Author: Scott McAndless

Watch sermon video here:

https://youtu.be/jdC3AdwTihc

Hespeler February 15, 2026 © Scott McAndless – Transfiguration Sunday
Exodus 24:12-18, Psalm 99, 2 Peter 1:16-21, Matthew 17:1-9

Six days ago, Peter had made an extraordinary confession and declared that Jesus was the Messiah and the Son of the living God. (Matthew 16:16) Jesus had praised Peter for his insight and understanding. And he had even given him a promise. “Truly I tell you, there are some standing here,” (and yes, Peter was sure that Jesus was talking especially about him). “There are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” (v. 28)

But ever since Jesus had been so depressing, talking about nothing but suffering, death and such things. Peter had tried to talk him out of his funk. I mean, sure, he understood that life was hard and the work they were doing was draining, but that was no reason to get so negative. But Jesus wouldn’t hear of it. He told Peter off for daring to rebuke him. (v. 22-23)

A Long Six Days

In short, it had been a long six days. Peter was getting so impatient. He had been promised that he would see a new kingdom coming. And sure, the full coming of such a kingdom might take some time, but could he not be given some glimpse, some indication that he had not been wrong to put his faith in Jesus.

And so, when, on the sixth day, Jesus pulled him and James and John aside from the others, Peter couldn’t help but feel as if this was finally it. Surely Jesus was going to reward them for their faithfulness with some glimpse of what the kingdom was like.

A Tough Climb

But all that Jesus did was point to a high mountain on the horizon. It soared about two kilometres above sea level and, though it was now well into spring, it was still topped with some snow. “What do you say we head up there?” he suggested

They had brought no provisions with them. Their well-worn sandals offered little protection for their feet and were constantly filled with sand and gravel as they scrabbled up the slope. And the higher they went, the colder the winds blew. They wrapped their cloaks as tightly around them as they could and struggled to keep up with the pace Jesus had set.

What Was the Point?

Peter couldn’t help but grumble along with his stomach. What was the point of putting them through such a difficult ordeal? He appreciated that Jesus wanted to give them a special experience that would be denied to the others. But did it have to be so hard? Couldn’t they have just gone off a bit into the bushes or something?

Jesus did not explain why. He just encouraged the three of them to try to keep up as he went on ahead. By the time they had finally reached the summit, they were all exhausted and starving. They shivered in the cold air and panted as if there were not enough oxygen.

When the white mist began to form before his eyes, Peter honestly didn’t know if a cloud had come down from the heavens to kiss the mountaintop or if he was about to pass out.

A Story Told Thrice

The story of the transfiguration is told in three of our four gospels, and the three accounts are virtually identical. I mean, for the most part, they are word-for-word the same. Which, if I can be completely honest for a moment here, can be kind of annoying for Christian preachers who follow the lectionary, which tells us to preach on the story using one of the three basically identical passages every single year.

As a result, we tend to obsess over the smallest variations between the three stories. So, this morning, we read Matthew’s version. And there is one tiny difference in Matthew’s account that I believe contains a very important message for us today. It goes to the question of what actually happened on that mountain.

Mark and Luke’s Vagueness

Now clearly, all three gospel writers see what happened on that mountain as real and significant. All three disciples experienced something that was mind-blowing up there. But Mark and Luke are vague about the material reality of that experience.

They talk only about what the three saw, felt and heard. That leaves open the possibility that they were observing physical reality. In other words, Jesus’ appearance was physically changed. Moses and Elijah were standing there, and you could have touched them. A voice boomed from heaven at a particular volume and frequency.

So, as Mark and Luke tell it, if a film crew were there that day, it is possible that they could have captured all of that. And that would definitely be the most amazing documentary to hit the theatres in all time. Why, it would be even bigger than “Melania!” That is all possible, at least the way the other two evangelists tell it. Though, of course, it is also possible that they are describing a mystical experience rather than a physical one.

Matthew’s Difference

But Matthew describes the experience differently. On the way down the mountain slope, Matthew tells us that Jesus warned the three men, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

So Matthew intentionally removes the ambiguity for us. He tells us, in no uncertain terms, that it was a vision. And so, I have to ask the question: what does that change?

First of all, let me say that it doesn’t mean that their experience was not real or that it did not come from God. Visions are real, people have them and they can make enormous differences in this world, either for good or for ill.

Vision Limitations

Visions can also be shared, as happens in this story. Presumably, each of these three men have individual and unique experiences, but they are in such physical and spiritual alignment in this moment that there is also a commonality to their experience.

But there is one limit on such visions. They cannot be objectively verified. Matthew is effectively telling us that, if a film crew had been there that day, they would only have been able to capture the ecstasy of the individuals. There would have been no footage of Elijah or Moses, no audio of the heavenly voice.

How to Evaluate Such Experiences

I realize, of course, that some will dismiss any vision as having no validity. You can’t prove anything to scientists with a vision – even a shared vision – because there is no data to be verified. That is true. And we do need to be careful not to claim too much for a vision or other spiritual experience

But that does not mean that such spiritual experiences are meaningless or worthless. There is no question that what Peter, James and John experienced on that mountain meant a great deal to them and they descended from that mountain as changed men who had seen confirmation of what they believed about Jesus.

Other people, those who weren’t there on the mountain, might well be moved by hearing the accounts and even choose to believe the truths that the three took away. But it is always harder for the people who were not there, and that is perhaps one reason why Jesus cautions them not to share the vision. Perhaps the others will not be ready to believe just based on the experience of the three.

Why There?

And that leads me to the question that really bothers me about this whole story. Why did this experience have to happen in such a difficult and inaccessible place? And why did it have to be limited to those three? If Jesus really wanted to show the disciples who he was, then why not just book a nice room in a hotel with room service and bring everyone in and let them experience it for themselves?

It happens on the top of a mountain, and I know that mountain tops have long been seen as places for such things to happen. As long as there have been humans, we have built sanctuaries and temples on mountain tops. That includes all of the temples and high places of Ancient Israel. Moses also had significant experiences on Mount Sinai and other mountains.

Where is God?

But is it just a question of spiritual geography? Is God spatially closer to us when we go up because we are getting closer to God’s heavenly abode? No, I don’t see it that way.

God is everywhere after all. We speak of God up in heaven, I know, but we don’t mean it literally. We know that “up there” is merely the edge of the atmosphere and then open space. There is no place on earth where you are closer to or farther away from God than you are right now.

So, the climb up that mountain that day represents something else. It is about the disciples arriving at that state of mind where they are open to the presence of God that is always there. And that is not something that comes easily to most humans.

Human Limitations

We humans have this way about us. We are constantly distracted. We are distracted by all the things we have to do, all the things we have to worry about or fear. So our mind – constantly on the move as it is – gets in the way of us experiencing that presence of God.

But it is not just our mind; it is also the body that houses our mind. Our body is constantly interrupting our quest for God with its appetites, demands and needs. We spend the great bulk of our time, attention and energy making sure that our bodies and the bodies of the people we love are okay. This is something that is a good and necessary part of our human nature.

But, with all of those things going on, how can the presence of God break through to us? And how will we be able to detect that presence in the midst of the chorus of demands that surrounds us all the time?

Preparing for the Vision

That is why visions and other spiritual experiences are so rare. It is not because God is absent. It is because we are distracted. And so, Jesus says to Peter, James and John, “Come, let us climb that extremely difficult mountain over there.”

What did that arduous climb do for them? It exhausted their bodies. It forced them into a state where they had to ignore all hunger and desire. It reduced them to the point where they could only give thought to the most basic of survival functions – getting sufficient oxygen from the thin air into their lungs.

What Jesus was doing was getting them to the place where their human minds were prepared to receive the vision of “the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” That is why it was on the mountain and away from the others.

Visions for Those Who Don’t Climb

And I believe that that is something that still happens. It certainly happens literally, I know, for those who test their bodies and endurance by climbing mountains. Many do report profound spiritual experiences on the peaks that they conquer.

I realize that not all of us will become mountain climbers. So don’t worry. I am not saying that you will never experience the power and presence of God without taking up mountaineering. But I do believe that the mountain-climbing in this passage is a metaphor for the kind of work that we have to do to prepare ourselves for such experiences.

Learning How to Prepare

Learning how to prepare your body and mind to experience God’s presence is something that we can all do, but it generally does not happen unless we work at it.

Those who take up meditation and contemplation, for example, will have such experiences. But it almost certainly won’t happen the first time they attempt it. It can take years and years of practice before you learn to quiet the demands of your mind and body enough for the voice of God to break through.

There are ways that you can learn to do this, and I have provided some pages at the back that you are welcome to take and study. You will not be surprised that many of them include getting your body to a state, much like you might find yourself after climbing a mountain, where all you are thinking about is your next breath. Then you just let even that concern go away.

Seeking the Vision

I do not doubt that, once they came to the top of that mountain, Peter, James and John did experience the presence of God in a powerful way. I also agree with Matthew that it was a vision.

It was a special and unique experience; every spiritual experience is. But that does not mean that it was not the kind of experience that you also can seek and find in this world, whether on the top of some mountain or in the silence of your own meditations.

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For resources on Christian Meditation, follow this link: https://thechristianmeditator.com/

Watch sermon video here:

https://youtu.be/k9v9ZzXGcpk

Hespeler, February 8, 2026 © Scott McAndless – Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany
Isaiah 58:1-12, Psalm 112:1-10, 1 Corinthians 2:1-16, Matthew 5:13-20

Does this sound like a good idea to you? “Shout out; do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet!” That, according to our reading this morning from the Book of Isaiah, is what God said to the prophet. But it has never really seemed all that wise to me.

I am a human like everybody else. When I see what is going on in the world, I feel things, and I feel them deeply. I get angry when I see people gunned down in the streets for protesting in non-violent ways. I am upset to see even children rounded up treated like criminals for merely existing.

Economic Challenges

I am outraged to see families and seniors evicted from their homes because someone has calculated that getting them out means that they can charge more rent and boost their income. I am angry when I see large grocery chains manipulating the supply chain and collaborating to underpay their suppliers and overcharge their customers.

And I am certainly upset to hear stories about employers replacing their workers with artificial intelligence, especially when I see how it cuts off opportunities for young people to get their lives going. I am upset at the international tensions that are being raised to the boiling point, especially when it is caused by leaders who are acting like impulsive children.

