Benediction Online

Saturday, April 04, 2015

Taking on Godness

And so, on this holiest of nights, we complete the readings of our salvation history as we remember the creation, the passover of the Hebrews from the bondage of slavery in Egypt to the freedom of the Promise Land, and the promises of new life made to our forebears. Promises which we see fulfilled in the Passover of Jesus Christ from death to life and our own Passover from the clutches of the sin matrix into new life in Christ.

This ancient service comes to us from the second century. It is first described in the Apostolic Tradition of Hipplytus, a document which was probably written in Rome about 215CE. So Christians have been observing the first eucharist of Easter in this way for at least 1800 years. Some of the elements that we enjoy, such as the lighting of the new fire and the chanting of the Exsultet were added later, perhaps in the fifth century, with at least the new fire coming from the Celtic tradition.

On Good Friday we extinguish all candles and consume any reserved sacrament. So in this service we light the new fire of Christ’s love and then the Paschal Candle which is carried at the front of the procession representing the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night which led the Hebrews during the Exodus. We also celebrate the first eucharist of the Resurrection together.

It is a time of new beginnings.

Because of that, it is the principle time of the year for baptisms. In ancient days candidates for baptism would be prepared for many weeks if not months, as much as two years before this service and would sit up all night hearing readings and being given instruction before being baptized at cockcrow.

I’m telling you all this because there is something about this service that bothers me. If I were constructing it from scratch I would do it differently. Because it seems that there is something missing.

We have heard the story of the people of God in the Old Testament, and in a few minutes we will hear the story of the resurrection. But we completely miss the incarnation. Nowhere in tonight’s liturgy of the word does God take flesh and come among us.

Instead, at the pivotal point of the service, just when you might expect John’s gospel, echoing the creation story to tell us “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…” we move to baptism and the renewal of our baptismal covenant. We again make our commitments as the people of God, as the Body of Christ in the world.

So, instead of Jesus’ incarnation, we find an emphasis on our vocation to be God incarnate – God with flesh on. Instead of remembering God taking flesh, we celebrate our calling to take on Godness. Instead of remembering God taking flesh, we celebrate our calling to take on Godness.

The same Hippolytus who recorded the early Vigil services talks about baptism in this way:
Do you see, beloved… the purifying power of baptism? For he who comes down in faith to the laver of regeneration [that is to baptism] and renounces the devil, and joins himself to Christ; who denies the enemy, and makes the confession that Christ is God; who puts off the bondage, and puts on the adoption,— he comes up from the baptism brilliant as the sun, flashing forth the beams of righteousness, and, which is indeed the chief thing, he returns a son of God and joint-heir with Christ.[1]
That’s us. We came up from baptism “brilliant as the sun, flashing forth the beams of righteousness, and, which is the chief thing”…. Returning as sons and daughters of God and joint-heirs with God.
God’s incarnation in Jesus continues in us. We are the baptized, we are the resurrection people, we are the incarnation of God in Los Osos in the 21st century.

This is no small thing.

Just as God incarnated in Jesus, becoming one with humanity so through our baptism are we become one with God.

This does not mean, however much my ego wants to make it so, that I am God. That would be idolatry. I am not God but I am part of God while still very much human. And so are you. We are individually dwelling places of the Holy Spirit and how much more we are together the temple of the Holy Spirit, the mystical Body of Christ - which is why it is so important that I let go of my judgments and all the things in my mind that keep me separate from you. Only when we come to God together do we get to be that which we were created to be. As we heard Jesus say in the gospel on Thursday, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

Just as the Trinity is joined together by love and mutual service and surrender, so are we joined to one another and to the Godhead.

It is really quite astonishing -that we, the very fallible and idiosyncratic people that we are, are called to be a manifestation of God in our world. It is beyond our comprehension, and so we get to take it on faith. We are no longer just human – as the twice born, we participate in Christ’s death and resurrection. However messed up we may be, in a very real sense we are part of God through God’s gift – not as a result of anything we have done. But through God’s grace we get to participate in the creation of God’s reign. Now that we have been raised with Christ into the Godhead, we get to actively participate not only in our own sanctification but in the redemption of the whole planet.

And so it becomes clear.

