There’s a lot going on in today’s Gospel reading.
It’s like there’s a number of different stories:
A number of major themes in only a dozen verses.

First, John the Baptist sees Jesus coming toward him and proclaims:
“here is the Lamb of God.”

Second, John the Baptist reminds us that he baptized Jesus:
And the Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove.

Third: John proclaims that Jesus is the very Son of God.

Fourth: Two of John’s disciples call Jesus rabbi: or “teacher.”
And Jesus invites them deeper into the mystery with the simple phrase:
“Come and See”

Finally, Andrew and Peter decide to follow Jesus, and proclaim:
“We have found the Messiah.”

There are a lot of important theological points in this short reading.
“Here is the Lamb of God.”
“This is the Son of God.”

And “We have found the Messiah.”
Each one could be the subject of its own sermon.

There’s so much going on,
That we might want to ask more questions than the one question that the
disciples asked in today’s reading: “Where are you staying?”

We might also want to ask, What does all of this mean?
These big theological points?
We might ask Jesus: “What exactly are you up to?”
“What’s your purpose?”
And maybe even, “What do you want of us?”

To all of these questions,
And to many others,
Jesus gives us the same answer that he gave those two disciples:
“Come and See.”

Within the answer to this question, is an invitation.
An invitation to a new life:
An invitation to new relationship: With Him.
With Jesus: The Lamb of God, the rabbi and teacher, the Son of God, the Messiah.

What exactly is this Lamb of God? Come and see.
Who is the true Messiah? Come and see.

Why should we follow you, Jesus? Come and see.
What do you want us to do? Come and See.

It sounds simple enough.
But is it really?

How often, in today’s world,
Are we willing to accept an invitation to just, “Come and see?”

People today like to have all the details.
To know the schedule.
To know the risks.
And know the rewards.

We rarely accept an invitation to just “come and see.”

We carefully explore all our options:
We search for information and compile lists of pros and cons.

And of course:
It IS important to make informed decisions.
Informed decisions help us to avoid repeating some of life’s biggest mistakes.

But sometimes, we’re invited to just “come and see.”

With no explanation:
No schedule.

And when it comes to Jesus:
This is a risk worth taking.
But do we accept the invitation?

Are we ready for what we might see?
Because if we’re honest:
When we come and see:
We’re moved to do more.
To see again:
To do more work.

When we accept the invitation to come and see:
We become aware that there’s more for us to give:
More for opportunities for us to surrender.
More risks to take.

If we choose to become disciples of Jesus, and to give our time, talent, and
treasure, what do we get for our trouble?
It doesn’t end there.

Because we receive the same invitation:
Come and see.

Jesus invites us to experience a reality that’s different from the world that
cherishes wealth, power, and control.
It’s an invitation to love the poor and serve the needy, without condition.
It’s an invitation to surrender our lust for power,
And give up our need for control:
Or our need to be right.
And what are the consequences of that?

The same invitation:
Come and see.

The invitation is offered again and again,
In a constant cycle.
Come and see.
Come and see.

It never ends.
It leads to more and more.

And we really do need to come and see in order to understand--
Or even begin to understand what Jesus is up to.
Come and see:
Again and again.

Take a risk,
And try again:
To see more and more.

Today is my last Sunday with you.
And just as I said on the Sunday that I announced my departure:
There are a lot of un-knowns right now.
But I hope you’ll still come and see.
Because no matter what:
Jesus is still the Lamb of God.
Jesus is still the one on whom the Spirit descended like a dove.
Jesus is still the Son of God.

It doesn’t matter who the priest is.
Come and see Jesus the rabbi, who teaches the way of salvation.
Come and see Andrew and Simon Peter,
Who dropped their nets and left behind everything to follow Jesus:
They accepted the invitation despite the deep unknown.

In all of life’s questions and unknowns:
Come and See.
Give it a chance.
Come and see what Jesus is up to.
Come and see his purpose.

Come and see what he wants for us.
And come and see what we gain when we accept the invitation.

That invitation was offered to those disciples thousands of years ago.
And it’s offered to us today, tomorrow, and every day.
Take the risk:

Come and see:
And be enriched in Christ:

Come and see:
And learn again that God is faithful:
That you are called into the fellowship of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Come and see:
The Goodness of the Lord.

