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Sunday, January 7, 2001
Rev. James A. Todhunter

When Lois and I got married five years ago, one of our prayers was that our home would be a place where our families would always feel comfortable and welcome. Well for about ten days at Christmas our home was the welcoming place for, in addition to Lois, Abbey, and me, Lois’ son Peter back from Brazil, my son Andy back from San Francisco, my mother from Ohio, Katie, Gideon and Oscar from Massachusetts, and one large black dog named Lucy. Every bed and most sofas were filled, and the floor of my den was occupied by an "Imaginaire" inflatable queen size mattress. Everyone felt very much at home. Our prayers were answered. But, together with our CCC move, and a nagging upper respiratory tract infection, this was a Christmas that each day required a lot of energy. And this was positive. Know that feeling?

And then there are the experiences that are not positive and require energy. An illness that puts you or a loved one in the hospital demands energy. We pray "Oh, Lord, get us through this crisis. Help us overcome this illness or this injury." And then there is the energy required of those for whom each day is a test. There are people who suffer from chronic pain; people always on the brink of being overwhelmed; people in recovery from addiction whose task is simply to "take it a day at a time."

In all of these circumstances our plea to God, sometimes insistent, sometimes urgent is "God, just help me get through this!" This is a valuable prayer, because it grows out of a realized sense of helplessness. It never feels good to recognize we are out of control – but it is always spiritually necessary and invigorating. Here, in our first worship service away from our familiar building, faced with so much that is new – our prayer may well be – "Dear God, help us to hold it together for this year, so we can return home!" I deeply believe that whenever we honestly and courageously face our loss of control, our uncertainty about the future, and our fears that we just may not have the resources to make it – it is at that fine point of the soul that we become open to the promises and to the presence of God. I know of no more powerful, nor comforting words of scripture than those from Isaiah we just heard. God says:

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you:
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you:
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your savior.

"You are going to make it," says the Lord. "But, you must turn it all over to me. You must remember that you are mine."

Now, having said all this, having reaffirmed this central message of God’s sovereignty, God’s presence and God’s comfort, there is more to the message. God’s message is that the point is never simply making it. The point is living in the power of the Holy Spirit, and doing those deeds of compassion and justice to which Christians are called. And this is a bracing message. And at first it may not seem comforting at all. In the face to the people’s rage at hearing his message, the Prophet Jeremiah feared he wasn’t going to make it. He cried out to God and God responded saying "If you have raced with men and become weary, how will you compete with horses?" Yes, says God, I will help you to make it through the day. But I have more for your to do.

The scriptural theme for this day in our liturgical year is the Baptism of Christ. In Luke’s Gospel the people come to John the Baptist in the Jordan. He says to them "I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." And at Jesus’ baptism we are told that the Holy Spirit descends upon him in the form of a dove. The scriptures tell us that John’s baptism was a baptism for repentance, a baptism for the remission of sin. John’s baptism was the baptism to get you through the day. John’s baptism was to lift the burden of sin and the crushing weight of guilt. John’s baptism was the baptism to get you back on the right path of righteousness. John’s baptism was the baptism to help you make it, the baptism in which God says "You will make it."

But John says "Someone more powerful than I is coming. And his baptism is more than this that I offer. It is the baptism of the Holy Spirit and of Fire." It is the baptism of unquenchable and transforming energy. God’s call to us is not just about making it. It is about being changed, and being agents of human transformation – wherever we are and whatever our circumstances.

Whenever we are talking about the Church in the here and now, it is the Holy Spirit that is always the most urgent person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is our mysterious source of Spiritual Energy: an energy that both helps us make it, and also enables us to bear God’s energy into the world. Look at all the images the Bible uses to evoke the Holy Spirit: dove (gentleness), counselor (wisdom), fire (destroyer/creator), wind (energizer), intercessor (compassionate enabler), and more. The Celtic symbol of the Holy Spirit is one of my favorites – the wild Goose (annoying prodder). We read that this gentle Holy Spirit first appearing as a dove to Jesus, then drove him into the wilderness – the same Greek word used to describe Jesus driving the money changers out of the Temple.

