The Baptism of Our Lord

The Baptism of Our Lord

(Based on Luke 3:15-17, 21-22)

As John the Baptist continued baptizing in the Jordan River for the forgiveness of sins, “the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah. John answered all of them by saying, ‘I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.’”

This prepared them, and us, for the climax of this amazing story: “Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’"

Through John, baptism became an important symbolic action for God’s people as they sought to live a righteous life, let go of their sins and begin anew. Through Jesus’ baptism, God proclaims Jesus as the beloved, and as the recipient and conduit of the Holy Spirit to God’s people throughout the world. As the Gospel of Jesus spreads throughout the Mediterranean, we see how the gift of the Spirit comes from God’s action, not ours. We offer ourselves or offer our children to be baptized and God sends the Holy Spirit as God chooses.

In the Book of Acts 7:14-17 we see that when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. “The two went down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit (for as yet the Spirit had not come upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus). Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.” Elsewhere in Acts the Holy Spirit is given before baptism or during the act of baptism. Again, the conferring of the Holy Spirit and the timing of that gift are God’s actions not ours. The act of baptism, then, becomes a confirmation of God’s action of filling us with God’s Spirit: whether that happens before, during or after our baptism. What a blessing.

Baptism continues to be important to “the Body of Christ” as we see in Jesus’ final commission and blessing to his disciples (Matthew 28:16-20). “Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’”

This is God’s challenge and God’s promise to us; this is God’s Good News for us today!

Prequel, Prophet, Prince of Peace

Prequel, Prophet, Prince of Peace

(Based on the Gospel of Luke 1:39-55)

After agreeing to become the mother of our Lord, a pregnant Mary sets out on a journey from Nazareth to the Judean hill country to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who is pregnant with a son who will become John the Baptist. This visit is bathed with the presence of God’s Holy Spirit as John leaps in his mother’s womb as he senses the presence of one who he later calls “greater than I.” Elizabeth welcomes Mary and calls her “blessed of God:” “Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, "blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord."

Mary was blessed because of her faith and obedience which make the incarnation humanly possible. Mary’s Song, the Magnificat, shows the importance and power of the Incarnation, of “God with us.” Mary’s song also telegraphs something of Jesus’ future, about the challenges and persecutions to come. If we are paying attention, it prepares us for our future as well. Mary confronts every Idol that we humans try to make into God, and she turns them on their heads.

"My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. . ."(Luke 1:46-53)

Mary is the supreme prophetic witness to God’s tender regard for the forgotten and discounted people of the world. She proclaims that where God’s mercy strikes home, the structures of privilege buckle and give way and Idols tumble.

Jesus’ Gospel is challenging, and Mary prepares us ahead of time for what is to come. May God give is the faith, obedience and courage to be like Mary.

Not the End, But New Birth

As human beings we seem to have always been impressed by successful people, large incomes and large and beautiful buildings. We read in Mark 13:1-8, that as Jesus and his disciples exited the temple, one of them looked back, and impressed, said, “look, what large stones and what large buildings!” Jesus, not so impressed, replied, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.” Later, as Jesus and his crew were sitting around on the Mount of Olives, Peter, James and John asked Jesus, “when will this happen?” Jesus cautioned them to be very careful about predicting the end. “When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birthpangs.” Good advice to which we should pay attention, even in our day.

Jesus is not prophesying so much as describing the world as it is. Then he calls the disciples, calls us, to look not at the world as it is, but as it can be: to look for the beginning, not the end, to look for birth not death. There are many examples of death and destruction in our day, always have been, always will be: the attacks of September 11, 2001, Hurricanes Harvey and Maria, the current wild fires in California, unending wars in the Middle East, political murders and politics in the USA and around the world,  just to name a few. These rightly cause us despair and could even lead us to believe that the end is near. BUT, Jesus says, “not yet! I have a better plan, and guess what, you are that plan!” 

The Prophet Joel (2:1-3, 12-17) proclaims on behalf of the Lord, “Your young me and women will dream dreams and your old men and women will have visions.” Like the ancient Hebrews, we are called to share in God’s dreams and visions for the world as it can be. Then God sends us to work: to pray without ceasing, to love our neighbors as ourselves, to welcome the stranger, to do unto others as we would have them do to us, to” feed the hungry, cloth the naked, bring release to the captives and proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4:18-19) In this we become co-creators with God in bringing about God’s Kingdom on Earth as it is in Heaven.”

In another time of trials and tribulation in the world, John the Divine wrote words of comfort and hope to the Christians in what we now call the Book of Revelation (21:1-5). “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.’ And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’

The Peoples of the Earth: Divided and United

The Christian Year is a journey, which, like a Labyrinth or a golf course begins and ends at the same place. No matter what happens in a year of our lives, good times or bad times, joys or sorrows, just as in a round of Golf or walking the Labyrinth, at the end is a new beginning. The Christian year begins and ends and begins again, not with a baby Jesus, that comes later, but with the Cosmic Christ, in mystery and hope.

“Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords; Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule.” (Prayer for the last Sunday of the year, Book of Common Prayer, 236.)

And who are the peoples of the Earth who are so divided and enslaved by sin? I answer that question by quoting two songs. First from singer, song writer, and in my opinion, Theologian, Jimmy Buffett in his 1994 song, “Fruitcakes,” and then Donovan in his 1965 hit, “The Universal Soldier.”

First from Buffett: “Where’s the church, who took the steeple, the God’s honest truth is it’s not that simple. It’s the Buddhist in you, it’s the Pagan in me, it’s the Muslim in him, she’s Catholic ain’t she? It’s the born again look, it’s the WASP and the Jew, tell me what’s going on, I ain’t got a clue.”

And thirty years earlier from Donovan: “He’s been a soldier for a thousand years. . .He’s a Catholic, a Hindu, an Atheist, a Jain, a Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew. And he knows he shouldn’t kill and he knows he always will. Kill you for me my friend and me for you. And he’s fighting for Canada, He’s fighting for France, He’s fighting for the USA. And he’s fighting for the Russians and he’s fighting for Japan, and he thinks we’ll put an end to war this way.”

Kingdoms against kingdoms, peoples against peoples, “my side is better than your side.” Human greed and jealousy and the need to be right and better than the other have throughout history lead to division and enslavement to sin as our prayer tells us. In John’s Gospel (18:33-37), Jesus and Pilate confront each other on the nature of kings and kingdoms and truth. Pilate asks Jesus if he is a king and Jesus replies, “my kingdom is not from this world.” Jesus’ implication is that his kingdom is more important and higher than any earthly kingdom. But we must be careful with Jesus’ statement here: though Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world, it is in this world and this world is very important to Jesus, to God: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.”

If the world is important to God, then what we do on this Earth matters greatly, and we truly become co-workers with Jesus, co-creators with God in bringing about God’s kingdom on Earth. We become the hands and feet of Christ as we work to bring freedom to those enslaved by sin, ourselves included, and to bring together a divided humanity.

We believe Jesus Christ is the faithful witness to God the Creator, the first born of the dead and the ruler of the kings of the Earth. We believe the Holy Spirit will lead us and guide us into the truth Pilate was looking for, and that that truth will restore all things on Earth as well as in Heaven, free us from our slavery to sin and bring us together as one people of God.

Life is Changed, Not Ended

Halloween was just plain fun for me as a child. I could dress up as something spooky, a ghost or a skeleton or some kind of ferocious beast. Halloween is a custom which dates back to pre-Christian Northern Europe, a location where winters are cold, dark, scary and long. The people would thumb their noses at fear of death by dressing up in skins of animals and other frightening figures, asserting their control over evil. As Christianity spread throughout Europe in the fifth century and beyond, Christians adopted this custom to assert belief in victory over fear and death.

This custom evolved into what I like to call, “three Holy Days:” Halloween or All Hallows Eve, All Saints Day and All Souls Day. By the way, the root word for Halloween is the same as the word for Hallowed in the Lord’s Prayer. In this unitive feast we celebrate the victory of good over evil and we remember all those saints of God, known and unknown, who have gone before us, whom we love but see no more. As a seminarian in Chicago, we celebrated by parading around the school block with incense, hymns and prayers, proclaiming that “yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me” (Psalm 23), thus acknowledging that in our baptism, “we are buried with Christ in his death, and will be raised with him in his resurrection.

Holy Scripture affirms that life will be victorious over death, good will ultimately conquer evil, and God will be with us always. God proclaims through the Eighth Century B.C. Prophet, Isaiah, “On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. (Isaiah 25:6-9)

Over eight hundred years later, John the Divine writes on behalf of the Lord, "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away. ‘See, I am making all things new.’” (Revelation 21:1-6) At the Grave of his friend Lazarus, Jesus weeps, then calls Lazarus out of the grave and tells those with him to “unbind him and let him go.” For God’s people, life is changed, not ended.

When we lose a loved one, as many of us have these past few weeks, we mourn their loss, we miss their earthly presence. But we also celebrate their glory in God’s glory, for we know, as Isaiah, John the Divine and Jesus knew, that “for God’s faithful people, life is changed, not ended; and when our mortal body lies in death, there is prepared for us a dwelling place eternal in the heavens.” (Book of Common Prayer, page 382)

Only the People of God can end Hate and Violence

“What is it you want me to do for you” is a question Jesus often asks those who approach him seeking something. Two examples appear in the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 10:35-52. First James and John, the sons of Zebedee want to “sit on his right hand and his left hand when he comes into his glory.” A short time later, “blind Bartimaeus” asks to receive his sight. Both requests reflect blindness: Bartimaeus cannot see the beauty of this world and wants to; James and John cannot see the truth and beauty and danger of Jesus’ mission in the world and their place in that mission.

