Beloved & Well Pleased

 

Epiphany 1 / Year B

Mark 1:4-11

The Gospel of Mark is the first of four written accounts of Jesus’ life.  As the earliest testimony, it is the initial source to which people turned to learn about who Jesus was and what Jesus did.  Unlike the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, which begin with stories of Jesus’ birth, and unlike the Gospel of John, which begins with the soaring theology of the Word becoming flesh, Mark begins his story at the Jordon River with John baptizing Jesus. 

By any measure, the beginning of Mark’s Gospel is lean: a few verses about John and then Jesus walks onto the stage and into the water.  At this point in the narrative, we know more about John (what he eats, what he wears, what his ministry looks like, what he preaches, and how his role is the fulfillment of Scripture) than Jesus.  About Jesus, well, we know nothing.  In fact, by the end of this morning’s brief reading there is not yet even a record of a single thing Jesus says. 

In Mark’s account we actually hear God speak before Jesus says or does anything except to be baptized: “You are my Son, the beloved.  With you I am well pleased!”  These words mirror what God says at creation: “‘Let there be light.’  And God saw that the light was good.”  Clearly, “well pleased” far surpasses “good.” 

From a literary perspective we ought to be puzzled.  The announcement “You are my Son” makes sense.  It informs the readers (and Jesus) about his identity.  “Beloved” also makes sense.  Every parent knows what it is like to be overwhelmed with love from the very first moment you hold your child.  Our bewilderment lies in the statement “With you I am well pleased”.  Well pleased?  As readers we ask how can this be, given in what we have read so far Jesus has done absolutely nothing.  “You will do amazing things” would make sense, as would “Your time has come.”  How can God be well pleased with Jesus when he is yet to speak or to act?

Now, I suppose you could say God is referring to all the things Jesus did before he was baptized – how he grew up and how he has conducted himself up until this point in time.  That Mark elects to tell us nothing about Jesus’ life prior to his baptism suggests this is not the source of God’s pleasure.  As literary device (at least to my thinking), “With you I am well pleased” serves as a foreshadowing.  It alerts the reader to pay attention to what lies ahead.  Pay attention to what Jesus says and to what Jesus does because these things will be well pleasing to God.

While God’s pronouncement, “You are my Son, my beloved”, discloses Jesus’ identity to the reader, what we read of Jesus following this moment discloses God’s identity to us.  Those of you who join me for on-line Evening Prayer know each night I read a passage from the book Celebrating the Seasons: Daily Spiritual Readings for the Christian Year.  Last Monday we read this passage from a sermon by Bernard of Clairvaux, a 12^th Century Benedictine monk:

When God emptied himself and took the form of a servant, he emptied himself only of majesty and power, not of goodness and mercy.  For what does the Apostle say?  ‘The goodness and humanity of our Saviour have appeared in our midst.’  God’s power had appeared already in creation, and his wisdom in the ordering of creation; but his goodness and mercy have appeared now in his humanity.

So what are your frightened of?  Why are you trembling before the face of the Lord when he comes?  God has come not to judge the world, but to save it!  Do not run away; do not be afraid.  God comes unarmed; he wants to save you, not to punish you.

I like Bernard’s notion we are able to see aspects of God’s true self more clearly in Jesus than we could see before.  It is popular to say the God of the Old Testament is a God of wrath, but the God of the New Testament is a God of love.  I think Bernard would say God has not changed, but our ability to see God has.  Jesus shows us things we could not see before.

So, to each of us God says, “You are my child, my beloved.”  Nothing – and I mean nothing – can alter this aspect of your identity.  God’s compassion and mercy are everlasting.  What can change is what is said next about each of us.  It might be, “With you I am well pleased.”  It could be, “With you I am pleased.”  Perhaps it is, “There are couple of things we need to talk about.”  At times it is, “Right now I am not at all pleased with you.”  No matter what is said, the first thing God says stands, “You are my child, my beloved.”  You don’t have to earn it.  You don’t have to maintain it.  You can never lose it.  It is who you are because it is who you are to God.  The question is what will you do with this love?  How will you welcome it into every aspect of your being?  How will you allow its warmth to bathe over you?  How will you allow it to transform your experience of life?  How will you express it as you live and move and have your being?

