When we were moving back to Oregon from Tacoma, this is what we said to our child. “We’re going on an adventure! Get ready, because our family is moving back to Portland. We’ll be closer to family. Mom has a new job at a new church in Gresham. You’ll be back with the class you left 2 years ago. It’s going to be an adventure. It’s going to take a lot of work. We’ll have to clean and pack. We have goodbyes to say. We’ll be driving back and forth a few times. And we’ll need your help. What do you say, are you up for another adventure?” Thankfully he was up for a new adventure again.
This
is what God is saying to the Israelites in exile in the book of Isaiah, “We’re
going on an adventure! Get ready because
our family is moving back to Israel and Judah.
We’ll be back with family we left behind 40 plus years ago. You’ll have somewhere different to live, new
people to get reacquainted with, a new school, the temple. It’s going to be quite an adventure! It will
take a lot of work, packing, cleaning, starting over, making the trek over the
hilly road. By the way, there is no I-5
making your path straight-we’ll be taking the path along the fertile crescent
so we have water and enough to eat. You’ll definitely be crying out for a flat,
straight road by the time we get halfway there, but that’s part of the
adventure. So clean and pack and let’s
be on our way to adventure.” Some of the
people said no, they were not up for this trip and they stayed behind in
Babylon. But those on the margins, who
were not better off, could more easily change course, and repented, turned back
and were led back to the land of their parents’ birth to live a new life and
have an adventure with God and each other.
This
is what John the Baptist said to the people of the whole Judean countryside and
all of Jerusalem who showed up at the river and took off their sandals ready to
be baptized in the river Jordan. He
said, “Get ready for an adventure. Repent and turn around. The way you have been going is not serving
you. We have a new way. It’s an old way and it’s new again, a new/old
adventure of turning toward God, toward community. It’s going to be quite an adventure. If you’re out here for accolades and fame,
fortune or wealth, forget it! We’re on a
different path. If you think you’ll be
washed and go right back to your old lives, forget it! This is something different. It’s listening in the wilderness, on the
margins, to people we usually ignore.
It’s listening to the voices of people who are sick, lonely,
ignored. It is about humility, being a
servant, rather than expecting people to serve you. And don’t expect me to lead you. We’re just getting started. Someone is coming after me, so pay attention,
because this one is powerful and I am nothing compared to him. He will give you the Holy Spirit, the holy
breath, so that you leave the waters of baptism carrying the word out of the water,
the promise, the good news, out of the Jordan river and into the rest of your
blessed life.”
You
know that adventure also can hold serious risks. When you’re preparing a kid for an adventure,
you focus on the positive. But we’ve
been on adventures before and we know what can happen. For the Israelites in exile, they risked it
all. They left family and friends in
Babylon and the only life they had ever known.
They traveled dangerous, rocky path.
Whatever the risks, they were worth it because they were moving toward new
life that God was offering.John the Baptist was incredibly candid about it. There will be fire. There will be a winnowing fork. He had no idea that after all these baptisms
he would be arrested and it wouldn’t be long until his head would be offered to
Herodius on a platter. Jesus took the
ultimate risk and gave his life to pursue this vision. It didn’t stop his disciples from sharing the
good news of new life for the cosmos.
Even though there are risks, we know we can’t let that stop us. There is no staying put. The Kingdom of God is worth pursuing whatever
the cost.
Trinity Lutheran
Church, this is the beginning of something new, a new year, a new adventure
together, starting at the waters and being filled with the Spirit and moving
forward. Get ready to pack your bags and
clean up your mess. We’re getting ready
to repent, to turn around, to go new directions toward new life. God’s people have done it many times. It may seem daunting, but we go where Jesus
leads us. It’s about listening—to each
other, the voices in the wilderness, the voices on the margins (of the
children, of the elderly, of the sick, of immigrants, of Indigenous people, of
poor people, of gay and lesbian and trans siblings, of nature, of mother
earth.) We will go together, with
intention. We will follow Jesus on this
path. We’ll wish it was more flat and
even and straight, but we’ll move forward knowing it is worth the hard
work. We’re going on an adventure with
Jesus. Trinity, are you up for an adventure?”
2024
is Trinity’s 125th Anniversary Year, a fabulous time to reflect on
what Trinity has meant over the years, what adventures it has undertaken, what
a difference it has made in this community.
It’s a year of celebration and reflection, and a year of repentance, of
turning toward God, of turning around, not just for the fun of it, but for the
sake of following Jesus who we love and trust.
This anniversary is about thanking God and remembering how to follow
God, because we’re always forgetting. It
is about seeing where God is leading us, preparing for the journey, and setting
out to follow God’s way.
It’s not always going
to be an easy road—there’s lots of hills and it’s kind of twisty. Not everyone will arrive with us. But we’re not alone. We have partners, Santa Cruz and our cluster
churches. This journey will lead us
outside these 4 walls of this church. It
is a beautiful church and it is a fortress and God is not only in here, but
mostly out there. We begin in January
with a service project on Martin Luther King Day with our cluster churches,
Gethsemane who has called a new pastor, Resurrection, Pilgrim, Covenant
Presbyterian, Lents Tongan United Methodist Fellowship, and St. Timothy, at
Cultivate Initiatives—we had 16 or 17 participants from Trinity during God’s
Work Our Hands service project in early September. We can do this. We can get out of these four walls together
and make a difference and be changed on our journey. So plan to join us January
15, and it’s even my birthday so you can torture me again this year singing
Happy Birthday as many times as you need to.
Let’s see where we’ve been, remember the stories of God leading the
people on many adventures and bringing them through many dangers into new
life. Let us look to our partners and
friends for strength. Let us step out in
faith, following our Savior Jesus and find Jesus building the Kingdom through
us.
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