Body Image

1 Corinthians 12:12-31
Ordination Sunday

Rev. Elizabeth M. Deibert
January, 27, 2013

 

The Corinthians had a body image problem.    They were looking in the mirror and despising their nose.   Their heart was fighting with their head.    Their eyes were thinking they needed no hands.   You see, there was division in the Corinthian church because they were trying to be super spiritual heroes, as if the real embodiment of faith did not matter.   From the beginning of the first letter Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he was challenging their division.    “I belong to Apollos, or to Paul or to Cephas.”   To those who thought their faith trumped everything, he says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit with you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?”   From that verse we get a song, which today will be our prayer for illumination because illumination is not just about clearing our minds, but preparing our whole selves for the indwelling of God’s Spirit:  Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary.   Pure and holy, tried and true.   With thanksgiving, I’ll be a living sanctuary for you.  (sing with me)

 

1 Corinthians 12:12-31

¹² For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.  ¹³ For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body-- Jews or Greeks, slaves or free-- and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. 

¹⁴ Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many.  ¹⁵ If the foot would say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body.  ¹⁶ And if the ear would say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body.  ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?

⁸ But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.   ¹⁹ If all were a single member, where would the body be?  ²⁰ As it is, there are many members, yet one body.   ²¹ The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you."   ²² On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,  ²³ and those
members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect;  ²⁴ whereas our more respectable members do not need this.
But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, ²⁵ that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another.   ²⁶ If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.   ²⁷ Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.  ²⁸ And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues.
²⁹ Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?   ³⁰ Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?   ³¹ But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way….
And do you know what that more excellent way is?   It is the most read chapter in the whole New Testament.   Psalm 23 from the Old Testament is the most read at memorial services, but 1 Corinthians 13 most read at marriages.  After Paul spends a whole chapter talking about all the different gifts, all the different parts of the body, working together, he finishes by saying that apart from love, none of these gifts are worth anything.  If I give all I possess, even I can move mountains by my faith, if I give sacrifice my body, I am still nothing without love.   Nothing!

Ironically, the reason Peace has an opportunity to purchase a church is that love failed.   An illicit affair of a pastor with someone in the church wounded a marriage and a congregation.  

Now not all church close their doors after such terrible acts of unfaithfulness, but many churches have been wounded for a generation or two by this kind of disaster.   Many Christians lose hope in the church, because the body is broken.   Trust is gone.    You see, my faithfulness is inextricably tied to yours and yours to mine.   And faithfulness in all areas of life – not just fidelity in the covenant of marriage.   Are you praying daily?    Are you growing in faith through your study of scripture?   Are you serving others – not just yourself?    Your embodied life of faith is connected to mine.

You cannot say, “Because I am not a minister, not an elder, it doesn’t matter how I live.”   And the ministers and elders cannot behave as if they have more significance or deserve more respect or are excused for bad behavior.    We leaders in the church have a particular function to play, and yes, our faithfulness is crucial, but 1 Corinthians 12 reminds us that we clothe with greater honor, the person who walks in the door for the first time, the person who is not involved, the person who is struggling, the person who needs our help.    That’s the way the body functions.    If your foot hurts, you limp, so as not to put weight on that foot.    Your other foot bears more weight.   When people are hurting in the church, we provide another foot by offering a Stephen Minister as a sort of crutch to lean on.

At a time like this, when we are seeking gifts for a Building, we remember that Jesus drew attention to the widow who gave her last coin.   Even though it was tiny compared to offerings of the wealthy, Jesus said she gave more than they did.   So we value you, whether you give a dollar or a hundred dollars a week, whether you pledge a thousand or one hundred thousand. Paul says in his second letter to this church in Corinth, “If the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one doesn’t have.”  
Foster Williams was a tenant farmer – never married, finished 8^th grade, lived in a tiny four room house with his brother.  When we built an education building at the Faison Presbyterian Church, Foster was dying of cancer.   He called me up one day and said, “I need to give you something.”    In the envelope was 1000 dollars in cash, which he had withdrawn from savings.   It was by far the largest gift Foster had ever given, and though some gave $50,000 or 25,000 to building fund, none gave more than Foster.   He said, “Teach the children to love Jesus.”    Foster never taught a class, never served on session, never had much to say besides “good morning” but he was in Sunday school and worship every Sunday.