In my own experience, I find the truth I am a beloved child of God to be the cornerstone.  Everything else about my life I build on it.  No matter what happens, no matter how I fail or fall, no matter how I experience humiliation or rejection, I come back to the faith I am God’s child and beloved and I begin to build again where God has placed me and with God has given to me.  I pray this is your story too.  I pray you are able to move forward every day of your life knowing you are God’s child and beloved.

 

Angel Dreams

 

Christmas 2 / Year B

Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23

If you came to me for pastoral counseling and told me an angel spoke to you in a dream, the first question I might ask you is if you’ve had any recent changes in medications.   Given such skepticism, I am forced to make sense of the stories in and around the birth of Jesus.  Angels pop up everywhere to make significant announcements.  Gabriel encounters Mary in a garden.  Zechariah meets an angel as he does his priestly work in the Holy of Hollies.  A choir of angels appears in the night sky near Bethlehem.  And then there is Joseph and his manifold dreams.  Did you know there is over 300 references to angels in the bible – no small number!  In Holy Scripture, the existence of angels is always assumed but the nature of angels is little discussed because the emphasis is never on them.  The focus is always on the message they convey. 

A 1993 Gallop poll discovered at the time 73% of Americans believed in the existence of angels.  Since the mid-90’s there has been an explosion of ‘angelmania’, manifesting itself in books and magazine articles, consumer products, and popular entertainment – TV shows like Highway to Heaven and Touched by an Angel.  A guest appearing on a talk show who told a story about a personal experience involving an angel received over 8,500 letters from folks describing their own experiences.

Protestants and Roman Catholics, along with the Latter Day Saints, subscribe to a doctrine of angels who are spiritual beings created by God to serve God.  These varied traditions even embrace the notion every person is in the watchful care of a guardian angel.  Sue Bohn holds there are three types of angels: good angels (those who do God’s bidding), bad angels (who have rejected God and now are evil), and ugly angels (bad angels who disguise themselves as good angels in an attempt to lead people astray). 

I posted on Facebook last week, asking people to relate their own personal experience with angels - messaging me if they wanted the story to remain private.  I was honored to be brought in on many powerful and moving events in people’s lives.  Most related an experience of a loved one appearing to them in a dream - typically a spouse or parent.  Most often the message they conveyed was they are at peace.  A few of the dreams contained specific directions.  One person reported the presence of a loved one in the passenger seat of the car imploring him, the driver, three times to slow down.  Finally heeding the advice, the driver immediately went around a blind curve and came upon an accident.  Had he not slowed down he would not have had time to react.

These personal stories raise an intriguing possibility with the stories we read this morning.  Is it possible Joseph ‘knows’ or ‘recognizes’ the angel who comes to him in his dreams?  He dreams an angel tells him to remain betrothed to Mary even after she tells him she is with child.  He dreams he must take his family and flee to Egypt.  An angel dream tells him when it is safe to return, but still another dream cautions against resettling in Bethlehem.  It certainly would be easier to hear these directions if they come from someone you know, love, and trust.  But this is mere speculation. 

I don’t know if I have a guardian angel or not.  I never had the experience of being protected in some fantastic and unexplainable fashion.  As we engage the Daily Offices, I am struck by how our morning prayers ask for protection and our evening prayers give thanks for coming safely through the day’s events and activities.  I certainly believe God protects me, but I have never thought much about exactly how this happens.  Perhaps each of us is in the charge of being sent by God to keep an eye on us.  Several of you told me this is exactly what you experience in your life.

My experience is God leads me and directs me.  Most often God is at work in and through my own intuition, through the sage advice of a trusted guide, and in countless other practical and pragmatic ways.  In addition, I often have the experience of clarity coming during a time of prayer or the reading of Scripture.  I suspect a fair number of you are thinking, “Me too!”  Yes, God is engaged in our lives, even though we do not sense it involves angels.  Still, this morning we recognize God’s special protection for the Holy Family coming in the form of dreams and an angel.  And we give thanks for God’s protection and guidance in our own life; no matter the form in which it manifests itself.

