Darkness or Light?

 

The lectionary text for Sunday, January 9 - Epiphany I, is Luke 3:15-22.

 

John was brash.  He was harsh and abrasive.  John was many things, but he was also humble.  John was faithful to the God he served.

 John was a prophet.  He was THE prophet who ushered in Messiah.  His baptism was one of preparation of hearts and minds for their transformation in the baptism of Emmanuel.  His baptism was one of recognition that things were not as they should be regarding God’s Will.  His baptism was one of contrition, acknowledging the part of each individual in the community’s plight under the occupation and oppression of empire.  His baptism was one of choosing to see the bad news for what it was in order to embrace the Good News of Jesus.

 Jesus’ Baptism was one of transformation.  It would mean that the people of God had acknowledged God’s Will for them and that the way of empire was not it.  It would mean that people were ready to walk away from the bad news and embrace the Good News.  It would mean that people would repent – change their thinking so that their direction would change – and bring in justice and real peace.  It would mean that in every aspect of life, the application of Agape Love and Grace would be applied in how we live with one another, thus being transformed together, as a whole people.  It would mean living in Shalom – completeness, wholeness and well-being that brings peace.  That is the Good News of Jesus into which we are baptized.

 Baptism is an acknowledgement of which side we are on.  Are we on the side of sin, the ultimate “end justifies the means” way of living, or the side of the Kingdom, which is about living together in unity, justice and harmony?  When we are baptized into empire, we take on the values of empire – Greed, Lust for Power and desire for Status, and they drive how we live our lives, ultimately to destruction.  When we are baptized in Christ Jesus, we live the values of Agape Love and Grace that demand equality, equity and humility, and that drive how we live in the world, ultimately bringing sustained Shalom for all.  

 Baptism is about belonging.  We belong to one another.  Whether we join the forces aimed at preserving and promoting self above others, or the movement of lifting up one another, we belong.   We are baptized into the ideologies and practices of empire, or we are baptized into the body of Christ, the Way of Jesus – the way of Agape Love and Grace and Shalom.  It is the commitment of ourselves to a Way of life.  We are baptized in faith – the belief in an ideology that oppresses and victimizes out of ruthlessness, or the belief that we are called and commanded to build one another up in Agape Love and Grace.  The Holy Spirit brings us to that faith and that baptism.  The powers and principalities bring us to be baptized in the master that empire serves.  We either listen to the Holy Spirit of God and are baptized into Christ Jesus, His Way and Death and Resurrection, or we listen to the forces of empire and evil, and are immersed in its way and destruction and inevitable demise.

 John spoke of this quite plainly.  Eloquence was not a gift needed for John.  He spoke the Good News that the people of God can walk away from empire as a way of abuse and destruction, and follow Jesus in Jesus’ Way of life, life abundant and life forever.  The Good News was that people could be baptized in Jesus’ Way of Agape Love and Grace and find Shalom.  Herod did not like that.  He was heaped in empire.  He was appointed by empire.  He represented empire and embodied its insidious predatory values.  So, he acted accordingly and had John imprisoned for exposing his evil.

 When the people had been baptized and when Jesus had been baptized by John, the act of passing the mantle of leadership of the people, and as Jesus was praying, it happened.  Luke’s Gospel gives us a more succinct account, but no less powerful, of the heavens being opened, the Holy Spirit descending in the bodily form of a dove, and the voice of God declaring Jesus as God’s incarnate Son, the Messiah.  God gave Jesus the blessing, being well pleased to do so, so that Jesus could begin His work – the mission of sharing Good News in a time and place in which the bad news of empire had all but destroyed the people of God.

 That, my sisters and brothers, is light in the midst of darkness!  That is an Epiphany – the manifestation of the divine and new insight.  That is a Theophany – the manifestation of God to humanity!  And in that, is our HOPE.

 Whatever darkness that the ways of empire have imposed on us, we are people of the light of Jesus and His Good News.  In whatever ways the Greed of empire has hurt our lives or infested our souls, we can live instead in the generosity that Jesus’ Way has taught us.  In whatever ways the lust for Power of empire has beaten us up and abused us, or turned us into ruthless purveyors of darkness in the lives of others, we can live instead as people who use our power to empower others and lift them up, as was the example of our Lord.  In whatever ways the desire for Status has pushed us down and demoralized our spirits, or has turned us into egomaniacal jackals who belief we can and should look down on others around us or judge them, we can live instead the humility exhibited by our Lord.  In whatever ways the Hatred born of empire and its values has threatened or victimized us, or turned our hearts toward a falsely justified hatred of others, any others, we can live instead as followers of the one who commands the living of active LOVE and GRACE in the world.  That is the Good News of Jesus!

 So, into which are we baptized?  To which do we belong?  The darkness, or the Light?  The ways of empire, or the Way of Jesus?

 The darkness is all around us.  What is within us?  Who is within us?  Is it the light?

 As the crowd that gathered around John in the wilderness, we are filled with expectation, questioning in our hearts about many things in the world right now.  We see the darkness in which we have been sitting for a long time.  Will it be the darkness that we embrace and live, or the light?  It can be the light!   

 THAT is the Good News of Jesus for today.

 Pastor Jamie