First, I want to just say a quick “hi” to all of you out there. While I certainly wish that we could be worshipping in person, I am thankful for technology and the people who operate it (thanks Ken!) so that we can still gather virtually each Sunday. I miss seeing you every week during worship, choir rehearsals, or other events. Just a note that to be 100% safe, I recorded my parts of the service at home ahead of Sunday, so while you are watching this on Sunday morning, I’m watching it right with you!
Now, taking a quick look at our old testament reading from today, it focuses on prophets and God providing prophets for the people as they get ready to go into the promised land. God wants to make sure that God’s people are given guidance as they go into land that has many rituals around false gods. Because of this, there needs to be a true voice to guide them as they build their community around God’s plan. We learn what makes a good prophet, which is someone who speaks the truth about God and shares God’s message. So, while we don’t officially declare prophets in these modern times, we can sort of view anyone who declares the truth about God and the love for all people as a type of modern prophet.
Moving to the new testament reading, at a quick glance this may seem like a message about being careful about what we eat or do not eat or how we behave, but the message is bigger than that. We have to remember that this was written to the church in Corinth to give them guidance for their community. What I take away from this passage isn’t about strict laws about our behaviors or actions. This is about being aware of our actions and how they impact our community. As children of God, freed by Christ, we are commanded to build up our community to ensure that everyone can know and experience God’s love for all. So what we should and should not do is not dictated by a certain list somewhere, but by the outcomes. We need to look at our actions not as the actions themselves but by how they impact our community. Even if an action is fine for ourselves or those close around us, we need to view it as how others perceive it and how it impacts the larger community, to ensure that the actions share the message of God’s love and helps bring people closer to the wholeness that God and I yearn for in recognizing the kin-dom of God.
In today’s Gospel reading we find Jesus entering the synagogue and teaching. It was not unusual for people other than the leaders of the synagogue to teach during gatherings, it was quite common practice. From a commentary by Richard Donovan “There is only one temple, but synagogues are widely scattered and devoted to the study of scripture. Sabbath worship includes prayer as well as the public reading and exposition of the scriptures. The role of the president of the synagogue is more administrative than pastoral, so he invites qualified laymen to speak. Synagogue rulers would welcome a fresh, promising voice, which explains how Jesus could teach in the synagogue.” ( https://sermonwriter.com/biblical-commentary/mark-121-28/ )
The important part here is that Mark notes that Jesus taught with Authority. Normally only the scribes had authority to interpret scripture. Again, from Richard Donovan, “Scribes are scholars who interpret and teach Torah and render binding judgments regarding its application. They tend to be conservative, rendering judgments based on precedent—deriving authority from their knowledge of earlier experts on the law. By Jesus’ day, they are powerful and enjoy considerable deference. The best seats in the synagogue are reserved for them, and people rise to their feet when they enter a room.
People call them “rabbi,” which means “great one”. They constitute a substantial portion of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling body. They quickly become Jesus’ opponents, and will play a major role in his crucifixion—in part because they consider Jesus to be sacrilegious, but also because Jesus poses a threat to their comfortable lives.”
This gospel reading, along with last week’s, are the start of Jesus’s public ministry, and boy does he start off with a bang. Not in a safe cautious manner, but already challenging the status quo of the time. Not only by teaching with authority and shocking people, but also by rebuking evil in a person, and achieving results. The actions he did wasn’t the shocking part, it was that he wasn’t part of the “in” crowd, not “authorized” to do this, and didn’t do it the “right way”.
As we follow the ministry of Jesus, we learn that this is exactly what his ministry is all about, doing what is right, breaking down barriers that keep people from God’s love and the kin-dom of wholeness, and making sure everyone, especially the “others” that normally didn’t fit in, are welcomed to experience the wonder of God’s unconditional love.
Which brings us to today, Reconciling in Christ (RIC) Sunday. A yearly service where we focus on and renew our commitment to being an RIC Congregation. This year the theme is “Coming Together, Building Community”. When we became an RIC congregation, the requirement to be officially listed as an RIC congregation was to have a public welcome statement that specifically states that we welcome all sexual orientations and gender identities. Recently, when I was working with another congregation on their journey to becoming RIC, I learned that ReconcilingWorks, the organization that governs the RIC program, has updated the requirements for being RIC. At first, I was a bit concerned, but after I read the updated list, I strongly support it because it is a positive change, and also fits in well with the spirit of RIC and fits well with what our congregation does. The updated list of RIC criteria is:
While I feel we do well at most of these, we always have room to grow, so I encourage you to think about these commitments as we start another year of programming in our congregation.
