Sunday, January 25, 2009

Reflection on John 1:43-51

One of my favorite ceremonies in the church is the remembrance of baptism. For those who do not know, the remembrance of Baptism is a ceremony where all the faithful come to the baptismal font and have a cross marked with water from the font on their forehead. It is not a baptism. It is to remember the day we were baptized.

The coolness of the water leaves the imprint of the cross on the forehead. It is an imprint that speaks truth without words. It is an imprint that has been there since our baptism. As we walk back to our seats, the breeze across the mark on our foreheads boldly declares that we are God’s children. “I am a Child of God.” We can literally feel and remember that we are marked with the cross of Christ forever.

My first baptismal remembrance was really a non-event for me. It happened (or rather did not happen) on my first day of bible camp when I had just finished fourth grade. Everyone I had just met briefly were gathered into a crowded barn around a very small fire and we shyly sang songs to God through the night. It was a time in my life when I felt alone. Friends were hard to come by. And at this moment of singing with people I did not even know, away from home, I felt even more alone.

Breaking into my loneliness, the minister declared that we “are all children of God. You are not alone. God is with you. This was your promise in baptism. You will never be alone. Remember your baptism.” And with those words, the counselors took water, and made signs of the cross on each and every one of us. Well, almost all of us. My counselor did not find me, and I alone had been forgotten. The drops of rain on the roof of the barn echoed and mocked my dry forehead.

"I do not need a counselor to share God with me" I thought to myself. I and God were in a one-on-one relationship after-all.

And so, as I left to go back to my cabin, I looked into the sky and waited for God to mark my forehead with some heavenly rain. This was going to be my great connection with God. This was going to be my proof of God’s goodness. This was going to be a great disappointment. I do not know if you knew this or not, but rain does not listen to fourth graders. Nor does God do what a fourth grader tells God to do. Rain hit every part of my face, but my forehead. I even willed the rain to make a line down my forehead and tilted my head sideways to finish the cross. It did not work.

“I want to go home,” I told my counselor when I reached my cabin. “What good can come out of this camp?” I whined.

“What good can come out of a stupid bible camp?” I asked. “What good can come out of Nazareth?” Nathanael asked when told about Jesus. “What good can come out of church?” my younger brother asks as he struggles with the horrible memories of war and death. “What good can come out of this?” asks someone who just found out they have cancer. “What good can come out of this,” asks the worker who after 30 years is laid off. “What good can come out of this?”

I know that you are already filling in the answers. Perhaps, a better job will come out of being laid off. Perhaps, your illness will bring a torn family together. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. But, perhaps not. Before distancing yourself with answers, stay with the question for a while, “What good can come out of this?”

Being stuck in the question has caused people to do a lot of things to try to get an answer from God. In ancient time, people built an enormous tower (the tower of Babel) to reach God and get their answer. People today search the mysteries of ancient Mayan ruins and stone calendars in order to find the secret cosmic wormhole to God and God’s answers. People make deals with God, “I will do much better with my children if only you talk to me and tell me what will happen.” At camp, I searched the sky for a cross on my forehead.

“You won’t find the answer in the sky.” My counselor told me that evening as I talked
about my struggles.

"I want to go home, what good will come out of this week anyway?”

With the wisdom of Philip sewn into his heart by God, my counselor answered, “I don’t know what good will come out of it. Why don’t you stay here and see.”

“What good can come from losing a great job?”
“I don’t know, come and see.”

“What good can come out of illness?”
“I don’t know, come and see.”

“What good can come out of church?”
“I don’t know, come and see.”

“What good can come out of the hick town of Nazareth?”
“I don’t know, come and see.”

When Nathanael followed Philip, Jesus found him, and when Jesus finds you, God finds you.

When I stayed for the rest of the week at camp, Jesus found me, and when Jesus finds you, God finds you.

There is great wisdom in those simple words of Philip. They speak possibility without giving a cheap answer or false promise. They speak hope without laying out a 12 step plan. They leave possibilities open for Jesus to save in whatever way Jesus sees fit. “Come and see.”


All Scripture quotes are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyrighted, 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and is used by permission. All rights reserved.

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