By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
January 11, 2026
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Acts 10:34–43 (ESV)
34 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), 37 you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39 And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, 40 but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, 41 not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. 43 To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
We have moved away from the season of Christmas and into the season of Epiphany. This season is one we do not think much about it is situated between the much more famous Christmas and the forty days of fasting we find during Lent, as we move toward Easter. But there is significance to this season. It is the season of revelation. It celebrates the baptism of Jesus, where the Spirit descends upon Jesus, and a voice says from the heavens, “This is my son, in whom I am well pleased.” There are skeptics that will say that the Trinity is not found in scripture, and they are right the word is not found, but there are instances like at the baptism of Jesus where all three persons are present at one moment.
This season does not only focus on the baptism of Jesus though. It also looks at a couple of other revelatory moments. According to the Hebrew teachings on hygiene, a woman is required to wait a certain amount of time before she can reenter society. During this period of time she is regarded as unclean. We often equate the term unclean with sinfulness, but it is not a sin to bear a child. It is far from sinful. What makes this process unclean is that it is not always easy, many bodily fluids are released and it is for a lack of a better description, gross. But even the grossness of birth does not make someone unclean, what makes them unclean is that the person is losing those fluids. The life force, as they might regard it, is being drained away as blood leaves the body. When the life force is draining, death is near.
The unclean status is not sin, but the presences of potential death. That is why those that are unclean cannot enter the presence of God, because death cannot exist in the presence of life. And how can we make a judgment on this? We observe. The reproductive process expels fluids of life, those that engage are unclean. Those with leprosy have an observable skin condition that often has discharge, they are unclean. Those that have been wounded and are bleeding are unclean and those that assist them are also unclean, not because it is a sin to help those in need, but we are in the presence of potential death.
The teaching surrounding childbirth stated that women were considered unclean for a period of time following birth. The bearer of life, being considered unclean is almost strange, unless you realize birth, and the few weeks following birth are when women face the greatest amount of potential health complications. They are literally on a razor’s edge between life and death. They are unclean because death is lurching nearby. But after the prescribed period of time, the women are no longer considered unclean. They bath themselves, and they go with their husband to the temple and they present sacrifices and offerings to God. Epiphany also celebrates this time within the life of the Holy Family, because it was at the temple during the time of worship and celebration of the birth of Jesus, that Simeon and Anna came and spoke prophecies and worshiped Jesus as their long awaited Messiah.
Then there is a third celebration that occurs around Epiphany, that is when the Magi from the East come to pay homage to the newly born king of the Jews. They left their land following the star. This star is something of scholarly debate, was it a comet, a super nova, was it a unique configuration of the various pagan zodiacs? We unfortunately do not know for sure what those magi saw. What we do know is that they were early astronomers. They watched and studied the paths of the starts. And as they watched the stars they learned something of the laws of nature, that govern the physics of life. They were religious and scholarly men likely from the land of Persia. And when we look at the Old Testament, we would find that Daniel once walked among the magi in the exile.
These magi knew the teachings of Daniel, and that teaching was carried forward into the understanding of these pagan priests, generations after Daniel’s death. And when they observed some celestial abnormality, their attention was drawn to Israel. And they left their home, so that they could pay their respects to this newly born king.
We often do not think that deeply about the magi, or the wise men. They are often just a minor part of the overall narrative, and we include them in the story because they came bearing gifts. Gifts of Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh. We remember the wise men not because they were wise but because they had gifts, we like gifts.
Their presence in this story is important. It shows us that there was something from the very beginning that God was doing to bring those outside Israel, into the story. It shows us that the salvation, the lordship, and dominion of God reaches beyond our walls, beyond our culture, and even beyond our religion to reach out to the people throughout the entire world.
We often miss this in the narrative of scripture. We often look at Israel as being the chosen people, and that the Gentile races are brought into that promise through adoption. This is not completely wrong. It is also not completely correct. If we are to believe that all humans emerged from two ancient parents, Adam and Eve, then the promise given to Eve applies to off of her offspring. If we are to believe that all of creation was engulfed by the flood during the days of Noah, then the promise given to Noah and his sons and daughter-in-laws apply to all humanity. These are the teachings of the Hebrew scriptures. They include all people, not just one branch of the human race. It is only during the third fall of humanity that things begin to take a different turn. There was a people that became dominate within the cultures of men. They build a great city, they had wealth and power over their adversaries. They were the world’s superpower. And within this nation of people, they decided that they were so advance, and powerful that they should be equal to or at least have a place at the table among the divine council. So they built a tower. They built a mountain that would reach up into the heavens so that they could take a seat among the gods. This angered God, it angered God for a variety of reasons, but the primary reason was that this nation was arrogant. They thought in their minds that everything they did was by divine right. That they were basically gods blessing the earth. At that moment God began to act, Deuteronomy says that God confused the languages, and divided the people of the earth among the sons of God, and that God had kept Israel as his portion.
