NOTE: Here are my worship notes for the start of a six week series re: Living as Fools for Christ. Today's texts - Genesis 1: 1-5, Psalm 29 and Mark 1: 4-11 are those assigned for the Baptism of the Lord Sunday by the Common Lectionary.
In my heart – in my head – in my sense of what is most important in our community and our
+ Genesis One
at the very start of the Bible: In the beginning
when God created the heavens and the earth, the
earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a
wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be
light”; and there was light. And
God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.
God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was
evening and there was morning, the first day.
+ And
the story of Jesus according to St. Mark – the first gospel written and
affirmed by tradition – that says: Beginning with the good news of Jesus Christ…
(It was) in those days that Jesus came from
Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of
the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove
on him. And a voice came from heaven,
“You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
It is not
coincidental that the foundational stories of our tradition – the myths and
histories and parables we tell and retell ourselves over and again – start with the affirmation that
in the beginning: God created, God called creation good and God called us the beloved of the Lord. Many other
foundational stories begin with death or destruction: Isis and Osiris, Zeus and his battle with the
Titans, the sacred war of creation between Marduk and Tiamut. And while we
certainly have our own myth of the flood in the Old Testament, both the Jewish
and Christian Testaments begin
with the blessings of creation and a sacred pronouncement that we are the
beloved.
It is that affirmation – and its distinctive
invitation to a way of living in this world that fortifies creativity and love
– that I want to call to your attention today. You see, this
is the day set aside for us by our tradition to be like the Blessed Virgin
Mary, who pondered in her heart the significance of the baptism of our Lord. Most
of us don’t think of our baptism very often:
generally our culture considers it either a nostalgic ritual linking
this generation to the past by tradition, or, else it is treated like an
unnecessary ceremony born of an out-dated world view steeped in superstition.
In our small corner of the church, we tend to speak of the sacrament of baptism
as a practice that welcomes a child or adult into the family of faith – a
spiritualized Christian reworking of circumcision, if you will – that marks and
receives the baptized into the community of Christ.
+ But what if
baptism is more than tradition, ritual, reminiscence and welcome? What if it is
God’s promise to us that trusting the Lord with all our heart, with all our
soul, with all our strength and with all our mind, we will be mystically
embrace by the Lord?
+ What if
baptism is God’s assurance to us that whether we are resting beside cool
waters, enjoying the richness of the banquet table or walking through the
valley of the shadow of death, God is with us - always? For ever? In life, in
death and life beyond death?
That’s a
rather high theology of baptism, I grant you, but it seems to resonate boldly
with the story St. Mark tells us. You
see, Mark places the baptism of Jesus at the very start of his story. There is
no Christmas celebration in Mark’s gospel – in fact, the Lord’s birth is only
mentioned in two books of the New Testament – signifying that baptism probably has greater worth
than his birthday. Why else would it be discussed in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John,
Acts and Romans? But let’s go deeper and consider the actual text:
+ When God
first speaks to Jesus according to Mark’s gospel, the words Christ heard – and the
words we are allowed to overhear, too – are: You are my beloved, Son,
with you I am well pleased.
+ What do these
words say to you? What do they mean and
what is their significance?
+One preacher
called God’s address to Jesus after his baptism words of radical acceptance
saturated with the blessings of identity,
worth and unwavering regard. (David Lose, Working Preacher)
That’s one insight we can
draw from this story: when Jesus pledges himself
to trust the Lord with his whole being by baptism, God promises to Christ – and
to all of us through him – that God will be with us throughout all time. St. Paul likes
to say that NOTHING can ever
separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. At every funeral or memorial
service I am asked to preside over, it has become essential for me to always
include Paul’s confession from the book of Romans that says in part: We
know that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus; for we
know that in everything God works for good with those who love the Lord and are
called according to God’s purpose. That is why we are certain that neither
death nor life, nor angels or principalities and powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, not height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will
be able to separate us from the love of God.
