July 14 24

The speaker retired from a job in 2017 and reflects on their time there. They talk about a painting they did and its significance. They mention a TV series called The Chosen and discuss the stories about Jesus it portrays. They also talk about the fear and questioning surrounding Jesus and his disciples, and how followers of Jesus should not react with fear but with trust in God. They emphasize the importance of bringing the presence of Christ into the world. Most of you know that in 2017, I retired from 22 years at the Calgary Official Persons Front Royal. Having my first year of ministry in this area, it's been wonderful to come back here since I was first applying for U for 12 weeks when Sarah had her baby. It was a life-changing experience for me and it's always great to come back. Know that I'm looking forward to your next transition here as you look forward to being pretty sure, pretty in charge. I'm so sorry you had to go through that, particularly because you were so happy and such a good relationship with your mom. I'm just glad I can be a piece of that with you and I agree with you. But in that 22 years at Calgary, I did a painting that was quite spectacular. I initially wasn't sure I liked where it was and it's not the reason we changed the configuration of the church inside. Our organ died and we had to reconfigure it. So the painting got moved from right over the altar to the side chapel, but I still loved it. When I went to France in 2008 with my daughter, we went to the Louvre and saw the original. This was a copy by a 19th century painter. Think about it like today, people usually have those glossary prints that you get of original paintings and portraits. But then, good artists made copies of wonderful paintings. So this is a very high quality, good copy of the original by the Calumet Esteban Maria, a Spanish painter. It's called The Holy Family or The Virgin of Seville. That sounds kind of jazzy. It's a beautiful painting with Jesus and John the Baptist, Elizabeth and Mary. I printed it out so you can kind of see it, but it's a wonderful painting. It's a copy of God in the clouds with cherish and Holy Spirit over Jesus in the tent. But for me, the part that's always transforming for me was John the Baptist with a pole in his hand kind of marking his prophetic future. He's just a little boy, but he's holding that up pointing at Jesus and his hand down touching a little lamb. So at these points he sees the Lamb of God, the one who would come after, the one that he prepared to wait for. I'm thinking about today's lesson because this is an unusual one. It's not really about Jesus so much as it is about John the Baptist. It's a perfect story. But it's one that we need to look at because it is the connection between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Some of you may have seen the series The Chosen. Have any of you seen that? It's quite good. I've been told it's done by the Mormons, but it's very good. It's a revelation of the gospel. It's a story of the New Testament told from lots of sources, and I think some of them are artistic sources from church history. Paintings and stories that were told that aren't part of our biblical history or our canon, but are probably good guesses at what might have been the story behind the story. The gospels are what they are. They're not exact history. They're not biographies. They're little snippets of the story, the important things we need to know. But watching The Chosen is a great way of getting a sense of the whole picture of the Bible. It will be confusing if you're not familiar with the Bible. It helps to have some background or watch it with a number of folks, do it together or talk about it together because your corporate knowledge is enough to kind of bring to light who people are and what's going on and what's the reflection of the Old Testament. But my fun story about that series is that season 4 just recently came out. And I sat down earlier this week when I was watching the New Testament and decided I was going to watch season 4 episode 1 and lo and behold, it was the story of John the Baptist behaving just as good at all. That's just serendipitous. And it was well done. And it did a great job, I think, by this preview of giving us the background behind the story that has intrigue in the leadership of the Jewish people, the fear they had of John the Baptist to begin with and then Jesus. Because if you've been watching the Gospel carefully and listening over the past several weeks, remember Jesus had crossed over to the side of the Sea of Galilee to where the Gentiles were and the people of the Galileans. And he comes to see when it was in a turmoil with the disciples. When they got there, he didn't read that part, but he healed a man possessed with lots of demons. And he had been a leader of that community. And the demons asked him to be put into the sea and he went into the water. You probably remember that story if I tell you that little piece. So it was a fantastic event. And the people there were so grateful they sent Jesus away. The word got out. He comes back over to Carnium and there he had that fantastic story of the story of his story. The little girl who was dying, her father, the leader of the synagogue, asked Jesus to heal her. And on the way, the woman grabbed his arm and was healed of a bleed that she'd had for 12 years. And he comes thinking about how that must have been very traumatic for the dad who was trying to get to his daughter. And then of course the daughter was dead, but Jesus said she's only fleeting and everybody laughed at him. So you can see the stories that are circulating about Jesus. He is doing all he can to help his citizens and finding reasons to doubt, to question him, to call it blasphemy that he's planning to be the son of God. And when he gets to Nazareth, after being in Carnium with those fantastic healing stories, he has not been able to do much of anything except heal a few people that were