Saying No: a sermon

Year B Lent 2 2015

St. Thomas Episcopal, Richmond, VA

“Saying No”

There is a stage in our development that has been slapped with the name the Terrible Twos.  This baby with whom we have bonded so closely has now started saying a word, a word that they have heard several thousand times in their first year of life.  They have learned that this word holds power.  This word has authority.  They spit it out.  Often repeatedly like machine gun fire.  The word is NO.  “No.  No, no, no, no, no!”

Does this child do this to annoy us?  To drive us crazy?  No.  They do it because they can.  They have learned that they have a voice, both literal and psychological.  They use said voice, exercising their autonomy and independence.  They say No, because they are their own creature.  As much as it pains us at times and drives us crazy, a toddler screaming no is at its core a good thing.  And as an aside, please remember this parents, and even more, please remember this when you are stuck in line behind a poor parent with a child expressing his or her autonomy at a store.  This is fun for none of us.

Today we are talking about saying No, and this is a hard topic for me.  I am that type of person who likes to say yes.

I like to help people, and I like to be of service.

I have been hard pressed in recent days to emphasize my NO, however.  In fact, I need to often make saying no a spiritual discipline.

I was at an event recently, and I had someone ask if I could take on a leadership role.  I said no.  The person making the request smiled, laughed, and emphasized the need for me to do the role.  I said no.  The person got serious, and emphasized how I needed to do this.  I smiled back, no matter how I felt inside, and was very clear this time.  “I will not be doing this.  Thank you for asking.”

With a click of her tongue, the person looked at me like I had smacked her.  “HARSH!”

“No,” I responded, “honest!”

When we say yes to something, we say no to something else.  When we say yes to chocolate, we say no to vanilla.  When we say yes to going to the movies, we say no to going to store.  We cannot be all things to all people.  We cannot clone ourselves, nor can we be like Hermione in the Harry Potter series and be in two places at once.

Likewise, when we say yes to God, something has to give.  It is not that God wants us to live miserable existences, but we must make decisions.  Just like God does not want us to be miserable, neither does God wish us to be burnt out and of little good to anyone.  “Come unto me,” Jesus said, “for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Even Jesus explained it to us this way: “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”  

But I am not here today to discuss poverty, unless we talk about poverty of Spirit.

Most often we hear another word of Jesus from the very beginning of the Sermon on the Mount: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’

It has always struck me when I have read the contemporary translation by Eugene Peterson, The Message.  He translates the “Blessed are the poor in spirit” this way: “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.”

When we let go of ourselves, or maybe our selfishness, our orientation on ourselves, we can allow our nature to be more in tune with God and God’s rule.  If we say Yes to God, there is not a space to say Yes to ourselves as well.  We choose the one over the other.

When the woman approached me about taking on another leadership role, I had to say no because I have said Yes to being a husband and a dad.  I had to say no because I had said Yes to being a priest and teacher.  In fact, as I get to know myself more and am more comfortable in my skin it becomes more and more intuitive to that which I can say Yes.

Ana Hernandez yesterday put it this way, “That really does not sound fun to me is a good reason to say no to something.”  As I grow in my self-awareness and live more fully into the call of God in my life, I can get more and more attuned to what is part of God’s call and what I need to say Yes to for God’s sake, and what will not be fun and apart from God’s desires.

Today we are presented with stories of people who said yes, and we can see the impact that it had on their lives.

Abram and Sarai wanted a child.  They were desperate for a child, but in their advanced age they had given up hope decades before.  When the visiting angels told Sarai she would have a child she actually laughed, but that is in the chapter after today’s reading.

When God promises Abram a son, he asks much of him.  Change your name, and much more besides.  The lectionary, by cutting some verses, emphasizes the name change.  But for Abram to say yes to this new way of seeing himself and being, he had to say no to the way things had been.  For Sarai to think about the possibility of being a mother, she had to rethink everything.  Everything.

Having one’s first child when she can get the Senior discount probably changes things even more.

God was calling on both of them to rethink who they were in him.  Abram means “Noble father” and he is being called to see himself anew.  He is to change his perspective to be “Father of nations.”  Sarai, “Princess,” becomes Sarah, “Mother of many.”  After so long, this was a call to a real leap of faith for the two of them.  They had to let go of their doubts, and claim their new identities.  They had to let go of their plans and scheming, and not focus on Ishmael as an alternative for them.  Even more difficult.