I’d Better Hold Back!

I feel all of that and more. But, like a good and responsible preacher, when I approach the sermon-writing task and prepare to step into the pulpit, what do I say to myself? “Now hold on a minute there, Scott. You’ve got to hold back. You can’t just go in there and start shouting out all that stuff.

“What if there are people in the congregation who don’t see those things quite like you do? What is more, you surely don’t understand all the complexities of these difficult issues? What if you are wrong, or someone out there might be offended by your opinion? You can’t go in there and start sounding off like a trumpet!”

Wisdom

And you know what? There is a lot of wisdom in the inner voice that says all of that. The trumpet blast will turn some people off. And so, it is just a whole lot easier to just go in and say, “Let us pray and pray earnestly for those who are oppressed,” while never naming the oppressors. “Let us pray for those who can’t pay their bills,” but let’s not mention those who are making massive profits on their backs. “Let’s pray for the peacemakers,” but we had better not name those who are getting rich selling the weapons.

It is just safe and wise to hold back. And if we can just channel all the things that I am feeling and that other people are feeling into private devotion – if I can just tell us all to concentrate on personal, spiritual well-being and pretend that that alone can heal the world, well, then we can feel as if we have done something without making any waves.

God’s Message to the Prophet

So, as I prepare a sermon for this Sunday, I take the prudent course of telling myself to just hold back. And then I open up the Book of Isaiah, and what do I read? “Shout out; do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet!”

God said that to a prophet who was looking at a very similar situation. I won’t go into all the details about the historical circumstances around the time of this prophecy. I’ll just say that the scholars do have a pretty good idea of what was going on in Judah at the time. They were facing many of the same problems that we are.

Crops had failed, and food inflation was out of control. There was a lack of housing. A debt crisis had pushed multitudes into slavery. And, yes, there were even some hostile neighbours to the south who were making it impossible for them to trade.

So, I can’t help but feel as if the prophet was having many of the same feelings that I have been having when the message from God came: “Shout out; do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins.”

Prophet Unleashed

That is a dangerous thing to say to someone who has strong feelings about what is going on. God is unleashing the prophet here, letting him know that all his own thoughts and feelings about what’s going on are valid. In other words, God doesn’t need to give him the rest of the script for this prophecy. All he has to do is let out what he already knows.

He notes that the people are complaining to God. “Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?” They have been taking the “hold back” approach. Rather than talk frankly about all the problems they have been facing, they have been turning to spiritual practices.

Thoughts and Prayer

Fasting is one of the oldest spiritual practices. You go without food for a certain amount of time as a way of showing your God that you are spiritually devoted. Fasting is usually accompanied by prayer, asking God to do something about what’s wrong with the world.

But the prophet announces that God is mad with them for their devotion. That is why God won’t answer their prayers. Now, what does that mean? Does that mean that God doesn’t want our prayers and worship? That God hates our spiritual devotion? No.

It is a bit like what has happened with the whole “thoughts and prayers” meme in our society. As you may have noticed, many people have grown increasingly angry with politicians, celebrities and other leaders who offer their “thoughts and prayers” in the aftermath of some tragedy.

What’s Wrong with Prayer?

Why do people criticize that? It is a good thing to keep victims in mind and pray for those who are suffering. It is just that people have noticed that saying such things has become a substitute for having difficult discussions about policies and procedures that may contribute to the tragedies. It is a way of holding back from challenging those who are contributing to our problems, or doing anything that might make a difference.

People have begun to see through that. That is why they react negatively to any leader who says anything about “thoughts and prayers.” Well, it seems as if God and God’s prophet are having the same reaction to the prayers of the people of Judah. They are losing patience because people are substituting prayer and fasting for doing anything about the causes of the problems they are dealing with.

Prayer as a Substitute

There is a place for praying when things go wrong in this world. It is a way of reaching out and supporting people when they are struggling and there is nothing that we can do to help them. It can also be therapeutic. When we are feeling overburdened by all the problems we see around us, prayer can be a way of asking God to meet us so that we don’t have to carry those burdens alone.

But when such prayer becomes a substitute for action that is within our ability, I do believe that God loses patience with us. When you pray for a family that is struggling, and you could offer them support, but you don’t, why would God hear your prayers? When you pray for the hungry while sitting on a surplus of food, don’t you think God might find that a bit annoying?

And the same would apply when we pray for a social or economic situation that is hurting people, but that our actions are supporting or that our silence is enabling.

Using Devotion as an Excuse

And so, the prophet, acting under God’s direct inspiration, is unleashed. And he stands up to challenge the people about how they are living.

“Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day and oppress all your workers… Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high.” He is definitely not holding back here, is he?

Here, he is not just accusing them of substituting prayer and fasting for actually doing anything. He is saying that they are using their spiritual devotion as an excuse for abusing others. We don’t really know how they are doing this, but I imagine them making their workers feel guilty for demanding things like fair wages and reasonable workloads. They are telling their workers that, because they are doing the important work of fasting and interceding for the nation, their workers are just going to have to put up with long hours and no pay to cover for them.

It makes me wonder what prophets might say to the modern church if they weren’t holding back. Would they criticize the church for all the energy we put into maintaining our own privileges and existence while failing to speak up against the injustice that unfolds around us?

A Call and a Promise

The prophet goes on. “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them and not to hide yourself from your own kin?”

But most of all, the prophet promises that, if they make this shift from devotion to action, God will respond. “Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’”

Will God Just Fix Things?

Now, I think it is important to understand what is being promised here. Is the prophet saying that God hasn’t been answering their prayer because of some of these bad things that they are doing? Is God promising that, if they just make some changes, God will start to listen and fix everything?

No, it is not as simple as that. The prophet is saying that all they are doing is actually creating the crises that they are praying for God to stop.

Their mistreatment of their workers – the very people who harvest their crops – is driving the food shortages that are causing the inflation. Why would the workers produce more food, after all, when they see that it does not keep their children from starving?

Driving the Problems

Their greed is driving the housing crisis by demanding such high returns from their real estate investments that no one can pay the rent. It is also forcing ever more people into slavery to the point that there are no free men left who can serve in the army and defend the nation. It is no wonder, therefore, that the foreign enemies that surround them are taking advantage.

In other words, God is saying that they are actively causing the problems that they are asking God to solve! Is it any wonder that God has lost patience with their prayer and fasting?

But how many people did the prophet offend by saying such things? How much wiser would he have been to just hold back? How much easier to encourage the people to concentrate on spiritual devotion instead? So surely, I am extremely wise to keep on reminding myself to just hold back every time I start working on my sermons.

But I am warning you. God has not stopped speaking to God’s people. And to those whom God has called to warn them, the first message will continue to be, “Shout out; do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins.”

God will call me and others to use our minds and intellects to look at the world that surrounds us. God will teach us to not hold back when we see that our actions are actively contributing to the problems that we are asking God to solve.

Watch Sermon Video Here:

https://youtu.be/_xnDCPgTHIw

Hespeler, February 1, 2026 © Scott McAndless – Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
Micah 6:1-8, Psalm 15, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, Matthew 5:1-12

This is an interesting time be a Christian preacher. There is so much going on in the world that is distressing, and much of it is deeply political in nature. We can talk about international politics that affect us deeply, such as the tensions in NATO over Greenland and questions of Canadian sovereignty.

And then there are the politics that may not affect us personally but that are still deeply disturbing. An outstanding example of that over the past little while has been the rising tension and violence in Minnesota and other parts of the United States over immigration matters.

As I watch these and other similar political developments, I, like most anyone else, have strong personal reactions. I go through feelings of shock, sorrow, anger and outrage. To deny those feelings would be to be inauthentic. So, the question becomes how I can be an authentic preacher in such times?

No Expert

I am not a political commentator. Nor should I be. It is not my job to tell people what party to vote for, and the church needs to be a place where we accept different political opinions.

What is more, I am no expert in politics or international laws and treaties. I do not have any special knowledge of immigrants, refugees or how their cases and claims should be handled. So, who am I to tell you what to think about such matters? If you want to understand those things, you should listen to those who have studied the issues, not me.

But what do I do when those who do claim to be experts on those matters step into my area of expertise? What if, for example, the American Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (commonly known as ICE) starts to tell us how to interpret the Bible?

Last month, ICE, which has been given a huge budgetary increase and a mandate to hire thousands upon thousands of officers, put out a recruiting video. Except it wasn’t just a recruiting video. It was a biblical commentary.

A Recruitment Video

The video showed images of ICE agents at work. Decked out in combat uniforms and employing all manner of high-tech equipment from helicopters to night-vision goggles. They are brandishing both lethal and less-lethal weapons.

Such images of ICE at work are themselves nothing new. They may be disturbing, but anyone who has been paying attention has seen them before. What caught my attention were the words – the only words – that were part of the ad.

They appeared in Gothic letters (and yes, there was a message in the font choice – there is an association with certain political ideologies). The words that appeared over the montage were taken directly from the English Standard Bible Translation of our reading this morning: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”

Now, as I said, those are the only words in the whole ad other than the contact information at the end. So, you may wonder why I would call it a commentary. How can you comment on a text without, you know, commenting? But, as we all know, a picture can be worth a thousand words. The pictures that accompany these words speak volumes.

Aggression and Violence as Solutions

They are all images that convey aggression and hostility. No actual violence is shown, of course, but the potential for it seems present in every frame. And the aggressors are clearly the ones who are being called “peacemakers” in the video.

The soundtrack of the video is a particularly dark cover of the song “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” And that idea that there are bad people out there who want to take over the world seems to be the only justification for the aggression and violence of the so-called peacemakers. Their aggression is the only thing that can counter the evil of everybody else who wants to rule the world.

Enemies

So, all of this amounts to a clear commentary on this one verse from the Gospel of Matthew. It is telling us, in no uncertain terms, what Jesus meant when he spoke of peacemakers.

And what he meant, clearly, is that the world is full of people who want to rule the world to destroy it. These are the enemies; they are other. They are different from us. Given that this is a celebration of the work of ICE, they are overwhelmingly immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers and members of various minority communities.

And if that is the situation, then clearly there can only be one response. Such enemies and the danger to peace that they pose can only be defeated by overwhelming violence and repression. Therefore, a peacemaker is someone who engages in that kind of violence.