When we think back on today’s readings, we find that throughout the bible, God’s plan for all of us has always been about coming together and building community. Not just any community, but a community where all are welcome, kept safe, and are provided ways to experience God’s love and desire for wholeness for everyone. From the old testament when prophets were provided to build and grow a community in a new land, to the new testament where guidance was given as to how to ensure that the community is coming together to build itself up. Then the ultimate example of what it means to come together to build community from Jesus’s bold actions and message, that God isn’t meant to be separated from people and governed by old rules and strict interpretations of them, but God is meant to have close connections with people in their community and use that connection to build up the community as one.
As we celebrate RIC Sunday this year, I think back to RIC Sunday last year and how I had a very packed day of plans for that Sunday, starting off with church, then our annual meeting with lunch, attending a play, then traveling to Toronto for a short vacation. This RIC Sunday is vastly different, as has been the last year for all of us. While this has certainly been hard for everyone, in many different ways, I also see the positive that has come out of it. This congregation, you, all of you, has stepped up to come together and build community. People adapted and adjusted as needed to ensure the work of our congregation continued. Services were adjusted and readjusted, adjusted again, and changed once more as health guidance, technology, and weather required. We started new programs like treats for health care workers and also demonstrating for racial justice - not just when it was the hot issue of the week, but for months, since just because it fell off the headlines, didn’t mean the issue went away. We had a wonderful God’s Work. Our Hands. day where we engaged and provided services to our community. We ensured that our annual food drives continued. We increased our efforts to make cards for seniors, now when they need them the most. Our food pantry has helped who knows how many people in need, it continues to gain more attention as
people become aware of it and the need in our community increases. We continue to provide and care for the young people living in our parish house, as we continue to work for justice for them. In this past year, we have certainly come together to build community. And through this, we are reminded that the church is certainly not a building, but a community. While our building has been mostly shut down for almost a year, the church, our community, has certainly not been closed as we’ve continued to come together (virtually or otherwise) to build community.
And I’ve said it before, and I’ll continue to say it, because it is the truth, Pastor Ellen is a modern day prophet. Her deep care and concern for people, justice, and community is the spark that leads our congregational community to keep working hard to come together to continue to build up God’s kin-dom in our community. Her passion and commitment drives us all to keep coming together to do the work that is desperately needed in our community and the world. So, pastor, hopefully, my virtually helping lead today’s worship service gives you a small, and much deserved, break. I can just picture you sitting back and relaxing a little bit as you watch the parts of the service I recorded to help out today.
While it would be great to say “well we’ve done a great job at coming together and building our community, we can step back for awhile”, that isn’t the case. Until the entire world is made whole and one with God, and all know the freeing, unending and unconditional love of God, our mission continues. We will continue to come together in whatever ways we can and whatever ways are needed to continue building up our community. Our community of people at Faith, our community of people in Okemos, Haslett, Williamston, and surrounding areas, our community of Black, Brown, Indigenous, and other People of Color, our community of people from different faith backgrounds, our community of the wide range of sexual orientations and gender identities and expressions, our community that is best described as everyone, all God’s people and all of God’s creation. Make no mistake, this is hard work, but work that we are called to do, work that we can do and should be excited to do, because of the Good News that we are freed from our sins, freed from having to worry about always being “right” and doing the “right” thing to maintain connection and earn God’s love. We are freed because of Jesus Christ, who died for our sins, to bridge the gap between us and God, so we are closely and unbreakably connected with God’s love for us. We are freed to come together and build community. Let us challenge ourselves as individuals and as a congregation to work to continue our current plans and find new ways to build up our community to ensure the message of God’s love reaches all.
When my kids were in elementary school, each of them had to work on a Tall Tale project. Tall Tales are narratives with fantastic, unbelievable, impossible elements, that tell a story as if the elements were true and factual. Other tall tales have elements of truth but extreme exaggerations of actual events. I remember my kids studied tales like Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, and Johnny Appleseed. Then, they had to write their own tall tale which they made into a book. It really was a lot of fun.
