God Will Make A Way

We all go on journeys in life: college, marriage, new job, retirement.  Journeys begin and end with the rhythm of life.  I've found that spending some time with the Exodus story gives me a better idea how to live out the journeys I travel in life.  Maybe that's why I want to spend 6 weeks preaching on that whole story.  We know bits and pieces of course: crossing the Red Sea, manna and quail in the wilderness, the ten commandments, and finally crossing the Jordan to reach the promised land.  And what strikes me about each scene is that through it all they whine and complain and doubt and beg Moses to go back to slavery in Egypt.

I can relate.  It's easier to live with the slavery we know, the chains we are comfortable with, rather than venture out into uncertainty and the unknown.  It's easier to stay in that job you hate, instead of take the leap to look for another, possibly better job.  It's easier to stay in that relationship that is not right for you, instead of getting back into the dating scene again.  It's easier to stay stuck in the same old routine, in life, in church, in your family, rather than break away from that cycle to do something different.  It's easier to keep silent when we hear racist or hurtful remarks, instead of speaking up and challenging those comments. 

So on one hand, I try not to beat myself up when I have thoughts of going back to Egypt.  When I want to regress and return to a simpler but unhealthy way of life.  At the same time, I remember that God was faithful in leading the Israelites to the promised land.  That even with the whining and complaining and doubting and begging to go back, God persevered with the people God loved so much.  God was faithful to the end.  God is faithful even now.  God will always be faithful.

So when you have moments of regretting your bold decision to move forward in life, or you can't seem to make that decision to break away from the slavery you find yourself in, just remember that God can make a way when there seems to be no way.  God will remain faithful even when we aren't.  Thanks be to God!

Baptism: Jesus' Coming Out Party

Have you ever thought about why Jesus was baptized?  I mean, if baptism is about forgiving sin then Jesus didn't need to be baptized since he never sinned.  If baptism is about joining the church, Jesus didn't need to be baptized since there was no church to join at that point, at least not an organized one.  So why was Jesus baptized?

Part of the answer has to do with the scene at his baptism.  Mark records in the fifth verse of the first chapter, "And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him (John), and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins."  Imagine hundreds and hundreds of people all gathered along the river bank, some in the water, some lined up to be next, some just observing as spectators.  Then comes Jesus.  Jesus wasn't baptized because he needed to be.  He was baptized because WE needed him to be.

Baptism was Jesus' coming out party.  He came out to humanity as God's Son, publicly announced by God's own voice and the descending of the Holy Spirit.  After living 30 years on this earth, it was time for multitudes of people to know who he really was.  It was time for humanity, then and now, to experience Jesus, not just as a good guy or even a good prophet, but as the Son of the Living God. 

Jesus plunged into the same muddy river Jordan as hundreds of others that John baptized, uniting in solidarity with them and with us.  Identifying himself with humanity, broken and struggling, Jesus joined the masses in order to reveal who he was.  Now they knew.  Now they could follow.  Now they caught a glimpse, not of Jesus of Nazareth, but of Jesus the Christ.

May we too catch a glimpse of Jesus the Christ as we remember his baptism this Sunday.  May we participate in his coming out party as we rejoice that he is Son of the Living God, Lord of all creation, and Savior of humanity.  At Christmas we believed, we hoped, we kept the faith that the Savior was born.  Now we know for sure, for we too are invited to be witnesses to Jesus at his coming out party.