TIME OF PERSONAL REFLECTION
In making our praises, unwanted memories stir within us.
But our God has made a promise.
Our great God is merciful and longs to reach out
and help us to say sorry.
(Fill in as you feel moved to.)
Perhaps you thought,
“Oops! I shouldn’t have said that.”
Perhaps you forgot to call a friend.
You made up an excuse when she called you.
Perhaps you became annoyed when someone asked for you help,
- for a second time.
Reach out to the Lord now in you heart and say,
“Sorry Lord! I really do need your help.”
DECLARARTION OF FORGIVENESS:
On behalf of the Lord God, I have the privilege of assuring you
you are forgiven: God expects us to forgive others.
You are OK.
You, too, have the privilege of letting others know
that they can be OK.
You, having expressed sorrow, are now reconciled to God.
Be reconciled with others.
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Sermon
Epiphany 1. Genesis 1: 1 – 5. Mark 1: 4 - 11. Psalm 29. Acts 19 : 1 - 7.
“Defining Moments - New Beginnings”
“May there be less of me and more of God in what I say and more of God and less of self in what you hear.”
A couple of months ago when holidaying on Kangaroo Island in South Australia, I went on a tour of the Kelly Hills Caves. Our guide cautioned every one about claustrophobia and darkness, offering refunds of the entry fee. She provided each of us with a torch, and in we went, the door closed behind us, and down a long series of steps we went down into darkness. Torch beams stabbed here and there as the stalactites and other formations were pointed out. Dim electric lights illuminated the steps and pathways in sections, so as we moved along, a zone of soft light moved with us. Before and behind us was darkness.
Arriving in a large cavern, we were asked to be seated on one of the many slabs of rock around, turn off our torches and listen. Our guide turned off the pathway lights. We were in absolute darkness. At first, the only sound was breathing, then, heartbeats. Shortly, I could discern a faint low rumble. It was the ocean surf pounding on the coast headland a couple of kilometers away. The darkness was dense - the silence profound. The space around me was without shape. The first words of Genesis came easily to my mind. “The earth was without form and void and darkness covered all.”
“Let there be light!” God said. And so it all began, step by step as the poetry of Genesis says.
God has initiated many defining moments. Starting again, so to speak. According to the heritage story in Genesis, God had a huge cleansing program, a clean sweep in the time of Noah, starting again with Noah and his descendents. Later, he started again when Abraham set out towards a new country. There was another new beginning when his chosen people crossed the Red Sea out of Egypt. A later generation crossed over the Jordan River into their promised land, an event which still has its repercussions. All things have a beginning. God is with us at those beginnings as he is at the endings.
We claim that Jesus’ ministry began with his baptism. That is true, but the beginning was really way back in the history of God’s unfolding relationship with his people, in those events I just mentioned, and more. Leading up closer to Jesus’ time, there had been many precursive events. A yearning of the people to bring in the kingdom of heaven was apparent. Something had been stirring up and down the Jordan Valley and around Galilee for a while. John the Baptist’s preaching was but one expression of this. Mark was a bit over the top when he said that the whole Judean countryside and all of Jerusalem came to hear John preach and be baptized. Mark, with his hyperbole, wanted his readers to know that John’s influence was really quite profound.
But John didn’t just stand up one day and preach to the willows on the river bank and be heard in Jerusalem 40 kilometers away. There was a beginning before that. It could have been years before that. Little streams of beginnings gradually flowing together like springs into a creek and the creeks into a river. Little “Uh! Huh!” moments of truth breaking through - epiphanous moments gradually fitting together.
I have a feeling that between Nazareth, Cana, Bethsaida and in the towns and villages around that part of Galilee was a well educated, spiritually centred and forward looking people, probably having a network of familial relationships. The mothers of Jesus and John were cousins. John was born first and, according to Luke, there was a great fuss over his name. Father Zechariah delivered a prophecy regarding John’s future. Luke says the news about these things spread through all the hill country of Judea setting up some expectations regarding John. A few months later, Jesus was born and again it is Luke who tells us of the amazing events which happened on that occasion. More profound news spreading out, this time starting with some shepherds.
These two young lads were about the same age, so, when Jesus was taken to the temple at twelve years of age, was John there too? The ceremonies for a Jewish boy at that special age call for a huge family occasion. Could not the two have received their special temple blessings together? Luke records the lad Jesus in earnest discussions with the temple intellectuals. At twelve, he was well prepared. The synagogue school in Nazareth must have had great teachers. Did Jesus and John go on to become verbal sparring partners later at other family gatherings?
They were not alone. In those villages and towns, there would have been many a discussion over the meal tables, at family celebrations, under the courtyard fig trees, with the rabbis in the synagogues. Some old thinking could have been challenged. Some new thinking could have been explored. Epiphanous moments abounded when a new understanding of an old belief was realised. In a way, the district was being primed for a spiritual revolution!
It was just as though God had established a fertile seedbed where new enlightenment could first take root. It was a place where both Jesus and John would have been initially stimulated. John began preaching and undoubtedly stirred up much widespread interest even to a group from far away Ephesus. So, in a district primed for spiritual revolution, Jesus came and joined the throng on Jordan’s banks.
John announced Jesus and baptized him. He received the Holy Spirit and the blessing of God. On this great wave of events, Jesus began his ministry. Mark opens his account with “the beginning of the Good News about Jesus Christ. Jesus himself was the Good News. In that fertile ground, the Good News of the kingdom of heaven Jesus brought would be understood and enthusiastically received. The ground had been well prepared. That’s my theory, agree with it or not.
