“WORTHY”
Scripture Lesson: Mark 1: 4-11
Dr. Matthew S. Brown
Moths to a
flame. I’ve never seen it. You may never have witnessed it. Yet, we know what it means. It is the image we use to describe the sight
of some animate or inanimate object mysteriously but irresistibly drawn to a
location, destination, object, idol, or event.
Moths to a flame. Buzzards to road kill. Tour buses to pancake houses. Mosquitoes to your ankles. Engineers to polyester.
Lawyers to mirrors.
Televangelists to hairspray. Celebrities to rehab. Minty chocolates to my
stomach. etc
Moths to a
flame. You know someone had too much time on his
hands. For when would you ever have the
collection of moments it would take to observe moths to the extent that you
could so analyze their behavior? Moths to a flame. I’d
be embarrassed to confess I ever took the time to notice it, yet, I know what
it means. Target at Christmas. Joggers on sunny day
sidewalks. Cheesecake
Factory Friday nights. Y Chromosomes and Harley dealerships, the neighbor’s dog and your
lawn.
What is it that irresistibly
invites, entices, lures you? And, why is it you are so ensnared? I know I will never purchase that high
performance sports car in the in the mall’s common area, but there my feet take
me away from my appointed journey to
What is it that draws you
out, captures your attention? What force
moves your feet, drives you to set things aside so that you may focus on that
other thing?
Mark, with his usual
economical and spare language opens his Gospel with this image of people being
drawn out from the villages and towns, from urban centers and rural postal
routes, from their jobs, from their responsibilities, from their hobbies, their
recreational activities. It’s not a
stadium in
Out in the middle of nowhere,
down by the riverside they have come, and the focus of their attention is not
some pyrotechnic, river festival spectacle.
No, it was a rather funny looking man, lots of hair, standing waist deep
in the water. You or I, seeing such a
man would most likely avert our gaze assuming he was homeless and wanting to
avoid the inevitable plea for money.
Yet, this is the one they came out to see.
Mark says, “And people from
the whole Judean countryside and all the people of
Unsettled, restless,
disconcerted, anxious, edgy, tense, rattled.
Sometimes, you’re not sure what’s wrong, you couldn’t name it if you had
to, but you just feel deep in your bones that something’s not right,
something’s got to change. Or maybe,
nothing is particularly wrong, at least nothing you notice, but yet, something
is missing. Again, you can’t name it,
wouldn’t know it if you were to see it, but it must be out there or else you
wouldn’t be feeling so fidgety.
To the river they have
come. To this strange looking locust
breathed man they open and read the hidden chapters of their lives, hoping for
a new direction, a new chapter or at least an understanding of their anxiety.
What is the force that has
brought them out? It’s not John. O, John is important, very important. But John, self admittedly, is just a messenger,
pointing beyond himself to something, someone greater.
What is the force behind it
all? It is the same force that has
brought us here this day. O, I know,
some will say and believe, “Hey, I’m only here because my spouse, my parents
made me. Some of us, some Sundays, are
thinkin’, “Hey, I’m only here because it’s my job and I’ve got a
mortgage.” Yes, I’m sure there were
people that day complaining about their wet tunics, wondering why in the world
their loved ones thought it so important for them to be there.
But behind it all, the Spirit
of the living God was moving, is moving and moving
people into that flowing, life cleansing, life giving, life renewing stream of
faith. We should have some sense of this
because we use a whole lot of water in worship here at
William Sloane Coffin writes
that during infant baptism, he takes the child in his arms and says, “Little
child, for you Jesus Christ came, he struggled, he suffered; for you he endured
the darkness of Gethsemane, the anguish of Calvary; for you he triumphed over
death, and you, little child, know nothing of all this. But thus is confirmed the word of the
Apostle: ‘We love God because God first
loved us.’”
The same could be said to any
of us for how little we know or comprehend of what it all means. Yet, we know, we believe something, someone
beyond us is at work behind it all.
In that water, whether we’re
speaking of
When Jesus, the sinless one,
the only worthy one, that day long ago walked out to the wilderness, accepted
the offer of fruit from a group of journeyers on the same path, stood patiently
in line as others went before him, waded out into the murky river water, bowed
at his incredulous, confused cousin’s feet, and felt the water pour over his
head, he was joining the journey with us, casting his lot with us, saying that
our sins and our unsettledness would not scare him off from us.
In Mark’s presentation, those
in attendance did not see or hear what happened next - the heavens opening, the
dove descending, the voice of familial
affirmation. This interchange was
reserved for Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
It was a very private encounter with very public consequences. It was the Holy Trinity convening to say,
“Let’s get this thing started.” It was
an inauguration for the Incarnation. It
was a way of confirming and affirming the work of salvation that had already
begun.
You see, the heaven-descended
dove is not the first appearance of the Spirit in this text. For it was the Spirit of God who irresistibly
drew the people to the river that day, just as in ways beyond our
understanding, it is the Spirit of God who has brought us together this day.
Assembled in and gathered
around the river was a congregation.
From the city, from the country they had come. These pilgrims did not fully comprehend what
was taking place in their midst. But
something/someone, the very Spirit of God was moving them, was preparing them
for what God had in store for them - transformation, reconciliation,
relationship with the divine, purpose, hope, ministry, compassion, love, an eternal peaceable kingdom - the very same
things for which God is preparing us.
And like those pilgrims long ago, we may feel almost clueless about what
has brought us to this place. But the
Spirit is moving in our midst, is moving us forward in faith though we don’t
comprehend it all or even at all.
Do you fully understand what
we are doing here, where God is leading us here? I don’t, either. O, surely and troublingly, our culture is
rife with legions of self-sanctioned sanctimonious saints who speak with such
arrogant certainty of God, of God’s will and God’s work. But most of us are doing the best we can,
some days muddling through, some days sensing that light. Truthfully, some days it is faith and some
days you fear it may just be indigestion.
But the good news of the incarnation is that Jesus comes down to wade in
the muddy waters with us. He is not
offended by our doubts, He does not cower from our
questions. His love just will not let us
go. His Spirit will not let us
loose.
Those people stood still in
the flowing waters of the
##