Called and Beloved

Isaiah 42:1-9; Psalm 29; Acts 10:34-43; Matthew 3:13-17

(look these up on oremus.bible.org or biblegateway.com)

This Sunday we celebrate the Baptism of Our Lord, and in this congregation specifically, we ordain and install our new Elders and Deacons, two forms of volunteer ministry that are essential to the good function of Presbyterian churches, and our ministry to both congregation and community.  

You might even say that on this Sunday we celebrate servant leadership, as exemplified in this story of Jesus being baptized by John.  John wonders how he is fit to baptize Jesus, who, after all, is the Son of God!  And yet Jesus, leader of all creation, submits to the baptism of John.  

Now, many of you know that I meet with my clergy colleagues each Tuesday to study the Bible and prepare for preaching.  This week, we had a lengthy discussion on this question:  Why baptize Jesus?  After all, John's baptism is for the forgiveness of sins, and Jesus is supposed to be sinless.

Well, to be honest, at the time, we didn't actually come up with any great, inspiring answers.  We were kind of mystified ourselves.  But, here's what I got to thinking since then:

First of all, by submitting to John's baptism, Jesus affirms John's ministry.  John's been out there awhile, in the wilderness, considered maybe a little crazy by some, but also hard at work, helping people, and has by now developed quite a few followers.  Jesus isn't about to 'upstage' John, he's affirming all the good that John has done preparing the way for Jesus' own public ministry.  By affirming John's ministry, Jesus is also perhaps enacting a reconciliation with John's followers.   Remember, over the past few weeks we've heard about John's followers wondering and wrestling over whether Jesus is the one they are to follow. 

Next, let's look at what happens after John baptizes Jesus:  the heavens open, the spirit descends like a dove, and a voice is heard saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."  This moment changes the very meaning of Baptism.  John himself said earlier in the Gospel readings, "I baptize with water, but the one who comes after me will baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit."

We baptize infants in our faith tradition, not because we believe they are sinners, but to emphasize God's forgiveness before they can even begin to comprehend their need for it.  We also baptize infants, along with everybody else, to welcome them into the body of Christ, the community of the Holy Spirit.

I imagine that on that day, in the midst of everyone gathered there, doing the daily work of ministry, that these sights and sounds of the heavens opening to announce the beginning of Jesus' public ministry, that it was an absolutely life-changing experience for everyone there.  I imagine it to be a moment of great hope, a little fear perhaps, and many other emotions--and even that daily work of ministering to others or being followers, would never be quite the same.

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Let's return for a moment to the term I used earlier, Servant Leadership.  When we seek to be servant leaders, we submit to one another.  We are not looking out for our own ascent to power or grandiosity.  The servant described in the Isaiah reading today will not break a bruised reed or put out a dimly burning light.

Sometimes in the daily life of the church, these rituals we do of ordination and installation may seem like odd formalities. And yet, in doing them, installing and ordaining to service those who have been chosen by the assembly, we affirm each other's ministries.  We recognize, (especially in Presbyterian life) the equal status held among leaders, despite having different roles: teaching elders (pastors), ruling elders, and deacons.

We are all part of the community of Christ, whether in these roles or others, each with a part to play, and each with gifts to serve.  And we are Beloved, even when, like John, we might not feel quite up to the task.

And no matter what the task, we are certainly never alone.  God is with us, and we are guided by the Holy Spirit, as we seek to follow in Christ's footsteps.

We are called to be servants, but we are so much more than servants.  

We are all beloved children of God. 

Thanks be to God!

Youth Moment: On Baptism and Sand Castles

The second weekend in December seems like a funny time to talk about being at the beach, and actually, the snow is piling up outside our windows.  But, have you ever gone to the beach and built a sandcastle?  Have you ever worked really hard on it for a long time?  It's really neat what you can do with just water, and sand.

from raisinggreatkidsblog.com

Now, have you ever gone back the next day?  Was the sand castle still there?  Usually not, though sometimes there's a few traces left behind.  Sand castles don't keep, except for the memories or if you take a picture, and then you have to begin the next time all over again and build another one.

I like to think of building sand castles on the beach when I think of what it means to live out our baptisms. Our baptisms are eternal--just as God is eternal, and how very much the sand and water at a beach appear eternal to us.  We are God's children forever, whatever we may do in this life.  But building sand castles is a little like the daily practice of living out our baptisms--we respond to others in acts of love, to make our world a better place.  Sometimes the good we do is preserved in the memories of ourselves and those around us; but really, each day, we get to begin again by loving people all over again--especially the people who are hurting and need extra love to heal those hurts.

Now, this can be a lot of work, really.  But, we shouldn't be discouraged, and we don't have to do it alone, because we know God is always with us, and because we have each other to support one another.  Even in those times when it seems like all the good we may do just gets washed away in this world, we can and should still do beautiful things whenever we can, acts of love...and, like sand castles, we may even have some fun doing it.  Thanks be to God for sand and water, the world around us, and the daily opportunity to live out our baptisms by loving one another!

