January 9, 2011

 

At the new year, we look at the initiation into the Christian community: baptism. Since it marks a new type of life, it fits this time of new plans and new hopes. Initiation ceremonies usually have a sense of foreboding and struggle, even pain; it could be into the military, an athletic team, or a fraternity. perseverance and peace and therapy and health We often see sometimes surprising courage of the weak. I think of people who fight cancer such as  Elizabeth Edwards. I'm not going to judge her striking her husband from her will, but I would like to highlight her words as she was facing death: " I have found that in the simple act of living with hope...the days I do have are made all the more meaningful and precious." I think of the researcher who goes through test after test seeking to unlock a secret that could lead to a cure of disease.  I think of a politician who works toward an end year after year in building support and writing bills in empty committee chambers.  I think of the countless hours of a parent raising children.we often say we are looking for a strong leader: bold, decisive. After Israel lost its power, a different picture emerges. Here is someone who would not harm a fly. Yet beneath that meek exterior lives the heart of a lion. Failure does not deter this servant-leader and that representative keeps plugging away.

 

Hundreds of years after Isaiah, the book of Acts is the story of a small group of people who set out to bring a new word of the suffering servant-leader Jesus to an uncaring world. The impartial God is now saying that he is  well pleased with the whole earth, starting with Israel. This God is impartial in that God loves everyone.Peter had a hard time seeing that through Jesus God was opening a door for all people.then the spirit fell on them. God is impartial about the order of ritual as well divine hospitality is all encompassing, but it is not so concerned about making us comfortable as seeing the guest as a representative of Christ. They will get baptized just like Jesus baptized; just like Jesus, just like the first disciples at Pentecost, they receive the gift of the Spirit. Jesus seems almost random in selecting the first disciples to whom he asks to merely follow him and to come and see his work and teaching. Christianity is not a movement for the elite, but it is  in its very nature, democratic and all-embracing.

 

Instead of this open-hearted  God, sometimes the image of the angry God overwhelms our mind. In another case, It may be the constantly disappointed, disapproving God that sometimes haunts my imagination. Here we are given a wonderful new year's image: the delighted, approving God. this week meditate, reflect on god telling you that God delights in you, God's soul delights in you, in you God is well-pleased.

When you were baptized God said this is my beloved in whom I am well-pleased. God said the same thing to people we cannot imagine would get such words. I reminds me of Ecclesiastes saying that God has long approved what you do.

 

Former things and new things-If I understand Isaiah here, the former things, the punishments as a teaching tool have shifted to a new frame of hope. The past if finished, and a new age begins. Far too often, we let the past hang like a dead weight around us. We let it act as a blindfold to our future.With our eyes to the future we can celebrate a future being born in the hands of God. Even when we make some missteps,  we faithfully keep at it. In baptism, we receive the common calling to be servants and leaders together.