What then changed following Jesus’ baptism? Firstly, Jesus himself changed. The Holy Spirit endowed him with authority. He commanded a “Follow me!” aura. His words had enormously persuasive powers, yet they were ordinary simple words. People listening could say, “Uh! Huh! That is what he means. That is what the old prophet meant! This man makes real sense.” There were moments of epiphany, of revelation, of God drawing closer to his people. They were defining moments for a great many people: new beginnings in their desire to experience and bring in the kingdom of heaven.
People can long for change in the social attributes of their society. The longing alone will not bring about any change. Change has to be first visualized then expounded.
“I have a dream,” proclaimed Martin Luther King. “I have a dream that one day…etc”. What he visualized he expressed in simple repetitive terms, inviting the people to join him. They understood and so could share his dream. A movement began which resisted the public opinion of the day and gradually changed it. The movement had a beginning in a dream. The psalmist said that old men dream dreams and young men see visions. Did he mean that old people are always dreaming of the past and that the younger generations are visualizing a different future, one offering a better life? Perhaps he meant that. If he did, I hope I am never categorised as being old. For me, the dividing line between visualizing something new and dreaming about it is rather blurred. I am constantly trying to reach over the horizon to see what new things may be developed, what new understanding is waiting to be embraced. The old has a value and its real value is in forming the foundation for the new. As such, the old will gradually pass away, subsumed in the new. And that in turn will also change as time passes.
People have always lived in an age of change. No animal skin for a cloak, but a smoothly woven fitted suit. No spear in my hand, but a well stocked refrigerator at home. No shouting at the top of my voice, but an amplifier boosting it and individual hearing aids pulling it all in. Are we justified in resisting change? Are we not too ready to be selective and put shackles on change? We usually are reluctant to even evaluate the need for change. Can we be completely satisfied that there is no need for change – anywhere? There is a challenge to change. There is the challenge of change. Then to top it off, the challenge itself it constantly changing. Like hairstyles.
Our God is a God of change and has designed for us the means of change. Are the roses you admire today the same as those you appreciated when you received or gave your first bouquet? Those seeds in the rose hips have resulted from many possible combinations presenting literally thousands of choices for the rose breeder. For many years I have been associated with developing improved varieties of rice across the world. Over 100,000 strains already exist. That is not enough! Population is increasing bur suitable land isn’t. There is still a great need for higher yielding varieties requiring less water and fertilizer. Rice breeders have for centuries worked by cross pollinating. It is hard work and most often disappointing. About one in ten thousand trials developed from seed is finally selected as a new variety. Laboratory breeding through gene transplanting is bringing a huge acceleration to breeding programs. We should be thankful that God’s laws are so profound that this can be done.
We should also be thankful that he changes the formula for each of our children. Imagine every one being identical! We should appreciate that God is a prompter of change, the engineer of new beginnings.
So, in the fullness of time, Jesus came to the Jordan River. He had been under preparation for some thirty years. John the Baptist likewise. Their paths joined. John announced Jesus as the one who is to come. The baptised Jesus received the gift of the Holy Spirit. He received the affirmation of God the Father. He commenced his ministry.
God, through the Son, set about changing the world - another new beginning, but what a result! There has been a long lead time, and it is still going on.
There is a story which comes from China about preparation and lead times. In Chinese history, each new emperor taking charge signalled an opportunity for new beginnings in society. Interestingly, each emperor had the responsibility of writing down a summary of the achievements of his predecessor. The story is told of one young fellow putting up a great stone column setting out the story of his father’s reign. When it was ceremonially unveiled, it was blank. What it shouted out to the world was “There is nothing of note to say.” Then he called in his chief gardener and led him out on to the grand steps in front of the imperial palace.
“Gardener, I want to see two lines of spreading cedar trees stretching straight from here right over that distant hill.”
“Yes Sire!”
“On my left I want two lines of great tall ginko trees stretching away into the valley over there.”
“Oh, yes Sire!”
“And to the right, two long lines of magnificent oak trees.”
“As you say, Sire. But Sire, they will take two hundred years to grow as you wish them!”
“Two hundred years! I know that. It means we do not have time to waste. We start after lunch!”
Wouldn’t life be dull and boring if we did not make plans. Making plans mean changes are to follow. No changes, no new beginnings, no opportunities to change for the better. Life also has the challenges of new beginnings which are thrust upon us, those changes not of our own choosing. Moving from a home of many years into a place of care is usually very disturbing. The inevitability can be very threatening as that time approaches. As far as possible from a challenge of that vein is my granddaughter just having announced her engagement and now making wedding and housing plans. Both new beginnings. One loaded with concern and sadness, the other crammed with excitement and possibilities. Both defining moments. Both part of a full life. Both able to acknowledge that God is with us at beginnings and at endings.
And the greatest beginning - “Let there be light!”
------
And the next? Heaven opened and the Spirit descended on him like a dove. A Voice came, “You are my Son, whom I love. With you I am well pleased.” The presenting of God’s Good News to his people had begun.
God was there. God has never departed. God is still here, preparing new beginnings. God does not work solely on defining moments. New beginnings are happening constantly. They are the hallmarks of a profound love, a love that is ever new. It is renewed every morning, ushering in each day and its challenges and its opportunities. We are not alone. God is with us, day by day.
To him be all glory and praise.
Amen.
1