Sincerity

The book of James was once called a “book of straw” by Martin Luther, which is why I find it funny that it is included in a Lutheran lectionary. Luther didn’t like the book because it seemed to place emphasis on what we do instead of what we believe. Indeed, the book looks a lot like the book of Proverbs or Ecclesiastes, filled with tidbits of wisdom on how to live life. Most scholars believe this book was written in a Jewish Christian community because of the strong presence of the Jewish Torah in the book. I would like to humbly submit a complaint against Luther this morning. I believe that the Jewish community can offer us a great deal in the way of learning how to match our outsides with our insides…our actions with our beliefs…and this passage is a fine example for us to study. Our present age has a hard time coordinating between these two extremes: either we focus on doing “good”, without any sense of purpose, ultimate goals, or where we have come from, or we sit in an ivory tower and debate what we should think, believe, or commit to and never come down to actually do anything about it. James calls us to something we know as sincerity, where our inside matches our outside, and vice-versa. As our inside and outside begin to keep up with one another, we grow into a more complete picture of who God intends for us to become.

For someone who only focuses on works, James certainly drops some theology on his readers. God is the Father of lights, or the father of the starry host. In the ancient world, the movement of the stars was widely known information, as it was extremely useful for keeping track of time and direction. But the movement itself was interesting, because the stars seemed to change constantly, and yet they also followed a pattern. As Father of lights, God not only knows the pattern of the movement of the heavens, but He actually created that pattern. He set it into motion, and He sustains it at all times. God created and now maintains that underlying reason which dictates the patterns of the universe…what makes acorns grow into trees, and makes the sun and moon follow their paths in the sky. The reason that assembles certain vibrations into a sweet sounding harmony, and that which makes water freeze when it reaches 32 degrees Fahrenheit. God holds the reason that dictates the patterns of the universe…He is our center of balance and peace. If we are to achieve any fulfillment as human beings, it must come from God…the giver of all good gifts…the giver of all Good…our shalom.

Kelley and I watched Thor the other night, and, strange as it might seem coming from a movie with colorful tights, shiny armor and pointy hats, I heard a very poignant quote. At this point in the movie, Thor’s father lay in a coma, Thor had been banished and several plot twists had been revealed. Thor’s mother, Frigga, explains that, “Everything [Thor’s father, Odin] does has a purpose.” In other words, every action that he takes has a clear goal in mind. Think about how powerful our actions are when they are linked with a strong purpose. I remember when I began playing chess, I used to move pieces without giving any thought as to where they should go. I had no plan. One day, I realized if I refused to move a piece without having some sort of reason for moving it, I stood a greater chance of winning the game. The longer I played, I realized that the more moves I could plan ahead, the stronger each move became. Imagine how powerful our actions become when they are linked with that reason which instilled the purposes and goals of the universe! Why we do what we do is just as important as the actions themselves.

And so we are born of the word of God dwelling within us. As we read in John’s gospel, the Spirit works within us to reveal to us the things of God…things that would otherwise be hidden from us. It creates us, fulfills us and sustains us. And here, our actions come into full significance. We can have every intention of doing something the right way, but if we don’t actually do the right thing, then what has our intention accomplished? Paul says a similar thing in Romans, when he says that he knows what he wants to do, but doesn’t do it. Maturity in our spiritual walk involves progressing towards this sincerity…this quality of being genuine, where our actions and our intentions match one another…and this happens because of the word of God dwelling within us.

James gives us a great example of how our actions can hinder this development of sincerity within us. In fact, James’ example is one of the most deeply rooted problems that can hinder us from developing according to the word of God dwelling within us. When we become angry, we give our actions free reign to do what they want, regardless of how God is speaking to us within our soul. Our will runs rampant, to the detriment of God’s will, which can lead us to wholeness. We are quick to speak, and our abundance of words drowns out God’s word speaking to us. There is a disconnection between God working in us, and what we are actually doing ourselves. Thus, our sordidness suffocates the healing word of God within us, as weeds choke out a seed trying to germinate in the ground. Our outside and our inside become disconnected, and we are unable to grow into the fullness of what God has planned for us.

