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Mountain Spirit

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Proper 10C
July 11, 2010
Amos 7: 7-17 * Psalm 82 * Colossians 1: 1-14 * Luke 10: 25-37
The Rev. David M. McNair

Marked as Christ’s Own — FOREVER. Wow, what a statement! These will be the first words spoken to Avalon after she is baptized in just a few minutes.

Of course, there is an old saying: "Nothing is forever." Certainly in our world today, especially in our American culture, we practice an economy of planned obsolescence. How often do we say or hear others say: “This _____ is worn out (you name it — cell phone, microwave oven, computer, car, strip mall, whatever). It’s time to get a new one.”  Our disposable culture makes it cheaper to replace things than to fix them. And off it goes to the landfill. But it isn’t that way with God. When we are baptized we are marked as Christ’s own beloved child forever!

The scriptures report that when Jesus was baptized, the sky was “torn open,” the Spirit descended like a dove, and a voice from heaven said, “You are my son, the Beloved, in whom I am well pleased . . . in whom I take delight. Can there be a more crucial image to hold in our hearts? [The image] of God saying to us at our birth and at our baptism: “You are my beloved daughter; you are my beloved son; with you I am well pleased”

Baptism reconnects us with our belovedness. The sixteenth century church reformer, Martin Luther, said we should awaken every morning with the words: “I am baptized.”  In his famous hymn, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, he speaks of our battle against “the prince of darkness grim.”  He says “One little word shall fell him.”  What is that “one little word”?  I have read that it is the Latin (or Greek) word which means “I am baptized.” 

To help remind us of our baptismal identity the Liturgy and Music Committee decided at our last meeting to move the baptismal font out from the wall at the back of the sanctuary. It will be more prominent as we enter the sanctuary and it will be filled with water blessed. Visually, it will serve to remind us and connect us to our baptism. And, if you are like me and need a more concrete reminder, you may opt to dip you finger in the water and you may touch your forehead with the water or make the sign of the cross.
Some people’s Bibles begin with Genesis, chapter 3, with the sin of Adam and Eve. So “original sin” is the first word they hear about who they are. But our Bibles should begin with Genesis, chapter one, with God creating us in God’s own image, blessing us, and calling us good. That is, it begins with “Original Blessing” rather than “Original Sin.”

In his book The Life of the Beloved, Henri Nouwen reminds us of the central meaning of our baptism: That we are God’s beloved. He wrote the book for a friend who was struggling with the meaning of the Christian life. He writes: “All I want to say to you is you are the Beloved, and all I hope is that you can hear these words as spoken to you with all the tenderness and force that love can hold.” (1)

“I want you to hear that voice. It is not a very loud voice because it is an intimate voice. It comes from a very deep place. It is soft and gentle. I want you to gradually hear that voice. We both have to hear that voice and claim it for ourselves that that voice speaks the truth, our truth. It tells us who we are. That is where the spiritual life starts – by claiming the voice that calls us the beloved.” (2)

I say that baptism RECONNECTS us with our belovedness. We need reconnection because for most of us the connection has been broken. The great spiritual teacher Thomas Keating helps us visualize our disconnection and brokenness by diagraming the self as a circle. The circle is a metaphoric representation of the human soul or consciousness with concentric circles within. Between the concentric circles are layers of consciousness (or soul). The outer layer, near the surface, is the layer that most human beings spend most of our time and focus in. It is a relatively un-awakened state based on competitive separateness. It is a false self conditioned by the cultural values around us. By our consumer culture telling us “You are what you own.”  By our success culture telling us: “You are your position.”  By our entertainment culture telling us: “You are what you look like” — and you must look like the Sports Illustrated swimsuit model or be as buff as the guy in the Abercrombie and Fitch ad.

We can tell when we are living out of this false self when the volume turns up on our pride, lust, anger, or envy. When our defensiveness grows. When we feel worthless. When we speak or act with cruelty toward others. When we are cruel to ourselves, beating ourselves up for being human, internalizing the cruelty of others toward us.

Keating calls the next layer “spiritual consciousness.” It represents the degree that our orientation to life comes from the interior life of God in contrast to a life dominated by the ego – our false self.
Another circle close to the center is called “true self.”  This is the “unconditioned life” of our true identity and being as a child of God — the Image of God within us — the Imago Dei.

Then deepest of all, beyond our intentional reach but still beckoning to us, is the Center of the center, the “Divine Indwelling.”  This is the seat of Christ’s presence within us.  The Beloved’s Presence within us, who knows us as the beloved. (3) Jesus is our non-shaming guide, leading us down through the layers of our false self until we reconnect with the Divine Indwelling which is our true self as the Beloved.

At Jesus’ baptism, he heard God’s voice saying, “You are my son, the Beloved, in whom I am well pleased.”  Then immediately, the Spirit drove him into the wilderness to be tested by Satan. “Satan” literally means “the accuser.”  Jesus called him “the father of lies.”  Satan is the accusing voice which tells you lies about yourself and others.

All three temptations listed in the gospels accounts were temptations to grandiosity – to deny his belovedness as God’s child, and to pretend to be God:

1. Be a miracle worker – turn these stones into bread.
2. Be king of the world – I will deliver all the nations into your hand.
3. Be immune to suffering and death – jump off the temple spire and the angels will parachute you safely to the ground.

(These are also temptations to communities and nations).
Jesus overcame these temptations because he never stopped hearing “You are my son, the Beloved. In you – as you are – I am well pleased.

Can you hear these words spoken to you?  Can we hear these words spoken to us?  Can we let them sink to the depth of our being?  “I have molded you and made you. I’ve written your name in the palm of my hand and I hold you safe in the shade of my embrace. I hold you. You are safe where I am. Don’t be afraid. Trust that you are the beloved. That is who you truly are.” (4)
This is what Jesus heard at his baptism. Avalon, these are God’s words to you as you are baptized today. And, these are God’s words to us amid the waters of our birth – and the waters of our baptism.

A priest from Detroit visited his uncle in Ireland. It was his uncle’s 80th birthday. One morning the two woke before dawn and went for a walk along Lake Killarney. They stood side by side and watched a gorgeous sunrise. Suddenly his 80-year-old uncle turned and went skipping down the road — radiant and smiling ear to ear.

When the nephew finally caught up to him he said: “Uncle Seamus, you really look happy.” 

“I am, lad,”  his uncle replied.

Want to tell me why?”

His uncle replied: “You see, me Abba is very fond of me.” (5)
       
And so is your Abba, your Lord — Jesus, is very fond of you. “I  am baptized” we say as we arise every morning. And at the heart that means:  You are the Beloved in whom God is well pleased.

 

Notes: