Blessed ongoing beginnings (Howl "Wind" Howl)

The Baptism of our Lord, b, January 8, 2012

(Genesis 1:1-5; Acts 19:1-7, Mark 1:4-11

 

Happy New year! 2012 is just beginning. Do you believe that? Do you really think that there can be new beginnings? Or, is life simply, the same old, same old? Is Christmas, that time when we celebrate the birth of Jesus, when many of us had at least some days off coupled with  times of honest generosity, is that just a blip on the screen, an interruption from the regular race of humanity? Or, can there actually be new beginnings, even after our first birth day or our second, third or 9^th decades? Can something new be starting, gaining force, irrupting into our lives as epiphanies, manifestations of actual hope, forgiveness, unconditional love?

 

Just over 2 weeks ago, while I was hurriedly trying to write my Christmas Eve and Christmas Day sermons – and prepare for all the Christmas festivities here at the church and at home, I was interrupted. The phone rang. I glanced at the call display. It was a 306 number – the area code for Saskatchewan. But it wasn't any of those many numbers that are so familiar to me. Annamarie answered. Then she yelled from her office, that "it" was for me. I picked up.  I heard a female's voice. She said, "Pastor Tim... this is a voice from your past." OK – now she had my attention. She proceeded to identify herself. I hadn't seen or talked to this woman since 1985. Her visage leaped to my mind.  I tried to think of her extended family, her parents, her siblings,  her children.  Barely coming up for air she told me a bit of her story over these last 26 years - of a marriage that had disintegrated; of a new marriage that was better – not perfect – but in which there was love, respect, mutual assistance. And then, to my great surprise, out of the blue she thanked me – particularly for the influence I had on her son – now 38, with children of his own. Her implication was that somehow in that community called Redeemer Lutheran, even with me as a very young pastor, her son had some good beginnings, some identity and love that he had experienced. She wanted to THANK ME.

 

Beginnings. We hear echoes of that wondrous reality portrayed by a single word in Genesis – In the BEGINNING! Or as another translator puts it, "At the BEGINNING of God's creating of the heavens and the earth."

 

What are your beginnings? Are they when you experienced the contractions of your mother's womb and were ushered somewhat rudely down that birth canal?  Were your beginnings in that moment as you were conceived? Were your beginnings when you were baptized and joined to the mystical body of Christ? Are your beginnings continuing to unfold? Or is your living marked by the same old, same old, WHATEVER?

 

In today's lessons we hear of at least two specific beginnings. Firstly, order is being brought out of chaos. Secondly, Jesus goes down into the River Jordan and is baptized at the hand of John the Baptizer. I wonder, did you notice something critically important and something in common regarding these events? God's Spirit is active, the generating force in both!

 

The Genesis account mentions that the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God or the Spirit of God swept over the face of the waters. Then God speaks – and the chaos is beginning to be transformed. Amazingly, into that darkness light shines. There are boundaries placed between the light and the darkness.  

 

Then in Mark's account of Jesus' baptism, JUST AS Jesus is coming up out of the water, the heavens are literally not just parted but torn apart. Jesus, Himself, sees the Spirit descending on him like a dove. Then he is enabled to hear a voice from heaven: "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."

 

God's Spirit brings about beginnings – a new thing –wonderful realities! Oh, such realities can't be fully controlled or completely manipulated by human beings. We might try to do those things. But the universe is ever expanding – beyond our capacities to understand or comprehend.

 

As Jesus hears the voice from heaven – as wonderful as that must have been, He isn't allowed simply to stay there basking in that experience. No! In the next few verses that same Spirit who declares Jesus' very identity as Beloved Son of God, propels him out into the world, the WILDERNESS. There Jesus is to live out His identity.

 

What's going on for you these days: in your family, in your personal life, at work, at school,  in this time, this place, in the world? What's going on with you and God?

 

God wills to birth us into new beginnings, new possibilities, things we may have thought or felt were impossible. You see, God loves us! And God loves this world! This good news matters! It's not easy living with this reality in the forefront of our beings,  because there are forces outside and within that resist God's love for us, for others and for creation. There are forces within and without that want to attempt to thwart God, deny God, limit God in order to debase humanity and creation.

 

Make no mistake – such forces are real. Such forces are powerful, way more powerful than you or me or even large segments of humanity trying to go it on our own. Witness the power of death: of murder, of hatred, envy, jealousy, fear. What we humans do to each other when we are given over to the undivided influence of such forces: of being certain that we are absolutely right and anyone who disagrees with us is wrong – and must be put down.

 

But – as we see, as we are told in that first wonderful creation story and in Mark's account of Jesus' baptism – WE ARE NOT ALONE. The "heavens" have been torn, ripped open and God's Spirit comes through Jesus and through a variety of God's activity TO US and FOR US.

 

When we are baptized, we are baptized in the name of whom? That's right, we are baptized in the name of the Father, that is the Creator, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Hands are laid upon us, conveying to us and to others that we are not alone, reminding and proclaiming to us that God's Spirit comes to us from beyond ourselves – sometimes even through others, as humble, as imperfect as we all are.

 

But that Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God blows upon us, creating faith, creating motion, willing to drive us beyond ourselves to see God, to trust God, to see others, to work at loving others, as hard as that is – as much as it may cost us. And the Spirit of God, refuses to stop blowing. That Spirit of God is like the prairie wind, sometimes gentle, sometimes howling, but always seeking to stir us up from death, from lethargy, from apathy to new beginnings and new life.

 

So, I wish for you not necessarily a happy New Year, but a New Year where you, where we, where our world experiences a number of beginnings – actual beginnings that have their source in God, the Creator of the universe, the Father of the One who gives His all for us – in whose name, within whose identity, our identity begins to unfold...

 

Otherwise we fall back into the same old, same old. Blessed ongoing beginnings through us, within us and among us, for Christ's sake, Amen.  

As We Are - Celebrate Christ-Mass

A Sermon by Pastor Richard Hergesheimer based on John 1:1-18

Christmas Day, 2011

It's nice, isn't it? The way the church is arranged with the beautiful tree, the Advent wreath and candles, the Christmas paraments and vestments. It's nice, isn't it?

 

I saw a Christmas card not long ago and on the front cover it said: "If Christmas is a time for giving, then I have a problem." And when you opened it up it read, "And my problem is: 'How do you wrap up a heart full of love?'"

 

How have  we wrapped what St. John calls, "the one who is nearest the Father's heart?" – this one who is God's greatest gift to us?

 

Well, this morning we've packaged it in a setting far different from last night's high-energy, almost frantic service. This morning's setting is far more quiet and restrained, a setting more familiar, comfortable, manageable. . . nice.

 

But the One who is portrayed in John's Gospel this morning is not a Jesus who is nice – that is nicely manageable, nicely comfortable, nicely familiar.

 

The One of whom John speaks this morning is the same One the Creed proclaims as: "God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father through whom all things were made."

 

And when our eyes land on those words, they mystery . . . the cosmic and eternal mystery of it all . . . almost takes our breath away.

 

And we are not the first ones to feel that way.

 

I'm sure that Mary stopped breathing when the angel announced that she would be Theotokos – the Mother of God. I'm sure that Joseph was stunned into breathlessness by the dream he had in which he was told not to abandon his pregnant and apparently unfaithful fiancée but rather take her for his wife and take the baby for his own.I'm sure that the shepherds caught their breath too, when they were awakened by the angelic hosts singing in the middle of the night. I'm sure that Peter gasped when he heard the rooster crow that third time and he started to cry. And I'm sure that the disciples had their breath taken away when Jesus suddenly appeared among them in a locked room three days after they saw him die.

 

The One whose glory and grandeur takes our breath away is the One who is nearest the Father's heart . . . the One who, in breath and in bread, in word and in deed, wraps up and gives away a heart full of love.

 

So, while it is true that what Mary and Joseph and the shepherds saw was just a baby – no halo around his head; no golden sceptre in his hand, no infant sitting upright giving a three-fingered blessing – while it is true that all they saw was a baby, what is also true that what they were missing seeing, at least right then and there . . . was the very heart and presence of the Divine . . . the majesty and magnificence of the Ancient of Days . . . the only-begotten Son of God.

 

And yet all of this "Godness" – this ultimateness and otherness of God – all of this, says John, "Became flesh and dwelt among us."

 

And his "fleshness" was no different than ours, but was the standard, basic, stripped-down version of human nature. . . the kind of human-ness that got him crucified.

 

Oh, people liked him when he played the role of God and supplied wine for their parties, healing for their relatives and sandwiches for their picnics. But what they couldn't stand about him was that he was so human. . . so utterly human.

 

You see, they had ideas about how his divine nature ought to show itself: everything from running out the Romans to climbing down from his cross, but he didn't do any of those things.

He just stayed fleshed – ordinary flesh – just another . . . and so they proved him ordinary for all to see. They nailed his ordinary body to an ordinary cross, to die an ordinary death. And above his head they put a sign which read, "King of the Jews" because anyone and everyone could that this One was not a King of anything.

 

But he was . . . a king, that is. He was the kind of Sovereign that God is – the kind of Ruler who isn't afraid or reluctant to become lowly or humble, who isn't offended by becoming human.

 

You see, John's message today is not only about the Christ who was from the very beginning and through whom all things came into being, but his message is also about the Son of God who doesn't think it is bad or weak or disgusting to be just like we are. . . but who instead, makes fingers and toes, eyes and ears, hearts, livers and lungs the servants of the Divine . . . makes this shell of tissue and sinew and muscle the (are you ready for this?) the temple of the Holy Spirit.

 

We are not the same, you and I, since God became flesh. And neither is anyone nor anything nor everything else. Our bodies – these sacks of worm-food as Luther called them – our bodies are now not something to be demeaned or diminished or denied, but something to be hallowed, blessed and honoured, something precious enough to be raised up on the Last Day.

 

Nor is this earth something to be treated shabbily or shoddily, exploited for our own benefit and comfort. Rather, it is the dwelling place of the Most High and therefore something out of the ordinary. . . something quite extraordinary.

 

And all of this affirmation and reverence for the commonplace and the everyday comes because this One who is closest to the Father's heart was willing to take on flesh and blood and live among us – and is willing to take on flesh and blood again and give himself to us.

 

For in the same miraculous and yet ordinary way he first came, this Pre-existent One, the Source and End of All – this One still comes among us and within us by means of bread and wine. . . allowing his body to be knit together with ours, sending his blood to pump and flow through our veins, making it possible for his life, his power and his destiny to become inextricably linked with ours.

 

And for that reason, it is time to stop talking about the Word that is Christ and begin celebrating the true Christ-Mass – the Meal that is Christ. It is time to feast on the One who, mysteriously and mystically, is both host and food- the One who as host invites us . . . and the One who as food delights us.

 

So come, and by means of the Son who becomes flesh once again, come and know and rest in the heart of God . . . the heart of love. Amen.  

What Do You Need For Christmas?

Christmas Eve, 2011 (Luke 2:1-20 with Isaiah 9:2-7 & Isaiah 11:1-9 in the b.g.)

May the Son of Mary, the Word become flesh be born among us tonight (Pause)

What do  you NEED for Christmas?

 

In some ways I may or may not be talking about stuff or things. Last Christmas my friend Kevin was waiting for a heart and double lung transplant. Those were organs he absolutely needed to live. This past year someone or perhaps even 2 people died. And now my friend Kevin in receiving the gift of life from them, lives. I mean he really lives, cherishing each moment, each step, each note of music he plays and breath he takes.  

 

So I ask again, what do you need for Christmas?

 

Think about our lives. To be sure there is some beauty in each of our worlds and in the world at large. There are things and  people that amaze us. At least I hope so for you. Just yesterday morning I met a young girl and her dog in a park. The first thing I noticed was that she had some physical and mental disabilities. But then I looked closer. I began to be swept up by the joy of life she had with her dog and my dog, even with talking to me, a complete stranger. So I began to wonder, just who is disabled here?

 

And  tonight there is wonder: amazing music, people's love and excitement.  There is also a story that is so much more than story. It can catch us, lifts us, even transform us.

 

Yes, there is much that is good in the way things are: creativity, beauty, wonder, love.

 

But unfortunately that's not all there is. There is also in our reality that which is less than beautiful, good, caring. There is the reality of inequity, prejudice, profiling by class, ethnicity or vocation. There were the shepherds living in the fields. They may well have been homeless. Their society viewed them as shiftless, as unreliable, often dishonest, useless, dirty.

 

There were also Mary and Joseph. They were forced to leave home for taxation purposes. It mattered not that Mary neared the end of her pregnancy.  Who cares? The law's the law –at least for the poor. Well, the rich may have been able to call in a favour.  

 

Inequity continues between rich and poor. We know this. Watch the news. Visit your local food bank. Speak to social workers, street priests. Watch the world news. Travel to other countries.  Attend court. You will be appalled at the inequities you encounter.

 

There is also violence. Mess with the Roman Empire - you could find yourself hoisted on a cross outside the city wall. But we are more sophisticated than that, aren't we? Regardless, a mother is shot in her car while her toddler is in the back seat. How safe are we from violence, especially when we least expect it?