Saying Yes to God, and saying No to ourselves is not an easy thing at first.  Like that toddler saying No, we say it to exercise our autonomy and independence.  When we say Yes to God, however, we are letting go of those things we hold so dear, especially in this country, so much.

Abram and Sarai, cum Abraham and Sarah, said No to their old ways and their old way of seeing themselves.  They said Yes to who God was calling them to be.

In our Gospel reading, we see another story of saying No.  

Mark 8:31-33

Then Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’

Peter here is doing what he thinks he should do.  He loves Jesus.  He wants Jesus to be successful and all that God would have him be.  He is even respectful.  He does not call Jesus out in front of the others, he takes him aside.  He rebukes Jesus, but in a way to show the depth of both his concern and care.  Peter, I believe, is saying Yes to all his hopes in who Jesus is.  And also, think about it, would you want to get on board a sinking ship?  If Jesus is about to be rejected and killed, would you want any part of that?  Peter did not.  He was saying Yes to who he felt Jesus was.

Thank goodness, however, that Jesus said No to Peter.  Jesus knew who he was.  Jesus was secure in his calling.  Jesus was confident in what God wanted him to do.  He had spelled out what he understood his calling as well as what the foretelling of Scripture said about the Messiah.  When Peter rebuked him, Jesus rejected the rebuke.  ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’  Jesus saw what Peter was doing, and why.  To us this sounds so harsh.  But, no, Jesus was being honest.

The Hebrew word Satan in our minds conjures up red horns and a pitchfork and evil.  The word means Adversary.  The Opposition.  And in a technical sense, that is exactly what Peter was doing.  He was being being the Adversary to Jesus.  He was encouraging him to forget and leave behind all this suffering servant stuff.  Jesus was secure in himself and in God, and said No.

He calls us to be the same.  Later in our Gospel reading, he calls us to say No, No to ourselves and Yes to God.

Mark 8:34-37

Jesus called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?  Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?

As we follow Christ, we have to learn to say No, so that we can say Yes.  May God bless our following.  Amen.

Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday

Here is a short presentation I made for Coffee and Conversation at St. Thomas'.  Blessings!
https://prezi.com/v5inrwwej-wv/shrove-tuesday-ash-wednesday/

One Year Later, and a Long Time More

I have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support on the Anniversary of my priesting on February 8.  It was a Sunday, so I got applause at my church a couple of times.  I got to baptize a student from school, preach and celebrate.  It was a pretty awesome day.

I put up a picture of a year ago on Facebook, and got over 130 likes on the picture, and several comments.  What was most meaningful about that was the many, many friends from all through my life that were affirming my call.  Jewish, Buddhist, Mormon, Baptist, and Nones threw in their love, and even a few Episcopalians from my church and around the Diocese.  I even got a like from the Bishop of the Rift Valley in Africa.

Today, I bumped into an old friend I knew from my seminary days.  He asked what was new, and I shared my anniversary with him.  "Yeah, I have been a priest a year," I said.  "Oh, you've been one a lot longer than that," he said.  And I have.  He was right.  This long journey has taken many a circuitous route along the way.  I am blessed and I could not be more excited about what the future holds.  Thanks be to God!

"Less Things, First Things": a sermon

Epiphany 5 2015

St. Thomas’ Episcopal, Richmond, VA

“Less Things, First Things”

First things first.  It is easy to say.  So much harder to do.  One of the big issues in life is deciding, and the spiritual term is discerning, what it is that we are to be about.  In the days we live in, discerning what comes first is the greatest struggle for all of us.

As much as our life together as a parish is ruled by numbers, I would say that our greatest resource as a parish is not our budget, our building, or our ministries.  Our greatest and most valuable resource is our time together.  We can get more money.  We can get more buildings.  But to have time together, time where we can be, is our greatest resource.  It is our greatest resource, but it is a diminishing resource.  It is scarce and precious.

If you think about it, it is one thing that we all have in common.  We say in this country that we are all created equal, but in most accountings we could prove that untrue.  Rank, status, wealth, talents, none of these are distributed equally.  But time is the one thing which we all have in equal distribution.  We each are given 24 hours in a day, and seven days in a week.  What we choose to do with this gift, what we discern about the spending of our days, is what will make us who people remember us to be.

