God wants to welcome us through his Word, Jesus Christ: Baptism of the Lord - B

Friends

Peace be with you.

It’s so important to feel included and welcomed. In freshman year of high school, I became friends with a guy who was my closest friend throughout my four years. He had been in a different middle school but, as there was only one high school in my home town, we got to know each other and became friends there. It started because Marshalltown High school would let you leave campus for lunch as long as you made it back by your next period. He invited me to his house because his Mom was cooking lunch. I was really hesitant because I didn’t know him very well or his Mom at all. What if she was kinda mean? But, I went anyway and she was the nicest person I ever met. She had food ready and asked about how our day was going and just made me feel welcome. She even hugged me as I left and told me I was always welcome at their house. On the following Saturday, we were going to hang out and watch a movie and I went over and knocked on the screen door. I saw his Mom and Dad sitting in the living room. His Mom turned to the door and looked a little angry and said, “Dennis, what are you doing? You’re family! You don’t need to knock at this house. Just come on in and make yourself at home.” Then she smiled a big smile to let me know that she was only kidding. And, for all four years of high school, I was like a part of the family.

I think of that experience and many others where I’ve been invited into a person’s family on this celebration of the Baptism of the Lord. For instance, let’s look at the first reading from the book of the Prophet Isaiah. This is the bridge between second and third Isaiah, meaning scholars believe this is the last chapter of Isaiah written to the israelites when they were in Exile in Babylon. God speaks a word of welcome to them. Over and over again, he says come to the water, come to receive grain and eat, come without paying and without cost, come to me heedfully, It’s like God knows they’ve suffered enough, they’ve been too far away from him, and it’s time to welcome them back. I hope we’ll soon hear God say to everyone, “Come back to church! The pandemic is over and it is safe again to gather as my people. Come receive the body, blood soul and divinity of Christ” Let’s all pray we soon hear this message!

But we should also hear the other two parts of this reading as well. God is welcoming us, true, and inviting us, even more true. But God also invites us to seek for him because his ways are not our ways nor are his thoughts our thoughts. We are comfortable with a God who seeks us out and hangs out in our kitchen and living room until it’s time for us to go to heaven and then he welcomes us there. But we are less comfortable with a God who tells us that we need to be different than the people around us, better than the people around us. Baptism is associated with dying with Christ in order to be raised with him. During our earthly life, dying with Christ means realizing that God’s ways and thoughts must be our focus instead of the endless search for power, prestige, and wealth.

Our focus, as the last part says, will be the word. God says through Isaiah that his Word will be like the rains and snow which water the earth and make plants to grow. That doesn’t make much sense to us because our snows don’t make plants grow, it kills them. But, in the desert, any precipitation is welcome and snows tend to melt off quickly. There’s no need for snow plows over there. So, God’s Word will not return void but will achieve the end for which God sent it by feeding us and making our faith grow. I think that’s why it’s important to spend time each day with the Bible, reading passages and listening to what God might be speaking to you. I’m always amazed at how, despite the fact that I read the same daily Mass scripture passage every two or three years, it hits me very differently depending upon where I’m at and what is happening. For instance, this past Wednesday, I was, like many of you, very disturbed by what happened in the capitol. It was a sad day for our country. I couldn’t stop thinking about what happened and the news wasn’t helping to assuage my fears. On Thursday, I was praying midday prayer and I prayed Psalm 57 that gave me such comfort…

2 Have mercy on me, God, have mercy,

for in you my soul has taken refuge.

In the shadow of your wings I take refuge,

till the storms of destruction pass by.

I spent a lot of time with those few words and found myself next to the tabernacle taking refuge in the Lord.

You see, God’s word isn’t just scripture. The purpose of scripture is to move our heart to God’s word, who is Jesus Christ. Today we celebrate his baptism and, in the gospel passage from Mark, we hear how Jesus’ baptism changes it from the way his cousin, St. John the Baptist, was doing them. John’s were merely a washing away of sin. But, Jesus’ baptism tears open the heavens so that the Holy Spirit could ascend upon him and the Father could proclaim that Jesus was his son with whom he is well pleased.

