We Are God’s Beloved

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

The lectionary is a very good tool to use for planning worship services. The way it follows the church calendar and offers passages from the bible for the message-giver to open their minds and heart as to what is the massage for that particular week can honestly be both challenging and rewarding – to me at least.

It’s not just what’s in the lectionary passage for the week that can be challenging, but also what is left out of the lectionary choice. Today’s selection is a prime example of how this can be.

Because the verses I want to talk about are not printed in today’s bulletin, I need to ask you to grab a bible from the pews and open it to the Gospel according to Luke. Once you’ve found Luke, turn to chapter 3, and we’ll be reading from verse 15.

Verses 15-17 reads as follows: “As 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. His winnowing-fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’”

I believe we talked about this passage during Advent, and how it follows John the Baptizer’s answer to the question about what more those who are gathered need to do besides be baptized in water and proclaim themselves the rightful heirs to Abraham’s promises. In case we forgot; the answer was to share whatever we can with those in need as well as not accumulate or take more than what is needed through deceitful practices and to be happy with what we have.

We also talked about the literary funnel-like construction of these passages and how Luke begins talking about the ancestors, moves into the nation of Israel, then to the crowds gathered where he focuses on a few. He then talks about a more intimate baptism by someone who will come into our very being and clear out the chaff, or the junk we store within us, getting rid of it forever. This action by the one who is coming will leave only the good wheat, cleaning our souls, hearts, minds, and lives.

This is where we pick up the passage, reading what the lectionary has left out. Let’s continue from verse 18: “So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people. But Herod the ruler, who had been rebuked by him because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and because of all the evil things that Herod had done, added to them all by shutting up John in prison.”

Why is reading these particular passages important to today’s message? Let’s take a closer look to see if we can answer that.

The Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and John clearly state that it’s John the Baptizer who baptizes Jesus. Each one of those Gospels have very similar proclamations by John, and each of those Gospels has either a telling of the event which happened after Jesus was baptized or John himself speaking as an eyewitness to that account. Either way it is clear that Jesus is baptized by John in the river, and as he comes out of the water the skies open and a Spirit descends like a dove upon Jesus and a voice from the Heavens proclaims Jesus as God’s beloved.

Not so in the Gospel according to Luke. Let’s read those verses again, focusing on verses 19 and 20: “But Herod the ruler, who had been rebuked by him (John) because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and because of all the evil things that Herod had done, added to them all by shutting up John in prison.”

I like the Common English Translation which says, “But Herod the ruler had been criticized harshly by John because of Herodias, Herod’s brother’s wife, and because of all the evil he had done. He added this to the list of his evil deeds: he locked John up in prison.” Herod locked up John in prison. John the Baptizer is in prison, and Jesus has not yet been baptized.

Who, then, did baptize Jesus?

Let’s turn to the first part of verse 21: “Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized.” Or as the Common English Translation reads: “When everyone was being baptized, Jesus also was baptized.”

It’s in the following realization that everything I thought I knew was challenged: We aren’t told who baptizes Jesus; we are only told that Jesus was baptized with others. Jesus was part of the crowd, Jesus was one of those gathered, Jesus was just one of the guys. He joined in with everyone else and was baptized as part of the gathered folk. No proclamation at his baptism, no opening of the heavens or voices from above as he comes out of the water; Jesus’ baptism is ordinary.

What happens next, however, is what the message of Luke’s Gospel, as well as the message of his follow up book which records the Acts of the Apostles as the Christian church is born and expanded. Please read with me the 2nd part of verse 21 and verse 22: “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.’” Reading that again from the Common English Translation, “While he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit came down on him in bodily form like a dove. And there was a voice from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I dearly love; in you I find happiness.’”

If you remember the literary construction of the passages we spoke of earlier, you will remember that John speaks of an intimate cleansing of our selves when we are baptized by the one who is coming after him. That person, the one whom Luke is foreshadowing in his Gospel, is the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who will come into us, empty us of all the bad stuff, and leave only the good stuff.

