4 Advent (Year A)
Matthew 1
St. John’s, West Seneca
December 21, 2025
Grace to you and Peace from God our Father and the LORD Jesus Christ. Amen.
Years ago, at Holy Trinity’s Lenten series, one of the local pastors spoke about Joseph on appropriately, St. Joseph’s Day. The gist of his sermon was how Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, is a man who should be considered and emulated for his faith to God and his devotion to Mary.
Joseph may be the original average Joe. A regular guy with a regular job who finds himself in what seems like a bad situation.
But we know that Joseph was far from ordinary. This quiet man, who doesn’t speak, is a forgotten man of faith. He was chosen by God to be the provider for His son. And while he does not say a word, his actions speak volumes about obedience and faithfulness, even courage.
Matthew begins: “Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be pregnant from the Holy Spirit.”
Who knows what Joseph’s reaction was? Hurt, heartbroken? He is determined to do the right thing. He resolved to divorce her with as little gossip as possible.
But God had another plan for this average Joe and so an angel comes to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: "he took her as his wife…” He offers no argument and there is no delay. Joseph believes and simply does.
We need more like Joseph today. He stands as a symbol of faith because while his plans – no doubt well laid – fall through, God steps in with another task.
This past week, I came across this story on FACEBOOK. I’ve seen it several times, and I believe at least one person here has reposted it.
"Martha, a retired nurse, shared this. '…for five decades, I was the last face people saw before they left this world, and the first face they saw when they came back to it. I was an ER nurse in a city that doesn't sleep, where the sirens never stop.
"I remember the day I realized the world had gotten its priorities backwards.
"It was Career Day at a local high school about five years ago… I looked around at the other presenters. It was intimidating.
"To my left was a tech entrepreneur, wearing a hoodie that probably cost more than my monthly mortgage, talking about ‘disrupting the market’ and ‘scaling synergy.’ To my right was a corporate lawyer in a sharp Italian suit, handing out glossy brochures about intern programs. There was a financial planner flashing a laser pointer at a graph showing compound interest.
"The kids were mesmerized. They were terrified of debt, hungry for status, and desperate to know the formula for being ‘Someone.’
"Then there was me.
"I walked in wearing my old comfortable scrubs and my stethoscope around my neck. I didn't have a PowerPoint. I didn't have a ‘brand.’ I just had a badge that was scratched from years of use and hands that were dry from a thousand washings.
"When it was my turn, the room went quiet. I didn't stand behind the podium. I walked right up to the bleachers.
"‘I’m not here to tell you how to make your first million,’ I said. My voice shook a little, then steadied. ‘I’m here to tell you what it feels like to be the only person awake in a terrifyingly quiet hallway, listening to the rhythm of a ventilator, praying for a stranger’s lungs to expand just one more time.’
"The kids stopped scrolling on their phones.
"‘I’m here to tell you about the smell of fear,’ I continued. ‘And I’m here to tell you about the specific, holy silence that falls over a room when a doctor calls the time of death. I want to tell you what it’s like to hold a mother as she screams, and what it’s like to wash the body of a homeless veteran with the same tenderness you’d give a king, simply because he was a human being and he deserved dignity.’
"I looked them in the eyes.
"‘It isn't glamorous. You won’t get a corner office with a view of the skyline. You will come home with aching feet and a broken heart more often than you’d like. But I promise you this: You will never, ever wonder if your work mattered.’
"The shift in the room was palpable. The questions they asked the tech guy were about stocks and salaries. The questions they asked me were different.
"‘Do you ever get scared?’ a boy in a varsity jacket asked. ‘Every single shift,’ I said.
"‘Do you cry?’ a girl in the front row asked. ‘I cry in the car. I cry in the shower. I cry because I care,’ I answered.
"After the bell rang and the gym cleared out, a skinny boy with messy hair lingered behind. He looked down at his worn-out sneakers, kicking at a scuff mark on the floor.
"‘My dad is a janitor,’ he whispered, almost like it was a secret he was ashamed of. ‘At a big office building downtown. People walk past him like he’s invisible. Like he’s part of the furniture.’
"He looked up at me, his eyes wet. ‘He comes home so tired. But he says he keeps the place safe. He says he stops the germs so the business people don't get sick.’
"I reached out and took that young man’s hand. ‘Son, listen to me. Your dad is a hero. The world stops spinning without people like your dad. We have enough 'visionaries' in corner offices. We don't have enough people willing to do the hard, invisible work that actually keeps civilization running. Taking care of people? Cleaning up the messes? That is everything.’
