1. From Fr. Tony Kadavil
A young man once described his experience of sinking into
insanity. He was a very bright university student, but he had abandoned his
studies in favor of nightclubs and pornography. One night he retired to a hotel
room. As he lay in bed, the window appeared to expand until it reached the
floor. He heard a mocking voice in his mind saying, "What if you threw
yourself out of that window?" The young man wrote: "Now my life was
dominated by something I had never known before: fear. It was humiliating, this
strange self-conscious watchfulness. It was a humiliation I had deserved more
than I knew. I had refused to pay attention to the moral laws upon which all
vitality and sanity depend." Well, this young man did begin to pay
attention to the moral law. He began to put his life in order - and to
experience inner peace. He eventually entered the Catholic Church and went on
to become one of the most famous monks of the twentieth century. His name is
Thomas Merton. Today’s Gospel on Jesus’ baptism should challenge us,
too, to examine whether we are keeping our Baptismal promises. (Fr. Phil Bloom)
2: A tiger cub finds its identity:
There is an old Hindu parable about a tiger cub raised by
goats. The cub learned to bleat and nibble grass and behave like a
goat. One night a tiger attacked the goats, which scattered for
safety. But the tiger cub kept grazing and crying like a goat
without getting frightened. The old tiger roared, "What are you
doing here, living with these cowardly goats?" He grabbed the
cub by the scruff, dragged him to a pond and said: "Look how our faces
reflected in water! Now you know who you are and whose you
are." The tiger took the cub home, taught him how to catch
animals, eat their meat, roar and act like a tiger. The tiger cub
thus discovered his true self. Today’s Gospel seems to suggest that
Jesus received from heaven a fresh flash of realization of Who, and Whose, He
really was (His identity) and of what He was supposed to do (His mission), on
the day of his baptism in the river Jordan.
3: The film Gandhi:
is a three-hour epic, depicting the life of Mahatma Gandhi
in India. In order to lead the oppressed people of India to freedom from
British rule, Gandhi adopted non-violent means such as fasting from food,
vigils of prayer, peaceful marches, protests and civil disobedience. One of the
reasons why Gandhi put on a loincloth and fasted from food, almost to the point
of death, was to show solidarity with the Indian people, identifying with them
in their physical sufferings. This finally brought independence to India. (Vima
Dasan). Marin Luther King too identified with his enslaved and maltreated
people and became the voice of the voiceless in the name of God. Consequently
he was maligned, beaten, jailed, and assassinated while he preached peace,
justice and non-violence on behalf of the downtrodden Afro- Americans in the U.
S. His heroic example definitely passes as Christian
living with tens of millions of the poor and alienated Afro- Americans in the
U.S. and the oppressed millions worldwide. To better appreciate his struggles
against the sins of our culture, particularly of our "Christian"
clergy you are invited to read Dr King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail”
readily available on the internet
(http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html).
Jesus’ baptism, as described in today’s Gospel, was his identification with
God’s chosen people who became aware of their sinful lives and need for God’s
forgiveness. (Fr. Jerry Dalton).
4. Identity of the peanut scientist:
Fr. Bill Bausch describes in one of his books George
Washington Carver, the great black scientist who did a lot with the lowly
peanut, both medically and commercially. He built a great industry through his
scientific endeavors. In January 1921 he was brought to Washington, D.C., to
the Ways and Means Committee to explain his work on the peanut. He expected
such a high-level committee to handle the business at hand with him and those
who had come with him with dignity and proper decorum. As a black man, he was
last on the list and so, after three days, he finally walked up the aisle to
speak. And on the way up he heard one of the committee members say – and quite
loudly for all to hear – "I suppose you have plenty of peanuts and
watermelon to keep you happy!" He ignored the remark as an ignorant jibe,
although it stung him. He was further hurt on seeing another committee member
sitting there with his hat on and his feet on the table remarking: "I
don’t see what this fellow can say that has any bearing on this committee."
