Epiphany and the Season After - Year B -- 2015
Indexed by Date. Sermons for Epiphany Year B
Genesis 1: 1-5
Psalm 29
Acts 19: 1-7
Mark 1: 4-11
The Gospel writer known as Mark begins his gospel, not with a nervous unmarried couple, nor angels choirs and shepherds, nor even with Magi from far away places, but with Jesus all grown up, appearing out of the woodwork, or at least in the middle of nowhere, as the One for whom the wilderness prophet, John the Baptizer was preparing the people. “Who is this guy”? People may have asked? In essence, the rest of the gospel answers that question.
This is the Sunday many churches observe as “Baptism of Jesus” Sunday. On this Sunday Jesus comes from an UNKNOWN PAST to begin his ministry.
If I had received any requests for baptism, today would have been a good day to schedule them. Today would not have been a good day to do it, old school though, in the Avon River - it’s a mite cold for that! We’d have to borrow a Baptist church if we wanted to do an “immersion” this time of year. When I was the minister in Wallace we had two members who had been baptized by immersion, in the borrowed Baptist church, in the dead of winter.
When we read this story we need to keep in mind that baptism was not invented by John or by the church, it was a common practice at the time and it is observed in other religions, even today. Ir was a common sign of repentance and turning to go in a new direction.
John’s baptism relied heavily on the symbol of water for its meaning. The washing was an expression of repentance- of turning to go in a new direction, and relied on the action of being washed of sin in order to begin again. To go down under the water was a symbolic drowning to an old way of life and being reborn in a new one. The pouring of water over the head was a similar washing action. Artists usually depict Jesus baptism in the “shower” type action! We don’t know what method John used!
John saw his ministry as preparing people for the “one who was to come” and it was clear in his preaching that he regarded this One as far greater than he was. His baptism was of water but the baptism of the expected one would be of the Spirit. In other words, a baptism that was far greater in quality than his.
Unlike other gospel writers, Mark does not tell us that John objected: the baptism is just “matter of fact” as is the affirmation by the heavenly voice and the affirmation that he was God’s son and that he had earned God’s favour! It seems that tis voice is for Jesus alone. Mark will tell the world later who Jesus is; for now, it’s enough that Jesus knows it.
Then, as a direct result of this baptism Jesus goes off to the wilderness for an epic struggle - what does this identity mean for him and his own ministry? We will talk about that in the season of Lent.
The baptism of Jesus gives us all an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of baptism in general and, more specifically, what our own baptism means for us.
So, what does this mean for us?
First, I think it is important to note that baptism is not an act that is complete in and of itself. What I mean is that baptism is always, “into something”. It is an official entry into the Christian life, it is not the end of something, but a beginning. Just as a wedding is a step, certainly a big step, on a journey, and not merely a point of arrival, so baptism is a sign of a growing commitment that will increase and deepen as time goes on.
Baptism of Jesus Sunday gives us an opportunity to “remember our baptism”. I was less than six months old when I was baptized so I can’t remember it in the same way I remember my confirmation, for example, but I can remember it by saying, “I was baptized”. Apparently the reformer Martin Luther used to comfort himself in trying times with just that statement, “I am baptized”.
Every baptism is an opportunity for us to renew our baptismal faith, an opportunity for us to recommit our lives to the Christian journey.
This brings me to my second point which is that Baptism is not a private affair but a communal one. Baptism, at least in our church, is a sign of entry into a community - a community of those who have also been baptized and are on a journey of faith, discovery and commitment.
The third point I would like to make is that Baptism for Jesus and for us is about identity. Each of us has our own personal family of origin and background. Each of us has a heritage and a history. Yet in baptism we accept a greater or more over-arching identity, that of child of God; brother and sister in Christ. Or should I say BELOVED child of God.
I recall visiting a new mom in the hospital one day. She was sitting on the bed in her room with her newborn swaddled on her lap and just staring at her in love and wonder!
That is now God regards each one of us.
No doubt the challenges of raising that little girl will test and stretch that love, but I trust it will remain, even in the trying teenage years that are still ahead.
I was at an orientation event for a national meeting a few years ago and the Executive Secretary at the time reminded us that we might encounter situations where things were not to our liking or we might encounter people with whom we disagreed. She said, “Remember whose you are”! She did not say, “DON’T EMBARRASS Maritime Conference or give the Maritimes a bad name, but remember WHOSE your are. We all understood what she meant. We are Christ’s and as such we should act in Christ like ways.