"We live in a culture that is obsessed with titles. We teach our children that success looks like a verified checkmark next to their name or a salary that creates envy. We praise the disruptors and the influencers.
"But let me tell you something about the real world.
"When the power grid fails in a winter storm, a résumé won’t save you. An electrician will. When the pipe bursts and floods your basement, a diploma won’t save you. A plumber will. When your child burns up with a fever at midnight, your stock portfolio won’t save you. A nurse will.
"We have forgotten the nobility of service. We have forgotten the sacredness of the ‘essential.’
"Last winter, I received a letter. It was from that boy with the messy hair. He’s not a boy anymore.
"'Dear Martha,' it read. 'I almost dropped out. I thought I wasn't smart enough for college, and I didn't want to be invisible like I thought my dad was. But I remembered what you said about dignity. I’m an EMT now. Last week, I saved a guy who had a heart attack on the subway platform. Nobody asked me for my business card. I just did the work. Thank you for telling me it mattered.'"
This woman wrote that she wept because this young man got it. So for those chasing the dream, stop chasing the “American Dream.” The question isn’t “what do you want to be?’ It’s “who do you want to help?”
Change the metric. And that is where Joseph comes in. He is the quiet man of the Incarnation. He is essential.
- "Joseph stays.
- He takes Mary as his wife.
- He embraces the shame and whispers from others.
- He raises a Son who is not biologically his.
- He teaches Jesus the trade of carpentry.
- He protects his family when Herod threatens.
- He moves his household to Egypt in obedience to another dream.
In a culture where honor, bloodlines and male pride were everything, Joseph lays all that down to do the will of God.”
Of course we need visionaries. But those visions have to run on something and that’s where the average Joes and Janes come into the picture. The people who get things done: at home, at work, and here, in this place. In the new year, let’s get to work doing the tasks that need to be done.
If you think about it, God’s metric is different from ours. God’s kingdom has always been built on the regular people, whether old or young, able to speak eloquently or not, sometimes not even the oldest son, but rather the eighth, like King David. God chooses the ordinary and makes that person extraordinary.
This week it is Joseph, a carpenter from Nazareth. And, as will be said in John’s Gospel: “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” The answer is yes. Let us all resolve to be a Joseph: faithful, obedient, courageous. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria.
3 Advent (Year A)
Matthew 11
St. John’s, West Seneca
December 14, 2025
Grace to you and Peace from God our Father and the LORD Jesus Christ. Amen.
We met him last week, this John the Baptist. And what a sight. Dressed in camel’s hair and leather with an interesting diet. And all came out to see and hear, as he called out the religious authorities and King Herod. His was a thundering voice in the wilderness and he wasn’t afraid to speak his mind.
But speaking your mind can be dangerous, and today we see John languishing in Herod’s jail. For a man who lived as John did, this must have been torturous. He was a man of the outdoors, now he could only look out on the world and wonder what was going on. And as he had much time to think about his own ministry, he asks the question that we should be asking ourselves this season. “Are you the one?”
Did John have second thoughts about whether Jesus was the Messiah, the one he had prepared for?
There were lots of false messiahs running around the region, claiming to be God’s one and only. A man named Judas of Galilee led a revolt against a Roman census in the year 6. There was Simon - a slave of Herod - who became a messianic figure when he led a rebellion the year 4. There was Theudus, who attempted a revolt against the Romans in the 40’s.
So you see, there was no shortage of fake messiahs claiming to be the one, which is why John asked, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”
The answer Jesus gives has always been one of my favorite passages. He doesn’t say “yes” or “no,” but instead suggests that they look around and make up their own minds. “Go and tell John what you hear and see,” says Jesus: “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me”.
"Look at what I am doing, Jesus suggests — then decide for yourself if I am the Messiah.” And what actions they were. The blind were receiving their sight, including two who called out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David”. The lame were walking, after Jesus said to a paralytic, “Stand up, take your bed and go to your home”. The lepers were being cleansed, such as the one who knelt before him and begged, “Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean”. The deaf were regaining their hearing, including a deaf man who also had an impediment in his speech. The dead were being raised, such as the little girl who was restored to life by the Jesus’s touch. And the poor were having good news preached to them, in words such as, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for yours is the kingdom of God”.