The interesting thing about this story is that Abraham had not yet been called to follow God. Isaac had yet to even become a glimmer in the eyes of his father’s mind. And Esau and Jacob were still nearly two hundred years away from existence. God gave all the people of the world to the sons of god, or lessor spiritual beings, he gave these beings everything except for one man and one woman. A man and a woman that had no future, not heritage, and no inheritance. And God called out to that man, urging him to follow him and through him he would make a great nation. A nations’ whose offspring would out number the grains of sand, and would be greater than the stars in the heavens. And they would become the light to the nations.
Was Israel chosen, yes. They were chosen not because they were greater than all other people on the earth. They were chosen because they were nothing without God. But within that same promise to Abraham, there is something profound. God chose Israel to be his portion, but Israel had a purpose, it was through them that God’s wisdom, his light, would return to all the nations.
The interesting thing is this concept of light, and that God told Abraham that his offspring would be like the stars, which illuminate the darkness. Light is a metaphor for wisdom. This is why every cartoon we watched as children put a light bulb above the heads of the characters that have great ideas. This is why the era of history surrounding our nation’s foundation was called the Enlightenment. We believed that we had greater wisdom, greater understanding that would take out out of the dark ages into the light of wisdom. God said that Israel would be the light to the nations. That his commandments, his teachings would pass through Israel and be established throughout the entire world.
I know that many of us might not believe it, but this is happening. The human rights initiatives of the past century have made the world we live in today better than any other period of history. That does not mean that everything is good, it is clear that there is much to improve in that area. But overall world poverty is down. More people have access to medical facilities than ever before. More people have access to education. Much of this improvement has come because people believed that no matter who you were you had dignity as a human being. Where does this concept of human dignity come from? Did it come from Egypt? Persia? No, it comes from the Hebrew Scriptures, that humanity is created in the image of God, and that we should not bear that name in vain.
But like with most things, we justify things. The wise men were told by the King of the Jews to come tell him where to find the baby so he too could pay him due honor. They saw through the veiled threat to the child’s life. They saw through the threat, because they were warned in a dream. Sure they were told but they were wise enough to recognize that God had spoken and they listened. Herod then justified in his own mind that it he had every right to go into Bethlehem and kill every male child under the age of two years old, because he had the mandate of power. What threat did a two year old child pose to an elderly king? This is part of the season of Epiphany. Or the Revelation. It has been revealed to us that as humans we have a responsibility to look beyond the surface, and to recognize the selfish justifications of this world. We have a responsibility to reflect the light that is shown around us, once we have been enlightened.
“So Peter opened his mouth and said: ‘Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.’”
Peter like so many of us lived within a culture that had prejudices. He grew up thinking that the people of Samaria were dogs. He grew up in a culture that would complain under their breath about the occupation of the land of Israel, while willingly accepting the coins they used within their economy. He justified his prejudices based on his interpretation of the teachings of scripture, or on his own feelings, He was just like each of us can be, a hypocrite. But God came to him on the roof of a house while he in prayer. And during that moment of visitation, God revealed something profound.
Peter was hungry while he was on the roof in prayer, and he fell into a trance. He saw the heavens open and a great sheet descended to the earth. It was like a giant table cloth being lowered from heaven and on that table were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds, and a voiced said to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” Peter in his self-righteousness said to the voice, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.”
This happened three times and then the trance was broken. There are things in this world we find to be common and unclean. We have our own justification for this. We might even have the power of scripture or of law to back us up, but there is something that goes beyond that, the wisdom of God.
