The text from Micah 6:1-8 envisions a the gathering of a “court of all creation” summoned to judge the lawsuit that God brings against his people Israel. The text reveals that it is the lack of human faith, spurred on by fear, that has led Israel to reject God, taking matters into their own hands by means of excessive sacrifices and rituals. In other words, Israel has devised a religion of its own making, rather than living by God’s grace.

Micah answers a basic human question: how can humans placate or appease the gods? How can we secure our fate, our destiny? His answer: you can’t. At least not by heaping sacrifice upon sacrifice. Instead, we are to heed the words of the LORD: to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.

In fact, the blood of Jesus is worth more than any sacrifice, even “ten thousand rivers of oil” (Micah 6:7). In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us exactly how to obtain God’s favor and blessing — and it has nothing to do with sacrificing year-old calves or our firstborn children. Instead, we are do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God. How we do this, Jesus enumerates for us in the Beatitudes.

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Readings from 4 Epiphany, Year A. Micah 6:1-8; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; Matthew 5:1-12.

Preached on January 29, 2017 at Holy Trinity Church Inwood.

In today’s gospel, Luke describes the reaction of the shepherds to the angelic message and their visit to see the baby Jesus. Luke makes it clear that even though there is confusion among many as to who Jesus is and what exactly is happening, Mary seems to “get it” and, moreover, the name of Jesus itself will clear up any misunderstanding.

For Luke’s readers this passage accomplished two things. First, the miraculous message received by the shepherds in vv. 8-14 is confirmed. Second, Jesus’ identity as a member of the covenant — an offspring of Abraham — is confirmed. This is important because it was foretold that the Messiah would come from the House of David. In our own day, both the miracles and the covenant continue to help us understand who Jesus is.

Jesus is the latinized version of the Hebrew name Joshua which means “Jehovah saves.” Jehovah is a transliteration of the holy name of God from the Old Testament. So, the very name of Jesus can be understood as meaning, “God saves by his holy name.” To confess that “Jesus Christ is Lord” (Phil. 2:11) is to declare something very basic about God’s nature. It is to say that “God saves just by being God.” This gives us confidence in our salvation, for, just as we did not create ourselves, we did not save ourselves.

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Readings from Holy Name, Year A. Numbers 6:22-27; Philippians 2:5-11; Luke 2:15-21.

Preached on January 1, 2017 at Holy Trinity Church Inwood.

We live in two ages at once. We live during the final age of the old world and at the dawn of the new.

C.S. Lewis paints a vivid picture of this in his book The Great Divorce where the endless, dead City of Man stretches out in all directions and is lit by the cold half-light of a seemingly perpetual dusk. A sunset where the sun never goes down.

Until it finally does set. And the night comes. And the hammer of judgment and justice falls. And the age of wrong, and sin, and alienation, and injustice, and slavery, and racism, and sexism, and all the other “-isms” is put away — along with death — for ever…

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Readings from Christmas Day I, Year A. Isaiah 9: 2-7; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-14(15-20).

Preached on December 24 & 25, 2016 at Holy Trinity Church Inwood.