At this point George Washington Carver was ready to turn
around and go back home, but he said, as he wrote in his autobiography,
"Whatever they said of me, I knew that I was a child of God, and so I said
to myself inwardly, ‘Almighty God, let me carry out your will.’" He got to
the podium and was told that he had twenty minutes to speak. Carver opened up
his display case and began to explain his project. Well, so engaging was his
discussion that those twenty minutes went all too quickly and the chairman rose
and asked for an extension so he could continue his presentation, which he did
for an hour and three-quarters. They voted him four more extensions so he spoke
for several hours. At the end of his talk they all stood up and gave him a long
round of applause. And all that happened because he knew who, and Whose, he was
and because he refused to be defined by the labels of his culture.
"Whatever they said of me, I knew I was a child of God." So one
function of this, our feast – this Baptism of the Lord – is to remind us of
who, and Whose, we are.
5. Three times:
Too many people come to Church three times primarily.
They're Baptized, they get married, and they have their funeral service at the
Church. The first time they throw water on you, the second time rice, the third
time dirt!
6. "Have you found Jesus?"
A drunk stumbles across a baptismal service on Sunday
afternoon down by the river. He proceeds to walk down into the water and stand
next to the Preacher. The minister turns and notices the old drunk and says,
"Mister, Are you ready to find Jesus?" The drunk looks back and says,
"Yes, Preacher. I sure am." The minister then dunks the fellow under
the water and pulls him right back up. "Have you found Jesus?" the
preacher asked. "No, I didn't!" said the drunk. The preacher then
dunks him under for quite a bit longer, brings him up and says, "Now,
brother, have you found Jesus?” “No, I did not, Reverend." The preacher in
disgust holds the man under for at least 30 seconds t his time brings him out
of the water and says in a harsh tone, "My God, have you found Jesus yet?”
The old drunk wipes his eyes and says to the preacher... "Are you sure
this is where he fell in?"
****************
2. From the Connections:
THE WORD:
Today’s Gospel is the final event of the Epiphany: Jesus’
baptism at the Jordan River by John. The fact that Mark begins his
Gospel with the baptism of Jesus indicates the importance of this
event. In the “renting of the sky,” the Spirit “descending on him
like a dove” and the voice heard from the heavens, God “anoints” his Messiah
(the word Messiah means "anointed") for the work he is about to do.
HOMILY NOTES:
In baptism, we claim the name of Christian and embrace all
that that holy name means: to live for others rather than for ourselves, in
imitation of Christ.
Our baptism made each one of us the “servant” of today’s
readings: to bring forth in our world the justice, reconciliation and
enlightenment of Christ, the “beloved Son” and “favor” of God.
In baptism, we embrace that same Spirit that “hovers” over
us, guiding us in our journey to God.
Liturgically, the Christmas season officially comes to an
end with today’s Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. Now the same
Spirit that “anoints” the Messiah for his mission calls us to be about the work
of Christmas in this new year: to seek out and find the lost, to heal the
hurting, to feed the hungry, to free the imprisoned, to rebuild families and
nations, to bring the peace of God to all peoples everywhere.
‘Bat cole’
You first heard it as a child — the Voice. You wanted
that extra candy bar or escape the boundaries of the back yard or slug your
annoying little brother, but you heard that Voice saying, Don’t!
You know what Mom said. Now, you may not have paid any attention
to the Voice. But you heard it. You know you did.
As you got older, the Voice spoke a little more
critically. That was dumb . . . You really came off like a jerk .
. . What were you thinking? But the Voice could also be
encouraging and affirming: Nice work . . . You’ll be glad you did that .
. . You didn’t deserve that. The Voice would prod, nudge or
clobber. As you grew up, you understood that the Voice was right.
Eventually, we make friends with the Voice. We don’t
just listen to the Voice, we converse with the Voice. I’m not
sure what I should do here . . . What was that all about? . . . How can I make
things better? And together, you and the Voice find a way to move on,
to work it out, to put things back together.
In time, we begin to hear the Voice speaking more comforting
and consoling words: You are loved. You belong. You
are mine.
In the Jewish tradition, there is a name for that
Voice: “bat cole”, which means literally, “the daughter of a
sound.” That “daughter of a sound,” the smallest, thinnest of voices, is
the Voice of God — God speaking to us in the events of our lives, in the people
we love, in the characters and conundrums that challenge us. In the story
of his baptism, the bat cole is heard by Jesus: You are my beloved Son;
with you I am well pleased. May our hearts be attentive to that same
Voice speaking to us in the course of the simple, undramatic everyday of our
lives— the Voice of God cajoling and nudging us to his dwelling
place.
***************
3. From Fr. Jude Botelho:
Dear Friend,
For all of us there comes a time in our life, when we have
to decide, when we have to take a stand, when we have to choose and reveal who
we are, what we believe in and which side we stand for. We cannot be
fence-sitters all our life. We cannot be private believers, private followers
of the Lord Jesus Christ. For Jesus that moment was his baptism. For
us, is it now?
Have an affirming weekend!
In the first reading we have one of the four poems Isaiah
wrote describing the relationship between God and the Messiah and the kind of
work the Messiah would do to save mankind. This reading gives only part of the
first poem touching upon the special relationship between Yahweh and his
Servant. It echoes what we will hear in today’s gospel, “This is my son the
beloved, my favour rests on him.” The Jews mistakenly believed that Yahweh
loved only his chosen people. Isaiah points out that Yahweh sends his servant
to bring justice and salvation to all those who suffer, and those who cannot
save themselves from the dungeon they find themselves in. Jesus thus is
both the “son” and “servant” of Yahweh. Son because God’s favour
rests on him, servant because he has come to save mankind by
suffering for and with them.
The Yellow Arm Band
In the dark days when Nazism spread across Europe and
overpowered the Danes, Hitler ordered the king of Denmark to issue a decree
whereby all Jews in the country would publicly identify themselves by wearing a
yellow arm band with a Star of David on it. The king knew that anyone so
identified would be rounded up and sent to the death camps. He also knew the
danger of disobeying Hitler’s orders. So when he issued his decree, he wore a
yellow arm band with the Star of David on it, although he was not Jewish. The
people immediately knew what to do. The next day, everyone in the country – Jew
and Gentile alike, wore the required arm band. Solidarity with those condemned
resulted in life for all.
Harold Buetow in ‘God Still Speaks, Listen!’
In the Gospel John the Baptist sets the stage for the
public manifestation of Jesus on the banks of the river Jordan. John had been
preaching and calling people to repentance and a change of heart and as a sign
of their repentance he was baptizing them. Jesus comes as one among the many
people to be baptized and John was surprised. Why did Jesus come for baptism to
John? People came to John to be baptized as a sign that they were sorry for
their sins. Jesus received baptism as a sign that he was sorry for the sins of
all mankind and because of his decision to pay for the sins of mankind with his
obedience unto death of the cross. Though Jesus was sinless, his baptism was
necessary for several reasons. It was for him a moment of decision. Jesus takes
up the challenge of His father by making his public decision to launch his
mission on earth. Secondly, Jesus’ baptism was his moment of
identification. It was time for him to identify himself with the God-ward
movement, with those who stand for God and his kingdom. The Jews considered
themselves to be children of Abraham, and by that fact, assured of
salvation. But John had begun this strange movement of Jewish acknowledgement
of sin and of its repentance. Jesus saw this movement and was happy to undergo
John’s baptism to signify that he identified with it. Thirdly, Jesus’
baptism was a moment of approval for him. Jesus was ready and willing to carry
out the mission his Father had in store for him and now he receives the
approval of his Father. The voice from the heavens tells us who Jesus is and
also affirms for Jesus that he is the well-beloved son of the
Father. Lastly the baptism for Jesus was the moment of empowerment. In
ancient times, kings and priests used to be anointed to show that it was God
who was appointing them to carry out their work in his name. Now Jesus was
priest, prophet and king, in fact he was The Priest, Prophet and King. As
the pouring of the oil on priests, prophets and kings declared these people to
be appointed by God to be His messengers, so the Father shows Jesus to be his
messenger, not by anointing with oil but by filling Him with the Holy Spirit.
Eagle or Prairie Chicken?
An American Indian tells about a brave who found an eagle’s
egg and put it into a nest of a prairie chicken. The eaglet hatched with a
brood of chicks and grew up with them. All of its life the changeling eagle,
thinking it was a prairie chicken, did what the other prairie chickens did. It
scratched in the dirt for seeds and insects to eat. It clucked and cackled.