That We May Have Hope

Second Sunday in Advent

Isaiah 11:1-10, Psalm 72:1-7; Romans 15:4-13; Matthew 3:1-12

(Look these up on bible.oremus.org or biblegateway.com)

[These are some of my favorite Bible passages, especially the Isaiah, so I have a few other things in writing [in brackets] that time did not permit me to share on Sunday.  However, I share them here to peruse at your leisure].

Many of you know that on Tuesdays a bunch of us pastors get together to study the Scriptures for the week and get started thinking about the sermon.  And most weeks it’s helpful, but this week it somehow got dragged down into one of those discussions where you try to figure out how to fix the world--and an hour later you haven’t fixed anything and you’re just kind of tired, and maybe a tad cynical:  One says, raise the minimum wage, another says that’ll just make everything more expensive and folks’ll end up back in the same place. And on, and on.

I don’t want to sit there and dwell in cynicism too long, so let’s get some basic assumptions out of the way before we begin: We know there’s brokenness in the world, and we wish it were not so.  We wish there were some easy fix, but we also kind of know there’s not.  We know that whatever can change the world for the better, will take an enormous amount of energy and effort.  We know we can’t check out of the situation entirely either.  And we know we don’t want to think about all of that and just end up tired, we’d like to have something to hope for!

Isaiah 11:6 '...the calf and the lion...and a little child shall lead them.'
Found at doveandcross.org

Today in our Scriptures we’ve got some amazing and perhaps a bit confusing imagery of a hoped-for world: A world where nature is re-ordered such that predator animals and their prey can live together peaceably and no one fears harm; a world where a king does not just look out for his rich and powerful political allies, but creates justice for the poor, who can give him nothing in return; and how even from a seemingly-dead stump, new life can spring forth.  

Wouldn’t it be wonderful!  How can we get there?  How can we have such a world where these things that we deeply in our hearts hope for, could come true?

Ah, that’s what folks have wrestled with throughout all time!

So, now, enter this strange character, John the Baptist, kind of a wild and crazy-seeming guy, a prophet proclaiming the kingdom of heaven is near, and the people of Jerusalem and all Judea are going out to him to be baptized, and they’re confessing their sins.

And many Pharisees and Sadducees, the religious establishment leaders of the day, are coming out to join them.  And that’s where John gets angry.  Why is that?

It might be worth noting that this idea of using water for spiritual cleansing is nothing new even in John the baptists’ time.  Jewish people for centuries had been using mikvehs, sort of like a big baptistry or if you don’t know what that is, a jacuzzi, with stairs that you descend on one side until you’re pretty well submerged, then you come back up the other side, ritually clean.  You do this after doing anything makes you ritually 'unclean'--such as preparing a loved one’s body for burial, or after childbirth, or a list of other things that I’m going to send you to Wikipedia for, since the list is a little 'earthy:'  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikveh

And here's a link to images of both ancient and modern Mikvehs, via Google image search. (Note that a person may not be wearing clothes in a Mikveh, so view at your own discretion).

Going Through The Motions

That makes you ritually pure to enter the Temple, the house of God, and worship.  It’s a powerful symbolic ritual, designed to prepare people to increase their relationship with God by leaving behind distractions of daily life.  But the real importance is not really the physical ritual, it’s the internal preparing of your heart for worship and relationship with God.  In other words, it’s not magic.  Going through the motions might make you look acceptable to your peers, but it doesn’t really do much for you if your heart isn’t in it.

That said, why is John so angry at the Pharisees and Sadducees?  It’s because they’re going through the motions, and they’re also relying on the privilege of their bloodline for their security in this world.  Rather than being accountable for their own actions and how their own corruption is harming other, especially vulnerable people, they are seemingly smug, and they hold everyone else accountable to the motions, without consideration for their human struggles, whether physical or spiritual.

Don’t Be Too Quick To Judge

We shouldn’t be too quick to judge, though.  Sometimes I think, If the Sadducees and Pharisees are there trying to get baptized, then really, maybe they’re not feeling all that smug and secure. And let’s be honest: we, too, could become smug, to say that we’re Christians, that Jesus reconciled the world 2,000 years ago, and that’s that.  Well, yes, we believe that our eternal salvation is in the death and resurrection of Christ, but if we do not let that affect how we live out our daily lives in relationship to God and one another, we really lose out on so much in this life.

The Gift of Baptism

In our faith tradition, we baptize infants because we believe that God does the work of salvation, that we do not and cannot earn our salvation, any more than an infant could.  God has done that work for us, that is God’s gift to us.  That is our gift whether we keep it up on a shelf, or whether we take it out every day and use it.  The gift is still ours either way, but in our daily lives right now, we are made richer by using it.  