Look at what Jesus is doing here, not just what he is saying. He’s not just talking the talk; he’s walking the walk. His actions are proving that he is the one. “Go and tell John indeed…”
And then, Jesus turns around and gives credit to John the Baptist. “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at?” he asks the crowd. “Someone dressed in soft robes?” Jesus is mocking those who hiked into the wilderness to hear the preaching of John the Baptist, only to be offended by his clothing of camel’s hair, his leather belt and his diet, and of course, his words. “Look,” says Jesus, “those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces”.
John is a prophet, not a royal palace advisor. Furthermore, John is more than a prophet, insists Jesus — he is “the one about whom it is written, ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’”
People had listened to John for a reason. Sure, all the hoopla about his clothing and his diet would have brought them out, but something kept them there. The prophetic tradition had been silent, but something in the collective memory of the people recognized a prophet. And prophets were fearless. So is John. If there is one thing about John, it is that he denounced what was evil. If King Herod had sinned in marriage, John let him know about it. If the Pharisees were mired in legalistic religion, John let them know. If he believed that they were a “brood of vipers,” fleeing from the flames, John let them know. He was not shy in his choice of words, because what he saw all around him was offensive, too disturbing not to say something. It takes a great deal of courage to do what John did.
Today we have John asking that question: Are you the one to come?
It is Advent, time to keep awake, to prepare. I wonder, do any of us ask this question? Do we ask if Jesus is “the one?” We celebrate this season each year, but do we ever ask, as John did?
We know the end of the story, so it may seem ridiculous to even think of asking such a question. However, in this season, a season of “waking up,” perhaps we need to ask the question because we, like John, may be in some type of prison — a prison that has shut us out from what Jesus is doing in the world. A prison we have created. What does Marley say to Scrooge in A Christmas Carol? That the chains he carries, he had made, link by link?
We are caught in our own prisons, in our own secure life, in our idea of what a good life is. Add to that the busy-ness of the season, and it can be difficult to discern the presence of Christ in our midst. And so we ask: “Are you the one?”
The answer should come back to us: “Go and tell what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.”
Where do we see what God is doing? What do we see? And, are we being seen as the “good news?” Do we “do the right thing?” When those who are seeking a life in Christ look to us, do they see that while we are not able to heal as Jesus does, we are the carriers of that good news that changed the world and still changes lives? Or do they see Pharisees and Saduccees, wrapped up in our traditions, the way we do things. Do they see a “little Christ?"
Advent calls us to “wake up!” Advent calls us to prepare for the birth of Jesus in such a way that others want to follow. “At the heart of the Christian faith is that Jesus is Lord. To say that Jesus is Lord is to say that he is in charge. He is the One to whom we look for guidance for our daily lives, and the One in whom we place our trust as we move into an uncertain future.”
So, as we move forward, we need to leave whatever prison is holding us. We know that Jesus is the One who came and who will come again. We know that life in Him is a life worth waking up to. Our part is to “wake up” and be the good news. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria.
Christ the King (Year C)
Luke 23:33-43
St. John’s, West Seneca
November 23, 2025
Grace to you and Peace from God our Father and the LORD Jesus Christ. Amen.
Before we end this church year and celebrate Thanksgiving, before we turn the cradle, as it were, to Advent, we have one more glance at the cross to consider its meaning. But we Christians know the end of the story, and of course, the cross is only the apparent end. “Still, when we adore the Christ child, the tapestry on the wall beyond is dark with the shadows of the cross. We know this child’s destiny, and we know that our own destiny is wrapped up in his.”
“Crucifixion was a common and shameful form of execution in the first century. It was an agonizing and extended death, compounded by the sneering, mocking and scoffing of onlookers.
"There are three distinct groups of mockers: the public rabble including the leaders, the Roman soldiers and one of the criminals.
"Each one challenges Jesus to do for himself what he has said he could do all along. These provocateurs probably had no faith that Jesus could indeed save himself; rather, “their comments are gratuitous barbs tossed at Jesus in the form of mockery, sneers, and insults. The ironic truth of these taunts is that those who mock him declare his messianic identity and the saving significance of his death — “King of the Jews,” “the Messiah,” “Save yourself and us!” — but they do not grasp the truth they speak.”