We who are God’s people, like the “Sons of Thunder,” are often blind to our part in the mission and ministry of Jesus Christ. We forget about the cup of suffering that Jesus ‘drank’ and the baptism of torture and death that he suffered as he stood up to injustice in his mission to bring God’s Kingdom to Earth just as it exists in heaven. Many of us also forget, or choose to ignore Jesus’ call to us to share in his Baptism and drink of his cup. Who can blame us? As I read the Gospels, the idea of being ridiculed, losing jobs, hated and possibly even executed for proclaiming God’s good news to all people, for loving our neighbor as ourselves, and for welcoming the stranger, do not inspire one to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.

Two weeks ago I baptized Howard King, a smiling, trusting seven month old. In my sermon I told Howard, and all who were gathered, that only we as God’s children can do away with the hate and violence in our nation and the world. Even though during this week we have seen the murder of two black people at a Walmart in Kentucky, thirteen pipe bombs sent to former government officials and people of wealth and power in our country, and the murder of eleven of God’s Children during worship in a synagogue in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, I stand by my comments to Howard and his friends.

Today, I challenge all of us to avoid casting blame, to look at ourselves rather than others and focus on how we can, through our faith and our actions, our politics and our speech, do what I assured Howard only we can do. As we look at people, problems and politics through the eyes of our faith we will not all see the same scenarios or arrive at the same solutions to the problems and situations of our world today. How then do we proceed? I believe we proceed as Jesus would, with questions first rather than answers. Who do we hate? Why do we hate them? What do we do to make it easy for people to hate us? Finally, can we give our anger and hate over to God?

Some possibilities from my reflections, I know you will find your own as well: When posting on social media, fact check before you post. Better yet, don’t post, rather, talk with your friends and family members who see things differently or believe things differently than you, and really listen to them. Do not consider your political opponents “mobs” or “racists” or “deplorable” or things I cannot even write in the newspaper. We all know people like that exist, but we do not have to be them. Finally work your heart out for the politicians who reflect your beliefs, and rest assured I will do them same.

Most importantly, know that Jesus is Lord, not Caesar! I am pretty sure that Jesus would be turning over some tables in our country today, including some of mine.

And pray, and pray and pray!

O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for the Human Family: Book of Common Prayer, page 815)

A Life Well Lived

Two weeks ago I lost a friend and mentor, the Reverend Bob Gilbert. His death was not unexpected, he was eighty-eight years old and had been ill for some time, but his loss, just as his life had a profound effect on me. I first met Bob in Tellico Plains, Tennessee when I was nineteen years old and working for the U.S. Forest Service. I was young, Methodist, and learning the business of Forestry and Bob was the Methodist Minister of a rural “three-point Circuit. Bob and his wife, Dot, had three sons just younger than I, and after church on my first Sunday in town they invited me to lunch and I soon became their “fourth son.”

We stayed in touch over the years, and when Lynn and I married, the four of us continued our friendship, including a memorable trip by Bob and Dot to our New Orleans home when Bob’s beloved University of Tennessee Volunteers played in the Sugar Bowl. I will never forget crossing Bourbon Street as we showed the Gilberts around our city, and a member of Bob’s congregation shouted out, “hey Brother Bob, how you doing!”

Bob was small in stature, standing about 5’9” tall, but large in faith and courage. As one of his sons said at his funeral, “you would not be around dad long before you heard about Jesus: about His love and sacrifice and about how much Bob wanted you to know Jesus like he did.” I am convinced that I would not have become an Episcopal Priest had it not been for Bob’s love of me and the example of faith and strength and courage he gave to me and all those around him.

Brother Bob preached for over fifty years, but his faith was action as well as words. He believed that all people are children of God and God made no distinction between “Red and Yellow, Black and White.” This was not a popular belief in East Tennessee in 1967.  Not only would Bob tell everyone about Jesus, he was not bashful about telling people and showing people what Jesus would do. He was invited by members of the local Ku Klux Klan to lead a devotional at one of their secret meetings. Bob was met at the designated location, blindfolded and taken up the mountain, off the paved road and into the woods. The blindfold was removed and he found himself surrounded by Klansmen in white robes and masks, a burning cross in the center of the circle.

After Bob was introduced he began to tell Jesus’ familiar story of the “Good Samaritan.” Except: the robbed and wounded man in the ditch was a black man traveling from Knoxville to Chattanooga. “As the Methodist preacher and Baptist pastor drove by on the other side, the Klansmen cheered.” And then: “the third car stopped and out stepped a Klansman, robed and headed to this very rally. He took the man to the nearest hospital.” The crowd booed and hissed and cursed. Finally Bob shouted, “Quiet! Do not interrupt the word of God when it is being preached!” Brother Bob finished the story, was blindfolded, the fire put out and everyone left, without him. He made it to the dirt road, up the hill to the paved road and a hundred yards down the road a member of his church picked him up and took him back to his car.

Last Sunday I baptized a seven month old child, Howard Dewese King. My Prayer for Howard and for you and me was and is: “that we will have the courage, the faith, the sense of humor and the abundant life that Brother Bob had.”

“For we are buried with Christ in his death so that we may live in the power of his resurrection.”