This interpretation is also saying that Jesus said that people who carry out such violence are blessed. They are endowed with special divine favour.

Sons of God

It also strangely implies that they are men. As I said, this ad uses the English Standard Version. And the ESV is the only major version that translates the final part as “sons of God.” They do this, as is explained in the preface to the translation, for dogmatic and not grammatical reasons.

The word in the original context of the Gospel of Matthew means children. Even the King James Bible translated it that way over 400 years ago. But the makers of this ad chose an outlier translation for a reason. They are also declaring that the kind of peacemaking they are talking about is a masculine endeavour. It is something done by big burly men.

And because of that, the purpose of peacemaking is to use all that violence to protect vulnerable and feminine women, most particularly represented by their boss, the Secretary of Homeland Security.

That is quite a lot of content to pack into a short video, but it is all there. And I don’t think that the makers and those who approved the ad would disagree with me that that is the message that they are trying to get across.

Is That What Jesus Meant?

But the question is, is that a good interpretation of the verse? Is that what Jesus really meant when he said it? Finally, all my years of training pay off, and I have something relevant to say! First time for everything. I don’t know if I can handle the pressure!

So, is that what Jesus meant when he spoke of peacemakers? Was he talking about people who use violence to eliminate those who are different and who disagree with you? Can you achieve peace by silencing dissent and suppressing those who resist? It may seem as if that can result in a state where there is no conflict. If that is not peace, then what is?

Pax Romana

Such an idea of peace certainly did exist in the time of Jesus. They called it the Pax Romana, or the Roman Peace, and it had been established by none other than Caesar Augustus.

Augustus had sent his legions all over the world, and using the latest in military tech, they had destroyed anyone who disagreed with him. And when no one can oppose what you want to do, there aren’t any wars. Augustus proclaimed that he had established universal peace, the Pax Romana. He even built himself a massive peace prize, which he called the Altar of Peace in Rome.

And that was the world that Jesus lived in – a world under the Roman Peace. In that world, anyone who opposed what Rome wanted to do or withheld what Rome wanted to take was brutally eliminated. So Jesus knew such a concept of peacemaking. He could have embraced it. But is that what he is referring to in this verse?

What Jesus Was Talking About

The answer, quite simply, is no. The peacemaking that Jesus was talking about was not something that could be achieved through the violent defeat of those who threaten the tranquillity that you want.

We see that in the very word that Jesus used. The word is εἰρηνοποιοί, and it has a dual meaning. It is as much about doing peaceful things as it is about bringing about a peaceful outcome. And that means that you can’t make peace without being peaceful – at least, not the kind of peace that Jesus is talking about.

This becomes clear when you see the same word used in the Letter to the Ephesians. There the writer declares that Jesus himself is our peace and that he made peace (that is the same word) by breaking down the dividing wall and bringing people together with God in a new humanity. Most importantly, it states that Jesus made this peace by sacrificing himself on the cross. (Ephesians 2:14-16)

So, the kind of peace that Jesus is talking about can only be made by bringing people together, not by exclusion or segregation. And it can’t be made by acts of war, but only by acts of peace. It cannot be made by insisting that everyone do things your way, but by acts of self-sacrifice and mercy.

A Bad Commentary

So, let me speak today with clarity and from my own area of expertise and declare that this biblical commentary made by American Immigration and Customs Enforcement is just plain wrong. Let me further suggest that federal agencies should avoid trying to interpret the Bible. It seems to me that such efforts will not only lead us to bad interpretations, but also to some pretty dark places!

But I can hear their objections from here – maybe even some of yours as well. The objection is that, if that is what Jesus means, well, Jesus must be wrong. The objection is that you can’t make peace without knocking a few heads together because that is just how it works in the real world.

Objection to the Passage

That is, in fact, the objection that is always made to just about everything that Jesus says in this entire passage that we read from the gospel this morning. None of it is practical; none of it seems like it would work in the real world.

The poor in spirit seem neither happy nor blessed because of their situation. The meek hardly seem to be poised to inherit the earth. On the contrary, the aggressive and violent seem to be actively taking it over right now.

And when people actually hunger and thirst for righteousness sake – when they stand up for someone who is being harassed or arrested because their skin is darker or because they are different – what happens. We’ve seen it. They are not blessed. They get shot down in the street.

Rejecting the Wisdom of the World

What Jesus says in this whole passage is contrary to all of the wisdom of this world. So, if you want to reject what he says, you are not going to be alone. I fully expect that the world will continue to try and make peace by violently attacking those who would oppose it.

But, for my part, I will continue to believe that those who try to create peace on earth using the weapons of war may be able to create, for a short while, a bit of space where they get to do whatever they want and no one dares to challenge them. And I will continue to acknowledge that the strong and wealthy will inherit the earth (or so they will think) by their exercise of power.

But I will know that they will ultimately fail. Their peace is never a lasting peace because Jesus was right. You can’t make peace that way.

Jesus came to announce a different way of doing things – a different kind of kingdom. And maybe if we could just get past denouncing his approach and declaring that it could never work, we could get the kind of peace that can last because it is the kind of peace that transforms the whole world from the inside out.

Watch sermon video here:

https://youtu.be/YhLxMd6LKSs

Hespeler, January 25, 2026 © Scott McAndless – Third Sunday after the Epiphany
Isaiah 9:1-4, Psalm 27:1, 4-9, 1 Corinthians 1:10-18, Matthew 4:12-23

Last week, as you know, I came to you with some pretty stunning news. Somehow, and amazingly, the Apostle Paul had reached out to us down through the centuries and, together with a guy named Sosthenes, had sent us a card to celebrate our first anniversary.

I know you were all as blown away by that as I was. I thought that it was just going to be a one-time event. I mean, surely Paul wouldn’t employ his time-travelling Post Office to write to us again, would he?

Well, I’m sure you know the answer to that question because we all read it together this morning, didn’t we? We continued to read through Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, and you surely noticed how directly it was addressed to us where we are today, starting the second year of our journey as a congregation together.

Problems Addressed

After his opening words of celebration for how far they have come together and encouragement for the future, Paul turns, in our reading this morning, to some of the problems and struggles that still lie before him. And he begins with the one that troubles him most – the trouble they are having being united.

A woman in the congregation, no doubt a local leader whom he greatly respects, has sent messengers to him, he says. “For it has been made clear to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters,” he writes.

The problem, you see, is that certain things set them apart from one another. In fact, for all intents and purposes, it seems as if they all came from different churches. “What I mean,” Paul says, “is that each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul,’ or ‘I belong to Apollos,’ or ‘I belong to Cephas,’ or ‘I belong to Christ.’”

Belonging

Note the wording there. It is all about where they belong and to whom they belong. Belonging is one of the most essential building blocks of your identity. You primarily know who you are because you know where you belong.

Belonging is all about the places where you feel at home. It is about the people you feel like you can be yourself with. It is also about those things that you care about enough to support and defend.

That is why, whenever people talk about their identity, they speak of things like their family, their hometown, their nationality and the people they spend time with. And if a church is a strong and healthy community, people typically find a key part of their identity in their church.

Where They Find Their Identity

But these folks in Corinth, Paul tells us, are finding their identity in something other than their church. They speak of different teachers who were there at different times – Paul, Apollos and Cephas – and finding their identity in them. Now, all of these teachers, including Paul, had been there in the past. They made a big impression for a while, and then they moved on.

So, when these believers speak of “belonging” to these teachers, what they are essentially saying is that they find their Christian identity in those past eras.

In addition, some of them are saying that they belong to Christ. And that may be an attempt on their part to ground their identity in an ongoing reality as Christ continued to be with the church. But the fact that the people saying this are creating yet another faction within the church rather than bringing everyone together indicates that they are not living that identity out in helpful ways.

Quarrelling

Now, there are some ways in which I do not recognize us and our situation in this part of Paul’s letter. He speaks about people quarrelling in the church and says that this is so disturbing that Chloe has gone out of her way to bring it to his attention. Well, I am glad to say that I have not seen any of that sort of quarrel in our congregation.

Do we disagree sometimes or see things from different points of view? Absolutely. And that kind of disagreement is normal and healthy. It would actually be a bad sign if we didn’t have any of that. But where we have disagreed, we have been committed to working those matters out peaceably and in a spirit of harmony.

So, Paul wouldn’t chew us out for quarrelling. But he would be concerned about how we see ourselves and our belonging in the church. I am sure that he would appeal to us by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of us be in agreement and that there be no divisions among us, but that we be knit together in the same mind and the same purpose.

Our Belonging

So, ask yourself how you think of your belonging in the church. Because of our amalgamation, I know that it can be easy to fall into the thinking of ourselves in those terms – I belonged to Knox, I belonged to St. Andrew’s. Even more important, it is tempting to think of others in those terms – they belonged to St. Andrew’s, or they belonged to Knox.

We may also struggle to acknowledge newcomers – those who have come in the last year or so. If they don’t have that connection of belonging to the past, we may not be sure how they can belong.

I realize, of course, that that history is important and knowing where we belonged can help us understand how we react to things now. But belonging that is primarily anchored in past realities is not going to help us to embrace the identity that God is giving to us now.

And it is at this point that I think it is fitting to throw in a now famous quote from a world leader: “Nostalgia is not a strategy.” That may certainly be true in global politics right now, but it is always been true of the church.

Baptism

So, our belonging is an important part of our identity that Paul is drawing our attention to today. Immediately after discussing belonging, Paul appears to change the subject and begin talking about baptism.

“I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,” he writes, “so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name.” And I know that it’s a little bit funny that he then immediately corrects himself and admits that he did also baptize the household of Stephanas. Then ultimately, he confesses that he doesn’t really remember who he baptized.

But the question is, why does that even matter? What does that have to do with their issues around identity? Well, it turns out, a whole lot. We might miss this because, as you know, it is a common practice in the Presbyterian Church to baptize people as infants. As a result of that, I imagine, many of you here today don’t actually remember your baptisms.

Key Moments in Your Life

That was not the case for the church in Corinth. It was a new church, which meant that, for the great majority of them (except perhaps of some infants in the household of Stephanas), the memories of their baptisms were very fresh. They had chosen for themselves to be baptized, and it marked a very significant turning point in their lives. And those kinds of life changing experiences are generally pivotal for somebody’s sense of identity.