In Luke’s narrative, he makes these unique contributions to our understanding of the crucifixion story. “This gospel is the only one to record the words of the men crucified with Jesus, or to report a conversation among the three dying men. Here, one criminal takes a different tack from the other — the ‘penitent thief’ delivers what is arguably Christianity’s first sermon, a speech from the cross in which this outcast understands things the disciples could not yet comprehend.”
Crucifixion was such a shameful thing that the disciples never understood how the Messiah could be rejected and executed. But this criminal, this outcast, gets it. He understands that precisely because Jesus is on the cross, he is the Messiah. The disciples do not, nor does Jesus's family. Rather, this criminal, this outsider, who “gets it” and gives witness to whom Jesus was when everyone else had deserted, double-crossed and derided him and then gone into hiding. And because he believes this, he asks: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
The beauty and joy of this moment is that just as Jesus is saving the whole world, he takes the time to save one person. Jesus never sacrificed the one for the many, or the many for the one. He kept the one and the many together at all times in his life ... and death.
This Sunday – Christ the King - is the Johnny-come-lately of church festivals. Pope Pius XI, in a 1925 papal encyclical, was the one who set this day apart, saying that the kingship of Christ is a wall, a protection against the “manifold evils in the world.” Pius reminded Christians reeling from the aftermath of World War I that the central theme of Jesus’s teaching was the kingdom of God. And what a different king and kingdom. Unlike earthly kings, there is no coronation ritual, rich with symbolism: the robes, the scepter, the orb, Saint Edward’s chair.
These days, when religious identity is often “spiritual, but not religious,” or a lifestyle choice based on convenience, Christ the King challenges all of us. In a fallen world corrupted by sin and lust for power, Christ proclaims a kingdom based on love and mercy. Grace and truth are to flow freely, beyond the goodness of what any earthly kingdom or human ruler can provide.
Situated at the end of the liturgical year, one writer described Christ the King Sunday as a joyful exclamation point. It reminds us of the joys of our Christian life, just as we prepare to begin the cycle again with Advent, anticipating the newborn King.
But the cross is always at the center of our faith as we begin a new year.
Martin Luther has a great deal to say about this, in his theology of the Cross. He believed God revealed His power and love most fully through Jesus's suffering and death, not through human reason or works. This perspective emphasizes that God is with believers in their suffering and that salvation is entirely a gift from God through Christ, not something earned through human merit. That contrasts with a theology of glory that looks for God in our accomplishments and reason.
The good news is that when we learn to recognize this God, then we can also learn to “recognize God in his glory and majesty” in a way that actually does feed our faith and life. If we start with glory, the cross will, in one form or another, take on secondary importance in our thinking and feeling about God. If we start with the cross, then our understanding of who God is will grow deeper, richer, more complex, and, in the end, more glorious.
So, on Christ the King Sunday, perhaps this is as good a time to be reminded that the King we serve – Jesus Christ – is not a king in the usual or even expected way. This king – as we see in the Gospel text – is a crucified one, between two criminals.
It is the last Sunday of the Church year, and we begin again, always taking the crucifixion and resurrection with us. After giving “Thanks” later this week, we will jump into Advent, with Matthew’s Gospel, and start over yet again with the same story told by a different author. The story is of the same loving God who comes to us and walks with us, and yes, suffers with us.
We know the story. Jesus will come to us as a child. Another king will be threatened by him and he and his family will be refugees. He will be baptized by the strangest man around and will travel and teach with a motley group of followers. He will eat with no distinction between sinners and saints. His popularity will grow and He will be welcomed as the next David, then betrayed and crucified. This is Christ the King, God’s Son, Jesus, and through this coming year, we will learn again that God will stop at nothing for us, his people. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria.
26 Pentecost (Year C)
Luke 21:5-19
St. John’s West Seneca
November 16, 2025
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We have just come from Reformation Sunday and All Saints’, and are soon to reach the end of the church year. For me, once we come to Reformation, it is just a slide into Christmas. And yes, next week we will celebrate Christ the King Sunday and another church year will be in the books. And then we start the cycle all over again.
And yet, I find myself at odds with trying to finish off one church year before Thanksgiving, and when there are Christmas decorations and lights. An article from TIME magazine comes to mind, one in which the author is on the same page that I am. The name of the essay was “Merry Hallowmas.”
“’A perpetual Holiday,’ George Bernard Shaw said, ‘is a good working definition of hell.’ It's as though we've supersized our holidays, so that they start sooner, last longer and cost more, until the calendar pages pull and tear, and we don't know which one we are meant to be celebrating.
