The New Creation
Good Shepherd, Berkeley 1/19/14
Our passage from John at first
seems to read a little like a journal or a travelogue, describing a series of
remarkable days in the life of Jesus. “The next day… the next day … the next
day…” However, in my studies I read a surprising interpretation: given that the
Gospel opens with “In the beginning,” followed by a series of days, what is
offered is a renewing of the first seven days of creation- or the first seven days
of the new creation.[1] This newly formed week begins just before our passage with John
the Baptist’s witness that “I am the voice of one crying out in the
wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord.
On
the second day, John the Baptist testifies that Jesus is the Lamb of God- that
John saw the Spirit descend on him, and that “I myself have seen, and have
testified that this is the Son of God.”
On
the third day John the Baptist bids his followers to follow Jesus saying, “Look!
here is the Lamb of God!”
On
the fourth day, Andrew finds his brother Simon, and proclaims to him, “We have
found the Messiah”
On
the fifth day, Peter is brought to Jesus, and Jesus names him Cephas,
translated as Peter, which translates as “The Rock.” Which translates as “Rocky.”
On the sixth day, which falls after our
passage of today, Jesus goes to Galilee and begins his ministry. The week culminates with Jesus’ very first Miracle in the Gospel of John-
The Wedding at Cana- a creation miracle of extravagant abundance.[2]
So we move from John proclaiming his role of forerunner, to
John’s witness to Jesus’ divinity, through the revelation to the disciples, to the
beginning of Jesus’ ministry, to a marriage, foretelling the role of Jesus as
the bridegroom.
We are the witnesses of this story of the new creation through John
the Baptist, who first witnesses that Jesus is “The Lamb of God” - the paschal
lamb- the sacrificial lamb- the victorious Lamb at the center of the throne
from the Book of the Revelation to John. God has told John that the one the
Holy Spirit not only descends upon, but remains with, dwells with, abides with,
is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.
When compared
with the other three gospels, the Gospel of John quite consciously elevates the
status of the Jesus, and lowers the status of John the Baptizer. As a matter of
fact, in this Gospel it is never said that John baptized Jesus at all, John was
just a witness to the Spirit descending on and remaining with Jesus. In this
new creation story, John ever decreases as Jesus increases.
John ends his first
confession by naming Jesus as the Son of God. The story is a fulfillment of the
gorgeous prolog. John somehow knows that Jesus was, “In the Beginning.” And
that he is was with God and that he was God.
John himself
is not the new creation, but John introduces us to the new creation, who
divides the waters above and the waters below, as God affirms from heaven, that
it is good.
Today, after
our service, we will be a communal witness to our creation story of this past
year, during which we had to create a new church. In my report for our annual
meeting, I said that in our very long history, last year was the first one that
the congregation of Good Shepherd church spent outside of the walls of our
church. But I later realized that this is actually not true.
In the
beginning, when the mission of Good Shepherd Church first blinked into existence,
as the Civil War wound down in 1865, our services were held in the Ocean View
School House at the intersection of Virginia and San Pablo Avenue, right next
to School House Creek. This was handed down to us in the history by our former
parishioner, Mary Oliver. The Church building at 9th and Hearst was
not occupied until 1878.
And so the
last time we spent a year away from our beautiful church building really was in
the very beginning. For thirteen long years the Good Shepherd faithful were in
an abode just as humble as this one. But they kept the faith. I have no doubt
that we are now building up to another important beginning. Then as now, we are
creating a new thing.
This coming
year will be a year of gestating, of longing for our new space, of struggling
in the chrysalis. It may feel that we are longing to come out of the water, longing
for the blessing of the Dove, longing for the voice of the beloved. We have all
worked so hard and we have all persevered bravely through this Babylonian exile
of ours.
And so what is it that we now might witness to? In this coming year, the waiting may turn weary. We may grow tired of moving chairs, tired of putting stilts on an altar, tired of exclaiming what a wonderful worship space we have made out of this humble place. Our courage may fail us and tempers may flare. Perhaps we can be inspired by that rarest of human qualities that John the Baptist modeled so well; the knowledge that there well may be someone among us whose ideas or priorities are sometimes superior to ours.
Perhaps we might witness, as John did, with such great certainty, to the Christ in each other, to the lamb-like vulnerability of each other, to the daughters and sons of God that we all are.
I often think of the wonderful words of C.S. Lewis, “Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.”
We are called to live in community. And we are also called to be a witness to Christ in the stranger, called to be a witness to the angels that come to call in such extraordinary disguises.
We are called
to rise out of the dark water, to rise out of our fears and lack of faith, to
feel the blessing of the Holy Spirit through one another, and to witness the
light of a new creation.
Amen.
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