Most likely, our baptism was not nearly this dramatic. However, this passage tells us what is expected of us, the baptized. We may not have heard a voice from the Father calling us his son or daughter but we are called to live like God is our Father and we are all brothers and sisters, as though his will is above our will and his ways and thoughts far more important than our thoughts and ways. The Spirit in the form of a dove probably didn’t descend from the heavens but the Spirit did come upon you to empower you to welcome God into your homes, your families, and your lives and to develop the gifts and talents he has given you. And the heavens may not have been torn asunder but God did tear asunder all that separates us from him and invited us into this new relationship of being his son and daughter. It was like, by being baptized, he said to us, “You don’t need to knock on my door. You’re family!” Do we want to be part of the family of God or are we too afraid to open ourselves up to the blessed life God has for us?

Be people who follow the light to see Jesus: Epiphany 2020 - B

 

Friends

Peace be with you.

When I was a kid, my family would often go camping at Twin Acres Campground close to Colo, Iowa. I only bring up the name of it on the off chance that some of you also camped there and had a similar experience. The owner at the time, a man named Earl, would hook up his tractor to a hay rack and, twice on both Friday and Saturday nights, take people around the the campground and the adjoining farm that he owned. The whole thing took about an hour and was very slow and, undoubtedly, too dangerous for today’s insurance folks. But, one of our favorite things to do was to ride the hay rack out to the field Earl owned, which always seemed be planted with corn, and jump off the back when we were in the deepest part of the field. It’d be around dusk and we’d start playing hide and seek for as long as we could. It got more and more exciting and challenging because there were no lights in the field aside from an occasional full moon. At some point, we’d realize it was getting too dark and we’d have to walk back but, in the darkness, we didn’t always know how to get back to where we came from. I remember a few times of having to look intently for the lights of the campers and being relieved when we reached our parents campers and the light and warmth of their campfire.

Today is Epiphany and our readings are focusing us on light. In the first reading, Isaiah is speaking to a people who have recently returned from exile in Babylon to a completely destroyed city of Jerusalem and its center of worship, the Temple. There is little to celebrate, other than their freedom. Yet, God says to them that their light has come. That the light of their decimated city will shine bright and that the other powerful cities will be thrown into darkness, the darkness of cities that have been plundered and destroyed. It will be a brightness that attracts the sons who have been leery about returning home and lead to a kind of hopefulness that will encourage people to start having children again. And, it will be a type of light that encourages the people from Sheba and Seba, the chief competitors to Jerusalem, to give them money and animals.

From a Christian perspective, we see in this a kind of foreshadowing of the events that happened at Epiphany when these visitors from the East, look into the sky, see a star there, and interpret from it the appearance of the King of the Jews. What’s amazing, however, is that, when the Magi follow the star to Jerusalem to meet the King, King Herod tells them that he is actually in a backwater little town called Bethlehem. When I studied in Jerusalem, I walked a couple of times from Jerusalem to Bethlehem and back. It’s relatively short but, even today, the difference is striking. Aside from the Basilica of the Nativity, there is nothing in Bethlehem of historical significance. Yet, the star shines on O Little Town of Bethlehem and illuminates it for the Magi. Please notice, by the way, that the star didn’t lead them to Jerusalem. It just rose and the Magi noticed it so they went where they figured the king of the Jews would be, in the capital city of Jerusalem. Yet, it did guide them from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. It’s like the star knew these seers from the East would get the directions wrong if it didn’t walk them directly to Bethlehem. In so doing, however, it’s fulfilling the promise God made through Isaiah to his people so many years before.

We are, therefore, called to be people who follow the light in search of the King of the Jews. Yet, how often do we, instead, find ourselves more fascinated with darkness? How often do we wish something bad “karma” would happen to someone who is behaving badly instead of praying for or encouraging them to do what is right? How often do we justify our own bad actions by saying they aren’t as bad as other people’s or that we deserve to do them because we have had a hard day or because we work so hard? How often do we look at someone who is poor or hungry or stranded by the side of the road and assume that they don’t want our help? Now is the time to stop being in the darkness of our cornfields and, instead, look up to see where the light is so we can search it out.