And it flew a brief thrashing of wings and flurry of feathers no more than
a few feet off the ground. After all that was how prairie chickens were
supposed to fly. Years passed, and the changeling eagle grew very old. One day
it saw a magnificent bird soaring far above in the cloudless sky. Hanging with
graceful majesty on the powerful wind currents, it soared with scarcely a beat
of its strong golden wings. “What a beautiful bird!” said the changeling eagle
to its neighbour. “What is it?” “That’s an eagle – the chief of the birds, the
neighbour clucked. “But don’t give it a second thought. You could never be like
him.” So the changeling eagle never gave it a second thought. And it died
thinking it was a prairie chicken.
Anonymous
Total Commitment
A pig and a chicken were out for a walk one day. The pig
wasn’t too bright and tended to repeat everything that others said or
suggested. The chicken remarked “Those are very nice people down in that house
down there.” “They are indeed” replied the pig, “they are very nice
people.” “They are very good to us” continued the chicken. “They are
indeed” replied the pig, “they are very good to us.” “Do you know what I was
thinking? asked the chicken. “No” said the pig. “What were you thinking?” “I
was thinking we should do something for them.” “That’s a very good idea”,
replied the pig, “I think we should do something for them. What did you have in
mind?” “I was thinking” said the chicken, “that we should give them something.”
“A brilliant idea” said the pig, “I think we should give them something. What
did you have in mind?” “I was thinking” said the chicken, “we should give them
bacon and eggs.” The pig stopped in his tracks, and said “Definitely not! For
you that’s only a slight inconvenience, but for me it’s total commitment!” –
Baptism is intended to lead us to a total commitment, and our acts of Christian
charity should be seen as anything but slight inconveniences.
Jack McArdle in ‘And that’s the Gospel truth!’
Source of Power
Mohamed Ali often referred to himself as ‘the greatest’
heavyweight champion in the world. Obviously, he trained extensively for every
fight with vigorous workouts and diets. However when he was asked from where he
received his enormous power, he said it came from a set of inspirational tapes
to which he listened. The tapes were recorded speeches of a Black Muslim
leader, the honourable Elijah Mohamed. They deal with self-knowledge, freedom
and potential. Mohamed Ali would listen to these tapes day in and day out. He
claimed that these inspirational messages gave him power to fight in the ring
as well as outside it for his black people.
Vima Dasan in 'His Word Lives'
Your Baptism is your tattoo…
California police and the courts have discovered the tattoos
on teenagers are often more than a cosmetic decoration. A few years ago, a
juvenile court judge in California observed that a large number of teenagers
appearing before him had tattoos – tattoos on the hands, fingers, and faces.
The tattoos, he learned, identified the bearer as a member of some particular
gang and, frequently as a user of a particular drug. Many of these tattoos were
self-inflicted by youth who were desperate to ‘belong’. The judge also
discovered that teenagers with visible tattoos were virtually excommunicated
from the job market, since potential employers equated the tattoos with crimes
and incompetency and refused to hire the youth. The judge asked the Los Angeles
County Medical Association if there might be among its members, a plastic
surgeon who, at no charge, would remove the tattoos from juvenile delinquents.
Dr. Karl Stein, a well-known Los Angeles Plastic surgeon, was the first to
volunteer. Since 1981, Dr. Stein has turned around the lives of hundreds of his
young patients through surgically removing the tattoos by excision, laser, and
virtually every other known method. – Your baptism is your tattoo, indelibly
imprinted, identifying you as a disciple of Jesus. Would your neighbours see
this in your daily life?
Gerard Fuller in 'Stories for all Seasons'
Right connection
I heard about a young president of a company who instructed
his secretary not to disturb him because he had an important appointment. The
chairman of the board came in and said, “I want to see Mr.
Jones.” The secretary answered, “I’m terribly sorry, he cannot be
disturbed; he has an important appointment.” The chairman became very angry. He
banged open the door and saw the president of his corporation on his knees in
prayer. The chairman softly closed the door and asked the secretary, “Is this
usual?” And she said, “Yes, he does that every morning.” To which the chairman
of the board responded,
“No wonder I come to him for advice.”
