With You I Am Well Pleased

Sometimes the lectionary readings for a particular Sunday seem as mismatched as the socks in my laundry basket. But this Sunday, they are perfectly in harmony. All the readings are about beginnings. In Genesis, we hear about THE beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth. In the Gospel, we hear about Jesus' baptism, which marked the beginning of Jesus' public ministry, and God's re-creation of the world. In the epistle reading, we learn about the disciples receiving the Holy Spirit in baptism, which was a new beginning for them.

It is clear that Mark's gospel was written with the Genesis story in mind. Both feature water, the Spirit of God, and the voice of God speaking. Water in the ancient Near East symbolizes chaos, and that is the impression you get from the first verse of Genesis: "In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep."

Into that watery wasteland comes God's spirit. I usually like the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, but I don't think the phrase, "a wind from God swept over the face of the waters" quite captures the sense of the Hebrew. The word "ruach" can be translated either as wind or spirit and I think spirit is better here. And the word swept is better translated as hovering or flitting-in Deuteronomy it is used in the image of God as a mother eagle protecting her young, hovering over the nest. So, in beginning, when God was creating the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while God's Spirit hovered over the face of the waters.

Then God speaks, "let there be light," and there was light. God speaks and commands the world to come into being, creating order out of chaos. Creation unfolds in an orderly progression, like the movements of a symphony. We only have the first day of creation in the text for today, but it sets the pattern for the rest of the process of creation. God speaks, some new aspect of creation comes into being and God sees that it is good.

God sees that it is good. Right at the beginning of the Bible, we have a profound theological statement. Creation is good. At the end of the sixth day, God sees all that he has made, and observes that it is exceedingly good. And human beings are the crown of this good creation-the high point of God's creative activity-a creature with consciousness and language, to care for this good creation, and to live in loving relationship with the Creator.

This understanding of the goodness of creation flies in the face of so many belief systems which view the universe as morally neutral, random, or even hopelessly corrupt and evil. Sometimes even branches of Judaism and Christianity have denied the goodness of the created order, but that belief is fundamental to the Judaeo-Christian tradition.

Of course this little snippet of Genesis also reminds us of the rest of the story-when creation went awry. There was trouble in paradise as Adam and Eve reached for power and ego-gratification, and in the process, alienated themselves from God. The story of the Fall also unfolds in a series, echoing creation, only this time it is negative-humans are alienated from God, from one another, and from the good earth.

So, with creation and the fall in mind, we fast forward to Jesus' baptism. God has never abandoned the good creation, nor stopped loving the creatures he created for himself. God has reached out to the human creatures in a variety of ways-in the calling of Israel, the gift of the Law, through the prophets and so on. But now, in Jesus, God is fulfilling God's promise to restore creation and humankind to the original glory and goodness that God intended for us. "I will make all things new," God says in Isaiah. And in Ezekiel, "I will give you a new heart and a new spirit."

Jesus' baptism marks the beginning of his public ministry, which leads to persecution and death, and finally, to his resurrection from the dead. So, here, on the banks of the Jordan river, a new age is dawning-the beginning of the end of the alienation of human beings from their God, from their brothers and sisters and from the good creation.

The question has often been asked, why did Jesus need to be baptized by John? Wasn't John baptizing people as a symbol of their repentance from their sins? Wasn't Jesus without sin? But I think Jesus plunged into the waters in solidarity with us. It is a sign that he has entered into our struggle-the chaos which is part of our human journey. God knows that we cannot save ourselves from the chaos-we cannot overcome sin or suffering or death on our own. Without God's help, we cannot be the good creatures that God intended us to be. And so, God entered fully into our struggle, taking on the conflicts, the neediness, the temptations and the fear that we face. God went to the river and took the plunge into the watery chaos that is an ineluctable element of being human.

As Jesus comes up from the water, the heavens are torn apart, and God's spirit descends on Jesus. Remember the cry of yearning in Isaiah that we read in Advent-"Oh that you would tear open the heavens and come down!"? Here we see God answering that anguished cry, as God's spirit comes down, not in the form of a mighty wind, but as gently as a dove. Just as God's spirit hovered over the waters at creation, so God's spirit hovers over Jesus at this moment of new creation.