"Seasons once had a rhythm to them, tuned to the harvest or the hunt, with rituals spaced through the year to bring the rain, praise the sun, mark the time between solstice and equinox, celebrate birth and honor death. Our holidays answer our needs to feast and mourn and manage risk, our customs customized to the point that the Roman pagans had a holiday specifically designed to prevent a certain kind of mold from destroying the wheat by offering animal sacrifices to the god of mildew. We remember those we love on Valentine's Day, those we revere on Easter or Passover or Ramadan, those we fear on Halloween. Thanksgiving was a celebration of harvest, the stuffing of oneself a natural response to all the work that once went into managing one's crops and now goes into managing one's relatives. Just as meals and sleep and work and recess pace the days, so do holidays pace the year. Clump them together, and they lose their fizz and juice, the useful little monthly boosts turned into a pileup of duties and lists. When every day is a holiday--or more precisely, part of the holiday season--none really are.
"It's true that our forebears could never agree when the cycle should begin. The ancient Egyptians celebrated the new year as the Nile rose at the end of August. The Incans picked the year's shortest day (June 21 in the southern hemisphere), while Chinese New Year usually falls on the day of the second new moon after the winter solstice. It was Pope Gregory in 1582 who finally settled on Jan. 1 for Europeans. But wherever it lands, it serves its purpose: the past falling away…
"Since winter can be long and dreary, when days are short and the sunlight thin, we rely on the revelry of carnival and Mardi Gras to carry us over until spring and rebirth. Then come the patriotic plumes, of Memorial Day and Flag Day and July 4 (not to mention Cinco de Mayo, Bastille Day and Samoan Independence Day) before a long spell when the holidays themselves go on holiday. August is the rare month with no shared celebration in it, when we gasp along for weeks on end without collective permission to overspend, overeat and overindulge…”
Wow. There is more to that article, of course, and if that is not the truth succinctly written, I don’t know what is.
Just as holidays mark time, so does the church year. The rhythm of the church year begs us to consider – as holidays do – just who we are and who we are becoming as children of God.
The church year has six seasons: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter and Pentecost. Advent always has four Sundays. Christmas is always twelve days long, and the first day of Christmas is Christmas Day. Lent is 40 days, not counting Sundays, and has five Sundays, then Palm Sunday. Easter is fifty days long, with seven Sundays. The seasons of Epiphany and Pentecost vary in length, depending on the date of Easter, although the date for the Day of Epiphany is always January 6. This coming Epiphany will have five Sundays, then Transfiguration, marking the end of the Epiphany season. Ash Wednesday comes February 18, with Easter on April 5.
Besides those statistics, which may or may not get you a place on Jeopardy, the intention behind the church year is always to examine where you are in your faith life by focusing on what Christ has done, and what we should be doing in each season. Just like the holidays, if you clump them together, they lose their fizzle and their meaning. As we come to the end of the year, it’s time to take stock. It is time to revisit where we’ve been.
The church has set aside these last Sundays to remind us that Jesus will come again. With Malachi and Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, and Jesus’s own words, all of it can sound dire.
It’s not an easy thing to speak of the end times. Either we don’t want to hear it, or we have heard that the end is near far too often, and time after time, the calculating has been off. You see, rumors of this world's demise have been greatly exaggerated. Consider the example of William Miller, a Baptist farmer from New York who was convinced that Christ would return to Earth in the early 1840s. With the assistance of Boston preacher Joshua Himes, Miller persuaded tens of thousands of Christians that the "day of the Lord" was at hand. Some followers even quit jobs and sold property in anticipation of the Second Coming. What came instead was the so-called Great Disappointment, and with it the discrediting of William Miller. Within a short time, however, Miller's shoes were filled by others who reinterpreted the texts, reworked the math, and issued new predictions. And it happens over and over. Remember just a few short weeks ago, the Rapture was supposed to happen.
All three lessons are looking ahead to that day. Paul is especially concerned with those believers who were fervently believed in the imminent return of Jesus. “Since his ETA was unknown, but could be at any moment, some of the Thessalonian Christians had given notice to their employers, left their professions, and were arranging for their imminent and final flight to parts unknown…Paul tells the church to get back to work. Idle hands are the devil’s workshop. Yes, Jesus is coming again, but until he does, we must make our own way and not expect others to finance our idleness.” As Paul put it: “Do not be weary in doing what is right.”