We, as modern Christians in the Presbyterian tradition, may not have had that particular experience in the church. But we have had other similar experiences. The church has been given a great privilege in our society to be associated with so many life-changing moments.

Think of all the experiences you have had that transformed your life that were associated with the church. Your profession of faith, your wedding, the baptism of your children, the funeral of a loved one. Perhaps a clergy person or chaplain was there with you when someone you loved passed away. There is no denying how life-changing such experiences can be, and many of them happened for us within the church.

In addition, you probably have had moments, however fleeting, in the life of the church when you felt the closer presence of God or when some deep truth finally made sense to you. There have been moments of profound joy and of deep sorrow. There have been times when someone was there for you when you needed it most.

Those are all experiences that can set or change the course of our lives. As such, they really do make us who we are. And I know that many of you have had those experiences in church. I have too. And I know that they are essential to your identity.

Why Paul Is Glad Not to Baptize Them

So why, then, does Paul say that he is glad to have not been there for such pivotal moments in the lives of the people in Corinth? Is he trying to downplay the importance of such moments for their sense of identity? Of course not.

Rather, he is saying that such experiences are so important that you cannot tie them to a particular place or person. They transcend the particular circumstances that you were in when you had them. And so, you need to set them free from being tied to particular places and people.

God is not limited to particular places or people. That experience you had of God in the church or that particular commitment you made or that feeling you expressed was a gift that God gave to you to transform you. You carry that experience or that commitment with you wherever you may go.

Your baptism was not effective because it was performed by Paul. The quality of your marriage is not guaranteed because it happened in this church or that church. You did not receive comfort for your grief because of where you mourned.

All of those things changed your life because God was there for you in that moment and because God has not abandoned you since and never will. That is why Paul declares, “For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel—and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.”

The Letter to Us Continues

So, it turns out that it is not just the opening passage of this letter that we read last week that has been written for our church today. As we continue into the opening chapter, I can hear Paul speaking to us across the centuries. He is encouraging us to think in constructive ways about our identity.

We do not forget, of course, where we have found belonging in the past. And we certainly do not let go of those significant moments where God has been there for us and that have set the course of our lives. But I believe that God is today encouraging us to ground our identity in something new.

May God truly bind us together in Christ today. Let us find our belonging in the people whom God has given us right now. And let us never stop expecting that Christ will invite us to new experiences of God’s presence. Christ will place before us new opportunities to choose to follow in God’s path.

We are God’s people. That is our identity. Other things may come and go. We do not need to fear that we have lost ourselves so long as we remember that.

Watch sermon video here:

https://youtu.be/Q0Ag0xTGTYw

Hespeler, January 18, 2026 © Scott McAndless – Anniversary Sunday
Isaiah 49:1-7, Psalm 40:1-11, 1 Corinthians 1:1-9, John 1:29-42 (see also Acts 18:1-17)

One year ago, as you all know, we embarked on a strange new journey together. We took two Presbyterian congregations with different histories and different self-understandings, and we brought them together. And I know that there are two ways of looking at what we did.

Sameness or Change

One way to look at it is as an exercise in sameness. We can see it as one congregation that has just continued to do what it has always done and to be what it has always been, with the addition of some new people on one hand. And on the other, a congregation continuing to do and be what it has always done and been in a new place with some other people.

But the other way to look at it is as an exercise in change – to see it as the two former congregations ceasing to exist as they were to become a new thing together.

The reality, of course, is that it is a bit of a mix of both of those things. We obviously have not given up on all of our old traditions and ministries over the past year. In many ways, we have been doing our best to maintain and even enhance some of them. We have also not yet let go of some old identity markers such as names and structures.

Leading with Change

There is a lot of comfort in keeping things the same as much as possible. And, as the old proverb goes, we don’t really want to throw out the baby with the bathwater. We don’t want to let go of what was working and what was vital to our churches.

Nevertheless, I don’t think it is helpful to understand what we did last year as an exercise in sameness. The change we have engaged in has to be more important than any continuity that we have brought along with us.

For as much as we may have loved how we were as separate congregations before a year ago, the reality is that what we were doing was not working as well as it once did. The reality is that the church is going to have to change if it is going to remain relevant and meaningful in the future.

That is why we must see this as an opportunity, given to us by God, to reinvent ourselves. It’s why we called what happened last year a marriage. That is why we call today our first anniversary.

Paul in Corinth

And that is what makes our reading this morning from the First Letter to the Corinthians so meaningful. The church in Corinth was a church that had been founded by the Apostle Paul. He just showed up one day preaching Jesus to them. A number of people responded and formed a church together.

And then Paul left, moving on to his next project. But the new church in Corinth had some problems after he left. And so, some time later, Paul heard about their struggles, and he sent them a card – this First Letter to the Corinthians – to help them sort some of this stuff out.

Now, we don’t actually know how long after he had left that Paul wrote this letter, but I’m just going to say that it was exactly one year later. I’m going to say that he sent it for their first anniversary because, you know what, I think that what Paul wrote to them may be exactly what we need to hear today.

Paul and Sosthenes

For example, let me start with the opening line of the letter. Actually, I have already misrepresented it to you because I said it was a letter from Paul to the church, but it was not. The letter actually starts by identifying the writers: “Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes.”

So actually, it isn’t a card from Paul; it is a card from Paul and Sosthenes. And we might say, “So what?” We don’t know who Sosthenes was, and he is not even mentioned again in the letter. Well, we might not know who he was, but the Corinthians did. And the naming of this man at the top of this letter spoke volumes to them about how they had come to be a new church together.

Acts 18

Sosthenes’ story is told in the eighteenth chapter of the Book of Acts. There we are told that, when Paul first came to Corinth, he actually caused them a fair bit of trouble. He showed up in the synagogue and started preaching about Jesus.

Now, the Synagogue in Corinth had many Jews in it. But they also had several Gentiles who weren’t considered acceptable by the Jews, but they hung around because they found the Jewish idea of God intriguing. They also offered generous financial support.

Well, when Paul came along, he preached that even Gentiles could be acceptable to God because of Jesus. Not surprisingly, the Gentiles in the synagogue found that message very interesting. They began to leave the synagogue because of Paul. And they took their money with them.

Turmoil in the Synagogue

And do you know what the best way is to upset any religious institution? You disrupt their revenue stream! The synagogue erupted into anger and violence. Then Paul left and set up a new Jesus club in the home of a Gentile believer named Titius Justus that was right next door to the synagogue.

Things got worse for the synagogue when Crispus, a Jew and the elected leader of the synagogue, also left to join the movement next door.

That is when Sosthenes came into the story. He was elected the new synagogue leader. And he obviously tried to calm things down. He tried to find ways for the synagogue to peacefully coexist with their new neighbours. His success was limited, but Paul’s little club grew over the next six months.

Roman Tribunal

But eventually, some of the Jews who really hated Paul couldn’t take it any longer. They got organized and kidnapped Paul as if he were a Venezuelan dictator and dragged him before the local Roman tribunal, accusing him of violating Jewish law and tradition.

And what did the Roman official do? He did not care one bit about Jewish matters! He just told them to work it out among themselves. But, when Sosthenes stepped forward once again to try and do that, everyone started to beat him up while the official looked on and didn’t stop them.

And yes, that is often what happens. We attack those who try to make peace because they show up the intolerance that is in us. As a result, when Paul left town, apparently so did Sosthenes. I mean, would you stick around after they treated you like that?

Why Does Sosthenes Sign?

But now, on what I’ve decided is their first anniversary, Paul sends this anniversary card to the church. What does it mean to them, do you suppose, when he asks Sosthenes to sign the card too?

Well, it certainly reminds them of just how chaotic and troubling their origin was. And maybe that is his intent. And I do believe that there is some wisdom in that for us. On this, our first anniversary, perhaps we too should give some thought about our own origins.

Our amalgamation was not, I am glad to say, marred by any violence. It was quite the opposite and felt very harmonious in the congregation. But it was also not ideal in some ways. It was rather rushed and there were some external authorities – some Roman officials and synagogue leaders – who I know caused people some grief and sparked some anger.

I think that Paul is writing us today to remind us of some of that turmoil. But he is doing it in a very particular way. He is drawing our attention to Sosthenes.

Paul Reminds Us

In Corinth, Sosthenes was someone who, for a time at least, was an opponent of the new church. He was part of the group of people who tried to resist Paul by lodging a formal complaint before the tribunal. He also suffered because of his resistance.

So, what is Sosthenes’ signature on the card saying? It is Paul’s way of reminding them of how far they have come since their tumultuous beginnings. He is letting them know that Sosthenes, the one-time resister, is now a fellow believer, part of the church and is a companion to Paul.

What is the anniversary card from Paul and Sosthenes saying to us today? It is reminding us of how far we have come together. It is reminding us that we have been able to put aside so much that distinguished us from each other in the past to become one together.

We are Sosthenes

We are all Sosthenes today. We may have had our doubts and our struggles. There were conflicting emotions that we brought into this thing and concern about the work that would be involved, but we marvel today at how far God has brought us. And we thank God for where God has called us to be.

Now, none of that means that we are done or that we don’t have struggles ahead of us. There is still a lot of work to be done. We need to work at embracing our new identity. I think that we still have not quite got our minds around the notion that we are no longer a church whose ministry is defined by one location. We have work to do on the best long-term use of our property in Preston. There is a whole lot of change that still needs to be processed.

Prepared for the Future

But Paul is writing to us about that as well. Remember that the reason why Paul wrote this card to the Corinthians was that he knew that they were facing some difficult challenges. So, what he writes to them is very significant.

“You are not lacking in any gift,” he writes to them, “as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Given all the trouble that the Corinthian church was having, this is quite a statement for Paul to make. But he really means it. God has given to them all the gifts that they need and will give them all the strengths that they need to meet the challenges that are ahead.

And, if Paul could say that to the troubled Corinthians, how much more would he say it to us? And how true it is of us? How much have seen it in the last year?

Gifts

That word, “gifts,” is a key word in the New Testament. It doesn’t mean what we usually mean when we use the word. It is not talking about material gifts, but things that are much more valuable. These are the gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to individuals.