Could Foster be at Peace?   Sure he could.   So it matters not how we seek to divide ourselves into separate camps, to say who is in and who is out, who is acceptable and who is not, Christ keeps reminding us that we are called by him to be One people.  All that matters is loving faithfully and being loved faithfully by God.   It does not matter how the world judges you.  Christ welcomes you - whether you are an arm or leg, or ear or eye, muscle or mind, armpit or bladder, heart or soul, appendix or toe nail, stomach or lung, vocal cord or umbilical cord.   You are all part of the body of Christ.   This notion of oneness in Paul’s writing is radical.   How could Greeks be one with Jews?   All of Paul’s Jewish hearers knew that Jews could not mix with Greeks.    Slaves and free -- impossible!  No way. But Paul has the audacity to say, “Yes, in Christ, One body.”

We cannot say of anyone, ANYONE, I have no need of you.   We NEED people who are different from us.  Our mission is to make God known.   To make God known we need to see the fullness of God in the whole body of Christ – all of us working together, all the ligaments and tendons, the neurons and nerve endings, all the breathing and beating, all the talking and the listening, all the feet and the hands, all the minds and the hearts coming together into a grand symphony chorus of praise to the one who made us.  That’s how we make God known.

Our mission is to make God known by growing as disciples of Jesus Christ.   When all of us are growing together, the body works better because each leg is equally strong, making it easier for the whole body to move.  The mouth and stomach take in just enough food to give the muscles energy, and not so much to make the body lethargic.   The mind gets exercised in Bible study, the body gets exercised in mission, the heart gets exercised in loving, and the soul in giving.

Our mission is to make God known by growing as disciples of Jesus Christ, building a community of peace.   Only in a community where all body parts, all gifts are recognized and appreciated is there peace.  

Only in a community where the weaker are given greater honor and the less respectable are given greater respect does peace come to the earth, as God intended.   God gives greater honor to the inferior member.   You can see that in the way Jesus lived. 

Our mission is to make God known by growing as disciples of Jesus Christ, building a community of peace, and caring for the needs of others.   Paul says, God has arranged the body in such a way that all members may care for one another.  If one members suffers, all suffer.   If your head hurts, all of you is miserable.   If an artery in your heart is significantly blocked, it challenges the health of your whole body.   If one of you is rejoicing, all are rejoicing, and if one is sad, all are sad.   

There is much to celebrate today at Peace.   We have eleven ministry teams that are stronger in body and mind and spirit than they have ever been.   Oh, sure there are so gaps, but we keep growing and adding wonderful new members who can fill those gaps and hold things together like a good tendon holds the bone to the muscle.    We have new elders, committed and talented, who have spent time in prayerful study and preparation since you elected them in October.   We have the first class of elders who served a full three year term who are rotating off and we celebrate the tremendous gifts they have shared with us.

There is much to celebrate today at Peace.   We have the opportunity to purchase a first permanent home for this body of ours, to give us a secure place to worship and carry out our mission.  And many people have already committed themselves to sacrificial giving to make this happen, pending an affirmative congregational vote today, pending the signing of a contract and the securing of a loan, both of which are close.  I trust many of you saw the property yesterday, and recognize that it is a good place, though not a perfect place.   As a fix-me-up church property, it gives us the body a chance to rally around, to use our bodies as well as our pocketbooks to make it a sanctuary pleasing to God and welcoming of others, even as we are sanctuaries, pure and holy, tried and true, by the grace of Jesus Christ.

None of us are perfect, like this building is not perfect, but working together, with all of our weaknesses and all of our strengths, we can be the joyful body of Christ, striving with all that we are to be faithful – together as one body.  We can be the image of Christ by living as sanctuaries of grace and truth, by being a community of peace and reconciliation, by welcoming all people in love and a spirit of openness, knowing that none of us would be here apart from the mercy of God. 

                

Cultivating Compassion

Luke 10:25-37

2nd Sunday after Epiphany

Elizabeth M. Deibert

January 20, 2013

 

 Martin Luther King, Jr. often referred to the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). While Dr. King’s interpretation of the parable evolved over time, he maintained a consistent focus on the way the parable encourages us to cultivate compassion to for one another. 

