The Elements of Our Imaginary
Is. 42:1-9; Psalm 29; Matt. 3:1-7, 11-17
Rev. Tiare L. Mathison, Pastor & Soul-Tender
Shake, break, whirl, flash, strip bare. This is what the voice of the Lord, Yahweh does. It rattles our bones to our very core. Power is enflamed as Yahweh strips bear the cedars, shakes the wilderness, the oaks dance, the forest made naked. Yet the temple crowd all shout ‘glory!’
We shake, as we fall to the ground in front of this magnificence, this God who hovers over the waters of creation, who parts the Red Sea to free the people from their slaveries, this Lord doesn’t only promise peace, this Lord GIVES peace. Creation is reiterated, reminds us to pay attention, the voice capable of both blessing and curse. He presides over it all.
Water, evocative of baptism, sprinkled or dunked, indicates the very beginning, the moment before time began, an intake of breath, as God says yes, even knowing we would say no. The voice thunders and the waters roil. Life is given and life is taken away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord.
The Elements of Our Imaginary
This borrowed language, in Psalm 29, originally a Canaanite poem to the god baal, a storm god, adapted for worship of Israel’s God. Thunder and voice the same, a visceral response by all who hear, multi-sensory - sound, touch, sight - it signals the storehouse of our imaginary to open up and be enthralled. Triggered geographical memories - the specific location of Kadesh, The Sinai, site of God’s conversation with Moses, the original promise of land. Thunder, theophany, the Presence of the Lord, the earth claimed. Lowly beasts of burden gifted with joy, a marker of Eden’s peaceable kingdom. A deep ache arises as the longed-for community glimmers in the sunlight, just out of reach. (Pause)
Lebanon’s cedars, strong and straight, renowned in their beauty, are broken in His fury, fire ravages the ground. Real or metaphor, again it is this voice, this appearance of God Almighty, who explodes the worlds before us. It is the fire we witness at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit yells in tongues of fire, languages of the many from all over the known world. It is the reclamation by God, Her power displayed over all of nature. We watch in awe, a simple recognition of who is in charge and we, who are not.
It is no soft breeze that rips the oaks apart, it is the mighty wind voiced in a whirlwind that strips us all bare. A vulnerability of exposure shatters our structured fortress, knocks down our carefully curated public self, all pretense exposed for its lingering lies and sin. The Elements of Our Imaginary
(Say slowly!) This is the voice that speaks ‘Beloved’.
“Jesus didn’t come as a puppy, a dolphin or an angel,” I quoted Lisa Fishbeck last Sunday. No he did not. He came as a sensate being, this incarnated Son of the Most High God. ‘Beloved’ is His Name, a Pre-Fall human, unstained by sin, His own particularity shines in the light of the magnificent glory. No, He did not NEED to be baptized, washing sin away, symbol of restoration of relationship with God, He had nothing to repent. But, He so identified with humanity’s fallenness, He simply got in line. Thunder, now narrowed to dialogue -
John: “Not me! I need to be baptized by you.”
Jesus: “It’s okay, John, it’s okay. Part of the plan, not to worry. It is the proper, more righteous way.”
Such magnificence, such humility…
It was a 40 K walk ‘when Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan River”, estimated at 2 weeks by historians. A very slow pace in my Camino imaginary! His body moved through the Bethsaida Valley a true human with bodily needs, food, shelter, a bathroom. He had blood in His veins, lungs that breathe, a brain and a heart beating for humanity. This is so important to be reminded for our faith. We are not wispy souls lingering in bodies for a moment. As Christians, baptized into eternal life, we believe our bodies will be resurrected, transformed, into Jesus’ likeness. I’ve sat with people, ravaged by cancer, who dream about their beautiful new bodies when they die. “No more pain Tiare, I’ll be able to dance!” In my mom’s last days, she spoke of seeing her parents again, killed in a car accident when she was 5. She died at 96. The resurrection of the body and life everlasting we say each Communion Sunday, and we actually mean these flesh & bones! The Elements of Our Imaginary
This baptismal act carries such weight. Water is critical to creation of the earth and of us babies. Water washes us vicariously in death, the removal of sin, and raises us up to new life, as Christ was raised from the dead. REMEMBER YOUR BAPTISM AND BE THANKFUL, I shout. Water makes us new, in the daily sense of a shower or a bath, and in the eternal sense, our name is now Beloved. (Pause)
With this name change, comes our duty - to live into and out of God’s intention, shown forth most clearly in the life of Jesus. He entered our fallen world and did what? Gave us the way to live: sacrifice ourselves for others, pursue justice and peace for the poor, call out the tyrants and oligarchs, name the evils of policy and politics that betray generosity and compassion; pray and stand against the demonic, demonstrate our full recognition that we are saved by the blood of Jesus and given life abundant!
In our exhausted lives, it is sometimes difficult to lift our gaze to see Yahweh enthroned forever, over everything, when our dailyness is marred by fear or despair, demons of depression and anxiety rattling their cell doors whenever we have a moment of faith. The fallenness of humanity ever present in our daily news cycle. Our own small mindedness, harming with our words the ones we love most.
Up against this dethronement is a promise from long ago. May the Lord give s/b translated The LORD Gives. What does the Lord give? After all the upheaval of water, earth, wind, fire, the Lord gives strength to His people, He blesses His people with peace.
You have been given strength, you have been given peace. Go and do likewise.
The Elements of Our Imaginary Amen.
Hymn 482
Then Apostle’s Creed