Las Vegas Lazy -- FPC sermon excerpt

His name is Simon, and he is a thin, fit, 27-year-old man, in perfect health.

I’m not talking about Simon Peter.

No, I’m talking about Simon Lezama.

What is so surprising about Simon Lezama is that he is riding an electric “mobility scooter” all around Las Vegas. He is taking a vacation, and because of the miles of gambling and gluttony that stretch out before him, he has decided to fork over $40 a day to rent an electric wheelchair.

Now, Simon doesn’t have to take a step. He doesn’t even have to put down his drink.

“It was all the walking,” he explained to The Associated Press (May 2007). “Now I can drink and drive, be responsible and save my feet.”

Simon, Simon — you should hear the words of Jesus, “Stand up and walk” (Matthew 9:5).

Marcel Maritz runs the scooter rental company that caters to Las Vegas visitors, and he is seeing the number of able-bodied renters growing every year. “We’re seeing more and more young people just for the fact that the Strip has gotten so big, the hotels are so large,” he says. Most of his business still comes from the obese, elderly, or disabled, but the young and fit now make up about 5 percent of his clientele.

These young folks don’t want to walk to the casinos, hotels, shopping malls, spas, bars, and restaurants — not if they can ride.

You have to call them “Las Vegas Lazy.”

Simon Lezama provides an excellent contrast to Simon Peter in today’s passage from the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus is on the go as he begins his ministry, leaving Nazareth and making his home in Simon’s town of Capernaum, by the Sea of Galilee (Matthew 4:13). There Jesus hits the road — without a “mobility scooter” — and begins to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (v. 17). Everything Jesus says and does is energetic, even his announcement of the kingdom coming and breaking into the middle of human life. He insists that the kingdom of heaven is not a passive place, but is God’s active, powerful, table-turning, world-changing reign.

There’s nothing lazy about it.

As Jesus walks by the Sea of Galilee, he sees two brothers — Simon Peter and Andrew. They are working as fishermen, casting a net into the sea, and Jesus says to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people” (vv. 18-19). Notice that his initial invitation is not “listen to me,” “believe in me,” or “bow down to me” — it is “follow me.” Discipleship begins with walking … with faithful following.

Immediately they leave their nets and fall in behind him (v. 20).

Moving on down the road, Jesus sees two other brothers, James and John, who are in a boat with their father, mending their nets. He calls to them in the same way, and they leave both their boat and their father, and follow Jesus on foot (vv. 21-22).

The passage ends with Jesus striding all throughout the region of Galilee, teaching in synagogues, curing diseases, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of heaven (v. 23). Jesus is a walking spokesman for the one true God.

And how about his disciples? They have to walk as well, if they want to keep up with Jesus.

What Isaiah Got Right -- FPC sermon excerpt

A new year is starting, and you’ve got to be wondering what the future holds.

Who will win the Super Bowl? Which nation will grab the most gold at the 2008 Olympics? Which candidate will reach the White House? Most important of all, who will be the next American Idol?

We simply do not know. But there have always been prophets willing to make predictions.

Some come true.

Most do not.

Take Jeane Dixon, astrologer to the Reagans. She made hundreds of predictions in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, and wrote a horoscope book for dogs. According to mental_floss magazine (November-December 2006), Dixon was most famous for foreseeing the assassination of John F. Kennedy — in 1956, she said a Democrat would win the 1960 election and die in office.

But her record was far from perfect. She also said that World War III would break out in 1958, cancer would be cured in 1967, and peace would cover the Earth in the year 2000.

We’re still waiting.

How about Edward Bellamy, a prophet who lived in 1888 and wrote a novel about the year 2000? What he got right was a prediction of modern conveniences such as credit cards, music on the radio, and even wholesale stores like Costco.

What he got wrong was a vision of America as a socialist state in which housewives didn’t have to cook and everyone retired at 45.

Don’t you wish the retirement thing had come true?