[This brings up a tricky situation that many families wrestle with:  when grandparents want a child baptized sort of ‘just in case,’ even if parents don’t want the child baptized or plan to teach them the faith.  If you are a grandparent worrying over grandkids that aren’t baptized or don’t get to church, don’t fight with the parents over it.  And of course, you would never threaten a fiery hell or whatever else folks sometimes threaten others with, because that doesn’t help anyone.  Instead, you teach them the love of God and inspire that relationship two ways:  you show them God’s love with your own compassionate and gentle presence, and you teach them what it means to love others.]

In a world where we are living out our Baptisms, we aren’t afraid to love our enemies, to show compassion, or to forgive those who have hurt us. We hold each other to a different kind of accountability, one that says, ‘we’re all in this together, we care about the same things, we want a more peaceful world for our children here on earth,’ not a legalistic or revenge-based accountability that is so common in our world, yet so ultimately empty and unfulfilling.  

[After all, how many times have we heard where a person said about a lawsuit, it wasn’t really about the money and it didn’t make them feel any better, they just really wanted more than anything to hear that the person who hurt them was sorry for doing so.?

Sometimes in life, we cut off or try to avoid people who have done us harm because we think it’ll hurt less.  Granted, sometimes in life-threatening situations, such as a history of abuse or domestic violence, we do have to do that.  But in the more routine difficulties of relationships, the distance doesn’t really heal.]

[I’ve told you before as a pastor I’m often surprised by how many people worry whether they are actually saved or if they are going to hell.  And yet I take those concerns seriously.  If we ourselves haven’t faced that kind of anxiety before, we can at least sympathize with the people in the Gospel story, who are going to John the Baptist to be baptized for the repentance of sins.  They want  to be washed clean of whatever’s been bothering them that they’re not proud of.  But again, it’s not a magic trick.  It’s not a thing to check off your list.

Ideally, we’re reminded of the bigger picture, that world and kingdom of God we are hoping for, when we gather to worship, and then we are sent forth to figure out how to live that kingdom hope and those kingdom values in our daily lives--in how we treat our coworkers or fellow drivers or the store clerk or waitress or the person on the street asking for change.]

A Transformation Of Hearts

The Gospel for today happened to be the text for Friday’s Bible Study group, and one question came up, how do you really know that you have repented and are forgiven?  And I would answer, you know in your heart.  If that’s confusing, because I think that can be, even for me sometimes, then ask yourself--about a situation where you’re upset with someone, for example.  If you have something that you are sorry for, some harsh words, well, are you really sorry?  You know when you’re holding back in your heart.  When there’s someone out there that drives you nuts that you see everyday, (maybe even at church!), have you learned to feel compassion for them and whatever they may be going through?  

Are you just being nice to someone’s face, or do you truly deeply care about them?

There’s a quote in the book, Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card, which really stuck with me this week: “I find that by the time I truly understand my enemy... then I also love them…”  Those of you who know the book know that the quote ends with gaining advantage over and destroying the enemy, which isn’t all that loving.  But for our purposes today, let’s just take that first part:  

Can you go up to a person who drives you nuts and say directly to them, “hey, I know we’ve had our differences and probably still will, but I just want to let you know I care about you and I want to keep trying to work things out?”  When we are living out our Baptism, we don’t have to destroy our enemies.  It is enough just to love them.

(You can read the full quote here via Goodreads.com).

Anxiety and Hope in an Uncertain Future

While we’re talking about total transformations of the heart, let’s be real.  I’m a pastor, and I can be totally loving and forgiving and compassionate and understanding of each and every human being I meet for oh, at max, about six or seven days in a row. (And sometimes, if we’re really going to be honest, maybe some days, only a few hours, or a few minutes.  Some Sundays, I’m not even home from church before I’ve grumbled about three other drivers along the way). But, six or seven days, let’s say, and then I need to be reminded that the Kingdom of God is built not by resting on our laurels or by going through the motions, but by the active, daily practice of love.  Love in forgiveness, love in compassion.  We will all need to keep working at this, every day, for the rest of our lives.  Our eternal salvation does not depend on this, because that work has already been done.  But our world today, very much needs these daily doses of love.  By love, true community is built.  By love, all obstacles and challenges can be faced together.  By love, our world is transformed.

While I’m not likely to take the Isaiah passage literally and allow my young children to go play with nests full of snakes anytime soon, I do still fervently hope for a day when no one will hurt or destroy within the realm of God.

In an uncertain future, we can take hope.  And really, no matter how good or bad the present times are, the future is always uncertain.  We can allow that to paralyze us with fear, or we can allow that to turn us into cynics, or we can live into hope.  As Paul has written: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Prayers this Week:

For all who struggle in body, mind, or spirit, with the winter weather

For all who are hungry or homeless at Christmas, and at any time of year

For all who are grieving or hurting at this time of year

For all who are unable to gather with family and friends for the holidays

For the hope and justice and inspiration brought to all people by the life and leadership of Nelson Mandela