A Merry Little Christmas

 

Christmas Eve

The 1944 movie Meet Me in St. Louis chronicles a year in the life of four sisters.  At Christmas time the children learn their father’s employer is sending him to work in New York City.  The family will be moving in the new year; news the children don’t take well.  Tootie, a spunky and spirited five-year-old, is despondent.  Esther, her older sister (played by Judy Garland), comforts her with a song:

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,

  Let your heart be light.

  From now on our troubles will be out of sight.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,

  Make the Yuletide gay.

  In a year our troubles will be miles away.

Here we are as in olden days,

  Happy golden days of yore.

Precious friends who are dear to us

  Gather near to us once more.

In a year we all will be together,

  If the fates allow,

Until then,

We’ll just have to muddle through somehow

  And have ourselves a merry little Christmas now.

You’ll have to watch the film to learn whether or not the song helps Tootie cheer up.

Written by Ralph Blane and Hugh Martin, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas is one today’s most popular Christmas songs and has been recorded by hundreds of different artists in every music genre imaginable.  And for all the reasons you can imagine, it has been on the minds of a lot of people this holiday season.

It seems like most every other year, we get to the Fourth Sunday of Advent and say something like, “I can’t believe Christmas is already here.”  We are so absorbed in the preparations and the parties and the present shopping the days just slip by.  This year, however, feels so different.  Yes, we are still saying, “I can’t believe Christmas is this Friday” but we are saying it because it just doesn’t feel like at all Christmas.  We won’t be going to Grandma’s house (or anywhere else for that matter).  There won’t be a packed candlelight service in the church.  And we won’t be getting together with friends from far and wide.  This year, Christmas is more like a Friday than it is like Christmas.  Ah, but next year… what might Christmas 2021 be like?  Well, I am not ready to give up on Christmas 2020 yet.  I think it has something good in store for us.  Something sure is blowing in.

The birth of Jesus looked nothing like how we celebrate it today.  There was no tree, no stockings, no presents, no decorations, and no fancy meal.  Mary, Joseph, and Jesus did not have matching pajamas to wear nor was there a crackling fire in the fireplace for warmth and atmosphere.  They were alone, without family or friends.  They did get to travel on that first Christmas day, but not by choice.

In all the years I have preached on Christmas Eve I don’t think I have ever focused a sermon on the setting and circumstances of the stable and manger.  I’ve always focused on Christmas’ bigger and grander themes.  Perhaps this is the year for us to spend some time with the Holy Family in the humble stable.  If you catch yourself feeling down tonight or tomorrow, use it has a prompt to ponder how Joseph or how Mary was feeling on that day so long ago. 

I wonder what it was like for them to be in such a meager setting, alone and vulnerable with their newborn.  And I wonder what they made of the shepherds’ starlit visit as they pondered the angelic story in the light of the new day.  And I wonder how these polar opposites might speak to us on a day and in a season when we have so much to be sad about while at the same time have much to celebrate.

For Mary and Joseph, that first Christmas day was as dark as what I suspect many of ours will be like this year.  Still, they had the one thing necessary for Christmas – the Light of the World had come into their lives.  So may it be for each of us.

This year, a merry little Christmas may just turn out to be more special than we anticipate.  Here is something you may find interesting: antonyms for the word merry include sad, miserable, and unpleasant; antonyms for the word little include overkill, kingsize, and insane.  Against these, merry and little don’t seem so bad, do they!  Do you know what the antonym is for Christmas?  There isn’t any!  Christmas stands alone as a day which cannot be undone.  It may be different, but it cannot be undone.  So hang a shining star upon the highest bow and have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

Mission Possible

 

Advent 4 / Year B

I recall vividly the moment in early 1991 when my wife told me she was pregnant with our first child.  We had been married for two years and were living in our first house, which we purchased several months earlier.  Because we were actively trying not to have a baby, my initial reaction was bewilderment.  Like Mary, I said, “How can this be?”  As the shock dissipated, secondary emotions began to fill the void – panic and fear. 