We see here in the intimate setting of prayer what is the message of baptism in Luke’s Gospel. We are baptized as common individuals within a part of a group of people, entering into the church community of fellow followers of Christ. We make an outward gesture with the words we say and the covenants we promise, to do the best we can to be faithful to the church of Jesus Christ and to grow in our faith as best we can. It’s when the Holy Spirit fills us, though, that we hear the voice of God proclaim us as his beloved; as the one who God dearly loves.

I’m not sure if I shared this story with you, a story of when I was filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit as I struggled with one of my core beliefs of Christianity. I do know I have said that seminary had a way of shaking my faith, but when that faith was restored, nothing can ever shake it again.

The issue was the virgin birth. There is so much comparison in seminary made to the language of the 1st Century listeners of the Gospel, that the point is made strongly that the stories which tell of the virgin birth of Jesus is similar to the stories told of the virgin birth of all great leaders who are thought to be a direct descendant of a god; especially Caesar. The arguments which were made about these similarities, and the possibility that Jesus’ virgin-birth narratives might just be a way to put the focus on Jesus as the Son of God, not Caesar, made me think, really think about where my faith was.

I had come to terms with all the other core parts of my faith. I know that Jesus is part of a trinity which includes the Spirit as well as God, I know that Jesus performed miracles, I know that Jesus was put to death on the cross and was resurrected on the 3rd day after that death. But, the virgin birth was one core part of my faith I was having a difficult time with.

One day, as I was driving to a meeting about my ordination process, my dilemma began to surface. For the most part whenever I began to struggle with the birth story of Jesus, I was able to distract myself and move on. Not this time; nothing was going to make this difficult struggle go away.

I want to clarify something before I go on. Seminary did not, nor does it in any way teach that the virgin story is not real. Seminary didn’t, and doesn’t, tell people how or what to think or feel, or accept as truth. What seminary did was open my mind and heart to other possibilities which may or may not explain some of the stories in the bible. The “truth”, if we want to call it that, is what my mind, heart, soul, and body came to accept without falter.

To continue my story, there I was, driving on the H-1 through Kalihi, when I just couldn’t take the struggle any more. I was literally obsessed with one single decision: was or was not Jesus born to a virgin mother.

It was just before the breaking point, just before pure frustration took over, that I stopped and prayed. No, not stopped my car on the freeway, but stopped my obsessive behavior. I asked God for guidance, I asked God to take from me the pain I was going through.

That’s when I suddenly felt a presence unlike any I’ve felt before, and heard a voice which said to me, “Randy, does it really matter what others say or think? Search your heart for the truth.”

In that moment I proclaimed, maybe out loud, that the birth of our Christ Jesus was from a virgin. It was in that moment I understood that my faith comes from God’s presence and is given to me through the Holy Spirit. Who God is became clear to me; one who accepts me for who I am and never faults me from swaying in my faith.

I cried deeply in that moment, so much so that I literally had to pull to the side of the freeway. However, while my vision was blurred by tears, I can honestly say that the leaves on the trees seemed greener, the sky above me was bluer, and the presence which filled me could not be contained.

God was revealed to me that day.

It’s in this time of the Epiphany we are asked to look for the different ways God is revealed to us. Maybe it was as you sat on the beach and watched the most beautiful sunset you’ve ever seen. Maybe it was in the eyes of a newborn grandchild. Maybe God’s revelation is still coming, and you know what, that’s okay. God will reveal God’s self in God’s time, when the moment is right for us.

For Jesus, the revelation came in a time of intimacy as he spoke with God after he was baptized.

With your permission I would like to ask you, if you wish, to come forward one by one to celebrate Jesus’ baptism. This is not a formal act of baptism by you, nor am I asking if you want to be baptized. I only want you to come forward and dip your finger in the bowl of water I will be holding, and as you do so say out loud these words, “I am loved by God.”