Billy Graham in ‘Stories for the Heart’
Are you Jesus?
Several years ago a group of five computer salesmen went
from Milwaukee to Chicago for a regional sales convention. All were married and
each assured his wife he would return home in ample time for dinner. The sales
meeting ran late and the five scurried out of the building and ran toward the
train station. A whistle blew, signaling the imminent department of the train.
As the sales men raced through the terminal, one of them inadvertently kicked
over a slender table on which rested a basket of apples. A ten year old boy was
selling apples to pay his books and clothes for school. With a sigh of relief,
the five clambered aboard the train, but the last felt a twinge of compassion
for the boy whose apple stand had been overturned. He asked one of the groups to
call his wife and tell her he would be a couple of hours late. He returned to
the terminal and later remarked that he was glad he did. The ten year old boy
was blind. The salesman saw the apples scattered all over the floor. As he
gathered them up, he noticed that several were bruised or split. Reaching into
his pocket, he said to the boy, “Here’s twenty dollars for the apples we
damaged. I hope we didn’t spoil your day. God bless you.” As the
salesman started to walk away, the blind boy called after him and asked, “Are
you Jesus?”
Brennen Manning in ‘From the Signature of Jesus’
May we proudly proclaim our faith and be glad to witness to it!
***************
4. Sermons.com:
Baptism is a powerful force in the life of a Christian for
two reasons. It is something we share in common. Christians all over the world
can say that they were baptized in Christ. You met a Catholic in Ireland. He
was baptized. You met a Pentecostal in Nigeria. She was baptized. The second
reason Baptism is a powerful force is that baptism takes us back to the basics.
Now let me set these two ideas up for you with a couple of stories.
You perhaps at one time or another have seen on TV the old
black and white video footage of the civil rights marches in the sixties.
Martin Luther King often at the front received his share of stinging
high-pressured water hoses. Rev. King once remarked that he and the other
marchers had a common strength. He put it this way, as "we went before the
fire hoses; we had known water. If we were a Baptist or some other
denomination, we had been immersed. If we were Methodist, and some others, we
had been sprinkled, but we knew water."
You and I know the water. All of God's children know the
water. We share by our faith this common symbol, this initiation, this rite,
this power of God over the deep and often raging chaos of life. We know water!
All over the world Baptism unites us.
It also brings us back to the basics. Perhaps in our
lifetime the most public statement of repentance was that of President Bill
Clinton's. The one he made before a Prayer Breakfast on September 10, 1998. He
summed up the task perfectly when he said, "I don't think there is a fancy
way to say that I have sinned." Then he quoted from a book given him by a
Jewish friend in Florida. The book is called "Gates of Repentance."
Clinton read this passage from the book: "Now is the
time for turning. The leaves are beginning to turn from green to red to orange.
The birds are beginning to turn and are heading once more toward the south. The
animals are beginning to turn to storing their food for the winter. For leaves,
birds and animals, turning comes instinctively. But for us, turning does not
come so easily. It takes an act of will for us to make a turn. It means
breaking old habits. It means admitting that we have been wrong, and this is
never easy. It means losing face. It means starting all over again. And this is
always painful. It means saying I am sorry. It means recognizing that we have
the ability to change. These things are terribly hard to do. But unless we
turn, we will be trapped forever in yesterday's ways."
Clinton's quote ended with this prayer: "Lord help us to turn, from
callousness to sensitivity, from hostility to love, from pettiness to purpose,
from envy to contentment, from carelessness to discipline, from fear to faith.
Turn us around, O Lord, and bring us back toward you. Revive our lives as at
the beginning and turn us toward each other, Lord, for in isolation there is no
life."
Whatever you might think of Clinton and his sincerity, he
understood that he needed to do something very basic before the nation. He
needed to repent...
Today our Scripture lesson is from the Book of the
"Acts of the Apostles." There is an old saying that the church needs
to move its focus from the "Book of Numbers" to the "Book of
Acts." And if you're looking for drama, even melodrama, with dramatic plot
reversals and somersaulting stories lines, you're in the right book. There are
stonings and shipwrecks, prison breaks and spiritual breakthroughs, trials and
betrayals, riots and revivals. That's why a better name for the "Book of
Acts" might be the "Book of Narratives."