We had a lot going for us back in the day.  Educated and employed, our careers came with demanding and quirky schedules.  We were married, but didn’t have a lot of family around able to offer critical support.  We had a home, but needed two incomes to pay the mortgage.  I did not feel ready to be a parent and could not imagine for the life of me how it was all going to work out.  I remember a wise parishioner telling me we are all born into families whose parents had doubts, yet they made it work for us, so too I would make it work for my child.

Any person who does not receive the news of pregnancy – at least the first pregnancy – with an element of hesitation and doubt does not fully understand (understandably) the implications.  When I do premarital counseling I tell couples I am not going to attempt to describe the challenges of being a parent for the first time because there is no way to express it adequately.  I just say to them, “After the birth of your first child, let me know if I could have said or done anything to prepare you for it.”  To a person they have come back to me and said “No!”  Parenthood is a daunting challenge, even in the best of circumstances, and yet we all find a way to make it work. 

This morning we read the story known as The Annunciation, when the Archangel Gabriel tells Mary she has been chosen to give birth to God’s Child.  I am not sure which is more frightening for her, being in the presence of an Archangel or the message he conveys.  Surely both are overwhelming for a young, unmarried woman in her early teens.  The text tells us she is “perplexed”, but Gabriel picks up on something deeper: “Do not be afraid, for you have found favor with God.”

Gabriel is allotted the bulk of the dialogue in this brief passage.  Mary has but two lines to speak, still they are memorable: “How can this be, since I am still a virgin” and, once Gabriel lays out the plan, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”  The Archangel’s clinching argument is this: “With God, nothing is impossible.” 

What at first appeared to be mission impossible becomes mission possible through God’s activity and Mary’s consent.  Her willingness and cooperation have made Mary a model of Christian devotion and openness to God’s plan for one’s life.  When in your life have you had this kind of experience – a movement from mission impossible to mission possible?

The truth is life is filled with a lot of occasions feeling like mission impossible, some are more significant than others.  It may be as commonplace as wondering how you are going to manage everything on the day’s ‘To-Do’ list.  But of more significance, it may involve figuring out how to embrace parenthood.  I have known people who have gone through this shift during a job or career change; either voluntary or on account of termination.  I see it in folks who receive devastating news from a doctor.  I sense it in people who must learn to live after a divorce.  And I recognize it in those who find themselves alone after the death of a spouse.  Each feels impossible and each is… apart from God.

If, prior to any of these kinds of things unfolding in our lives, Gabriel appeared to announce what was about to happen to us, I suspect we (like Mary) might say, “How can this be?”  How can we get to a place where we (like Mary) can say, “Let it be to me according to your word”? 

I think the ability to see into the future would be a frightful thing.  When I look back over my life and consider the many ways I have been blessed, if I could have seen all of this when I was starting out I would have felt unworthy.  And when I consider the many hardships, disappointments, hurts, and pains I have experienced, if I could have seen them coming in advance I never would have been able to get out of bed in the morning.  You see, the thing missing in being able to see the future is the sense of how God equips us to manage what at first feels unmanageable, how God sustains us in moments of need, how God makes the impossible possible.

Think about how you felt on Thursday, March 12 – the day all in-person worship and parish activities were shut down due the pandemic.  Within days everything stopped – schools, jobs, all non-essential events.  Back then we thought it might be a two-week ordeal.  And while things have eased and opened a bit sense then, these are still challenging and difficult times.  Back in March, who would have thought this is where we would be at Christmas and who would have thought it would be possible to endure all we have been through?  Praise the Lord, God is in the business of making the impossible possible.

And now we turn our attention to Juniper Mae who is to receive the sacrament of Baptism.  Her very presence here this morning is a testimony of God’s desire to make the impossible possible.  I suspect every day her life will bear witness to this truth.  She truly is a miracle child and more than once, when being given an update about her natal activities, I said, “How can this be?”  Well, because with God all things are possible. 