In 1964, in a sermon entitled, “Who is My Neighbor?” preached at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, King discerned a philosophy or motivating principle expressed in the actions of three sets of the parable’s characters – the robbers, the religious professionals, and the merciful stranger.    He said, "Everyone within the sound of my voice today lives by one of these three philosophies."    I believe the same is still true today.   Let us pray silently for God’s Spirit to illumine us as we hear this familiar parable…..

Luke 10:25-37

²⁵ Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus.

 "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

²⁶ He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?"

²⁷ He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,

and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind;

and your neighbor as yourself."

²⁸ And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live."

²⁹ But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

³⁰ Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho,

and fell into the hands of robbers,

who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.

³¹ Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him,

he passed by on the other side.

³² So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him,

passed by on the other side.

³³ But a Samaritan while traveling came near him;

and when he saw him, he was moved with pity.

³⁴ He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them.

Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

³⁵ The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said,

'Take care of him; and when I come back,

I will repay you whatever more you spend.'

³⁶ Which of these three, do you think,

was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?"

³⁷ He said, "The one who showed him mercy."

 Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

 

I was in my car searching for a parking place at Publix this week when a woman tripped over her own flip flops, and landed on the pavement.   It was hard to tell whether she had sprained her ankle, skinned her knees, or broken a wrist at first.   Several of us came running.   It was easy to help.    But we were not Good Samaritans, because Good Samaritans have to risk more than we did.    When we were traveling to N. Carolina over the Christmas holidays, we came to an intersection near Ocala, where we take Hwy 301, and there are usually people there asking for money.   I often hand a dollar to folks like that.   You may believe you are contributing to a system of workers or to a problem of substance abuse.   But the point is, my helping with a dollar or a granola bar in that circumstance is not really being a Good Samaritan either.    Giving a little something is no real sacrifice.   No, we have domesticated the story too much when we make those comparisons.  

 

Let’s consider MLK’s interpretation.   After all, by championing a peaceful but demanding approach to civil rights for African Americans, he made many sacrifices and finally the ultimate one – his life.   King looks at the parable from the perspective of three different character groups.  

 

First, the robbers.   

Predatory behavior has bedeviled human history, and King gave a number of examples ancient and modern: slavery, colonialism, street crime, even preachers’ playing on people's religious desires in order to line their pockets. King’s fury was evident as he recited again and again the robber’s credo: "What is thine is MINE! And if you don’t give it to me, I’ll take it from you."

Second, the religious authorities.

The priest and the Levite evoke some sympathy. Not only does King understand something about religious professionals, they seem to have very ordinary motivations. The Jericho road through the Judean wilderness was known for its dangers. Are the robbers still near? Is this a trap? If they touch the man, whether he is dead or alive, they will become unclean and thus unfit for their duties at the end of their journey.

And if the man is dead already, what sense is there in stopping?    All this is very understandable and makes great sense. "And so the first question that the priest asked, the first question that the Levite asked was, "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" (King, April 3, 1968).

We know this philosophy, this way of living. Yet King indicts this attitude of cautious self-preservation, using Biblical stories, including his favorite parable of the rich man and Lazarus. (King inherited much of his thinking on this parable from the great preacher Vernon Johns, his predecessor at Montgomery’s Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.)  It was not his wealth which sent the rich man to hell, but his failure to see the plight of his neighbor Lazarus, whom he passed by every day.

Whether unconscious or studied, indifference to the needs of our neighbors fixes a great gulf between us and our neighbor, and thus between us and God. King expressed this as the working out of a familiar idea: “What is mine is mine, and what is thine is thine.”   This country was founded on the good principles of individual rights, but sometimes individualism can be taken too far.

The Peace Movie Night had many of us weeping at the end of a poignant film about the life of an Hispanic immigrant and his 14 year old son, born in the USA.   The power of the film was in cultivating compassion for the struggle of this good-hearted, hard-working, well-intentioned man who was just trying to give his boy a better life.    It is easy for those of who are middle class citizens of the USA to forget how hard it is for some of our neighbors, the ones who do the landscaping work in our neighborhoods and who pick our fruit and vegetables and work in our poultry plants, it is easy to forget how hard their lives can be.    That tendency to think that I get mine and you get yours is sometimes lacking in compassion for those who never had a good starting place in life, but get stuck playing catch up and the American Dream seems always beyond their reach.