These gifts include various abilities, talents and traits that God uses to build up the church. In this very letter, Paul will speak of gifts such as wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, powerful deeds, prophecy, discernment of spirits, tongues and interpretation of tongues. (1 Corinthians 12:8-10) But this is not meant to be an exhaustive list, and there are many other ways that the Spirit equips individual believers.

And have we ever seen that in the past year! So many of you have stepped forward to share your gifts and abilities. We have discovered depths of talents and traits in so many of you, and you have contributed so much towards building this church over the past year.

Treasures to Discover

But Paul here reminds us that there are so many other treasures that are yet to be discovered. He reminds us of God’s promise to the church that God will provide what we need when we need it through the people that God calls to be part of our church. This is the promise that we must trust in. This is what we must remind ourselves of whenever we feel discouraged by all that still needs to be done or by how long change seems to be taking.

On our anniversary today, therefore, Paul and Sosthenes are sending us a beautiful card. The words inside are a blessing upon all of us. “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind—just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you—so that you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Watch Sermon Video Here:

https://youtu.be/yykiCWR_Bjw

Hespeler, January 11, 2026 © Scott McAndless – Baptism of the Lord, First Sunday after the Epiphany
Isaiah 42:1-9, Psalm 29, Acts 10:34-43, Matthew 3:13-17

If you read through the Bible from beginning to end. You will come to a moment when you turn a very significant page. You have just finished the prophecies of Malachi, and you flip over and there you see it, the first page of the New Testament.

And the very important job of opening the New Testament has been given to the Gospel of Matthew. This is not because it was the first book written. Many of the letters and at least one of the other gospels were written first.

But the church decided that Matthew had to come first so that it could be the one to introduce the all-important new main character of the Bible: Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus had been prefigured and prophesied in the Old Testament. But in the New, Matthew gets to finally bring this central character on stage. And Matthew absolutely rises to this task.

Matthew So Far

Over the past few weeks, we have read together the entire text of the Gospel of Matthew up to the passage we read this morning. And if you have followed along, you have already learned so much that is so important about this Jesus.

You have learned from his genealogy that he is descended from a line of kings and so is the rightful heir of the kingdom of Israel. You have learned that he was born of a virgin and that his birth means that God is with us.

You have also learned that he was recognized as king and honoured by foreign Magi, but that he was feared by the ruler of his own people, who attempted to kill him as a child. You learned that he was a refugee in Egypt who then found asylum in Nazareth of Galilee.

Main Character Hasn’t Done Anything Yet

Those are all vital things to know about Jesus. They are central to the Christian understanding of him. But I want you to note something. We have learned all of this without Jesus actually appearing in the story.

And that makes what happens in this passage we read this morning so important. In this passage, Jesus finally emerges onto the scene. After hearing all these things about Jesus, we finally meet the man. We have his first action and, even more important, his first words.

First Words

And you should always pay close attention to the first words of a new character. In fact, I believe that Matthew is such an extraordinary writer that he goes out of his way to pack everything we need to know about Jesus into Jesus’ very first line.

So, what is the first thing that Jesus does in the Bible? “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him.” So, Jesus’ first act is to choose to be baptized by John.

And right there, actually, we have a problem. In fact, of all of the things that Jesus ever did, this first act proved to be one of the most controversial for the church.

Problems With the Baptism

Surely you can see the problems with this. For one thing, Jesus being baptized by John suggests that he is John’s disciple. And if Jesus was the disciple, well, then John was the master. In other words, John was somehow greater than Jesus, at least for a time.

In addition, John declared that his baptism was for the forgiveness of sin. So, Jesus being baptized suggests that he had sin that needed forgiving.

Well, the early church had major problems with both of those ideas. And so, they had a deep discomfort with this first act of Jesus, even though they could not deny that it had happened.

Problem Addressed

And we can see that discomfort in this passage we read this morning, can’t we? When John the Baptist says to Jesus, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” he is not just speaking for himself. He is speaking for the gospel writer and also for many other believers who have struggled with this incident.

But all of that controversy is merely setting the stage for the main event in this passage: Jesus’ first words. How will he diffuse all of the tension surrounding his first act? Well, despite all the buildup, Jesus doesn’t disappoint.

“But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.’” And let’s focus on that very important answer and what it means.

The Simple Response

First of all, these words diffuse the problems surrounding Jesus’ baptism by John. Jesus essentially agrees with John (and Matthew and most Christian theology) that he doesn’t need to be baptized by John. He is clearly not subservient to John, and he has done nothing that needs forgiveness.

That is the most basic meaning of what Jesus says. In the Good News Bible, which Jean read for us this morning and which tries to keep the language as simple as possible, this verse is translated as, “Let it be so for now. For in this way we shall do all that God requires.”

And that is the essential meaning of Jesus’ reply. He is saying that he is simply checking off a box on his to-do list. He is like a student who takes a required course, not because he expects to learn anything from the professor, but simply because the course is required to get the degree. He is an actor who is simply following a script.

So yes, on a basic level, Jesus is saying, “Okay, John, you know I don’t need this, and I know I don’t need this, but we’re going to do it anyway because the boss says so.”

The Complex Response

But as I said, the Good News Translation does go for the simplest and most straightforward interpretation. But the fact remains that Matthew did not write it quite as simply as that. In fact, the words that he chooses are not the words that you would normally choose to say such a thing, and that is surely not something that happened by accident.

Matthew is packing a bunch of keywords into this line, and he is doing it on purpose so that we, the readers, can understand exactly why it is that Jesus has shown up on the scene at this moment. So, let’s break down this line and try to understand what it is telling us about who Jesus is.

Let It Be So

Jesus doesn’t start by saying, “Let’s get this over with,” or “Let’s fulfill the expectation.” He says, “Let it be so now.” This is central to Matthew’s entire project of writing this Gospel. He is letting us know that his story is not just about a bunch of things that were done and said so many years ago. He is telling us that every act of Jesus may have happened in a particular moment, but the “now” of Jesus’ actions was always connected to his being.

His baptism, in other words, is not just a one-time event. It is about Jesus’ very being. It is about him inhabiting the whole of humanity, including what it means to be a disciple and in need of forgiveness. Yes, Jesus may not have sinned, but he chose to enter completely into the human condition.

Fulfilling

Jesus goes on to say, “for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” And that word, fulfill, is a key word for the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew is the one who constantly tells us that Jesus spent all his time going around fulfiFlling things.

And what Jesus usually fulfills, as far as Matthew is concerned, is prophecy. Again and again, he tells us that this happened or Jesus did that in order to fulfill some Old Testament prophecy, which he then goes on to quote. Only Matthew does this, and he does it all the time.

 And, since he usually says it in relation to some prophecy, it might be easy to assume that all he means is that somebody predicted something and then Jesus went and did that thing. But this verse makes it clear that it is a little bit more complicated than that.

The word he uses literally means to fill something up, like when you fill a cup with wine or a swimming pool with water. So, what Matthew is literally saying is that Jesus was going around and filling up holes and vessels.

Prophets and Prophecies

Old Testament prophets were not generally in the business of making predictions. Their task was to speak the Word of the Lord to people in their own time. But that kind of speech created holes – gaps between what God required and what the people actually did. When prophets did speak of the future, it was to outline the consequences that came from those gaps.

What Matthew is saying, therefore, when he says that Jesus fulfilled these prophecies, is that Jesus filled up that gap. Jesus, with his words, his acts and his ultimate sacrifice on the cross, filled up all of those holes that were between us and God. Jesus bridged the gap between God’s expectations and our abilities.

Fulfilling Righteousness

But, of course, in this verse, Jesus isn’t talking about fulfilling some prophecy. He is fulfilling something else: righteousness. On one level, that is a way of saying, “I need to do the right thing,” but it also means so much more than that.

Righteousness is the key thing that God seeks from humanity. God wants us to live in the right ways. The word also refers to justice. So when God asks for righteousness, it also means that God is requiring us to act justly, to create justice in the world and to destroy all systems that treat people unjustly or unfairly. God’s request for righteousness is a big ask.

The Gaps We Leave

And the problem is that we don’t manage to live up to that requirement. We fall into greed and oppression. We participate in systems that treat people unfairly. We misjudge, act cruelly, and sometimes we just fail to do the right thing.

Oh, we try. Some of us try very hard, but we are always going to fall short somewhere. There are gaps between what God requires and what we can do. There are even gaps between our best intentions and what we actually manage to do.

So, what is Jesus saying when he says that it is proper for him to fulfill righteousness? He is saying that he has come to fill those gaps between what God requires and what we can do. Jesus has come to make us acceptable before God despite those shortcomings.

Jesus Fills the Gaps

And here Jesus is saying specifically that being baptized by John is filling that gap. John’s baptism, as I said, was for repentance and the forgiveness of sin. But Jesus and John have apparently already agreed that Jesus requires neither repentance nor forgiveness.

And so, Jesus is declaring that he will do it anyway in order to enter fully into the human condition that made us require such things. The forgiveness obtained from his baptism doesn’t go to him, therefore, because he doesn’t need it. It is obtained for the sake of others – for the sake of you and me.

First Words Matter

But remember what I said about the importance of these being Jesus’ first words in the entire New Testament. This means that this is not just about Jesus’ baptism. Matthew has gone out of his way to make these first words of Jesus communicate to us that this is what the entire life and work of Jesus will be about.

Everything that Jesus will do, therefore, all of his words and his deeds, will be about fulfilling God’s call for righteousness and justice for our sake. In these opening words, we have the whole message of the Gospel.

We have fallen short. We have left that gap between God’s requirements and our shortcomings.

But Jesus has come to fill those gaps with his obedience, his grace and his unmatched demonstration of the love of God. Hallelujah, and thanks be to God for such love made real before our eyes.

It is all there, right in the first line. Not bad for an introduction to a pivotal character.

Watch sermon video here:

https://youtu.be/IBi_m33JyQc

Hespeler, January 4, 2026 © Scott McAndless – Second Sunday after Christmas Day
Jeremiah 31:7-14, Psalm 147:12-20, Ephesians 1:3-14, John 1:1-18

In the beginning, when God began to create the heavens and the earth, the heavens may have been in order, but the earth was in complete chaos, as seen in the tumultuous waters of the deep. But worst of all, worse even than the chaos, was the darkness.

