have children, and are part of a good congregation but they refuses to baptize infants. So the young family returns home to Grace to have their baby baptized.

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Theme:  giving all your gifts to God.

Every January we approach the story of the three Wise men, bringing gifts for Jesus. What gifts do we have to bring the Christ child?

What are the gifts that God has given to you?  They are your talents, abilities, aptitudes, events that have happened to you.  These have shaped you, your family, your health, your everything.  Your gifts are the sum total of all the resources that God has given to you.  Your gifts are not just genetic abilities and natural aptitudes, although these are part of your gifts.  Many of your most precious gifts are qualities and resources that have been developed in you over time. 

God has given everyone in this room an abundance of gifts.  Here in my hand, I have a bare stem from a grapevine; it has three grapes on it.  You know when you see this stem that it is an anomaly.  You know something is wrong with it;  that someone has taken the grapes off of it.  But here in my other hand, is a large cluster of grapes and there must be a hundred, more than hundred grapes on this stem. You know that this is the way that God makes grapes, in large abundant clusters.  That is the same way that God makes all human beings, with large clusters of talents, abilities, aptitudes, and resources.  God is enormously generous with each one of us.

For more of this theme, see picture and sermon by Rev. Ed Markquart, Pentecost 26 A.

Theme:  Christ has identified himself with the poor and needy and we will be judged on how we respond to his need.

The people of the nations will be gathered before him, and he will divide the people into two groups, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  He will put one group on his right and the other on his left.

Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; Come and receive the kingdom which has been prepared for you ever since the creation of the world. For I was hungry, because sometimes I just couldn’t make ends meet. My single parents benefit was never a great income but I usually managed, but sometimes it just wouldn’t stretch any further. One week I had to buy school shoes for my daughter and you know what the price of kids clothes is like, and then the very next day the fridge broke down, and you can’t really do without a fridge for long so I had to get the repair man out. By the time I’d paid him, the rent, and for the shoes, my whole cheque was gone and I had nothing left for food. Well you can’t starve your kid and there was enough in the house to keep giving her some sort of school lunch, but I hadn’t really eaten myself for a few days when you found out what was happening. But you gave me food. You gave me some packets and tins from your own pantry and some zuchinis from your mother-in-law’s garden, and you had us over to dinner at your place twice in one week. But you didn’t make me feel patronized or pitied, you treated me as a friend, as though you reckoned I’d do the same for you, and as though you really enjoyed my company. And you proved that that was true because the next week when I had some money again and I didn’t need help, you asked me over to lunch while the kids were at school and you sat and listened to my story. And you shared your story with me. You became a personal friend instead of just another do-gooder.

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Why did the angels sings Gloria?  Why did the shepherds sing the Gloria?  Why do we sing the Gloria?

The setting was this: the angels had come to the shepherds. There were shepherds out in the fields, watching their flocks by night, and an angel of the Lord came to them, and the glory of the Lord was all around them, and the shepherds were very much afraid. The angel said to them: Fear not, for I bring you good news of great joy which shall be for all people, for unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This shall be a sign for you, you will find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Suddenly, there was with that angel, a multitude of heavenly hosts, hundreds of thousands of angels together, singing, with a female sound (women in choir, no organ, no pause): Glooooooooooooooia, in excelsis deo. (The surprise singing in this sermon is fun, and everyone enjoys the planned-in-advance surprise.)

Now, why? Why were those angels singing the Gloria? Why? Because they had been told that the Christ child was for them, and understanding that the Christ child was for them personally, they began to sing the Gloria.

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Theme: You are chosen so do not be afraid of the future.

In the Bible, we first meet Mary when she was a young girl of about thirteen. For us, that means we picture a budding young girl, perhaps in seventh or even eighth grade in school. In sixth grade they are young girls; in eighth grade they have become young women. In other words, Mary was just starting to become a young woman.  She was just beginning to go through that change within her whereby she would be able to give birth to a child. This was a very exciting time for her. Women would come to Mary and say, “Mary, we hear that you have become a young woman.  When are you going to get engaged, Mary?” Or  “When is your father, Joachim, going to make arrangements for you?” Her older siblings and aunts would tease and taunt her because she had matured to that very delicate time in life when she had become a young woman and was eligible for engagement.

Mary’s father arranged for his daughter to be engaged to a young carpenter by the name of Joseph. Their engagement lasted for one year. During this year that Mary and Joseph were engaged or betrothed, they prepared for their wedding, just as a young couple would prepare for their wedding and marriage.