Finally, we consider the character of the unlikely good neighbor.    You know the lawyer wanted Jesus to define who is the neighbor whom I must love as I love myself.   But Jesus turned that question on its head by defining what it means to be a good neighbor.   He does so using the example of a generous, merciful act done by one not ordinarily trusted, one seen as unclean, unworthy.

Of course, the parable makes clear that the Samaritan, the one who does not pass by, the one who risks himself and gives of himself, is the true neighbor of the wounded traveler.   King, noting that the merciful stranger was of a different race, or at least was of a less respectable, less trusted ethnic group than the wounded traveler, also notes that he lives by a different principle from that of the robber or the passersby. This Samaritan, this good neighbor has somehow come to know that "What is mine is thine."  The Samaritan understands that "all humanity is tied together." Neither predators nor passersby can be safe in a world where misery, famine, plague, and hatred are the scourge of millions. These ills are contagious, you know...

"[The one] who lives by this philosophy lives in the kingdom [of heaven] NOW!", not in some distant day to come. This is the witness of Jesus, "who said in his own life 'what is mine is thine, I’ll give it to you, you don’t have to beg me for it.'

This is why the cross is more than some meaningless drama taking place on the stage of history. In a real sense, it is a telescope through which we look out into the long vista of eternity and see the love of God breaking forth in the night.... It is God saying 'I will reach out and bridge the gulf that separates me from you.'"

For King, the Samaritan neighbor has flipped the implicit question asked by the passersby (what will happen to me if I help?) and acts on the question "what will happen to the wounded stranger if I don’t help?" It is this, and his effective action to render aid, take the wounded traveler to safety, and subsidize his treatment that makes the Samaritan a good neighbor.

But there is one more point that King makes about this parable that is worth our time.   We might call it the “Good Neighbor” philosophy, or a God’s eye view.

King said of his trip to the Holy Lands, "I remember when Mrs. King and I were first in Jerusalem. We rented a car and drove from Jerusalem down to Jericho. And as soon as we got on that road I said to my wife, 'I can see why Jesus used this as the setting for his parable.' It's a winding, meandering road. It's really conducive for ambushing. [The road descends nearly 3000 feet in elevation over only 20 miles between Jerusalem and Jericho.] That's a dangerous road. In the days of Jesus it came to be known as the 'Bloody Pass'" (King, April 3, 1968).   King understood dangerous roads, like the one from Selma to Montgomery, like all the paths to economic health, civil rights, and justice for those who are on the margins of society.   And his Christian faith led him to challenge the social relationships and assumptions about social structure which separated people from each other.

"A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring" (King, April 4, 1967).

There are many ways to improve the Jericho Road. One is to send Good Samaritans down it to rescue those in trouble. Another might be better policing to protect travelers. Another might fund a public works project to straighten out some of the most dangerous spots. And still another might be the transformation of society such that fewer people are tempted to become robbers.    But it all begins by having God change our minds about who is valuable in this world.

The calling to be a good neighbor can mean a personal and collective effort at transforming a society such that compassion is cultivated in all people for all people -- the people who are different from you, the people who scare you, the people who look down on you, the people who challenge your way of thinking.   At a church named Peace, I hope we will always make an extra effort in a polarized culture to creatively cultivate compassion which crosses over the chasms of our differences so that we may truly care for others by suffering with them.   Thank you for all your acts of compassion toward the Deibert family in the last two weeks.   We are grateful to have such good neighbors, people who share with us the love of Christ.  

Let us now pray as we sing the folk song from Ghana, a country on the east coast of Africa, not far from Mali and Algeria, where  prayers for peace are needed.   Jesu, Jesu, Fill us with your love, show us how to serve the neighbors we have from you. 

 

All the references to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s perspective on this parable are borrowed from Paul Bellan-Boyer at http://citycalledheaven.org/2010/07/martin-luther-king-and-good-samaritan.html

Baptism of the Lord

 

 

 

Rev Tricia Dillon Thomas

January 13, 2013

 

Prayer of Illumination:

O Lord, we come this morning

Knee-bowed and body-bent

Before thy throne of grace.

O Lord, this morning

Bow our hearts beneath our knees

And our knees in some lonesome valley.

We come this morning

Like empty pitchers to a fountain full.[1]

Amen.