Darkness covered the face of the whole earth. It penetrated every corner. It filled the living soul of the earth. And as God considered the task of creating, a wind from God, which is the Spirit that proceeds from God, was brooding over the face of the waters like a mother bird broods over an egg before life springs forth from it.

The First Word

But before life was possible, before the work of creation could truly begin, God knew one thing was necessary. And so, God spoke just one Word. The Word that God said was “Light.” God spoke the Word as a command, calling it into being. And so light became.

Now, I know that people have long puzzled over that Word light as the first act of the creator. They have noticed, and rightly so, that God doesn’t get around to creating the sun, the moon and the stars until the fourth day of creation.

We know that all of the light that we experience, even the light that humans generate, has its ultimate source in those heavenly bodies. And so, we sensibly ask, where was the light coming from for those first three days?

Limiting the Darkness

The truth is that the light that God spoke into being on the first day was more essential than what comes from those created things. The light that God spoke was spoken into being to counter the darkness that would overwhelm the earth.

The purpose of this first Word was therefore to restrain the darkness. God used it to set the boundaries of the darkness. It was limited to the night, while the light was given free rein over the day. For if the darkness were not confined to its appropriate place, it would constantly drag the earth back down into the chaos which slowly destroys all life and hope.

Necessary to Creation

That is why “light” had to be the first Word. It was the Word that made the whole creation possible. And the light that came from it was God’s constant companion in that work. And, as God spoke humanity into being, that first Word was there and ready to fill them with life, which was the light of all humankind.

But when God finished all of that great work of creation and declared that it was good and instituted rest for God and all God’s people, the darkness was still there, abiding within its limits, at least for the moment.

The Darkness of Empire

The people that God had created developed and grew. They invented agriculture and cities. And in an attempt to flourish, they gave power to certain people so that they could impose order and keep the primeval chaos and darkness at bay.

And the darkness that had waited saw its moment. It entered into the hearts of a few who found power and wealth in these new systems. They became kings and emperors who used the surplus that the labour of others created to amass ever more to themselves.

In the valley of the Nile River, one powerful ruler, a Pharaoh, used his power to turn whole peoples into slaves to serve his whims. And the slaves suffered in the darkness of their bonds.

A Word of Defiance

But God saw this growing darkness and once again spoke to set a limit on it. He spoke a Word of defiance into the heart of a man named Moses, who demanded liberty for his people and would not back down until they were free. And God became the God of those former slaves.

But God knew that those slaves had internalized the darkness during their long years of oppression. God knew that they could easily fall back into the ways of darkness. They would seek to exploit their neighbours and steal the fruit of their labours as Pharaoh had done unto them.

And so, God gathered this new people at a place called Sinai and spoke to them the Word of light. God taught them to live in harmony and share the resources of their land in ways that would benefit everyone.

Darkness in the Promised Land

The people of God entered into a land of their own, and there they sought to live out the Word of light that they had been given. But it was a constant struggle. The darkness had not given up its fight, and it kept creeping back into the hearts of the people.

The darkness took the Word of life that had been given on Sinai and twisted it so that, instead of giving life and spreading light, it became a list of rules for people to follow. And it also became a weapon that you could employ to condemn those who didn’t follow those rules in the way that you thought they should.

And so, community and neighbourliness began to break down in the land. They turned to the dark ways of greed. They made slaves of their fellow humans, just as they had once been enslaved. And they told themselves that it was okay, that God wouldn’t mind if they just burned a few sacrifices to keep God contented.

Prophets

But God did not desire their sacrifices; God wanted the people to live in the light and do deeds of light. So, God called prophets one by one and spoke the Word of light into their souls and sent them out to speak the Word to the people. They challenged the people and called them back into the light.

But still, the people drifted so easily into the ways of darkness. They resisted the message of the prophets. Some of them they even expelled and killed. For others, they twisted their messages and used them separate and divide the people. Still, the darkness found its way.

A Written Word

New and better ways of speaking the Word into the world were needed. One solution that God considered was to commission (or shall we say inspire) a written text. After all, modern people think of a book as the perfect way to proclaim a Word so that it cannot be corrupted or misused.

We think this way because, ever since the invention of the printing press, it has been possible to make texts in nearly limitless quantities that are virtually identical to each other. Such perfect copies suggest to us that the message in them is incorruptible and will always remain the same.

Limitations of a Written Word

But God knows the limitations of the printed Word. God understands how the meaning of words changes over time and how something written in one historical context can take on a radically different meaning in another.

So, while God knew that the written Word would play an important role in speaking the Word to the whole world, it could not serve as the ultimate speaking of the Word.

God knew with perfect foresight that the darkness would find ways to take even the precious Word of Scripture and twist it so that people would use it to justify such terrible things as slavery, oppression and the neglect of the poor and the strangers.

God Confers with Godself

And so, God began to think to Godself. “We continue to speak the Word into this world that we have made,” God said. (And please don’t ask me to explain why God’s pronouns are we/us in the Bible. At this point, thousands of books have been written on that question, and we don’t have the time to explore the answer here.)

“We continue to speak the Word into the darkness of this world,” God said. “And for moments, there are flashes of brilliance, and it seems as if the darkness has been defeated.

“But then it keeps happening. The darkness manages to grasp the Word that we have spoken and finds ways to lead people to doubt its meaning or twist the Word that has been given to serve its own dark purposes.

A Living Word

“We need to find a way to speak the Word so that the darkness cannot corrupt it. We need a Word that can speak to changing circumstances and can respond to new attacks as they arise. We need a Word that understands the challenges of living in the real world and yet can still persevere in the face of the darkness.

“What we need, therefore, is a living Word. It would not be a Word of sterile and unchangeable rules, but a Word that could encourage the practice of love in all situations.

“Even more important, it would have to be a Word made flesh – a Word that could speak into the messiness of human flesh. It would be able to understand the weakness, the needs and the limits of human flesh and how it can be tempted towards the darkness.

“And yet, how could that be? How could the Word be alive and entirely human while still retaining that constant connection with us? And that was when the divine Creator knew what had to happen – what had always had to happen.

The Word Made Flesh

And so, the Word that had been there from the beginning, that Word that had not only been a partner with God in all creation but that had made creation possible, the Word that had been woven into all of the commandments and that had spoken through the Prophets, became flesh.

This Word had not only always been with God and God’s companion in all works. The Word had always been the expression of God. God’s speech had always been the effective expression of the whole being of God, so the Word was God.

Light and Life Come into Being

And so the Word came into being in a man. And this man was life. And he brought light to all people. For the Word had always been “let there be light.”

And so, the terms the original battle – the battle before all battles – were changed. For the Word that had become flesh did not just set limits on the darkness and restrict it to the night. What came into beingin him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overtake it. The darkness could never overtake it.

A Treatise on Genesis

The Gospel of John does something truly extraordinary in its prologue. There is nothing quite like it in all ancient literature. John, as he writes it, is pulling together elements from everywhere. He is intentionally pulling in elements from the creation story in the Book of Genesis, where God calls all things into being by merely speaking a Word.

But he is not writing a treatise on the Genesis creation story.

A Philosophical Word

He is also drawing from Greek Philosophy. We see it in the word that he repeats over and over again – the word Word. He is writing in Greek, so he uses the Greek word logos (λόγος).

And that word that he uses is not just the common Greek word for a word. It is the name of a concept that was central to all Greek philosophy and knowledge. The logos was behind all logic and reason. In fact, all knowledge was considered to be a kind of logos. Biology was the logos of life. Theology was the logos of the gods, and so on.

So, all throughout this passage, John is commenting on a key concept of Greek philosophy, but he is not writing a philosophical treatise on the logos.

A Story

No, John is writing a story. And it is the story of the meaning of all history. It is the story of light and darkness, and a Word that ensures the victory of the light and the defeat of the darkness.

Human beings understand the world by telling stories. It is what we have always done. We gather together the various things we have experienced of the world, and we make it all make sense by tying it together into a narrative.

The point of such stories is not that they are historically accurate or factual. A good story is simply one that makes all of those truths about the world make sense together. And that is the kind of story that John is telling in this passage. He masterfully makes sense of the whole sweep of human history by narratively relating it to this idea of the Word.

So, remember the story of the Word. Carry it with you. And when the darkness threatens to overwhelm you, remember this story. For the Word that was there at the beginning of all things is the Word that became human for you. It is still the Word that God wants to speak into your heart.

Watch sermon video here:

https://youtu.be/st0A82Ax2pY

Hespeler, December 28, 2025 © Scott McAndless – First Sunday after Christmas Day
Isaiah 63:7-9, Psalm 148, Hebrews 2:10-18, Matthew 2:13-23

King Herod was convinced that he was the greatest king who had ever ruled over the people of Israel. But he had been king for over thirty years now, and there was no way around the fact that he was getting older. He was already in his late seventies. Where had the time gone?

And he was starting to show his age. He was retaining fluids, he fell asleep in meetings, and his mind was just not as sharp as it used to be. At least, that’s what some people were saying. There were reports about it all over social media (by which I mean people talking to other people in social interactions).

Herod insisted that all of this was fake news. He was particularly upset that everyone was talking about such things rather than how great he was and how wonderful all his accomplishments were. This was not right. He had to do something to Make Herod Great Again®.

Truth^®

And so, Herod decided to employ his own private social media system to get his Truth® out. He had his slaves print out his thoughts on little slips of parchment. And then he sent them out in the hands of his servants to proclaim to the populace.

There were, to be honest, thousands upon thousands of these posts. Sometimes Herod would be up all night dictating them. But they were all thought to be lost to history. But recently, a few of these long-lost texts were discovered in a trash heap at Herod’s palace at Masada. And these texts have given us an incredible insight into the twisted mind of an ancient authoritarian.

Building Projects

Take this text for example:

“The people of Judea have never had such a hard-working king as me, your favourite king. I have so many building projects going on all over the place. I’ve built up the city of Caesarea Maritima with a HUGE new harbour. The kind of harbour that they’ve wanted to build for over 150 YEARS. I’m building the Herodium, the best palace/tomb combo anywhere in the world. And I’m finally fixing up the temple of that WOKE LOSER, King Solomon. It was in such sad shape. Everyone was saying it. But MY temple will have the biggest stones that anyone has ever seen. And yet, does anyone appreciate all that I do? The priests just complain about some wall that I demolished without getting the proper permits. I AM THE KING, I DON’T NEED PERMITS.”