And God's voice is heard, just as we heard God's voice in the beginning. "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased." Before Jesus has done anything, before he has taught or healed or suffered or died, God is well pleased with him, and loves him. He begins his long, difficult journey with this benediction from God-this reminder that he is God's own, and deeply beloved.

And because Jesus came into the world as human being, and took his long journey for us, we too experience this a priori, unconditional love from God. We are joined with Jesus in baptism and we too become God's beloved son or daughter, in whom God is well-pleased. His spirit fills us and makes us a new creation. We are restored to the goodness that God intended for us at creation, reconciled with God and our neighbor. Our past recedes, along with the mistakes we have made and the hurts we have inflicted and suffered. The future opens before us, alive with possibility, and we are invited to begin again.

Does this mean we emerge from the baptismal waters and never sin again? Hardly. But it means that our lives can never again be defined by fear or regret or loss. Each moment of our lives is a new beginning, a new opportunity-to make amends, to make peace, to open ourselves to God's spirit, which is at work transforming all the relationships in our lives and in the whole world. No matter what the past holds, the future is a new creation, and we enter into it with the sure knowledge that we are God's beloved sons and daughters, and God is well pleased with us before we have done a single thing.

The world's wisdom is that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Can a tiger change his stripes? How can anyone recover from addiction, or heal from a terminal disease? How can a toxic relationship become life-giving, and how can people who don't speak to each other be reconciled? There will never be peace between Israelis and Arabs, Indians and Pakistanis, or Christians and Muslims in Sudan. The rich and powerful will always prevail against the poor and weak.

But our wisdom as followers of Jesus Christ is different. God has plunged into the chaos of sin and suffering and death, and has emerged victorious. There is no person or situation beyond the reach of God's redemption. Are we not about to begin a new era in this country, where African Americans who have borne the scars of slavery for so long can now aspire to the highest political office in the land? Did we not witness the end of apartheid in South Africa, and peace in Northern Ireland? We have seen the principle of equality and justice for all take root and spread to more and more people.

In my own life, I have witnessed reconciliation between family members who have not spoken to each other for years. I have a brother who celebrated his 10 anniversary of sobriety in December. I have seen the spirit of God at work, making all things new, and reconciling all people to God.

Here at Christ the King, the spirit is at work among us, often in surprising ways, renewing us and our ministry to the world. I have been so proud of this community for your openness to the spirit and to new ways of doing things. When Deacon Judith left and no one knew how the food pantry would continue, the Spirit led Grace and Rita to take on the task of coordinating it. The Spirit brought new volunteers, new ideas, new levels of support from the community. We have a board of directors, representing all five sponsoring churches and the clients of the food pantry. And all this in a year where economic crisis has greatly increased the level of need in our area.

I saw the Spirit at work when I casually suggested to some of our quilters that we might create new altar frontals and Casey Kurtti had the brainstorm of wrapping the whole church Christo style with quilts as a fundraiser. And we raised more than $6000 for the children at the Illinge Project in South Africa, where Fr. Rob works. We now have a relationship with those children, and we built relationships with people in the community who came to see the quilts and take part in the project.

The Spirit was blowing when I realized how many people at Christ the King were grieving for people who had died, including myself and I resolved to get a grief group going. Then Dominica Lizzi started coming to church, and since she is a hospice social worker, she led us in a grief group.

The Spirit was evident when the opportunity for our youth to go to Navajoland came up last year, combining our desire to work with other parishes with our longing to provide more opportunities to use the gifts and talents of our young people. We got to know folks from other parishes, and also got a taste of reaching out to people of different cultures.

And the last three groups that have asked to use our space have included children-in answer to our prayer for more children in our parish. An after school arts program will start next week, three afternoons a week-you may have seen the flyers. Next Sunday, a group of home schooled children who sing in a chorus will be putting on a concert in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King.

Who knows what God will bring us in the coming year, either personally or as a parish? We face many challenges-we are in a recession and money is tight for many of us, including the church. But we have been united with Christ through baptism, and we are God's beloved sons and daughters. And we know that through the Spirit, nothing will be impossible. Let us open our hearts to new beginnings, to the future with its limitless possibilities. Let us listen for the Holy Spirit, who is at work in us and in the world, making all things new.