Today, we get a tall tale from the Old Testament. Quite honestly, when people read the book of Jonah, we find out what kind of readers they are – whether they are literalists or lovers of a story that is not factually true but communicates a much deeper truth. And, the literalists lose out on this one. The book of Jonah is a wildly funny, improbable, subversive story and, because we get only the middle part of this tale in today’s reading, I really need share with you the whole story.
The first thing you need to know is that many theologians believe the story of Jonah is midrash, a practice in which Jewish rabbis would take a verse from scripture and expound upon it, tell a story to explain it, and give commentary regarding it. Midrash commentaries were often humorous, and the story of Jonah has all these markings. The story of Jonah is likely midrash based on a verse from Joel, which Jonah later quotes in complaint. To set the context for this story, you should also know that Jonah’s people were part of ancient Israel…and Israel had this enemy called Assyria, the imperial force of the day. Assyria’s capitol and seat of power was Nineveh. The Assyrians were ruthless. They had ravaged and pillaged much of Israel, they had taken their wealth, occupied their land, and demanded the people of Israel pay them tribute. The Assyrians were despised enemies.
Anyway, the word of the Lord comes to this very reluctant prophet called Jonah and God says, “Go at once, head east to that great city of Nineveh and proclaim the message I tell you!” So, what does Jonah do? Not wanting to go to that wicked city, he goes west to Tarshish, the city that was, at that time, thought to be as far west as one could possibly go. Jonah takes a boat in the exact opposite direction of Nineveh at which point God causes a bad storm. The sailors realize that Jonah is the problem, and they throw him overboard. Then, just before drowning, Jonah is swallowed by a big fish and for three days our hero is given a whale of a time-out. Nothing like sitting in the dark, slimy belly of a large aquatic creature for a few days to make you reflect and think about what you have done. So, from inside the large fish, Jonah thanks God for God’s mercy in saving him from the deep. Then, Jonah gets thrown up on the shores of…you guessed it, Nineveh! Gross – but very funny. Jonah thought he could escape what God called him to do and now he is covered in whale puke.
Well, the fun continues. When he gets to Nineveh, he moans to God that the city is absurdly humongous, a three-days walk, or about sixty miles. How could he ever possibly cover that much distance? Anyway, he whines and complains, but he does do what God commands. When he gets to Nineveh, he is the most ridiculous, reluctant prophet, with the most hopeless message ever. He speaks a paltry little eight-word sermon, saying, “Just forty days, and you will be overthrown.” No message about God, just those eight words! You see, Jonah really did not want to share the news of God’s mercy to those hated Assyrians and his message was truly a measly proclamation. Yet, almost in spite of Jonah, Nineveh does repent along with all of the livestock! The people and the livestock fast and put on sackcloth! Now, think about it – repenting cows wearing sackcloth? Anyway, as the people repent, God changes God’s mind! In fact, the story says God repents and the people are saved. Then, hilariously, Jonah storms off like a little kid, pouting because the people really did repent! He then takes an ancient, beautiful song of praise from the book of Joel, the verse on which the midrash is based, twists it and uses it to complain to God as he says, “That’s why I fled in the first place, because I knew you are a gracious God, a merciful God, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love!” And, for extra melodrama, he adds, “Just kill me now.” God responds by making a tree grow, then wither, all in a lighthearted attempt to show Jonah something about compassion. Then, God asks Jonah, “If you care about a tree, why can’t I care about Nineveh?”
That is the story of the very reluctant prophet, Jonah. It’s a great tall tale. So, what is it about? Friends, Jonah is one of those stories in the Bible that is very, very true without being particularly factual. There actually was a man named Jonah, and you can find him in 2 Kings, chapter 14, verse 25 where he gets one small mention. And, the Assyrians had been a very powerful and feared nation, but Nineveh had been destroyed long before the story of Jonah was even written. The author took these few facts to spin a story aimed at getting the people of Israel to broaden their understanding of the wideness of God’s mercy. You see, if God can love and forgive the wicked, despised people of Nineveh, God can love and forgive anybody, including us. And, if God can forgive anybody, so can we.
So, as we look at our present context, as we look at the division and hatred that spews forth from so many people, the lies that have been told, the conspiracy theories that have been propagated, and the grief and pain so many people are experiencing, to what is God calling us? What if God is calling us to do something we do not want to do? What if God is calling us to extend to others not only God’s mercy but our mercy, not only God’s love but our love, not only God’s forgiveness but our forgiveness, to the people we don’t like, to the people we don’t believe deserve love and forgiveness and mercy?