The Apostle Paul warns elsewhere "The letter kills, the
Spirit gives life" (2Cor.3:6). Most Christians may have gotten past the
every-jot-and-tittle-of-the-letter stage in their faith. But the numbers kill
just like the letters. That's why we really do need to move our faith from the
Law's Letters and Numbers to the Spirit's Narratives and
Soundtracks.
The power of the Book of Acts, or, if you will, the Book of
Narratives, is that it brings us into the presence and power of what the Spirit
can do in the most difficult to times and places. One of the great works of the
Spirit took place in the heart of the Las Vegas of the ancient world, a
tumultuous city called Ephesus, a place of hyper-sexuality which boasted one of
the seven great wonders of the world, the Temple to Diana and the Statue of
Artemis. Into this heavily eroticized city there occurred an ever great wonder
of the world than the sixty foot statue of Artemis: a revival led by
Paul.
After two years of Paul's teaching, the Christian faith had
so spread in this hard-core urban center that the silversmiths were poised to
riot because of their fear that no tourists or townspeople would be buying
their votives dedicated to Artemis. In his Epistle to the Ephesians, you learn
from Paul's metaphor of "armor" how Paul counteracted the mysterious
temple rituals and the eroticized climate that permeated the everyday
atmosphere Ephesus...
_____________________________
Torn Apart Forever
When I was a little girl on the farm, I used to ride my bike
as fast as I could down the lane that led out past the barn toward the pasture
with grasshoppers whizzing around my ankles. At the end of the lane, I jumped
off the bike and flung myself down on the pasture grass. I looked up at the
wide sky. The flat lands of Iowa seemed to have far more sky than New York
City. I lay very still, listening to my own breathing. The sunbeams broke
through the blue and white sky reaching down to the pasture enfolding me with
warmth and wonder. Those beams seemed to me the fingers of God. Later on, when
I didn't think of God as a man in the sky, I probably said that it was the
light of God or the presence of God. Whatever language I could find, I knew the
deep certainty that God was with me. But that day is impossible to recapture.
Our barn is now gone. The chicken house and the cattle shed, too. Soon perhaps
the house will be gone, torn down and plowed under to make way for more
farmland. Only the driveway will remain to remind those passing by that anyone
ever lived there. If I could ride my bike down that lane, the sky would not
look quite the same -- even on a sunny day. It isn't only nostalgia for
a certain place and time, but a realization that the faith of my childhood
has been torn in many places. It's impossible to put the pieces back together
again as they were.
But the torn place is where God comes through, the place that never again
closes as neatly as before. From the day he saw the heavens torn apart, Jesus
began tearing apart the pictures of whom Messiah was supposed to be—
Tearing apart the social fabric that separated rich from
poor.
Breaking through hardness of heart to bring forth compassion.
Breaking through rituals that had grown rigid or routine.
Tearing apart the chains that bound some in the demon's power.
Tearing apart the notions of what it means to be God's Beloved Son.
Nothing would ever be the same, for the heavens would never again close
so tightly.
Barbara K. Lundblad, Torn Apart Forever
___________________________________
A Relationship Changed by Baptism
Let us pretend that you are a young lieutenant, part of the
military, part of a presidential honor guard. Every day the President walks
into his office, and you snap to attention, click your heels and salute the
President. The President nods. Every day, this same procedure occurs. The
President walks in; you snap to attention, click your heels and salute. The
relationship is stiff, formal, technical, with eyes never looking the President
in the eye but eyes always straight ahead, frozen like a stiff wooden soldier.
But...in this story...one day, the President stops in front of you, the young
lieutenant, and says to you. "Please follow me into my office." You
do so and the door is closed. The President orders you to be seated and then
looks you in the eye and says, "I want you to become one of my children. I
want you to become part of our family. I want you to come to our family
outings, our family picnics, the family birthday parties, the family
Christmases. I want you to become part of our family." What a moment. What
a miracle. And in that moment, the relationship between the President and the
young lieutenant is totally transformed. The relationship is no longer formal,
stiff, distant and legal but is now close and loving
That is precisely what happens to us in our baptism. It is
God who takes the initiative. The relationship is totally transformed. Baptism
is the fantastic invitation from God to know us intimately and closely, so
closely that we are called son or daughter, that we become family.