Then there was “The Amazing Criswell,” a pop-culture fixture of the 1960s. He appeared on “The Jack Paar Program” in March of 1963, and predicted that tragedy would strike President Kennedy in November. He got that right.

What he got wrong: Predictions that a space ray would zap Denver, brain transplants would be sold in vending machines, and mass cannibalism would break out in August 1999.

There are clearly some bad prophets out there, and there always have been.

What about Isaiah?

In today’s passage of Scripture, God delivers a message through the prophet Isaiah, “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights” (Isaiah 42:1). Isaiah is a mouthpiece for God, and through him the Lord announces, “I have put my spirit upon him” (v.1) … “He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching” (v. 4).

Isaiah is speaking about a servant of God, and is making clear that this servant is chosen by the Lord, full of God’s Spirit, and known for his justice and his teachings.

Mishpat and torah are the marks of this servant — that’s Hebrew for justice and teaching. The prophet Isaiah is announcing that God’s servant is bringing justice and teaching right into the middle of all the chaos and confusion of day-to-day human life.

Science and Salvation -- FPC sermon excerpt

Star of wonder, star of night,
Star with royal beauty bright;
Westward leading, still proceeding,
Guide us to thy perfect light. (Refrain of “We Three Kings of Orient Are”)

The star of Bethlehem is one of the brightest images in the story of the birth of Jesus. It is a star we sing about on Epiphany, the day each year we remember the discovery of Jesus by the wise men from the East. Jesus has already appeared to the Jewish community in Bethlehem, and on Epiphany he is revealed to the non-Jewish world — a world represented by a group of wise men from a foreign land.

The wise men found Jesus by following a star. This makes sense, since they were astrologers — the Greek word is magi. You might say that they were the scientists of their day. And so, on this day, the Day of Epiphany, the world of science discovers the world of salvation.

This is an important topic for me, personally, and for all of us in 21st century America. On so many fronts, the world of science is locked in a battle with the world of religion, and this fight is terribly destructive for people on both sides.

It’s also unnecessary. The scientific wise men from the East didn’t have any problem with Jesus the Savior, so why should we?

The magi used the very best science of the first century to navigate their way to Bethlehem. According to The Washington Post (December 22, 2007), a theoretical astrophysicist named Grant Mathews has recently determined that “the star in the East” was probably an unusual alignment of planets, the sun and the moon.

This alignment was unusual, but it was not miraculous. It was natural, not supernatural. God worked through the intricate mechanical processes of his universe to guide a group of astrologers to the one who would be the Savior of the world.

Grant Mathews is not the first scientist to investigate the star of Bethlehem, but he may be the first to have access to the databases at NASA. Based on the account in the Gospel of Matthew, he learned that the star appeared before sunrise, and that it seemed to stop “over the place where the child was” (Matthew 2:9). Because of changes to the calendar over the years, we don’t know exactly when Jesus was born. But there were three planetary alignments close to the birth of Jesus, and the one that occurred in 6 B.C. really stands out: That was the date when the sun, Jupiter, the moon, and Saturn aligned in the constellation Aries, while Venus and Mars were in neighboring constellations.

Grant Matthews thinks that the wise men were Zoroastrian astrologers — wise men who would have recognized the planetary alignment in Aries as a sign that a powerful leader was born. It would have also meant that the leader was destined to die at an appointed time, he says, which “would have been significant for the Christ child and may have been why they brought myrrh, which was an embalming fluid.”

A powerful leader. One who was destined to die. A perfect match for Jesus, our Savior.

Now it is true that we do not consider astrologers to be scientists today — astrology is not taught in our modern universities. But I have to give these guys credit for the work they did observing the movements of the heavenly bodies. They watched the skies closely, and followed an alignment of planets to the town of Bethlehem. There, “they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage” (v. 11). They were men of a different race, a different culture, a different philosophy, and a different religion — but when they came into the presence of Jesus, they worshiped him.