Year A
Isaiah 42:1-9
Psalm 29
Acts 10:34-43
Matthew 3:13-17<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A sacrament is an outward and visible sign\u2026 of an inward spiritual grace\u2026 it’s the thing you see\u2026 which represents the bigger thing that’s going on under the surface\u2026 the Episcopal church holds to seven sacraments\u2026 confirmation\u2026 reconciliation\u2026 matrimony\u2026 ordination\u2026 unction\u2026 which is anointing<\/em>\u2026 eucharist\u2026 and baptism\u2026 [ the Lutheran church has two\u2026 which Martin Luther determined were the two sacred acts that Jesus himself affirmed\u2026 eucharist\u2026 and baptism\u2026 ]\n\n\n\n Now some of the things we do\u2026 we don’t do in public\u2026 so we can be accountable to ourselves\u2026 like not praying on street corners like the Pharisees did\u2026 and some of the things we do\u2026 we do in public so we can be accountable to others\u2026 like baptismal vows\u2026 and there is mutual accountability in baptism\u2026 the person being baptized makes public vows\u2026 commits to keeping them… with God’s help\u2026 . and their sponsors and those who witness those vows\u2026 commit to do all they can\u2026 to support that person in their life in Christ\u2026 and while the person being baptized\u2026 either as an infant or an adult\u2026 isn\u2019t expected to become or be “a perfect Christian\u2026” it is hoped that at least as young adults and as adults\u2026 they won’t take their vows lightly\u2026 that they will strive to abide by them\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n The sacrament of baptism\u2026 is an outward and visible sign\u2026 of an inward and spiritual grace\u2026 and part of that grace\u2026 is a Truth which clamors to be heard\u2026 that God is calling us to that which is more than we are\u2026 God is calling us to unboundedness\u2026 calling us from death to life\u2026 but we cannot really hear that call\u2026 we don\u2019t actually need to\u2026 if we believe that we are self-sufficient unto ourselves\u2026 ] as Jesus said in John 5:4-5\u2026 just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine\u2026 neither can you\u2026 unless you abide in me\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don’t know how many of you remember your own baptism\u2026 I know a few of you do\u2026 I do\u2026 I was baptized when I was thirty-seven\u2026 and as I anticipated that morning\u2026 I was aware of two things\u2026 that I would become part of something much larger than myself\u2026 and that solving all of the challenges in my life\u2026 wasn’t up to me alone\u2026 that God\u2026 and community would help\u2026 that I could depend on them\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it can be a hard thing to accept our dependence on God\u2026 I struggle with that sometimes\u2026 but I wonder if it\u2019s even harder for us to accept our dependence on each other\u2026 because so many of the voices around us\u2026 tell us that we should be able to do it on our own\u2026 that we ought to be self-made people\u2026 that we just need to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps\u2026 ] but that is a lie\u2026 we do nothing in a vacuum\u2026 and 1Corinthians 12 reminds us that the eye cannot say to the hand\u2026 I have no need of you\u2026 and the head can\u2019t say to the feet\u2026 neither do I need you\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Ed Wilson\u2026 who’s an entomologist\u2026 a bug doctor\u2026 discovered something fascinating about ants\u2026 when an ant dies\u2026 the other ants take it to the colony\u2019s trash pile\u2026 Dr. Ed hypothesized\u2026 that the signal that an ant was dead\u2026 was the smell of the pheromone oleic acid\u2026 ] how he came up with that one I don’t know\u2026 but to confirm his hypothesis\u2026 he dabbed a living ant with this pheromone\u2026 and immediately another worker ant grabbed the living ant\u2026 and hauled it off to the trash pile\u2026 where the ant remained while it cleaned itself\u2026 and then resumed its life in the colony\u2026 but by remaining isolated\u2026 the living ants took on the mantle of death\u2026 and one of the researchers called them “zombie ants\u2026”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Ed also discovered that throughout their lives\u2026 ants actually produce some pheromones associated with life\u2026but when an ant actually dies\u2026 the smell of death overpowers the smell of life\u2026 and that\u2019s how the other ants know when to bury their dead comrades\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And while there are no ants in today\u2019s readings\u2026 there\u2019s life-affirming Good News in them\u2026 the problem is\u2026 that many