Today we have two readings. One from the Book of Isaiah and the other from the Gospel of Luke. Often we Christians overlook or forget that most of what is written in the New Testament was addressed to Jews who knew the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, intimately, and that the fulfillment of prophecies and promises from God to God’s people was happening in the form of the incarnate God, Jesus, the Messiah. 

 

So let’s hear from the Book of Isaiah, Chapter 43 verses 1-7.

 

1 But now, says the LORD— the one who created you, Jacob, the one who formed you, Israel: Don't fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; when through the rivers, they won't sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you won't be scorched and flame won't burn you. 3 I am the LORD your God, the holy one of Israel, your savior. I have given Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place. 4 Because you are precious in my eyes, you are honored, and I love you. I give people in your place, and nations in exchange for your life. 5 Don't fear, I am with you. From the east I'll bring your children; from the west I'll gather you. 6 I'll say to the north, "Give them back!" and to the south, "Don't detain them." Bring my sons from far away, and my daughters from the end of the earth, 7 everyone who is called by my name and whom I created for my glory, whom I have formed and made.

 

The author of Second Isaiah is addressing Israelite exiles who have experienced utter disaster. If you’ll recall, the Babylonians came and destroyed the Promised Land as the kings of Israel turned further and further away from God and the people stopped taking care of one another. The Israelites were thus forced out of Israel and into Babylonian captivity leaving behind everything they knew: their livelihood, their family, their community, and the land of milk and honey God promised them. Imagine a trail of tears but worse, because they also thought God had abandoned them or perhaps had been defeated by the Babylon gods. There was no hope, only despair, because the promise of land and many peoples was being wiped away.

 

But as Dr. Kathleen O’Connor writes, “[This] text speaks of passing through deadly waters, of being loved and ransomed by God, and of living as a people named by God for the sake of God’s glory. All of its promises seek to reverse the deep fear of a people on the precipice of extinction…. Isaiah reassures these abandoned ones by reasserting divine presence and power among them.”[2]

 

And so while this text is written to Jewish exiles in the 6^th Century BCE, it carries “quintessential claims that Christian baptism will later make on believers…all of the divine promises articulated by Second Isaiah receive a new layer of meaning in Jesus’ baptism.”[3]

 

So let us now continue to hear how the Spirit is speaking to her church as we read about Jesus’ baptism from Luke Chapter 3.

15 The people were filled with expectation, and everyone wondered whether John might be the Christ. 16 John replied to them all, “I baptize you with water, but the one who is more powerful than me is coming. I’m not worthy to loosen the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 The shovel he uses to sift the wheat from the husks is in his hands. He will clean out his threshing area and bring the wheat into his barn. But he will burn the husks with a fire that can’t be put out.” 18 With many other words John appealed to them, proclaiming good news to the people.

19 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. 20 He added this to the list of his evil deeds: he locked John up in prison.

21 When everyone was being baptized, Jesus also was baptized. While he was praying, heaven was opened 22 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.”

This is the word of the Lord.

                                    Thanks be to God.

In the beginning of the passage we meet a crowd expectant. A crowd excited. A crowd who has long awaited a king to save them. A crowd like those from Isaiah who wait to be set free from their bondage. And after hearing John preach a message of radical love and radical living, they begin to wonder if he is in fact the promised one, the Christ.

But John is quick to reply, “I have baptized you with water. The one for whom you wait, the one for whom the prophets spoke, is coming, but he is so much more powerful than me, I’m not even worthy to loosen the strap of his sandals. And he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

And if there is any doubt in the minds of those standing on the shore about John’s identity as the Christ, the passage tells us his ministry ends there as Herod has him thrown in prison.

There are moments in the Bible when we are witness to a very clear Collision of the Trinity. The first is in the beginning. In the beginning as God began to create, the wind, The RUAH, the Spirit hovered over the water and the word was spoken. God the creator, the sustainer, and the redeemer. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. There is a collision of the Holy Trinity right there in the beginning.

I see today’s passage as another moment, as another very clear witness to the collision of the Trinity. In Luke’s gospel, the baptism of Jesus is hardly mentioned at all…in fact, for all you grammar geeks, it’s a dependent clause: “when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying.” The sentence about the baptism of our Lord can’t even stand alone.

Here these words again from Luke,

“Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, ²²and 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.’^*

For Luke, the collision of the Trinity happens not in the waters, but on the river’s edge. It is as Jesus prays, the Spirit descends on him and God speaks. A collision. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit meet. The Collision of the Trinity.