If this example does not resound with you, then I encourage you to search your lives to find the weeds choking out the seed that God has planted within you. I love the first verse of our assigned reading for today, which serves as a transitioning device: “Do not be deceived, my beloved.” Really, this says everything we need to know about this passage in Scripture. The greatest danger we face as Christians is deception…the feeling of comfort or satisfaction, as though we have arrived at our destination simply because we have tread the waters of baptism. My friends, do not be deceived, because apathy and comfort are lifelong companions, and we are living as disciples of Christ now. Disciples move…they learn, and grow. We must keep watch and pray that God would grow us in sincerity…that we might grow more deeply in touch with that word of God within us…that it might challenge us to the enormous ends that God can see in our future…that we would constantly be challenged to match our outside with our inside. You have to actively listen…you have to actively seek out those things that are holding you back from growing in God, because if you let weeds in, they will continue to grow until they have choked out any hope of new growth. Do not be deceived by your own ambitions and goals. Do not be deceived by your own comforts and rewards. Do not be deceived by what YOU think is right. Do not be quick to speak, but be quick to listen to God. I believe God has been speaking to many of us, and if we do not act upon it, we will miss the chance to grow into the people He wants us to be. If we are scared to take risks, or to leave the things that we take comfort in…if we keep on doing everything our way, then we might choke out God’s word deep within us.

The Arcade Fire has a song on their latest album that perfectly portrays a problem with our cultural landscape. They sing about the “modern kids” who like to use big words that they don’t understand, like Rococo. Ironically, Rococo is an 18^th century style of art which abandoned substance for lavishness. Rococo artists were more concerned with how impressively ornate they could make their art than with the art’s purpose…much in the same way that people nowadays would rather impress the world with their big words and ideas, their knowledge…their appearance…than actually deal with things of substance. To me, Rococo is the problem of insincerity in our world…that people are disconnected from substance. James saw this in his community…he saw that people weren’t connected with the word of God living within them. When we recognize this word within us, and this word acts upon us, our lives should bear the fruit of change.

(I then go into an altar call type situation, the text of which I have not included)

Love

I’ll be honest…I was going to start this sermon with some snippets from Billboard Top 20 love songs, but I cannot communicate some of the lyrics in these songs because of young ears. Instead, I will communicate a point that Rob Bell makes in his book, Sex God. Bell points out that relationships today are thought of as animalistic…full of feeling and instinct, where we feed our primal physical urges. He points to Spring Break in Cancun as a prime example, but I offer that anyone who turns on the radio nowadays will find the same examples. “Love” is the most sung about, talked about, published subject in our culture…literally billions of dollars are spent chasing “love” and championing “love”, but do we really understand love? And just so we get the joke out of the way, this morning, I want us to focus on answering the question, “What is love?” (Baby don’t hurt me). I want to put some structure around the idea of love, because as Christians, we live under the banner of love, and I, for one, do not want to champion the same ambiguous, pathological love being followed by the rest of the world. Thus, let us see God’s definition of love found in 1 John (3:16). From the cross, God hangs the banner of love, which defines us as Christians. Love is not simply a feeling, but it is a force that drives us toward our happiest ending,

The most obvious characteristic of love here in 1 John is that it gives. Notice that Christ first gives Himself, initiating a response of giving. In other words, any sort of love on our part only occurs in response to the love first offered by Christ. Think about this for a second: the greek word for grace is where we get the word “charity”…so love starts as a non-profit organization…we are the neediest of the needy, so Christ offers us the gift of love by giving Himself on the cross. I was reminded of grace the other day when Justin’s father took Justin and I out to lunch. You know when you’re eating with someone, and they suddenly tell the waiter that they are going to pay for your food. Most often, I make a concerted effort to end such nonsense, that I will pay for my own food…much to my dismay, I am often overcome and I must submit. This is the experience of grace, that we must submit and receive our gift with humility and thanksgiving. Grace requires us to swallow our pride, put away our wallets, as if our money could pay for our meal. Grace is a gift…and the beginning of love is grace…the grace that heals us and allows us to love others.