of us act like the zombie ants\u2026 we think we\u2019re already dead\u2026 ] like the exiles in Isaiah\u2026 like the ostracized Gentiles in Acts\u2026 and like John the Baptizer\u2026 we doubt our place in God\u2019s kingdom\u2026 and like the ants\u2026 we drag ourselves off to the graveyard\u2026 letting the glow\u2026 of the light\u2026 and life\u2026 and love of God\u2026 fade\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n I wonder what it was like for John to baptize Jesus\u2026 for the one who needed to be baptized\u2026 to baptize the one through whom\u2026 baptism existed\u2026 for the complete\u2026 to allow the incomplete to do not something done in secret\u2026 but a very public thing\u2026 a sacrament which revealed something even greater\u2026 not only the affirmation of both Jesus\u2019 humanity\u2026 and his divinity\u2026 but that the voice of God\u2026 the voice that opened the heavens\u2026 and affirmed Jesus\u2019 beloved-ness\u2026 affirms our beloved-ness too\u2026 and we too are drawn into the death and resurrection of Christ\u2026 the One who was both human and divine\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of you may have heard this Chasidic story\u2026 about a rabbi quizzing his students\u2026 He asked, “How can we determine the hour of dawn, when the night ends\u2026 and the day begins?” One of the students suggested\u2026 “Day begins when\u2026 from a distance\u2026 you can distinguish between a dog and a sheep.” “No,” answered the rabbi. Another student asked\u2026 “Is it when you can distinguish between a fig tree and a grapevine?” Again the answer was, “No.” “Please tells us the answer then,” said the students. “It is,” said the rabbi, “when you can look into the face of every other human being\u2026 and you have enough light in you\u2026 to recognize them as your brothers and sisters. Up until then, it is night, and darkness is still with us.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n So you see\u2026 baptism is a kind of resistance to the world\u2019s darkness\u2026 to the world\u2019s message of self-reliance\u2026 it\u2019s both an acknowledgment of our own vulnerability\u2026 and of the community\u2019s acknowledgement to support us\u2026 with God\u2019s help\u2026 and the Truth that clamors to be heard\u2026 is expressed in the words of Isaiah\u2026 and the ministry of justice that Jesus lived and breathed\u2026 a bruised reed he will not break\u2026 and a dimly burning wick he will not quench\u2026 these words convey what must be our determined willingness\u2026 to protect the weak and outcast\u2026 so let us\u2026 with God\u2019s help\u2026 and by the light within us\u2026 recognize all other human beings as our brothers and sisters\u2026 and dispel the darkness\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year A Isaiah 42:1-9 Psalm 29 Acts 10:34-43 Matthew 3:13-17 May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026 A sacrament is an outward and visible sign\u2026 of an inward spiritual grace\u2026 it’s the thing you see\u2026 which represents the bigger thing that’s going on under the surface\u2026 the Episcopal church holds to seven sacraments\u2026 confirmation\u2026 reconciliation\u2026 matrimony\u2026 ordination\u2026 unction\u2026 which is anointing\u2026 eucharist\u2026 and baptism\u2026 [ the Lutheran church has two\u2026 which Martin Luther determined were the two sacred acts that Jesus himself affirmed\u2026 eucharist\u2026 and baptism\u2026 ] Now some of the things we do\u2026 we don’t do in public\u2026 so we can be accountable to ourselves\u2026 like not praying on street corners like the Pharisees did\u2026 and some of the things we do\u2026 we do in public so we can be accountable to others\u2026 like baptismal vows\u2026 and there is mutual accountability in baptism\u2026 the person being baptized makes public vows\u2026 commits to keeping them… with God’s help\u2026 . and their sponsors and those who witness those vows\u2026 commit to do all they can\u2026 to support that person in their life in Christ\u2026 and while the person being baptized\u2026 either as an infant or an adult\u2026 isn\u2019t expected to become or be “a perfect Christian\u2026” it is hoped that at least as young adults and as adults\u2026 they won’t take their vows lightly\u2026 that they will strive to abide by them\u2026 The sacrament of baptism\u2026 is an outward and visible sign\u2026 of an inward and spiritual grace\u2026 and part of that grace\u2026 is a Truth which clamors to be heard\u2026 that God is calling us to that which is more than we are\u2026 God is calling us to unboundedness\u2026 calling us from death to life\u2026 but we cannot really hear that call\u2026 we don\u2019t actually need