Why did God command, or teach that the Hebrew people abstain from certain foods? We may never know for certain, but there are several theories. One theory in regard to pork, is that pork is not a value added animal. It has basically only one use. You eat the meat. The hide of a pig was not well suited for clothing, the milk produced by the females of the species was not in abundance enough to justify the production of cheese. So this animal had only one purpose, it existed only to eat and be eaten. Where as sheep produce wool as well as milk and meat. Cattle also provide additional economic returns. But pork although tasty, only has one purpose. This is not good in establishing a sustainable society, it is a society of subsistence not abundance. Not to mention pigs in large numbers ruin the land.
Another theory deals primarily with health. The animals regarded as unclean often have some aspect of their biology that would make them unsafe to eat without extra precautions. As a child I would often be encouraged to hunt rabbits with my pellet gun, because the rabbits would eat the garden, but we rarely ate the rabbits. There was a reason for this. If you do not clean a rabbit properly it can make you sick. And if you do not cook it properly it can make you sick. The vast majority of the rabbits I hunted would be given to the cats and dogs living on our farm. And according to scripture a rabbit is considered an unclean animal. But notice I said the vast majority we did not eat. This rightfully implies that I have eaten rabbit, and the meat when raised properly can be just as nutritious as any protein source. But we need to be careful. The same can be applied to almost every animal mentioned in scripture.
My personal observation about the unclean animals in scripture is their diet. The vast majority of the animals considered unclean, eat meat. I think that is significant, especially when you consider protein based diseases. When animals are fed proteins that their bodies cannot fully digest, there can be a build up of malformed proteins called prions, that the bodies cannot expel. This can cause the disease that often scare the people of Europe called Mad Cow Disease. These prions can become more abundant within animals that eat higher meat protein based diets. It may not affect them but the could pose a greater risk to us.
Now that I am completely off topic, Peter, was given a vision where all of these animals were on the table available to eat. He had his reasons for avoiding their consumption, culturally, religiously, and preferentially. Yet God did not congratulate him on his obedience to the law or his personal piety, instead God called him out saying, “What God has made clean, do not call common.”
This perplexed Peter. I shook him to the very core of who he was, it challenged his identity and his ideologies. God had always been the God of Israel. He had given them the law, and they had tried their best to follow it. Yet now God is seemingly changing his mind.
Peter sat with that revelation for a while. It might be good to note that the place he was doing all of this was on the roof of a tanner, which was a lifestyle considered unclean in Jewish culture also. So Peter recognized that it was just to visit the tanner, yet not eat the food. He justified one thing but could not justify the other. He was imposing on God his own interpretations, but through this vision he came to an understanding. “God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”
No one is too far from God. No one is too good for God. No one is saved apart from God. And no one is excluded. Yet is this how we live?
We dehumanize our enemies saying that they are terrorists, narco-terrorists, or some other term. We look at the political party that we oppose and we give them dehumanizing names. We justify the complete demonization of entire population groups because they do not exceed our own righteousness, and we justify our own failings by saying nobody is perfect. We engage in both sidesisims because they did something we do not feel is right but it is fine when we have the mandate of power. The reality is that God shows no partiality. God will not provide you with justification just because you had power, no you will be judged according to the justice you give to others.
That should scare some of us. Have we treated the people around us with justice? Peter opened his mouth and said, “Jesus went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” Yet what did he receive? They hung him on a tree. Why did they hang him on a tree? We can theologically explain this by saying that his sacrifice provided the atonement we needed to become sanctified before a holy God. We would be right. But this still does not change the facts that humanly speaking Jesus was killed because he made powerful people uncomfortable. He showed them the reality of their actions and their intentions. He showed them that just like Herod justified the killing of every male toddler in a province, we justify the mass murder of countless others for our own reasons. We deny them justice, we deny their humanity, we have denied that they like us are humans and joint bearers of the image of God.
They killed him, but God was not finished. God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, not to all people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead, and he commanded us to testify. And what is that testimony? Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. Everyone who believes is brought into God’s family no matter their background or their diet. God does not show partiality. And we are called to reflect his ways, not our own.
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By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
January 04, 2026
Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship
John 1:1–18 (ESV)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. 9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ ”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. I often contemplate this passage. I think on it because I find it comforting. In the beginning was the Word. The term word or logos here is more than merely a word. It is knowledge, wisdom, or when looking at it from a Hebrew tradition, it would be similar to the word we translate into command. In the beginning was the commands, the knowledge, the wisdom, the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
How often do we consider that aspect of creation? Not only did God speak and things emerged into existence, but there was wisdom, and purpose to the words. There was an intention.
