12/9/2007 - The Rev. Robert Carlson - Advent 2

John the Baptist, a cousin of Jesus, was a strange and controversial figure of the first century. While Jewish prophets were often austere men, living apart, they were not expected to be hermits, living in the wilderness, surviving by eating insects and other "natural foods." John was a man who did this, and yet who had an eloquence that attracted people from all over the country to hear his message, despite the fact that it was not a particularly attractive message. At one point, we are told, he shouted at his audience, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you of the wrath to come?"(In seminary I taught my students never to preach that way, especially on Christmas and Easter when you may be tempted to preach that way! John the Baptist also spoke out against immorality and corruption wherever it was found, calling men and women to change their ways and to express their desire for cleansing by coming to a ceremonial washing in the River Jordan. He attacked not just "safe" targets like the poor or even the middle class, but the palace crowd too, even those in Herod's family. His courage eventually cost him his head, the prize in a notorious "dance contest."

John was not the first righteous Jew to call men and women to repentance, especially in that grim period of conquest and occupation by foreign powers. For two hundred years, first under the Greeks and then under the Romans, the Jews had been oppressed. They began to put great stock in the doctrine of the Messiah, the deliverer, God's special leader who was to liberate them from political and spiritual oppression. One pious theory had it that if every single Jew would keep the law for just 24 hours the Messiah would come. Repentance and righteousness were tied to the Messiah's coming. In that regard, John was like other prophetic figures of his day. Baptism, however, was John's special mark, and he baptized both Jews and non-Jews alike - something of a scandal in that day of national and religious segregation.

But in the midst of John's mission at the Jordan River, a strange event occurred, and that was the appearance of Jesus who came there to be baptized by John. It is this event which is the first recorded incident in the written record of Jesus' life, Mark's Gospel. Mark does not start off with the birth stories, but with the story of Jesus' baptism in the Jordan by John. For Mark it obviously meant the beginning of Jesus public ministry. He tells of Jesus' coming up out of the water and seeing the heavens open up and "the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him." He tells of Jesus hearing the words, "You are my Son, my Beloved; on you my favor rests. This must have been a personal religious experience, one which John did not share, because if John had experienced it, he hardly would have had a need to send a messenger from his prison cell to inquire of Jesus if he were the Messiah.

The incident of John's sending a messenger to Jesus is an interesting one. For a long time John had been content to preach without worrying much about who the Messiah was to be, declaring only, "Repent and be ready, for he is coming." Part of the miracle of John's personality was his willingness to go ahead without knowing the final outcome of his work. Most of us insist upon some kind of guarantee and are not willing to act in faith. John was curious, though, because he saw in his second cousin, Jesus of Nazareth, certain evidence that he was the Messiah. Jesus had begun preaching with authority about many things, and attracting more interest and greater crowds than even he had attracted. At last John sent two of his followers to Jesus. John knew that his time was running short, and so he indulged himself by seeking an answer to this burning question: "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to expect some other?" Jesus replied with a definite answer: "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind recover their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the good news preached to them." John would know very well that these things were spoken of by the prophets as signs or indications that the Messiah had come. Jesus might just as well have said, "I am." Shortly after this, John was beheaded, and we do not know his reaction or his response to Jesus' words. Perhaps he did not live long enough even to hear the words. The baptism, or washing which John practiced as a symbol of repentance and new life, was to become the sacrament by which men and women became part of the "New Israel," the community of faith which Jesus began.

But even more significant than John's use of baptizing was the tremendous sense of expectancy which he conveyed to those about him. It was a sense of the "comingness" of God, a sense that God was about to act. One summer I was fortunate to spend a few days in Yosemite National Park with my brother-in-law and his wife. One morning we were hiking through some woods to the rim overlooking the valley, when my brother-in-law gestured to us to stop, be still, and look ahead to the side of the trail. There, about twenty feet ahead, was a beautiful elk with large antlers. The elk froze too, and catching our scent, dashed away into the underbrush. If we hadn't stopped and tuned in all our senses, we would have missed the sight. It was a hushed expectancy not unlike the expectancy which John convened to his hearers. "Be alert, for God is about to act." This sense of alertness, of expectancy, is a vital ingredient of faith.

