A Continuing Challenge to the Church

Sermon Notes: 2nd Epiphany

2nd Epiphany (Year A)
January 20, 2008

There is in a dark secluded room of Hogwart’s School
a large mirror with mystical properties.
One day young 11 year old wizard Harry Potter
stumbles upon it and is transfixed.
You see, in its reflection Harry sees his parents,
killed by the evil Lord Voldemort ten years before, standing with him in the mirror.
Day after day Harry returns
to behold himself in the mirror with his parents. His life seems absorbed by what he gazes upon.

Finally, Professor Dumbledore, the Headmaster, intervenes. He tells Harry that it is called the Mirror of Erised,
and asks if Harry has figured out
what the mirror does.
Harry answers
“it shows us what we want… Whatever we want?”

Dumbledore responds,

Yes, and no. It shows us nothing more or less then the deepest and most desperate desires of our hearts…. Now you Harry, who have never known your family you see them standing beside you…. But remember this, Harry. This mirror gives us neither knowledge or truth….
Men have wasted away in front of it. Even gone mad… It does not do to dwell on dreams, Harry, and forget to live.

Sometimes I wonder if we approach XP as though he were the Mirror of Erised.
• Come seeking our deepest and most desperate desires
• Bring our hopes and dreams to the Lord: love, purpose, prosperity, happiness.
• But it can be a trap: fixation on ourselves and our desires

For some 25 years churches have been seeking to be just that mirror
• Focusing on ‘felt-needs’
• Self improvement as the door to knowing XP
• But results in a self-absorbed people
• [Example of recent Willow Creek study]

But is it so wrong to seek our desires in XP?
Does Jesus care nothing for our needs and wants?

Indeed he does.
A couple of days after his Baptism in the River Jordan Jesus finds himself being followed by two disciples of John the Baptist.
• John has identified Jesus as the bearer of the hope of Israel.
• It is their “deepest and most desperate desires” that compel the two to follow XP.

As 1st C. Jews they long for
• freedom from Roman oppression,
• recovery of the Covenant Community of Israel
• & reconnection with a sense of Θ dwelling among them

Naturally, most people in their society would also anticipate that these desires would be fulfilled in certain ways:
• The Roman yoke broken through violence.
• Recovery of Covenant and reconnection with Θ through a rigorous and legalistic application of the Law

Jesus does respond to their desires and needs,
asking them “What are you looking for?”
& he invites them to discover what they seek
by staying with him.

And stay w/him they do,
following him from the verge of Jordan
to an upper room in Jerusalem
the night before the crucifixion,
and on until the resurrected and ascended XP
fills them with his Spirit.

And through this
Jesusdoes not so much contradict their desires
as refocus and redefine them.
They long for freedom from oppression,
Jesus frees them thru his death and resurrection
from the power of sin and death
that gives oppression its strength.

They seek a renewal of the Covenant Community of Israel.
XP gathers a new people
from every corner of the earth into his Body.

They desire that Θ again dwell among them.
Jesus, the Son of Θ, reveals Θ’s presence
infusing our worship, fellowship, and service.

In XP, as we know him and follow him,
we discover our heart’s desire.
As St. Paul affirmed,
“All the promises of Θ find their ‘yes’ in him.”
The hopes of all the years point to XP, and in him they find their meaning.

But Jesus is not the Mirror of Erised.
XP does not merely reflect back our desires.
He is the window,
through whom we see the true fulfillment of our hopes in Θ’s Kingdom.

[Example: My cousin’s death
• Discovery of community
• Revelation of risen Jesus in our midst]


As Harry Potter sat in front of the Mirror of Erised
his deepest desire was to overcome the power of death by being in communion
with his departed loved ones.
The entire saga hinges on this desire.

Voldemort himself is willing to torture and kill
to obtain power over death.
In fact his followers are called “Death Eaters.”

Some 7 years after his encounter with the Mirror,
Harry comes into possession of a magical stone
which can contact the dead.
The history of the stone is littered with the broken lives
of those who sought its power
and were driven to madness or violence.
By the end, Harry discovers its uses and its limitations. Ultimately it could not fulfill his deepest desire.

The answer to his longing is actually discovered
–rather cryptically-
earlier in the final volume.
It is when Harry visits his parents grave
and reads these words on the headstone:
‘The last enemy that
shall be destroyed is death.”Harry is unfamiliar with the reference, but we shouldn’t be.
It is St. Paul writing about the triumph
of the Crucified and Risen Jesus,
defeating death thru his passion.