This is what I find comforting. God is interacting, and participating. But what was the intention?
For the past weeks I have been posting on Facebook the background and covert meaning behind the song the 12 Days of Christmas. Tradition believed that this song was written in a code of sorts to be used to teach Catholic children the meaning of Christmas during the persecution of Catholics in England. Some of you might have seen the posts. The twelve days of Christmas are not the twelve days leading up to Christmas, as that is still advent. Instead the twelve days of Christmas are Christmas Day and the eleven days after Christmas until January 5th and the 6th is Epiphany. Today is the eleventh day of Christmas, the day our true love gave us eleven drummers drumming. You will have to look at Facebook to get the report on that, but this seemingly simple and secular song, when looking at the potential deeper meaning is profound. Like yesterday, the 10 lords a leaping speaks of the ten commandments, and the lords are leaping not because they have a bunch of rules to follow. They are leaping for joy because they get to follow those commandments.
I have contemplated the commandments many times over the years. I have looked at them as check marks in boxes and I have looked at them as I hope we all look at the Quaker Queries. I have come to understand that Western civilization has often misunderstood the commandments. They are not rules but wisdom. They are a guiding framework to start us along a path. It is the beginning.
I think this is why I love this opening of John’s gospel. Yes, it speaks about all of creation, and it also speaks about our beginning. In the beginning of our own journey of faith we began to realize that our understanding, our wisdom was leading us to a place we did not intend to go. We may have had good intentions when making those decisions, but eventually we came to recognize that the consequences. resulting from our choices were not what we expected. What do we do? What do we do when we lack knowledge, when we are living in ignorance, or when we have a deficiency of understanding.
There are a few options actually. The first is we can willfully remain ignorant. And yes I use that term because I hope it shocks us a bit. There are people that live in willful ignorance. They know that they do not have knowledge, they are aware that the consequences of continuing along that path will continue to lead them deeper into a situation they cannot get out of, yet they refuse help, they refuse to learn. We know people like that. I am a person like that in certain areas within my life. I willfully reject learning a different way, I would rather remain ignorant because if I gain knowledge then I know enough to know that I would be expected to act upon that knowledge.
Then there is a second option. We can seek out understanding. We can go to the library, the school, the university and we can gain some knowledge. We can fill our minds with philosophies, research, ideologies and many other things. This is good. I believe God want us to gain knowledge. But here is the issue, are we seeking knowledge or wisdom?
This second option like the first lacks something. The first is clear that they are refusing to try. They accept fate. Life has no point and suffering is just a part of life. Or worse they believe superstitious ideas, as long as I say the right words or position myself properly things will change, but they never really question why they act that way. And when they are presented with evidence to the contrary they blatantly refuse to acknowledge it. But the second is potentially more dangerous. They are seeking knowledge. They are seeking to grow in understanding in the areas they recognize their own invariance. They seek out teachers, and professors, but they often do not look beyond that. They make an assumption that the things they are being told are accurate without looking deeper.
This second group I feel can be worse because often they seek knowledge to support a preconceived idea. They do not want to actually know, they only want to be able to argue and make those that disagree look bad. That might not be their initial intentions, but they have stopped the journey midway. They have not completed the thought or examined potential outcomes. They found the proof they wanted and that is it.
Then where did this knowledge come from? What was the intention? Is the knowledge gained to give one group power over another, or is the advantage giving greater hope for all people?
This brings us to the third response. This is where we acknowledge our lack of knowledge, we seek knowledge, and we weigh that knowledge with wisdom.
This is what John is speaking about. The wisdom was in the beginning, the wisdom was with God, and the wisdom was God.
God urges us to pursue knowledge and God encourages to apply that knowledge or become wise. In a sense what John is saying is that we should reflect God. This is where the ten leaping lords encourages us. When we look at the commandments of God from a Latin perspective we often see them as things or activities we should not do. And we cannot be blamed for taking this approach the commandments say Thou shalt not… There are a couple of exceptions, we should keep the Sabbath and we should honor our father and mother. Other than that they all say we should not do them. Like I said earlier, these are teachings, they are to begin our journey. If we should not do something our mind should not stop there. We should follow that with a question, what then should I do?