You might know the song Taste and See?
What if: just for today:
We sung it as “come and see?”
Let’s try it.

Come and See
Come and see
The goodness of the lord.

Oh Come and See,
Come and See,
The goodness of the Lord,
Of the Lord.

Amen.

While most people have put away their trees,
And turned off the lights:
In the Church : It’s still Christmas!

We are still celebrating the fact that God unites God’s self to humanity:
In the person of Jesus.

At the very heart of this celebration is the birth of Christ, the Lord:
The Word made flesh.

As Christians, we actually believe that the Son of God,
Took upon himself the fullness of our human nature:
Receiving a human body of flesh and bone,
A human heart to love,
And a human mind to reason and think.

The Scriptures affirm that Jesus is like us in all things except for sin.

And Theologians call the belief that God became flesh:
“The Mystery of the Incarnation.”
We affirm it every week in the Nicene Creed when we say:
“For us and for our salvation, he came down from heaven,

By the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate and was made man.”

Today’s reading from Matthews Gospel:
Is the story of the flight to Egypt.
It’s a story that we don’t hear very often.
And a story that doesn’t seem to fit with Christmas.
It doesn’t seem to fit with all of this talk of God incarnate.

But it’s an important story for the Christmas season:
Because it shows us some of the ways in which Jesus, in his humanity:
Identified himself with us.

This is a story about how Jesus:
God incarnate: becomes human in all its fullness:
In moments of rejoicing, and in moments of hardship.

This Gospel story might sound a bit familiar:
Because it reminds us of the story of the Israelites in Egypt.
And there are many parallels between Jesus’ flight to Egypt,
And the Old Testament stories of hope for the promise land.

Just as there is in the book of Genesis,
Here there is another man named Joseph:
Who sees visions in his dreams:

And who leads the people to refuge in Egypt:
This time, this Joseph:
Leads Mary and Jesus into safety.

And like the story in Exodus:
There’s another Miriam: or Mary.
There is even a Joshua: or Jesus:
Just like we find in the book of Deuteronomy,
And in the story about the return to the Promise land.

Even Herod’s wrath and seeking to kill the Holy Child:
Has echoes of pharaoh’s cruelty toward the Hebrew children.

Here:
The Messiah:
God incarnate:
God in flesh:
Is identified with and parallels the old stories that many cherished.

Matthew was intentional when he wrote this Gospel story:
To connect Jesus to the story of the salvation and covenant of the Israelites.
He demonstrates how Jesus’ life and story are one with the life and story of Israel.

Jesus:

The savior of the world:
living in real human history:
Living in real human experience:
In real human flesh:
experiences the hardship of Exile.
And the fear of death.

Yet even with all the parallels:
It’s important to remember that Jesus:
and what he represents is even bigger than the people of Israel.

Jesus identifies himself with the promise to bring all nations into God’s kingdom:
Not just the Israelites.

When God becomes flesh, there’s no national borders.
God looks upon the whole world and upon every nation and people.

There’s an irony here:
That this newborn Messiah was rejected by King Herod of Judah:
And yet welcomed by Gentiles in Egypt.
For Jew and Gentile alike:
God has become flesh.

And there’s more:

With the Flight into Egypt:
Jesus: who later teaches “blessed are the poor”
Identifies himself with the poor and marginalized of the world.

We can’t forget that the Holy Family:
With the king of kings:
Were on the run:
Fleeing their homeland as victims of political persecution.

At a very young age:
Jesus knows firsthand the experiences and trials of the marginalized, seeking
safety.

From the beginning:
Jesus’ story is not all gold, frankincense, myrrh and angels.
It’s also a story of fear and oppression:
The fullness of the human experience:
In which even God in flesh experiences.

This part of the story is a good reminder of the teachings Jesus later brings:
That whatever we do for the least of his brothers and sisters:
We do for him.
Because he has made himself one with the marginalized:
Even as a young child.

Feeding the hungry,
And clothing the naked are things Christians rightly do to honor God.
Christians must identify with the poor and exiled:
Because Christ himself was counted among them.