Strange Visitors

Yes, the collected posts of King Herod the Great contained a great deal of similar material, so I won’t become repetitive by reading it all. But, in the years just before his death, Herod’s posts definitely took a more, let us say, paranoid turn. Take this post, for example:

“Some very important men showed up in Jerusalem today. They call themselves Magi. I hear they are dressed like you wouldn't believe and they have camels and tremendous gifts of GOLD and some other stuff. I am sure that they have heard about how great Herod is and all that he has accomplished. Probably have come to give me a PEACE PRIZE or something like that. That just goes to show that these Magi are pretty wise. Going in to bless them with my presence now.”

Magi Hoax

However, this original text was quickly followed up with another:

“It turns out that these so-called Magi are not quite so wise as everyone says. They came into my throne rooms and started spouting some wild HOAX about a king of the Jews being born – a king, mind you, who has nothing to do with Herod or his family. They have obviously been influenced by my many TREASONOUS enemies here in Judea. Going now to consult with my Department of the Law about who we can prosecute for this TERRIBLE CRIME against my kingdom.”

Lawyers Are in on It

But it seems that that meeting with the experts in the Law did not quite go as expected for only shortly afterwards Herod posted this:

“Well, it seems that even my Department of the Law has fallen victim to Herod Derangement Syndrome or HDS. They too have fallen for the Magi Hoax of a new king being born. In fact, they tell me that there is a prophecy about just such a thing happening. They say that this new king is supposed to come from Bethlehem, which is a very weak city – barely even a town – and yet they say a ruler would come from it. Anyways, as soon as I heard that, I knew that somebody was starting a new hoax, the Bethlehem hoax I call it. But Herod is too smart for these people. So I go into these Magi, these wise guys, and I tell them that they should go down to Bethlehem and report back to me on what they find. That’s why they call me GENIUS. I get them to do all the work of searching and then I can take care of this hoax and kill it in the cradle, as they say.”

Failure to Return

Sometime afterwards, the posts indicate that Herod felt disappointed by the Magi:

“Can you believe these so-called ‘Wise Men?’ They are a total DISGRACE! I told them, very clearly, “Go find the child and COME BACK.” Simple! But they GHOSTED me. Lied! They took their gold, oh, their beautiful gold, and ran off like cowards. Very disloyal. Very FAKE. They were supposed to help me ‘worship’ the child, but instead I hear that they listened to a DREAM. A dream! Not even a real person! Total setup. Deep state nonsense.”

Anger at the Magi

And then, well, I am sad to say that the posts take a very dark turn as Herod rages in his sense of betrayal:

“The FAKE MAGI betrayed me. Said they’d return with info on the so-called “King of the Jews.” Very dishonest. But Herod cannot just forget about this. Their fake story about a child born in Bethlehem, some kind of Messiah, is a dangerous idea and a threat to national security! We can’t allow radical elements to destabilize Judea. I’ve made this kingdom the hottest country in the world, made the Temple GREAT AGAIN — and now this? A baby uprising? I am consulting with my Secretary of War about taking STRONG action to protect the kingdom. No threats to the throne. No Magi-backed “kings.” We will RESTORE ORDER and CRUSH the chaos.”

Anger at the Children

But soon, Herod seemed to forget about the Magi. Perhaps they somehow managed to leave the country without him knowing. That is when he turned his attention to a new and unexpected foe:

“A lot of people don’t realize this, but the children of Bethlehem are a danger to our kingdom. I'm talking about the ones who are 2 years old or less. They bring absolutely nothing to this kingdom. In fact, they are little better than garbage. And, because they live in Bethlehem, they are probably victims of the woke idea that someone from there could be born a king. Something definitely needs to be done about this whole situation. And only the HEROD ADMINISTRATION has the courage to do what needs to be done to protect our great kingdom. Please stay tuned and thank you for your attention to this matter.

Innermost Thoughts

As you have probably picked up, there is no secret cache of lost posts made by Herod the Great that has been unearthed in Israel or Palestine. I made up all of it. But wouldn’t it be something to have some of that kind of information?

We live in a modern age of social media, which means that anyone, if they choose to do so, can share their innermost thoughts with the whole world. And some celebrities and some leaders do actually choose to do that. I suspect that some others don’t choose to reveal those innermost thoughts, but they do have a way of coming through their posts, whether they want it or not.

But with ancient people, you don’t get those deep insights. We don’t get them with a fascinating character like Herod the Great. We have to figure out what he was thinking and what was motivating him by reflecting on what he did.

The Slaughter at Bethlehem

And it is all that harder when it is difficult to know what he did. His slaughter of the children in Bethlehem is an example. We have good historical sources on Herod’s life and career, and there are good accounts of the atrocities that he did commit. But none of them mention an attack on Bethlehem. In fact, the archeological record indicates that hardly anyone was living there at the time.

So it is hard to prove that Herod committed that crime. But everything we know about the man indicates that he was quite capable of doing exactly that kind of thing. He never hesitated to wipe out anyone who stood in his way, and that not only included children, it included his own children.

So wouldn’t you like to know what makes someone do something like that? That’s why I wish we had this kind of post for Herod. And I suspect that, if we did, we would discover a man who might have seemed powerful and decisive on the outside, but on the inside was deeply insecure.

Those who have the power that enables them to lash out against anyone they choose and choose to use that power are afraid. They are afraid that, if they show a bit of weakness, someone will exploit that weakness. Most of all, they are afraid that, if they lose the power that they have, they won’t be anything anymore.

A Scared, Dangerous Child

I have no doubt, therefore, that, if we got that look into the psyche of Herod the Great, we would find a scared looking child staring out at us. A dangerous child to be sure, but a child none-the-less.

We seem to be cursed to live in a moment when authoritarian leaders like Herod are on the rise. This is something that is happening all over the world right now and it is disturbing. I hope that you might find a little understanding of what might have been going on in Herod’s mind helpful in such a moment.

Authoritarians Don’t Get the Final Word

But there is another reason why I focus on Herod at such a time. That is because the disturbing slaughter of children in Bethlehem is not the final word on him. The king that the Magi were searching for, the king that Herod so feared, did come. He had no more power to prevent that than if he had been trying to prevent an incoming tide.

You see, the tyrants, they don’t just feel weak on the inside. They are weak on the outside and their power is an illusion. God is taking history somewhere, and it is not towards the twisted goals of the powers of this dark world. That is the message of Christmas, and it flies in the face of all the tyrants of this world.

Watch sermon video here:

https://youtu.be/V0xug7t0bBY

Hespeler, December 24, 2024 © Scott McAndless – Christmas Eve
Matthew 1:18-25

I am pretty sure that, if the writer of the Gospel of Matthew had to summarize the entire message of his work with just one word, it would be the word that he introduces in his opening chapter.

It is a word that he pulls from the Old Testament Prophet Isaiah and, knowing that his audience does not speak Hebrew, takes the trouble to translate for them. That word, of course, is Emmanuel and, as Matthew so helpfully tells us, it means “God is with us.”

Sometimes, though, I think we may think that this word is just about what is happening in this particular passage. That is, it is only about the strange, miraculous conception of Jesus.

After all, Matthew tells us that Mary became pregnant through the action of the Holy Spirit in order to fulfill an Old Testament prophecy about a virgin conceiving. And the child in that prophecy is given the name Emmanuel.

But that Emmanuel idea is not just about how Jesus was conceived. It is, for Matthew, the essential meaning behind Jesus’ entire life and behind Matthew’s story of that life.

That is why Matthew doesn’t just open his Gospel by saying that the birth of this baby means that God is with us. He also ends his Gospel by giving, as Jesus’ final words, “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” The entire book is about how God is and always will be with us in Christ Jesus.

For the story of Jesus’ Nativity is not about the mechanics of one particular child’s conception. Matthew isn't trying to explain how it happened or how the DNA of this man, Jesus, could possibly be both human and divine at the same time. If you try to understand that, you will never make logic or sense of it. (And believe me, Christians have been trying to make sense of it for two thousand years.)

Instead, he is inviting us to experience that presence of God with us in Jesus. As the Gospel progresses, we will meet people who are sick, disabled, struggling with poverty or social exclusion among a host of other issues. And at every point, we are meant to ask, what if God were present for that person in that moment? And, in the wonders, the healings, the affirmations that Jesus offers to those people, we are to see an answer to that question.

So, one thing that Matthew is telling you in this opening passage is that no matter what you may be struggling with this Christmastime, God wants to meet you where you are in Christ Jesus.

Jesus came into the world – became human just like us – so that God can understand what it is like to carry the pain that you carry in your body or in your soul. God became human so that God may know what that anxiety or fear that cripples you is really like. Jesus came so that God might know your frustration when you can’t make ends meet or when you feel completely frazzled by all you have to do.

So, Emmanuel, first and foremost, is meant to bring you comfort and joy as it lets you know that, no matter what you are facing, you are not alone.

Emmanuel is also a challenge to all of us – a challenge to see and know that presence. We all know how hard that can be when you are caught up in your worries, fears and troubles. That is why Matthew constantly reminds us that we need to have faith. It means that, as we learn to trust that presence of God with us in our troubles, we will be able to experience it more and more along with the healing, hope and renewal that comes with that trust.

But this Gospel also brings out a surprising meaning of Emmanuel as you read it through. Matthew is the only writer who includes one particular parable of Jesus; it is the parable that Jesus ends by saying, “for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” (Matthew 24:42-43)

I mean, this comes out of nowhere. All of a sudden, we discover that one of the ways that God continues to be with us to this very day is in the faces and the outstretched hands of the hungry, the thirsty, the strangers, the poorly clothed, the sick and of the people we write off as criminals!

These are the people we do our best to ignore as we pass them by in the street. These are the people that we post nasty things about on the internet and that we are afraid of. Yet Jesus is telling us that he is constantly trying to reveal the presence of God to us through them.

And I know this is a shocking thing to hear from a Christian preacher, but I think Jesus is right about that. I have experienced it myself, and I know that some of you have as well. When you get involved in offering food or clothing or your loving presence to people who are struggling, you will have undeniable experiences of the presence of God. There will be moments when you see Jesus in that person across from you.

