The Park Road Pulpit
Sermons from Park Road Baptist Church
Russ and Amy Jacks Dean, Pastors
Sweeping and Hovering and Moving and Brooding:
The Way God Works With Water
Mark 1:4-11
Amy Jacks Dean, January 12, 2003
We awoke on January 1, 2003 on the coast of South Carolina, wishing one another “Happy New Year.” We ate a simple vacation breakfast of cereal, bagel, powdered donuts. We packed snacks and bundled up to meet Jerry, our kayaking guide. We found our way to the little boat ramp on the Broad Creek. A few other folks gathered and waited while a pick up truck, loaded with kayaks, backed down into the water. After a brief kayaking lesson, on land, we loaded into our boats. The question remained, “Who was the least likely to turn me over – a 4 year old or a 6 six year old?” We opted that I would be safest with the oldest. It was slightly overcast and a little windy. The plan was to head against the tide, into the wind, toward the ocean, knowing that the return trip would be a breeze. After only a brief stint of going in a circle/getting caught sideways in the current/stuck on the muddy bank, I finally got the hang of paddling and guiding this boat up the river. With every stroke of the paddle, I thought little of how sore I would be the next day, because in that moment I was ushering in a New Year with a strong wind in my face and my family by my side.
Live oysters lined the banks of the Broad Creek. We watched carefully for a dolphin, though we never saw one. We pulled up baskets set for crabs and saw up close all kinds of sea creatures from that muddy bottom. Our guide, Jerry seemed to enjoy pointing out every bird – filling us in on their habits and personalities – as if this were the only trip she would ever get to guide. We enjoyed most the pelican – watching him sweep over the ocean, watching him hover over the face of the waters, watching him move over the surface of the deep, watching him brood over his next meal. And then, with all force and power, with all precision and determination, that pelican would swoop down and pound through the ocean’s ceiling and snatch his prey right out of the water. And I used to think that that was precisely how God dealt with water. I used to think that God hovered over us, swooping in and out of our lives – sometimes explained by works righteousness, sometimes explained by prayer, sometimes chalked up to good ole grace– but God did watch us closely and did unpredictably intervene, diving into our lives to either rescue us or punish us.
Our passage today from Genesis is appropriate because it shows us how God, from the beginning, works with water. “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept (or other translations `hovered,’ `moved,’ `brooded’) over the face of the waters.” In this creation account, God is nothing like the pelican. Rather this story tells that at wind from God sweeps over the water. A wind from God hovers over the water. A wind from God moves over the water. A wind from God broods over the water.
I have come to understand that God is nothing like the pelican over the water. God is like the wind over the water – it moves us, it pushes us, it sends sometimes cold chills and sometimes warm breezes, it is in our face and at our back –all at the same time, it messes up our hair, and it can make our eyes water, it is always present.
Christians all over the world this day celebrate in baptismal waters for today is Baptism of the Lord Sunday. It is the day when the Church retells once again the story of the Baptism of Jesus. It’s not so much about the event of his baptism itself – it’s rather what it stands for – it’s a beginning of the public ministry of Jesus. It signifies a new age, a new day. It is a grand “YES” to God. It is a commitment, a covenant, an ordination, a commissioning – that anyone, even Jesus, who passes through the water will seek the way of God. In a sermon about the baptism of Jesus, Bill Dols says, “A fundamental question before church-going people like us is whether we choose to worship Jesus or to follow Jesus. A decision to worship Jesus promises a kind of peace characterized as perfect that is usually passive, religious and spiritual, serene and holy. A decision to follow Jesus promises a different kind of peace marked by controversy and conflict. Following means going through dark valleys and sitting down with enemies, dangerous and daring, political rather than pious.” (Just Because It Didn’t Happen, page 66)
You want to know how God works with these baptismal waters? God sweeps and hovers and moves and broods – just like the wind. There is nothing magical in those waters behind me, but there is power. A power to move us and change us. A power to be representatives of God in this world. Those waters carry a sense of responsibility. I read a wonderful essay about the baptism of Jesus, written by a minister in Nicaragua named Grant Gallup. I used two quotes in our bulletin as the silent meditations. He also says that “Jesus didn't have to be baptized, and neither did you. But he accepted it, and you have accepted it, to fulfill all justice possibilities. And you have accepted it on exactly the same terms. By becoming a baptized person, Jesus opted for a lifestyle of sharing, of being a healer in the lives of others, not a destroyer or a menace to the lives of others. A giver, not a taker.”
Today, Addie, the heavens were torn apart and the Spirit descended like a dove on the wind and a voice came from heaven saying `You are my daughter, my Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’ And with you (and all others who claim to follow Jesus, not worship him), there now rests responsibility to bring the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.
The National Council of Churches has said a resounding “No” to a preemptive strike against Iraq. In an article for the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America, George Williamson (pastor of FBC, Granville, OH) says “according to the modest restraints of Christian `Just War’ principles, a just war can only be defensive, only a last resort after all alternatives to war have failed, only fought with the minimum force necessary, and never waged against civilians or cities or nonmilitary targets. A preemptive war would be a patently unjust war by its very nature.” He goes on to say in terms of following Jesus, “we are not called to change the common mind or turn back the onrushing tide of war. Our calling is rather to exercise our God-given authority over the unclean spirit and bear faithful witness to the truth.” (Baptist Peacemaker, Winter 2002) You can only speak your conscience, but when you do, remember how God works with water, remember the brand of justice and mercy and peace that Jesus preached, remember the way and the love of God. And that goes for how our country deals with Iraq and North Korea and Cuba and Afghanistan. And that goes for how we treat the poor in our community. And that goes for how we treat those who are incarcerated. And that goes for how you treat your coworkers. And that goes for how you treat your friends and your enemies. And that goes for how you treat your husband and your wife. And that goes for how you treat your children.
We have been called to follow Jesus – not just to the water, but through it and out the other side knowing that God still sweeps and hovers and moves and broods over the face of the water.
We were told at the beach on New Year’s Day that pelicans develop cataracts from the repetitious pounding of their face into the water. So soon they cannot see the fish they so desire to consume. But the wind, that was first in my face as our New Year’s journey began, was at my back as we turned the kayaks around – pushing me, somehow making the way a little easier to paddle. And that’s how God works with water. May it be so.
Pastoral Prayer
O God, sweep over us today.
Hover in our midst.
Move among us.
Brood with us.
And teach us your way of working with the water. Amen