We are asked to allow the Spirit to come into us and to share in the journey of the Christian Church. We do this by being in the presence of God with Jesus Christ at our side.

God is with us always.  Amen.

Hiding In The Light

John 1:9-18

To fully understand the Gospel of John’s prologue, in fact its overall message, we must first come to appreciate the 1st Century Israelite’s understanding of what light represents. As our personal theologies have grown to where they are through the doctrines and interpretations of theologians throughout the millennia, the root of who Jesus was for those 1st century Christians ran deeply through Judaism and could not yet be separated from those beliefs.

The language we use today to represent the different things Jesus represents to us – justice, salvation, self-sacrifice, peace – was forged by great Christian thinkers such as Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Boesak, and Wright. However, the Christians of the 1st Century, when the way of Jesus Christ was in its infant stages, had people whose thoughts and writings were still grounded in Judaism as they tried to clear a new path for the followers of Christ to follow. The words they relied on were law, grace, and truth.

While we have great symbols of our faith which provoke images of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus – the manger, a star, the cross, an empty tomb – the people in the 1st century relied on images such as water, darkness, and light. John’s Gospel makes the best use of that last image, that of light,

Genesis 1 gives us these words, “When God began to create the heavens and the earth— the earth was without shape or form, it was dark over the deep sea, and God’s wind swept over the waters— God said, “Let there be light.” And so light appeared. God saw how good the light was. God separated the light from the darkness. God named the light Day and the darkness Night.” Yet, when we take a closer look at this we note that day and night, light and darkness, were created before the sun and moon and stars. In fact, it took God another 3 days to create that which would mark the day and night.

What, then, is light?

God is represented by a column of fire, a source of light to ancient Hebrews, as they walk through the desert. God is revealed as light to Moses on the mountaintop. The burning of lamps for many of the established festivals of their day is of great importance as well; so much so that there is actually a Jewish code of law which states that the purchasing of oil for the lamps of the Sabbath and other festivals take precedence over the purchase of food.

In the New Testament we are reminded not to hide our lamp under a jar or bed. We are told the story of the bridesmaids of which half had oil for their lamps and half did not, therefore keeping them from entering the banquet. When Jesus is baptized there’s a great light which comes down from the heavens that shines on him. With these examples, and more, we can see the importance of how the word “light” as well as all the symbolism which portrays light is within the stories of the Bible.

The Gospel of John is no different in its use of the language of light. However, its understanding of what the light is differs from that which we may be accustomed to. Today we understand biblical light to be something that shines on our path and shows us the way into God’s never-ending love. We see the light as something which enters us and can be shared with others along our paths. John’s Gospel’s use of light is much, much more than that.

The Old Testament professor at Vancouver School of Theology, the seminary which I attended, is Patricia Dutcher-Walls, a world-renown Old Testament Scholar. During one of our sessions with her the question was asked, “How is it that light and darkness was created before sun, moon, and stars?”

In true Patricia Dutcher-Walls form she answered with a question. “What is necessary before sun and moon can be created?” The room was silent. After a minute or so she asked, “For that matter, what is needed before anything could have been created by God?”

The more seasoned students answered, “The Spirit of God.” “God’s breath.”

“Good, good,” she said in only the way Professor Dutcher-Walls could, “And what exactly did that breath of God do?”

Almost immediately the light went on in the room. Before we could say anything, though, our esteemed professor said, “In biblical Hebrew, light represents understanding, truth, justice, peace, and even life itself and the revelation of these things is expressed in terms of the revelation of light. The creation of light at the beginning of creation is the creation of the life-force and wisdom of all things.”

She continued, “The Hebrews believed that “the light” is what runs through every living thing. It is what connects us and unifies us under the one God. It is understood that when Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden that the light was shattered, therefore separating humanity from the rest of creation and God. It is the basis of Jewish theology to reunite the light in order for all of creation to be as God had intended from the very beginning.”