The incarnation is not missing from the account of salvation history in this Great Vigil, but comes in a different form. It comes in you and in me. It comes in you and me and him and her.  Through our baptism we are the incarnation of God. In Christ we have passed over from the clutches of the matrix of sin into the reign of God, into new life as God’s adopted children, and joint heirs with Christ.

What a privilege. What a responsibility.





[1] Discourse on the Holy Theophany. http://www.calledtocommunion.com/2010/06/the-church-fathers-on-baptismal-regeneration/

You also ought to wash one another's feet


I have never yet had a pedicure. I considered having one this year in honor of my advancing years but still haven’t made the plunge. There’s something very odd, I think, about having someone else touch your feet, especially when it means them kneeling or sitting below you. I think it’s the combination of having someone else handling my feet which are no longer as pretty as they once were, and are nearly always demurely covered, with the discomfort of being served by someone who’s not on an equal level. That may also be why quite a few of us don’t want to take part in the Maundy Thursday foot-washing. Of course there’s always the concern that your feet might be dirty or your socks might have holes in or possibly even smell a little sweaty, but I think it mainly comes from a basic social embarrassment – we just don’t do that.

The disciples seem to have had a similar response to Jesus putting on a towel and washing their feet. Outspoken Peter puts in into words, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?" and then when he realizes Jesus is deadly serious, "You will never wash my feet." Washing feet wasn’t so unusual in a dusty land where people wore sandals, but it certainly wasn’t done for a master to wash his disciples’ feet. But Jesus is insistent. Jesus does it anyway, despite their discomfort and their protestations.

This was so important that the writer of John’s gospel doesn’t even mention the bread and wine of the last supper. He just describes Jesus getting down and washing his disciples’ feet. And then he says, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord--and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.”

We should also do as he has done. As we heard in the reading from Philippians this last Sunday, Christ Jesus “ emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death-- even death on a cross.” That is our example – that is our pattern.

We are called to empty ourselves of our own egos, those parts of us that worry about social convention, that feel embarrassed because our feet are just like every other humans’ feet – functional, worn, tired, sweaty; we are called to empty ourselves in surrender to God. Just as Jesus became obedient even unto death, so we too are called to be obedient – to take our part in the plan for the redemption of the world.
Surrender is not a comfortable word. But this is not a comfortable gospel. It’s awkward and prickly and a bit embarrassing. It’s not about feeling good and having a nice time but about serving God and serving our neighbor.

The story of Jesus’ betrayal and arrest is one of surrender. Jesus could have evaded the soldiers. He did not. Jesus could have resisted arrest. He did not. Jesus could have prevented Judas from going to the authorities. He did not. Why not? Because he knew that it was inevitable and in a way necessary. He knew that the forces of this world could not and would not rest until he was dead. And he also knew that somehow in the divine wisdom of God which is so very different from the wisdom of this world, that out of that apparent defeat, out of that apparent disaster would come an amazing manifestation of God’s love.

And that is what comes out of our surrender. As we surrender to the Spirit of God, allowing ourselves to be made holy - even though it means letting go of things that we have valued - something new, something that we can’t predict happens and God’s love is manifest in our world in an important way.

Washing each other’s feet is not glamorous. It’s a little weird and a little uncomfortable. But it is a powerful symbol of the mission we have been given. Like Jesus, we are called to a life of surrender and service. An in this symbol we have both. The surrender that allows another to serve us in a curiously intimate way; and the humble service that the very same act symbolizes.

How would it have been different, I wonder, if we only had John’s gospel? If instead of bread and in the Eucharist  being the sacrament of Christ’s love and our participation in the Body of Christ, it had been this act of washing and being washed that had become the central rite and rhythm of our life together?

I suggest that this evening we each take the opportunity to notice how it makes us feel. Do we resist having our feet washed? Do we want to be the washer as quickly as possible? Or is it rather icky touching another’s feet, or perhaps it’s the kneeling down or not being sure that we’ll do it quite right? Are we challenged by the act of surrender or the act of service?  What excuses do we use to keep us sitting in our pews?

As we act out this metaphor of Christ’s obedience and self-giving love, and our own call to join him in his ministry, what is the Holy Spirit saying to us? What is there in us that needs to die with Jesus on the cross and be transformed in his resurrection life?


May the Holy Spirit speak loudly and clearly to each one of us tonight and may we have the humility to empty ourselves enough to hear and, like Christ,  to be obedient. Amen.