I began this sermon by reminiscing on the birth of Ellen, my first daughter.  By coincidence, she and Juniper’s mother - Christa - were born on the same day… September 5, 1991.  Christa has already done much for St. Paul’s: acolyte, nursery, vestry, administrator.  Christa will be the first to tell you I love to give her a hard time… which is not all that hard to do.  But I hope she knows I think of her as being a surrogate daughter.  Given this, I lay claim to being Juniper’s surrogate Grandfather.  I can’t wait to see her in a Nativity Pageant, bringing a beloved pet to be blessed, receiving communion at the Altar Rail, searching for leprechauns, hunting for Easter eggs then sitting on the tower door steps with me for a bazillion pictures, standing on the Chancel steps and singing “He’s got the whole world” led by Sarah Blake, running up to me after church showing me what she created in Sunday School.

Christa, Josh, always remember God makes possible what seems impossible.  And always remember to remind Juniper she is the most powerful, most profound, and most poignant example of this hope and truth I have ever known!

Despair / Hope / Patience

 

The Third Sunday of Advent / Year B

Psalm 126

If you are starting to feel good about life again, you might want to visit the website depair.com which specializes in what it calls “demotivational” products.  The site asserts “no industry has inflicted more suffering than the Motivational Industry” through the billions of dollars spent on books, speakers, and those annoying posters aimed at inspiring a workforce.  “At Despair, we offer the cure for hope and for surprising affordable prices.” 

If you look at page 5 of your bulletin you will see images of some of my favorite despair posters:

(a group of people putting their hands together as a sign of teamwork) Meetings – None of us is as dumb as all of us!

(a picture of a sinking oil freighter) Mistakes – It could be that your purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others.

(a salmon about to be eaten by a bear) Ambition – A journey of a thousand miles sometimes ends very badly.

(a person standing at the foot a tall, steep mountainside) Challenge – I expected times like these but I never thought they’d be so bad, so long, and so frequent.

This from the website: “Motivational Products don’t work.  But our Demotivational Products don’t work even better.  The Motivational Industry has been crushing dreams for decades, selling the easy lie of success you can buy.  That’s why we decided to differentiate ourselves – by crushing dreams with hard truths!”

Can there be a better summery of the year 2020 than “I expected times like these, but I never thought they’d be so bad, so long, and so frequent.”  That pretty much says it all.  The word ‘despair’ comes from the Latin de, meaning ‘without’, and sperare, meaning ‘to hope’.  These feel like despairing times, days without hope.

If Christianity is about any one thing, no doubt it is about hope – the hope we receive from the Good News of God’s redeeming love made known through and possible by Jesus Christ.  The Catechism teaches “The Christian hope is to live with confidence in newness and fullness of life and to await the coming of Christ in glory, and the completion of God’s purpose in the world.”  There are moments in our lives when this is easier said than done.  2020 has been one of these times. 

Again this morning we read about John the Baptist.  He conducts his ministry during a very dark period in human history, but the heart of his message is about hope.  John the Gospel writer says of the Baptist “he was not the light, but came to testify to the light.”  Can there be a more hopeful message than “Make straight the way of the Lord” – a reference to an ancient prophet’s hope one day a savior will come.

This morning we are blessed by the reading of the 126^th Psalm, with its message of hope.  Notice how the first four verses seem to indicate the moment of despair has passed:  “When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, then were we like those who dream…”  However, the final three verses are cast in the future tense:  “Those who sowed with tears will reap with songs of joy.  Those who go out weeping, carrying the seed, will come again with joy, shouldering their sheaves.”  Yes, the times may be bad, long, and frequent, but they do not last.  There will come a harvest.  There will be singing.  There will be joy.

As inspirational as this psalm is, there is one disconnect between it and our times.  By using the imagery of planting and harvest it implies a person can have a rough idea of when God’s restoration will occur.  In my experience – and certainly in our current situation – often the end is not in sight.  Patience and hope must go hand in hand.

