Community Congregational Church of Chula Vista UCC (276 F St)

Sunday, January 12, 2020

The Baptism of Jesus

Matthew 3:13-17

Rev. Liz Aguilar

Community Congregational Church, UCC

 

Baptism- do you remember yours? Maybe you were too young to remember it, like me? Or maybe you were baptized as a young person or an adult and so you remember it very well.

Today is traditionally the Sunday in which the Christian Church celebrates and remembers the baptism of Jesus. In Matthew’s Gospel there is no account of baby Jesus being presented at the temple with Simeon and Anna recognizing him. Nor is there an account of Jesus being separated from his parents, only to be found teaching among the older rabbis. Those stories are found in the other Gospels.

However, in Matthew the narrative goes from the visit of the magi, which we looked at last week, to the role and function of John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus. –  Now no one knows why Matthew would leave out the stories which other Gospel writers included. Perhaps Matthew wanted to focus on Jesus’ adult ministry and mission. We don’t know.

Yet, what we do know is that Matthew is the one Gospel writer that most emphasizes Jesus as the Son of God, the Messiah. Matthew wanted his listeners of his Gospel to be fully aware that Jesus was whom the prophets before him had said- the Messiah who was to come to save the world.

That’s why Matthew quotes Jesus saying that John must baptize him to “fulfill all righteousness.” Therefore, here in Matthew Jesus is shown as being obedient to what was prophesize about him.

So what does this mean to us today? Well, if we remember that the definition of being a Christian is to be “Christ- like then if and when we want to learn to be a Christian all we need to do is look to Jesus as our best and most important example.

We are emulating Jesus when we say we are a Christian.

 

So, if we are say we want to be a Christian and we say we want to be like Jesus Christ then we must know what were the traits and behaviors of Jesus.

The character trait that is most evident to me in this story is that Jesus was humble. Now, that isn’t a character trait that we like to follow necessarily, today, is it? We are taught in this culture that the louder and more opinionated that you are the more successful you will be, the more respected you will be. We are told that the more we push our own agenda to win our own arguments, the smarter and more respected we will be.

However, that isn’t what Jesus’s behavior is like. Is it? NO, right away we see that John understands who Jesus is and is completely surprised that Jesus would ask him to baptize Jesus. He doesn’t think he is worthy to do so. He knows who Jesus is and he knows that he isn’t Jesus’ equal.

And yet, Jesus, in HIS humility and HIS desire to obey God’s prophesy understands that He must allow John to baptize Him. Now, if John was baptizing for the “repentance of sins,” does that mean that Jesus was seeking forgiveness of His sins? No, because Jesus was with out sin. Instead, Jesus was seeking to do what was expected of Him to do and in order to do that he had to humble himself.

I like this quote by Eric Benato, NT scholar and professor at Princeton Seminary, when he said, “Jesus is not a king who won’t deign to tread the humble paths of his servants. Jesus’ hold on his power is not so tenuous that he must zealously hold on to it at all times. For Jesus, power and humility, authority and submission, power and relationship are not at odds.”

        So what about you and what about me? Are we being like Christ in our every-day interactions with people? Are we being humble or are we making ourselves be number one all of the time? Are we more interested in getting our own way or are we more interested in following God’s instructions for our lives?   

To remind us of the vows we took or someone took for us at our baptism, I want to go through them again as they are written in the Book of Worship.

(Read through them.)

May we live out these vows through out our lives! Amen.

A Christmas Homily 

Christmas Eve Service 

December 24, 2019 

Rev. Elizabeth Aguilar

Community Congregational Church of Chula Vista, UCC

 

Texts: Micah 5:2-4, Luke 2:1-10, John 1:1-18 

Sermon Title: Jesus, the Light of the World 

 

Are you a person who is really good at reading maps or following directions so that you are actually able to arrive to the place you want? I must confess that I am terrible at following directions and I almost always get lost. I think I get this from my dad. I can remember going with Him to visit someone who was sick form our church and we circled around this person’s neighborhood for almost an hour. It was only after we begged Him to call home and ask my mom for the woman’s telephone so that we can call her, was it that we were able to find this woman’ s home. 

 

Well, I’m basically the same way. Even when I follow google maps I am apt to get lost. Well, tonight we are reminded of those who traveled toward Bethlehem and the roads that they took toward that destination. The Christmas story presents us with three different groups of people and their three different roads they took.  

 

In the Gospel of Matthew we have the magi who took the road of scholarship and inquiry. After studying the sky and using their abilities to interpret the movement of the stars, the Magi arrive to Bethlehem. Their guide was the star. 

