January 13, 2013
Epiphany 1
Luke 3:15-17,21-22
Acts 8:14-20
(prayer)
It was just a week ago that we were finishing up on the Christmas narratives as we reflected in the gifts of the Magi.
Now, fast forward three decades and Jesus is ready for a change in careers. The very next verse (if we had continued reading from Luke chapter three this morning) would have told us that “23Jesus was about thirty years old when he began his work.” Given that most people of that era did not live as long as we do today, we have to consider this a career change in Jesus’ autumn years. So, if you think thirty is young, you’ll have to set that notion aside when it comes to Jesus. In the roman empire of the first century, the average life span was less than 25 years. That stat is skewed low due to a high infant mortality rate and deaths of mother in childbirth, not to mention the fact that the empire was built on military strength and active soldiers tend to have shorter lives. So, for the upper classes that had the best access to good food and medicines, life could span above 60 years; for peasants (like Jesus and his companions), at best they’d live into their 40s. 2010 stats say that the average life expectancy in Canada was almost 81 years. So, if Jesus could have reasonably lived to be about 40, moving from carpentry to ministry at age thirty is analogous to an average Canadian taking on a new career at age 60.
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One of the things I am most curious about in our Christian story is the mystery of those first three decades of Jesus’ life. From the Biblical birth stories, we’d expect that Jesus would show God’s glory from day one. All our bibles tell us is that when he was twelve, Jesus got lost on a family pilgrimage to Jerusalem, only to be found three days later by his parents in the temple talking with the priests and scribes: ‘Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’
We are also told that (as Jesus matured) he lived a righteous and respected life. But we are left to assume that Jesus worked in the trade of his father (carpentry) for most of his life. He continued to live in Nazareth where his parents raised him. And the townsfolk didn’t seem to see him as anything special. In three weeks, we will read a passage where Jesus begins to speak as an authoritative teacher and it caught people by surprise: ‘Is this not Mary and Joseph’s son?’
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We don’t know why Jesus chose this late stage of his life to begin a ministry. Perhaps he was motivated from watching his cousin, John, who had recently embarked on an eccentric preaching career in his own right. Luke’s gospel tells us that John began preaching in the 15th year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius (29CE). John and Jesus were the same age (born six months apart). Late starts seem to run in the family.
John set up camp by the Jordan River: probably a bit east of where he grew up in the Judean hillside. When people gathered he could call on them to recommit themselves to living in God’s way. John was a fire-and-brimstone preacher: 7…’Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8Bear fruits worthy of repentance.’
He called on people to live honest, humble lives focusing on the needs of others. He preached against lives of complacent faith. We can imagine, John giving the crowd a rousing sermon inviting people to turn toward a more faithful life and then inviting people to take action … “Come join me in the river to wash away your old life and be refreshed with renewed life in God.”
As we heard this morning people were excited and encouraged by John’s words and actions. He seemed so confident, so close to God, they wondered if he might be the Messiah.
When the rumours hit John’s ears, he quickly dispelled them: ‘I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.’
John the Baptist’s reputation grew. More and more people came for his baptism of repentance. Word even caught the attention of King Herod (who would eventually arrest, imprison and execute John).
But before that, one day, Jesus made his way out to John’s riverbank church and answered the altar call with the others and was baptized. There are some of the gospel narratives that quote John, at first, refusing to baptize Jesus, but Luke’s version is less detailed. Luke tells us what happened to Jesus. He has a mystic experience, where he envisions the embodiment of God’s Holy Spirit coming to Jesus and a holy voice proclaiming:
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What a gift!
Jesus left those waters a new man, with a new purpose. Most of what we know about Jesus happens over the next few years that followed the curiosity that brought Jesus down to the river to check out his odd cousin.
The gift is… that Jesus moves forward from a point of confidence that God’s love and encouragement was enveloping the old carpenter from Nazareth.
God’s love and support was all that was needed to change directions (as John would have said) and begin to share this same love of God to a spiritually hungry world.
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Fast forward again a decade or so, and the followers of Jesus continued to share this gospel of love in the name of Jesus, who although he was crucified, was known to be the Risen Messiah.
Two of Jesus’ closest disciples had heard that people of the region of Samaria had responded positively to the good news of God’s love in Jesus. Samaria was a region southwest of Galilee and northwest of Judea. Samaritans worshipped the same God as the Hebrews but rejected the centrality of the Judean temple. In Jesus’ time, these two sister-faith-and-cultural-groups saw no value in associating with the other. A Judean would not expect anything good to come from a Samaritan and vice versa (you may recall the shocking parable that Jesus once told or how he surprised a woman at Jacob’s well by simply talking to her).
