UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST in SIMI VALLEY
First Sunday After Epiphany - January 12, 2003
Baptism of Jesus
Anne G. Cohen
Psalm 29
Mark 1:4-11
For Our Reflection:
Human beings were invented by water as a device
for transporting itself from one place to another.
- Tom
Robbins, American novelist (1936---)
People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.
- James
Baldwin, American novelist (1924-1987)
The Debris of the
Encounter
My house is filled with debris.
Just about every object in my house is the aftermath or the result of a
past encounter with someone or something or some event.
My house is littered with furniture and dishes inherited from relatives,
dead and alive. Framed photographs are scattered everywhere.
There are holes in the walls and cottage cheese with glitter on one
ceiling and wall paper - all left behind by previous owners.
There are boxes filled with debris from previous marriages and jobs -
stacked in the garage and on the back porch.
My house is filled with debris -
smells of hot meals that linger in the air -
candle wax on the hearth -
bits of the out-of-doors left by shoes on the floor -
dust blown in by the wind, now settled onto every semi-horizontal
surface -
water spots on waxed wood floors -
crumbs in the carpet under the dining room table.
So much debris accumulates on a regular basis that I end up having to
clean - at least once every six months. :-)
Much like the Public Works Department after a rainstorm, I have to get
my empty trucks up to the debris basins in the foothills to empty them
out before the next storm. Otherwise, boulders and debris flows will be
rolling through people's kitchens.
Page Two
I don't know about you, but I have had to be in therapy regularly in
order to work through the emotional and psychological debris of
relationships - encounters with family members, friends, colleagues and
strangers.
In a sense, I am clearing space in my inner house to make room for new
encounters.
The result of any event - of any encounter with OTHER - is debris.
Accident investigation sites are places where investigators sift through
the debris of airplanes in motion encountering stationery objects - like
the ground... or automobiles encountering each other.
Archeological digs are designed to find the debris of historical
encounters - between animate and inanimate objects, between people and
events and each other, between construction and destruction, between
creation and entropy and time.
The debris of the encounter is the memory, the recorded outcome, the
physical evidence that something happened, the emotional or
psychological result, the ripple in the water, the echo in the canyon,
the residual dynamic of WHAT HAS HAPPENED.
The Jesus Seminar, scholars who have met regularly for over a decade to
comb through their collective observations and research in order to
determine what the HISTORICAL Jesus must have said and been like - the
Seminar talks about sifting through the Gospels for ORAL DEBRIS. Like
experts at an archeological dig, they are looking for evidence of the
world's ENCOUNTER with Jesus. They are not denying that there is
evidence everywhere, every day, of the world's encounter with God. They
just happen to be sifting through a certain collection of oral debris to
see what is there, to encounter it, to create more debris and record
their own memory of history.
This particular collection of debris happens to be particularly rich in
evidence. It is what is left of thousands of years of encounters - a
veritable debris flow from the top of the mountain of human history that
has sought the lower, empty places - drawn by gravity, carried by the
storms of change and controversy - into the constructed basins of memory
- relatively contained until our trucks come to empty them out - or they
overflow into our kitchens on stormy nights.
Page Three
The Gospel text for this morning is a multi-layered archeological dig -
into the debris of countless encounters in Jewish history. The
political and economic environment in Israel 2,000 years ago was hard on
those at the bottom. The class system, the Roman military occupation
and repression, the religious purity laws, the lack of accessible health
care, the unreliable justice system, the marginalization of certain
TYPES of people, gender inequity, increasing cultural encounters due to
increasing trade and immigrating or displaced populations in motion -
all of these things created instability, hardship, fear.
There were any number of responses to the times - one of which was to
hold up the vision of a world where God was in charge - the
everything they needed, healing and reconciliation were rampant, and a
huge banquet awaited them. It was believed by many that this
world
would come to exist - in the debris of the old world destroyed by the
wrath and justice of God. They would know that the end of the WORLD AS
THEY KNEW IT was near because the ancient prophet Elijah would return to
herald its coming.
Every year at Passover, an extra place was set at every Jewish table and
the door was left ajar for Elijah, should he arrive - hungry and ready
for a new world order. And one day he shows up - not at the Seder - but
out at the edge of town near Jerusalem - wearing his old, familiar
outfit, camel's hair and leather. Elijah, now called
God's forgiveness for those who repent of lives poorly lived and
relationships broken - a last chance for redemption before God's
messenger, God's Anointed One, arrived to judge, to separate sheep from
goats - and bring in a new world order - God's world order.