The hope for the long biblical narrative, just as we heard in Isaiah was for a powerful redeemer who could lead the people out of their bondage, out of their captivity. I find it interesting that before we meet Jesus in the waters, we hear John speaking about him as a powerful and wholly other person.

And it’s not that John was wrong, but the expectations of who Christ would be according to John and frankly, according to the Israelites is: someone whose shoe we weren’t even worthy to touch, someone who would separate the wheat from the chaff and burn the chaff, He whose sandals shouldn’t be touched, had his feet anointed by oil with hair falling from a woman’s head. He who would be the great judge, got in line and was baptized with sinners.[4] Jesus turned the expectations of who a king would be on its head from the very beginning of his ministry. Our God lived a very radical life of radical love.

He ate with people on the opposing team.

He touched untouchables.

He embraced the morally decrepit.

He blessed his enemies.

And at the Collision of the Trinity on the shore’s edge when the heavens open and the dove alighted on Jesus, the words of the Father to his son are words of love. “You are my son, whom I dearly love. And in you I find great joy.” The message Jesus receives, the message that initiates his ministry, is one of love.

 There are two theological words that I haven’t thought about since I studied for my ordination exams. Intrinsic and extrinsic. And they have to do with the character of God. Who God is within Godself, and who God is in the world.

When the heavens open and the dove alights on Jesus the words of the Father to his son are words of love. Whether it came as a thundering proclamation to the body gathered at the shore, or a soft assertion whispered in Jesus’ ear, like a mother holding on to the child she has just birthed, God says to her son: I love you. You are my beloved. You bring me great joy. With you I am well pleased.

 The intrinsic character of the trinity is that of love. There is deep love between the Creator, the Sustainer, and the Redeemer. The father, the Son, the Holy spirit.

“The text claims that the very divine presence that came upon Jesus that day in the Jordan comes upon Jesus’ followers” one scholar writes, “Baptism is also an acknowledgement of one’s belonging to God. The voice from heaven at Jesus’ baptism declares him to be God’s own Son. It is the similar claim made about Israel in the oracle of Isaiah, when the Lord says, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine” (43:1).[5]

And my brothers and sisters, it is the same claim that is made to us in our baptism.

Do not fear.

God is with you.

God called you by name.

You are God’s alone.

“I love you. You are my son, you are my daughter, whom I dearly love. And in you I find great joy. With you I am well pleased.”

The extrinsic character of the trinity is also love. God’s love for us. God’s call for us to love one another. God’s call for us to love ourselves. God’s call for us to love our creation. When we read through the Bible, the overarching narrative is one of love. It’s a call to us in the waters of baptism and a call for us in this world.

I have a preaching professor who once said most folks come to the scriptures and see one prominent message. For some it might be we are full of sin. For others the overarching theme is grace. I remember his was “God is for the oppressed.”

Mine has always been “God is in the midst of.” Like the words uttered to the exiles in Babylon, in my life, it has been important to know and to trust that God loves us so much, God has been in the midst of the great joys and many sufferings within my own life and those of whom I love. Like the Israelites who were promised they wouldn’t be alone when they passed thru the waters, went thru the rivers and walked in the fires, it gives me hope to know I am loved and redeemed, to know you are loved and redeemed, to know those that I hold dear and do everything they can to not be loved and redeemed, are in fact, named by God as beloved.

So “God is in the midst of” has been important to me for that reason, but it has also been important to me for another: it gives me the courage to stand at the cross, and then to pick it up, to bear witness to it and to carry it.

Last week I was with a few of our college students for the Collegiate Conference, and our conference theme was “Fleshed Out”: Jesus as the fleshed out form of God on earth; Jesus as the distinctly fleshed out person of the trinity.  And us as the fleshed out body of Christ on this earth.

When the church is at its best, it is literally the body of Christ on this earth.       PAUSE          We become Christ’s body.[6] The fleshed out God amidst God’s people.

When we answer God’s prayer to be radical lovers, we not only witness to the collision of the triune, (where formed in God’s hands and in God’s image, we are moved by the breath of the Holy Spirit to love God’s people, and become the living body of Christ here on this earth), but we are promised we never walk alone.