 

To be sure, both then and now much resignation reigns, despair grows. In the Roman Empire, taxes greatly benefited the "haves", while the have not's though taxed,  rarely saw many of the benefits of taxation. That's the way life was, is and will be forever. Who could do anything to change that? If lots of people fall through the cracks – well qu'est sera, sera,  just so long as we are among them.

 

I am not sure that it makes any difference whether one is a mechanic, a farmer, unemployed or a CEO. For all of us, there's both "good" and "bad".  It may be impossible to fully comprehend this until we have walked in the "other's" shoes for awhile.

 

But to all these realities of love and wonder, joy and celebration, brokenness, disappointment, suffering, questioning, despair and pain, SOMETHING HAPPENS. It's something amazing, really GOOD  NEWS. Did someone you know win the lottery? No! Did the shepherds find a better job, suddenly becoming upwardly mobile? No! Were taxes forever ended for everyone? Get real! What is this GOOD NEWS then?

 

While herding their sheep the shepherds hear a voice. No, they weren't into extraneous amounts of schnapps early that night.  There is someone speaking directly to them. And that voice is most definitely conveying GOOD NEWS, not only to and for them, but to and for ALL PEOPLE!

 

Can you imagine? GOOD NEWS FOR ALL! Is such GOOD NEWS even possible? Or is such a message like those calls you receive over dinner causing you to immediately hang up? Their claims are so outlandish that you just know they can't possibly be true.  

 

Nevertheless those shepherds hear that voice. The speaker is right there in front of them. It's as if they are compelled to listen, but not in a freeing way. They hear the message. GOOD NEWS, GREAT JOY for all people. Make no mistake. These shepherds know about lies. They are realists. There are winners. There are losers. They know where they have always been situated.

 

Could there be good news of great joy for them? The angel continues speaking to them: "For to you is born in the city of David, a baby". That's right, A BABY! But babies are born all the time. Even if we are to grant the miraculous nature of each birth, the truth is that many babies aren't even wanted... Suddenly the angel's message is completed by an amazing heavenly chorus singing, "Glory to God".

 

Now the shepherds respond in an amazing way. They get up to go see this baby for themselves. They find the baby. Then they tell the mother and her man what they themselves have heard and seen. Did you notice? Mary treasures what they say (even though "they" are shepherds). She ponders all these things in her heart.

 

Do you ever ponder - mull "things" over with all your being? What do you really need? Or are you, are we, like those shepherds prior to hearing the message that night – with its accompanying music, possibility, promise beyond any human explanation?

 

So I ask, "Why are you at church tonight:? Because somebody loves you? Because someone has told you this story and it has become your tradition or matters deeply to someone you love? Whatever the case, thanks be to God!

           

Let me tell you some amazing news. That baby, the one the shepherds first heard about so long ago, IS BORN! The story of that baby's birth is being told today, being heard by at least 1 billion people, over 2000 years after the fact. This story is being told again because that baby grows up, lives in a unique way and then is executed. Yet, after he dies has followers from all who over the world claim that has been raised from the dead in order to limit evil and death, to flesh out the the power of God's love and forgiveness.

 

This baby, growing, living, suffering, dying, being raised somehow grabs hold of people's minds and hearts. And the world has not been the same since. There are still all the realities - of wonder and love, creativity and birth. But there are also the realities of violence and hatred, jealousy and envy. Yet that baby's followers say that because of him, those realities will not have the final or the lasting say. Indeed, their own lives sometimes reflect such reality.  

 

The baby Jesus, whose birth we announce again and celebrate tonight comes TO US AND TO THE WORLD, to make a huge difference, to make all the difference, beginning with us. God alone can change hearts, minds, perspectives. God may not choose to do that in the way we would. But God is God which necessitates that we are not God.

 

Tonight the message of the angel and the angelic host first received by the shepherds can be heard again by us. Some think it's nostalgic or cute. Some feel it's unbridled superstition. Some wonder if it can possibly hold any truth. But the message of that baby being born – of that baby somehow actually also being God in the flesh, coming to love the human race individually and collectively unconditionally – of seeking to so change us so that we seek to live in that same caring way. Well that begs us to be open to the miraculous, to let go of our endless attempts to control, to manipulate to fully understand.  The birth of Jesus is God's chosen way of bridging the gap between God, the Creator of the universe and we, creatures of the earth. It is this message which comes to you tonight.

 

Dare we listen?

 

TO YOU IS BORN A SAVIOUR, WHO IS CHRIST THE LORD!

 

As unbelievable as it seems God refuses to give up on you or me, or this crazy, wonderful, horrible world either. Amazing.

 

What do you truly need for Christmas? Amen.