 

In Luke we have a group of shepherds who are minding their own business, doing their daily job of taking care of their flock and probably just hanging out in the hillside. In the midst of their nightly routine they are interrupted by an angel and then a host of angels all proclaiming the birth of Jesus and announcing what this birth will mean. The shepherds thus go to Bethlehem in a dramatic, heavenly revelation. 

 

But we also have Mary and Joseph who travel to Bethlehem out of family obligation, so they travel as a family going about the business of life. 

 

Isn’t it interesting that although all of these people traveled by different roads, under different circumstances, they all reach their destination, which is Bethlehem? 

 

Today the question may be by what road will we take to arrive at Bethlehem? For some it may be the road of scholarship and inquiry, for others it will be in the form of a family which is surprised to hear God’s word in the midst of daily life. Others will come to Bethlehem as a result of a dramatic experience. Which ever the road you take, God is still calling you to Bethlehem. 

 

And once at Bethlehem what will we encounter? We can not hear the story of Christmas with out noticing the scandal in which it takes place. After all, think about the condition in which Jesus was born. Jesus was born in a feeding trough, basically on the rode, not in a glorious palace or even a comfortable home. He was born to a couple who wasn’t even married yet but who was engaged to be married. Those who came to visit him were shepherds, who at that time were considered to be the lowest of the low, despised, lazy, shifty characters.  

 

Now God could have come in great splendor and majesty. By entering in this humble form, God identifies with the lowly and the oppressed, the homeless, the poor. It was among them that God could do the divine work. The story of Christmas then is both an announcement of hope and a call to humility. For there is room for everyone in Bethlehem: the poor, the despised, the brokenhearted, the imperfect. There is room there for you and for me. 

 

But what do we do once we arrive to Bethlehem? Do we go in great haste to meet the baby Jesus? Do we testify to God’s greatness and wonder in our lives as the shepherds did to everyone they met? God is still calling us to Bethlehem, toward His light.  

 

 In fact, in the Gospel of John we read that Jesus IS the light of the world. The challenge for us is how we are going to testify to this light? How are we going to share Jesus, who is the light of the world with everyone we know and meet? 

 

What I love about a New Year is that it gives me an opportunity to start all over. To use the perspective I have learned during the past year and to start fresh. 

When we start this New Year we can do so knowing that Jesus was born in order so that we would know his light, in order so that we would receive him over and over again, in order so that we can share with others who He is. We can do so, by honoring those we live and work and play with. We can share the light of Jesus by loving our neighbor, weather they are rich, poor, white, brown or black. We can share Jesus’ light by being kinder to ourselves and not trying to fit a false image of perfection. We can share the light of Jesus by forgiving those whom have wronged us. There are so many ways that we can testify to the light of Jesus. After all, let us remember that Jesus came for ALL. As the angel told the shepherds, “I am bringing you good news of great joy for ALL the people.”  

All people are on their own paths to Bethlehem. Those paths may take strange turns and twists in the rode, we may feel exhausted and perhaps even alone but He is illuminating our path, He is WITH us on our way toward Bethlehem. 

Therefore, let us go to Bethlehem to worship the Jesus who although came in the form of a helpless baby is our savior and a king. Let us go in the confidence that he will light our path and in the assurance that we do not go there on our own but together, with one another and with Him. 

So tonight, when you share the light of Jesus with the one sitting next to you, I invite you to tell that person that Jesus is the Light of the world! And when you do this, remember that Jesus is with you as you travel to Bethlehem! 

 

December 22, 2019

Fourth Sunday in Advent-Love

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon Meditation

Rev. Elizabeth Aguilar

Community Congregational Church of Chula Vista, UCC

 

 

            Everyone has a favorite Christmas movie, don’t they? Which is yours? Mine is a very silly one. It isn’t at all the sentimental kind like, “It’s a Wonderful Life” or “The Charlie Brown Christmas Special” which I happen to own and like very much. No, my favorite Christmas movie is “A Christmas Story” about a 9 year old boy who is hoping that he will be given a bb gun, called a “Red Ryder Carbine Action Two Hundred Shot Range Model Air Rifle”. All through the movie he schemes on how to convince his parents of this Christmas gift. You see, the problem is that his parents and everyone else he mentions the gift to, tell him that the bb gun would be a terrible thing for him to want for Christmas because he can, “put his eye out that way.” Well, I won’t tell you if he gets his Christmas gift he’s wishing for or not (in case you’ve never seen the movie before). I will tell you however, that toward the end of the movie, right before the boy’s father has an opportunity to eat the turkey he’s been so anxiously waiting for, a group of dogs come into their house and attack the turkey and eat it all up. The kitchen is left in shambles and the turkey is all gone. The family is forced to have their Christmas meal in a Chinese restaurant. So in this movie, not everything comes out quite exactly the way the characters in the movie want them to. No, what we see are all sorts of mayhem, chaos and silliness. Therefore, it isn’t the kind of movie that depicts a “Christmas that works.”