Harry’s longing will be fulfilled,
but in a way beyond anything he could ask or imagine.

XP is our epiphany, the light shinging in a dark world.
But he is not only the shining ofrth of Θ’s glory.
He is the revelation of the meaning
of our deepest desires.

Today he asks us
“What are you looking for?”
Let us remain with him,
and in him find both our lives
and our longings transformed by his presence.

Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine: Glory to him from generation to generation in the Church, and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 3:20, 21

Sermon Notes: Baptism of Jesus

Baptism of Jesus (Year A)
January 13, 2008

Regular diversion of reading history
Find compelling stories of individuals
who made a difference in the course of human events
• [Parting the Waters, Taylor Branch, on MLK]
• [His Excellency, Joseph Ellis, on Geo. Washington]

When I read stories like these my imagination is fired,
& I long to make a difference in history myself.

But the feeling quickly fades:
It is enough just to get through life,
making a living,
getting the kids through school.
It is difficult enough to balance our budget,
how could I possibly change the course of history?

I remember the prayer of the Breton fishermen:
“O God, my boat is so small
& the sea is so big.”
Now as a congregation
we can experience a similar range of responses
when we hear the biblical proclamation
of the role in history of Θ’s people:
We are to be the light to the world.


In us the kingdom work of the Lord is to be manifest.
In us
• Peace is known as we reconcile people to Θ and each other.
• Mercy is received as we go forth and practice. forgiveness in a world riven with injury and anger.
• Love is shared with others as XP loved us.
• The healing and hope of the Kingdom is lived out.

We are called to greatness
& our imaginations are fired.
But our zeal quickly fades.
It is difficult enough to maintain the most basic Xn life, how could we possibily change the world for Θ?
“O Θ, our parish is so small
& the world and its needs are so big.”

& yet it seems it is precisely in that place
where we are small and vulnerable
before the challenges before us
that Θ uses us to change the world.
We see this reflected in our reading from Isaiah
in the figure of the Servant of the LORD.

Isaiah sees a world of violence and injustice,
where Θ’s people are oppressed by hostile empires and led astray by the unfaithfulness
within their society.
Thru the Prophet Θ promises the Day of the LORD
that will redeem them, filled with glory and grace.

But how will Θ accomplish this?
Thru the Servant who
• Is small & insignificant by the world’s standards
• Will be despised and rejected
• Yet in his suffering the Day of the LORD will break into the this broken world
• & thus Θ will change history from w/in.

What sets this servant apart
is that the Spirit of the LORD will rest upon him,
& Θ will vest all that he does by the Spirit
with eternal glory and significance.
Great things, history changing things,
will be accomplished by one
who seems insignificant and small,
the one in whom Θ delights.

The baptism of Jesus is the story of the appearance of the Servant of the LORD.
The promise of Isaiah is fulfilled.
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.’


By some standards Jesus’ life was unremarkable:
• He conquered no empires
• He lived in a remote backwater of the Roman Empire
• & died a lonely death.

& yet everything he did
• healing the sick
• forgiving and reconciling the sinner
• proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom to the poor
was done in the power of the Spirit.
Everything he did,
no matter how small and insignificant it might seem delighted Θ.
& in the resurrection Θ made such small beginnings
into acts of eternal greatness.

Through our baptisms we too participate in Jesus' history changing ministry.
• We are joined w/XP
• We are filled w/the Spirit
• In us now Θ delights
Together we become the presence of the Servant of the LORD.

Therefore
everything we do by the Spirit’s power in Jesus' name
– no matter how small and insignificant it may seem – makes an eternal difference in the history of the world.

[Example: New Monasticism & Hospitality]

If our hearts are enflamed
to make a lasting impact on history
let us strive to live out our Baptismal Covenant,
& even the seemingly small things
will become the stuff from which eternity is fashioned:
• Feeding the homless
• Building classrooms in Mexico
• Raising funds for a tilapia pond in Haiti
• Visiting the sick and lonely
• Sharing XP w/others

Today we baptize Allison and Cameron.
& because they are so small thru them Θ renews in us the truth that Θ does big things with little people.
Today the LORD says to them, and to us,
Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights.