Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Second Sunday after Epiphany - Year B

January 18, 2015

Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18

O God, you have searched me and known me.
  You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from far away.

You search out my path and my lying down,
  and are acquainted with all my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue,
  O God, you know it completely.
You hem me in, behind and before,
  and lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
  it is so high that I cannot attain it.
For it was you who formed my inward parts;
  you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you,
  for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
  that I know very well.

My frame was not hidden from you,
  when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written all the days
  that were formed for me, before they existed.

How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!
  How vast is the sum of them!

I try to count them —
  they are more than the sand;
I come to the end —
  I am still with you.

As I mentioned last week, my father is also a pastor; as is my brother and his wife. We are, to use the language of the Old Testament, a priestly family. Both my brother and I followed in our father's footsteps. But, we didn't do it perfectly.

My father is a very conservative Lutheran. We even joked in our family that my father was more Lutheran than Martin Luther himself. We were raised in a very Lutheran home. Yet, it was being raised in that very Lutheran setting that eventually caused me to leave the Lutheran church and find my home here in the United Church of Christ. The central understanding in Luther's thought was that we are saved by grace, and it is totally and completely a gift from God that we do not deserve nor can do anything to make God more likely to offer it to us. Salvation is about God acting, not us.

Yet, as I grew into adulthood I discovered that all too often, even in a denomination that preached grace, grace was not truly lived out and experienced. So, I sought out a church, a denomination where I felt that grace was more than just something that was talked about; it was also a driving force in the way in which the church functioned and presented itself; I found that in the United Church of Christ.

As a denomination, we are young; not even 60 years old. Yet, we trace our roots to the oldest Protestant churches in America. We trace our roots through churches and practices that are diverse and full of differences. Our differences do not keep us from being church, though, we are United regardless of our differences. In the UCC, there are congregations that are extremely liberal and there are congregations that are extremely conservative. And we embrace each other as being part of the same testimony to God's love and grace. We are who we are.

One of the interesting conflicts in the world in which we find ourselves is the seeming contradiction between our desire to all be individuals and the desire to fit in. Look at a group of teenagers – chances are they all have the desire to be different, to be unique; yet, when it comes to what they wear, the music they listen to, a majority of them do the same thing. A few years ago, it seemed that tattoos and piercings were a way in which people could declare their uniqueness. Now, when so many people have them, is it really a way of declaring your being different? When I was in high school the kids fought against it every time the topic of school uniforms was brought up; even though we all wore jeans and t-shirts to school everyday anyway. We didn't want to all dress the same, yet we basically all wore the same uniform every day anyway.

At a certain level, we all know that we are different. We look at each other and it's clear to see. I have blue eyes, and yours are brown. I'm tall, and your shorter. I wear glasses, and you don't. I'm married, and you aren't. I'm a morning person, and you're a night person. I like coffee, you prefer tea. I'm outgoing, and you are introverted. It would be a boring world if we were all the same. And the most incredible, wonderful thing about it, is that God made us different on purpose. Each and every single one of us was “fearfully and wonderfully made.”

It might seem hard to see how incredible that is. We are all of high value, all precious creations in God's sight. Sure, some people may be more public than others, but coach Urban Meyer is not more fearfully or wonderfully made than you or I. Sure, some people may consider him to be of much greater value or worth than us, but to God that is not the case. As we heard last week, in our baptism's God calls names each and everyone of us as beloved children. And as a parent knows and love their children, so too does God know and love each and every one of us. God knows us so well because God made each and every one of us, just as we are.

When I was growing up, there was a poster in our church office that showed a young child. The words on the poster declared, “I know I'm okay, because God doesn't make trash.” What a wonderful, powerful message. It's a message that is as relevant today as it was over 30 years ago. You and I can know we are okay just as we are, because God doesn't make trash. God made us short or tall, fat or thin, athletic or clumsy, musical or not, straight or gay, shy or outgoing; God made us that way, and God doesn't make trash.

If you look at the front of your bulletin this morning, you will see a picture of fish. There are a lot of fish, and they mostly all look the same and are going in the same direction; but, there is one fish that is different, and headed in a different direction. All of these fish were fearfully and wonderfully made by God. It's the unfortunate reality that we as human beings tend to treat poorly the fish that look a little different, or go in a direction that is different than ours. It's a tragic thing, that we in the church have far too often followed human nature in how we have treated those that are different in how they are fearfully and wonderfully made. The church has historically not always seen beyond the externals to see others how God sees us as God's own beloved children; made and known just as we are.

