Christ Lutheran Church

1701 Arroyo Chamiso

Santa Fe, NM 87505-4775

(505) 983-9461

church@clcsantafe.com

  

Sunday, January 10, 2010
Baptism of Our Lord

 

Psalm 29

1 מִזְמֹור לְדָוִד הָבוְּ לַיהוָה בְּנֵי אֵלִים הָבוְּ לַיהוָה כָּבֹוד וָעֹז

 2 הָבוְּ לַיהוָה כְּבֹוד שְׁמֹו הִשְׁתַּחֲווְּלַיהוָה בְּהַדְרַת־קֹדֶשׁ

 3 קֹול יְהוָה עַל־הַמָּיִם אֵל־הַכָּבֹוד הִרְעִים יְהוָה עַל־מַיִם רַבִּים

 4 קֹול־יְהוָה בַּכֹּחַ קֹול יְהוָה בֶּהָדָר

 5 קֹול יְהוָה שֹׁבֵר אֲרָזִים וַיְשַׁבֵּר יְהוָה אֶת־אַרְזֵי הַלְּבָנֹון

 6 וַיַּרְקִידֵם כְּמֹו־עֵגֶל לְבָנֹון וְשִׂרְיֹן כְּמֹו בֶנ־רְאֵמִים

 7 קֹול־יְהוָה חֹצֵב לַהֲבֹות אֵשׁ

 8 קֹול יְהוָה יָחִיל מִדְבָּר יָחִיל יְהוָה מִדְבַּר קָדֵשׁ

 9 קֹול יְהוָה יְחֹולֵל אַיָּלֹות וַיֶּחֱשֹׂפֲ יְעָרֹות וְּבְהֵיכָלֹו כֻּלֹּו אֹמֵר כָּבֹוד

 10 יְהוָה לַמַּבּוְּל יָשָׁב וַיֵּשֶׁב יְהוָה מֶלֶךְ לְעֹולָם

 11 יְהוָה עֹז לְעַמֹּו יִתֵּן יְהוָה יְבָרֵךְ אֶת־עַמֹּו בַשָּׁלֹום

Ascribe to the LORD, you gods,

             ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.

2Ascribe to the LORD the glory due God's name;

             worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.

3The voice of the LORD is upon the waters; the God of glory thunders;

             the LORD is upon the mighty waters.

4The voice of the LORD is a powerful voice;

             the voice of the LORD is a voice of splendor.

5The voice of the LORD breaks the cedar trees;

             the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon;

6the LORD makes Lebanon skip like a calf,

             and Mount Hermon like a young wild ox.

7The voice of the LORD

             bursts forth in lightning flashes.

8The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness;

             the LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

9The voice of the LORD makes the oak trees writhe and strips the forests bare.

             And in the temple of the LORD all are crying, "Glory!"

10The LORD sits enthroned above the flood;

             the LORD sits enthroned as king forevermore.

11O LORD, give strength to your people;

             give them, O LORD, the blessings of peace.

The Voice of the Lord and the Minister's Cat

 

+ In nomine Domini.  Amen.

The Season of Epiphany is a playful time in the Church Year. 

The 12 Days of Christmas come to an end (as they did last Wednesday evening) with a celebration where we Christians engage in some pretty lighthearted activities involving the burning of the Christmas Greens, the Chanting of the Date of Easter, the eating of the Three Kings Cake, the crowning of those who find a bean or a nut in their piece of cake … and of course the regaling of the 1^st Century legend of three Persian sages who consult with a murderous king, make promises to him they will never keep, wend their way into Judea, locate the place of Jesus’ birth and present to him their royal gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

I recently received a cartoon postcard from one of our former members who lives now in Rapid City, SD … it pictures two of the three wise-men standing to one side, bearing their gifts, and the third wise-man appearing from the other side of the card (the Eastern side) leading a camel and a very green Frankenstein monster.  One of the wise-men on the left cries out, “I said Frankencense!”

It’s a playful time in the Church Year!

+++

There are at least two members of this congregation, who, when Psalm 29 appears in the Lectionary find themselves barely able to get through it without laughing or snorting and having to leave the Nave or Chancel of the Church.

I am one of them.

It all has to do with the 1970 musical film entitled Scrooge starring Albert Finney who received a Golden Globe Award for his portrayal of the miserly Ebenezer.