I had the honor to be at the funeral of the most senior priest in the Diocese of Virginia yesterday.  The Reverend Harry Baldwin lived to be 95 years old, and loved being a priest so much that he had 5 retirements because he kept getting back in the game.  Bishop Jones spoke of his great love of Jesus and of his wanting to affect the spiritual life of his flock.  It was said of Mr. Baldwin that when he visited people in the hospital, that people felt the palpable presence of God, especially when he laid hands on them in prayer.  What a wonderful remembrance.  Mr. Baldwin kept his first things first.

Now as we explore today’s theme, you are not going to hear me talking about things that you should not do.  You are not going to hear me talk about the sins that linger on, or the distractions that keep us from our goals.  I think about those things, most of us know what not to do, but the hard thing is knowing what good things we are going to say no to.  Discerning what good we need to let go of is unbelievably hard.

St. Paul, in today’s reading, is wrestling with his call.  He is so driven by his call, it is all-consuming.  

I Corinthians 9:19 For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them.  20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law.  21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law) so that I might win those outside the law.  22 To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some.  23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings. (NRSV)

“I have become all things to all people that I by all means save some.”  Paul wrestled with finding ways to connect with all he met, Jews, Greeks, slaves, free, trying to find ways to point them toward Christ.  His burden and one aim was to connect all with this one of whom he had at one time, with equal fervor I might add, wipe out all memory.  Did his one driving passion come from guilt? Some may think so, but I tend to think it was out of overwhelming love for the one who opened his eyes.

Passion can make up for many ills.  But woven through Paul’s convoluted argument is the single thread of reaching out to all in whatever way he could so that he could reach some.  He kept his first things first.  All else was trivia at best, distraction at worst.

In our Gospel reading, we bounce through four mini-stories.  

1) Jesus shows up at Simon’s house and his mother-in-law is sick.  He heals her and gets dinner out of it.

2) Many sick are brought to Jesus; he heals them and casts out demons.  His fame and reputation grow.  

3) He sneaks off at dawn to pray and be alone.  

4) His disciples hunt him down, find him and try to drag him back because the crowd was looking for him.  He does not go.

We could explore so much in this: but I want to live up to my theme and keep the first things first.  We are going to look at 3 and 4.

Mark 1:35 In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.

36 And Simon and his companions hunted for him.  37 When they found him, they said to him, "Everyone is searching for you."38 He answered, "Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do." 39 And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons. (NRSV)

What can we as a church look to in this passage about how we are Christ followers, instead of just naming ourselves Christians?

I would argue that we need to do less.  And of that less, we need to do what we do better.

35 In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.

This is one of the great reversals of the Christian life.  “Don’t just do something, STAND THERE!”  Or better yet, KNEEL THERE!  It has been said another way, “We are too busy not to pray.”  Jesus knew this.  He was about spiritual work and in order to do that, he needed to recharge his spiritual batteries.  

When I got my car, I knew that I was going to be doing significantly more driving as a priest than I did as a teacher.  Because of that we decided that it would be to our benefit to get a hybrid.  Finding a hybrid that I fit in was not going to be easy, but we did.  One of the fun things about the car is that there are multiple screens that I can choose for the dashboard.  The one I have up is one that shows the energy usage in real time.  I can see when the car is running on battery power, on its itty-bitty engine, or a combination of the two.  Going down a hill is almost always battery alone.  Going up a hill is almost always engine.  But, how I drive varies the usage drastically.  If I speed off at a green light, I use a lot more gas.  If I crank the heat or the AC, I use a lot more gas.  The more I ask of the car, the more gas I use.  But after having the car almost a year, I have learned a new discipline.  How to move off from green lights, how and when to run the appliances in the car, from all these I can maximize the efficiency of the energy going out.  But even then, I have to expect charging up those batteries the best I can so that I can use them all the more and go further.  

Jesus knew this.  To do what he had to do, he had to do less.  He had to know when to get away and do what was necessary to do what he had come to do.

This week I was in the office, and Susan called me over.  We had brainstormed some wonderful offerings for Lent, and when we put them all on the calendar something was very clear.  Something had to go.  There is such a thing as too much wonderful.  I was glad to hear her say it what I was thinking.  We need to do less.