Holy Manners is the term we use in the church to guide our discussions on topics and during situations that might be divisive. We can’t always say the first thing that pops into our heads; we need to encounter one another in the light of our identity as God’s beloved children. This should apply in all aspects of our lives but especially in Christian Community.
We are God’s beloved sons and daughters, let us live out our baptismal identity and live lives pleasing to God.
Amen,
1 Samuel 3: 1-20
Psalm 139
John 1: 43-51
The other day I came across one of those silly things on the internet, “ten car features that are no more”. At one time virtually no car was without them but now they have gone the way of the Dodo Bird - horn rings, tail fins, bench seats, full sized spare tires, and ash trays. I suppose we could add cassette decks, gear shifts on the steering column, and dimmer switches on the floor . The things we once counted on are no more. Then again the first Johnston family car I remember had a pencil case sized vinyl pouch for windshield washer, that held next to nothing, and it took forever for the heater to work on a really cold day.
Once upon a time there was a boy who didn’t particularly like doing chores and what children do, really! One day he was watching tv in the living room when he heard his mother calling to him. He decided to ignore her thinking there was a floor to sweep or some dishes to dry. She called him again and again he ignored the call. When his program finished he went to the kitchen. He arrived just in time to see his mother eating the last fork-full of his favourite chocolate cake with boiled icing, “Oh there you are dear, I thought you were out. I wanted you to finish up this cake so I could wash the plate and put it away. Too bad, it was delicious!” What could the boy say?
In the passage from the book of Samuel we are told that times have changed and that these changes were “not good”. Note the ominous sound of “the word of the Lord was rare”; they are, after all, supposed to ge “the Lord’s people”! Things are very grim. Then along comes the boy Samuel, dedicated to God’s service from BEFORE his conception he was taken to the temple as an apprentice to an elderly priest when he was about 2. What a two year old could do? I don’t know, but that’s the story.
Now Samuel was like any of us. If you heard your name called out in the middle of the night you would think it was the one other person who lived in your house that had called out? Wouldn’t you? If it happened to me, I would jump so far my head would hit the ceiling, because the last time I checked my cat had not learned to talk and I do lock my doors!
When I was in Jr High, a bunch of the boys at the school used to walk by me in the hallway, TAUNTING me with the Kiss song, by Peter Criss and Stan Pendridge, “Beth, I Hear You Calling” which had just been released and was very popular: “Beth I hear you calling but I cant come home right now...” Apparently it was written as a response to a partner who always called the studio wondering when the author was coming home!
So after he went back to bed the first time, Samuel must have wondered just who was calling him. They were alone in the temple. If you were Samuel you might wish that it was your mom or dad, but they were so far away you only saw them once a year. That’s another matter though!
“Yes, Mr Eli. What do you want?”
“Sammy, I DIDN’T call, go back to bed”
Now, we need to know something that everyone that came to worship at that place would have know. Eli’s sons were, to put it mildly, scoundrels. They were the very definition of “PK’s” (preacher’s kids) before the term was invented. Kids who rebel against the expectations of their preacher parent. They broke every rule in the book. They bullied the worshippers into giving them the best of the meat that was supposed to be sacrificed to God at worship, they performed the sacred rituals while they were stinking drunk, and they took sexual liberties with the women who served at the temple. (Which was clearly not what they were supposed to be doing) The worst part, apparently, was that Eli was unable to reign in their behaviour. Since the priesthood was, in large part, hereditary, the religious life of the people would have been doomed, if nothing changed.
I guess the recent scandal surrounding the Facebook Group - “ Fourth Year Dalhousie Dentistry Gentlemen’s Club” is not the first instance of professional students behaving badly toward women!
The irony of this whole story is that the word of God came, not to Eli, to the priest in charge, but to Samuel, a child, a child NOT of the priestly class, a helper-outer in the temple. Eli was the named professional; he was the one the secretary gave the phone to when the caller asked to speak to “the person in charge”. The third time Samuel comes to him, in answer to his call, he realizes, he FINALLY realizes that God is calling Samuel and that God is NOT calling him. With this shock must also have come the realization that the news will not be good. He knows he has failed to keep the faith. He knows that the change that is needed will involve him and his sons. He knows.
By the time of Jesus it seems that many of the religious leaders had lost touch with the basics of the faith. They promoted a religion that was so legalistic that the meaning had been lost. They participated in a system that benefited them at the expense of the common people.
So, the Gospel writers tell us, God sent Jesus to call the people back to faithfulness. For this mission Jesus needed disciples. Philip was called and Philip went and told Nathaniel that he had found the Messiah. Philip had found the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. He had found the long lost city of Atlantis. He had found one of the ships lost in the quest of Sir John Franklin to find the elusive northwest passage.