Jesus assures us as well, by stating that that despite all the terrors and calamities that may befall us, we will be safe. Jesus's approach is more about dealing with your heart and mind than building a bomb shelter and retreating from the world.
We are to live with readiness and awareness. Denial is a common coping mechanism in us humans. It's common to scan the headlines as you check the news on your phone each morning and think, "Nope -- that's not going to happen here." What Jesus stresses is that we are to realize that can happen here, where we are. Again, Jesus is not calling us into a state of paranoia or fear. He's simply asking his people to be honest; to realize that this world is struggling with sin and despair, until that day when he returns.
The readings today do not give us permission to spend our time wringing our hands and wondering when. If anything, it is the opposite. Instead, live with your eyes wide open but your heart at peace, confident that God will give you what you need when the time comes.
The function of eschatology – a fancy word for the end times - is nothing more than a reckoning to remind us that while the words are alarming, for us, it is just another day of service to God. We live under grace and hope, not doom and gloom. Jesus gets the message out, loud and clear: "I'll be back." He just doesn't mention when.
And so we don’t give up. We don’t have to give up and we should not give up. Because God has sent us the One who will always keep us alive, both here and eternally. The signs all around us may point to the end, but God wants us to keep working wherever He has placed us. There's a lot of life yet to live, and work to be done. May we always be ready and aware, but not obsessed and afraid. Amen.
Soli Gloria Dei
22 Pentecost (Year C)
Luke 20 27-38
St. John’s, West Seneca
November 9, 2025
Grace to you and Peace from God our Father and the LORD Jesus Christ. Amen.
This is one of those narratives that could begin with “in today’s episode we have the Sadducees trying to trick our hero Jesus with a ridiculous scenario." Remember that from days of old television? It’s ridiculous because the Sadducees ask a question about the resurrection and they didn’t believe in the resurrection.
And that is how Luke begins this encounter. First a bit of terminology. Now, during the time of Jesus, there were four sects within Judaism: Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots, and Essenes.
The Zealots need no further definition, fervent, sometimes violent. Among Jesus’s disciples, there wss a Simon the Zealot. The Essenes were an ascetic group living in the desert and it is believed John the Baptist may have been an Essene.
The Pharisees and Sadducees were similar in their views and how they kept the religious law. But there were two key differences. The Pharisees upheld the oral Torah along with the written Torah, believing that the oral traditions had been revealed to Moses, along with the written. At the time of Jesus, these traditions were oral, but many have since been written and preserved in the Mishnah. The Sadducees did not believe in the authority of the oral tradition and instead upheld only the written Torah. (This emphasis in their teaching may be hinted at in Luke 20:28 where they state "Moses wrote ..." rather than "Moses taught ..." or "Moses commanded ....")
As for their name, “Sadducee" is the Greek rendering of the English term "Zadokite," or the descendants of Zadok, David's high priest. “In the competition between the priestly houses in ancient Israel, the Zadokites were the decided winners. It is believed that they are responsible for the codification and preservation of most of the Old Testament legal material; so it is not surprising that it is this group which approaches Jesus with what they believe is a flaw in his logic about resurrection.”
As they approach Jesus with this question, we realize that the law is straightforward, but the Sadducees propose a scenario in which the consequences are confusing: A woman is passed through the hands of seven brothers without having children with any of them. The Sadducees ask Jesus, then, whose wife the woman will be in the resurrection. The question, of course, is a setup The Sadducees do not believe in a resurrection, and their question is put so as to trap Jesus into giving an answer to show that the belief in the resurrection is inconsistent with the law of Moses.
Jesus speaks and shows that the scenario that they suggest is the wrong question. Jesus points out that "those who belong to this age" differ from "those who are considered worthy of a place in that age,” with regards to marriage. Jesus brings in the divine, God as the divine parent, not a human parent.
And he goes on. The Sadducees had been hoping to trap him into admitting that the idea of a resurrection was incompatible with this. But Jesus trips that up by invoking Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God’s power is life-giving, so even the ancestors live as children of God. God continues in relationship, and resurrection life will be quite different from this one. What makes someone alive is not biological, but a relationship with the living God.
Turning to what we think about heaven, in our limited capacity, we tend to imagine it as a simply more glorified version of what we have here and what we have experienced here. Hence the question about marriage in the first place. In a more contemporary take on this question : Whose wife will this 7-time widow be in heaven? Maybe Jesus responded: What makes you think women will be treated like men’s property in the next age?” What makes us think that all will be the same?
