"Heavenly Showers" by Keith Wagner
"Reversing Course" by Keith Wagner
"What's Good About It?" by C. David McKirachan
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Heavenly Showers
by Keith Wagner
Psalm 29
Psalm 29 is known as the thunderstorm psalm. We all have memories of summer storms ruining family picnics, graduation ceremonies or Sunday afternoons on the beach. There isn’t anything we can do about them but we complain nevertheless.
We live in a culture that puts a lot of emphasis on comfort and control. We don’t like interruptions. We don’t like things beyond our control messing up our plans. In fact, few people make provisions for rain. When my daughter graduated from Ohio State in 1998, it rained the entire day. But, Ohio State had no “rain” plan. There wasn’t a space large enough to accommodate tens of thousands of people. Since it has only rained twice in the last 50 years on graduation day, they didn’t worry about a rain plan.
On her graduation day my daughter was soaked from head to toe. They didn’t cancel the graduation ceremony until after the entire graduating class had walked into the stadium. The class of 1998 graduated and they also got baptized.
On the day of his baptism, Jesus got wet. It became the pivotal moment in his life. Following his baptism he embarked on his mission proclaiming the kingdom of God. It was the commissioning ceremony for his future ministry. From then on he was in a constant contest, struggling with human beings who would resist God and God’s ways.
To be truly baptized is about getting wet, moving in a new direction, being committed to change and living in the newness of God. The heavens opened up on Jesus the day of his baptism but not as a thunderstorm. What came from the heavens was the Spirit of God who descended upon him. From then on his life’s journey would involve all of his strength, all of his knowledge and all of his faith. He was rejected, misunderstood, debated, considered a threat and ultimately put to death, but he prevailed.
In Mark’s gospel John told his listeners that Jesus would baptize us with the Holy Spirit. In other words God gives us something that no one else can give us; God gives us heart.
In a past column in The Dayton Daily News, Tom Archdeacon said that the Ohio State football team has something that other football teams don’t have. They had heart. That was evidenced by their willingness to be in every game to the very end. What they lacked in talent they made up for in guts and determination.
Every one of us has power within that can sustain us through anything we face. But you might ask, how do I know for sure that God is with me?
One summer I chartered a sailing yacht on the Chesapeake Bay. It was not my first charter, but the first time I was the only experienced sailor on board. Previously a good friend has assured me that I could command such a craft and navigate the bay. As my mentor in sailing he had given me the confidence to complete my first “solo” charter on the bay.
In sailing you only need a few knots of wind to come about. It doesn’t take a strong wind. Changes and commitments in our lives can also be made with a single minor adjustment or a slight variation.
To try different things and make changes in our lives God wants us to be open to His Spirit. The Spirit of God landed on Jesus like a dove. When a dove lands it lands ever so gently and peacefully, descending to its perch. I believe that the spirit of God does much the same for us. It isn’t some grandiose, loud fanfare like a thunderstorm that we experience when we are contemplating a change. Rather, it is a slight, gentle nudge that we feel, a reminder that God is upon us, blessing us and giving us strength to persevere.
* * * * * *Reversing Course
by Keith Wagner
Mark 1:4-11
Recently there was a story about some folks near Portland, Maine who jumped into the icy waters of the Atlantic Ocean on New Year’s Day. They have an annual tradition there where folks take the plunge on one of the coldest days of the year. Old Orchard Beach holds its annual Lobster Dip at the Brunswick Hotel.
My wife and I have been to Old Orchard Beach only in July. Even then it’s not all that warm. I can’t imagine swimming in the frigid waters of the Atlantic in January. But, sometimes people do some very odd things because it gives them a sense of purpose. The Lobster Dip is one of those events, although extreme, it provides an important service for their community. The event is actually a fund raiser for Special Olympics. For those who participate it is a rite of passage, a kind of baptism which brings folks together and the exposure to the icy waters can be very humbling.
Baptism is a rite of passage. It is a sacrament which links every one of us with the Church and Jesus Christ. Here we have an account of Jesus’ baptism. Only he didn’t submit himself to the cold waters of the Atlantic, Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River. Unlike the clean water that we sprinkle on those we baptize today, Jesus took a dip in water that was very muddy.
At that time the Jews had a rite of purification where they bathed in water that was pure. The Jews had to experience the rite of ritual purification in order to meet the requirements of Jewish law. John, on the other hand, baptized his followers in water that was unclean. I believe that this may have been intentional. John’s followers humbled themselves by taking a dip in the muddy waters of the Jordan. For John’s followers baptism was all about being part of the community of faith and humbling oneself.
One Christmas break my wife and I had an opportunity to stay at Shem’s Creek Inn on Shem Creek in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. Mt. Pleasant is across the bay from Charleston. When I inquired about a room the clerk asked if I wanted a room on the marsh side or the creek side. The creek side was more expensive but the view on the marsh side was not so pleasant. I said that I would rather be on the creek side. I was willing to pay a few extra dollars to avoid the muddy marsh at Shem Creek.
I believe most of us would rather avoid the muddy waters of life. We like everything neat, clean and orderly. Didn’t our grandmother teach us that “cleanliness was next to Godliness?” But, life in the Christian faith is not always clean, orderly and tidy. There are times when we find ourselves in very messy conditions.
