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January 08, 2006

Anne Jensen - Jan 8, 2006

Epiphany 1B
Mark 1:7-11

Audio Recording Here

"The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of glory thunders; the Lord is upon the mighty waters. "

So wrote the author of Psalm 29. I wonder if St. Mark knew that psalm? The psalmist is referring to the creation story in Genesis 1. “In the beginning when the earth was wild and waste, darkness over the face of Ocean, rushing-spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters—God said: Let there be light! And there was light.”

Rushing-spirit of God breaking through the darkness… Those words conjure up images of power; images of change. Ruah, that Hebrew word that means both wind and spirit even sounds like a rushing wind. There it was, sweeping across the face of the waters in the very beginning, just as the spirit-wind and voice were upon the waters of the River Jordan at our Lord’s baptism.

In the story of Jesus’ baptism John proclaims that the one who is to come after him will baptize with that same spirit, that same powerful rushing spirit. And then at the moment of Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River that rushing wind-spirit of God descends of Jesus. The evangelist says, “He saw the heavens torn apart.” Torn is too tame a word. It is more like “ripped, pulled apart.”

The symbolism is that the space between heaven and earth has been opened up; no longer will there be a great separation, but now God through Jesus has provided for the bridging of the distance between humans and God. And just as the rushing-spirit penetrated the darkness in creation, the rushing wind-spirit has pierced the darkness that comes when humans are separated from God. To make sure that we know who this Jesus is and what is happening, the voice of God says, “You are my son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

This scene is as powerful as any theophany in a Cecile B. deMille or Steven Spielberg movie. Imagine the heavens being torn apart by huge heavenly winds; spectacular lighting, and the thundering voice of God, combined with violins and tympani. Then we hear the intimate words of affirmation. “You are my son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

It is of this Spirit, this ruah, that Jesus later says “You do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” This is the Spirit that is both blessing and source of fear. We long for a gentle, comforting movement of the Spirit; but the Spirit is not to be so limited. The Spirit blows where it will. Willingness to give up human control is not one of our primary attributes or desires. Anything that demands our giving up control is something we generally feel we can do without. And yet this is the very Spirit we are baptized with. Baptism is the beginning of our journey in faith, and we do not know where the Spirit will lead us.

Let’s go back to Jesus’ baptism for just a moment. In Mark’s gospel we see John hard at work managing a growing revival meeting down on the banks of the River Jordan. People everywhere as far as one can see confessing their sins and accepting God’s forgiveness.

Over the horizon, beyond anyone’s sight or vision, strides in the adult Jesus having walked all the way from Nazareth. Into the water he goes. As he comes up out of the water, the heavens do not just open, they are torn apart – a word we will not hear again until Jesus is on the cross, breathes his last ruah, and the curtain of the temple is torn in two, from top to bottom. Out of these torn apart heavens the Spirit-Wind, the Ruah of God, descends like a dove upon him. And a voice from heaven declares, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

Listen carefully to the voice: You are my…Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
Now try to let the imaginative gift of the Spirit, which is yours in Holy Baptism, hear those words spoken to you, to us. For you see, we are Christ’s Body. As we come up from the waters of our baptism, these words are meant for us: You are my son, my daughter, my Beloved; I am well pleased with you.

What would it be like to accept our belovedness? How does that feel? How does it feel to know, to really know deep inside in the most secret places of our being that God is well pleased with us? Can anyone among us remember having heard these words at our baptism?

It is altogether likely that in growing up that we forget. We forget ever hearing these words. We forget who we are and whose we are. Sadder still, we come to believe that this could not possibly be God’s word to me, here, now, today. We let our own self-sufficiency get in the way.

Yet, to believe this is to separate our selves, our very self, from the love of God. And to separate our self from the love of God is what our Baptismal service calls sin. This is perhaps our most fundamental sin: to forget that we are God’s Beloved. We let fear and anxiety take over. Such forgetting is the beginning of so much that troubles us. Such forgetting makes it nearly impossible to follow and obey Christ as our Lord and Savior. We think we have to be good all the time on our own resources.

A friend, reflecting on this gospel, says it always reminds him of an experience from his first year of high school. His parents went off to the parent conference while he stayed at home and worked on his assignments. He was a good student, but not the best; he was an okay athlete, but not great. When his parents got home, his father came up to his room and said, “Son, I’m very proud of you.” The father never said why, or what the teachers had said about him. Yet those words of affirmation changed him and made him want to study harder to become a better student. They made him feel more connected to his father , and they made him stretch himself as he grew up.

Perhaps hearing and accepting God’s love will make us want to be more loving, more compassionate, more committed to peace and justice.

It takes a conscious effort to remember who we are and whose we are. It takes daily reminders to accept our Belovedness. It takes daily remembering to internalize this Good News of our Baptism into a living force of God’s Spirit-- alive within us and beyond us.




Friday night and Saturday the vestry was away at Mercy Center for a retreat, and most of our time was given over to reconnecting with our spiritual roots, remembering who we are as members of the body of Christ, before we got down to the organizational work. This interim period is a time for the whole congregation to reconnect with our spiritual roots; to discern who we are and who God is calling us to be. We need trust that we are loved by God and called to continue the ministry Jesus began and let this rushing wind-spirit stir us up…… How do we do this?

For starters, read Psalm 139 once a day for at least 30 days. Your acceptance of this News will deepen with each reading. The secondly we can take to heart this short passage from Henri Nouwen’s little book, Life of the Beloved. Listen to these words with great inner attentiveness.


“At your center is a voice that says: I have called you by name, from the very beginning. You are mine and I am yours. You are my beloved, on you my favor rests. I have molded you in the depths of the earth and knitted you together in your mother’s womb. I have carved you in the palms of my hands and hidden you in the shadow of my embrace. I look at you with infinite tenderness and care for you with a care more intimate than that of a mother for her child. I have counted every hair on your head and guided you at every step. Wherever you go, I go with you, and wherever you rest, I keep watch. I will give you food that will satisfy all your hunger and drink that will satisfy all your thirst. I will not hide my face from you. You know me as your own as I know you as my own. … Wherever you are I will be. Nothing will ever separate us.”



This morning we are baptizing Wyatt. As we commit ourselves to supporting her life in Christ, let us also remember to support each other, reminding each other of being God’s well-loved child and encouraging each other in our ministries.

God’s Spirit-Wind hovers above us night and day, calling us, forming us, making us God’s own. Listen for the voice of the Lord: “You are my Beloved. With you I am well pleased.