When It All Began

Genesis 2:4b-9 (NRSV)

In the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up--for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground; but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground-- then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground,a and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the LORD God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

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In this garden
This lovely garden
I build a temple of love
Walk with the Father
Won’t be a bother
To touch the Earth as it was

I Build This Garden For Us by Lenny Kravitz, from Let Love Rule, 1989, Miss Bessie Music, Virgin Records

If we have learned anything from The Sound of Music it is that we should start at the very beginning. It is after all, a very good place to start. It all began when the Lord created. The Lord didn't have to create, the Lord chose to create, and a glorious creation sprang from the Lord. In it, a garden was built for Adam (the Hebrew word for "a man") to live.

What a wonderful and glorious relationship: creation, created, creator; forever in a dance of love and joy. In this beginning, the Lord builds the garden and the man builds a temple to the love the Lord gives. The ethereal dawn of all creation comes through in glowing and flowing music, a joining of guitar, organ, and dreads.

But beware the foreshadowing, Lenny Kravitz sings about touching the earth as it was. Yes, as it was. Even in this idyllic recreation of the garden, we know that it didn't last. But this knowledge should not stop us from remembering. It must not stop us from remembering.

Yes this is a glory we do not live in today, but this does not stop the glory from breaking into the world. We can never stop the Lord from showing us glory from time to time. God's glory breaks into our lives like lightening flashes across the skies. There is a flash, there is light, and yes, there may even be a sound of fury along with the glory of the light because sometimes that is the way of the light.

The garden has been built. The garden is real. What a wonderful and glorious relationship: creation, created, creator; forever in a dance of love and joy. Oh the thought of touching the earth as it was when it all began.

Which Way Are You Going

Joshua 24:16-18

Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods; for it is the LORD our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight. He protected us along all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed; and the LORD drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God.”

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What I really want to know is
Are you gonna go my way
And I got to, got to know

"Are You Gonna Go My Way" by Lenny Kravitz

The question Lenny asks is obviously Messianic. This isn't to say that Lenny's the Messiah, but it is asking the listener to imagine the Messiah asking the ultimate question. Imagine the Messiah asking "Are you gonna go my way?" What is the answer?

In this passage, the tribes are renewing their covenant with the Lord. Joshua reminds them of where they came from. He reminds them of Abrham who became Abraham. He reminds them of the time in Egypt ending with the Exodus and the Law. Joshua ends his part of the liturgy with the famous affirmation "as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

Imagine hearing the question "Who will you serve?" Imagine hearing the question "Are you gonna go my way?" Joshua asks the people this question. Their answer is recorded in these three verses. The Lord has done much for us. The Lord has lifted us from slavery. The Lord has done great signs in our presence. The Lord has protected us all along the way. So the only answer we have is "we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God."

Joshua asks, Lenny asks, the Lord asks: Who will you serve? Are you gonna go my way?

Love and Fear Don't Mix

1John 4:18

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.

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I smell the fear that rains inside
The thought of children who must oblige
To tainted dreams and polluted seas
The missing moon and melting trees
A mist of doom and clouds of pain
Toxic waste and acid rain
The passing of our ignorance
A lifetime spent in abstinence

"Fear" written and recorded by Lennny Kravitz from "Let Love Rule"

Fear. Nothing paralyzes better than fear. Spinal injury? Brain injury? Absolutely, those are traumatic. Fear, that's subtle like a thousand paper cuts, subtle like a jackhammer.

Fear allows us to think thoughts that we would never ordinarily allow within the same area code. Fear makes us build fences. Fear makes us shy away from our neighbors because they are strangers. Fear keeps us from listening to anything that doesn't keep with what we already believe. Fear keeps us from new experiences. Fear keeps us from love. Fear keeps us from Love.

In a 1977 sermon, the Rev. William Sloane Coffin said "While love seeks the truth, fear seeks safety." American political discourse is filled with men and women showing where there are holes in security, places where we will be harmed. Not can be, will be harmed. This comes with the promise "Only I can fill the hole with safety and my opponent will allow these (insert enemy du jour here) take our way of life from us.

The comic Christopher Titus defines a terrorist as someone who causes us to adjust our daily way of life. His favorite terrorists are news anchors on Fox News and CNN.

Fear: tainted dreams, polluted seas, melting trees, toxic seas, acid rain, and my favorite of Lenny's images, the mist of doom and clouds of pain. We're living in fear. I blame Fox News and CNN too.

Perfect love casts out fear. Now that's a blessing that none of us can shy from. Perfect love casts out fear. Where all love exists there cannot be the mist of doom nor the clouds of pain. Where there is perfect love, there is no terror. Maybe, maybe where there is perfect love there isn't even CNN or Fox News.

Perfect love is found in God. Perfect love is found in Christ.

Baptized in Your Love

Ephesians 4:4-6 (NRSV)

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
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I would be a fool to let you go
With you I'm reborn
I'm no longer torn
Yeah
I refuse to loose my heart and soul
I have to be Strong

I don't want to know emptiness
Take me down to the water
Wanna be baptized in your love
Far away from the loneliness
Take my heart and wash away the fear
Let me be baptized in your love

Baptized, by Lenny Kravitz, from Baptism, 2004

There are several different images the church uses when describing the sacrament of bapitsm.

There is the bath. The waters of baptism are seen as the cleansing, the washing away of sin and rising clean in the presence of the Lord our God. Many cultures and in many faiths, the symbol of ritual washing-oblation-is still very, very important.

There is the womb. The waters that we come from are the waters of the second birth in the presence of Christ. As we come from the womb of our mothers, so too do we come from the womb of the church in the waters of our baptism.

There is also the tomb. In the ancient world, water was often seen as a place of danger and death. So when we rise from the waters, we rise from the death of an old way of living in the world and living in the presence of God.

But another image which is quite glorious is that of our baptism into the Church, the community of the Christ. The hope of our calling is the one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

Life is often filled with emptiness. Seems ironic doesn't it? "Filled with emptiness." It is a feeling we have become all too comfortable with. In a way, we have become comfortable with this discomfort. Again, ironic, isn't it? But in Christ we are reborn. In this rebirth, in these waters, it would be foolish to return to the emptiness, to the discomfort.

We want to be baptized in the love of God. This love takes us far away from the loneliness we know in this world, so we ask god to take our hearts and wash away the fears. This is cleaned in the waters of our baptism. This is what dies in the tomb of baptism. This is our rebirth into a life worth living.