Isaiah 42:1-9 and Matthew 3:13-17

Transcription

1 Baptism, Stardust, and Stories Rev. J. Lynn James, LMHC Isaiah 42:1-9 and Matthew 3:13-17 When our daughter, Kali, was a little girl, she was fascinated with space so we wallpapered her room with glow in the dark stars, moons, and constellations. Since she was planning to become an astronaut when she grew up, Santa brought her a tent shaped like the space shuttle that attached to her bed so she could actually sleep in it. Kali and I made several visits to the Planetarium downtown Chicago. They have this wonderful interactive video movie presentation and the seats in the auditorium have buttons on the arm rests. You re actually push them to guide the spaceship you see on the screen and then to vote about which side of Mars to land on. At one point in the movie, the screen became filled with bright beautiful colors, as the announcer s voice explained that 4.5 billion years ago there was an implosion of densely compressed matter that scientists now refer to as The Big Bang. The part of our universe called Solar Nebula experienced what sounded to me like a bunch of massive labor contractions, finally giving birth to what would solidify, billions of years later, into our Earth. Now this was all very interesting; but, what I didn t expect, and what actually brought tears to my eyes, was what he said next. Now, before I tell you, just for a moment, think about your heartbeat-place your fingers on your neck and wrist and feel your pulse, your heart pumping, circulating life all through your body. Or think about how it feels when we hold onto an embrace with someone we love and can hear or even feel their heart beating, or think about the way that babies snuggle in to sleep with their ears pressed against the nape of someone s neck, or directly on your chest, where our hearts beat the loudest. Now, here is what I learned that day. Every atom of iron within our blood was at one time inside the core of a star. Within the sound of your blood pulsing, are echoes connecting us all to the beginnings of the world. Within the ebb and flow of the blood coming into our hearts and lungs to be recharged with oxygen, then flowing out to sustain the life in our bodies, we are connected to the beginning of creation. Every atom in our bodies, other than hydrogen, was forged in the fiery belly of a star that lived and died before our own star, the Sun, was even born. What science cannot tell us though is how these massive chemical reactions created life. How did hydrogen, helium, and iron become babies and trees and penguins? How did compressed space turn from fiery chaos into our breathtakingly beautiful cosmos, from massive destruction to minutely intricate creation. In Genesis it reads: and God separated the light from the darkness, the water above from the water below, the land and the seas, and then, God said Let the waters teem with living creatures. This is an amazingly accurate chronology about the beginning of our world.

2 And still, we are left to ponder, how did stardust forged deep within the core of one of those lights that twinkle in our nighttimes, become not only physical life, but soul, that deepest essence of who we are as human creatures? Scientists know the components of life very well, the chemicals and even the chemical chains of reactions, but they have no idea how these components became animated, came to life. Between the origin of the Earth and the origin of life on the Earth, is a gap filled with questions that have no answers. When pondering how those first star-tinged atoms and molecules transformed into living cells, scientists join with persons of faith in uttering the word: Mystery. So, when people try to tell me that evolution, the science of our beginnings, is at odds with religion I just shake my head; in fact, for me at least, it makes my awe and wonder more powerful. I don t want to suspend reason and scientific knowledge in order to experience God at work in the world. For so many of us, not only religion but science as well can bring us to our knees in awe and reverence as we recognize that the sacred is everywhere! Millions of miracles surround us every day! It seems that the writer of Genesis knew intuitively what we now know scientifically: that although we cannot say exactly how life began, we do know that water was its womb. The sacred spark that transformed atoms and molecules and chemical reactions into LIFE, happened deep within the waters that still cover our Earth. Floating in and cushioned by water, babies transform from microscopic cells into toes and skin, thumbs and mouths to put them into, and floating in water somehow, arose that first transformation of random chemical reactions into RNA and DNA life. This is what we are recalling when we gather as a faith community to baptize one another with water. Water is where life began. Water unites us, and not just people of all races and colors, but all of creation. Sometimes, we forget that we are intricately connected to all that is, including the wind and the water, the trees and the sky they reach for. We forget that we belong to and are ultimately accountable to our Earth and to one another, not just to ourselves. Baptism reminds us that we were all made in the same soup: all faces and names, all flowers and plants, all animals and insects, and that God s Spirit hovered there, and then pronounced it good. Just ponder this for a minute: Almost all the atoms of hydrogen within water, within our bodies and everywhere else on Earth are more than 13 billion years old. There is the same amount of water on Earth now as there was when the Earth was formed. The water from your faucet could contain molecules that dinosaurs drank! The earth is 80 % water; human beings may look solid, but we are 66 % water. The human brain, that organ which distinguishes us from the other creatures sharing our Earth, that place that seems to house our free will, our reason, our ability to reflect and wonder about who we are and what meaning our lives might have, is 75% water. And get this: the water within our bodies,