It will not be the same. In other words, in Technicolor and no mistakes, no rain on a newly washed car, no bad hair days. But you see, everything will be different. Everything will be made new. The love we have here will continue but with a completely different focus and understanding. That’s what Jesus is saying: it will be beyond whatever scenario we can cook up, beyond what we can imagine.
Enough of the scholarly stuff. Let’s look at the Sadducees. A colleague wrote on FACEBOOK: “They did not believe in an afterlife – just this life – in which they were privileged so they were keepers of the status quo. Jesus was not a status quo kind of guy so he scared the Sadducees – a lot. The temple was their power base, until it was torn down 50 years after Jesus died and they disappeared from history.”
If the Sadducees were asking the wrong question, maybe we are as well. For example, in certain areas, we have seen smaller and smaller and smaller churches our entire lives. Are we going the same way as the Sadducees? Is this our “spot” where nothing can change? Are we the status quo when the God we worship is not a status quo God? Is church still a place to find meaning for our life or not?
Those are the questions that we should be asking. Because…
If we believe this is the place where God meets us, a place where God lifts up all people, offering his very presence, forgiveness and grace, why do so few come? Is our witness for Christ, our enthusiasm, our joy not being seen by others who may be curious about our joy? How are you a “little Christ” in your daily life?
Why do you come? Is it listening to the Word in the liturgy, in the readings, or the prayers? Is it because of confession and forgiveness, the hope of a better life? Is it knowing we need to pass the peace with those we really don’t know? Is it because together, in this place, our soul feels its worth?
Way back in 1989, an executive vice-president of the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptists, argued that our institutions need to be changed into the likeness of Christ.
"The names of the actors have changed, but the first century drama is still playing. Sadducees versus Pharisees are present in interchurch, intrachurch, and parachurch rivalries. From bases of tradition or doctrine or praxis, the competition has escalated until today there are more than 22,000 denominations… The validity of one is questioned by the other, resulting in competition and conflict. Clergy-laity battles rage which siphon spiritual energy. They fail to capitalize on the availability of gifts and commitment that could become the salt penetrating a lost world. Modern Zadoks are grasping 'my church, my tradition, my movement.'"
--Alan Nichols, ed.,The Whole Gospel or the Whole World (Ventura, Calif.: Regal Books, 1989), 107.
It rings true for me. We need to get to the real thing. We, like the Sadducees, may be missing the point. The promise is waiting. We need to be salt and light in and to a world that needs both. We need to bring the kingdom here, where all people are accepted, regardless of job, or education, or marital status, where those on the margins are welcome. That is how the first disciples did it, with no permission from the Sadducees. Not with clever scenarios, but with a true witness based on the love of God and the promises they had experienced and wanted to share. We must do the same. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria.
Reformation Sunday (Year C)
St. John’s, West Seneca
October 26, 2025
Grace to you and Peace from God our Father and the LORD Jesus Christ. Amen.
I’ve been preaching Reformation Sunday since 2001. While I began at Holy Trinity in 1996, I did not preach on this Lutheran high holiday as that was the duty of the senior Pastor to preach Reformation, as well as Christmas Eve.
I remember being excited when I first preached in the fall of 2001, but after all these years, I think I’ve used my best material and repeated myself. I’ve spoken of history most often, putting the Reformation into perspective. But time and time again, I have returned to Martin Luther’s words on just how the Reformation happened:
“While I have been sleeping, or drinking Wittenberg beer with my friend Philip and with Amsdorf, it is the word that has done great things…I have done nothing, I have let the Word act. It is all powerful, it takes hearts prisoner.”
Not only do we see that Luther enjoyed a beer with friends and a good night’s sleep, we also see that he had faith that God would do what God would do.
It is the Word that has always held my attention. Luther brought the Word of God to the people, no longer hidden, protected and doled out only by clergy. One of Luther’s many accomplishments was translating the Bible into German, and offering the Mass in German as well, so that all could understand.
And so today, I invite you to look into this gift called the Bible. While the words remain the same, our circumstances do not, and many is the time that I, looking over a text, see something that I hadn’t noticed before, but for some reason, piques my interest.
We are not as familiar with Scripture as our older relatives and ancestors, something that frustrates me…and most pastors. There is such a wealth there: great epics, history, poetry, wisdom, parables, life, death, and resurrection, and God’s eternal promise of salvation. It’s a banquet for the soul.
