January 8, 2006

God's Water Blessing

by Julianne Stokstad

As the New Year starts, it is one of those times when we review the past and think about beginnings. And so it was an especially good last Sunday to have former pastor, Lou Riley, with us in worship. He reminisced about the good times past and he also told us it was among this beloved community that he found God's Spirit. For many people here, I know that is true. So it is right to begin this New Year considering the sacred ties that bind us together. One of the ties we have as Christians is our baptism.

According to Genesis, the big beginning was when "God's Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss." (from The Message by Eugene Peterson). Mark, the oldest of the gospels, tells us it all began with Jesus' baptism by John. He means the beginning of what there is to tell about Jesus' life: the beginning of his public ministry, the beginning of his journey, the beginning to his teaching.

Yearning and hoping, throngs came to the riverbank to renounce their sin and brokenness and to be washed clean so they might begin again. This baptism is embedded in the tradition of Isaiah, Elijah and Ezekiel, who told people they must change their ways and turn back to God. With water symbolically washing them, John proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, but he told of the one who was to come after him who will baptize with the Spirit. How feeble our confession and resolutions seem.

Actually I love it that Jesus experienced baptism, like the rest of us, but was it different for him? As he came up out of the water, he saw the heavens ripped apart, like a curtain torn asunder. People then believed the sky to be a bowl over the earth (since it was created and separated by God), which separated heaven from earth and God from humans.

For me this tear evokes images of what our family calls "God light." In our home one of my favorite views is to look out over San Francisco Bay at the end of a storm. As the clouds begin to part, sometimes we see shafts of golden light shining onto the silver gray water. When our children were young, they believed someone must have died when they saw these heavenly spotlights on the water. As children can, they intuitively knew the truth that in the storms of our lives, in times of great trauma and great change, like the death of loved ones, it feels like the fabric of our reality and lives are torn apart. Whatever happened for Jesus, it must have been profound and life changing. The heavens were torn apart and any barrier between God and Jesus disappeared and God's spotlight shined upon Jesus.

But that's not all. The scripture tells us Jesus saw the Spirit descending upon him like a gentle fluttering bird, a dove. I love the gentleness and lightness rather than the images of power and force. The coming of the Spirit connects Jesus' baptism with the creation from Genesis where the wind from God swept over the waters. When Jesus rose out of the waters, heavens are opened again and the Spirit came upon him bringing God's light, life and creative power.

Lastly Jesus heard the voice of God telling him "You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased." Jesus knew he was the pleasure of God. What must it be like to hear that we are pleasing to God? Have you ever heard such a thing from God?

What a splendid earth shaking baptism, God light, doves and heavenly affirmations! I wonder why all baptisms aren't like this? If they are, I'd sure like to hear about it! Baptism with water is a symbol of our desire (or our parents desire for us) to have our souls made clean with the truth of God. Because Jesus was baptized, it is one of our Christian sacraments and to this day I baptize in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Many of us can't even remember our baptisms. I can't. It is important to remember the intention, the love and the hopes, our parents had when they baptized us. I believe baptism opens a place for God in our hearts and minds that it is our job to affirm and seek throughout our lives to live with that love. When I think of Jesus' experience of baptism, I think of him experiencing fully God's incredible love for him. He learned he was the Beloved Child of God. He really knew that from this time forward and so began his ministry. Knowing that love is truly life changing!

Why is it so hard for us to accept that we are also Beloved Children of God? Why is it so hard for us to know God's amazing love here and now? If more people really got that, the world would be a very different place. Many people didn't experience this kind of unconditional love from their parents for all sorts of reasons. Parents can have their own problems: their addictions, their mental or physical illnesses that prevent them from expressing love for their children. Parents, who were themselves abused or hurt, can pass that hurt or abuse on their children without even meaning to do so. Parents can mistakenly think that by controlling their children they can program their success, but instead inflict pain on their children. Many people don't know this love in their adult relationships. I know you've heard the awful statistics that half of the marriages in America end in divorce and sadly that doesn't mean that in the other half love is experienced. The longing for this love is huge, the greatest and most urgent need in our world.

I like to call those people who help us to experience this experience of pure love and acceptance spiritual midwives. Often these people aren't found where we might expect them to be. Dottie Kuperus was one of those kinds of people. Her love shone on so many people, like a spotlight from God. At her memorial service person after person spoke to me of how she had given them the love they never had received.

One of my midwives, a person who opened to me the experience of truly unconditional love, came surprisingly late in my life. It is through knowing her that I came to know the love of Christ. I find words quite inadequate to speak about the light and aliveness that came into my life through her love and my own spiritual growth was nurtured. Her strong faith, her spiritual discipline, most of all her laughter and love shone and changed my life. Watching with different eyes now, I have seen how this Spirit comes to people and to communities. I believe God uses us all. Not one of us know the effect we have on each other.

Our water baptism is but a beginning and beginnings are the easy part. Most of us are still waiting for the fulfillment of becoming the Beloved Child of God, for the experience of Spirit coming to us. For me, remembering my baptism is possible only through remembering the love that I am experiencing or have experienced. Sometimes remembering is hard because all sorts of things get in the way. Sometimes we just forget. Sometimes our anger or fear blocks the light of love. Sometimes we get distracted and discouraged, and feel defeated. Sometimes we become so self-critical or critical of others that love slips away.

It is in our beloved community that we are called to live out our baptism resisting evil and loving our neighbors as ourselves. We are called to turn away from our sin and selfishness to love and service. We are called to live the good news of God, here among us now in Christ.

Let us remember that we are baptized and in remembering the promise of God's love for us, may we find peace and feel the light of God's heavenly spotlight upon us.

Once we are baptized, we are part of the Christian family, forever accepted and loved. May we love God in new ways and be truly grateful. Amen

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