How did Mary prepare for her wedding and marriage? By sewing. Mary sewed the dishcloths, washcloths and towels. She sewed all her clothes for the wedding and marriage. She was focused on preparing for that day.

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Theme:  Everyone needs someone who will speak the truth, be the “voice of God.”

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.  John repeatedly emphasizes that Jesus was “sent from God.” We will hear that the word, “apostles,” means to be “sent” and Christians are to be “sent from God into the world.” Here in this moment, we hear that John the Baptist was sent from God. To be “sent from God” is a sign of authenticity and spiritual authority.

-He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.  John the Baptist was a witness to testify to the light of God which lives in Christ. Christ is the light of the world who brings life.

Note the word, “believe.” As we move into the Gospel of John, we will hear that what John wants is to believe in Jesus Christ more than anything else.

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Theme:  Finding God in the wilderness or the city?

From the back of the church, you hear the sound of a ram horn and there is silence….  total silence.    

Today is the day of John the Baptist. Today is an invitation is given to you and me to prepare for the coming of Christ.  To prepare by going into the desert to be cleaned. One’s heart. One’s imagination. One’s thoughts. It is only when one is cleaned in the desert that the Christ comes to live within.

The city. How we love the city and how we are afraid of the desert. The city is a sumptuous buffet of turkey, fish and beef, with sugar coated corn flakes and sugar coated apples and sugar coated coffees with plastic covered dinners and plastic covered boxes and plastic covered bags. The city dwellers eat sumptuously every morning, noon and night.  How the city dwellers love the food of their fair cities. It’s taste; it’s variety; it’s convenience; it’s volume.

A voice cried out, “In the desert, prepare. In the desert, be cleaned.”  And then I heard a whisper, a voice speaking ever so softly: “He ate only locusts and wild honey. He ate so simply.”  Then another voice suddenly shouted out; “Is God really a loaf of bread or the Bread of Life?”

The city is magnificent cathedrals and skyscrapers, buildings of stone and steel, growing taller and taller and taller like the towers of Babel, pointing their fingers high into the sky.  Buildings of tinted gray glass and shining bright aluminum, rectangular, cylindrical, triangular, epitomized by the classic modern building, the Stadium. People love to walk beneath the grandeur of their great concrete cathedrals and see the skyline of the city of man. 

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Theme:  A state of readiness to meet God face to face.

It was January 27, 1986. We were getting ready. The whole nation was getting ready. It was going to be a great day.  All eyes were watching the television sets. It was going to be the “all time greatest” space launching. We had a schoolteacher; a woman; an astronaut.  It was one of the most exciting days in American history.  We were glued to the television set because we knew it was going to be a historic moment. We loved the stories of the people who were going to go out and orbit the earth that day, especially that young woman astronaut, the school teacher. We waited and waited, and suddenly there was an ignition of all that power and the rocket shot high into the air, high, and higher into the air.  And suddenly, the rocket exploded, and our dreams exploded; and our hopes exploded.  Suddenly, there came a river of tears from our eyes. Jesus said, “And so shall it be at the end of history.  It will come suddenly (snap of thumb and forefinger or a sharp clap of the hands) like a thief in the night; like a snare; like a trap that snaps (clap) shut. So quickly. (A sharp sound improves this sermon; like a snap of the two fingers or a clap of two hands, sounding like a trap suddenly snapping shut. I used the sound of a clap because the noise was louder and sharper.)

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Where is God revealed?  Where does God hide…  the joy of children, nature, the cross of Christ?

One of the first lessons that grows out of this parable is the awareness that our God, the true God, the one God who created the universe, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God who raised Jesus of Nazareth from the dead; that our true God is a hidden God. 

Our God hides most completely in the faces and places of suffering. The awareness that our God is a hidden God who hides in suffering is a stark contrast to other religions of the world. In all the other religions of the world, they talk about their god who reveals himself in the beauty of the sunset, the birth of babies, and in the bounty of nature. But our God is the only God in the whole wide world who hides under the faces and places of suffering. Let me explain.

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Theme:  God has given everyone a cluster of gifts and talents.  God’s gifts are always generous regardless of the size.

Here in my hand, I have a bare stem from a grapevine; it has three grapes on it.  You know when you see this stem that it is an anomaly.  You know something is wrong with it; that someone has taken the grapes off of it.  But here in my other hand, is a large cluster of grapes and there must be a hundred.  You know that this is the way that God makes grapes, in large abundant clusters. 