I can imagine the conversation among the early Christians in Jerusalem: “We’ve got this report back from one of the mission trips and apparently, there were some Samaritans who actually accepted the word of God that was offered. Samaritans! Really? Peter and John, you’d better go check this out.”
These disciples are able to help these faith-seekers to the next level. They had heard the words of promise and hope; now could they make it part of who they were? Could they see God’s spirit as an active force in their lives?
With hands-on prayer and support, these two close disciples of the flesh-and-blood-Jesus, were able to get people connected to the Risen Christ. The change in their lives was obvious to others in the crowd. People were astonished.
Sadly, at least one person focused on the old disciples, John and Peter, and not on the changes in the lives of the new disciples. While Peter and John spoke about God’s grace, a Samaritan named Simon saw only power: a power he wanted to have for himself to use.
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Sometimes it is assumed that egregious financial greed is a byproduct of modern capitalism: that belief that money can buy anything and that everything is for sale at the right price. But greed has always existed; our modern economics have simply expanded the pool of the potentially greedy.
Simon the Samaritan saw power (which is assumed to always be for sale). But he ran headstrong into grace - which has no price.
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Grace causes problems because it goes against some entrenched assumptions we make. We have just come through a season of gift exchanges. But we tend to give to a select group of worthy people (family, friends) and very often, the giving is reciprocal - we generally give to those who also give to us. And of course, if we don't get what we really want - we have the option of going out and getting it for ourselves.
Grace is best described as "a gift". But it is different, and therein lies the problem. Grace is a gift without an expectation of reciprocity and it is not limited to a select group of 'worthy' recipients. Grace cannot be bought.
Grace is God's love and compassion for all of creation, including us. Why is God so generous? Why is God not more selective? The best answer I can come up with is (that in spite of the wishes of some groups of believers) it is God's nature to love, to care for creation - all of it. All of us!
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Grace is something we accept, not some we can purchase.
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Case-in-point... This morning we all shared in Briella's baptism. We proclaimed God's love for her. Did we give her that grace, no, we simply announced grace that already existed. We celebrated God who is already present using ancient and wonderful ritual.
God's grace (in baptism) is not bought by water; it is symbolized by it.
Did Briella do anything to gain this grace? She is too young to have any understanding of cost and value. She accepts the world as it is.
Did Briella do anything to gain this grace?
Actually she did.
She exists.
She lives and moves and has her being in the shelter of God's compassion and care.
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When Peter and John went to Samaria, Simon trusted his eyes only and saw that (with the disciples’ encouragement) others were able to experience faith in a deeper way.
Simon assumed that Peter and John had some power to make this happen. And it may have appeared that way: they touched people’s head with their hands and they prayed.
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The water we used for baptism this morning is not magical or any source of mystical power. It is not the water that makes God love Briella. The water provides a ritualistic symbol for us to celebrate that which already exists. Perhaps taking part in this action means something to us as participants. It is a powerful thing to acknowledge the ever-present love of God.
But God does not love Briella, because we prayed over this water or because I (as an Ordained Minister) sprinkled some of that water on her head.
God loves because it is God’s nature to love. And God cannot be bought by anything we do.
We don’t need to try to acquire the power with money, or even prayer – God is already loving us, even before we form the first thought about God.
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Simon got it wrong – it was not Peter or John or the laying on of hands or the prayers – God was already part of the lives of the Samaritan believers. Peter and John helped them respond to that fact.
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And that is where the rubber really hits the road when it comes to faith.
Grace cannot be bought. God does not hold off love for us as creature of God’s universe until we do the right thing or say the right words.
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Faith is born out of a recognition that God loves us and how we respond to that revelation.
That’s the power that Simon noticed – the impact of recognition.
Believing that we are divinely loved is a powerful. Powerful enough to change the way we value ourselves, how we see others and how we live as part of the entire world.
// end //
Grace is a gift – recognizing “that grace” is powerful enough to change the entire way we look at life.
Food for thought.
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Let us pray;
We thank you, compassionate God, for the promise that we are your beloved, as was Jesus. We thank you for the evidence of your love we find in Jesus’ life, which helps us know how to reflect your blessings in our world. Amen.
#139MV True Faith Needs No Defense”
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