Children have this follow-up almost intuitively. We tell them to do something, and what is the question that often follows, why? We can go around and around with toddlers and teenagers giving reason upon reason, until we become annoyed and finally break down and say, “because I said so that’s why.” Toddlers might cry or do it, teenagers will roll their eyes and might do it half heartedly, but there is something within that exchange that should cause us to pause. They are in the beginning. They are starting a journey, they are at a cross road in their life and they are yearning to know, they are yearning to have wisdom. Will we walk with them?
“He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. … The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.”
To me this sounds like every parent’s struggle. It sounds like every student’s struggle. It sounds like everyone’s struggle. We want to know and be known. We do not want the simple answer or the platitude we want the knowledge so that we can have the wisdom. The parent just wants their children to listen. They do not want to spend hours upon hours arguing about every little thing, they only want you to clean your room so you do not die in a fire. The student want to know why a clean room is so important, why does it matter so much. But they do not listen, we are unable to pass on the knowledge because walls have been erected and assumptions have been made. How do we overcome?
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Incarnation. That is what Christmas is all about. We are celebrating the gifts that God our True Love has given. The word, the wisdom of God became flesh and dwelt among us. God left his throne in heaven to be born into a family, to live within a community. He came to do chores, to work with his hands. He came sitting listening to teachers, asking questions, getting disciplined even when he did not do what they thought he did. He worked with his family. Worked as a carpenter or stone mason right along side his cousins, his uncles, brothers, and Joseph for nearly twenty years. He experienced most of what life can offer. Joy, pain, love, betrayal, and friendship. He became humanity, and he shows us wisdom. And this is what we are called to reflect in our world today.
The world needs to hear the words, but they long for the why. Why is it important to honor, why is it important to have integrity, why is it important to remain faithful? Why? Is it simply because we are told to?
There is a second tradition attached to the ten leaping lords of the twelve days of Christmas. That tradition is that it speaks of the ten trails Israel faced in their wilderness wanderings. They were afraid of Pharaoh’s army as they faced the Red Sea, they grumbled over the lack of water. They longed for the food they once had in Egypt, they hoarded Manna when they were only supposed to gather enough for the day. They worked on the sabbath, they again complained about water, about their food, and the lack of meat. And they did not trust that God could drive out the Giants they faced.
These are called the trials, but there is something more to them. They are the slow and steady process of learning. Of becoming a people, a nation that lives within the wisdom of God. It was the steady progress moving from oppression and looking out for only you basic needs, and moving toward a community and culture reflecting the light and wisdom of God. God was answering the question, that every adolescent asks, he was enduring the eye rolls and the complaints. He was showing them that there are consequences to actions, along with blessing. Until eventually they became a people that could face the giants in faith. This is how Solomon explains it in the book called Wisdom of Solomon:
Wisdom of Solomon 10:15–21 (NRSV)
15 A holy people and blameless race wisdom delivered from a nation of oppressors. 16 She entered the soul of a servant of the Lord, and withstood dread kings with wonders and signs. 17 She gave to holy people the reward of their labors; she guided them along a marvelous way, and became a shelter to them by day, and a starry flame through the night. 18 She brought them over the Red Sea, and led them through deep waters; 19 but she drowned their enemies, and cast them up from the depth of the sea. 20 Therefore the righteous plundered the ungodly; they sang hymns, O Lord, to your holy name, and praised with one accord your defending hand; 21 for wisdom opened the mouths of those who were mute, and made the tongues of infants speak clearly.
In this book, Solomon speaks of wisdom of God, or Sophia, in an almost incarnate manner. He also speaks of wisdom from a feminine perspective which is beautifully poetic and inclusive. And it quickly became one of my favorite books outside of scripture. The people he says was delivered from a nation of oppressors, and wisdom entered the soul of a servant of the Lord, and that servant stood up against the dread kings with wonders and signs. Wisdom empowers, and wisdom sets us free. It gives us a reward for our labors. People should be rewarded for their labor, when they are not justly compensated eventually there will be trouble. Wisdom guides. It provides light in the darkness and assurance along the path. She bring us through the troubled waters, and removes provides a way past the things that seek to hinder us. She will plunder the unrighteous not because it is rightfully ours, but justice will reign and those that hand out injustice will find their reward.
Wisdom guided Israel through her trials. Wisdom was there in the beginning. In the beginning of creation, in the beginning of the wandering, in the beginning of the nation. Wisdom was with them in the beginning. And wisdom became flesh and dwelt among us.