Many of us quote Scripture, even if we don’t realize that it is Scripture.
- "Do not fear" or "fear not": Or some variation, appears dozens of times
- "Be strong and courageous": Found in Joshua 1:9 and Deuteronomy 31:6.
- "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want": From Psalm 23. Phrases about morality and ethics
- "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you": The "Golden Rule" from Matthew 7:12.
- "Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.": From Micah 6:8, it's a concise summary of righteous action.
- "Let all that you do be done in love": From 1 Corinthians 16:14, a guiding principle for behavior.
Beyond that, many of the sayings and idioms that we have today come either directly from the Bible (depending on the version), or speak to a theme. Which ones do you use?
- "A drop in the bucket": Meaning something insignificant.
- "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth": A principle of retribution found in Exodus and quoted by Jesus in Matthew 5:38.
- "Apple of my eye":
- "Faith will move mountains": from Matthew and Mark, a testament to the power of faith.
- The skin of my teeth: from Job
- "The handwriting on the wall": comes from Daniel 5 and is sign of impending disaster.
- "The truth will set you free": A well-known saying from the Gospel of John.
- “Rise and shine: My mother’s morning greeting telling someone to wake up and be cheerful. It is from Isaiah 60:1, which calls for believers to "Arise, shine; for your light has come".
- A wolf in sheep's clothing: A person who appears friendly but is actually deceitful or harmful. This image comes from Jesus's Sermon on the Mount, warning against false prophets.
- Go the extra mile: To make a special effort or to go beyond what is required. This saying comes from the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus tells his followers to go two miles if forced to carry a Roman soldier's pack one mile.
- Wash your hands of it: To disclaim responsibility for something. The phrase comes from the book of Matthew, where Pontius Pilate washes his hands to declare himself innocent of Jesus's condemnation.
- The blind leading the blind: When a foolish or uninformed leader guides others who are equally clueless. This image is from a warning by Jesus in Matthew 15:14.
- Nothing new under the sun: A saying for when something seems unoriginal or has been done before. It originates from the book of Ecclesiastes, which reflects on the cyclical nature of human experience.
- Eat, drink, and be merry: An exhortation to enjoy life and indulge in simple pleasures. It is a line from Ecclesiastes 8:15 and is also repeated in the Gospel of Luke.”
We use the word “genesis” when we speak of the beginning, and “exodus” when a group of people who leave. We speak of the “gospel” truth, how we’ve had an epiphany, or a revelation. Again, how many of us have been a “doubting Thomas,” or had the “patience of Job?”
On this day, this comes as a reminder that when Luther translated the Bible into his native German, he was onto something. And scholar that he was, he used the original texts, the Greek and the Hebrew, rather than relying on the Latin only.
Let the Word take you captive. For our Confirmands, I hope that you will continue to have a curiosity about the book that has so shaped our lives. For all of us, I ask that you brush up on your knowledge. In his song THE MAN IN BLACK, Johnny Cash sings that he “wears the black for those who’ve never read, or listened to the words that Jesus said, about the road to happiness through love and charity, why you’d think he was talking straight to you and me.” He is. So let’s brush up a bit with a few assignments.
- Read Genesis 1, then compare it with Genesis 2.
- Read that entire Leviticus holiness code – all of it – then ask yourself how much you follow.
- Read the book of Judges – as violent as it is – then see what the situation is like when men choose whom they believe should lead instead of God.
- Consider one of the minor prophets – Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, so called because of the brevity of the book. Their words are powerful, and they indict us for our foolish behavior.
- Think of the great heroes – Jacob, Joseph, Saul, and David – and find out why they are heroes when their behavior is often so sinful, so conniving, so…like ours. As I said last week, it is “life in the making.”
- Take each resurrection account and note who is there, who speaks, and everything else that sets each apart.
Or read about the early church as presented in Acts. Saul – who will become Paul – is the “coatcheck” boy for those who stone Stephen. And further in, what is this? Discord in the early church? Nooo.
Let the Word of God take you prisoner. Let all its inconsistencies, wildly sinful behavior, and fear simply be. Because through all of Scripture, God is gracious and merciful. God never stops forgiving us, loving us, even to the sending of his own Son, to give us light where before there was only darkness. For “it is the word that has done great things…It is all powerful, it takes hearts prisoner.” Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria.
Contact