Edward F. Markquart, Baptism? What Do We Teach?
__________________________________
The Promise of Baptism
When I baptized my three children I did a new
generation kind of thing. We made a DVD for each of our kids so they can
celebrate their baptism birthdays. They can see it, they can own it. We blow
out the Baptism candle, we open a Baptism gift, and we celebrate the new life
Jesus brings to them. They can trust in God's work. There's a lot we can do to
make a child's baptism just as personal and memorable as an adult's. The one
thing we shouldn't do is take this promise from our children. They need it and
we need it.
James Mueller
_____________________________
Two Forces at Work
"What's frightening about listening to John preach is
that he puts you in the presence of God. And that's what everybody wants, and
that's what everybody doesn't want. Because the light at the altar is different
from every other light in the world. In the dim lamps of this world, we can
compare ourselves with each other, and all of us come off looking good. We
convince ourselves that God grades on the curve, and what's the difference?
We're all okay. And then you come in the presence of God, and you're at the
altar, and it's all different. For if our hearts condemn us, think of this - -
God is greater than our hearts and knows everything. There's no way to modulate
the human voice to make a whine acceptable. The whining is over. The excusing
is over. It's the school, it's the church, it's the board, it's the government.
It isn't! All that's over. It just stops. Like waking from a dream of palaces
and patios to find the roof leaks and the rent's due. Like shutting off the
stereo, and you hear the rat gnawing in the wall. That's just the fact of it.
In my mind, I serve God. But there's another force in my life, and I say, `I'm
going to do that.' I don't do it. I say, `I'll never do that.' I do it.
Crucified between the sky of what I intend and the earth of what I perform.
That's the truth."
Fred B. Craddock, "Have You Ever Heard John
Preach?", A Chorus of Witnesses: Model Sermons for Today's Preacher, ed.
Thomas G. Long & Cornelius Plantinga, Jr. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William
B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1994), pp. 34-43.
________________________
Humor: God Help the Fish
Sam Houston was the first president of the Republic of
Texas. It's said he was a rather nasty fellow with a checkered past. Later in
life Houston made a commitment to Christ and was baptized in a river. The
preacher said to him, "Sam, your sins are washed away." Houston
replied, "God help the fish." Although most of us were not baptized
as adults in a river, we can probably relate to this reply.
King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com
____________________________
A New Way of Living
Sarah Jo Sarchet is a Presbyterian pastor in Chicago.
A 10 year-old boy in her congregation named Cameron, walked into her office and
said he needed to talk to her. Fresh from soccer practice, and wearing his
Cincinnati Reds baseball cap, he had a request for her. "I'd like to be
baptized," he said. "We were learning about Jesus' baptism in Sunday
School. The teacher asked the class who was baptized, and all the other kids
raised their hands. I want to be baptized too."
Using her best pastoral care tone of voice, she said,
"Cameron, do you really want to be baptized because everyone else
is?" His freckles winked up at her and he replied, "No. I want to be
baptized because it means I belong to God."
She was touched by his understanding. "Well,
then," she said, "How about this Sunday?" His smile turned to
concern and he asked, "Do I have to be baptized in front of all those
people in the church? Can't I just have a friend baptize me in the river?"
She asked where he came up with that idea. "Well, Jesus was baptized by
his cousin John in a river, wasn't he?"
Caught off guard, she conceded, "You have a point. But,
if a friend baptized you in the river, how would the church recognize it?"
Realizing this was a teachable moment, she climbed up on her foot stool to
reach for her Presbyterian Book of Order that was located on the highest shelf.
But before she placed her hand on the book, he responded.
"I guess by my new way of living" he said.
She nearly fell off the foot stool and left the Book of
Order on the shelf. Cameron's understanding was neither childish nor simple. It
was profound. Baptism calls us to a new way of living.
From a sermon by Sarah Jo Sarchet preached at Fourth
Presbyterian Church in Chicago
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Knowing the Secret Right from the Start
In Princeton, New Jersey, there is a legendary tale about
the eminent scientist Albert Einstein walking in front of a local inn and being
mistaken for a bell boy by a dowager who had just arrived in a luxury sedan.
