Basket Case

Exodus 2:1-4

Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.

Sometimes I give myself the creeps
Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me
It all keeps adding up
I think I'm cracking up
Am I just paranoid?
Uh, yuh, yuh, ya

Grasping to control
So I better hold on

"Basket Case" by Green Day

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There's the old saying that you're only paranoid until they are out to get you. Moses could be in this boat, or basket if you will.

Neither the Pharaoh nor anyone else in power "remembered" what Joseph had done for the people of Egypt, all they knew was that by the grace and hand of the Lord the Jews had grown large and powerful, despite being held in slavery. It made Pharaoh nervous so he decided to decimate the population by ordering the death of newborn males.

Paranoia? Not when they are out to get you.

When Moses was born, his mother saw something and knew he must be saved. So she made Moses the first biblical basket case. Not abandoned, not completely, his sister Miriam waited to see what would happen. Moses was taken into Pharaoh's home, raised by Pharaoh's daughter, and wet nursed by his own mother.

If there is one thing to hold onto, it's not that our actions or luck will save us. There always seemed to be a plan in place for Moses, even when every plan was going to thunder. No matter how strange the events of his life unfolded, it kept adding up to glory.

Grasp for control, no, better just to hold on. It could be a bumpy ride, but it can also be for the glory of God.

What We Can Control

1Timothy 6:13-16

In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will bring about at the right time--he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

Hello, hello, remember me?
I’m everything you can’t control
Somewhere beyond the pain
There must be a way to believe

"What You Want" by Evanescence

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It's as easy as this: There are things we can control in our lives and things we cannot. The trick it to always tell the difference between the two. The single thing we have absolutely no control over in this life is the workings of God. The Lord our God is the one and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. God alone has eternal dominion over the workings of this world, no other.

God bless the people who think they control their own destiny because their control is limited, and probably more than they think. God bless those who say "God would never..." because when we say that we try to limit God. When we think we will do things on our own time we discover that our only guarantee is that time eventually runs out.

AS the song goes, God is everything we cannot control. But here's another question, whose pain is it, beyond whose pain is the way to belief. Here's the trick answer, it is our pain, and it is God's pain.

We suffer from pain and disappointment. Sin, our own and others, is the source of our suffering. It is also the source of God's suffering. God came to earth to testify to Pilate and felt the pain of the cross. Yet he is without sin. Yet he is the King of kings and Lord of Lords. He alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light; and this is good. This is to our benefit.

So when our Lord calls "Hello, hello, remember me?" we can take the words of Paul to Timothy and say "Yes Lord, we remember and we know you are in control."

Distance and Closeness

Jonah 3:3-5 (NRSV)

So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.

Hey everybody, don't you feel that there's something
But you know in a moment it is gone

"It's a Long Way There" from the first album by The Little River Band

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Jonah's mission was to tell the people of Nineveh that they were about to be overthrown, destroyed. That's it. That's what he spent three days and three nights in the belly of the large fish trying to avoid. With reason, it wasn't a great task.

Imagine telling a large city of people their way of life, their city, their lives were about to come to an end. Forty days more and that's all. Nineveh was so large that it took three days to walk across. It was so large that after the first day's walk, when he made the proclamation, he caused a stir that followed him the rest of the way across the city. It was a long way across the city, but for the Ninevites it was a longer way to God. They had forty days, then after that it would all be gone.

You see, Jonah's message, the one he received from the Lord promised nothing for the Ninevites but destruction. There was no message of peace or mercy. Still, the people of Nineveh believed God; proclaimed a fast, and everyone, put on sackcloth.

When Jonah finished his journey he built a booth and waited to watch the destruction from the front row. But it did not happen. He was in the desert waiting, but thankfully a vine grew to protect him. Then it died.

Jonah was ticked, after all, when a prophecy goes unfilfilled, the prophet looks like a loon. But Jonah was reassured him that as much as the Lord cared for the vine that grew over his shelter, so much more did he care the the city of Nineveh and all it's inhabitants.