Quite honestly, we may sit minding our own business, being nice and good to those who are nice and good to us, busy about the business of creating a friendly, family church, and not hear God calling us to proclaim God’s message of mercy, forgiveness, and love to this broken world. Like the disciples in our gospel reading, we may be working on the home front, merely mending our own nets. But, in the person of Jesus, the voice of God is always calling to us saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent, and believe the good news!”
To repent means to turn around, to change your mind and to turn back toward God. When we hear this call, how shall we respond? Will we repent? Will we change our minds about what’s important and alter the direction of our lives to more faithfully follow God’s call? Will we, like the disciples in our gospel lesson, leave whatever boats and nets are representative of the “stuff” we hold on to in our lives, and follow after the one who calls us? Will we go to “Nineveh” and proclaim God’s love?
Friends, it is helpful to wonder and ponder all these things. However, the biggest news and message in this story is this: in a certain sense, our reactions and responses really do not matter. God knows and accepts human frailty and loves us and reaches out to us and ALL OTHERS with compassion anyway – even when we are rebellious, angry, pouting, or despairing. Friends, God is always coming after us, pursuing us with mercy and grace, and God’s mercy is wider than we can even begin to imagine. The biggest news of all, the news that needs to be exaggerated and proclaimed is this: God is gracious and God will be gracious to whom God wants to be gracious. As Nadia Bolz Weber says:
God loves you. [God loves me.] God loves you and God loves your enemies. God loves those who love your enemies. Which means that [God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love towards you, even though you are in all likelihood – someone else’s enemy]. God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love towards me even though I am in all likelihood – someone else’s enemy. How many generations, how many layers of divine mercy do we need before we get the message?
That is truly THE good news for everyone!!
I am still shaken over what happened at our nation’s capitol on January 6th. My heart grieves because of the deep brokenness in our culture. In fact, I have been feeling for some time that our present context could be described by the words we find in 1 Samuel this morning where we read, “The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.” Too frequently, the loudest religious voices in present culture have been voices of Christian nationalism which is not Christianity. What we saw on January 6 was the result of the fusion of fundamentalist Christian nationalism, racism, conspiracy theories, populism, white supremacist ideology, and extremism. And, as insurgents stormed the capitol, many described themselves as participants in a kind of holy war. It was hateful, violent, appalling, and it was wrong! This is NOT Christianity! This is NOT how Christians are called to live. These actions do not display the call to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself!
So, it is fitting that in today’s readings, we hear call stories. Call stories tell us about the response of people of faith to God’s call in their lives, and they help to inform us of the way we are called to live. We hear about the call of Samuel, a little boy who grew up to become one of the great prophets of the Old Testament. In our New Testament reading, we hear Paul telling us we are called to live our lives as faithful Christians, thinking of our very bodies as temples, bodies worthy of bearing the Holy Spirit in this world. And our gospel reading tells us of the call of Philip and Nathanael, two of Jesus’ first disciples.
In this gospel reading, Nathanael’s call to follow Jesus is not dramatic like Samuel’s. It is somewhat gradual. It evolves through engaging conversation. In fact, it seems as though Nathanael did not even want to meet this guy, Jesus. He was just doing it as a favor to his friend. When Philip tells him Jesus is the one of whom the prophets spoke, Nathanael replies by honestly speaking his mind saying, “Really? A self-appointed teacher, from that back woods, podunk, little town of Nazareth?”
Well, he quickly discovers that this guy, Jesus, at least had a sense of humor. When he meets Jesus, Jesus says, “Glad to meet you Nathanael, an Israelite without deceit.” Now, this might have been a backhanded compliment. Maybe Jesus was saying he appreciated Nathanael honestly speaking his mind, because he did not seem to take offense at the whole Nazareth comment. But, we who are overhearing this conversation should understand there is a double meaning here. Jesus' calling Nathanael an "Israelite" should bring to mind the ancient story of Jacob which is found in Genesis. Jacob, a name meaning the deceiver – remember he deceived his brother Esau – later became known as Israel.