For From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
The lords are leaping because they have wisdom from God. We are called Friends because we have listened to Jesus’s commands, his teachings and we know what he is doing. We know what he is doing because it is written throughout scriptures. “Go out into to all creation and bring it into submission.” God told our first parents. This is not forcing people to become something they are not, but it is becoming an incarnation of God’s wisdom for all of creation to see. Go and make disciples of all the nations, or all the peoples, Jesus commands us baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Spirit. Go and saturate them with the wisdom of God so that they are no longer raw cloth but cloth dyed and fit for a king. Put off the old self Paul, teaches us, and put on Christ be armored in God.
All of this points to the same place. We need to be God’s people in word and in life. We need to live a life reflecting the life and lifestyle of the Word made flesh, or we need to be flesh made Word. And we need to accept the gifts of God given to us for Christmas. The 11 pipers piping, 10 lords a leaping, 9 ladies dancing, 8 maids a milking, 7 swans a swimming, 6 geese a-laying, 5 golden rings, 4 calling birds, 3 french hens, 2 turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree. These are gifts of grace, gifts of mercy. Not laws that we must abide by, but word made flesh living with us.
Will we let wisdom dwell in us? Will we let wisdom empower us to face the dread kings of this world, and promote justice for the oppressed? Will we be friends of Christ and follow his teachings and know his will? May our communities and families know Christ as they look upon our lives, and may we have a Merry Christmas.
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church April 12, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili 1 Peter 1:3–9 (ESV) 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born…
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church April 05, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili John 20:1–18 (ESV) 1 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the…
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church March 29, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Query 3: Do you attend regularly the services of your church and participate in them actively? Do you prayerfully endeavor to minister, under the guidance of the Holy…
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By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
December 14, 2025
Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship
Matthew 11:2–11 (ESV)
2 Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples 3 and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” 4 And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. 6 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” 7 As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 8 What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. 9 What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 This is he of whom it is written, “ ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’ 11 Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
John was out in the wilderness, standing in the middle of the river just outside the land promised to his ancestors. He stood there crying to the multitude, Repent! Turn away from the life and lifestyle you have been leading and return to the ways of God.
He was not crying to the ones standing in the wilderness. He was crying into the land of promise. He was crying toward those who claimed to be living for God. It was the faithful he was calling to repentance.
This thought has been running through my mind all week. Yes those that are not following the ways of God, those who do not claim the name of Jesus, need to change directions. But so do we. We can get comfortable in our own minds. Justifying actions that we condemn in others. We see this all the time. Nearly every week there is some scandal within the church that rips me apart. There are several YouTube channels dedicated to criminal activities committed by church leaders and how they have been justified by governing bodies. We need repentance. We need to be called out just as much as everyone else. We need to repent.
John spoke these words boldly. He knew them intimately. He was raised in the religious machine that was Jerusalem’s temple. He watched leaders, he was trained by those leaders. He had learned to read the teachings God inspired Moses to record from the leaders he was not crying out to. And it broke him.
John faced what we might call deconstruction today. John saw the hypocrisy within the industrialized religion and he left. He went out into the wilderness. He rejected every benefit his position as a son of a priest might have and he went to the desert mourning over his people.
He faced this crisis, and yet he knew that there was something more. He knew the story of his own birth. When your parents are older than your contemporaries’ grandparents, you cannot question the validity of the story. And everyone told the same thing. John knew the miraculous events surrounding his life intimately. And he knew that his parents were some of the few leaders that he could trust. Why else would God bless them with this gift of life in the golden years?
This did not change the reality of their culture. Some understood that God was at work. And this inspired them. They had received a sign from God when the priest was unable to deliver the blessing to the people. The age of quietness had ended. Unfortunately the excitement soon went silent and everyone returned to the routine they were familiar with.
This happens often in life. Our students go to church camp in the summer. They are excited for God, and then the PlayStation or the soccer teams draws them back. They once had a discipline to pray, study and read scripture, but the struggles and routine of everyday life returns and they are back where they started. We saw this shortly after the attack on the world trade center. Churches throughout the country were filled with people wanting to pray, but all too soon those prayers became quiet as people again began to travel. This is was happening in Israel. They were excited, and then the busyness of life once again took hold.
John left the house of the priest and entered the wilderness. He went out into the unknown. He went to find what was once lost. He had to go out because he could not find the whispers of God within the religious system. He was seemingly alone.
