January 9, 2005
First Sunday after the Epiphany

“And a voice from heaven said, “This is my son, the Beloved,
with whom I am well pleased.”  -- Matthew 3:17

I would like to avoid the error of the pastor who has a niche in the preacher’s Hall of Fame for saying to the congregation one Sunday morning, “Before I begin my sermon I have something to say.”

Before I begin the sermon I want to wish each of you individually and collectively, as the people of the Old South Church in Boston, a blessed and joyous New Year.

And what an exciting and wonderful New Year it promises to be as you eagerly await the arrival of Nancy Taylor as your next Senior Minister at the end of this month.  You will be in my prayers as you begin this amazing journey together.

Let us pray:

Everlasting God, by a star you led Magi to the worship of your Son, guide the nations of the earth by your light, that the whole world may see your glory.  Thanks be to you for the light which shines in the darkness an which the darkness has never been able to overcome.  Now open your Word to our hearts and our hearts to your Word.  In the spirit of Jesus Christ, the bright morning star.  Amen.

We will never know why. . .

We will never know why Jesus closed the door of the carpenter’s shop and walked to the river Jordan to be baptized by Cousin John.  In the quiet of the carpenter shop did an angel appear, as angels appeared at his birth?  Did the spirit of the Living God stir anew within Jesus on a long afternoon’s walk?  In Israel, anyone entering into public life did so at age thirty.  Maybe that’s reason enough.

Or perhaps in the synagogue, listening to the rabbi reading scripture, while others are dozing and day dreaming, something strikes Jesus and he says, “That’s it!”

Or maybe he remembers something he saw as a teenager south of Nazareth.  The Romans came in and gathered up some of the men of the town and strung them on poles along the roadside, just to warn the people that they did not want any trouble.  Ever since that day a passion has burned within the heart of Jesus for justice and fairness.  Maybe that’s it.

Perhaps it was those long conversations with his mother in the evening, after the supper dishes were cleared from the table and the younger children sent off to bed and Mary shared all those things she had been pondering in her heart since his birth.  She would not be the first mother who felt her oldest son was God-like.

Why now?  It is a good question.  I do not have the answer.  No point in asking me at coffee time; if I knew I would say so now.  It is as when a beloved parishioner comes to me at the age of 80.  “Carl, I would like to be baptized.”  O.K., but why now?

All I know is one day Jesus locks the door of the carpenter shop, throws away the key and walks to the river Jordan to be baptized by cousin John.  Jesus stands patiently in a long line of sinners and the one whom the church tells us is without sin is baptized with a baptism for the repentance of sin.  Lo, I tell you a mystery.  The mysteries of God, by the way, will only be revealed by God.

A voice says, “This is my son.”  It is a quotation from Psalm 2.  it was spoken when a King of Israel was crowned and now is spoken at Jesus’ baptism. Does this mean he is now a king and is to ride about in a carriage with silk cushions and say kingly things and elevate himself above us common folk, saying “Bow down: I am the Son of God. Now I am going to the palace and have a nap and later a fancy state dinner.”

The voice from Heaven says not only “This is my Son.”  It also says, “My beloved in whom my soul takes pleasure.”  It is a verse from Isaiah 42.  It describes the suffering servant of God, the one who lays down his life for all.  It means loving, caring for people.  Here is my Son the servant, and so it was.  Jesus is among us as the One who came not to be served, but to serve. Jesus, among many other things, was remembered by the early church, by those who knew and loved him, for his humility, for living as a servant.

Saint Paul writes to the Philippians in that marvelous hymn of praise: “Jesus humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even unto death on the cross.”   His followers remembered how Jesus said, “Whoever would be great among you must be the servant of all.”  They remembered how, on the last evening of his life, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples.

Consequently we find Saint Paul cautioning those early Christians, “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think.”  As our mothers have told us on many occasions, “Pride goes before a fall.”

Ours is a self-assertive, everybody wants to be a winner kind of culture.  We do not often hear a good word spoken on behalf of humility.  Yet humility appears to have Jesus’ Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.  Since we live in an age which appears to be on an endless ego trip, we might do well as we enter the new year to take another look at humility.  For as Winston Churchill is reported to have remarked about Clement Attlee, “He is a modest man, which is good for he has much about which to be modest.”

Humility is not weakness.  As in the words “If I had Solomon’s wisdom, possessed all the power of Atlas and moved with Mercury’s swiftness, I’d find a way to mess things up because I’d still be me.”  Or, as the fellow in the New Yorker cartoon says, “New Year resolutions, no thanks, I’m still working on the backlog from 2002.”  That may be reality, but it is not humility.

Humility is better described in Paul’s words to the Philippians which we heard read this morning, “Do nothing from ambition or conceit and in humility regard others as better than yourself.  Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others.”  Nothing here to suggest false humility or putting your self down.  Rather it is the motivator to love and care for others.  It is not that you shouldn’t pay attention to your own interests; if you don’t, who will?  But do not allow your interests to use all th oxygen in the room.  There are others besides you.

Then Paul concludes his letter, “For by the grace given me I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”  This is Christian humility.  Not sitting down and giving up, not saying the problems of the world are so great and I am so ineffective.  Christian humility gives you strength and confidence about what you can do with the help of God, and it also understands the glory, for it all belongs to God.

Consider what pride gets us, as Peter Gomes has reminded us.

Pride gets us all the troubles of the world.  Think of the pride that was Greece and Rome, and Babylon and Persia before them.  Think of the pride that was manifest in the Spanish, French and British Empires.  As in the words “O where are kings and empires now of old that went and came.”  Empire is a word we are hearing less about now than we did a year ago.  Pride may be the bittersweet harvest of what we in this world’s terms are quick to call victory.  I hope our leaders in Washington remember all this,  because it is not only their jobs and reputations which are at stake, it is our very soul as a nation which is at risk.

Do we need better leaders?  What do you think?  I am convinced we need to learn to be better followers who hold our leaders to standards worthy of following.  Throughout history it has been a combination of very bright people with a lot of power who get nations into trouble, and to keep out of it usually takes ordinary and decent people who will follow only as far as their honor and decency and sense of justice and fairness will permit.

As we enter the new year we would do well to remember the lessons the ancients never forgot: to be wise is to be modest and live humbly in the universe and to respect and even to have reverence for what we do not know and can never know.  For now, as scripture reminds us, we know only in part and that is why we each continue to need faith, hope and love which will carry us to those places in the new year where knowledge alone cannot go.

Humility is a willingness to learn from other people, especially from those who might be different from ourselves.  Humility is a willingness to welcome and embrace other people, especially those who are excluded, neglected or marginalized in our power-oriented society.  Humility is remembering the words of Jesus, “When you have done it unto one of the least of these y sisters and brothers you have done it unto me.”

It is this sense of humility which we need to bring to our conversations with each other within the church and in our dialogue with other churches and in our public voice in the world – for no one of us has a monopoly on the truth.

I am weary of those folks who use the Bible as a club to hit other people over the head and beat them into submission – as though you can just open it up and quote a passage which clears everything up.  These people who lug around a forty-two pound Bible and say, “Just do what the Book says.”

The other day I saw again the bumper sticker “God said it, I believe it, and that’s that.”  Do the people with those stickers have a clue as to how stupid that is?  No one knows it all.  We each have our doubts and questions.  Watchamacallit will freeze over before we have total faith without any questions at all.  Where is the humility?

Whenever these folks come knocking on my door it reminds me of the story of the visitor being guided around heaven by Saint Peter.  He asks St. Peter, “Who are those people making so much noise and having such a good time over there?”  “Those are the Baptists,” says St. Peter.  Next he sees a group dancing and drinking, “Those are the Methodists, free at last,” says the Apostle.  The visitor comes next upon a group of people who seem to be in an interminably long meeting with reports and motions and all of that.  “Those are the United Church of Christ people,” says St. peter, “They are busy reorganizing heaven.”  In a short time they come to a corner of heaven where a large group of people are devoutly kneeling in prayer.  “We must be very quiet,” says St. Peter, “those are the fundamentalists and they think they are the only ones here.”

I read in Frank Rich’s column in the Times a couple of weeks ago that we United Church of Christ types make poor guests on talk shows, for while we know who we are and what we believe, we also know we do not hold a monopoly on the truth and therefore are not controversial and divisive enough to hold the audience’s attention.

There are all kinds of power in this world.  There is only one kind of power which will save.  It is the power which was in Jesus Christ, a love which seeks always to empower and not overpower, a love which urges us to love justice and mercy and to walk humbly with our God and with each other.