And why do we need to do less?  So we can have the energy to be about the things that are of the highest priority.  We need to put first things first.

When the crowd was looking for Jesus, the disciples hunted him down.

36 And Simon and his companions hunted for him.  37 When they found him, they said to him, "Everyone is searching for you."38 He answered, "Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do."

Jesus was not about to be misled by the desires and whims of the crowd.  He knew what he needed to do.  Staying where he had already shared his message was not what he was about.  He was going to the neighboring towns to proclaim the message there also, “for that is what I came out to do."

Jesus discerned between the good: casting out demons and healing folks, and his calling: to share his message as far as he could.

And what else?  What of our days and hours?  If we say yes to some things, we must say no to others.  It would be so sad if we were to say yes to thing that keeps us from doing what we were born to do.

We do many things as St. Thomas’.  They are all, mostly, good.  But are we missing the mark by stretching beyond what is most necessary to be who God is calling us to be in Ginter Park, in Richmond, in Virginia?  We will need to say no to some very good things to be about the things that are why God has us situated right here, right now.

"Simple": a sermon

“Simple”

Epiphany 3, St. Thomas’ Episcopal

January 25, 2015

Taken from Jonah 3:1-5, 10 and Mark 1:14-20

In the name of the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sustainer, Amen.

Have you ever had this happen: there is a situation.  It is bad.  You want it to change.  You get a little upset about it.  In fact, as you think about it, you get a lot upset about it.  You might even get peeved.  And you start thinking, and as you think, you come up with some great lines of what you are going to say, some zingers even, to make your point, conveying your frustration and as well as arguing for the change you want to make.

And there they are, your victim, I mean, adversary, the one you want put in their place.  You have an open, yet forceful stance.  You catch their eye and you say what you have been planning to say.  “We need to talk…”  It goes on from there.  You say what the problem is, and you want it to go to a different place.  And as you catch your breath, they respond with, “Okay.”

Okay?  Okay?  What do you mean okay?  Now,  as to getting what you want, you do.  Maybe.  But you had it all planned out.  You had it all ready.  Your scenarios and arguments were all in place, and before you got to use them they say okay.  You got consensus, but it was too easy.  What about all your planning and preparation!  Your big dramatic arguments worthy of Inherit the Wind are for nothing!  Arrrgh!

Disgruntled prophets are an ornery bunch.  They aren’t happy, and they try to make everyone else feel the same way.  This is the situation we see with Jonah today.  Now we do not see his pity party, that comes in the next chapter of Jonah, chapter 4. In fact your can read all of Jonah in just a few minutes.  It is almost a cautionary tale of how not to follow God.  You see, Jonah gave the word of the Lord to repent, but he did not want Ninevah, the great city, to listen to God.  And when he called out their imminent destruction in a mere 40 days, what did they do?  They had the audacity to listen.

Who had more faith, the people of Ninevah, who heard the prophet’s warning and changed their ways, or the pouty prophet who wanted to watch the fireworks and destruction that was to rain down before God changed God’s mind?  Jonah wanted to share the word of the Lord, but he wanted to add something.  Maybe a bit of flair to the message.  But you see, the message is enough.

Thankfully, the Ninevites, from the King on down, heard the word of the Lord and changed their ways.  God wants us to change our ways.  God wants none of us to be on the path that leads to destruction.

While we were at Council the last few days, I met a representative priest from the Diocese of Liverpool.  John was his name.  He told me the story of a youth he had worked with who had been a rough kid, or a troubled young lad as he put it.  He remembers him as extremely troubled when he knew him in his late teens.

A few years later, a friend who was a nurse asked a favor of  John, to go and visit a 22-year-old man who was dying of cancer.  Going to his house, the young man’s mother showed him upstairs.  Upon entering the room, John saw that it was the troubled youth he had met a few years before.  When he walked through the door, John heard the young man drop a few expletives in surprise and disgust upon seeing the vicar walk into his room.  John smiled and sat down.  The nurse had told John that the young man had not slept well in weeks, and so John went right to it.  “I hear you have not been sleeping well.”

“I can’t,” the young man replied.  “Why not?” John asked.

“Every time the lights go out, I see hands reaching up for me.  They’re gonna drag me to hell.”

“You’ve seen the movie Ghost one too many times,” John replied.  Their conversation went on, getting more and more honest, and finally John asked, “What troubles you?  What could be so bad that God would want you dragged off to hell?”  John then pulled out a piece of paper and waited.