All of this is to say that God made flesh is truly just that:
God made flesh.

Jesus identified himself with the joys and struggles of human life.
And In Matthew’s telling of the flight into Egypt:
Jesus does not only suffer the hardship of exile.
He also experiences the joy of coming home:

The joy of returning to one’s homeland is also a continuing theme in the Old
Testament:
And we see it in today’s lesson from Jeremiah who says:
“He who scattered Israel will gather him…for the Lord has ransomed Jacob from
hands too strong for him. They shall come and sing aloud on the height of
Zion…and they shall never languish again.”
This is a joyous celebration that God brings God’s children home.

The return from exile in Egypt reminds us that even God is not above human
suffering:
And that God also understands the human need for celebration.

We rejoice in God’s blessings.

We rejoice in hopes fulfilled.
The desires to sing and to dance, to laugh and to rejoice are not foreign to Jesus.
After all, these expressions of joy and happiness are a powerful part of what it is
to be fully human:
Just like Jesus

In the mystery of the incarnation, God shares this human joy in all its fullness:
Even when it also has some tinges of fear and pain.

The incarnation provides us with a powerful reason to celebrate.
Not only that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us:
But by becoming a full human being:
And experiencing all that it means:
Christ has united himself to all of humanity:
Making us members of his own family.

Today the Church rejoices, as we hear in Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, that:
“He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the
good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely
bestowed on us in the Beloved.

As the Christmas season continues:
We celebrate that we, too, have become sons and daughters of God:
true brothers and sisters of Christ.

We rejoice that God’s grace has been lavished upon on us and that the same love
that fills Jesus’ heart has been poured into our own hearts to give us new life.
We rejoice that our sins have been forgiven:
That we are made worthy to stand before him:
Just as he stands before us:
As one of us.
Amen.

​We are at the point where we are approaching the end of the Christian
year. Next Sunday is the final Sunday before advent.
And as we enter this new year, we begin to see a lot of apocalyptic imagery
in our scripture texts.
We see it in both Malachi and Luke this morning.

This imagery:
And language of destruction and judgement can be unsettling to us.
Especially since we are often used to hearing about Jesus as loving and
merciful:
An agent of forgiveness and restoration.

And yet, it’s significant that we hear this language:
That we remember that God is a God of Justice as well as of grace and
mercy.

Sometimes we have the tendency to turh God, or Christ:
Into sort of nebulous “feel-good” forces that are at our beck and call.

But that is not what God is.
It’s important to remember that God is God.
And we are not.
Christ is king and we are not.

The first lesson from Malachi talks about the end times:
“see the day is coming, burning like an oven,
When all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble.”
Malachi is referencing a time of judgment at the end.
And there’s a positive aspect to this too:
It’s not just fire and destruction.
Malachi also says, “But for you who revere my name the sun of
righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings.”

It’s a classic apocalyptic text:
Where God who is the God of judgment:
Is also the God of mercy and love.
In the last days, God will hold the evildoers accountable:
And will protect the righteous.
The passage from Luke, however,

Might not be as straight forward.
Its not as “classically” apocalyptic.

This story from Luke:
Also appears in Matthew and Mark.
All three gospel writers talk about the difficulties and tribulations that will
befall believers.
There’s talk about wars and rumors of wars that will come.
Warnings about false messiahs.

But what Luke does in his telling of the story is slightly different.
He removes the parts that seem to indicate immediacy.
(Mark talks about this as: birth pangs: but luke omits that part.)
Birth pangs are immediate:
It means the baby is coming:
And it’s not waiting.

Luke, omitting these pieces of immediacy:
Provides more of a description of the real state of the time BETWEEN the
times:
This time where we all live:

After the first coming of Jesus:
And before the final coming and last judgment.

In Luke’s telling,
People are asking him when this end time will take place:
And Jesus very clearly says, beware that you are not led astray:
Many will say “ the time is near!’
Do not go after them.

Even further he says, “when you hear of wars and insurrections,
Do not be terrified;
For these things must take place first,
But the end will not follow IMMEDIATELY.

For Luke it’s not immediate.
It’s just the between times.