January 10, 2010
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Sermon Preached by the Rev. Sam Frazier, Vicar
Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Haw River, NC
January 10, 2010
1st Sunday after Epiphany, Year C
This Sunday we are given an important question: CAN WE ACTUALLY KNOW THE UNIVERSE? Or to take it one step further to the context of the Epiphany, CAN WE ACTUALLY KNOW THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE WHO HAS BEEN REVEALED TO US?
We ask this question in the season of Epiphany, because the Greek word EPIPHANY means to make known. The early church established this season, because it wanted a special time when the emphasis was to have all the world know that Jesus Christ is the light of the world.
During the Epiphany season we reflect on the significance of Christ becoming flesh and dwelling among us. The season begins with the Day of Epiphany, January 6th, and continues until Lent begins. In our Sunday worship we hear Bible stories beginning with the journey of the Wise Men, and including the story of the baptism of Jesus and the story of Jesus’ first miracle at the wedding in Cana. All of these stories proclaim that God offers salvation to all people and that he is truly present in the person of Jesus Christ.
And that message, namely that God has come in the person of Jesus Christ, is just what the Gospel is about this morning! Consider the scene: John the Baptist has become famous, and people were coming from all over the country to see him and to be baptized by him. Jewish practice in those days included the use of water for religious purification as well as baptism by which new converts were admitted to Judaism. Today’s Gospel begins with these words: THE PEOPLE WERE FILLED WITH EXPECTATION, AND ALL WERE QUESTIONING IN THEIR HEARTS CONCERNING JOHN, WHETHER HE MIGHT BE THE MESSIAH…
But John would not take that role. He knew that he was not the Messiah, and when he baptized Jesus, he recognized Jesus as the Messiah. He immediately knew who Jesus was. Here on the banks of the Jordan River, God revealed himself to mankind. The Gospel puts it this way: THE HEAVEN WAS OPENED, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT DESCENDED UPON HIM IN BODILY FORM LIKE A DOVE. AND A VOICE CAME FROM HEAVEN, YOU ARE MY SON, THE BELOVED; WITH YOU I AM WELL PLEASED.
One of the most important things we Christians have to learn is that this person, this God, who has come to us in Jesus Christ, is personal and immediate. He is not aloof and impersonal at all! This is the God who comes to us daily, not in a formula, or through a high tech microscope, but in the earthiness of the human experience. This is Epiphany at its biblical best. A God revealed up close and personal - a God in your face. This is not a God beyond life, a God confined to the realm of unseen spirit, but rather this is a God of flesh and blood who is totally concerned with healing and saving and loving you and me.
This is definitely not the same revelation of God you would imagine being observed through the lenses of the giant Hubble telescope, or in a strand of DNA under an electron microscope, or the one that the Russian cosmonaut, Yuri Gargarin, claimed not to see while orbiting the earth. Our God is truly a God IN OUR FACE. He is a God who bumped along in the womb as his mother rode a donkey to Bethlehem. He is a God who suckled at Mary’s breast. He is a God who practiced a carpenter’s trade that he learned from his father Joseph. He is a God who grew up with his brothers and sisters in a little village named Nazareth. He is a God who suffered and died as a public spectacle. He is a God who rose from the dead.
The mystery that we Christians are asked to embrace is not that Jesus is God, but that he is God made man. He had the feelings and doubts and joys and agonies of being a human being. Jesus himself made a point of emphasizing that fact. He taught in parables rather than in abstract theories. He told stories. He had friends. He got to places late. He loved parties. He misunderstood the actions of others. He wept. He felt disappointment. He asked as many questions as he gave answers. And he was often silent in self doubt or elusive or afraid. These are all the actions and feelings of God made man. God made human. God made in your image and in my image.
My friends, this is the God into whose arms we abandon ourselves in baptism. This is the God to whom we entrust our lives, and the One into whom we die in order to live as Divine servants of Christ. This is the God who reaches out to us and grasps us and fills us with Divine Love. Our God may be the God of the philosophers, and he may be the God of the scientists too. But he is also the GOD OF ABRAHAM, ISAAC, AND JACOB. And most of all, he is your God and he is my God. Today, right now. Thanks be to God! AMEN.
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