It was a long way across Nineveh, and it must have seemed like a much longer leap of faith in the Lord to save a people who were promised no salvation at all. But such is a leap of faith. Faith that the Lord saves, not because they believed in God, but because God believed in them.

Telling Others Who God Is

Acts 8:27b-31 (NRSV)

Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him.

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Tell me all your thoughts on God?
'Cause I would really like to meet her
And ask her why we're who we are
Tell me all your thoughts on God
'Cause I am on my way to see her
So tell me am I very far -
Am I very far now?

Dishwalla, Counting Blue Cars, from Pet Your Friends, 1995

The question Jesus asks us is "Who do you say that I am?" The question others ask us is "Who do you say Jesus is? Who do you say God is?"

So, how do we answer this most wonderful and most puzzling of all questions?

The first, the very first place we start is with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Gospel of John declares the Holy Spirit will teach us everything, and remind us of all that is said to us. (14:26) When we are asked to share the faith of Christ, the Spirit empowers us to share. It is the words of the Spirit we are invited to share. As tempting as it is to overstep the teaching we have been given, it is for us to pay attention to the teachings of Christ as we are reminded by the Spirit.

Know that people usually don't want to hear the theology of Augustine, Luther, or Calvin. (Darn!) People want to know about the difference being a believer makes and continues to make in your life. People want to see where the rubber meets the road, as Dishwalla sings, "Tell me all your thoughts on God? 'Cause I would really like to meet her." People don't care much about theory of God, they want to know about God in the life we live.

A final thought to leave this deals with the band calling God "her." Chapter III of The Second Helvetic Confession teaches "We believe and teach that God is one in essence or nature, subsisting in himself, all sufficient in himself, invisible, incorporeal, immense, eternal, Creator of all things both visible and invisible, the greatest good, living, quickening and preserving all things, omnipotent and supremely wise, kind and merciful, just and true." (See, I told you that people don't want to hear from theologians!)

Being "incorporeal" as the confession states, God is without a body. Being without a body, God is neither male nor female. So when the band sings about God as a she, don't get upset.

If we chew the fat of language, we never get to the meat of who God is. That is what people want to know. Start where the people are, that's what Philip did with the Ethiopian. Talk about who God is, who Jesus is, who the Spirit is. Tell the people what you know, not what you don't. Talk about the difference the triune God makes in your life.

This is what people want to know.

Love Rains-Love Reigns

Today the Church celebrates Baptism of the Lord Sunday.


Mark 1:4-11 (NRSV)

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you withe the Holy Spirit.”

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

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Only love
Can bring the rain
That makes you yearn
To the sky
Only love
Can bring the rain
That falls like tears
From all high

Love, Reign O'er Me, by Pete Townshend, from Quadraphenia by The Who

A love greater than anything we could ever hope to imagine or understand. Love that comes from the one The one who is more powerful than anyone who has ever walked the face of the earth. The love that makes you yearn to the sky.

In the water there is birth, and in the water there is rebirth. In the water there is life and in the water there is death. In the water there is the warmth of being washed and in the water there is the peril of being washed away.

This is the water, this is the sacrament Jesus ordains when he participates as he is baptized in the waters of the Jordan

Yet if you ask “why does the fully human, fully divine Son of God and Son of Man need a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins?” This good question has a very good answer; Jesus does not need this baptism for himself. Jesus chooses this baptism not for his needs but for ours. In his baptism, Jesus identifies himself with the Church, the church which he is the cornerstone. Being fully human, he knows we need this baptism, being fully divine, he ordains it for our sanctification.

Tears fall from on high; these tears are the waters of our baptism. These are the waters John bathes us in while we are confessing our sins. These are the waters of our birth as we leave the womb, just like the fully human fully divine Jesus left the womb of his mother Mary. These are the waters of the tomb, the death and new life we come to in the water, at the cross and in the resurrection.

As God's love rains, God's love reigns.