Anyway, Nathanael is an Israelite without deceit, and this conversation marks the beginning of his relationship with Jesus. But, wait! There is more! Jesus was not there for Nathanael’s Nazareth comment. How did Jesus know what he had said? So, Nathanael asks, “How did you know me?” Jesus then says he saw Nathanael sitting under the fig tree! How could that have been? With Jesus’ words, Nathanael becomes convinced, and a confession of belief comes pouring out of Nathanael’s mouth. Nathanael proclaims, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God.”
Jesus confirms it with yet another Jacob reference – this time to Jacob’s ladder. He says, “The angels will go up and down on the son of man.” That is, upon himself. And, he is referencing Jacob’s experience at Bethel, that Genesis story where heaven, the realm of God, comes so close to earth that the inhabitants of the two realms could meet. Now, in Jesus, not just in one geographical place, in this person Jesus, the very life of God has come near. This was the beginning of Nathanael’s journey with Jesus, one that would take him to the most unlikely places.
This gradual conversation is important as we hear references of heaven touching earth. In this person of Jesus, heaven has touched earth. Heaven is where love reigns. Heaven is where there is room for all God’s children, and all are welcome at the table. Heaven is where nothing is broken, and no one is left out. That is the life-giving ministry Jesus brought to this earth, the ministry he lived, and the ministry into which Nathanael became a disciple. That is what the writer of John’s gospel consistently refers to as eternal life, life that truly matters right here and right now. Wow! Quite frankly, that is not what we have been seeing in our present context over the past few weeks! But, the good news is that, in Jesus, heaven gets a foothold on this earth as we live into life that truly matters. In Jesus, life that truly matters is breaking in upon this earth. As Jim Wallis says, “In Jesus, God hits the street.” And, friends, those who follow Jesus are called to live as he lived! We are called to live God’s LOVE on the streets of this earth as we live in relationship to others.
Friends, this is truly an appropriate reading for this weekend as we remember and honor the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., another disciple who followed Jesus. His call to ministry was also a gradual call. Listen to how he described being called. He wrote:
My call to ministry was neither dramatic nor spectacular. It came neither by some miraculous vision nor by some blinding light experience on the road of life. Moreover, it did not come as a sudden realization. Rather, it was a response to an inner urge that gradually came upon me. This urge expressed itself in a desire to serve God and humanity, and the feeling that my talent and my commitment could best be expressed through ministry. At first, I planned to be a physician; then I turned my attention in the direction of law. But as I passed through the preparation stages of these two professions, I still felt within that undying urge to serve God and humanity through the ministry. During my senior year in college, I finally decided to accept the challenge and enter the ministry. I came to see that God had placed a responsibility upon my shoulders and the more I tried to escape it the more frustrated I would become. A few months after preaching my first sermon I entered theological seminary. This, in brief is an account of my call and pilgrimage to the ministry.
In 1955, shortly after Dr. King began his ministry in Montgomery, AL, God guided him in new directions. Forced segregation on city buses had become an intense issue that required a response. Rosa Parks had recently been arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white person while on a city bus. With her trial approaching, local pastors gathered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church to strategize. They shared ideas, but nothing emerged until a young pastor raised his hand and became the boycott leader. Just like Nathanael, the young Rev. King, experienced in Jesus life that truly matters, the life of God come near. God’s justice had broken into this world and gotten a foothold through the actions of Rosa Parks. And, Dr. King invited others to join him as they began following Jesus into the streets, seeking justice. Dr. King was God’s ambassador as God’s life-giving, life-changing presence again broke into this world.
Many years later, Dr. King would describe his glimpse and vision of what it looks like when the realm of God comes near. He said:
. . . one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. . . my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. (I Have a Dream speech)
Martin Luther King, Jr., responded to the call to follow Jesus and he
followed to the unexpected places, places that did bring about justice and change. Quite frankly, it is hard to follow Jesus to some of those places, and Dr. King knew this. It was from one of those unlikely places, the Birmingham jail, that he wrote about a letter he had just received from a white brother urging caution, who had said, “All Christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but. . . The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth." Dr. King responded to him, saying:
Such an attitude stems . . . from the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually . . .human progress . . . comes through the tireless efforts of (persons) willing to be co-workers with God . . .Early Christians entered a town . . . in the conviction that they were “a colony of heaven,” called to obey God . . . Small in number, they were big in commitment . . . By their effort and example, they brought an end to ... ancient evils . . . The time is always ripe to do right. (Letters from A Birmingham Jail)
As we follow Jesus’ call into the streets of this world, we walk in the footsteps of Samuel, Paul, Nathanael and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., living into eternal life, life that truly matters, while bearing God’s creative and redeeming Word in this world. The time is always ripe to do right!
