GOD SPEAKS

January 8, 2012
Epiphany 1
Genesis 1:1-5
Mark 1:4-11

(prayer)

I do not believe that the universe was created in six days. I do not believe that the start of the book of Genesis is an historical account of how things came into being. Believing in the holiness of the Bible is not limited to taking every word as a literal fact.

In fact, that may be one of the most unfaithful things to do. There is so much richness in our scriptures that will be missed if we are not open to poetry and metaphor and other ‘more than literal’ meanings.

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I find Genesis chapter one beautiful and deeply meaningful. The imagery must have been incredibly striking to the original listeners to the story, but it also reaches through the years and can impact us as well. It is the story that God is the one who brings order to chaos.

Chaos is given the image of a dark, churning ocean. There is no edge, water to every horizon. The waves have no pattern or predictability. There is no bottom to this sea – it is ‘water, water, everywhere’. And it is pure darkness – no hint of any depth of view. No sky above, no stars, no ability to figure out where we are or navigate away through the chaos.

It is total chaos...except for one thing: the ‘ru’ah elohim was moving over these waters’. Elohim means god. Ru’ah means breath, or wind or spirit. Most English translations render ru’ah elohim in Genesis 1:2 as the ‘Spirit of God’. Keeping with the image of the surface of a sea ‘wind of God’ fits nicely as well. And while we are at it – in so much as we hear this as God being alive in the midst of this chaos, the ‘breath of God’ works as well, as it implies existence. So, it is really ‘ru’ah elohim’ in the fullest sense of those words. But, the word in the last sentence of Genesis 1:2 that really catches my attention is the verb:

me-ra-che-phet

usually translated as moving: the Spirit of God was moving on the face of the waters. The root word of that verb, however, implies a less-active Spirit. The root meaning of that verb is ‘relax’. What image jumps into your mind to hear that ‘there was darkness on the face of the deep and the Spirit of God was relaxing over the waters’?

Another common English translation that we hear for Genesis 1:2 is to say that the spirit hovered over the waters. I prefer ‘that’ to the phrasing in our pew bibles which says that “a wind from God swept over the face of the waters”. Swept is too active – the ru’ah elohim was just there: in-active, hovering, relaxing... waiting. There is chaos all around, but God is calm. Just two verses into our bible, God is the calm in the midst of the chaos.

Then (verse three), God acts. How, when, why – we don’t know. But God gets off the couch and acts.

God speaks... the ancient Hebrews ascribed such wonder and power to God that the ordering of the primordial chaos was as easy to God as simple speech is for most of us.

“And God said, let there be light.”

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Chaos is the inability to find any grounding, any stability. That’s why darkness is such a good image for the ancient story teller to us. ‘Light’ is what breaks the chaos of darkness. Even a violent ocean has a chance to be managed if the sailor can see. Light doesn’t have to eliminate darkness; it only needs to temper it. Just a little light (just a silver of light) can create enough contrast through the creation of shadows and depth perception that we can get our bearings.

The ancient Hebrews were not nuclear physicists or astronomers – they knew nothing about string theory or big bangs. But from the depths of their experience they proclaimed a faith in a divine spark that ignited all that exists.

“Let there be light!”

God is the calm source of perception.

And being aware of who we are, where we are and what our next move might be is the basic stuff of existence.

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In the cycle of the Revised Common Lectionary (a collection of suggested scripture readings for each Sunday over a three year period) we are in Year B – we have been since the start of Advent back on November 27th. Many of the gospels readings in the lectionary for Year B come from the book of Mark. Mark is thought to be the oldest of our biblical gospels finding written form in the early 70s of the first century. It predates Matthew and Luke by a few years and John by as much as a couple of decades. Mark’s gospel is the shortest of the four. Later gospel writers (particularly the authors of Luke and Matthew) are even thought to have used Mark as a starting point in composing their texts.

Even though we’ve been in Year B for a month and a half, we haven’t read a lot from Mark yet. That is mainly because we have been focusing on Jesus’ birth and Mark does not include any Christmas stories. Mark begins with Jesus’ baptism. Mark doesn’t make any mention of Jesus’ age, but Luke says that Jesus was about 30 years old at this time. That may sound young to us, but in a world where the life expectance for a peasant was probably about 40 or 45, Jesus was well into middle age when he went to John at the Jordan.