We, here at Zion United Church of Christ, have voted to be an Open and Affirming congregation. That means that (in the words of our statement) we will, “extend God's Extravagant Welcome to persons of every gender, age, race, nationality, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, mental and physical ability, social and economic status, faith background, political and theological beliefs, marital standing and family structure.” We have decided as a church that we are going to be a different voice here in our community and region. When people hear about us, what they are going to hear is a message of welcome, a message of embracing all people as they are, as they are fearfully and wonderfully made.

It's a wonderful statement, a wonderful guide for how we are going to function as a congregation. Yet, we all know, that words without actions behind them are just words; nice to hear but without power. We must, as a congregation, as a community of faith, as a gathering of God's children, give power to the words of our statement in our lives and actions.

The church is sometimes thought of as being a place of refuge in the chaos of the world, an island of calm and peace in the storm around us. And that is the way it should be, but all too often we have turned that image on its head. Rather than the bringing people to the island, each and every week we set sail from our paradise, bringing a message of welcome and love. Then, we leave and head our own way – leaving those who we delivered our message still on their islands of despair and exclusion. Our calling is not just to bring the message, but to bring those who hear that message back with us.

It is not enough for us every every Sunday to proclaim that we accept everyone, that no matter where you are on life’s journey you are welcome here, then go back to our land of abundance leaving them still trapped in their lives of isolation. I want us to invite the people into our lives and church and to make as many trips as necessary to bring them out from where they are to that place of security, in the bosom of the Lord. Our work, our call to follow, my call, isn’t done until I can tell God who I helped save. Will God say well done my good and faithful servant to us? I sure hope so.

When someone takes that sometimes terrifying step across the threshold of our house of worship we need to be prepared to repair, heal and set free them. Even if the person can’t walk across that threshold alone we need to rescue them, and help erase the harms done. We need to show a different Christian than the ones they’ve known before.

Today I challenge all of us to accept the call to affirm all of Gods children, to bring them into the fold and then tell them the words from the affirming mysterious process of creation in our Psalm. For it was you who formed my inward parts, I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made, wonderful are your works that I know very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depth of the earth. Your eyes beheld my uniform substance, In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed. Amen.

Claimed and Named

First Sunday after Epiphany Year B
The Baptism of Christ

January 11, 2015

Mark 1:4-11

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."

Over the next few weeks in my sermons and in conversation with you as a group and individually I am going to try and share bits and pieces of my history and biography with you. As I get to know you, I think it's also important that you get to know me as well.

One of the parts of my life that has had the greatest effect on me is that I was born overseas to parents that were missionaries. I was born in Lae, Papua New Guinea where my parents were both serving as teachers at the time. My parents actually met and married on the mission field. My mother is from Iowa, but my father is from Australia. I have one brother, Karl, who is also a pastor and is married to a pastor. He too was born in Papua New Guinea. We are truly an international family. We lived in New Guinea until I was almost 6, then we returned to the United States for 9 years before returning once again to New Guinea. I graduated from high school there before returning to Iowa where I studied Music Education at Wartburg College.

Growing up overseas has impacted me in ways that I am often completely unaware of. But, one of the ways I know it impacted me was in my embracing of diversity and difference. In my graduating class of 27 people, there were 7 different countries represented. Those 27 people were able to speak about 40 languages in total. English was my second language when I was a child, my first language was Melanesian Pidgin. It was normal for me to hear two or three different languages at the same time being thrown around the school library in conversation, languages were always being mixed on the sports field. It was normal to have friends who had what we might consider to be unusual names.

Among the native people in New Guinea, names had greater power and meaning than they often do in our culture. My father was a teacher both at a high school level, and later at one of the Lutheran Seminaries. As a teacher, encountered many students who had two different first names. Most of the students who studied at the seminary had names like Joshua, or Peter, James, Naomi or Sarah. Names that weren’t that foreign to us here. But, as you got to know them, you discovered they all had other names. They also had village names, names like: Buvy, Nonti, Kepas, Benoni, Mugarika. These were the names they had been given when they were born, the other western names were the names they were given when they were baptized, these were their Christian names. This was a statement in a very real way that their identity as Christians was something different than their family or cultural identity. In today’s culture in the United States, we tend to keep the same names from birth. But, if you recall, the church still retains the naming component in our baptismal services. We ask the parent, “By what name shall your child be called?”