Last Monday the Presiding Bishop shared a poem by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin on a Zoom call with the House of Bishops.  On Tuesday our bishop shared it with the diocesan staff.  On a Wednesday Zoom with clergy, Canon Roy shared it with us.  I suspect I am not the only priest citing it in a sermon today.  The poem is titled “Patient Trust”, and you can find it on page 6 of your bulletin:

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.

We are quite naturally impatient in everything

to reach the end without delay.

We should like to skip the intermediate stages.

We are impatient of being on the way

to something unknown, something new.

And yet it is the law of all progress

that it is made by passing through

some stages of instability—

and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;

your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,

let them shape themselves, without undue haste.

Don’t try to force them on,

as though you could be today what time

(that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will)

will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit

gradually forming within you will be.

Give Our Lord the benefit of believing

that his hand is leading you,

and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself

in suspense and incomplete.

I have a hope something new is happening in me through the changes of the last year.  I don’t know what it is, it will only reveal itself completely when we are able to reenter the world the way we used to, but discover it and we are different.  And I have a hope something new is happening at St. Paul’s as well.  Again, it will not be evident until we are able to regather as God’s people in this place.  This is a time when we pray, as the psalmist did so long ago, “Restore our fortunes” and this is a time when we open ourselves to the work John the Baptist calls us to do: “Make straight the way of the Lord.”

How Far would You Go to be Forgiven?

 

Mark1:1-8

The Second Sunday of Advent / Year B

The 1986 film titled “The Mission” is widely recognized as one of the best religious films ever made.  Set in Argentina in the 1740’s, it tells the story of Spanish Jesuits who set out to Christianize native tribes, including the remote Guarani people who live deep in the forest above the Iguazu Falls. The first Jesuit to visit the Guarani is martyred, but Father Gabriel (played by Jeremy Irons) is able to win over the people with the simple beauty of his oboe’s music. 

While Father Gabriel is with the Guarani, a slave trader by the name of Rodrigo Mendoza (played by Robert Di Nero) captures dozens of tribesmen and needlessly shoots a person trying to get away.  It is clear the two Spaniards have crossed paths before.

When Mendoza makes it back to the main city he makes a handsome profit for his work.  However, he learns his girlfriend has fallen in love with his brother and, in a jealous rage, kills him in a duel.  Acquitted of murder, he spirals into a deep depression and exiles himself in a secluded cell at the Jesuit Monastery.  Six months later, when Father Gabriel returns to the monastery, he challenges Mendoza to undergo a rigorous act to penance to find forgiveness and redemption.  Mendoza, believing neither is possible for him, agrees.

His penance is to accompany a small group of Jesuits back up river to the Guarani.  It is an arduous journey made even more difficult for Mendoza because his penance is to drag one of his old slaving nets filled with his armor and swords.  More than once, while attempting to climb a muddy hillside or rock cliff, Mendoza loses his balance and is dragged backward by the weight of the huge, clanky, bundle of junk.  One of the Jesuits approaches Father Gabriel and says, “The other brothers and I think he has done enough” to which Father Gabriel replies, “But he doesn’t think he has done enough.” 

The group arrives at the near impossible climb up the Iguazu Falls and Mendoza barely manages, through sheer power of will, to do it while hauling his load.  The Guarani warmly greet the Jesuits, but the mood changes quickly when they see the man who captured and killed members of their community.  Mendoza is on his hands and knees, physically exhausted and covered in mud.  The tribal leader instructs one of the tribesman to get a knife.  The lieutenant holds it to Mendoza’s throat and there is every reason to believe he will exact revenge then and there.  Father Gabriel and the leader have a brief exchange in a language we don’t understand.  The leader then issues an order, again in his native tongue.  The person bearing the knife moves it from Mendoza’s throat to the thick rope he uses to pull the net.  The knife cuts the rope and the tribesman, who lost kin and friends to Mendoza, kicks the bundle over a cliff into the raging waters below.  At this Mendoza breaks down and weeps - bitterly at first, but then with tears of joy.   Through his penance he finds forgiveness in the most palatable way imaginable.  Well, this is only the first 45 minutes of the movie, but you can watch it in its entirety on YouTube (I recommend the version with subtitles).

