Sunday Sermon – The Rev Joshua Daniel, PH D (December 21, 2025)

00:01:24 [Speaker 1] The holy gospel of our savior Jesus Christ according to Matthew. 00:01:29 [Speaker 1] Glory to you, oh Christ. 00:01:33 [Speaker 1] Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. 00:01:37 [Speaker 1] When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 00:01:47 [Speaker 1] Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. 00:01:58 [Speaker 1] But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. 00:02:04 [Speaker 1] And said, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. 00:02:10 [Speaker 1] For the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 00:02:15 [Speaker 1] She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus. 00:02:19 [Speaker 1] For he will save his people from their sins. 00:02:24 [Speaker 1] All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet. 00:02:29 [Speaker 1] Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Immanuel. 00:02:36 [Speaker 1] Which means God is with us. 00:02:39 [Speaker 1] When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. 00:02:45 [Speaker 1] He took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had born a son. 00:02:52 [Speaker 1] And he named him Jesus. 00:02:57 [Speaker 1] The gospel of the Lord. 00:02:59 [Speaker 1] Praise to you Lord Christ. 00:03:49 [Speaker 2] I invite young children ages three to 10 to go into the music room with Katie for a bible story, and prayers, and songs. 00:03:57 [Speaker 2] And they'll return at the piece. 00:03:59 [Speaker 3] May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight o Lord our strength and redeemer. 00:04:10 [Speaker 3] Amen. 00:04:10 [Speaker 3] Please be seated. 00:04:16 [Speaker 3] Please find in your bulletin a two sided coin. 00:04:23 [Speaker 3] A two sided coin that is our faith in Jesus. 00:04:30 [Speaker 3] On the one side, we see a kingdom at peace. 00:04:35 [Speaker 3] Jesus at rest in His mother, His mother at rest in the peace of God. 00:04:44 [Speaker 3] Mary's arms are stretched out like a priest, or are they stretched out like Jesus's arms stretched on the cross? 00:04:56 [Speaker 3] Either way, this is the stance we priests take at the altar for the Eucharistic prayer. 00:05:03 [Speaker 3] Trying our best to take the posture of God. 00:05:08 [Speaker 3] Arms open wide. 00:05:11 [Speaker 3] A welcoming to every person, great and small alike. 00:05:18 [Speaker 3] There is no one beyond the reach of the forgiveness of God. 00:05:27 [Speaker 3] Okay. 00:05:28 [Speaker 3] On the other side is a kingdom no less real. 00:05:35 [Speaker 3] This is the kingdom when the reality of our situation has settled in. 00:05:41 [Speaker 3] We are not in control. 00:05:45 [Speaker 3] We're strapped into a ride that has its own plans. 00:05:49 [Speaker 3] It's a ride we didn't design. 00:05:51 [Speaker 3] We find ourselves on this ride and we don't know where it ends. 00:05:56 [Speaker 3] There will be moments of tranquility. 00:05:58 [Speaker 3] Sure. 00:05:59 [Speaker 3] Moments when we think, this isn't so bad. 00:06:05 [Speaker 3] And then, the bottom literally falls out. 00:06:10 [Speaker 3] And we remember we are not in control. 00:06:15 [Speaker 3] There is a moment, perhaps only for one flash of a second, when we think, am I going to make it? 00:06:27 [Speaker 3] Now, I'm fighting the urge to make this entire sermon about a theology of roller coasters. 00:06:36 [Speaker 3] No, no, no, no. 00:06:37 [Speaker 3] I'm not going to do it. 00:06:38 [Speaker 3] But, let me just say very briefly that humans are the kinds of creatures that know that flash of moment very well. 00:06:46 [Speaker 3] The will I make it feeling. 00:06:49 [Speaker 3] And we love that feeling and we hate that feeling. 00:06:55 [Speaker 3] And humans also know that we're the kinds of creatures that will spend millions of dollars constructing a ride that reliably produces that feeling in us. 00:07:09 [Speaker 3] Not only that, but we're the kinds of creatures that set up cameras, that are capable of taking a picture, that captures that split second feeling. 