Nathaniel’s reaction was, no, someone from Nazareth could not be the Messiah! His response to Philip was similar to Eli’s command to Samuel, “Go back to sleep”. Philip was persuasive though and convinced Nathaniel to see for himself. Jesus greeting convinced Nathaniel that he was the real deal!
About two years ago there was a fire in a garment factory in Bangladesh which claimed 8 lives, and it was just weeks after the collapse of another garment factory in that same country killed 1,138 people. North American business owners promised change and higher standards, but I am not sure if things have really changed since those promises were made.
Eva Mumford, whose 100th birthday we will celebrate on Wednesday, is remembered as one of the people responsible for organizing the union which advocated for better conditions at the textile plant in Windsor. Some might argue that it was high labour costs that drove garment manufacturers off-shore, to the sweat shops of Bangladesh, but there is something evil about profits at the expense of desperate people who have no other choice but to work in rickety firetraps with the doors chained shut.
The average consumer has been rejoicing over the low price of gas these last few weeks. The people who commute to Fort McMurray are not, as the expense of extracting oil from the “tar sands” is so high that it is no longer economically feasible to do so and massive layoffs are beginning.
Apparently people are now eager to buy gas guzzlers because gas is cheaper.
Where are the voices of the ones who talk about alternative energy forms that do not produce greenhouse gasses. Are these voices being drowned out by the increased number of people who now see less need to conserve energy; they can afford rthe gas guzzler or all the gasoline powered toys they want. Are the coastal communities and third world tropical nations in increased danger of tsunamis and more ferocious hurricanes going to pay the price yet again for first world greed and unwillingness to change?
When will we learn to do the right thing because we have looked at the big picture and not just a cost-benefit analysis with ourselves in middle!
Are we listening to the word of those who speak for the earth, for the poor and marginalized who are at the mercy of those who have all the power and all the advantage.
The challenge for us is how we discern the voice of God from amongst the myriad of voices that vie for our attention. Do this! Come here ! Do that! Be this or that kind of person!
For several years, “God is still speaking” has been a theme and mission statement of the United Church of Christ, our sister denomination in the United States. The question for all Christians is “do we have the ears and the will to listen? “Will we come when we are called”.
Amen.
Jonah 3: 1-10
Psalm 62
Mark 1: 14-20
It was the fall of 1985 and the Mount Allison Mounties had lost a football game to the St. Francis X-Men. There were a large number of Mount A graduates in the second and third year classes at Atlantic School of Theology where I was a student. One St F X grad in first year dared to gloat over the defeat of Mount A’s football team and implied that hers was a better university. That implication was the last straw! The Mount Allison grads vowed to get even, because our honour and our school’s honour had been damaged. We knew that her class would be out of the residence for a several hourts-long class on Monday evening and we hatched a plan which went off without a hitch.
We took this female students room apart and transported as much of it as we could quickly and easily carry to the men’s washroom on the floor. Then we laid out a toilet paper trail that led her from the back entrance closest to the classroom where she was, had been, up the three flights of stairs to “new room”. Please know that, other than wasting some toothpaste and toiled paper, and a great deal of time, nothing was damaged. Mount A had still lost the game, but the Mount A grads felt better! Such is the nature of alumni loyalty when said alums are still in their 20s! Imagine now, a doctor telling someone that he or she has a serious and irreversible condition caused, by that patient’s lifestyle. In a last ditch attempt to regain her health that patient decides to lose weight, exercise more, quit smoking, quit drinking and eat tons of broccoli. Six months later, tests prove that the condition has miraculously disappeared. The patient rejoices, but the doctor, instead of sharing her joy goes off the deep end because his patient deserved to be sick because of her lifestyle choices. I hope I never meet a doctor like that, but in a way, Jonah was that kind of prophet.
Preachers and prophets are supposed to be happy when the people listen and change their ways. Right? Well, Jonah wasn’t! You see, he didn’t like the people of Nineveh; hated them, in fact. It was more than alumni loyalty or professional honour.
Israel and Nineveh were sworn enemies with a long history of real conflict. There were good reasons for these feelings. Think of Canada and Germany in 1942 - in the midst of a war! Jonah hated these people so much that when God told him to preach destruction he actually wanted them to be destroyed. At first hearing you would think he would enjoy preaching that message, you would think he would be overjoyed to do so, BUT he also knew the nature of his God. He knew that if he preached the message and they took it seriously and repented just in case it might to some good that God would forgive them and not rain fire upon their city. He knew this. So he waned the people of Nineveh to perish in their ignorance.
