Genesis
1:1-5 Acts 19:1-7 Mark 1:4-11
Today
is an amazing day for our congregation. It is an amazing day because of the
opportunity to baptize these young ones that God has entrusted to us, but it is
also an amazing day because we are all given the opportunity to reaffirm God’s
claim on our lives.
Truly,
we can do that any time – and I hope that you do – but reaffirming God’s
baptismal claim takes on special significance when we do it together. That
doesn’t mean that God’s claim is stronger or better because we are together. It
doesn’t mean that you are more important to God because you are here rather
than in a fast food restaurant or out on the streets trying to stay warm.
No, it
is different because we are here together, forcing ourselves to be open to the
active presence of God. I say, ‘forcing ourselves’ because worship is centered
around the one thing that goes against our nature more than any other – letting
go of control. We have to make ourselves do that in order to truly worship God.
It is in our worship of God that we recognize that there actually is a lot of chaos in the world, and in our worship, we express our need to know that the one who first spoke light into darkness is still involved. We worship God because we need to turn over the chaos of our own lives to the one that holds all things and even works in and through you and me to bring order to the chaos all around.
At
least that’s the claim that we find in our readings today. In our first reading
we are reminded that the first thing that God does in the creation story is to
simply exist in the presence of chaos. God hovers – some even translate it as
dancing – over the waters, which for the ancient Hebrews meant unpredictable,
life threatening chaos. Then God speaks and allows light to shine – God’s own
light – and gives it value apart from the darkness. It is good.
In
the same way as God created them, God opens the heavens to claim Jesus as
beloved son. The Spirit of God descends on the one Mark calls “the Son of Man”
(or the “Human One” in the CEV).
Now,
this is one of those points that we have to take a wide, but focused, view of
scripture. Through other scriptures and Christian tradition, we know of Jesus
as God’s self-revelation – very God and very man – yet Mark’s gospel speaks of
Jesus as being claimed by God as God’s son and even rested upon by the Holy
Spirit.
As
weird as all of that may sound – if Jesus is God – we have to remember that
Mark was written before a formal Trinitarian doctrine was being used to
describe God. What matters to Mark is that we understand that it is through the
person and work and death and resurrection of Jesus that God breaks down the
barriers between us and God almighty!
That’s
what Paul was truly concerned with when he asked believers in Ephesus if they
had received the Holy Spirit. He wasn’t concerned whether or not they had said
the right words or been sprinkled instead of dunked. He wanted to know if the
experience of repentance and baptism truly had an impact on their lives or not.
And
we receive these readings today with the same questions. Did you know that the
heavens have been ripped open for you as well? Have you received the Holy
Spirit?
Let’s
take those one at a time. First off, I’m doubtful that any of us have had
visions of the heavens opening up. If you have, that might lead us to another
conversation later. For the early followers of the way of Jesus, those words
would have connected to a very different understanding of what the heavens were
actually made of, and they would have reflected Isaiah’s battle cry for God to
come down and reclaim the people of Israel.
For
us, it means something entirely different. For us it means that the heavens
were ripped open not only for Jesus, but for us to know that God is in the
business of breaking through the cosmos in order to demonstrate grace and
mercy. That’s the baptism that claims us!
That’s
the sacred making, unifying love that pulls us to this table like a hungry
child to a feast! God’s constant action of showing up and demonstrating grace
upon grace is the qualifying passion that drove Paul to ask if the baptized
believers had received the Holy Spirit.
And it is God’s boundary crossing character that asks us the same thing.
Have we received the Holy Spirit?
Few
things make Presbyterians as uncomfortable as talking about the Holy Spirit
outside of Pentecost. But the reality is that we who live on this side of the
Pentecost event must expect God to be active and present.
We
must expect that God has claimed us and has involved us in the ongoing project –
that we see throughout Mark’s gospel – of crossing lines between social
classes, taboos, and the ongoing use of religion to separate and divide those
whom God has called into a more perfect union!
Certainly,
we are going to keep working on this project as a congregation – the project of
calling and claiming and announcing the kingdom in our midst – even as we seek
to follow the way of Jesus in our own lives. Certainly, we must recognize that
even as the star guided the Magi, and the angel sent them home by another way,
Jesus is that same guiding light for us.
Even
as I say those words, I need you to know that I am aware that we are already
following the light of Jesus together. Having been away and seeing and hearing
of your work from a distance, it has been nothing short of brilliant to see
your efforts to care for the vulnerable in our midst.
And
while I could lift up story upon story of the evidence of the Holy Spirit in
our midst, I want to close by giving you a very practical example of light
breaking forth from an unexpected place – Sarah Silverman.
For
those of you who don’t know who she is, Sarah is a comedian. She is very brash
and sarcastic, and sometimes rather crude. She has no qualms about dropping “f
bombs” in her comedy sketches or her social media. She is someone many would
consider to be very liberal in her social views, and she is also very clear
about her ethnic identity as a Jewish person. But this isn’t about any of that.
One
of her recent twitter exchanges has gone viral because a young man responded to
something she said by attempting to belittle her by calling her a slang term
for a female body part. Now, given the conversations in our nation regarding
the preponderance of women that have been abused and harassed verbally and sexually,
you would expect someone like her to call him out for his behavior. Instead she
responded in love. She took the time to read his other posts and recognized
some specific experiences of pain and suffering this young man was
experiencing. Then she started a conversation with him, recognizing that he
must be coming from a place of pain and suffering. Then she started networking
with others to encourage them to help him, and they did.
What
matters here is not her faith or lack thereof. What matters is that God calls
light out of chaos. What matters is that God has put a claim upon each of us,
so that we might be the next story that encourages someone else to respond in
love.
And
for those times when we don’t, because sometimes we won’t, there is this table
where we come to taste and see that God is truly in our midst, that God will
never give up on me or you, and that even we have a roll in inviting others
into the presence of God. That is the truth telling prophetic claim that the
Holy Spirit gives to each of us – even here, even now. And to God be the glory!
Amen.
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