00:07:21 [Speaker 3] We know that we say we hate that feeling but also we know there's a market willing to buy that picture. 00:07:29 [Speaker 3] How much did I pay for this? 00:07:30 [Speaker 3] You might wonder. 00:07:32 [Speaker 3] $25 worth every penny. 00:07:39 [Speaker 3] This is the fourth and last week in our Isaiah preaching series. 00:07:45 [Speaker 3] So you've heard these last several weeks and excellent sermons by Hillary and Adeline, Isaiah presents this two sided form of faith throughout his text. 00:07:58 [Speaker 3] It was this picture of the world presented by Isaiah that brought me into the Episcopal Church. 00:08:06 [Speaker 3] We read Isaiah at many of our most important services. 00:08:11 [Speaker 3] In college, I stumbled into an ASH Wednesday service. 00:08:16 [Speaker 3] A service I had not only never experienced, but hadn't ever even heard of. 00:08:23 [Speaker 3] Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent. 00:08:26 [Speaker 3] A period of solemn praying and fasting as we prepare for Easter. 00:08:33 [Speaker 3] Most Ash Wednesdays we read this text from Isaiah 58. 00:08:39 [Speaker 3] The prophet asks, why? 00:08:45 [Speaker 3] Why do we fast? 00:08:48 [Speaker 3] Isaiah, seeing through our fancy words, the big religious commitments we can make on special occasions, reminds his people that many of them will fast, yes. 00:09:06 [Speaker 3] But many of them will not change their lives. 00:09:10 [Speaker 3] Listen to these words so clear and profoundly relevant to us and the world we inhabit. 00:09:19 [Speaker 3] Isaiah says to them rather bluntly as is his style, Look. 00:09:26 [Speaker 3] Look. 00:09:28 [Speaker 3] You serve your own interest on your fast day, and you oppress all your workers. 00:09:36 [Speaker 3] You fast only to quarrel and fight. 00:09:41 [Speaker 3] Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high. 00:09:48 [Speaker 3] Then Isaiah pleads with them to take up the true fast of the Lord. 00:09:54 [Speaker 3] And what's that fast look like? 00:09:57 [Speaker 3] Isaiah again. 00:09:58 [Speaker 3] The fast I choose to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, to break every yoke? 00:10:17 [Speaker 3] Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house? 00:10:24 [Speaker 3] When you see the naked, cover them and not to hide yourself from your own kin. 00:10:36 [Speaker 3] I was 19 when I heard those words for the first time, and I could hardly believe them. 00:10:44 [Speaker 3] On the day that the church commits itself to fast, to put ashes on our foreheads. 00:10:50 [Speaker 3] We also read the ancient words condemning a people who fast and put ash on their heads if. 00:11:00 [Speaker 3] If they failed to take care of the poor and marginalized. 00:11:06 [Speaker 3] This was a church that stood in judgment not of the world outside their walls, but a church preaching to themselves. 00:11:16 [Speaker 3] The work of knowing God, of living with God, of being righteous before God. 00:11:23 [Speaker 3] That is work for us. 00:11:26 [Speaker 3] The Episcopal church, we read these words every year and every time we ask ourselves anew. 00:11:37 [Speaker 3] Are they true of us? 00:11:41 [Speaker 3] The call to repentance here is not to our neighbors, who may not be interested in coming to church. 00:11:48 [Speaker 3] The call to repentance from Isaiah is a call to us. 00:11:54 [Speaker 3] Is our house in order? 00:11:59 [Speaker 3] And this is what I found in the Episcopal church. 00:12:02 [Speaker 3] In our best moments, we're a church bravely willing to ask the hard questions of ourselves. 00:12:10 [Speaker 3] A A church that doesn't content itself in judging the actions of others, but in holding itself accountable to the piercing vision of God. 00:12:24 [Speaker 3] Our baptismal covenant reflects just this point. 