By faith God
is with us always: but this is not the
only truth Mark’s story about Christ’s baptism celebrates. If we notice where this story takes place – just
before the temptations of Jesus in the desert – then we realize that everything
else Jesus does grows out of
his experience of God’s holy promise to cherish him forever as beloved. One
scholar put it like this:
Jesus’ baptism isn’t preamble to all that comes later
in his life, it’s the highpoint and climax of the story in a nutshell. Again
and again, as Jesus casts out unclean spirits, heals the sick, feeds the hungry
and welcomes the outcast, he will only do to others what has already been done
to him, telling them via word and deed that they, too, are beloved children of
God with whom God is well pleased. And (at) the darkest moment of the story,
when Jesus feels absolutely abandoned, it is followed immediately by the story
of resurrection, where the messenger testifies that God has kept God’s
baptismal promise and continues to accept and honor Jesus as God’s own beloved
Son.
+ Are you
still with me because this is really important? If God is with Jesus throughout
his lowest and most shame-filled experiences – if God refuses to quit loving
even when Christ is nailed to the Cross – then in all things in our life we can trust that there
is hope for those who trust the Lord.
+ "At our low moments,
(we can) remember that the God who raised Jesus from the dead is the same one
who promised in baptism to never, (ever) abandon us and to love and accept us
always and still as beloved children, even and especially when we have a hard
time loving and accepting ourselves.” (David
Lose, Working Preacher)
That is the
foolishness of the Cross – the foolishness of our baptism – the foolish-ness of
God’s grace: in it we confess that we
trust that God’s love is greater than all sin, shame and fear. And I have to
tell you that is only from within this trust, beloved, that I find the strength
and solace to live creatively and compassionately these days. Like you it is
easy for me to become discouraged in these times.Like you I
don’t often see a lot of evidence that our culture values the way of trust,
peace, justice and compassion. So I have to regularly turn my eyes to Christ
and his experience with God. For there,
even when I can only see as through a glass darkly, another world comes into
view.
+ A world
where I am forgiven – and so are you. A world where we are God’s beloved – the
Lord’s cherished friends – with whom God is well pleased. It is a world where
we count more than what our credit score tells about us.
+ A world
where God the least among us so much that they are raised up to change
the world. Did you know that Jesus was
from such a nowhere town in Israel called Nazareth that it is never mentioned
in the Old Testament, the Jewish Talmud or the history of the Jews as recorded
by Josephus. It is so insignificant that no one had even heard of it. And yet
by grace God raised up from Nazareth one who would bring hope and healing to a
broken world.
+ Our African
American sisters and brothers like to put it like this: In Jesus Christ we can
see how a no body can be raised up to become a some body, who can tell any body
that every body is loved by God. Because, since the beginning of time, we are
all what…?
+ God’s
beloved. Can you say that again: WE ARE GOD’S BELOVED!
Now I told
you at the start of my message – and I am going to say it again right now – that
most
+ We don’t
need more cynics – we don’t need more gossips – we don’t need more broken
hearts obsessed with shame and fear. We don’t need more FOX News or MSNBC
pundits. We need more of God’s beloved who know from the inside out that God’s
love is greater than all our wounds and all our divisions.
+ So you know
those Christmas Eve candles you received when you came into worship? I bet
you’ve been wondering what the devil are we going to do with these, right?
So I’m going
to tell you: we’re going to use them to
affirm that WE are God’s beloved who know God loves us from the inside out.
+ We’re going
to use them as a body prayer to confess that God is calling us to be light in
the darkness. Hope in despair. Peace-makers in a world of violence. And women
and men who love one another as God has already loved us.
+ Amen? Can I
get a witness? Amen?!
Just like
Christmas Eve, we’re going to light one another’s candles; and as the light is
passed from one candle to another. I want you to say to your neighbor: YOU are a beloved child of God. Ok? Can you
do that? YOU are a beloved child of God.
+ And then
when all our candles are lit,
we’ll raise up the light of Christ to the glory of God and pray a simple
prayer: Marked by the Cross and sealed
by the Holy Spirit: Lord, help me live as a fool for Christ in a world that
takes itself too seriously. For I am a beloved child of God. Amen.
+ Are you
ready…?
credits:
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