There are times as the body of Christ we are called to stand at the foot of the cross and proclaim a radical love. A radical love that threw John in prison and had Jesus crucified. And it can be truly scary work. But as the hands and feet of Christ and in grateful response for the love of a God who gave his fleshed out body for us, it is our call, it is our duty to the Lord, to proclaim a gospel of love: to speak of love against hate, to spread open our arms instead of shutting our doors, to stand with the oppressed instead of walking by with eyes cast down.

We are a witness to the Collision of the Trinity when the body of Christ  participates in the Triune’s work of loving reconciliation in the world.

So may we remember we are God’s and God’s alone, deeply loved and never alone. May we go out with the love of God in our hearts, with the love of God in our words, with the love of God in our bodies. And may we as the church, as the body of Christ, bear witness to the collision of the trinity here on this earth as we  love and serve one another. May it be so.

Amen.

Closing Prayer

God of all righteousness,
we need the life and grace
that you alone can give.
Open the heavens to us
and pour out your Holy Spirit
so that we may live as your beloved children;

through Jesus Christ our Savior. [7]

---

[1] James Weldon Johnson, “Listen, Lord—A Prayer,” in God’s Trombones (New York: Viking Press, 1927), 13.

[2] David L. Bartlett, Barbara Brown Taylor, eds., Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year C, Volume 1 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), 219.

[3] Ibid. 219, 223.

[4] Ibid, 239.

[5] Couser, Gaventa, McCann, and Newsome, eds., Texts for Preaching: A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV-Year C (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994) 93.

 

[6] Richard Deibert in a conversation a few years ago.

[7] http://www.pcusa.org/media/uploads/theologyandworship/pdfs/prayers_for_baptism_of_the_lord.pdf

Journey to Light

Matthew 2:1-23 

Epiphany

Elizabeth M. Deibert

January 6, 2013

Many people love the whole approach to Christmas – the gift buying, the decorating, the baking, the anticipation, the Silent and Holy Night of Christmas Eve.   I prefer the twelve days of Christmas, the time between Christmas Eve and today, Epiphany, when we, like Mother Mary, ponder all the things that have taken place in a more relaxed schedule.    For my family, the last six or seven days of the twelve dyas of Christmas are always a time to journey, as we travel away from the routines of life to visit our families in N. Carolina.

This year the journey has been a little deeper and heavier, as we sorted through the possessions and memories of two lifetimes.   Richard’s mother died six years ago and his father has recently moved to a skilled nursing facility and because of his rapid decline, we spent the last four days, packing up his house.  Confident that Irv was on a journey to the Light of Christ, we watched him nonetheless wandering through the dark of dis-ease, the failing of body and sometimes of mind and spirit.   

In our text today, we read the story of the Magi journeying to the Light, following the star.    Tradition has always had this Gospel lesson on Epiphany because this visit was likely quite some time after the visit of shepherds.    In some countries, gifts were given on Epiphany, to connect with the gifts of the wise men to the growing baby Jesus.

There are two more journeys in our Gospel lesson – journeys made by the Holy Family themselves.    Mary and Joseph fled with the baby to Egypt when Joseph  heard in a dream that Herod was plotting to kill the Infant, called King of the Jews.

Again guided by the message of an angel, Joseph learned it was safe to return to Israel, but then yet another dream warned him to go to Nazareth, in Galilee, instead of Judea.   You can see in the map that this trip was no walk in the neighborhood; no, it was three to four hundred miles each way, which means they probably journeyed hard for close to a month.  

Before we read, there a song that I have wanted to share with you that speaks of the dark and the danger of this birth, which brings light and life to all.

“Born in the night, Mary’s Child, a long way from your home; Coming in need, Mary’s Child, born in a borrowed room.   Clearing shining Light, Mary’s Child, Your face lights up our way; Light of the world, Mary’s Child, dawn on our darkened day.   Truth of our life, Mary’s Child, you tell us God is good.  Yes, it is true, Mary’s Child, shown on your cross of wood.   Hope of the world, Mary’s child, You’re coming soon to reign; King of the earth, Mary’s Child.   Walk in our streets again.”   (Geoffrey Ainger, 1964)

Matthew 2:1-23

 

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, ² asking, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage."  ³ When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; ⁴ and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.  ⁵ They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:  ⁶ 'And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.'"