to\u2026 if we believe that we are self-sufficient unto ourselves\u2026 ] as Jesus said in John 5:4-5\u2026 just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine\u2026 neither can you\u2026 unless you abide in me\u2026 I don’t know how many of you remember your own baptism\u2026 I know a few of you do\u2026 I do\u2026 I was baptized when I was thirty-seven\u2026 and as I anticipated that morning\u2026 I was aware of two things\u2026 that I would become part of something much larger than myself\u2026 and that solving all of the challenges in my life\u2026 wasn’t up to me alone\u2026 that God\u2026 and community would help\u2026 that I could depend on them\u2026 But it can be a hard thing to accept our dependence on God\u2026 I struggle with that sometimes\u2026 but I wonder if it\u2019s even harder for us to accept our dependence on each other\u2026 because so many of the voices around us\u2026 tell us that we should be able to do it on our own\u2026 that we ought to be self-made people\u2026 that we just need to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps\u2026 ] but that is a lie\u2026 we do nothing in a vacuum\u2026 and 1Corinthians 12 reminds us that the eye cannot say to the hand\u2026 I have no need of you\u2026 and the head can\u2019t say to the feet\u2026 neither do I need you\u2026 Dr. Ed Wilson\u2026 who’s an entomologist\u2026 a bug doctor\u2026 discovered something fascinating about ants\u2026 when an ant dies\u2026 the other ants take it to the colony\u2019s trash pile\u2026 Dr. Ed hypothesized\u2026 that the signal that an ant was dead\u2026 was the smell of the pheromone oleic acid\u2026 ] how he came up with that one I don’t know\u2026 but to confirm his hypothesis\u2026 he dabbed a living ant with this pheromone\u2026 and immediately another worker ant grabbed the living ant\u2026 and hauled it off to the trash pile\u2026 where the ant remained while it cleaned itself\u2026 and then resumed its life in the colony\u2026 but by remaining isolated\u2026 the living ants took on the mantle of death\u2026 and one of the researchers called them “zombie ants\u2026” Dr. Ed also discovered that throughout their lives\u2026 ants actually produce some pheromones associated with life\u2026but when an ant actually dies\u2026 the smell of death overpowers the smell of life\u2026 and that\u2019s how the other ants know when to bury their dead comrades\u2026 And while there are no ants in today\u2019s readings\u2026 there\u2019s life-affirming Good News in them\u2026 the problem is\u2026 that many of us act like the zombie ants\u2026 we think we\u2019re already dead\u2026 ] like the exiles in Isaiah\u2026 like the ostracized Gentiles in Acts\u2026 and like John the Baptizer\u2026 we doubt our place in God\u2019s kingdom\u2026 and like the ants\u2026 we drag ourselves off to the graveyard\u2026 letting the glow\u2026 of the light\u2026 and life\u2026 and love of God\u2026 fade\u2026 I wonder what it was like for John to baptize Jesus\u2026 for the one who needed to be baptized\u2026 to baptize the one through whom\u2026 baptism existed\u2026 for the complete\u2026 to allow the incomplete to do not something done in secret\u2026 but a very public thing\u2026 a sacrament which revealed something even greater\u2026 not only the affirmation of both Jesus\u2019 humanity\u2026 and his divinity\u2026 but that the voice of God\u2026 the voice that opened the heavens\u2026 and affirmed Jesus\u2019 beloved-ness\u2026 affirms our beloved-ness too\u2026 and we too are drawn into the death and resurrection of Christ\u2026 the One who was both human and divine\u2026 Some of you may have heard this Chasidic story\u2026 about a rabbi quizzing his students\u2026 He asked, “How can we determine the hour of dawn, when the night ends\u2026 and the day begins?” One of the students suggested\u2026 “Day begins when\u2026 from a distance\u2026 you can distinguish between a dog and a sheep.” “No,” answered the rabbi. Another student asked\u2026 “Is it when you can distinguish between a fig tree and a grapevine?” Again the answer was, “No.” “Please tells us the answer then,” said the students. “It is,” said the rabbi, “when you can look into the face of every other human being\u2026 and you have enough light in you\u2026 to recognize them as your brothers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[58,220,219],"class_list":["post-1917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons","tag-baptism","tag-jesus-light-of-the-world","tag-sacrament"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1917"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1918,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917\/revisions\/1918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}