The Book of Acts describes the Holy Spirit coming to Samaria. And this is an instructive story for us. The Samaritans were looked down upon by the Jews. Six hundred years before Jesus’ time, the Assyrians had conquered the northern kingdom of Israel and repopulated its capitol, Samaria with its own people. The intermingling of Mesopotamian Assyrian and Palestinian Jew created the half-breed Samaritan. Still worshipping God and reading the Bible Samaritans claimed that they were God’s chosen People. The feeling between Jew and Samaritan was like the hostile energy existing today between true believers in one religion and true believers in another, or between fundamentalists and liberals in the world’s faiths. Philip, one of the first deacons in the Jerusalem Church, ventures far afield, traveling north and preaching to the Samaritans. He is met with all the signs of God’s powerful presence – healing of the lame and paralyzed, the casting out of demons, and the conversion of prominent spiritual teachers. The people had their burdens lifted and were given life. With Peter and John the task was then completed with the coming of the Holy Spirit. First they had experienced repentance. Now came the power of the Spirit. First, they experienced God’s Word that they were going to make it. Now, came the Word about how they were to live and power to live that way – in and through the Holy Spirit. Transformed Jew and transformed Samaritan now lived in the same Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is what calls the Church into being and sustains the Church. The Church of Jesus Christ is not limited to a certain place and time and not to any building. The Church is people: people forgiven, healed, sustained, reconciled, and uplifted and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Here we are in this building and this sanctuary. We have been welcomed by another people of God. Linda preached to them already. 9525 Colesville Road is mostly empty now. 9601 Colesville Road is our office space. Whatever we are; whoever we are; here we are. Yes, our task is to make it. Our task is to cohere, to stay gathered, and to stay connected. But that’s only part of it. Our task is to be the people of God and to trust the power of the Holy Spirit to do that. Our task is never just to survive.

The front page of the Washington Post talks about the impact upon the poor of Columbia by the U.S. sponsored war on drugs. We need to pray for the victims of injustice there. We need to repent of our own complicity in injustice there. And we need to be a presence – by educating ourselves and being supportive of Holly Brooks and Edie Rasell as they consider joining a Witness for Peace Delegation to Columbia. We need to carry this concern to our own UCC General Synod this July in Kansas City. We need to heed the messages about the inadequacy of our own American electoral system that put a cloud over the transfer of power in our government – there are too many unanswered questions. What are the grassroots opportunities before each of us to be active citizens? Silver Spring is the crucible for cultural and ethnic diversity or clash. As Silver Spring goes, so goes Montgomery County. We have accepted the call to be a church that welcomes and includes people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender. How do we live out that call? We have begun an intentional one-year dialogue with the Scouts about our long-term relationship with them. This will be an opportunity for listening, caring, education and Christian witness.

Our task is to hang in there together for this year. But I believe our call is to not to push the "pause button" on that greater call that is really our purpose in the first place. Jesus said "I have come that you might have life and have it in abundance." We are called to live and be bearers of life. But the life we are talking about is not the life of a band of huddled exiles. It is the life of those who quest for more life; those called to extend life. Those called to say that God calls us to the edges, the extremities, to the outcast, the foreign, the unusual. God called Philip to go from Jerusalem to Samaria.

To live fully in the power of the Holy Spirit means that St. Paul was right when he said that nothing can separate us from the love of God: not illness, adversity, woe, torment, fear for our survival. It means that every moment, whatever our circumstances, has the potential for more life – more discovery, growth in the spirit, and ministry to others. Even the pain of illness and suffering has the opportunity for God’s call to more life.

Whenever I feel tired, or discouraged, or burdened or even wonder if life is worth living, I think of Ruth Richardson, one of our eldest and most venerable church members. Let me close with a Christmas note we received from Ruth. We couldn’t Christmas carol at her home this year because she was in too much pain, chronic pain that she lives with on a daily basis. She can’t come to church. But somehow she still embodies for me Christ Congregational Church – whoever we are, wherever we are.

Dear Jim and Lois,

Happy New Year! I trust you are back in the routine after a great holiday season. I want to thank you for calling about the caroling, Jim. That was truly one of my bad days – I never know when it is coming. I did have two days and nights at Jim’s and now am planning to venture to Florida. If I can go in between "pain patches" I’ll be O.K. Jim and Sherrie will fly with me and my two cousins will live in with me and wait on me. Oh – the memories of when I could do all this myself.

Best wishes to you both and remember "Take Time of Smell the Roses!"

With love,

Ruth

How’s that for a lesson in how wonderful it is to be alive? How’s that for spiritual energy? AMEN.

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