I am going to be very honest with you. My heart is just breaking. My heart feels torn apart by what we saw last Wednesday as insurrectionists stormed our nation’s capital. What happened makes me feel like my heart has been ripped apart. And it is all because of words, malicious words, lies that have been promulgated, and conspiracy theories that have been sold as truth, all of which create bubbles of delusion that imprison peoples’ minds. Words incited this event. And, the words and lies that have been spoken destroy lives and yes, they can tear apart and destroy governments and countries! Words matter! Words can build up or destroy. So, again on this day, it is so comforting to hear some words that truly matter, words that are life giving as my heart grieves.
Today, we hear the beginning verses of Mark’s gospel as he presents his version of the Jesus story. Mark’s gospel does not begin with a baby and shepherds and angels. No. Mark’s version of the Jesus story is very stark, and rather abrupt as it begins at the river when God literally breaks into this broken world through the person of Jesus. That is how Mark’s telling of the Jesus story begins!
“In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.” Mark’s telling of the Jesus story begins as Jesus enters the river with others to be washed in the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. This gospel begins with Jesus’ baptism. It begins with Jesus entering the historic waters of the Jordan River and doing so in solidarity with sinners, with you and me. And, this is significant because that is how he would spend his earthly life and ministry – living with, eating with, talking with, and healing sinners, while calling sinners to follow him. Anyway, what is truly extraordinary, is that when Jesus comes up out of the water, he looks up and sees the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. The heavens are not simply opened. They are torn apart as the Spirit is poured out upon Jesus. Mark intentionally uses the Greek word schizomai, which literally means ripped apart. This is a form of the verb schitzo as in schism. When something is ripped apart it is not easily closed again. When something is ripped apart, we may think of some permanent damage or rupture that cannot be repaired. This is the image Mark gives us, an image that is strong, even violent.
This is Mark's incarnation narrative—the ripping open of the heavens by God with a declaration that the One on whom the Spirit rests is God’s own Son out of the heavens. The Son of God has pierced the barrier between heaven and earth; God has shattered the cosmos in the incarnation. God shatters the heavens and the cosmos to enter human history in the person of Jesus! In this gospel, the incarnation of the Son of God is declared by revelation at baptism. Dramatically, abruptly—voice, dove, ripped open heavens—all announce that now the kingdom of God is at hand. Now, with Jesus’ baptism, comes the beginning of new things, a new beginning in the history of redemption with the advent—the coming—of God’s own Son. Indeed, the kingdom of God has drawn near. The heavens have been torn apart and they will never close again.
When Jesus came out of the water, dripping wet, we do not know if anyone else saw what Jesus saw. What we do know is that a voice came from heaven and spoke to Jesus. It was personal, intimate, and direct as the voice said, “You are my Son, the Beloved. With you I am well pleased. In you my Spirit will be present on earth in a new way.” Yes, the heavens had been torn apart, God had entered the deep brokenness of the world through and in the person of Jesus Christ, and the heavens would never close again.
This ripped apartness, showing a God who is crossing and breaking through all boundaries, showing God present to us, is so significant in Mark’s gospel. In fact, torn apartness bookends Mark’s gospel. You see, at the end of Mark’s Jesus story, we again find this same word used to describe the ripping apart of the temple curtain at the very moment of Jesus’ death. The ripping apart pattern that begins here at Jesus’ baptism, ends with his death. When the heavens are ripped apart at his baptism, the Spirit enters Jesus, and a heavenly voice addresses him as "Son." And, at the end of the gospel, as Jesus hung on the cross and “breathed out his spirit,” the curtain of the temple was torn apart from top to bottom, just as the heavens had been ripped apart. The holy of holies no longer separated the sanctuary from the people. The curtain could never be repaired. And, on that dark Friday, there was another voice that was heard. It was a voice not from far away but from close by, from someone present on the scene. This voice did not come from up in the heavens. It came from down on the earth. It was the voice of a centurion soldier who stood at the foot of the cross keeping order, waiting to pronounce death. When he saw that Jesus had breathed his last, he was the one who said, "Truly this man was God's Son."
