"The Cosmic in the Mundane" January 8, 2012

Genesis 1:1-5
Mark 1: 4-8
A good and faithful friend advised this week, that we need to be careful when reading the Hebrew Bible of the Old Testament beside the Gospel of the New Testament, that we not become SUPERSESSIONISTS and as Christians take over the faith, but allow room for the faith of Israel, alongside the redemption of Jesus Christ, preserving the integrity of each.

Reflecting upon these passages, I suddenly recalled the words of The Preacher in Ecclesiastes 3. Not only the familiar “To everything there is a season and time for every purpose under heaven...” but the explication of that:
I have seen the busyness that God has given to the Children of Man to be busy with. God creating everything beautiful in its own time; AND ALSO putting eternity into the mind of humanity!

Because what each of our passages describe, is: the need for MYSTERY, the need for REVERENCE in Human Life. Just as there is balance in God's Acts of Creation, that there be Light over against Darkness; a firmament in the heavens to separate Heaven and Earth; and that there be Land in the midst of Waters; there is need for constant balance between the Mundane and the Cosmic. To live life, with the believe that that we are witnessing more than what we can know, what is Spiritual, Divine, Holy.

The ancient Nation of Israel knew from history, that the earliest event of their origin had been as slaves in Egypt. Human Chattel, who were bought and sold as property, without rights, without identity, as if without soul; whom God set free. To enter in and interrupt human history God must have loved them. From this witness, came the giving of the 10 Commandments, instruction for creation of the Ark of the Covenant, the Tent of Meeting, which over generations became the Great Kingdoms of Saul, David and Solomon. Yet as the people became preoccupied with their buying and selling stuff, accumulating possessions, Times to be born and to die, times to plant and time to reap, times of War and of Peace, Israel forgot about REVERENCE, they forgot about God. And when in human imagination we believe there is No God, we attempt to fill that void ourselves, acting as if we had not only power but also authority over Right & Wrong, Life & Death. REVERENCE is the learned wisdom, that comes from having been brought low, that God does exist, that God is God and we are but foolish mortals.

The remnants of faith began telling a PREQUEL to their Earliest Slavery, that just as there was then and the more recent now, there would be a future, because there was an earlier past. SO it is that Scripture begins “IN THE BEGINNING GOD.” Rather than focusing upon Humanity, rather than beginning with our calling upon God and God responding to us; Genesis begins with God in Creation, before humanity. As acts of Divine Perfection, fullness and completion, God created Light out of Darkness, Order out of Chaos, the fullness of the Oceans, and the delicate balance of the ecosystem. Surely God is God because no Human being would have created such beauty and simplicity as life. The point is not that God loved us, as if God needed us, but that humanity perpetually needs God, to CREATE, to REDEEM and to SUSTAIN LIFE.

Each of the Gospels is unique, the Gospel of Mark is different in that there is no Narrative of the Birth of the Savior, the origins of the Messiah who is both Fully Human and Fully Divine. Instead, the Evangelist of Mark emphasized that Jesus was a human being like all of us, who did not know his role in life, who was unaware of his spiritual identity.

Baptism by John was not the presentation of a baby, and gifting of a name. Mark plainly records that throughout history there have been those PREPARING THE WAY for what God would do. John the Baptizer, but also the Prophets, Solomon, David, Moses, Sarah and Abraham, Adam and Eve, ALL had lived their lives preparing the way for what was to come. John is recorded as the Baptizer, but what John did amazingly well was to Preach. He called the World to REPENTANCE, to Confess faith in God. AND most amazingly, the world did. Whether business owners, property owners, learned teachers of the universities, Pharisees of the LAW, or common country peasants, ALL came to John. BAPTISM was a claiming of our most primordial essence. Before birth we were in the waters of life in our mother's womb; before humanity was created we were formed in the primordial waters of Creation; and before anything else in all Creation there was God, so we all kneel down and are baptized.

In recent years I have heard several colleagues adopt cute phrases about “RENEW YOUR BAPTISM” or “REMEMBER YOUR BAPTISM”... the difficulty if that for many of us we were baptized as infants. I am told I was Baptized at three months of age, that I picked at my father's collar and hick-upped throughout. Having been a Father, I recall my own children having urped up and been very odiphorous. But as infants none of us remember our baptism. And as Sacrament, Baptism needs no repetition, no ratification, we are claimed by God, complete. Instead, I would put forward, that especially on this Baptism of the LORD Day, that we RECLAIM OUR BAPTISM, that we REPENT and embrace REVERENCE that God is God, that we came up out of the waters of Creation, that emerging from the birthing waters of our mothers we are mortal and human and creaturely.

But the Gospel of Mark does not simply state Jesus was Baptized. Rather that being Baptized, Heaven itself was ripped open. According to the 20th century Theologian Karl Barth: That Firmament in the Heavens which separated the waters from the waters and kept Chaos safe, was re-created as Open through Jesus. Throughout Church History, we have placed great emphasis on the Birth of the Savior, and The Crucifixion and Death and Resurrection, but what a cosmic event, that the firmament established by God at Creation should be opened?! With Heaven Open, the Heavenly Spirit came down and came upon Jesus. No longer, could Heaven and Earth be declared as separate, because according to Mark's testimony Jesus Baptism had opened the way between the Cosmic and the Mundane, between Humanity and God. CS Lewis is recalled as having described that matter has weight, substance, is tangible. So which do you imagine is heavier, Created matter or Spirit? And Lewis claimed that SPIRIT is the heavier, because it is always descending to brood upon the face of the waters, to come upon Jesus, and that Spirit is always united with tangible signs. So as heavy as a rock, the weight of remorse, or the depth of sorrow, or the burden of a lifetime, are far heavier.

The point of all of this, is that in the midst of the mundane, the ordinary, the most human events of life, we need to be humble enough to search for God. As Deacons, visiting shut ins to know that you bring hope and love and faith to those who often feel isolated and forgot. As Deacons, to understand that in Worship you are doing everything possible, all that is needed so that the Preacher can Preach, and the Communion can be served, and worshippers can hear. As Elders, to understand that while we approve Budgets, and move dollars between hear and there to install necessary rooms or provide staffing, what you are actually doing is PREPARING THE WAY for what God may do through others appointed by God.