It is good to be back here with you all today.
I am very happy to stand in for Hunt
as
he and several of our brothers and sisters in this congregation
make
pilgrimage visiting the places
where
Jesus walked and preached and healed and taught and confronted and died and
rose from the dead as alive as alive can be.
I know from my own experiences in those same places
how
the Gospel stories will come to life in each pilgrim.
So our prayers are with them,
and
when they all return, be sure to ask what they discovered
about
their own faith in those places made sacred in the Gospels.
Now here we are on this first Sunday in the season of
Epiphany,
when
we commemorate the Baptism of our Lord in the River Jordan
which
Hunt and the pilgrims are visiting.
And here is what I have been reflecting on for the
occasion.
At the end of the year and the beginning of a new year
the
news media recaps the top stories,
and lists those prominent figures who have died in the
last year. Right?
Well, for me, and perhaps for you too,
looking
at all that happened in the last year brings a weight of gloom:
so
many deaths by gun violence,
so
much warfare and fighting globally,
an
overabundance of political finger pointing,
the
spinning of facts to support political agenda
and
rancorous speech that is frustrating to endure.
All this may seem like a descending darkness
to
match the long dark nights of winter.
On the other hand as I reflected on the year past
I
found that the preponderance of gloomy news was outweighed
by
my experience of a much different sort.
May I speak from my own experience in the last two months?
The
Spokane wind storm – worst storm in the history of the city.
Most of the city was without electricity
which
wasn’t restored for at least a week for the majority
and
up through Thanksgiving for many.
So many trees were down damaging many homes and taking out
power lines.
And then it turned cold and snowed.
I was there for 10 days through the blackout helping my
sister with Mom.
And everyone around us were pitching in to help.
People
were helping one another.
I won’t begin to list all that was done.
I was back in Spokane for Christmas,
and
again I saw the continuation of people still out helping one another.
This helping spirit was still in the consciousness of the
community
and what I saw was that the aftermath of that storm
actually
produced some very good things in that city
in
the way that people were concerned about each other
and
working together.
I was trying to chip ice off the driveway and the
neighbor,
a
father with three young children, grabbed a shovel and came to help.
The developmentally disabled girl who lives a couple of
houses down
came
to sing a Christmas song for my mother.
Multiply that again and again.
Something good had come to my hometown as a result of the
wind storm.
It
wasn’t all bad;
it
really connected people on a much more foundational level.
This was shining up for us.
whatever
our concerns about what was happening in the world,
we
were together chipping ice off a driveway
so
that we could provide life support for ourselves and others.
There was a warmth of intimacy, a glow of light.
All this a shining light,
the
many individual instances of care and support and generosity
that
combined to dissipate the darkness.
And this is what Jesus exemplifies in his Sermon on the
Mount,
especially
the Beatitudes,
and more directly in how he himself lived and related with
others,
light,
always bringing light into others’ lives.
And this is how Jesus took his followers through a process
of discipleship.
The hope of the world is in that relatedness
where
our frameworks of separation break down.
Yesterday was another example of this very thing:
relatedness
where our frameworks of separation break down.
I attended a gathering of Christians and Muslims in a show
of support
in
response to the fear many local Muslims were experiencing
because
of backlash and reactivity in the community aimed at them
just
because they are Muslim.
Our meeting room was packed,
and
the joy that was there in the faces of all these people
as
we talked with one another and shared support,
that
joy radiated, was a shining light, bringing life.
Relatedness where our frameworks of separation break down.
Seeing these examples of light,
we can ask ourselves this question for self reflection:
how
have I responded in a crisis, in a situation of need,
to
what degree am I really in touch with it? in touch with others in crisis?
If I am really in touch with it,
I
am going to be more generous and connected with other people.
There is
more light in the world than darkness.
Now to link this in with the Gospel for today.
There are two kinds of baptism. Can you see that?
John
the Baptist baptizes with water – that’s the first one.
Jesus,
however, baptizes with the Holy Spirit and fire.
This fire baptism sounds cataclysmic.
“His
winnowing fork is in his hand,
to
clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary;
but
the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Fire – just as the world was once drowned in the baptism
of the great flood,
through which Noah and his
family and the air breathing animals were carried,
now
the baptism would be the consuming of the world in fire,
a
fearful image indeed.
And yet, remember this from the Bible stories, my brothers
and sisters,
there
was One like the Son of Man
walking
in the fire with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego,
and
they were in the fire but not touched by it.
In
the fire but not touched by it, because they were of the fire.
And the flames of Pentecost on the heads of the 120 in the
upper room.
Like
the burning bush that was not burned up.
And from
the first lesson for today from the Prophet Isaiah:
“When
you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you
walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.”
and the flame shall not consume you.”
Now remember the creation story from Genesis.
In Genesis creation is about life – giving birth from
water and the Holy Spirit –
the
formless deep with Ruach, Spirit hovering over it.
And the first words of God are “Let there be light.”
And
from this emerges all the creative potencies of life.
Life is what matters in the creation story of Genesis
The first thing that is said as God creates is “Let there
be light,”
Light
– perfect in form, purity of being –
and
the purity of being is such that it doesn’t diminish.
Think of the stars we see in the night sky
It
has taken millions of light years for their light to reach us,
but
that light has never decayed over all that time it took to reach us.
Let there be light.
From the intimacy of Spirit and water and you get light.
The light has not diminished, it sticks with us.
It is still here,
and
in the first chapter of the Gospel of John it is called life.
“What has come into being in him was life,
and
the life was the light of all people.
The
light shines in the darkness,
and
the darkness did not overcome it.”
It is the true light, which enlightens
everyone, true light coming into the world.
As Jesus stood there in the water of the Jordan river
a
dove came down upon him,
the
Holy Spirit in a bodily, physical form.
And Jesus became a connecting point between heaven and
earth.
In this we have a reminder of the dove in the story of the
flood in Genesis,
a
reminder of deliverance through the flood waters.
The dove flying out from the ark over the water
representing
a new beginning, new life.
And now in the liturgy today we again make a new beginning
as
we renew in our awareness our own baptisms,
renewing again our commitment in response to the faith
given us
born
of fire through our Lord and Savior Jesus,
reminding us that we are born again to be Light,
Light
in the world undiminished and life supporting.
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