Here’s the short version- Jonah catches the next ship going in the other direction and tries his best to get as far away as possible, as fast as possible. Then, God sends a fierce storm and the sailors find out what Jonah has done and in order to save their lives imperiled by his actions they toss him overboard at his request. He is swallowed by a big fish (it was never a whale) and three days later the fish spits him out on dry land and he goes and does what he should have done in the beginning. The people repent. God forgives. Jonah sulks and Goo cannot figure him out. That’s the short version! The writer of the book of Jonah is a master story teller and his point is clear.
This story uses exaggeration and fanciful elements to make its point. How silly is it that a man could be rescued by a big fish; that would have to be some fish! I also need to be clear; the fish really has nothing to do with the message, but they did not have rescue helicopters and Coast Guard ships back then so that is how Jonah was rescued, He also needed time to think. It’s a story with a point; we have to take it at face value!
More about the exaggeration in the story. Jonah is like a teenager being asked to do a hated chore! Note how many days it took him to preach the message! NO ancient city was as big as it is described in the story - three days journey! Oh, how he hated the task.
This story was written to shock the people into realizing something very important about their God. The people hearing this story for the first time could relate to Jonah. They understood him when they heard that he went in the other direction! They had been there! They WERE there!
Martin Niemöller, a German minister imprisoned by Hitler for eight years, once said, “It took me a long time to learn that God is not the enemy of my enemies; he’s not even the enemy of his own enemies.”
The people of this day assumed that God was on their side, which meant that God was NOT on any one else’s side! Most certainly God hated the people of this enemy city as much as they did.
The story of Jonah challenges them with another truth; that God loves the people of the enemy city too!
Can God be on the side of those we don’t like? Can God be above the taking of sides so that God is with all people - both the rich and the poor; both the wise and the foolish? The resounding answer in this passage is that God reserves the freedom to do what is right and to bless those God chooses to bless.
Perhaps we treat God’s love and favour like a Zero Sum Game. We treat God’s love like it was a package of EIGHT, and that’s eight, not twelve, white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies. If I share my cookies with someone I will have fewer cookies for myself; its that simple. If they were just plain ol’ chocolate chip cookies and they came in packages of 12 I could afford to be much more generous but no, its like the special ones, I have to be careful, very careful; I cant afford to be generous.
The book of Jonah tells us that God’s math is different and God loving another does not lessen the love God has for someone else.
When we love someone, when God loves someone, it means that there is a desire for the good for that person. Attitude changes action; its that simple,
How would we look at the events reported on the news or the choices we make in politics if we knew we have been called to act on this love, this desire, for the good for all people, not just the people of this region of Nova Scotia, or Canada.
As a Canadian who cannot remember the age before medicare, for example, I cannot understand the objections to universal health care I hear on American news channels. I see it as a “no brainer”.
The question for us as Christians, is how do we act in ways of love, in ways that benefit the whole of humanity, the whole of creation God loves? Benefiting one at the expense of other is unacceptable, period.
We as Canadians are a very blessed people. Are we blessed so that we can keep all of it for ourselves, or are we blessed in order that we can be a blessing to others?
Jonah was so right and so righteous he was WRONG. Don’t run the other way. Preach and live the message. God wants the best for everyone.
END OF STORY
Deuteronomy 18: 15-20
Psalm 111
Mark 1: 21-28
January 27 was the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Soviet Army and last week was Holocaust Awareness Week!
We all have at least a passing knowledge of the fate of those who became prisoners at Auschwitz and similar camps which were part of the “Final Solution” of the Nazis. We know how some Germans resisted the “status quo” and risked their lives to help save Jewish people. To be caught helping a Jew resulted being sent to the camps with those they were trying to save or being shot on the spot.
One man determined to save as many people as possible from the Nazi death machine was actually a member of that same Nazi Party, Oskar Schindler. An industrialist, Schindler was by no means a saint! He was a brash, hard- drinking, materialistic, womanizing, chain-smoking, businessman who turned a confiscated factory into a profitable enamelware business which made thousands and thousands of Deutschmarks in war contracts. For reasons that are not entirely clear, Schindler spent it all in an attempt to free as many of his Jewish factory workers and their families as possible. At the end of the war he fled to Argentina. He was later declared to be “righteous among the nations” for his work in saving Jewish people from the Nazis.
The passage from the book of Deuteronomy speaks of a line of prophets who would follow Moses. There ended up being a great many of them.