I thought about those words a lot and let them sink into my being. Light is the life-force of all living things as well as the understanding of how that life-force unites all living things. Then, when I began my course on the Gospel of John and re-read this prologue for the first time with a new understanding of how the 1st Century Hebrew people understood the concept of light, I developed a deeper understanding of who Jesus Christ was to the first followers of Christ.

John’s Gospel also does something very interesting with the concept of light. Not only is the light which comes into the world the life-force and understanding of how all of creation was meant to live in unity, it is also the light which brings into focus all things. John’s Gospel not only includes the Hebrew concept of light, but also the Greek way of thinking that the word light represents the ordered entirety of the universe.

John’s Gospel blends the symbolism of Jewish light with the word “light” from the Greek world in which the author lived to give us the one thing which the Light of the world is: all of life in its entirety.

One of the questions asked in our course on John’s Gospel was, “What can you see when the lights are turned on?” Everything seemed to be the unanimous answer. So the follow-up question helped put the professor’s point more into focus. “So, what you’re saying is that when you turn on your kitchen lights you can see what is in your cupboards and in your refrigerator?”

The point he was trying to make was that when the light is turned on we can see everything that is exposed by that light. In order for something to be seen it has to be exposed to the light, which in turn exposes whatever stands in it for that which it is truly. In the Gospel of John, light is a symbol of many things, including the life force of all things, but mostly the light is there to be a light.

However, light is not used often in the Gospel, the actual word only being written about 16 times. So, while the concept, symbols, and word for life is important, that importance is made even more so by the limited use of the word. In fact, the use of the word “light” is limited to only 2 people; the narrator and Jesus.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus is called the light of the world, Jesus himself calls him the light of the world. The light shines but people hide from it because they love darkness better; coming into the light would expose their inner-most secrets. And Jesus tells us to walk in the light of day to lessen our chances of stumbling. But, probably the 2 most effective uses of light by John’s Gospel are these: when Nicodemus approaches Jesus during the night and when Mary seeks Jesus at the tomb at the break of dawn.

This week the Christian calendar will be celebrating the Epiphany, the day when Jesus Christ first appears to the Gentiles as told of in Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus. The Magi are said to have traveled from a place far east of Bethlehem, having only one thing to guide them; a great light in the sky. It was this great light which shone brightly in the desert as the Magi and their caravan rode to find the newborn Christ. It was this great light that shone into the cave as the Christ-child lay in a manger, his father and mother to one side, unsure of what to make of these men of great wealth as they lay gifts at their child’s feet.

The light of Christ never goes out nor does it ever dim. It is a light that shines for us, with us, unto us, and beyond us. The light with which all of creation looks towards to unite us and to help us understand what that unity is shines in this sanctuary, in our bodies, and in our hearts. Let this light shine, my friends, and gather together with everyone else’s light in order for the words of John’s prologue to come true.

Here now the Gospel according to John;

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The Word was with God in the beginning. Everything came into being through the Word, and without the Word nothing came into being. What came into being through the Word was life, and the life was the light for all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light. 

A man named John was sent from God. He came as a witness to testify concerning the light, so that through him everyone would believe in the light. He himself wasn’t the light, but his mission was to testify concerning the light. 

The true light that shines on all people was coming into the world. The light was in the world, and the world came into being through the light, but the world didn’t recognize the light. The light came to his own people, and his own people didn’t welcome him. But those who did welcome him, those who believed in his name, he authorized to become God’s children, born not from blood nor from human desire or passion, but born from God. 

The Word became flesh and made his home among us. We have seen his glory, glory like that of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. John testified about him, crying out, “This is the one of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is greater than me because he existed before me.’” From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace; as the Law was given through Moses, so grace and truth came into being through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. God the only Son, who is at the Father’s side, has made God known.

The Light shines forever.

God is always with us.  Amen.