Baptism of our Lord Genisis 1:1-15 & Mark 1:4-11 January 11, 2009

I was tickled the other day to hear the inspiring twist in one person’s reading practice.  She says she reads a chapter from the Bible and then a book she wants to read, a chapter from the Bible, and then another book.  The Bible actually gets read.  Another person suggested the Bible would get read more if its books had better titles.  Well, ok.  How about we call the first book of the Bible, not Genesis, but Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Making Good out of Chaos.  Or, maybe it’d do better as Yahweh and Me or Bedtime Stories with Father Abraham.

All titles aside, Genesis is one of the most amazing books to read.  Once you’ve reached chapter 12, there’s no putting it down.  It’s got everything for the modern reader – love stories, action, violence, a family soap opera with betrayal and forgiveness, hope and tear-jerking depth of feeling.

The first paragraph in Genesis before us this morning is nothing short of amazing. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  The earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep. A wind from God swept over the face of the waters.”  One of the amazing things here is that there are two differing realities present.  First, it speaks of beginning – meaning before anything else.  To be at the beginning is to be before everything.  In the beginning God created out of nothing. 

But then verse two says something different.  To verse one’s “In the beginning…” verse two adds “the earth was a formless void covered with darkness.”   You can’t cover something that isn’t there.  It says “the earth was.”  Perhaps it could be likened to a pile of sand on the beach waiting for a castle-maker to come by and help fulfill its potential. 

What we have in Genesis chapter one is a paradox – a both/and reality – two opposing things are both true.  Why, we might ask, does the Bible say God created out of nothing, and, God created out of what was there already?  I think rather than asking why, the better response is to say, “Thanks be to God that the Bible tells us God does both - creates out of nothing – and creates out of what is already there.”  It’s easy to sing the children’s song, “Oh who can make a flower, I’m sure I can’t, can you?”  None of us made the poinsettia plants that still grace our sanctuary.  We know God is at work there, but how about in our chaotic world over which darkness spreads?

I trust you’ve been listening to the news reports on the Gaza Strip, where Israelis and Palestinians are sure the other is to blame for the bloodshed and the rest of the world is wringing their hands in dismay.  Can we imagine a God who can creatively bring new life out of that formless void of chaos?  The least we can do as brothers and sisters to those who live in these lands we also call holy is to pray for them, until peace comes.

We pray because we believe ours is a God of ongoing creating and that a lasting peace is what God not only desires but can also bring about when people of goodwill work in that direction – even in the face of deep conundrums like this one.  It is truly a picture of the earth as a formless void. The question before us is: can we rise to the kind of faith it takes to call upon God the Holy Spirit to again hover over chaos this deep and call forth peace? 

The same question can be asked in relationship to our own country?  Our new President’s job could look impossible, except that God hasn’t quit being active in our world.  We are called to pray here too, trusting God is not afraid of chaos and void!

How about on the smaller scale of our church?  Our Vision is “more and more people, encountered by Christ, empowered for God’s purposes.” The goal is participation in God’s purposes; the means is encounter with God’s very self.  Do we believe this enough to be real team players in this mission –to keep it moving forward when it costs us something – when we can’t have everything else we want and fulfill this vision too?  Do we believe God can creatively sweep over the voids among us?        

And how about on the smallest scale of our individual lives?  Theologian Walter Brueggemann says that “the lives of many people are chaotic” so the claim in Genesis 1 is helpful that “even the chaos of our historical life can be claimed by God for God’s grand purposes.” 

“Grand purposes!  Not mediocre or tiny, but grand! Over a dozen people from Faith have met several times to reflect on the best seller The Shack.  We recently listened to a tape of the author talking of his own surprise at the book.  He wrote the book for his children. He put less than $300 into advertising it.  For him, the whole thing is a total God-thing.  He sees God’s creative power at work through his humble, imperfect life.  One friend of the family said to one of the author’s sons, “this book is way beyond your dad.”  When the author heard that he laughed and said he couldn’t agree more.  

Today’s Genesis reading tells us God is the one who creates out of nothing, and, out of existing chaos.  Stephen Cook plays with the sandcastle imagery: “Like a builder of a magnificent sandcastle, God takes hold of the wet, dirty stuff and fashions it into a new creation.”  (New Proclamation – Year B, p. 90) 

Our loving Creator meets us at the threshold of this new year.  May we enter this year hopeful because God is at work in our world, our country, our church, our lives!  God is ready to create newness out of chaos and is looking for willing lives to do that creating through – like Paul Young and his book The Shack, like another book, Three Cups of Tea.  I believe Faith Lutheran is posed to be a vessel for God’s creative love.  All God needs is our willing team work.   

The Gospel on this Baptism of our Lord Sunday tells us John didn’t feel worthy to baptize Jesus.  But Jesus insisted whether John felt worthy or not.  Jesus needed to learn who he was.  The real miracle is that John stopped arguing and got on with the baptism.  When he did, something beyond John happened.  The Holy Spirit came upon Jesus and he heard a voice saying, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
 
What if John was still in the water arguing with Jesus!  What tickles God is when people stop arguing about how unworthy or chaotic or impoverished their lives are and focus instead on how amazing it is that God chooses to work through just the likes of us.

In these early days of this new year, I’m reminded of Bonhoeffer’s conviction that “the first word of the day determines the rest.”  First words in this new year of Mark’s Gospel are that the Spirit, like a dove, descends also on us and names us beloved.  There is no better word to put arguments to rest than the word “beloved”! 

No matter our chaos, our stuck-ness, our grief, God calls us beloved and wants to do a grand work through us.  When we trust deep down our beloved-ness, all other arguments lose their steam.  At the beginning of this new year, and the beginning of each new day, may we remember the Spirit, like a dove, hovers over!  It couldn’t hurt for each of us to hang a dove somewhere in our house and stand under it daily – like divine mistletoe. 

When we hear deeply enough that we are beloved, all else falls in place!  May God give us ears and hearts and companions to help us so hear!       

Amen

   +Pastor Peg Schultz-Akerson, to the glory of God
Faith Lutheran Church, Chico, CA