So here is my question: How far would go to be forgiven? 

As we just heard, the Gospel of Mark begins by introducing us to John, a religious figure of some sort who sets up shop along the Jordon River and calls people to prepare for the Lord’s coming by confessing their sins and being baptized.  Perhaps this does not strike you as a successful church growth strategy, but it works.  The text tells us people come to John from all over the countryside.  Not only this, “everyone” in Jerusalem travels to see John.

Now, this is surprising for several reasons.  First, you might think the people of Jerusalem have better things to do with their time than to spend several days trudging through the wilderness to a backwater location.  Next, it is not easy to get from Jerusalem to the Jordon River.  The path is a remote, desolate, downhill, rocky grade with twists, turns, rises, and falls.  Beyond the physical challenges, it is not the safest of journeys; being riddled with bandits and animal predators (remember Jesus set the parable of the Good Samaritan on the way from Jerusalem to Jericho).  And finally, as difficult as the walk to the Jordon is, the journey back to Jerusalem is even worse.  It is all uphill.  When I was in Israel we drove from the Jordon Valley to Jerusalem and there were several times when our tour bus struggled with the grade on a major highway.  I remember thinking I was glad to be riding rather than walking.

So why are people willing to make this journey?  Because they want to confess their sins and be forgiven.  And we get it.  Each of us knows what is like to live with the crushing burden of our mistakes and failures.  “I know my transgressions,” writes the Psalmist, “and my sin is ever before me” (51:3).   Though filled with different symbols of regret, each of us knows what it is like to drag Mendoza’s burden.  How far would you go to have your burden lifted?

Jesus has a lot to say about forgiveness, doesn’t he!  In the Lord’s Prayer he connects forgiving others with being forgiven.  He teaches we must forgive seven times seventy.  He challenges us to forgive our enemies.  He gives us the example of forgiving while dying on the cross.  But nowhere, to the best of my recollection, does he speak about how to receive forgiveness; how to appropriate it into one’s being in order to let yourself off the hook.

It is possible to believe God forgives you but to be unable to forgive yourself.  It is especially challenging to forgive yourself when the consequences of your actions cannot be undone or if a person you wronged won’t grant release to you.  Mendoza was forgiven by the Guarani and welcomed into their tribe, but no such redemption is possible with the brother he murdered.  He must learn to live with what he did to his brother until he can learn deeply and authentically how to receive absolution. 

Maybe the reason so many people go to such lengths to see John in order to confess their sins and be baptized is because they need to make the effort.  For whatever reason, the Temple’s sacrificial system, with its easy offerings of this, that, or something else, in order to be forgiven, simply do not break through the penitent’s self-imposed sentence of condemnation.  So the journey to the river is an important part of the process of believing you are forgiven. 

So too is the water.  There is something restorative about it.  I am amazed how I enter the shower every morning feeling like a zombie and step out moments later feeling resurrected and ready to take on the day.  When I was immersed in the Jordon River at the traditional spot where John was believed to have baptized, it was a warm day and I was surprised by how cool the water felt.  I imagine the people John baptizes enter the river hot, dirty, tired, and sinful and come out of it refreshed, renewed, and believing they are forgiven.  How far would you go to feel forgiven?

I have only once engaged in the prayer book’s service of a Rite of Reconciliation.  I did something so seriously wrong that participation in the General Confession was not enough for me.  Confessing my specific sin to a priest and having absolution pronounced for it helped, but it did not erase the consequences of my actions.  I knew God forgave me, but I had to live with the knowledge of the hurt and pain I caused.  Years later I was blessed to reconnect with the person I offended and was released from what I did.  Life doesn’t always work out this way, but when it does it is one of the richest blessings imaginable.