00:12:28 [Speaker 3] We take responsibility to not just read the scriptures, but to be transformed by them. 00:12:35 [Speaker 3] To sacrifice ourselves in the way that Christ did. 00:12:41 [Speaker 3] To live lives in the service of others. 00:12:48 [Speaker 3] This is why so many baptisms the priest will sometimes ask, are you sure you're up for this? 00:12:57 [Speaker 3] Adults, parents, children, youth, elders, Have you actually read these words? 00:13:05 [Speaker 3] They're insane. 00:13:08 [Speaker 3] Are you sure you really want to commit yourself to this work, to this way of living? 00:13:15 [Speaker 3] Forgiveness, not just for some, not just when it suits you, but always. 00:13:26 [Speaker 3] Even for that wretch, the bossy jerk that sits behind you and always says the most revolting things? 00:13:38 [Speaker 3] And care, not just for some. 00:13:43 [Speaker 3] A kind of caring that also demands that you share your possessions. 00:13:51 [Speaker 3] That the poor near you moves you to act, moves you to a reckless generosity. 00:14:03 [Speaker 3] This is just the difficulty of faith. 00:14:06 [Speaker 3] The world has always been this way. 00:14:09 [Speaker 3] As humans we often use our power to oppress, to divide, to threaten war. 00:14:17 [Speaker 3] Often humans live with moral blindness to the neighbors in need. 00:14:22 [Speaker 3] The generosity that so many of us receive, that generosity we often choose not to share with others. 00:14:34 [Speaker 3] This is the state of the world that Isaiah often addressed, that Isaiah's own people were the cause of. 00:14:43 [Speaker 3] Will you turn again to the mother of mercy? 00:14:51 [Speaker 3] In the midst of chaos, a world often at war and out of control, Isaiah speaks softly to us. 00:15:05 [Speaker 3] A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. 00:15:15 [Speaker 3] From today's lesson, the Lord himself will give you a sign. 00:15:22 [Speaker 3] Look, the young woman is with child, shall bear a son and shall name him Immanuel. 00:15:31 [Speaker 3] He shall eat curds and honey. 00:15:34 [Speaker 3] By the time he knows how to refuse evil and choose the good, God is with us. 00:15:45 [Speaker 3] God is in each of you. 00:15:50 [Speaker 3] Isaiah says God is calling you to go. 00:15:56 [Speaker 3] Go and share this love, this way of peace. 00:16:01 [Speaker 3] Stretch out your arms. 00:16:04 [Speaker 3] Mothers, let your children be vulnerable. 00:16:08 [Speaker 3] Send them out into the world. 00:16:11 [Speaker 3] Let them risk their selves to meet the hurt and pain that is out there. 00:16:24 [Speaker 3] It will pierce your heart. 00:16:26 [Speaker 3] All of us will be wounded by it. 00:16:30 [Speaker 3] And this is why we gather, to remind ourselves of these insane commitments. 00:16:40 [Speaker 3] To offer our bodies to God. 00:16:44 [Speaker 3] Wounded and broken, holy and blessed, to be healed and to heal. 00:16:54 [Speaker 3] Is that sending out that Isaiah promises transformation? 00:16:59 [Speaker 3] When we take this posture, the posture of Mary that the light of God can break forth. 00:17:11 [Speaker 3] I leave you with the words from Isaiah himself. 00:17:15 [Speaker 3] From the passage we read at the end, or at in Ash Wednesday. 00:17:23 [Speaker 3] If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry, and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness. 00:17:39 [Speaker 3] Your gloom be like noonday. 00:17:41 [Speaker 3] The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong. 00:17:51 [Speaker 3] You shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters never fail. 00:17:58 [Speaker 3] Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt. 00:18:02 [Speaker 3] You shall rise up the foundations of many generations. 00:18:07 [Speaker 3] You shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in. 00:18:15 [Speaker 3] Come, Lord Jesus. 00:18:17 [Speaker 3] Come, Emmanuel. 00:18:20 [Speaker 3] Dwell with your people once again. 00:18:24 [Speaker 3] Amen.