So, that is what Matthew tells us that Christmas is about. It is not just about some miraculous birth that took place two thousand years ago. It is about how we continue to experience Emmanuel in our daily lives, and how that changes everything.

Watch sermon video here:

https://youtu.be/zALRHiOXILQ

Hespeler, December 21, 2025 © Scott McAndless – 4^th Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 7:10-16, Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19, Romans 1:1-7, Matthew 1:18-25

 love the Christmas story of the birth of Jesus, but there is one thing about it that I always want to keep in mind. There is not just one Christmas story. We have two stories of the nativity in the Bible. One is told in the Gospel of Matthew and the other in the Gospel of Luke.

Those are the only accounts we have. And both Gospels tell rich and deeply meaningful stories. But they are different stories concerned with very different details.

Forcing Two Stories Together

Luke has angels, a manger, shepherds and a Roman census. Matthew has dreams, a star, magi and an angry Jewish king. Luke only focuses on Mary and her decisions, while Matthew focuses only on what Joseph does.

But every year, what do we do? We take those two different stories, and we smoosh them together. We somehow manage to get everyone in the same place at the same time. We get the angels, shepherds, the star and the magi all at the manger. We harmonize the two different stories.

And I get that we are sentimental about that harmonized tale. If you tell the story without any magi at the manger, people will go ballistic, even though Matthew insists that they were not there and that they visited the family in a house that they owned. If you set up a manger scene without a star shining down, you will get the same complaints even though Luke says nothing about any star.

Respecting the Writers

My problem with this is not that the confusion gets in the way of figuring out what actually happened when Jesus was born. I am quite content to admit that we may never know exactly how that went down.

What bothers me is how little respect this shows to the original gospel writers. When we twist and distort Matthew’s Nativity story to make sure that it doesn’t contradict Luke’s, we end up robbing Matthew’s original tale of everything that made it so special. And when we twist Luke’s story to make it fit with Matthew’s, we end up robbing Luke’s story.

When you reduce everything to the lowest common denominator, you end up with a story that is merely common. And Gospel stories are supposed to be anything but common.

Joseph’s Life in Bethlehem

For example, if you read Matthew’s Nativity story closely, it becomes obvious that Joseph is living in Bethlehem at the beginning. He has a house there, a house where the Magi visit him, Mary and Jesus. According to Matthew, Jesus only ends up growing up in Nazareth because Joseph chooses to hide out there after King Herod attempts to kill the child and they return from Egypt.

That is central to the whole story in Matthew, and yet it contradicts what the Gospel of Luke says about the family being from Nazareth and how they were only passing through Bethlehem when the baby was born because of the census.

We have long tended to smooth out that contradiction. We do that by just ignoring the clear indications that Matthew gives of Joseph’s deep roots in Bethlehem. We skip over Matthew’s portrayal of Joseph as a leading citizen, descended directly from a line of kings, whose comfortable life is torn apart first by scandal and then by the persecution of a mad king.

But that is a great story. It deserves to be told all on its own. So, I’m going to tell it to you.

The Engagement

Joseph remembered the day when his engagement was announced. Everywhere he walked throughout the town of Bethlehem, people would bow deeply and congratulate him.

Mary, the woman chosen for him by his parents, belonged to the other leading family in the district. The marriage would form an alliance that would guarantee the prominence and prosperity of the family for a long time to come. Their future was assured.

Some of his well-wishers even spoke of the exalted lineage of his family. They boldly spoke of how a favourable marriage like this could even lead to a restoration of the ancient privileges of the House of David – a revival of the glories of the old kingdom as an earthly power.

Joseph smiled and received their well-wishes with grace. He remembered wondering what this Mary was like. Was she pretty? Was she smart? His parents had assured him she was wealthy and chaste – that was what had mattered to them.

But Joseph found that many other things suddenly mattered a great deal because he felt as if his life was just beginning. He was excited and anxious about what might come next.

Scandal

The day when the news about Mary’s pregnancy spread throughout town was quite different. There was apparently no question whatsoever about her condition.

People had speculated wildly that something was wrong for a few weeks as she had remained hidden in her father’s house. But she had apparently finally emerged, and speculation was replaced by certainty. She was going to have a child.

This day, as Joseph circulated the town, there were no smiles and certainly no congratulations. Instead, people looked away as he approached and pretended not to see him so that they didn’t have to speak to him.

Joseph went through a full gamut of emotions that day. He had bursts of denial, anger, bargaining and depression.

Joseph’s Responsibilities

But the worst part of all of it was the knowledge that this was not just about how he felt. He had responsibilities. He knew that the reputation, standing and the very future of his ancient family were on the line. He had the obligation to preserve their name and to ensure that their lineage remained pure and undefiled.

So, it seemed clear what he had to do. For the sake of his family, he had to set aside this woman. And he really should do it publicly, too. He needed to denounce her in front of the whole community, which would lead to the elders condemning her to be stoned and her family compensating his family.

But something inside him wouldn’t let him do that. He feared it was a weakness in him, that he could not lead his family into the next generation. But it was not weakness that was moving him; it was compassion.

He thought, perhaps, that he could set her aside quietly. That would be a kind of compromise that would save his family some shame and yet save her from public scorn. But even that option, he could not help but feel bad about.

And so it was a distraught young Joseph who fell into a restless sleep that night. Perhaps, in his dreams, he would be able to find the direction he lacked in the waking world.

Two Years Later

And then came the night, a couple of years later. Joseph, instructed by his dream, had gone through with the marriage. He and Mary became husband and wife. And a few short months later, her child was born.

He and Mary were happy together, and, perhaps in spite of himself, Joseph adored the little boy. But what he had gained in a new and happy home, Joseph had certainly lost in terms of social standing.

His family would barely speak to him, and not to Mary at all. People he had long considered friends would cross the street when they saw him approaching. All day long, as he carried out his business, he would see the people whispering to each other as they glanced his way.

His family was still prosperous and important, but now their standing seemed so fragile.

Strange Visitors

But on this day, everything had come to a head in his mind. Strange visitors had come by the house. They had come from far away, from Persia. They had brought gifts for the child and declared that he was born to be a king. This was something that they had discovered by searching the stars using their arcane arts.

That had been gratifying in itself. Joseph had long felt that there was something truly extraordinary about the young boy, Jesus, and it was nice to have that confirmed.

But when the wise visitors mentioned having stopped off to seek directions from King Herod in Jerusalem, Joseph didn’t necessarily know why, but he suddenly felt a deep dread within him. Something felt very wrong!

He went to bed that night full of worry and fear that he didn’t understand. The dream that came to him made sense of what he was feeling and filled him with a firm conviction as to what he needed to do next.

Alexandria

After that, Joseph had fled to Egypt with Mary and the boy. He had attempted to warn others, but his diminished standing in Bethlehem did not incline anyone, not even his family, to listen to his dream-fueled ravings.

So, they had gone alone to Egypt and waited there among the Jewish community. Joseph could no longer rely on his family property to sustain them, so he was forced to find work wherever he could.

Fortunately, Alexandria, the second largest city in the Empire, was growing in those days, and there was a lot of construction taking place. They were so desperate for labourers that, when a random Judean who could barely speak the local language showed up looking for work, nobody asked any questions.

Joseph learned a great deal about basic carpentry and stonework on the worksites of Egypt. But still he longed for Bethlehem and the life he had known there, even if it seemed as if Bethlehem had little use for him anymore.

The Return

When the news spread through the diaspora community that Herod the Great had finally died, Joseph felt as if the time to return had come. Within a week, he had packed up his growing family, and they were on the highway back towards Judea.

When they were about halfway home, they heard the news that, apparently, Herod’s kingdom had been divided up among his sons. Archelaus had been given the territory of Judea, Herod Antipas had been given Galilee to the north, and others had been given more far-flung territories.

Change of Plans

Joseph had a now-familiar sense of unease. How wise was it for him to return to Bethlehem, where his name was well known, when a son of Herod ruled over the territory? Surely Archelaus would discover him in no time at all; he only needed to ask the first passerby.

But what should he do? He didn’t know. Throughout this seemingly endless ordeal, Joseph had despaired like this repeatedly. But each time, he had found wisdom to know what to do as he slept.

The wisdom that came to Joseph in his dreams this time allowed him to look at the problem from a whole different angle.

What if he didn’t return to Bethlehem? What if, instead, he went to a place where nobody knew his family? He could still live among his own people and raise his children as Jews if he lived instead in the territory of another son of Herod.

They could live in Herod Antipas’ territory of Galilee, where Jews also had large settlements. But no one there would know, nor would they reveal, the illustrious heritage of his family.

Choosing Nazareth

This outside-the-box solution was only confirmed for him the next day when he spoke to fellow travelers – construction workers he had come to know in Alexandria – who were on their way to the area around Sepphoris in Galilee. There, Herod Antipas had established his new capital city. There would be plenty of work for carpenters and stone workers for some time to come.

And so, Mary and Joseph turned aside and travelled north. Eventually, they found a village only a day’s journey from the capital to settle – a village called Nazareth.

Joseph’s Losses

Matthew tells a very different story of the nativity of Jesus than Luke does. One thing that really strikes me about his story, when I let it stand alone and stripped of all the elements that have become connected to it by osmosis from Luke’s story, is the price that Joseph must pay.

When Mary and her unexpected child come into Joseph’s life, he loses a great deal. He loses the status and honour that meant so much in that society, becoming a pariah in his own town.

Then he loses the very place that had given him his identity, fleeing his hometown in a desperate escape that no one else can understand or believe. He loses his ancestral land, which, in that agricultural society, was the only foundation of wealth and security.

Joseph Didn’t Regret

He finally must start all over again as a stranger and outsider in a new place where no one knows him. These are all huge losses that we can scarcely understand because we do not know how important such things were to people in that time and place.

But somehow, I suspect that Matthew wants us to understand that Joseph regretted none of it. He knew that he was being given the chance to finally be part of something that brought hope, life and new possibilities. He was given a new family and identity that meant the world to him. He did not mind the cost.

 I only hope and pray that we could be as courageous as Joseph as we make our own choices to stand with those who are looked down upon by society. And at this Christmas time, let us count the blessings that we have received from the choices that we have made, as I’m sure that Joseph counted his.