After a long pause, the young man started a litany: lying, cheating, stealing, bad things, horrible things.  For the next hour and a half John wrote it all down.  When it was all down, John asked, “Anything more?”  Looking at the pages and pages that had already been written, “Nothing I can think of,” was the reply.

“Well then, we do not have to worry about those any more,” John said.  “Whadaya mean?”  “See here,” said John, “you told me, I told God.  And God told me, you’re forgiven.”  John then proceeded to rip up the sheets and sheets of paper.  “Wait, what are you doing?” asked the young man.  “You’re forgiven,” said John, and then he walked across the room and threw them away.

“Is it that simple?” asked the young man.  “Yeah, it really is,” said John.  They talked a bit more and John headed out.

The next day John came back, and the young man’s mother was furious.  “What did you do to my son?”  She, like her boy, threw a couple of expletives in along the way.  “What do you mean?” John asked.

“Come and see,” said the mom.  He followed her to the young man’s room.  John looked in, and she said, “I went to check on him this morning, and he was sleeping.  He is still sleeping now!”  

“I did not do anything,” said John.  But John knew, someone else had.

After hearing the litany of all the young man had done, John could have shaken his head and said he deserved whatever he got.  But he didn’t.  He could have added a judgmental tone or look.  But he didn’t.  He shared grace to a sin-sick soul.

Lining the shelves of my office are hundreds of books.  Most of them are about Christianity.  They argue their point of view, subtly and with nuance most of the time.  But it all boils down to the simple message of Jesus.  We want to make it complicated because we think that something this important cannot be that simple.

When food companies first invented the box cake mix, they had trials done.  People were wary of them, and did not want to use them.  Why?  Anything that simple cannot be worth using.  So what did the food chemists do?  They added a step.  They made it more complicated.  The made their mix so that it required breaking an egg.  That was enough complexity to make it “real” in the eyes of the bakers.  And, thus, Betty Crocker was born.  I think of all the things we add, or want to add, to make the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus more real to us by making it more complex.  Jonah wanted a wrestling match, so he could show how good a prophet he was.  God wanted changed hearts and lives.  I am glad God won.

When we look at the beginning of Mark, from today’s reading, we get the Gospel message of Jesus in a single verse.  Look at it with me.

Mark 1

14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15 and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."

Verse 15 is the message that Jesus preached.  “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

Unhear if you can the Bible-ese.  We are not shocked and surprised by it any more.  This was radical when he said it, and as Bishop Gulick reminded us yesterday, all true Christian formation is, at its core, subversive.  

“The time is fulfilled,” might be heard, “No more waiting.”

“The kingdom of God has come near,” could be heard, “The power and the rule of God is close enough to grasp.”

“Repent,” a military command for “About face,” or better yet, “Turn around!  Change your ways!”

“Believe in the good news.”  Don’t need to change that one at all.  Put it all together, de-Bible-esed and what do we get?  What is Jesus’ mission statement?

“No more waiting!  The power and rule of God is close enough for you to grasp.  Change your course, and believe this good, no, GREAT news.”

It would have to be that simple and that wonderful for hard-headed folks like the disciples, and maybe us, to drop what they were doing and follow Jesus immediately.  We do not have to add an egg, or make it complicated in any way.  Is it really that simple?  I think my new friend John, and Jesus, would both say yes.

When the young man passed away a few weeks later, John was asked to do the funeral.  All the young man’s biker friends were  there, and they all commented that their friend died a different man.  The song the young man chose for his final goodbye proved he had changed his ways, and that he believed the good news.  Not a loud heavy metal song of biker anarchy.  Nor was it a Christian song, per se.  It was a Motown great that was used to close out Ghostbusters if you remember it.  The great Jackie Wilson’s 1967 classic, “Your Love Keeps Lifting Me (Higher and Higher).”

Your love keeps lifting me higher

Than I’ve ever been lifted before

So keep it up, quench my desire

And I’ll be at your side forever more.

That song, and that sentiment, echo in heaven.  My friend John was beaming with joy as he told this story.  I would say the young man embraced some Good News.

“No more waiting!  The power and rule of God is close enough for you to grasp.  Change your course, and believe this GREAT news.”  Amen.