In this person we call Jesus, all protecting barriers are now gone. And, in Jesus, we discover God is unwilling to be confined to sacred spaces. God is on the loose in our own realm, in our world. God is with us and things will never again be the same. And, it is in the torn apart place where God has entered, where God has come through, and that place will never again be closed as it was before. In the person of Jesus, we see God tearing apart all the presupposed ideas humanity has created for what Messiah God should look like. In Jesus, we see a tearing apart of the social fabric that separates rich from poor. We see God breaking through people’s hardness of heart to bring forth compassion. We see God breaking through rituals that have grown rigid and routine. We see God tearing apart the many kinds of chains that bind. And, as God continues to break into the broken torn apart places in our lives, I pray God breaks through the myriad of delusions that imprison us, those falsehoods and conspiracy theories that seem to be controlling so many people’s minds. I also especially pray God continues to tear apart our preconceived notions of what it means to be God’s beloved child so that we can know God loves us as we are. We are God’s beloved!
And so, I ask you, is there a torn apart place in your life? I know there have been ripped apart places in my life, times when I have felt as though my very life was torn apart. And, right now my heart is deeply torn as I see our country torn apart. We all have torn apart places in our lives, places where the very fabric of life seems to be ripped apart. Right now, we as a Faith community, feel torn apart because of this virus. Our lives feel torn apart as we must live very differently during this painful time. However, the gospel Good News to us is that it is in those torn apart, ripped apart places in life where God is so very present. God enters the ripped apart places in our lives and comes to us in water, in Word, in bread and wine, and says to us, “You are my own Beloved Child. In baptism, I have poured my Spirit into you, I am with you and you are mine. Everything has changed, and you have been made new.” Yes, words matter, and these words bring life giving love that changes us!
My friends, the gospel Good News Word to us on this day is that you belong to the God who created you and created all that is. The gospel Good News is that God has crossed all boundaries to name and claim you as God’s own. The gospel Good News is that you have been baptized into the death of Jesus. You have been baptized into the Word made Flesh so that you might become the Flesh made Word and carry God’s redeeming, grace-filled Word to the world! You have been baptized into the Word made Flesh so that you might become an agent of what you have received: You are now God’s agent of grace, love, forgiveness, and mercy in this very torn apart world, even in the ripped apart aspects of our present lives. Live into your God given identity as a baptized child of God!
The turning of the calendar year has a way of instilling an expectation of new beginnings, a promise of hope that life and present circumstances will get better. And, quite frankly, as we think of the suffering the world has experienced this past year, the horror of this pandemic, the hundreds of thousands of people who have died and will die before the pandemic is over, the millions of job losses, the businesses that have been impacted, the racial injustice and political unrest, many of us begin this year with a deep longing and yearning for renewed hope, a hope that 2021 will be better than 2020. Yes, the turning of the year has a way of offering us a sense of rekindled hope and the beginning of a new chapter in life.
Our readings today also provide us with words of hope, new life, and new beginnings. Jeremiah proclaims a message of hope to people scattered and displaced in exile. Jeremiah says God will save the people, God will gather the people together and bring them back to their homeland. God will recreate God’s people and turn their mourning into joy. For each one of us, we presently feel as though we have been scattered because of this pandemic. We feel a certain kind of displacement and we deeply long to gather again. While we now have a renewed sense of hope with the development of a vaccine, Jeremiah’s words also provide us with hope of new beginnings. You see, God is the one who will ultimately gather us, bring us together again as a community of faith, recreate us as God’s very own and make us new. In fact, that has been something God has been doing from the beginning of time. We hear more about that in today’s gospel reading where we receive a word that is all about newness and new beginnnings as we hear John’s telling of the Jesus story. We find the author of this gospel introducing a daring, audacious, bold message that tells of a whole new beginning for humankind, a whole new beginning for the world.