But he had a cousin. Not many talked about him in polite places, but his mother spoke of him with words of awe. His cousin Jesus, confounded him. As they grew, Jesus was right there with him. He answered the questions asked by their Rabbi with conviction. Yet he was often overlooked because people questioned his heritage. John listened and observed. He watched as this wise child grew, his character was such that many forgot all about his questionable origin but then just as they were ready to give him a blessing, they were reminded of the past.
Imagine living your entire life like this. John’s mom would talk about Jesus with reverence, and others would often spew venom under their breath. Yet John saw. He observed.
Now they are adults. John had returned from his wilderness wanderings, and stood on the banks of the river. He stood just outside the land of promise, crying out for repentance. And he did not hold back. He looked beyond facade that was often raised. He did not let people overlook the shortcomings of their leaders. And he bold exposed that their current king, was not worthy of to hold a position of authority over the people of God. He had stolen his brother’s wife while he remained living, and he had a tenancy to lust after his own step daughter and niece. This king had disqualified himself from leadership. He was a vile predator willing to justify any action as long as it gave himself the benefit.
King Herod Agrippa is a corrupt, greedy, pedophile.
John’s words caused discomfort among the people. He is our king, he is chosen by God to lead them they might have said. I do not agree with all his policies but his heart is in the right place others might defend. His father funded the remodeling of the temple we should give him some respect. Everyone was making excuses but John did not. He instead cried out in the wilderness, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
His words had consequences. The broad of vipers struck and attempted to silence the prophet. They imprisoned him because his words offended the leaders.
Jesus though had begun to emerge. John had watched him grow. He watched as this cousin of his was so often overlooked, yet he continued to live a life blessing others. He had heard the stories his mother told him. He remembered how his mom once said that Jesus’s mother was visited by an angel just like John’s father, and this angel said, “Do not be afraid because you have found favor with God. And you will conceive a child by the Holy Spirit and this child will be called Jesus for he will save his people from their sins.”
John heard the stories. The praises from his mother and the gossip from the community. He watched as Jesus did not let the gossip hinder him from living well. Once Jesus came out to visit John while he was preaching in the river, he came out into the waters and wanted John to baptize him. John said, “I need to be baptized by you, yet you come to me to be baptized?” John knew Jesus in a way we cannot know him. He saw Jesus completely. He saw him as the child, the young man, the adult. He knew Jesus was honorable, and John knew that Jesus was a better man than he was.
John is now sitting in prison. He had announced to all the people that were around him, “Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.” Yet, he is in chains. John had given his entire life to this moment. He had given up the lifestyle of respect and honor that was offered to priests. He spoke truth to power and now he sits condemned by the world.
He watched his people move to God and fall away. They still claimed faith, they still performed the rituals but his cry for repentance still rang true. He stood for truth, he stood for righteousness. He boldly called sin, sin. And he was judged by the world. But he knows Jesus.
He sends his few disciples to talk with him. These disciples were likely disciples of Jesus as well, but he sends them with a question. “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”
We often ask this question. Maybe not in the same words, but we ask it. In essences he is asking am I doing the right thing? Have I followed the proper path? Has this been worth it?
We can easily question our faith, because life is hard. John had literally given everything to pursue and answer the call God had placed in his life even before he had been born. Yet John is human. The voices all around him were saying he needed to change his tone, maybe round off the edges a bit. They wanted him to stop calling the leaders a broad of vipers, because they were basically good people and no one is perfect.
The messengers deliver the question to Jesus. They like John, wait in anticipation. They too yearn for the advent of Messiah. But they did not know everything that John had known. They did not know the full family background, they had not seen the full life that Jesus had lived. All they know is what is right before them. And Jesus is different than John.
Jesus does give them an answer. “Go and tell John what you hear and see; the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
Tell John what you hear and see.
I want us to think about that answer for a moment. We cannot know the fullness of someone’s soul. We cannot know their intentions, or their reasoning behind the decisions they make. All we know are the things that we can hear them say, and what we see them do.
I do know my wife loves me. Yet there are times I question this. I question because I do not hear the things I once heard, and at times I do not see her doing the things she did when we were first married. I question because I cannot know what is going through her mind and what dwells in her heart. All I can do is respond to what I hear and see. The worst part though is I am nearly deaf and blind, and too aloof to notice things.