Beloved: a sermon

“Beloved”

Epiphany 1, January 11, 2015

St. Thomas’ Church, Richmond, VA

We come today to the Baptism of our Lord, the first Sunday of the Epiphany.  We remember the arrival of Jesus to the Jordan River to be baptized by his cousin John.  I have often heard the question asked, “Why did Jesus need to be baptized?”  I find this question to be like, “Why did the chicken cross the road?” or “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?”  Both are unanswerable.  Even worse, both are moot.  The whys in most situations are not knowable, as some of you have heard me speak about before.  I like to look at what is.  Almost to say, “Why did Jesus need to be baptized?”  In response, “Because he was baptized.”  It does not answer the why, but Jesus’ need to do so was apparent because he was.  There is something intrinsic that is happening.  But what?

 And that begs the question, “Why do any of us need to be baptized?”  Why do we undergo this strange and bizarre ritual?  An easy answer, because Jesus told us to go and be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  (Matthew 28:19)

But what is the role of ritual?  What is the role of doing what we do at this font?  At that altar?  How come?

I have used this quote often, usually at marriages.  “A ritual is an enactment of a myth.”  -Joseph Campbell  (Hear myth here as a group-shaping story, not a lie or fiction.)

We go through the motions of a story, to make that formative story not just a part of our story, but our actual story.  When we take on the story of baptism we become the stories of Scripture.  In baptism, we wash away the old like in Noah’s Flood to bring about a new beginning.  In baptism, we are ritually cleansed like in the laws of the Tabernacle and of the Temple.  In baptism, we follow Christ into the Jordan.  In baptism, we are laid in the tomb of Christ’s sepulcher to be risen to new life.  All these stories become our story.  We are invited into this newness of life.

Looking at the Catechism in our Prayer Books (pp. 857-858):

Q.      What are the sacraments?

A.      The sacraments are outward and visible signs of inward

and spiritual grace, given by Christ as sure and certain

means by which we receive that grace.

Q.      What is grace?

A.      Grace is God's favor toward us, unearned and

undeserved; by grace God forgives our sins, enlightens

our minds, stirs our hearts, and strengthens our wills.

(and skipping down)

Q.      What is Holy Baptism?

A.      Holy Baptism is the sacrament by which God adopts us

as his children and makes us members of Christ's Body,

the Church, and inheritors of the kingdom of God.

           

Q.      What is the outward and visible sign in Baptism?

A.      The outward and visible sign in Baptism is water, in

which the person is baptized in the Name of the Father,

and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

           

Q.      What is the inward and spiritual grace in Baptism?

A.      The inward and spiritual grace in Baptism is union with

Christ in his death and resurrection, birth into God's

family the Church, forgiveness of sins, and new life in

the Holy Spirit.

Looking at all these questions, we are baptized not to receive God’s Grace, but because we have received God’s Grace.  It is an outward sign of an inward Grace.  We are Baptized because God first loved us.  Do not put the cart before the horse!  Christ did not need to be baptized to receive God’s love and forgiveness.  Christ was baptized because he resided in God’s love and Grace.

When we have the rituals of the Church, we often want to equate it to cause and effect.  Except we reverse the reality.  Our effect is the cause, and our cause is the effect.  We get married because of the love and the union that already is, not that we get married to have love and a union.  The wedding is an outward sign of that already received inward reality and Grace.

I got ordained by the Bishop on these steps not to make me a priest, but because God’s call and the response on my life led me to kneel before Bishop Shannon where it was outwardly recognized that I was a priest in the Church.

Now we look at our Sacraments, Holy Baptism and Holy Eucharist.  Are they any different?  We are baptized to get into God’s Grace?  No.

In fact, let’s look at Christ’s story and see what we can learn.  We need to just look at the last three verses.

Mark 1:⁹ In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.  ¹⁰ 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.  ¹¹ And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

If we go with our usual, cause and effect approach, then Jesus getting baptized triggers him being God’s Son, God’s Beloved, with whom God is pleased.  Now, did Jesus become God’s Son at this moment?  No.  That reality already was.  Did Jesus become God’s Beloved at this point?  No.  God already loved him.  There are those that argued that Jesus became God’s Son at Baptism, or at the Transfiguration, or at the Ascension.  These ideas are called Adoptionism.  Adoptionism is a heresy.  It is why we say in the creeds, I believe in Jesus, “begotten, not made, of one being with the Father.”  Jesus was not adopted.  He was born the Son of God.