Today’s passage from the gospel is about Jesus’ authority over the demon that was possessing a man whose life had become very difficult as a result.
The whole subject of demon possession is a difficult one for the 21st century mind. While few of us believe that it is a real “thing” and is only seen in the movies, in Jesus day, it probably explained a lot of illnesses we, with all of our scans, tests, and scientific knowledge, have only begun to understand or treat! What them was wrong with this man, and others in the biblical story that were said to be similarly afflicted? Were they schizophrenic, or did some suffer from hysteria, mania, psychosis, Tourette's syndrome, epilepsy, or dissociative identity disorder?
In truth, I don’t think the exact diagnosis is particularly important; Jesus is presented as one who “had the authority” to do something to free these folks from the power that kept them from fullness of life. Paired with the reading from the book of Deuteronomy, we see how Jesus was seen as a prophetic voice in the midst of a a people searching for guidance and a word from God.
This past week was Mental Health Awareness week and Bell, the telephone company, promised to donate .05 for every text sent on a certain day and using the modern marvel of the hash tag, for every tweet or facebook post containing that particular hash tag. This was all for the purpose of getting people to talk about mental illness and to remove the stigma often attached to it. The message: people do not have to suffer in silence, people do not have to live lives debilitated by mental illness, its nothing to be ashamed of, there is help! Such words are prophetic ones.
Some people think that prophets predict the future, but that is only partially correct. The prophets of our age, as they have done in any age, speak for change, for the good of those who are currently suffering or those who will suffer if people do not change their ways.
If, for example, I say, that there will be an accident at a certain corner on Monday at noon, I am not really being a prophet. But, let us say, I have noticed a frequent lack of regard for the “new” stop signs now about 3 months old and I say, “If people crossing from Main St to Holmes Hill Rd don’t heed the stop signs and the people crossing from Prince St to School Street don’t make sure the other folks are going to stop, there’s gonna be an accident!” I might say, Do you see the difference? Prophetic talk does not come out of a vacuum but out of reflecting on the relationship between what is and what should be.
The only way to tell if a prophet is false or not is if their words come true, or better still, ring true. Part of the problem with, lets say, the prophets of “climate change” or the down-side of “get tough on crime” legislation is that we want to know who is right before we act and that is often too late because the “bad outcome” has already happened! .
For words to “ring true” requires a great deal of intuition, discernment and courage.
Many of you will remember the Sunday I asked the children what it would be like if there were no rules at all, anywhere and everyone could do anything at all, and one of the children, waving her arms in a grand sweeping circle, proclaimed, “it would be pandemonium!” Even children know this; especially children taught about the love of God, and our call to help those who are various kinds of need. We have known this since we were children as well. But as we grew we made compromises and stretched the rules for our own benefit or the benefit or “our kind of people” and convinced ourselves that “the rule does not apply - why it would cost a fortune if it did! There would be no profit in doing it that way!”
Here comes the prophet. What rules do we need and what are the consequences of breaking them? Keep in mind there are two kinds of consequences - The consequence of pouring poison down a well is death; it has nothing to do with the legal system. which will also get you for doing that, unless you have died because you poisoned your own well.
Where we need prophets are where people are suffering or are in danger of suffering. Prophecy should unsettle us, not pat us on the back!
Climate change will not affect the first world countries nearly as much as those in the developing world, particularly those small island nations who have nowhere to go when the sea turns rogue and the winds start to howl. Prophets are needed when gun violence is threatening entire neighbourhoods. Prophets are needed when the fish disappear, good farmers are going broke, and the groundwater is contaminated with industrial or agricultural chemicals. Prophets are needed when high school graduates can’t read a newspaper and when children go to school with no lunch and no breakfast in their bellies. Prophets are needed when people are attacked in the streets for being gay or when people laugh or tell jokes about family violence. Prophets are needed when a nation makes laws that persecute the indigenous people within its borders and destroy their property and take their land. That can apply to Canada as much as it does to the modern State of Israel or a dictatorship that bows to western business interests.
Some people say that the church should stick to religion and morals and stay out of politics but if we take the escape of the people of Israel from Egypt as an example of prophetic leadership we can see it as one big political statement AND one big prophetic success - or if you are Pharaoh, a big loss. . In the final analysis, no separation is possible because both exist in the real world where people live and must find belonging, meaning and fullness of life.
The biblical story begins with creation and the pronouncement that this creation was Good, indeed VERY GOOD. The call of the prophet, is to call the people back to that initial intention of God, that creation be good for every human, animal and plant.
Amen.
Isaiah 40: 21-31
Psalm 147
Mark 1: 29-39