Augustine offers a helpful explanation of the relationship between grace and love. Augustine explains that prior to grace, our will is curved inward on itself and thus, we are born self-centered creatures. Think of someone whose spine is so curved that their eyes stare directly into their stomachs. In the same way, our wills curve in on themselves until they are healed by the gift of God’s grace. Given our own ability, we are only able to love ourselves. As God’s grace heals our will, it straightens and allows us to aim ourselves at God. Then, the unifying force of love sets us on a path towards God. I know this sounds confusing, so let me us an example. If you are a car, then your will is a steering wheel, and love is the engine that drives you. If we cannot control the steering wheel, then we cannot aim the car in the proper direction, and there is no use in driving anywhere. We will only go in circles. Grace straightens the wheel and love accelerates us toward God.

It should be clear by now that love is not a feeling, but a force that unites. Specifically, love unites the lover and the object of her affection together. When John was writing this first letter, there was a rift developing in his community. Some Jewish leaders had kicked the Christians of John’s community out of the synagogue, so the Christians were dealing with the problem of their own exclusion. It was obvious to John’s community that love did not look like exclusion or division, but unity. You see, sin is like waging war upon God…it separates us from God and makes us His enemies. Just as sin separates us from God, hatred separates us from our brothers and sisters. When John wrote this letter, He understood that the sacrifice of Christ offered us reconciliation with God and consequently, reconciliation with our brothers and sisters. The force behind this reconciliation is called love.

Ultimately, love is friendship. Aquinas describes love as a relationship that is mutually beneficial. In friendship, each party looks out for the other person’s good. Certainly, this is how God teaches us to love. Just before His death, Christ shares a meal with the apostles and tells them that they are no longer servants, but that they are His friends. This is the statement proclaimed each time we share in the Lord’s Supper: that we have become friends of God. We no longer building the Tower of Babel in order to wage war against Heaven, but we are called to friendship with God because of Christ’ offering. And this is the best possible result for us…how can there be any more fulfillment to our lives than to be friends with God? God gives us love to drive us into friendship with Him, because in Him we find everything, and He wants the very best for each of us. God wants the best for us because He is our friend.

Now, I want to pause here and make sure that we understand the proper definition of friendship. First, it is important to truly grasp the notion of caring about another person. This sort of love is not the same as when we say we love coffee or video games or Radiohead’s new album. That sort of love only benefits ourselves…we use these things for our own pleasure. And that sort of love is what is most commonplace nowadays. And I don’t simply mean the Spring Break, weekend romp examples of love. Relationships are commonly thought of now as pursuing the best person for you. It is no wonder that we frequent websites such as match.com, so that we can shop for the perfect future husband or wife. Just what we want. Yet, love should not be about fulfilling your own ends, but it should be about doing what is best for the other person. Thank God that He does not simply befriend us to use us. God offers us friendship because He wants what is best for us.

Also, friends want what is best for one another, and sometimes, this means saying and doing things that make us uncomfortable. For example, sometimes a real friend must step in and say what needs to be said for his friend’s good. I remember many times in my early college years, my friends would tell me to stop clinging to a destructive relationship that I had with a certain girl. I know this was hard for them to say, but it was for my own good…and I could not see this for myself at the time. Had I been left to my own devices, I could easily have missed out on the best things that God had planned for me…especially what I now know as an incredible experience of being married to Kelley. Looking back, I am so thankful that my friends did what was necessary for my own good. In an age of “do-what-you-wantism”, being a true friend means having the courage to engage in the hard conversations. Ultimately, God stepped in and intervened in our lives for our own good, and we should also do this for one another.

