"Matter Matters" (sermon)

Chetwynd Shared Ministry

January 7, 2017 - The Baptism of Our Lord

Scripture:  Mark 1:4-11 (with a brief reference to Genesis 1:1-5)

I invite you to think of some of the more memorable meals that you’ve had.  Maybe you’re thinking of a holiday meal like Christmas or Thanksgiving with your family gathered around a large table, celebrating together.  Or maybe you’re thinking of a dinner party where the atmosphere and the guests just clicked and the meal became more than it would have been otherwise.  Or maybe you’re thinking about a restaurant meal where the food and the service and the atmosphere were something extra special.

I’m thinking of a dinner at my apartment in Nova Scotia in January, 3 years ago.  I’d just finished my first semester at school and I invited 5 classmates over to share a roast chicken.  We didn’t know each other very well yet, but as the meal progressed, the stories that we shared became deeper and the laughter became louder.  When we finally left the table at midnight, our friendship was cemented, and when I think back to that meal, there is a warm glow that hovers in my dining room.

Now I want you to take a moment and imagine what your special meal would have been like without the food.  No smell of roasting turkey wafting through the house.  Empty glasses raised in a toast.  Empty dishes being passed around the table.  Cutlery clattering on empty plates.  No food changes this memorable meal into something memorable but for very different reasons.  Food is important.  Food changes things.

We are not purely spiritual beings – we have physical bodies as well, and our physical selves need food and water to survive and thrive.  And that’s OK.  This morning we read the start of the first chapter of Genesis where God created the physical world, and God saw that the physical world was good.  God made matter, so matter matters.

Most churches around the world, including all four of our denominations, recognize two sacraments that were instituted by Jesus – baptism and communion.  I am drawn to St. Augustine’s definition of a sacrament.  What he wrote 1600 years ago still resonates with me today.  Augustine wrote that a sacrament is a visible sign of God’s invisible grace.  A visible sign of God’s invisible grace.

God’s grace, God’s love is invisible.  We can’t see it, we can’t reach out and touch it, but it is always there.  But since we are physical beings, made of matter, of cells and molecules and atoms, God has given us physical, material ways to experience God’s love.  Ways that we can see and touch and taste and smell and hear God’s love.

The water of baptism, and the bread and wine of communion – they don’t replace God’s love, but instead they are signs – they point us towards God’s love.  Just as a stop sign doesn’t directly stop our car, but directs us to stop, the sacraments direct us towards experiencing the always-present, never-ending love of God.

When a person is baptized, either as a baby or as an adult, we don’t baptize just with words, it isn’t just a spiritual baptism where we know that the Holy Spirit has descended on this person.  Instead, there is water as well as words – water that we can hear being poured, water that we can see, water that we can touch.

When we gather around the table, we gather with words, but we also gather to share the bread and the wine – bread and wine that we can smell, taste, and see.

God made matter, so matter matters; but God also became matter in the person of Jesus Christ.  We’ve just finished the season of Christmas when we celebrated the time when God didn’t just put on humanity like a coat, but God actually became human.  God loves us so much that God became one of us.  God not only made matter, but God became matter, so matter really matters.

And we are given these sacraments so that our material selves – our flesh and blood – has something material to touch and taste so that the love of God can be made real to us.

Today’s gospel reading is from the beginning of Mark’s gospel.  Now Mark doesn’t give us any birth stories like Matthew and Luke do.  Mark’s gospel begins with John the baptizer appearing in the wilderness, and the first appearance of Jesus is when he comes to John and is baptized by John in the Jordan River.

Again, this isn’t a purely spiritual baptism – there is physical water present.  Jesus waded into the river, went under the surface of the water, and came back up out of the water again.  And then Jesus saw the heavens torn apart and he saw the Spirit descending like a dove, and a voice from heaven said to Jesus, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

If we were to flip to the very end of Mark’s gospel, we would see a parallel event happening.  Here, at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, the heavens are torn apart, God is no longer contained or separated from God’s creation, and God’s voice says to Jesus, “You are my Son.”

At the end of Mark’s gospel, at the moment when Jesus dies, the curtain of the temple is torn apart.  Now the curtain of the temple separated the Holy of Holies, the place where God lived, from the rest of the temple.  Again, when this separating curtain is torn, God is no longer confined to one space, no longer separated from the rest of creation.  And at that moment, a Roman Centurion who witnessed and likely participated in the crucifixion of Jesus announced to the world, “Truly this man was God’s son.”

We’ve gone from the tearing of the heavens and a voice telling Jesus that he was God’s son, to the tearing of the curtain of the temple and a voice telling the world that Jesus was God’s son.  The beginning of Jesus’ ministry; and the beginning of the ministry of the church, the whole body of Christ.

In that moment of Jesus’ baptism, the whole Trinity is present.  The heavens are torn apart, and God descends like a dove and rests upon God, and the voice of God says, “You are my Son, the Beloved.”  And when we baptize in our church today, we baptize in the name of this same Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Our sacraments then, are this fabulous place where the physical and spiritual meet.  In the physical elements of the water, bread, and wine, we encounter God.  Because the heavens were torn apart, because the curtain of the temple was torn apart, because Jesus Christ was fully human and fully God, God is fully present in our world.  One of my favourite theologians, Richard Rohr, writes, “God is always present in the bread.  We just need to bring our hunger.”

In baptism, we make a covenant with God.  God is always present, and God’s love is always with us, but it is formalized in baptism.  We, or our parents, make promises, and we hear that we are a beloved child of God.  The Holy Spirit hovers over the waters of our baptism, just as the Holy Spirit hovered over Jesus at his baptism.  And as a sign of God’s love, and as a sign of the promises that are made, water is sprinkled or poured or we are fully immersed in it.

And in the meal of Holy Communion, we are reminded of God’s love for us.  We are reminded of God’s faithfulness in all generations, and we are strengthened in our faith.  The Holy Spirit hovers over the bread and the wine, and hovers over all of us when we gather at the table, closer to us than our very breath.  And we eat and we drink together, uniting us in that overwhelming love of God.  This isn’t a meal without food – empty glasses and bare plates.  This is a meal where God is present through the Holy Spirit in real bread and real wine.

God is fully present in the world – nothing can separate us from God and from God’s love.  Our sacraments are physical, tangible signs that point us to that love.  God made physical matter; God became physical matter, and so matter matters.  We are not just spiritual beings, but we are physical beings as well, and through the sacraments, God cares for us, and nourishes us, both physically and spiritually.

Let us pray:

Holy God,

            you are closer to us than our very breath.

When we forget you,

            remind us of your love,

            remind us that we are your beloved children,

            and remind us that you will never leave us.

Strengthen us through the water and bread and wine,

            so that we might know you more clearly,

            love you more dearly,

            and follow you more nearly,

                        day, by day, by day.

Amen.

(Remembering our Baptism)