The writer of John’s gospel begins presenting the Jesus story in a very lofty, grand manner. And, in doing so, he is so gutsy in his telling of this new beginning through the person of Jesus that his first words to us are “In the beginning….” If we have any understanding of Biblical literature, we will recognize that these three words are also the beginning words in the book of Genesis. You will remember that in that first book of the Hebrew Bible we read, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” John’s use of these three words is very intentional. John wants his readers to know that in Jesus, we live into the beginning of a whole new creation. The writer of John’s gospel is intentionally connecting us to the book of Genesis because, in the person of Jesus, he sees a new beginning of history, of humanity and of God’s involvement in all of creation. In John’s telling of the Jesus story, he wants us to understand that, through the incarnate Word, Jesus the Christ, the Word made flesh, we will find a very living, breathing promise of new life. John’s story about Jesus is designed from beginning to end not just to tell us, but to evoke for us, the living, breathing promise of a new beginning to all of human history in and through the incarnate Word, Jesus the Christ. That’s why he patterns his opening after Genesis. By connecting the Jesus story to Genesis, John is stipulating nothing less than this: God poured God’s own self into human form. Jesus is the eternal Word, the eternal Word that was God’s proactive agent in the creation of all things – even life itself. And, this eternal Word continues to create and make all things new!
For all of us, as much as we want and deeply desire to see God, we cannot literally do so. Our inability to literally see God seems much more apparent in times of great need, in times when the darkness of life seems to overwhelm life itself, in times like this present pandemic experience. That darkness might come to us personally through illness, death, job loss, depression, loneliness, or tragedy. At times like these, we are keenly aware that we are simply unable to literally see God. As our country experiences so much illness, suffering, racial injustice, and the many forms of hatred espoused upon others, we collectively experience darkness and are keenly aware of our limitations when it comes to seeing God. So, because of our limitations, God becomes human in the person of Jesus. God becomes human that we may see God. In the person of Jesus, God becomes accessible to us. In Jesus, the eternal God becomes finite and vulnerable, all for our sake so that we may see the very heart of God. No longer is God a disembodied voice from some distant place. The incarnation enables us to see that not only is Jesus like God, God is like Jesus, and has always been! God loves us so deeply that God is lovingly and graciously present to us even in the darkest places and times of life. And, all of the darkness that ever existed, that is present now, or that will exist in the future is unable to overcome the light of the eternal Word, the Word that creates and recreates the world, the Word made flesh, the very life force that continually animates the entire created order – even you and me.
Oh yes, John wants us to fully understand that, in the person of Jesus, God is doing something very, very new. God is not finished creating. God continues to create because God is the Creator, and there is always new beginning, as John begins his Jesus story by saying, “In the beginning.” The need for new creation is lodged in God’s truth that new creation is essential to the world, essential to God’s character, and essential to how God wants to be in the world. “In the beginning” is God as Creator, then and now, in the past, in the present and in the future. “In the beginning” is the memory of God making all things new. “In the beginning” is the promise of God’s steadfast love, there, then, here, and now. “In the beginning” is the promise that God will never let us go, no matter what happens, no matter what the future brings. This is the meaning of those three words: God says new things. God is new things. God becoming human is “in the beginning” in its fullest form. It is light once again. It is the goodness of humanity once again. It is God recreating God’s very self because that is who God is and that is what we are and will continue to be as believers – reborn children of God. “The Word became flesh and lived among us.” This flesh. Skin and bones. God pitched a tent among us in flesh and bones. God becoming flesh means God gets flesh! God understands what it feels like and what it means to be human. And because of that, God will never give up on what God has created. Nothing is beyond God’s reach. God realized that we human beings, God’s beautiful creations, we need to experience re-creation on a regular basis. Otherwise, life is too much about death. We need this promise – the promise of God’s commitment to recreating God’s very self, our selves, and the world. It’s the creation story all over again: God created the heavens and the earth, God created humankind in God’s own image, and God created you!
Friends, the coming of the Word made flesh has enabled those who follow Jesus, each one of us, to embody God’s creative Word. Jesus is not alone in this Word made flesh business. The creative, living Word is still at work in and through us. Because of God’s decision to come to us in a form we recognize, in Jesus the Christ, we are empowered to reach out to those around us. By the grace of God and, through baptism, through bread and wine, and through the work of the Spirit, God is at work putting skin on God’s Word through us. And, we are called to continually bear God’s creative and redeeming Word in this world and carry God’s Word of life to others through all that we do and the way in which we live. In the person of Jesus, God has invaded this broken world and God is working through God’s people, shining the light of God’s presence even in the darkest places of the world, even right here and right now.
So, on this first Sunday of the new year, the message we are given is all about newness, all about hope, all about recreation and all about being made new. God is at work and about the business of making us new and making all things new.