In the film, while being escorted by the Ghost of Christmas Present, Scrooge visits a Christmas party being hosted by his nephew, Fred, and his young bride. The party-goers all engage in the delightful Victorian alphabetical parlour game called, "The Minister's Cat."

You can still play it.  Everyone sits in a circle and the game begins with the letter A like this:

All participants clap their hands in cadence as the first player chants “The minister’s cat is an angry cat.”  And then next person, keeping the exact cadence says, “The minister’s cat is an ambitious cat.”  And the next, “The minister’s cat is an allegorical cat.” And so on until someone misses, and that person is removed from the circle.  The game proceeds until everyone has done the letter A, and then it moves to the letter B  and so on … until only 1 contestant remains and she is declared the winner of the game.

Now you see how difficult it is for at least two of us to lead or read Psalm 29 when we come to The voice of the Lord is a powerful voice?!

But what a beautiful cadence to that Psalm.  Even in Hebrew … especially in Hebrew.

Verse 4 (as Jesus would have read it) goes like this:

קֹול־יְהוָה בַּכֹּחַ קֹול יְהוָה בֶּהָדָר

kol adonai bach-koah, kol adonai bay-ha-dar

It’s a playful time in the Church Year!

+++

I recall when I was an Intern at First Lutheran Church in Ault, Colorado that one of the favourite seasonal songs in that Swedish-American congregation was Nu Är Det Jul Igen.  I can still hear those Swedish Lutherans singing robustly:

Now it's Yule again,

And now it's Yule again,

And Yule will last until it's Easter:

 

That's not true of course,

no, that's not true of course,

for in between comes Lent

and fasting.

 

And then everyone broke out in laughter!

It’s a playful time in the Church Year!

+++

Even today in our readings beyond Psalm 29 the Prophet Isaiah declaring to the people of Israel still in exile in Babylon 500 years before the birth of Jesus, promising them the incredible:

But now thus says the LORD,

             he who created you, O Jacob,

             he who formed you, O Israel:

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;

             I have called you by name, you are mine.

2When 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.

3For I am the LORD your God,

             the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

I give Egypt as your ransom,

             Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you.

4Because you are precious in my sight,

             and honored, and I love you…

 

The exiles must have laughed out loud to hear those fantastic promises that they were certain even Adonai Elohim, the Lord God, could not keep.

Or, Peter and John, as told in Luke’s second volume the Acts of the Apostles … Peter and John (observant Jews) going and paying a visit to Samaria?!  … and praying with them?!

Or, our dear friend, crazy John the Baptist, telling everyone that someone else was about to appear, and then taking his cousin into the water of the Jordan doing baptidzein  (baptidzein) and then watching while the voice from above declared this washed in the river one to be his beloved!

It’s a playful time in the Church Year!

+++

And did you notice in all these readings and the psalm that there is one thing, one message, one strand of proclamation woven through all of it? … that God, the God who promises incredible things, the God whose voice is so powerful it will rip trees apart and make a wilderness vibrate, the God who stirs up two Jews and makes them visit a Samaritan village, the God who sends a man to shout along the riverbank and plunge his relative into the water and then (as one Gospel puts it) tears open the heavens so his thundering voice can again be heard … that God is not on the perimeter of Creation, but at the very centre!  At the centre of Creation, at the centre of the community, at the centre of the people, at the centre of the church, at the centre of humanity … and being there, urges, wishes, wants, desires that all creation be there next to God … and, if that is so, then being close to God in the centre means being close also to each other … in love.

That is God’s intention … that no one be left on the perimeter of life.  It is what we call welcoming, inclusion, homecoming, reunion … family … where everyone has a place and no one is excluded.

Now, rare that it is that a Sermon would actually have a practical and immediate application, this one does … because starting next Sunday is our congregation’s week at the winter Interfaith Community Shelter that we and all the member congregations of the Interfaith Leadership Alliance provide here in Santa Fe.

It is our week to provide food each night and volunteers to serve that food and welcome in from the cold those who have no home, men and women who live on the perimeter … to bring them into the centre where we believe God is, and we are, and so offer to them a place of warmth, shelter, safety, food, and rest.

There is a sign-up form on the Table as you leave the Nave this morning, and I hope that you will listen to the voice of the Lord which is a power voice calling you to speak that voice into the lives of our brothers and sisters who are homeless and by that speaking so bring love and healing to them, the healing of creation.

Amen.

  +Deo Gratia

The Rev. Benjamin Larzelere III

Pastor

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