When we follow God we start by getting muddy. The folks in Maine did more than just go for an icy swim. They held the event to raise funds for a worthy cause. They were volunteering their time and resources to help kids who were at a disadvantage. In the process it created a real sense of community as every one got wet together.
Those who were baptized by John got wet but John’s baptism went beyond getting wet. He preached “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” In other words, baptism had to do with changing the direction of one’s life. The most common word for repentance is “to turn back.” It means we make a conscious decision to change the direction of our lives and follow God. It means we reverse our course.
During the Civil War winter had just settled over Virginia, and both sides had slowed their fighting considerably. In the Confederate camps there was a devout chaplain by the name of Willie Ragland. Reverend Ragland preached the Gospel with fervor and a soldier by the name of Goodwin was converted. Goodwin seized upon the idea of being baptized in the nearby Rapidan River, which was the dividing line between the Confederate and Union troops in that area. Confederate officers tried to discourage the idea, knowing that any man who approached the river was sure to picked off by Union snipers. But Goodwin was determined to be baptized into his newfound faith, so the officers finally agreed.
Reverend Ragland, Goodwin, and about fifty Confederate soldiers left their weapons behind and made their way cautiously down to the river. Union soldiers, perplexed by these unarmed men wading out into icy waters, held their fire. Then, the Confederate soldiers began to sing: "There is a fountain filled with blood, Drawn from Emmanuel's veins; And sinners plunged beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains." Some of the Union soldiers, moved by the sight, left their weapons too, and, lining up along the opposite side of riverbank, joined their voices in singing.
It was one little moment of peace during an awful war. It would not be long before both sides were once again fighting and killing each other. But there was that one astounding moment when both sides gathered to honor the work of the Lord and managed to be at peace. (From: John H. Leeper & Barbara Moseley, "Revival in the Camp,”- The Old South Farmer's Almanac, 1998, pp. 115-116)
Peace is possible when we are willing to reverse our course and come together. It was true for those soldiers during the civil war and it can be true for us. Baptism brings us together to each other and closer to God. Baptism is a rite of passage where we reverse the course of our lives and follow in the ways of God.
Rev. Dr. Keith Wagner is the pastor of St. John's UCC in Troy, Ohio. He has served churches in Southwest Ohio for over three decades. He is an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ and has an M.Div. from Methodist Theological School, Delaware, Ohio, and a D.Min. from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. He has also been an adjunct professor at Edison Community College, Piqua, Ohio. He and his wife, Lin, live in Springfield, Ohio.
* * * * * *What’s Good About it?
C. David McKirachan
Genesis 1: 1-5
People have told me that God doesn’t need to send us to Hell. We’re already there. A physicist asked me rhetorically, if God thought light was good, how come He didn’t make more of it? Another one offered that Quantum Mechanics gave him some comfort because it allows the possibility of other realities beyond our own. So he can see that God had a few rough drafts, including our own. No wonder we live in such difficulty.
Whether that makes sense to you or not, we can all agree life is not easy. As I like to tell the congregation, “Life has edges.” Sometimes they bruise or even cut us. The assurance of the creation story is not that life is wonderful for us at all turns, but that God created it and found it good.
When my first son was learning how to walk, his head resembled a topographic representation of Tibet. He had lumps and bumps representing falls galore. I did the best I could to catch him, to try my best to pad his collisions with the hard edges that surrounded him as he learned to establish his balance and navigate our environment. That’s our job as parents and caring people, not only for our own children but for anyone we see teetering in life. That’s why we try to help the poor, the addict, the refugee, and countless others who are having a hard time navigating past life’s edges. For them it seems that life isn’t all that good, and for some, it can seem a living hell.
The kid stopped falling so much, and left the head bumps behind. That was a relief. But he had other obstacles and risks to navigate. Along the way I tried to teach him that bumps are part of growing. We have to get used to the edges we face, whether we’re learning to walk, or becoming an adult, or becoming a spouse, or being a parent, or retiring, or getting a job, or losing a job, or getting older, or... But through all the bumps and bruises, there are opportunities to remember that life isn’t about the moments of success, failure, pain, or joy. It’s about all of them. Our lives are inclusive gifts. Good gifts given to us by the One who made the whole thing. And in each of our lives are glories, bits of the glory that was there at the beginning. I don’t pretend to have answers to the great and sweeping questions, or solutions to the difficult and weighty problems, or healing for all the pain. But through it all I know that the One who made us, lived among us and got His own bumps and bruises, hit some pretty sharp edges, and still found the glory in the moment.
Somehow that’s good enough for me.
C. David McKirachan is pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Shrewsbury in central New Jersey. He also teaches at Monmouth University. Two of his books, I Happened Upon a Miracle and A Year of Wonder, have been published by Westminster John Knox Press. McKirachan was raised in a pastor's home and he is the brother of a pastor, and he has discovered his name indicates that he has druid roots. Storytelling seems to be a congenital disorder. He lives with his 21-year-old son Ben and his dog Sam.
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StoryShare, January 11, 2015, issue.
Copyright 2015 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
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