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January 14, 2007
The Rev. John Auer
Scripture: Isaiah
62:1-5, 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, John 2:1-11
“Final Answer: I
Love You – and You Can Do Something about It!”
If the choir had not planned already to sing “This Little Light of Mine,” I
might not have made this connection with Deidre Pike’s “Obituary” for UNR School
of Journalism Dean Cole Campbell in the Reno News and Review this week.
Cole died in a single-care accident on the ice January 5. Our congregation
connects strongly with the school. As Sheila says, January is not a good month
for the school. Our own beloved Travis Linn, then dean, died four years ago
this month. Ted Conover now lives in Minden. Jim Ellis and Saundra Keyes are
here. Deidre Pike remembers Dean Campbell –
In early December, I had a conversation with my
boss Cole Campbell, dean of the UNR’s Reynolds School of Journalism. My goal:
Convince him not to sing the little ditty he’d sung in May with graduating
seniors.
“Too juvenile,” I argued. “Too kindergarten
Sunday School.” Campbell grinned and nodded. But as the son of an Episcopal
minister, he knew the power inherent in a song with sticky lyrics and simple
melody.
On Dec. 9, Campbell addressed the graduating
class of journalism students for what would be his last time. He told them that
it’s OK to toot their own horns, to be proud of their accomplishments and to use
idea learned in college to better their worlds. “That’s why we’re going to
sing,” he said, holding up his finger. “This little light of mine, I’m going to
let it shine.”
Sounds like our kind of
leader, and sounds like this kind of service: Washed anew in the pure love of
God, the waters from heaven come down for each one of us! Knowing the universe
loves us and calls us each by name! Let us toot our own horns! Be proud of our
accomplishments! And use the ideas we learn here to better our worlds! Deidre
cites the New York Times calling Campbell “one of the first newspaper
editors to embrace the idea that journalism should help readers be engaged
citizens.” Amen!
She calls this “civic
journalism” and says Campbell was working on his own doctoral degree in “Public
Discourse and Democratic Practice.” How about a parallel thesis for us:
“Prophetic Discourse and Christian Practice”? Makes me wonder and even hope we
can distinguish between a traditional kind of “civil” religion that comforts the
state, and a new kind of “civic” religion that confronts it!
Civil religion often ends
up in blind deferential obedience to the state and to the orders of its
leaders. “Civic religion” today (in the powerful way of Dr. King!) needs to
stand on it own stories, songs, symbols, traditions and new revelations -- while
engaging the state in critical yet constructive dialogue and debate. But if
and when the state refuses listen, we must be free under God above every state
and nation to practice creative nonviolent disobedience to the state! We may
well be at such a moment about this war – even about war itself. It is killing
us!
Deidre concludes her obit
for Cole with another word for us about every worship day -- our call to
creative nonviolent servant leadership (Such as we celebrate in congregational
leaders today!), and our hopes for all the world’s children –
Recently, he’d copied an inspirational bit,
listing nouns in all caps: “LUST*
PASSION*GREED*GRAVITY*RIVERS*EARTHQUAKES*TSUNAMIS*IDEAS*
IDEOLOGY*IMAGINATION*WAR*FAMINE*PESTILENCE*DISEASE.” The caption read: “Many
forces have shaped the world. We specialize in two.” Highlighted were “IDEAS”
and “IMAGINATION.” Let it shine.
Let it shine! As we heard
the World War II-era poet Frank Horne say last week of “a Kid / born in a manger
/ with an idea in his head . . .” – “we’ve all / got to go chasing stars / again
/ in the hope / that we can get back / some of that / Kid Stuff / born two
thousand years ago –" Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine . . .
Our Youth Group has been
known to quote God as saying, “I love you! And there’s nothing you can do about
it!” And that’s right! And that’s the first word about baptism – It is purely
the action, the outreaching and the outpouring of God’s love for each and every
child born anywhere anytime on this earth! Without the waters of life provided
by the Word of God before anything else ever was, there would be none of us born
or sustained of any species.
Water is literally the
source and the stuff of all life – above us, below us, all around us all the
time! Up to 83 percent of our body weight (90 percent in a child!) is water.
Even 80 percent of our brains! We replace two liters of water in our systems
everyday! Go without it for more than 70 hours, and we are about to die!
Earth’s surface is covered by almost three-quarters water. Earth’s orbit is
sustained by the movement and flow of the waters. We cannot live long within
it. We cannot live long without it. We are deeply and desperately
water-dependent.
So the first action of
baptism is always the God-given one, what might be called the vertical dimension
of the cross -- love pouring down freely and fully upon each one of us from on
high. There is nothing we can do about God’s essential love for us. That is
the nature of “covenant” we renew in our lives today – You will be my people, I
will be your God -- and nothing in all creation ever has to separate one from
the other! Things DO separate us, of course. But nothing HAS to! Even when we
do separate from God, God like that prodigal father/ mother comes to the door
everyday looking far down the road for us return!
Then what might be called
the horizontal dimension of the cross connects us not only with God but also
with one another. Like the arms of Jesus spread out on the cross, love connects
us with every other anywhere anytime on this earth! Jesus gently rebukes his
always urgent mother at the wedding feast in Cana. He says about the messianic
miracle he comes to fulfill -- “My hour has not yet come.” By which John’s
gospel means the hour Jesus is “lifted up” on the cross, arms spread as far as
divinely and humanly possible, gathering in love all persons unto him – whether
or not they/we even know it or name him! In that sense, God loves us, and there
IS something we can do about it: We can love one another! With arms so
outstretched as to touch every other on earth . . .