3 as well as the water that is in that baptismal tub, is part of the same water that gave rise to life itself. When we immerse ourselves in the waters of baptism, it is a profound symbol of transformation and new life. Just as that first half fish half land creature waddled out of the ocean on its way to evolving into other amazing creatures, we too emerge from the waters of baptism reminded that our God is a God capable of creating within us amazing and infinite possibilities as well. And, here is where science leaves off and religion takes off because again, life is not just physical, not just mechanics, it is spiritual. What we can say scientifically about how our bodies work, cannot explain or adequately describe how our spirits work. To address spiritual life, we must use symbols, metaphors, stories, our dreams, our emotions, and especially our intimate relationships, whatever evokes in us LOVE. I also sincerely believe that human beings are not the only creatures infused with God s Spirit, or marked with God s Essence and Presence. All of creation is part of a vast mirror which reflects the image of God. So, it has never made sense to me, that these waters of baptism should ever be a symbol which separates people from one another-the clean and the unclean, the saved and the damned, the loved and the rejected. No, it is water which should remind us that all creation is one. If you bleed, you are part of the physical miracle of creation that includes the sharing of stardust in our veins. If you feel tears in your own eyes when someone else is crying, or joy thumping in your chest when someone else is rejoicing, God s Spirit is in you and we call this compassion. If you dream dreams, some that give expression to your fears and others that give substance to your hopes, some that bring visions to lead you to where you must go, then God s Spirit is in you and we name this CALL. If you have ever loved at least one child with a fierceness that made you willing to sacrifice your own needs for theirs, then God is working with you and we call this Love. If you cry like my dog when she is lonely and wants to be near us, Or if you play like dolphins and monkeys, bears and squirrels, If you express beauty like a garden If you carry within you stories like the rings of the Grand Canyon and the trunks of the trees, then the Essence, the Spirit of God that hovered over the creation of it all, is part of your Essence, your Spirit. And, if you thirst, then you need what all creatures need: the restoration of the balance of water within you. All creation thirsts; all creation yearns for water, and all life requires water to live.

4 We must ensure that all life has sustainable, unpolluted water; this is a spiritual as well as a practical responsibility. For centuries, the Christian church has talked about baptism as getting clean, as what we must do to be saved from our dirtiness as human beings. And, yes, there is truth here. We do use water to get clean. And, of course, part of the human condition includes lots of messiness, mistakes, fumbling and falling in the mud, getting covered with the grit and grime of life. We are ongoing and unfinished projects you and I, and our lives are always going to be a mixed bag of success and failure, doing good as well as participating in evil, feeling love and feeling hate, remembering that we are all One, as well as forgetting and betraying this reality again and again. We must teach our children that when we do sin, we must make amends, make the wrong right in whatever ways are possible. We must reassure them and each other, that no matter what the situation, we are committed to helping, that this faith community will always be there, trying to help heal that which has been broken, and especially, that God is always, always, working with everyone everywhere to bring about healing, justice, and possibilities for the future regardless of the present situations. My mother used to say that the cure for any cranky child is some sort of water to splash in, and that the cure for any cranky adult is a warm bath! So maybe, each Sunday, we should fill up the baptismal tub and have worship be a spa day where the children splash and the adults let Calgon take them away! Perhaps this is why so many of you drag your tired bodies out of bed on your day off, leave the Sunday paper half read and the coffee pot not quite empty, to come to worship. The waters of love and care run deep here; this is a place where people can find support, rest, and comfort from the weariness of life. At this time, I have given the ushers a strange task and would like to invite you to participate. They will be handing out bowls filled with ice chips that will be passed out like we receive communion. They are wrapped in a piece of napkin so they will stay cold until everyone has received one. I invite you to hold the ice in the palm of your hand. Feel the coldness, the hardness of it, and consider those aspects of your life that are cold, rigid, brittle, in need of release, something you may need to let go of. As the ice melts in the warmth of your hand, consider the blood that is pulsing in your veins, warming the ice, that stardust is in your blood and is part of your body and also the water that you hold. As it melts, and imagine God wrapping you in warmth, in a gentle embrace, and melting the pain, the anger, the rigidity, the harshness let it go, let it melt away. This is a reminder of the celebration of baptism: your sins are being washed away, your brokenness is being healed, and God is at work in you creating something new and together you will pronounce it good, and affirm you that you are God s child and with you God is well pleased.

5 We are all reflections of the face of God, and we are each capable of remarkable things, of making miracles, of participating in the ongoing task of creating cosmos from chaos, kindness from hurt, love from indifference, beauty from ugliness, life from death, new beginnings from painful endings and as long as we are all committed to this same task, of serving God, one another, and those in need, our spirits will never be far apart, for God is the never-ending stream that is sustaining and connecting us all. Amen (copyright 2008, Lynn James, all rights reserved)