And who should show up for this redemptive ritual but a new Moses by the
name of Jesus - expected to liberate the enslaved and transform
society. In this particular text, as Moses/Jesus is being baptized in
the Jordan River, the heavens are torn apart. The river is not parted
as it was by Joshua, the Red Sea is not parted as it was by Moses, the
very heavens - that vast ocean above the earth is parted - and not just
parted, but torn - ripped apart. It is an apocalyptic image signaling
the end of the previous and familiar world.
Page Four
And then God's spirit descends through the gap into the world and falls
onto Jesus. Its not a dove - doesn't even look like a bird at all - but
it hovers in the air like that - like mist from a water fall - so that
it alights rather than crashes onto this Anointed One.
And then there is the Voice - the big Voice that, in Psalm 29, thunders
over the waters, breaks the cedars, sets fire to the air, shakes the
wilderness, twirls the oaks and strips the forests bare - this same
voice out of the gaping hole in heaven - affirms that Jesus is beloved
and pleases God and is publicly claimed by God as a son - something a
parent doesn't do if the son has shamed the family.
This text is an archeological dig of people's hopes and pain. Here lies
the debris of millions of encounters between human beings - a lot of
those encounters destructive and malicious. Here lies the debris of
millions of encounters with God - an accumulated vision of Heaven on
Earth, the Promised Land, what the world would be like if only... if
only God walked among us and spoke truth to power and ate at our tables
and changed the way that we treated one another.
Can you imagine an abusive family system, the debris of generations of
abuse, was transformed into a healthy family system? Can you imagine
the miracle of that for those in the family? For those who have been
witnessing the abuse from outside the system? This was the hope of the
Jewish people - for an entire nation - for an entire world.
And there are ways that this has happened and continues to happen -
sometimes even WITHIN the Body of Christ - imagine that. As with most
healing rituals, it begins with sifting through the debris of the
encounters a community has come to embody. Until history is explored
and the layers uncovered and the dynamics unmasked and the source of the
ripples discovered - history continues to hold us hostage, to influence
our actions, to shape our present moment.
My Great Uncle's murder/suicide has affected the behavior of my family
for generations - at a subconscious level - without most of us knowing
why. It wasn't until my Grandmother told the story - and my brother
went back to old Philadelphia newspaper archives - that we began to
understand those dynamics better and choose to stop being controlled by
that piece of family history. One of my Grandmother's favorite sayings
was, "If it's important, we don't talk about it." Ah - but now
we do -
without shame - with hopes for healing.
Page Five
A few years ago a minister invited me to do a History workshop with his
church in hopes of sifting through their debris and finding a new way to
step into the future. In the course of the evening we spent together,
we discovered - some for the first time - that a previous married pastor
had been seen kissing the married secretary, had been asked to resign,
and that this had all been kept secret from the majority of the
membership.
There were those who had no idea why he had been asked to leave and were
hurt by this decision - abandoned by their pastor - angry at those who
had precipitated this event. Others who knew about the effects of
sexual misconduct and felt it was a good decision, but were sworn to
secrecy, could not defend themselves. A discussion led to a shoving
match in the sanctuary and several families ended up arming themselves
with actual firearms. Those armed camps still existed - emotionally, a
generation later - until the words were spoken and the emotional debris
was loaded into trucks and taken to a landfill where it was not poised
to hurt anyone.
There are churches that repeat history because it is trapped within the
Body of Christ. Each church has its own set of interpersonal dynamics,
its own "family system" if you will. This means that every
church has
its own personality - its own angel - that shapes and reshapes its
behavior.
Good, bad or indifferent, it is a powerful process to dig through the
debris of history and come to understand the character of that angel.
People who are new to the church will benefit as much as those who have
been here a thousand years. It can explain mysteries and open up
options a community never knew it had.
We have five Interim Interludes scheduled for this congregation. Each
one will be after worship and last about 90 minutes. They are worth the
time and effort to be part of this process. Imagine walking through
your house, trailing your hand on the furniture, picking up favorite
things, opening old diaries, remembering the beautiful AND the painful
moments - especially the pivotal ones. This is how we will begin.
May the debris of our encounters be worthy of a story. And may that
story be told for generations to come.
*****************
Sunday Bulletin
FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY - BAPTISM OF JESUS
January 12, 2003 10:00 a.m.
Music for Gathering
Welcome and Perspective on the Day
Musical Preparation for Worship - A Time for Centering
+ Call to Worship Masithi Hymnal # 760
+ Opening Hymn Arise, Your Light Is Come Hymnal # 164
+ Opening Litany
One: The first of January was another day dawning, the sun rising as
the sun always rises, the earth moving in its
rhythms...