One way you can get in touch with this power and begin to access it for yourself is by remembering your baptism.  It as Martin Luther who said, “Remember your baptism.”  How can I remember my baptism?  I was just an infant.  Well, this afternoon, phone or e-mail someone who was there on your baptismal day and ask them to share some memories.

Yet you accepted your baptism – reaffirmed your baptism – when you were confirmed and when you transferred your membership and joined this church we acknowledged again that all baptized persons are ministers of the Church of Jesus Christ.

“Remember your baptism.”  Why did Luther say that?  To make you feel guilty?  – Aha, you strayed from your baptism? No, that is not why Luther said it, for everyone of us at one time or another, in one way or another, has wandered away from our baptismal promises.  What Luther had in mind was to remember your baptism – remember you are a precious child of God, named and claimed by God, and you are to be about the work of God, serving others, challenging, confronting, working to change the structures of our society which harm, hurt and marginalize others.

When you are out there in the world struggling to do what is right, facing temptation, making hard decisions, remember your baptism.  Remember who you are and whose you are.

The New Year is a God-given opportunity in some ways to wipe the slate clean.  Each new day is a gift from God.  I wake up and pinch myself to see if I am still alive and thank God that God has given me a chance to start over, to make amends, to try again.  Not to say “Been there, done that.”  I try not to feel as Thomas Hood must have felt when he wrote, “Let me lie in bed and rest, ten thousand times I’ve done my best, all’s to do again.”

When day is over things are left undone—perhaps some unkind word spoken – good things left unsaid.  Then in the morning, thank God there is possibility and opportunity to try again.  As Paul Tillich once said, “Nothing is more surprising than the rise of the new within ourselves.”

You and I both know people who could not organize a one-car funeral procession.  Then suddenly they get in touch with this God-given second chance of opportunity and they become almost overnight, before our eyes, new women and new men.

Remember your baptism – remember you have been named and claimed by God and God still has wonderful plans for your life.

This week I went for my New Year’s haircut.  I used to enjoy going to the Towne Barbershop in Glastonbury, Ct.; five wonderful Roman Catholic Italian barbers who never asked what I did for a living.  Their own version, apparently, of “Don’t ask, don’t tell.”  So I heard all the jokes and stories, not many of which I could use in this pulpit, all the town gossip and movie reviews.  Then one day it all came to an end.  Father Joseph Bannon from St. Dunstan’s parish came in and sat in the next chair.  “Good morning, Carl.”  “Good morning, Joe.”  Silence.  Not a sound save for the scissors and the hum of the clippers.  When I left they asked Father Bannon, “Who is that guy?”  End of jokes, stories, gossip and movie reviews.

Yet I still enjoy going there and matching wits with my barber.  Steve asked me this week, “What are your plans for the New Year?”  Good question, Steve.  Stay tuned and as soon as I figure out what I will be doing next, I’ll let you know.

I ask each of you this same question:  “What are your plans for the New Year?  What would you like to change about your life?”  Begin by remembering your baptism.  You are God’s precious child, named and claimed by God.

Much of our Christian faith is learning to handle our weaknesses and dedicate our strengths.  Who said that?  I did, and I will say it again.

And what are your plans as members of the Old South Church in Boston as you eagerly await the arrival of your next Senior Minister?  What would you like to have happen in your life together in the new year?

John Wesley is famous for reminding us that we cannot change our marriage, our home, our church or our community until we first change ourselves.  We cannot bring love, hope and joy to others unless we are filled with love, joy and hope.

Praise God for the gift of the New Year.  Praise God for the gift of the Epiphany light which shines in the darkness of our own life and in the darkness of the world.  Praise God for the gift of each new day in which to cultivate friends, work cheerfully, explore hopefully, grow in faith, increase in faithfulness and live life fully.  It is never too early to try and it is never too late to try again and again and again.

Remember your baptism.

May God empower you as individuals and as a member of the Old South Church, so to live that at the end of your days you may be worthy of the inscription on a plaque on the wall of the old parish church in Kent which is dedicated to an English school master:

  As a follower he led
  As a leader he served
  And thus he set the feet of many
  Upon the path of life.

As you enter the New Year, traveling mercies, safe passage, good journey, the blessing of God be with each of you.

It is Epiphany!  Arise, shine for your light has come!  In the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the light of the world and the light of our lives. Amen.

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Copyright © 2005, Old South Church and by author.
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