Creation—first there is nothing, then there is chaos—or at least raw
ingredients—then the creator's mind or hand or breath brings form, order, even
beauty. This act of creation
happens every day in our kitchens and workshops, on a blank piece of paper or a
blank computer screen, in the artist's or musician's studio. It will even
happen here this morning: David
improvising on a hymn tune; all of us worshipping as we sing and speak our
prayers and praise to God. It has never happened before just like this.
How ordinary, and yet how extraordinary, is the act of
creation! Our reading today from
Genesis describes in a beautifully poetic form how we believe form and order
and life came from chaos. Yet creation
happened not just at the beginning of time. The hymn writer speaks about the ordinary, extraordinary
moment of creation each new day:
“Morning has broken like the first morning, blackbird has spoken like
the first bird. Praise for the
singing! Praise for the morning!
Praise for them springing fresh from the Word.”
The creation story from Genesis (in the verse 27 of the first
chapter) goes on to describe God as making humankind in God's image. The Latin words used to describe this
idea are beautiful ones: imago dei.
Each of us carries God
image. I look at you, and I should
see imago dei. You look at me, and you should see imago dei. We look
at each other, and we should see imago dei.
So when I am able to see
God's image in you and you are able to see it in me, we should realize two
things. First, our creativity should
surprise no one, not even ourselves.
Second, our differences, our diversity—in personality and in gifts and
in every way—reminds us that God loves wild variety. Not chaos, of course, but greater diversity than any of us
can truly comprehend.
So when we hear the story from the Acts about St. Paul's ministry in
Ephesus, we see God's creative activity in the hearts of new believers. Paul asked them, “Did you receive the
Holy Spirit when you became believers?”
He wanted to make sure they had received all the gifts that God would
shower upon people who followed Jesus as the Messiah.
Our pattern of baptism, described in the reading from Acts, grows
from the pattern begun in the earliest Christian communities: baptizing with water in the name of
Jesus and then laying on of hands to pray for the presence of the Holy
Spirit. The hearts of those
believers in Ephesus that day could not contain their joy at God's presence in
their lives.
Speaking in tongues
and prophesying may appear chaotic.
Paul did worry about how these spiritual responses would be viewed. For example, he told the Corinthian
Christians that there are varieties of gifts, but the same Lord who gives
different gifts to each of us for the building up of God's kingdom. But for those believers that day in
Ephesus, God's loving gift of God's self, as the Holy Spirit, spilled out in
their joyful voices!
So at Christmas we celebrated God's gift of God's self in Jesus—the
Incarnation. And now today we
celebrate God's self-revelation, God's epiphany, at Jesus' baptism by John the
Baptizer. Ted Smith, a professor
at Vanderbilt Divinity School, described God's revelation at Jesus' baptism
this way: “As Jesus arises from the waters of the Jordan, he sees the 'the
heavens torn apart!' The Spirit and a voice descend through this tear in
time. In this moment of Jesus'
baptism, heaven and earth are transparent to one another. Jesus looks to the heavens in love, and
the voice calls out in love. The
Spirit, the love between the first and second persons of the Trinity, is
manifest. And all creation is
caught up in this great love.”[1]
An extraordinary, yet ordinary, moment of God's creative power and
love! How can I say ordinary? I can, because each time we gather to
celebrate a sacrament—Eucharist, most frequently, but also baptism and, yes,
ordination—we should expect God's self-revelation of God's love. In our weekly worship and
especially in the sacraments, we may understand God's calling us, “Beloved,”
for we bear the imago dei, God’s
image, from the moment of humankind's creation. And Genesis tells us that “God saw everything that [God] had
made, and indeed, it was very good.”
(Gen. 1: 31).
Let us always
keep watch for the moment when heaven and earth are transparent to one another,
because, beloved ones, the living God—who loves us—is here!
[1] Ted Smith, “Homiletical Perspective” on Mark 1:
4-11, Feasting on the Word, Year B, Vol.1, p. 241. Louisville: Westminster John Knox
Press, 2008.
No comments:
Post a Comment