Many: ...with or without our calendars to name a certain day as the
day of
new beginning, separating the old from the new.
One: So it is: everything is the same, bound into its history as we
ourselves are bound.
Many: Yet also we stand at a threshold, the new year something truly
new, still unformed, leaving a stunning power in our
hands:
One: What shall we do with this great gift of Time, this year?
Many: Let us begin by remembering that whatever justice, whatever
peace and wholeness might bloom in our world this
year...
One: ...we are the hearts and minds, the hands and feet, the
embodiment of all the best visions of our people.
Many: The new year can be new ground for the seeds of our dreams.
One: Let us take the step forward together, onto new ground...
Many: ...planting our dreams well, faithfully, and in joy.
Time for Silent Reflection
One: My soul waits in silence.
All: God is my rock and my fortress. I will be at peace.
Silent Reflection
The Assurance of Good News (unison)
God gives strength to the people so that we might bring peace.
God gives courage to the people so that we might be merciful.
We are God?s beloved children. Thanks be
to God!
Sung Response - Hallelujah - God be praised!
Conversation with Our Children
Water
Reading from the Hebrew Psalms Psalm 29
Reading from the Christian Gospels Mark 1:4-11
+ Hymn of Longing We Yearn, O Christ, for Wholeness Hymnal #
179
Teaching and Proclamation The Debris of the Encounter Anne Cohen
Intercessions, Celebrations and Encouragements
Taize Call to Prayer (sung in unison)
Ubi caritas et amor,
Ubi caritas, Deus ibi est.
(Where charity and love are found, God is there.)
Time for Silence
Our Joys and Concerns and an Offering of Prayer
Sung Response In Solitude Hymnal #521 vv. 1 & 2
We Offer Our Gifts So That Our Lives May Be Our Prayer
Offertory
Prayer of Thanksgiving (unison)
O God of timelessness and time, I thank you for my time
and for those things that are yet possible and precious in it:
daybreak and beginning again, midnight and the touch of angels,
the taming of demons in the dance of dreams;
a word of forgiveness, and sometimes a song,
for my breathing... for my longing... for my calling...
for your grace... my life. Amen.
+ Sending Hymn These Hills Insert
+ Commissioning (unison)
O God of beginnings, as your Spirit moved over the face of the deep
on the first day of creation, move with us now in our time of
beginnings,
when the air is rain-washed, the bloom is on the bush, and the world
seems fresh and full of possibilities and we feel ready and full.
We tremble on the edge of a maybe, a first time, a new thing,
a tentative start, and the wonder of it lays its finger on our lips.
Share now our eagerness and our uneasiness about this something
different we would be or do; and we listen for your leading to help us
separate the light from the darkness in the change we seek to shape
and which is shaping us.
+ Sung Response Hush,Hush Hymnal # 604 v.1
Hush, Hush, Somebody's Calling My Name
Hush, Hush, Somebody's Calling My Name
Oh, Hush, Hush, Somebody's Calling My Name
O my God, O my God, what shall I do? What shall I do?
+ Postlude
WORSHIP NOTES:
Opening Litany is by Kathleen McTigue, #544 in
Singing the Living
Tradition, Beacon Press, Unitarian Universalist
Association.
Prayer of Thanksgiving is adapted from a prayer by Ted Loder,
p.42,
Guerrillas of Grace, Innisfree Press.
Commissioning is adapted from a prayer by Ted Loder,
p.110, Ibid.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
Ubi Caritas from Songs and Prayers from Taize/, copyright © 1991, Les
Presses de Taize/ (France). Used by permission of GIA
Publications,
Inc., Chicago, exclusive agent.
***************
Children's Time
Water
What are the three forms of water? (ice, steam, liquid...)
What do we use water for?
drinking - our bodies are mostly water (womb)
crying; washing; irrigation; sluicing;
swimming; diving; sailing;
to carry things; to make electricity;
baptism...
Where do you see water in nature? (clouds, oceans, rivers, rain...)
Surface of the earth is mostly water...
What happens when you throw a rock into a pond?
(depends on whether the water is frozen or liquid - different things)
Have you ever seen evidence of water where there is no water now?
(erosion, broken rocks, fossils of water creatures...)
What color is water?
Where does water usually go?
to the lowest places
to the empty places
Water is very much like God (see above)
It is everywhere, in everything. It sustains us.
That's why we use it for Baptism...
It is sacred and worth caring for...
When you use or see or feel water, think of God -
inside you and around you.