She orders him to carry her luggage into the hotel, and, according to the
story, Einstein does so, receives a small tip, and then continues on to his
office to ponder the mysteries of the universe. True or not, the story is
delightful, precisely because we savor from the beginning a secret the dowager
does not know: the strange-looking, ruffled little man is the most celebrated
intellect of our time. Some stories gain their power from our knowing the
story's secret from the start.
The Gospel of Mark is just such a story. The secret of Mark's Gospel is the
identity of Jesus Christ. In the very first sentence of the Gospel story, Mark
lifts the veil and lets us know the secret when he says that this is "...
the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." Jesus is the Son of God,
that's the secret, and lest we miss it, this hidden truth is confirmed in the
story's opening episode, when Jesus, coming up out of the waters of baptism,
sees the Holy Spirit descending upon him like a dove from the heavens, which
have been torn open like a piece of cloth, and hears the very voice of God
telling the secret: "Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well
pleased" (Mark 1:11). Only Jesus sees the Spirit; only Jesus hears the
voice. This is, in the words of one commentator, "a secret
epiphany."
Thomas G. Long, Shepherds and Bathrobes, CSS Publishing
Company
__________________________
Pain Is Part of Baptism
Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was a very
devout Roman Catholic evangelist. One of the stories that grew out of his
ministry concerns a time when he was baptizing new converts in a river. He
would wade out waist-deep into the water and call out for new Christians to
come to him, one by one, to receive the sacrament.
Once he baptized a mountain chieftain. Saint Patrick was
holding a staff in his hands as the new converts made their way into the water.
Unfortunately, as he was lowering the chief down under the water three times,
he also pressed his staff down into the river bottom.
Afterwards the people on the riverbank noticed their chief
limp back to shore. Someone explained to Patrick that, as he pressed the wooden
staff into the riverbed, he must have also bruised the foot of the chief.
Patrick went to the chief at once and asked, "Why did you not cry out when
I stuck you in the foot?"
Surprised the chief answered, "I remembered you telling
us about the nails in the cross, and I thought my pain was part of my
baptism."
When I read that I could not but think how many of us would
have been baptized if we knew pain was a part of the process.
Traditional
__________________________
There Are Many Paths to God and Sainthood
Once upon a time long ago a young man decided to become a
saint. He left his home, family, and possessions and journeyed into the hot
sands of the desert where he eventually found a dark cave. He thought, "I
can find God here. I will be alone and nothing will disturb me." He prayed
day and night in the cave, but God sent him many temptations. He imagined all
the good things in life and wanted them desperately, but he was determined to
give up everything and be with God alone. After many months, the temptations
stopped and the young man was alone with God.
Then one day God called to him, "Leave your cave and go
to a distant town. Look for the local shoemaker. Knock on his door and stay
with his family for a few days." The holy hermit was puzzled by God's
request, but nonetheless left the next morning. He walked across the desert
sands and by nightfall had reached the village. He found a small house, knocked
on the door and was greeted with a smile and a welcome. The hermit inquired if
the man was the local shoemaker. Hearing that he was, the hermit was pleased,
but the shoemaker, seeing that the hermit was tired and hungry invited him in
to stay. The hermit was given a hearty meal and a clean place to sleep. The
hermit stayed with the shoemaker and his family for three days. The two men
talked quite a bit and the hermit learned much about the shoemaker, but he
revealed little about himself, even though the family was quite curious about
him.
Then after three days the hermit said good-bye to the
shoemaker and his family and walked back across the desert to his cave,
wondering all the while why God had sent him on this mission. When he arrived
back at the cave, God questioned the hermit. "What was the shoemaker
like?" The hermit answered, "He is a simple man; they have a small
home. He has a wife and a baby. They seem to love each other greatly. He has a
small shop where he makes shoes. He works very hard and makes very little, but
he still gives money and food to those who are less fortunate. He and his wife
pray each day; they have lots of friends." God listened to the hermit and
replied, "You will be a great saint, as you wish, but the shoemaker and
his family will be great saints as well."
The legend of Saint Antony of the Desert describes what sainthood is all about, namely leading a life of holiness...