Think of it this way.  I love my daughters.  I love them when they are cute.  I love them when they are cranky.  I love them no matter what.  But that are times, when they make wonderful choices or do something that is so great that I am about to burst.  In moments like that I might burst out, “That’s my girl!  I love you so much!  I am so proud of you!”  That’s what rang from heaven.  “That’s my boy!  I love him so much!  I am so proud of you!”

In the Genesis reading today, before anything took shape, the Spirit of God was covering the face of the deep.  How could it not be that we are surrounded by that same breath, or wind, or Spirit covering us and preparing us for what is about to break forth?

For me, the word that encapsulates all of this is idea for me is Beloved.  Agapetos.  The object of God’s love.  Jesus is called the Agapetos by the Divine voice.  This object of God’s divine love is what comes to us.  In this season of Epiphany, may our eyes be opened to this reality like the Wise Ones who went home by another road.

Now, it is Sunday morning.  We are in church.  I can assume that most of you agree with the idea of Jesus being the Agapetos, the object of God’s divine love or you probably would not be here.  The thing I love about this word, though, is there is something else which the New Testament uses this word to describe.  In Paul’s letter in speaking to the Churches in various cities, he writes to his beloved.  Now it is not human love we are talking about here.  It is that agape, that divine love, that we are talking about.

Jesus is not only the Beloved.  You are, too.  You are the Agapetos.  You are the object of God’s divine love.  In my wallet I carry a picture of my daughters.  They are smiling.  They are loving each other.  This picture makes me so happy every time I see it flop out.  How much more do you think God loves you?

In fact, think of how we would look at ourselves in the mirror if we started that way every morning.  “Good morning, beloved of God!”  Even more, what if we came up EVERY ONE that we meet and in our minds declare them the Beloved of God.  Think of how our church, our neighborhood, or city would change.

We come to the Baptismal sacramental waters not for God, but for us.  It is our way of saying to ourselves lest we forget and to everyone that knows us, I see, I see.  I am the Beloved of God.  He made me.  He claims me.  He loves me.  He is pleased with me.  I am baptized and there is nothing that can ever take that away.  It surrounds and binds and seals us as God’s own, and Christ’s own, forever.

Why are we baptized?  [Singing] Because he first loved me. 

Go out with this good news, and change the world.  Amen.

One word is not enough

For our bulletin this Sunday, the Baptism of our Lord.

Wind.  Breath.  Spirit.  We have three words.  Hebrew and Greek (the languages used to write the Bible) have just one.  In Hebrew, ruach (ר֫וּחַ) suffices for all three.  In Greek, pneuma (πνεῦμα) does the job.  We have the three being juggled in today’s lectionary readings, and because we have de-personified nature we lose something of the richness of the image.

Genesis 1:2 “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.”  The King James sounds far richer to me, “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” 

With wind things move.  The branches rock back and forth.  The waves crash.  It sweeps out the old, and brings in something new.  Watch a movie, and when something big is about to happen a hidden wind machine gets turned on.  The winds of change blow, and we have no control and we have to go along for the ride.

Breath is about as close to the other as we can be.  When we are close enough to experience the breath of another, we are in close proximity.  A baby cuddled close.  A stranger invading our comfort zone.  The lingering before and maybe after a first kiss.  Breath is something we cannot undo.  When called upon, we can even breathe for another and give them the kiss of life.  There are few things more deeply involved in the human condition than the breath.

Spirit is ephemeral.  We use it to point to the unexplainable.  A Spirit moment is something I hear in ministerial circles when we acknowledge that things aligned too perfectly to be coincidence, too exact for us to take any credit for it.  When the Spirit is involved, get out of the way.  What is about to happen is far greater than our hopes or what we could imagine.

I love the action of wind.  I love the intimacy of breath.  I love the mystery of spirit.  One word would bring about the beauty of action, intimacy and mystery.  However, when Jesus leaves the waters of his Baptism, we hear/feel/see the pneuma/ruach of God come down like a dove.  Then a voice from heaven: Mark 1:11 "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."  I like to hear it that the wind blew, the breath exhaled, the Spirit moved these words.  Even then, it does not do it justice.  Even one word is not enough.