That is the same way that God makes all human beings. All human beings are made with large clusters of talents, clusters of abilities, clusters of aptitudes, and clusters of resources.  God is enormously generous with each one of us.

Your gifts are the sum total of all the resources that God has given to you. 

Your gifts or talents are not just your genetic abilities and natural aptitudes, although these are part of your gifts.  Many of your most precious gifts are qualities and resources that have been developed in you over time.  That is the way it always is. Talents, resources and abilities are developed over time. There is no exception to that.

We know that God wants us to use these gifts. God wants us to use our God-given gifts, however varied and numerous those gifts are.

What are the talents that God has given to you?  What are the talents that God has poured into you? 

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Jesus liked to tell stories or parables from real life. Jesus never quoted the religious philosophers of the day nor the leading rabbis from the temple in Jerusalem.  Jesus chose the stuff from everyday life. composed his memorable stories.

Weddings were part of every day life. Weddings were familiar territory. Everybody loved weddings and everybody knew how weddings worked.

In every single one of his parables, they were an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. And you the audience had to figure out the meaning of that story and figure out how it applied to your life.

Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Jews went to weddings often. Weddings were common. The lamps were olive oil lamps.

In this story, Jesus = the bridegroom. The followers of Christ can be divided into two camps: five foolish = five foolish followers. Five wise = five faithful followers of Christ. The wedding feast = heaven.

This parable is more like an allegory than a parable that only has one primary point. There is much symbolism in this parable. It functions more like an allegory.

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Theme:   Just as there is fake jewelry, Jesus says there is “make believe”
faith too.

Hypocrite. We all know the word, “hypocrite.” What is a hypocrite? A phony. A two-faced person, pretending to be a friend but is really an enemy in disguise.

A hypocrite is a pretender, pretending to have love for you but does not. A hypocrite says the pretty words of love, makes the motions of love, puts on a good face of love, is totally charming and loving. But that person does not really love you.  Pretending to have strong feelings for you but it is all a farce.

Hypocrites give the illusion, the pretense, the deceit of authenticity, but it is all an illusion.

We all know what fake jewelry is. We know what fool’s gold is. It looks like gold but it is not. It fools you. The fake gold necklace, the fake gold ring, the fake gold earrings…. you look at the price tag and you know it is fake gold. The necklace, ring and ear rings give the appearance of genuine gold but they are not.

We also know about the fake diamond, the fake ruby, the fake pearl. Sometimes you look closely at a diamond or ruby or pearl and say, “Is it real? Is it genuine? Is it the real thing?”

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You will notice that these doors are essentially useless without the two hinges, one on the top and the other on the bottom of the door.  Without the two hinges, this door just doesn’t work; it isn’t very useful; it doesn’t do what it is supposed to do.  For these doors to operate correctly, they need two hinges. One hinge won’t suffice.

If you go home to your house, I ask you to examine every cupboard door throughout your whole house or apartment.  Every cupboard door has at least two hinges; one on the top and one on the bottom.  If you examine every doorway door in your house, you will also notice that all the big doors in your house have at least two hinges.  If your house is not new, all the doors leading outside of your house will also have two hinges.  The codes have changes for newer homes, and three hinges are now found on the outside doors.  The point is; every door in your house or apartment has two hinges.  That’s just the way it is. You need two hinges for doors to work. 

Here in my hands I have two sets of hinges.  One pair is a smaller set of hinges that is used for any normal sized door.  The second pair is absolutely enormous; they are large decorative black hinges.  But large or small, the function is the same:  these are needed to make the door work.  The doors don’t work without these two hinges. 

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“Render to the Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” 

It’s still a long time until April 15th and I don’t mean to remind you of that prematurely but did you know that April 15th is not only income tax day, it is also the day the Titanic sunk and the day Lincoln was shot.  You see, it is just a bad day all the way around.

Another cynic has said, “Death and taxes may always be with us, but at least death doesn’t get worse every time congress meets.”

Arthur Godfrey once said, “I feel honored to pay taxes in America.  The thing is, I could probably feel just as honored for about half the price.”

Most people don’t enjoy paying taxes.  We just do it.  Well, the people had to pay taxes in Jesus’ time, too.  Even worse, they had to pay them to a government they despised.  Rome.  You see, Rome was occupying their land. A portion of their income ended up in Caesar’s pocket and this made the Jews very unhappy.  They were a proud people and resented this Roman domination.  Thus, Jesus’ dilemma when they asked him the loaded question, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”  Would Jesus offend the Jews by siding with the despised Romans or would he risk the wrath of the Romans by siding with Jewish sentiment?

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