The quilters are meeting
this week for retreat. Quilters make wholeness by piecing together scraps from
their stash – like this lovely stole! I read this last week about string that
may serve in a similar way. Writes Fr. Joseph Nassal in the National
Catholic Reporter --
The poet Don Hall tells a story about searching
in his grandfather’s attic. Among all the boxes stacked and stored, he found
one that was filled with short pieces of string. The box was marked: “String to
short to be saved.”
Maybe Hall’s grandfather was onto something. A
tiny piece of string is useless by itself but tie it to another and who knows:
We may have enough rope to hang on for a day, a life, or an eternity even.
String too short to save might seem like a loose
end. But when two people tie their loose ends together, they tie a knot and
call it love.
What is a congregation but a lot of loose ends
tied in a knot called love?! What is a marriage or holy union? What is any
covenant? Loose ends called love!
Weddings remain a major
ministry of this congregation and staff. Not quite like the days before wedding
chapels! Sue Roberts as wedding coordinator and I do all we can to impress upon
couples that they are making public their private connections and commitments.
They are even making political their personal connections and commitments!
Because the way we do weddings, the church ends up working the wedding and
issuing the license -- for the state! Wouldn’t you think we would get something
to say about whose loving, lasting, committed and covenanted relationships can
be recognized by the church and the state? Should we refuse to issue licenses
for any until we can issue licenses for all?
Sue and I help couples see
weddings as real worship and celebration – in the spirit of this wedding Jesus
blesses at Cana – when he keeps the party going at all costs! Jesus has been
called the equivalent to “party animal” – “drunkard” and “glutton!” Here he
creates new wine -- even at the cost of traditional waters for purification.
With Jesus love always trumps purity. With Jesus, the best wine never gets lost
in the past but always is yet to come! So be sure – as Ron Smith was walking
around saying at PM Group last night! -- to “Save your fork! The best is yet to
come!”
Water gives way to wine!
Judgment gives way to grace! Winter gives way to springtime! Wilderness
gives way to wedding-feast! Austerity gives way to pleasure! The “ill-humored
image of God” upheld by John the Baptist, as Shusaku Endo puts it, gives way to
these joyous young lovers and to the laughing dancing partying face of Jesus!
If Jesus IS the Messiah – as such “signs” and “epiphanies” tell us – then the
messianic age of God’s abundant provision – represented by wine and standing for
justice and joy, peace and plenty – is at hand for all the people of God!
Yet do we see it? Do we take part in it? Do we live in a time of
justice and peace for all? If not, then what right have we to claim that
Jesus is the Messiah? If we were charged with acting as if the Messiah is
here, would there be enough evidence to convict us? Where is God’s
world-wedding feast of covenant love promised by Isaiah? How are we –
individually and congregationally, privately and publicly – opening, emptying,
offering, yielding ourselves anew to the God’s living, loving, liberating,
lasting covenant with us -- this morning and this year?
Sisters and brothers, all we need do is take the first step! Just
stretch out our hand – far as any one of us can stretch at this moment – and God
will take it! And God will lead us, guide us, push us, even carry us if
God must – in whatever ways each and all of us are to go! Sometimes we
will go the same way, sometimes we will go different ways – but God is no less
loving God of us all!
That is why Paul says God’s
Spirit is in every last equal and vital gift of every last person and part of
this congregation and body of Christ! No one part may judge any other part, or
the contribution any one of us makes! No part may say any other part is not
needed, is not deserving of just as much equality of access and parity of result
as any other part of the body! God is lover not scorekeeper of persons. No one
can earn or deserve more of God’s goodness than any other.
In closing (ah! those magical words!), let us come to the waters to celebrate
Jesus’ baptism and the covenant of God’s universal love and embrace on this
morning! This morning baptismal and universal waters are met as one in us!
Creation herself – with God from the very beginning! – right here, right now, is
at hand! We can touch her, feel her, see her, hear her, smell her, taste
her -- in this and in every element and sacrament! Come splash in that
“Grace beyond nature and history,” invites our liturgy! Each one of us,
like Earth herself, is made out of our own “non-being!” Each one brought
safely thus far through floods of whatever making! Each one given in Jesus
a way through all waters -- even the waters of death! To a New Way of
being and doing! A baptism not only of convention but of intention!
A last and first time! Fresh start! New covenant! New name!
(Have you ever heard Roberta Flack sing “I Told Jesus It Would Be All Right If
He Changed My Name”? Please do!) New lease on God’s love!
Were it not for our brother
Jim Ellis, also of the School of Journalism, I might not read much off the
New York Times, or even know the Wall Street Journal exists!
Jim passes me stories and columns, I am glad to say – including this one of
David Brooks quoting the late wife of Calvin Trillin from Trillin’s book about
her –
At one point, Alice was working at a camp for
children with genetic disorders. She wondered how one child, L., could be so
cheerful, even though she never grew nor could digest food. Then she saw a
letter from L’s mother: “If God had given us all of the children in the world to
choose from, we would only have chosen you.” Alice pulled aside Trillin:
“Quick. Read this. It’s the secret of life.”
Brothers and sisters, out
of, and along with, all God’s children in this world, God has chosen you . . .
and you . . . and you . . . and even me. Quick! Believe this! It is the
secret of life!! Amen.
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