            Now I know that we have all been trying very hard, just like we do every year to make this Christmas “work” for us. And for some of us, it probably has been. But I imagine that for the majority of us it has been let’s say, “less than picture perfect.”

There were stores that did not have that last item you just needed to get for your son. There was the traffic to get through, the countless cookies to bake, the ribbons to keep away from your pets or small children. There were the distant family relatives that you never hear from except during this time of the year, for which you HAD to send a Christmas gift.

Then there are some of you who have been dealing with much more stressful situations, like serious family illnesses. Some of you have been mourning the deaths of loved ones in very acute ways during this season. Others of you have been dealing with difficult financial situations.

            Today, I want to remind you, however, that our picture “imperfect lives” does not determine Christ’s love for us. In fact, I also want to remind you that this Savior who came to us in the form of a baby boy did not come to us in a picture-perfect situation, either. He came during a very hostile political environment. His life was in danger before he was even able to speak, because he was seen as a threat to the king at the time. He was born to a young couple with no money and no home. Yet, in the midst of all that less than picture-perfect first Christmas, Christ did survive and did grow up in order to save us from our sins.

            So, while your Christmas dinner might not be picture-perfect, or while some of you might be dealing with some real sadness this Christmas, remember that God who came in the form of a human, lived among us as Jesus the Christ, because He wanted to know us, love us, and save us. Thus, let us remember that this God who loved us so much to live and then die and be raised up from the dead, came so that we might have eternal life with Him. Jesus the Christ, did all of this, despite our imperfect lives, our flaws, our hurt, and our pain.

You see, His love is not limited to who we are. It is about who He is. Now, let us go out to celebrate with our families, our enemies, the widow, the orphan, the less than perfect people that we know, with the kind of love that is Christ-like; kind, forgiving, patient and generous. Let us worship this Savior who loves us no matter what and who calls us to follow Him no matter what. Amen!

 

“Mary’s Song of Joy”

“The Hoy of the Lord is Our Strength”

Luke 1:46b-55; Isaiah 35:1-6, 10

Rev. Elizbeth Aguilar

Community Congregational Church of Chula Vista, UCC

 

We love Mary, don’t we? We love her obedience, her “pondering everything in her heart,” her faithfulness to God and to Joseph….But I love her bravery, too. I hope you all heard or read Mary’s words very carefully.

 

Now, I am not sure if I were her if the first thing I would do after hearing that I am going to give birth to a baby although I am not wed- is to break out in this song.

 

But why? Why was Mary about to do so? Because she knew that her strength came from the joy of the Lord.

 

And that’s what I want us to focus on today. That OUR Strength comes from the Joy of the Lord.

 

This is the third Sunday in Advent and we Are focusing on Joy. But as I reflected on it, it dawned on me how important it is that we not focus on joy as merely a feeling but on it being a gift that comes from God, that MOVES us beyond a feeling.

 

You see, when we FOCUS on Jesus, who IS the source of our joy, the circumstances in our life- no matter how hard they are, do not overwhelm us.

 

Does God want us sad, consumed with worry, or anxiety? No.

 

Think about it- had Mary focused on her circumstances she might as well have broken out in a loud cry instead of a song. For a woman to be unwed and pregnant meant that her fiancé would have had to break up with her and she could have been stoned to death- that was the severe punishment for a woman in that predicament.

 

So, had Mary been focused on her situation of being an unwed pregnant woman, she would not have been able to go on.

 

But instead, she kept her focus on what she knew- which were the promises of God through scripture.

 

And she knew that by focusing on those promises found in scripture, she would be strong through out her pregnancy. It wouldn’t matter if the town folk would talk badly about her. It wouldn’t matter that she was poor and unsure of her future. What mattered to her was that God would make a way for her and her family and for the promise of God to come to fruition for the WORLD, THROUGH her!

 

How many times do we focus on our circumstances instead of on the JOY that God gives us? How many times do we forget that the SOURCE Of our strength COMES from the Lord?

 

Now, I’m not saying we should ignore our problems and bury our heads in the sand- no, of course, not! I’m not talking about being an irresponsible person.

 

I’m talking about keeping our gaze on Jesus because He WILL make away where there is NO way! He IS the Source of our strength.

 

If there is anything I want you to remember about today’s message it is this- that the Joy of the Lord is our strength!! And that when we keep our focus on Jesus our problems do not overwhelm us. (Nehemiah 8:10)