⁷ Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared.   ⁸ Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage."  ⁹ When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was.  ¹⁰ When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.   ¹¹ On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.   ¹² And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

 ¹³ Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him."   ¹⁴ Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt,  ¹⁵ and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, "Out of Egypt I have called my son."

 ¹⁶ When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men.  ¹⁷ Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:  

¹⁸ "A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more."

 ¹⁹ When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said,  ²⁰ "Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child's life are dead."  ²¹ Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel.   ²² But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. ²³ There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, "He will be called a Nazorean."    (NRSV)

 

In our life’s journey, we may have times of fear.    That’s how the Holy Family began Jesus’ life.   In your life’s journey you may have times of real danger.   Jesus’ life was threatened by King Herod from the first Herod heard of him.    Your life’s journey may leave you exhausted.  Think of Mary and Joseph trying to get away to Egypt.   Mary is exhausted and anemic, needing water, so she can produce milk.  Joseph is worried about Mary and about the baby, feeling responsible for their well-being.   The infant Jesus is exposed to all the elements and dangers of travel.

The Incarnation – the birth of God, Immanuel, as a real human being –means that God own self was exposed to all the fears and dangers of this life, and we know the ending of the story.    With real life comes real death, but also real life after death, thanks to the Resurrection.

It is that which gives us hope when we see life ebbing away, when we pack up all the knick-knacks and photos and possessions of daily living into a box because they are no longer needed, we realize that our most important journey is the one we make toward the loving arms of God.    We journey to the Light, to the true Light of God.

As the Magi, who followed the star, we journey to find the One who lives among us as God with us.    Week by week we bring our gifts to the One whose birth we celebrate.    By next Sunday, we will be moving from infancy to ministry, via the baptism of Jesus.   Epiphany forces us to consider that this moment of infancy is not a time for simple sentimentality.   There’s a real baby in real danger.   A real couple with crucial, life and death decisions to make.   A group of wise men who have to play politics with the King to spare their own lives, as well as Jesus’ life.   A lot of families weeping and wailing, who lost a boy child to the brutal murder of one filled with fear.   

This is an unsettling story, just when we were about to sleep in heavenly peace.   Just when it seems we might relax and enjoy the story of the Persians coming to bring their gifts to the Christ’s child, we have to deal with the violence of a power-hungry politician.   Herod claims he wants to know where Jesus was born, so he can worship him too.   But we’ve heard his story before, and we’ve seen it played out many times after.   Power gives way to corruption and even murder.   Little children are sacrificed to keep the powerful in power.

The irony of the story is that the Holy Family flees to Egypt, the place from which the Israelites had run away from four hundred years of oppression.   The place where Pharaoh had unleashed his own infanticide against the firstborn Israelite children (Exodus 1:6–22) became a refuge for the baby Jesus, King of the Jews.   In the end, and as with the Egyptian Pharaoh, it was king Herod "the Great" who died, not the baby he was trying to kill, allowing Mary and Joseph to return to their homeland with their baby. And just as the baby Moses survived Pharaoh's mass murder, so too did the baby Jesus survive Herod's infanticide.   There are actually five Herods in the New Testament, and they all persecuted Jesus and the early church.   All the Herods were doing the opposite of what the Magi do.  Instead of bowing to the Messiah, they fear the Light, and try to extinguish the Light.    But we know that the Light will always overcome the darkness.   Jesus is the Light of the World which can never be extinguished.

We journey to the Light, because this life is filled with darkness, but with Jesus lighting our way, with the faithful example of the Magi and Mary and Joseph, we can keep walking, keep standing up to or avoiding the demands of the ruthlessly powerful.    We can keep living even in the face and the fear of death, because we have a Savior who walked this way.    We can say with Simeon, “My eyes have seen your salvation, a light for revelation to all the people.   

It was poignant when I read these words from the Song of Simeon to Richard’s father, Irv on Friday.    "Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word;  ³⁰ for my eyes have seen your salvation... 

It is always clearest at the times of birth and times of death, what really matters in life, and the value of being at peace with God and with significant others.   Irv’s final words last night, as his sons, Don and Richard, tucked him in and helped him get comfortable were these:  

I love you all.   It’s gonna be a great life.  I don’t know where or when I’ll see you.   I’m done.    I can’t take this anymore, and I’m going.   Irv died at the break of day – this morning.    In life and in death we belong to God, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.