Starting the story of Jesus as the Christ with Jesus’ baptism makes sense; because it was this physical act of faith and commitment that began Jesus’ active ministry (as we will see begin to unfold over the coming weeks).

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Judaism (long before Jesus and John came along) had strong traditions of ritual washings to symbolize confession, repentance, forgiveness and restitution. What John was doing was simply a ‘slightly’ extreme and eclectic version of this tradition.

Water (for all ancient societies) was the most basic need for communities. For those who lived in eastern Judea and Galilee, the river Jordan was the very real symbol of on-going life.

John using these valued waters for his ritual only added to the significance of what he was wanting people to experience.

Baptism is about make a conscious life-directional course. The symbolism was that the water was washing away the negative past and give one a fresh start on the new more faithful direction. A person went into the water with a desire to change and emerged - changed. An even deeper meaning could be to say that going in and out of the water was like allowing the old self to die and a new self to be born: a death and a resurrection, so to speak.

The water isn’t magic – the change is a conscious one on our part – the water is the symbol and the ritual that allows us to experience the choice in a physical and tactile way. A willingness to publically declare our new allegiance.

John preached that people should come to him because they needed to re-focus their faith back on God – to confess the errors of their ways to commit to a renewed faith. And along with that message, John sought to prepare people for the coming of the expected Messiah.

The gospel writer intentionally evokes the physical presence of the ancient prophet Elijah, by describing John as wearing a coat of camel hair and a leather belt (Elijah was once described as being ‘a hairy man, with a leather belt around his waist.’ (2Kings 1:8)). Tradition said that Elijah’s return would herald the coming of God’s Messiah

I imagine that the specific issues that would draw people to John would vary from individual from individual.

It appears that Jesus journeyed to the Jordan because he had made the decision that the time had come for a new way for him to live and express himself. Call it Jesus’ mid-life crisis. Jesus would put away his carpenter tools and grabbed some the strong sandals of a travelling preacher.

As he emerged from the water, Jesus felt the support of God. It enveloped him in a unique way. God speaks – ‘you are my deeply loved child – I am very happy with you!’

These words engender a calming, confidence inspiring attitude.

I love you and I am proud of you.

Who doesn’t want to hear those words? To be told that you are cared for and that you are affirmed for who you have become? Those are words that might often be said a time of transition: like a child maturing and moving into adulthood.

Jesus was by no means a child (in the physical sense), but this was defiantly a time of transition for him.

Jesus was about to step into uncertain waters...and God tells him – you can do this!

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We are at the start of a new year. Sure it is just an artificial line on the paper of a calendar, but it is part of our culture to reflect on where we’ve been and to imagine where we might be going. Even this language is metaphoric – we really mean to reflect on who we are (the qualities and priorities of our lives). And we are invited to think about the aspects of life we control. Who do we want to become?

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We will do this in an intentional way a congregation in just four weeks at our Annual General Meeting (on February 5th).

And there are various ways that we, as a society, decide on our direction (through community agencies, governments, school boards and parent councils and more...).

But, of course, this is more than a collective endeavour – we are at the edge of the water, seeking enough clarity and encouragement to figure out what the next step might be.

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When the ancient storyteller spoke about the origins of the world, the word-given actions of God were described with a simple word: טוֹב (tov) ... ‘good’. “God saw that the light was good.” This type of phrase ties together the whole creation story in Genesis chapter one – “God saw that [it] was good”, until in verse 31 when the whole is greater than the sum of its parts: ‘God looks at everything and it is

מְאֹד טוֹב (very good)’.

Our foundation is goodness - born of God in mystery beyond our understanding. So that is what grounds us now and for all time.

And I hope that we can feel the encouragement that Jesus felt – that God loves us and that God believes in our abilities to live lives of authentic, living faith.

Like the crowds coming to John, we too are not ‘each one of us’ alike. We all have different faith needs at this point in time – so, I hope that each of us knows that God loves us all who we are right now and that God knows that we can move forward into this uncertain future certain of God’s admiration and encouragement.

All the while, I will hold on to the image that God is relaxing nearby, watching, waiting and wondering when I might need to heard God’s voice again.

Let us pray:

Thank you God for the richness of our traditions and for the unfettered future you offer. Amen.

**OFFERINGS**