And so, we transition into the latter half of our Scripture for today. That Christ loved us by laying down His life for us, we therefore ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. Here is where the rubber meets the road: our response to the love of Christ is to love our brothers and sisters. Not to be outdone by Troy and his quote last week, I must insert a bit of Kierkegaard here. In his book Works of Love, Kierkegaard begins by pointing to Paul’s demand that Christians owe a debt of love to all. This is non-negotiable in the Christian life. Our debt of love will never fully be paid, because Christ first loved us by giving Himself on the cross. And we owe this debt to all, unqualified: those who are like us, and the weirdos whom we cross the road to avoid. Those we admire, and those we despise. Those who help us, giving of what they have for our good, and those who take from us and kick us when we are down. Those who are on our minds constantly, and those whom we constantly ignore. We cannot pick and choose who to love, because we owe this debt of love to all. Thank God that He did not pick and choose whom to love, but offers friendship to any who will accept. Likewise, we are to love all.

And this is how our lives play out…this is how the Kingdom of God is built. Our love of God, our hatred of self demands that we love one another. Piggybacking off of Troy’s sermon last week, I believe that the gifts instilled in us empower us to love others. Foremost in my mind is the gift of beauty…artists, take heed. The artist is a beauty maker…and beauty draws people to what they find beautiful. Think about it for a second…when I hear a beautiful song, I drift off from whatever I am doing and am drawn to its melody. Beauty draws us in…just like love draws us in. We even unite together to celebrate what we find beautiful. Artists…make beauty, because all beauty comes from the most beautiful, the most high…and we are reminded that we are loved by Him when we experience beauty.

Some of you are healers…whether in word, or in deed. Healers are able to step into broken relationships and soften hatred, destroying barriers and allowing reconciliation to occur. Some are able to heal bodies and minds, enabling people to reenter the world and build God’s Kingdom. Healers, heal, because when you heal you are loving people and drawing them together and enabling them to draw close to God.

Some of you are organizers. Just as God spoke in the beginning of time and brought order from confusion, you are able to make sense and order in the midst of the chaos of our world. Some offer counsel when life gets confusing. Some are able to take a mess of ideas from us dreamers and actually organize them into an event that functions and leads to actual results. Some of you simply look to heal the world by cleaning up the messes that others make. The smallest task of organization shows love, because as confusion divides us, order brings us together and allows us to build God’s Kingdom.

Some of you are servants. You see problems, and the problems eat at you until you can do something to solve them. You see houses that need to be repaired…you see people that need help…you see hungry bellies that need food…you see lonely hands that need to be held. You see need. Your service is love, because we all needed God, and you are responding by giving yourself in kind. You fulfill people’s need and in doing so, you help them see that God offers to fulfill their highest need, which is need of God Himself.

Although love is probably the most talked about, sung about, published and cherished idea in our culture, most do not truly understand it. We only know what love is, because Christ offered Himself. He offered Himself as a gift, so that we could love Him back. Consquently, our response to this self-giving love is that we give ourselves to one another in love. As always, we can only understand what we do when we understand what God has done for us. Lets take a moment to rest under the cross. His banner over us is love, and this banner hangs with arms spread wide…wounded arms inviting us into friendship with Him, and with one another.

Good Friday

I want to plant a seed in you, or rather, God does…a seed of love. John did so when he traveled before the Lord preaching the message, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” The Apostles and disciples did so as they brought the good news into the land, that Israel’s Messiah had finally come to reign and fix the earth. And of course, Jesus did so as well…and to a much greater extent. Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, planted God’s love in the world, in us, so that we might have life.

We see Jesus first betrayed by his closest friends. At a meal, which happens to be the most important banquet that Jewish people share together, Jesus reveals that one of his closest friends will go behind his back to sell him out for a little sack of cash. I had the blessing to share a Passover seder with one of Kelley and my close friends on Monday. During the meal, as we dipped the bitter herbs into salt water, it was mentioned that at this moment in the meal, Jesus revealed that Judas would betray Him. Could you imagine sharing a last meal with your closest friends, knowing that one would go behind your back to humiliate and kill you, while others abandoned you in your time of need? As I stared around the table, I began to realize that Jesus must have felt utterly alone in this moment…even with His best friends near. And when Jesus was handcuffed and taken to trial, none of His friends show up to stick up for Him. Nobody shows an ounce of trust in Jesus when the world finally captures Him. Even in the face of such insincerity and brokenness, Jesus continues on His quest to deliver love to the world.