sick. And then he had his disciples. And they had a wonderful experience when he came back. He had Jesus going out with them. And today we have the story about Herod hearing about Jesus. And we learn a little bit about Herod. From my experience of Herod, coming back to God's family, that kind of fun song, I think it's one of the best songs in the show. But Herod seems like this kind of death-serving, fleeting kind of thing. And it's not something that I thought of clearly. I didn't think very much of it. But this story, we have compassion for Herod. He is interested in what John the Baptist has preached. And he would really kind of like to listen to it. But he was fearful. He was afraid of being protected. His wife was the one that headed out for John the Baptist. But Herod is kind of just helpless. He's fearful of himself serving him. And he just isn't even willing to stand up to the threats of having kids. Because I think he's afraid that the people around him will think less of him because he's broken out. He's putting your own reputation ahead of a person's life. Particularly a person that you've wondered about. And that you were curious about what he had to say. That somehow that spirit within was being nudged. But he rejects that. And he gives the head to the daughter who gives it to her mother. So we have this sense of when he hears about Jesus, he's afraid of Jesus. He doesn't hear all of the other descriptions of who it might be. He hears it's John the Baptist raising him from the dead. So automatically he is fearful of Jesus. And we sense what's happening with all of the leadership of the people here. That they are beginning to question who this Jesus is. And they're academic. And the wonderful story of the Chosen goes on to show how that kind of develops and grows. And how it's very plausible that they carry around Galilee first. Where Herod is the leader. Herod Antipas is the leader in that area. And he really begins to develop this hatred and fear. And begins to question Jesus' reputation. So we see the disciples who are going out and bringing Jesus' message of healing and repentance. Very much like John the Baptist. But the presence of the Lord. They bring the Lord's ministry to the people in the surrounding areas. And begin to go out on their own. And we see in this story today, they have the courage to stand up to Herod. And be seen and acknowledged as followers of Jesus when they go and get John the Baptist's body to bury. So we know they are not going to be cowards. They are not going to hide behind closed doors. They are going to go out and continue the ministry of Jesus. And that's where the story touches our lives. You know, we live in a very fearful time. You know, any of you who pick up the newspaper, I think we're going to add to this. We are shooting at the rally for Trump in Buffalo. You know, none of us want that to happen. Nobody wants anyone assassinated. And no matter where we are in the sector of politics or personal relationships, we don't want to bring hatred, division, fear. You know, fear is not what followers of Jesus Christ react to, hopefully. We all do to some degree. I'm not saying we're sinners, we're not perfect. But that is it. In Jesus, we can be without fear because we can trust the one who created us, who sent Jesus to be with us, who gave us the Holy Spirit to empower us and guide us and bring the presence of Christ into the moment. I think in this time of our nation and world, we are called to bring the presence of Christ into the moment. But not just in ourselves, which we do. You know, that's what the disciples were doing when they went out. But we bring the idea of needing Christ where we go. I think for generations, you know, the whole idea was, oh, we're going to bring Christ and change people. You know, we are going to be the ones to change the world and we will bring Christ to you, those who don't have Christ. I think Christ found faith. We're Christ, aren't we? And I think we're called to find faith and perhaps name it. But we find the presence of Christ in places where we least expect it. In the woman who touched his garment. You know, in the Cyrus creation woman. In other stories. The foreigners, the people that have faith. That Christ recognized in them that which would be acknowledging the goodness of his Father and his mission and his ministry. And they recognized in Jesus the one whom they saw the power of God and the grace of God and the love of God. We are called to be ambassadors for Christ, to bring Christ. But to find Christ in the world where we go. And I think Christ said at one point, help us. Help us go before you. He goes before us. We go to meet Christ, not just to bring Christ. And to do that, you know, it's almost like Mary and Elizabeth. When Mary went to visit Elizabeth, the babe jumped in her womb. It's one of the background stories of Joseph, of John the Baptist and Jesus. You know, when we find Christ where we go, the Spirit rejoices. And that's part of our calling. And we are gifted to do that. The prayers today remind us how it is we are called to do the work of Christ, but that we're empowered to do it by the Spirit of love in us. It's not by our own strength. It's not by our own will. But by the will of God and the Spirit of God that lives in your heart. We are a people of love. And we should bring to the moment of this nation, this world, our families, our congregations, that we can be kind of having a good time with this pastor. And, you know, just after a year, a year and a half, isn't that two years? Just cut two years. You know, that's a short period of time. And it's a sad thing. But look at it this way. God knows. And God is involved in that process. And will be with you and walk with you all along that way. You know, you do not need to be afraid. You are a wonderfully filled, grace-filled and gifted congregation. And do not fear. For God is with you. And you will find Christ as you seek in the world to serve Christ and to find Christ. Amen.