God is about us. God is closer than breath or sight. God is about to speak in the form of our own needs for understanding, purpose, the giving and receiving of love. But it is only as we have a sense of the "comingness" of God, a sense that God is about to act, that we can be ready for God. Christians are called to look forward, open to what is about to be. An essential element of faith is a sense of the "comingness" of God. God is ready to act in healing, restoring, saving. God is about to enter into our lives and put order where there is chaos, forgiveness where there is guilt, healing where there is pain, love where there is indifference. But it is through the door of our expectancy, "comingness," faith, that heGod comes.

John summarized his message in these few words, "Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand." In other words, "Turn about from where you are and where you have been, for God is about to act to bring something new into your life. John knew that a prelude to faith, to a sense of the "comingness" of God, is a willingness to let go of the past. He knew too that this is not easy, that most of us tend to cling to the past, past resentments, past losses, past failures, past successes, rather than letting go of them and moving on to the future. Therefore he called men and women to repent, "turn about" from the past to God's future. It is only as we are willing to do this that we are able to be open to God=s coming in our lives. John's message to the people of his day is even more significant for us who know about the coming of the Messiah, his death and Resurrection and the gift of the Spirit: "Turn about from where you are, for God is about to act."

- Robert W. Carlson


 

12/2/2007 - Advent I

To be posted.

 

11/28/2007 - Rev. Susan N. Blue - Christ the King

"…For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to God's self all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of the cross."

(Colossians 1:20)

It was rather odd, but royalty tended to be rather in issue in my family. At age 10 or 11, I was enthralled with the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. I kept a scrapbook of the pictures found in Life Magazine of the crown jewels and the coronation itself. I arose very early the morning of the coronation to watch the event on black and white TV!

My sister, who shall be nameless per her request when I arrived here, had a different take on royalty. After we saw the movie "Anastasia," she became convinced that she was the real Anastasia. She had always believed that her membership in our family was suspect, and this gave her the opportunity to dismiss all of us as being basically irrelevant. She hadn't computed that Anastasia would have been far older than she. This did not cramp her royal style.

For both of us, being royal meant having everything one wanted: homes, clothing, jewels, and minions to wait upon us. Royalty seemed all powerful and in control with no parents or others to dictate what they thought, did or cared about.

Today is Christ the King Sunday. Frequently, Christ as the King is depicted as if Jesus were royalty like Elizabeth and Anastasia. Nothing could be further from the truth. When Elizabeth was in Africa and learned that her father had died, the cry went up: "The King is dead, long live the Queen!" Jesus, as Christ the King, would have had a far different cry. It would have been more on the line of: "The King is dead; the King lives! Long live the King!" We end the church year on this note as a reminder. Since Easter we have been hearing about what Jesus did on earth. As a culmination of that, we are reminded of who Christ was: Our invisible God made visible…fully divine and fully human.

Pope John Paul II said:

"Jesus Christ is a 'King who loves.' He loves us humans by the shedding of his blood. Because he loves, he has liberated us from sin, because only love is capable of freeing us from sin. By liberating us from sin, he made from us the Kingdom of God. His reign 'never fades.' 'The Kingdom' of truth, of love, of grace and of pardon knows no sunset. His reign does not pass away…"

(Prayers and Devotions from Pope John Paul II (Chicago: Regnery Gateway, 1984) pp. 457-458.)

The Kingdom of God was visible in Christ's words to the thief who hung next to him on the cross. The thief did not ask forgiveness, but was given the ultimate forgiveness. Christ did not gain power and wealth and stature in the ways of the world. By way of contrast he has been known down through the centuries by his radical humiliation and self-giving on the cross. If we wish to bring about the Kingdom in all of its fullness, we are commanded to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. We are charged to love those who are considered unlovable in the world. We are called to eschew the power of the world for the power of God. Most especially, we are to follow Christ's model in forgiving one another, even as we are courageous enough to ask for the forgiveness of others. "It has been said that love, mercy and forgiveness are the bridge to reconciliation." (Copied) It is a bridge we must cross if we would follow him.

As we read in Colossians and in the first chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus was the first born of creation and, hence all things were created through him. God dwelt fully in him, and, through Christ's blood on the cross, reconciled all creation to God. The ultimate result of this reconciliation is peace; a peace that could only come through a total self-emptying, a total self-giving, of a love that surpasses all bounds.

As we continue to give thanks to God this weekend, let us remember the gift that has been given us and pledge to learn to be God's people in the world. Jesus gave us a model that is possible, in part, for those of us who are human, to follow. Let us begin. Amen