After being found guilty by a skeptical community and an arrogant court, Jesus is led off to a series of humiliating and torturous incidents. Jesus is spat upon, derided and abused. He is stripped bare, punched and kicked, mocked, made to look like a Roman King, while covered in blood and shame. Irony. God Himself suffers the tortures of the offender, the outcast, low. Jesus has now been abandoned by all those He seeks to love. King of the Jews, Lord of the Earth. Messiah. In most of his books, Fyodor Dostoevsky depicts what is known as unexplainable suffering. At times, animals are abused and killed or children suffer the pain and rejection of a miscreant family. This is suffering that cannot be rescued by careful argumentation and logic, and yet, Dostoevsky continually forces his reader to return their gaze to the sufferer. And here we see the most useful of useless suffering, the most unexplainable, and yet the most loving suffering the world has known…and we must not look away. The Messiah suffers for us…His broken bones testify for us, and His wounds heal us. We must not look away from love.

Jesus is then handed the most humiliating symbol in antiquity. An electric chair, a scarlet letter, a noose around a tree. A cross. Jesus must parade His symbol of shame to its realization upon a hill where execution can be seen from afar. There is no obscurity, no hiding place for Jesus’ shame. And yet, Jesus bears this weight all the way up the hill and mounts it, on display for the world. Jesus is completely transparent at this moment. In a world of mistrust, Jesus shows us an act of utter sincerity. How can we not but trust Jesus as He hangs stripped, beaten, humiliated and moments from death by execution? Augustine defines sacrifice as any act which brings us closer in community with God. Jesus offers the ultimate act of sacrifice by mounting the cross and crossing from life into the realm of death for the world. The weight of love has now become heavy under the weight of glory.

In ancient times, Gentile philosophers believed that when the human soul turned from God, it fell to earth. This is where we get the phrase, “the fall of man”. In order to seize us, Jesus falls to earth, but He falls in a different way…Jesus falls sinless, under the weight of love. The truest of souls felt the heaviness of love, the weight of glory, and fell to the earth. And this same weight drew Christ to the cross. We can do to Christ which has not already been done to Him…there is no wrongdoing, no trespass which He has not already suffered. We are about to share in the Lord’s meal together to celebrate Christ’ death, and we can do so because of Jesus’ ultimate offering of love. Jesus has offered His body to us…it is ours in abundance. His blood is enough for the world. It does not need us to preserve it…it is perpetual…we cannot ruin it. Jesus’ sacrifice is hardheaded, persistent, and heavy. This is God’s love.

Why did God suffer? Why did God die? As Jesus fell to earth in human form under the weight of love, He then felt that same weight in falling into a grave. As God’s act of love was once buried under a flood of water, God’s act of love becomes buried in a mound of earth. The tree is hacked to the ground, and Jesus’ followers were left staring at the barren stump. But as God has shown, when fruit ripens on a dying tree, it falls into the earth to nourish the seeds within. From these seeds spring new life. Death proved to be the most fertile ground for this strange fruit, who hung from the tree. I want to plant a seed in you tonight, but I am too late. The seed has already been planted.

Baptism Noir

Is anyone familiar with film noir? I recall Sunset Blvd., Humphrey Bogart, Orson Welles, or James Cagney…back alleyways and shady dealings, with actors constantly mumbling asides under their breath…mystery, intrigue and lots of smoking. Our scripture from today can be thought of as a film noir scene in the Gospel of John. As the encounter between Nicodemus and Jesus develops, we see a mystery unfold involving Jesus’ identity. Yet, Jesus uses this discussion to hint at what God has planned for humanity after Jesus’ ministry on earth is done. Specifically, this passage reveals the reality of new creation within Jesus’ disciples at the onset of the Holy Spirit. Underneath the dark, smoky, exterior of this story lay a great mystery, yet unsolved by the human mind.