But this is what is going through John’s mind. He knows Jesus, John had proclaimed to everyone once that Jesus was the one. Yet he has questions. Doubt is part of life. It is not a sin to doubt. In fact it is one of the most honest aspects of faith. When we doubt we force ourselves to look at things more closely. We begin to listen for the nuances and compare against what we have observed. We seek and we find.
All too often we criticize and condemn doubt. When someone expresses doubt we get scared and we challenge them, we ridicule them, and chastise them for a lack of faith. This is worse than the doubt itself. Because those that have doubts, are listening and observing us. They are yearning for us to give them something to believe, and they do not know how to express what they are looking for.
Jesus tells us how to approach those that doubt among us. Tell them what you hear and see. Show them what you believe through your actions.
Nearly four hundred years ago a young man named George Fox had doubts. It is said that he was a tenderhearted man, he came from a good family and everyone called his father Righteous Christer, because George’s dad reflected Christ through his life. Yet George struggled. He traveled throughout England looking for answers, wanting to know, wanting to have a reason to believe. Yet the answers he received we platitudes. You should just find a wife, then you would stop worrying about faith because you would be distracted. You should partake of the latest medical advancements, which at that time was blood letting and smoking. You should join the military and get some discipline in your life. And one priest yelled at him before he could even ask his questions because he had stepped off of the path and crushed his flowers.
Fox recorded these accounts in his Journal, and I am often reminded of them. George had extreme doubts and unfortunately the church was not helpful. In despair George took his book of scripture out into a field alone. And he sat in that field completely rejected and lost. When you read the journal it almost seems as if George was in such despair that he was contemplating ending his life. And in that stillness, alone with the scriptures he heard a voice crying out in the wilderness. “There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to your condition.” And George said his heart leaped at that moment. In that moment everything changed. He began to look deeply into the life and lifestyle of Christ. He began to formulate every aspect of his faith and his life to reflect the things he learned through what he heard and saw through the testimony of scripture, and listened to the Spirit that Jesus promised would come and never leave us.
There were moments where he challenged traditions, and he was imprisoned. There were moments where people were silenced through his words. And there were times people tried to set him up to sin, yet what they saw and heard resembled one another.
The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.
John sat in the prison doubting. And Jesus said to look at what you see and listen to what you hear. Are these things reflecting what you have known about the teachings of the prophets and the commandments given to Moses?
Jesus responds, not with condemnation, but grace and encouragement. What drove John out into the wilderness? What drove the people out to listen to John? Did they go out because they wanted to be pat on the back for being good people? No, they went out because they knew something was not quite right in the world and they wanted a reason to believe again. They wanted to know that the kingdom was at hand. They wanted the world to change and for messiah to come.
Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?
I said last week that John lived during an era of history that is often reflected today. It is reflected within every generation that has ever existed on this earth. There is this cosmic battle between good and evil waging all around us. And at times it is difficult to see who is on what side. Jesus does not condemn the doubt, he instead encourages us to listen and observe, but not merely observe instead to join and participate. Jesus asks John, what are the things the Messiah is supposed to do? Who are the people that the Messiah is supposed to care about? What does God care about throughout scripture?
The nations are judged based on justice. They are judged by how they respond to the widows, the orphans, and the foreigners living among them. These are the people that are the most vulnerable within society. They are the ones that have nothing. No one to care for their needs, and are often exploited because they have no advocate to speak for and with them. Jesus later says that the poor will always be with us. Does this mean that they are sinners? No, it means that there will always be exploitation in the kingdoms of men. There will be leaders within the kingdoms of men that will use their power to take advantage of others, that will neglect those in need, and will claim righteousness even when their lifestyle goes against everything they claim they believe.
For George Fox, he formed a religious society where people would wait in expectancy for the Spirit to speak and lead. He waited. He yearned to know the ways of God. He like John was asking, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” Fox and the early Friends, did not celebrate Advent, they lived it. They waited in expectancy, and they examined what they heard and saw. They compared it to what they knew, and what the observed and then they acted.
It is ok to doubt, as long as you continue to seek. It is ok to try and to fail. It is ok to ask questions and to find answers. But as we go let us go, Loving God, embracing the Holy Spirit, and living the love of Christ with others.
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church March 15, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Ephesians 5:8–14 (ESV) 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit…
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church February 22, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Romans 5:12–19 (ESV) 12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all…
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church February 15, 2026 Click Here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili 2 Peter 1:16–21 (ESV) 16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,…
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