How far would you go to be forgiven?  And why do you think John connects confession with preparing the way of the Lord?  I suppose at one level he associates being cleansed with being worthy to be in the presence of the Lord.  At a deeper level, perhaps he associates it with being ready to serve.  It is a call to throw off the old in order embrace the new.  But I suspect at the deepest level unburdening oneself makes it possible to live life as God intends.  You can’t soar if you are weighed down by the things you have done and left undone.  Jesus comes that we might have life and have it abundantly and this is what John invites us to prepare for by confessing our sins and being forgiven.

Two Kinds of Signs

 

Advent 1 / Year B

Mark 13:24-37

The way the new Church Year and the season of Advent begins with the end always feels counterintuitive.  It is like one of those movies where the opening scene is actually the end of the story and the rest of the film reveals all the events leading to the ending.  

“The sun will be darkened… stars will fall from heaven…  They will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds…”  Whatever this imagery describes, according to Jesus it has already happened.  Speaking to his original followers he states clearing “This generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.”  There have been about 100 generations since then, and yet still we wait for something that transpired in some form or fashion a long time ago. 

Some biblical scholars associate Jesus’ apocalyptic vision with the fall of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple in 70 AD – an event taking place within the lifetime of the actual generation Jesus addresses.  The pleas to watch for signs, to stay alert, and to keep awake urge followers to anticipate the catastrophe to come and to trust Jesus will provide a pathway to deliver the faithful through it.

Because the language is so vivid and the ‘signs’ are so timeless and universal, believers have long suspected they are living in the end of days.  During last Monday’s Evening Prayer we heard a passage from Ephrem of Syria, who lived in the 4^th Century.  He notes how the signs Jesus describes “have come and gone with a multiplicity of change; more than that, they are still present.”  What does is it suggest to you that a person writing around 350 AD is bemused by all the generations before him who thought Christ was going to return at any moment in their own time?  It suggests to me those who attempt to sync events in our world with apocalyptic imagery in the bible are mining for fool’s gold.

But it is such a tempting project, isn’t it!  In the midst of threats and calamities, we long for explanation and meaning.  We want something or someone to quell our anxieties.  What more powerful narrative can there be than grounding our present challenges in a cosmic struggle and believing specific troubling signs indicate a Savior is coming who will rescue those who recognize what is happening while those foolish enough not to pay attention will be left behind.   I take from today’s reading Jesus promises to be with us to deliver us, no matter what the challenge. 

Jesus draws on two kinds of signs as he speaks to his followers.  The first kind, of course, is dark and dramatic.  The second kind of sign is softer and more hopeful.  Did you hear it?  Jesus said, “Learn the lesson of the fig tree: as soon as its branches becomes tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near.”  This second kind of sign points not to an ending, but rather toward renewal, a new beginning. 

What signs do you see indicating God is about to do a new thing? 

Origen, who was born in Egypt in 185 AD became the leading representative of the school of theology in Alexandria.  He possessed the most powerful mind in Christendom in his age, but sadly many of his writings have been lost or destroyed.  In his work On Prayer, he offers these thoughts which help to illuminate today’s reading:

According to the words of our Lord and Savior, the kingdom of God does not come in such a way for all to see.  No one will say, “Behold, here it is!” or “Behold, there it is!” because the kingdom of God is within us.  Indeed, the word of God is very near, in our mouth and in our heart.  Thus it is clear that the one who prays for the coming of God’s kingdom prays rightly to have it within, that there it may grow and flourish and reach its full potential.  For God reigns in each of his holy ones. 

Advent begins at the end because we anticipate God’s kingdom will break forth in us in a new way.  As our lives change and as our world evolves, God’s Spirit in us manifests itself in new ways; creating new paths to worship, to pray, and to serve.  Jesus’ words remind us to be open to possibility and to except renewal.

This morning we hear of two kinds of signs, both of which are always present in our world.  The first kind of sign is ominous and threatening.  And Jesus tells us when we see these kinds of signs we are to look for him because he will be with us as the Good Shepherd.  The second kind of sign is more hopeful, like a bud about to burst forth in bloom.  When you see this, Jesus says, be open to me and my presence in your life.