The word “noir” means black in French, and thus, refers to the dark look of early crime drama. Our story for this morning, too, is set with a dark feel. John points out that Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night. On the surface, night provides an opportunity for Nicodemus to dialogue with Jesus uninterrupted. Possibly, Nicodemus was embarrassed of his admission that Jesus carried the presence of God. Or, Nicodemus might have come to secretly question Jesus when Jesus had no supporters around. At any rate, this discussion between Nicodemus and Jesus is private, almost occurring as an aside in the Gospel text. These utterances are contemplative, drawing questions that will haunt the rest of the text…and the private setting of the discussion on lends to the mystery of its content.

As we plunge deeper into John’s Gospel, however, we find that the setting of this discussion in an important detail, as John tends to emphasize the contrast between darkness and light. One can imagine Jesus’ wisdom shining through and illuminating the dark night around Nicodemus’ soul. From the outset of the gospel, we hear things about Jesus being “light [which] shines in the darkness” and that “the darkness [has] not overcome it.” John generally associates darkness with the world, with confusion, and with the evil choices that humans make on a daily basis. John’s world is in need of light to overcome the darkness…and as Nicodemus approaches Jesus at night, he is simply one amongst many who live their lives in the dark.

I have noticed, recently, a change in cinema. I do not know when it began, but I do know that now, more than ever before, screenwriters seem driven to portray the idea that evil overcomes good. Veronica and I were recently discussing the patented Disney happy ending...which does not seem to occur as much anymore. I’m not sure if the world has given up, or if people find annihilation more interesting, but the worldview of contemporary cinema is getting darker every year. As Christians, I think that it is healthy to recognize that the world is currently plunged into darkness. There is something that rings throughout the human spirit which is dark, and broken, and twisted. However, if we concede that the story ends in this darkness, then we forfeit the power of the gospel. True, our happy ending must first take us through the shadow of the cross…but our savior mounts the cross, and goes one step further, conquering it and bringing life where there was only death…darkness gives birth to light, death gives birth to life.

And so we arrive at the mystery of the passage. This idea completely baffles Nicodemus…that one might be able to experience birth a second time. In Greek, the word following born can mean both “from above” and also “again”. Is Jesus speaking about His own divine origin, or is He talking about something that will happen to His followers? As the mystery unfolds, the rabbit hole seems to go deeper and deeper. Nicodemus cannot see that Jesus is connecting His own divinity with the renewal of humanity…but we cannot blame Nicodemus. Who can fully understand so great a mystery? That Jesus is born “from above” means Jesus has the very substance of God within Him. Surely Jesus does not mean “from above”, but what sense does it mean to be born a second time? Can someone crawl back into their mother’s womb? Once something is created, can it be remade into something completely different? If Nicodemus took Jesus seriously, he must have been extremely confused at this point. And yet, Jesus intended both of these meanings when He answered Nicodemus. Without either possibility, the world would remain in darkness.

Darkness recalls the beginning of time. In the ancient Jewish mind, water represented the chaos that reigned before God spoke order into creation. Imagine a raging sea…waves crashing upon each other, creating a surface that hides unimaginable depths. To brave the sea meant death for many in the ancient world, and even for those who survived, the sea was untamable by any man. At sea, one is at the fate of weather and currents…what man can tell the waves to calm themselves? And thus, we see God speak and call light out from the darkness…we see God separate land from water…we see God making a world that humanity is able to inhabit. We see mercy. The mystery which Jesus speaks is one that we still cannot fathom…Jesus is telling Nicodemus that Jesus Himself is that Word which parted the darkness and light. Jesus reveals that He will call into the waters and pull humanity from death into new life. With Jesus, we are to experience creation once again. As we learn a new detail, the mystery grows ever deeper.

In the waters of baptism, we encounter death. Yet, our death is a death of a different kind. Last night, Amy performed a beautiful dance to a song by Shane & Shane. One of the lyrics from the song accurately describes this baptismal death: “Let the vision of You be the death of me”. We meet God in the waters of baptism, and when we do, we cannot but burn away. There is no place in the heavens, or on earth, or even in the depths, where we can escape God’s presence, and so, as we dive into the depths, we meet God’s presence fully and we burn away into new life. Death and recreation happen in the baptismal waters…this is all a mystery.