Names are important, they provide us with a way of identifying one another. But, they also provide us with an identity. I am not Erik Brown, or Abraham Breddin; I am Erik Breddin – my name is part of my identity, part of who I am. Receiving a new name at baptism shows that a new identity has come into being. No longer is that baby, or child, or adult, just Bill, or Mary; they are now Bill or Mary - child of God.

For many people, baptism is the beginning of their life in the church. For others, baptism is the declaration of someone’s desire to be a part of the church, a declaration of faith at a later point in life. Baptism means many things, including the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. But baptism is also a declaration that the newly baptized person links their life, with that of Jesus. And once someone has experienced what it means to have your life attached to Jesus everything changes. That means, that at baptism everything changes.

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus arrives at the Jordan river and requests to be baptized by his cousin John; his cousin who seems more than a little reluctant to baptize Jesus. But, he does what Jesus desires and the act is done, as he is coming up out of the waters, “suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’" Heaven and earth are brought together in that moment, and Christ is revealed before our very eyes. His mission and ministry become crystal clear.

“This is my Son, the beloved.” Those words, or ones very much like them, are proclaimed more than once throughout the Gospels almost as exclamation marks emphasizing the role and reality of Christ. We find them repeated at the Transfiguration midway through Jesus' public ministry.  And, the centurion at the cross comes to the same epiphany. He exclaims that Jesus was indeed “God’s Son.”

In our baptisms we too are claimed by God as God's beloved children; although in not quite the same way as Jesus is. And, since the same heavenly parent claims Jesus and us, we are connected to one another. And our connection is to be lived out. Our baptismal covenant reminds us that we are called to “seek and serve Christ in all persons,” loving neighbor as oneself. Whenever it was that we “came up from the water” of our own baptism, whether recently or decades ago, we came up from those waters a new person in Christ, a child of God called to make Jesus manifest and known in our world today. Our baptism unites who we are today with the power of the Christ, the “Beloved” of God, baptized in the Jordan River 2000 years ago, and claimed and named as we were, as a child of God.

In our baptisms, God has named each and everyone of us as children of God, and as children of God we are also all sisters and brothers with one another. As Sister Sledge sang in their disco/funk hit, 'We are Family!' As sisters and brothers in the family of God, we look to one another in much the same way as we look to our biological sisters and brothers. We may not get along with our siblings all the time, we may even not really like them, but we love them. If my brother was in need, I would do all I could to help. If we can take seriously the claim of God on our lives, our naming as brothers and sisters in Christ, we will do all we can to ensure that all people, our sisters and brothers, will be able to live their lives to the fullest. We will do all we can to ensure they experience our welcoming embrace in the same way that Christ has welcomed and embraced us. As Christ walks with us through our lives, we will walk with them through the hills and valleys of their lives. As Christ dwells with us, we will dwell with them.

Christ dwells with us today, He is still here to be seen and discovered by those who, like the Magi, are willing to journey far from the commonplace in their quest for understanding and knowledge. Like the Wise Ones from the East we heard about last week, we must be willing to leave the comfort of our preconceptions and prejudices. We must be willing to look for the Christ in places others refuse to enter, whether it be shelter, soup kitchen, or stable. The Magi brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh. We must bring the gift of ourselves as we encounter Christ alive and present in the elderly, children, and all the vulnerable and defenseless people of our world.

Over the Christmas season, we've likely heard a lot about Emmanuel, God with us. God with us means that in Jesus, God knows what it is to be human. God knows what it is to know pain and hunger, sorrow and joy, anger and love. God knows because God has lived as we live. In our baptisms we are once again going where God has gone, experiencing what God has experienced. We worship and serve a God who was also baptized. Jesus too went through the waters, Jesus too came seeking to be washed clean in the waters, to be made new, to be claimed by God as God's own beloved Son.

In our baptisms we are claimed by God, and given the calling to proclaim peace and justice to the world, to battle evil in all its forms, to give of ourselves in service to others. To close our eyes to our own preferences and prejudices as we battle injustices and prejudices around us. Whenever you see someone washed at the font, remember, your baptism, and carry out with all energy the mission to which you have been called. But also remember the baptism of Jesus and give thanks and praise to our own baptized God who stands by us, calls us by name, and gives us the strength to carry out the mission we all have of sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ with a world that needs it so desperately. Amen.