Of course, the idea of water being involved in creation should come as no surprise to us. My mother was involved in Obstetrics for over 20 years, as a nurse and a midwife, so I grew hearing about (and at times, though regrettably, watching) the birth process. Over the 9 months in which a life comes together inside of the womb, the essentials for life are assembled in a pool of water. From the first moment in which we underwent our own miraculous process of being ordered, we were suspended in water. When we emerge from this pool, we gasp our first breath, and the mystery of life is revealed to the world once again. Water and breath come together to create a new life, and those around to welcome this arrival of new life are changed forever by the experience. So to, as we emerge from the waters of Baptism, we are changed by the experience of new life…real life…in Christ Jesus.

And thus, Jesus reveals to Nicodemus that the process of this re-creation of life happens by water and Spirit. What happens inside of the believer is a reoccurrence of original creation…a re-creation of life within the believer. Whereas flesh gave birth to this current body, the Spirit of God now breathes life into the soul of the believer, creating new, lasting life. As God once breathed into the nostrils of clay to form the first man, Jesus now breathes new life into bodies destroyed by the darkness of humanity. We are experiencing creation anew by the grace of God.

These last few weeks have been windy, which might not mean a lot to the common person, but means a great deal to those who spray dangerous chemicals. As I spray rose gardens, my greatest moments of frustration are when the wind picks up from nowhere, changes direction and blows spray back in my face. It is in these moments that God is (hopefully) developing my patience. It made me think this week that wind is a true testament that we cannot control as much as we want to. In a scene from the movie, “Tommy Boy”, Chris Farley is sitting in a tiny sailboat in the middle of a lake. The boat looks about to capsize, and his frustration grows as he is stranded in the middle of the lake with no wind to take him to shore. Wind is unpredictable, and we certainly cannot tell it what to do. In fact, we sometimes have trouble guessing which direction it will take. As much as we do to exert control over creation, some things will always be out of our reach. I truly believe that some things will always remain a mystery…and such is life itself. There will always be things that we will not be able to understand about life, much in the same way that we know not which way the wind blows, or where it comes from. Some things will always be out of our reach.

And in the same way, Jesus blows into town from some remote place in the near East, performing miraculous acts and speaking in riddles. Our suffering hero. The mystery of mysteries. And yet, Jesus is closer to us than we are to ourselves. This we forget in the darkness of the world, and as we draw close to Jesus, He illumines our paths once again. This is the Lenten walk that we are treading right now…calling out to Jesus from the depths to light the way. Lent is a time to turn back…a time to assess where we are in this act of new creation. Recall Genesis 1…God poetically, yet masterfully, order creation in a carefully planned series of moves from the first things to the last. Each step brings more diversity, more complexity, and yet, more wholeness…more shalom. In the same way, God is mining the depths of our soul, trying to order our innards from top to bottom. Where are you in this process? Are you still stuck on the surface problems that you became aware of when God first shone light into your darkness? Or is God moving ever-inward, unearthing vices rooted deep within you? I don’t mean to sound legalistic…the blood of Christ shelters us from that angel which seeks to destroy us. Yet, Lent is a time to evaluate our sincerity in this process of sanctification. We must nurture the new life that God has recreated within us, and not wage war against the work of the Spirit.

We are blessed to witness a sign that God is still creating new life amongst us today. In this process, I want to encourage the participants that no gift from God is meant for us alone, but these gifts from God are meant to spill out and rescue the world. This morning, I hope that baptism will rekindle a joy within us like when we first felt new life kicking in our depths. I pray that baptism will inspire us to remember our own death, and so, to let go of that old skin that still clings to the newborn life within. Finally, and utmost, I pray that baptism will draw our attention and affection once again to the only source of real life, and so too, that we will raise up this Son of Man as Moses raised up the serpent in the wilderness, so that all might know the source, and might experience creation and life for the first time.