The Spirit Descending
The Baptism of Our Lord b
Mk.1.4-11
The Rev. Thomas L. Weitzel
All Saints Lutheran Church,
“And just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart
and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.”
What a powerful image. Jesus, coming to God at the
River Jordan. To be
baptized. Clearly sensing his call to
ministry or he wouldn’t have even been there.
Jesus, obviously having a relationship with the Father
already. Close enough to hear
call, and feel call, and act on call. Jesus, answering call by coming to the Father at the River Jordan.
And then the
Father, coming to Jesus. God coming down. God, sending his Spirit down upon Jesus. God SPEAKING to Jesus. Speaking words of
affirmation. Speaking
words of encouragement. Speaking words of love.
"You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."
What a powerful image. Yet it looks quite extraordinary, doesn’t
it? Miraculous even. Looks just like one of those fantastic bible
stories. Heaven ripping open, and doves
coming down, and voices speaking from the clouds – it seems so out of the
ordinary as to challenge our reality, I suppose. We think, “Well maybe it’s something that
might happen to Jesus, but surely not something that happens to me.” Right?
No, not right. I’m here today to say that to you. And I say that because of what I saw here –
right here in this church – yesterday.
I’m here to say that I saw just that sort of thing happen right here in
church yesterday. And so did a lot of
other people from this church. Let me
tell you about it. It too is
extraordinary.
We had all gathered in the nave here
for a day of discerning God’s will. I
know you heard about it, even if you didn’t come. There were perhaps 40 of us or so. We had come here, because you have some
pressing issues before you that are on the table for your congregational
meeting later today. We had come here,
not to debate them, not to just discuss them – you had already done a lot of
that through your forums and other meetings.
No, we had come here to where God is to see if we could discern God’s
will about the matter. We had come here
to meet God, just like Jesus did at the River Jordan. Out of our faith and love of God, like Jesus,
we had come to God to ask him, “What is YOUR will?” We came here to LISTEN. Not to talk, but to listen. To ask God to come and to
LISTEN to him.
And God came. He did.
God came down to us. Right here,
in this church. We all saw it. God came down and spoke to us – just like for
Jesus at the River Jordan. And we all
heard it. And it was awesome. It was just about as awesome and as dramatic
as the gospel narrative of heaven ripping up and the dove descending on Jesus
and the voice coming out of the clouds.
It was one of the most exciting occasions of my ministry. Others expressed it similarly.
We met God several times,
actually. We started by inviting him in
with worship. One person pretty quickly
heard him speak to her during the reading of the parable of the sower in opening worship.
But the vast majority encountered him in the afternoon during a 20
minute guided meditation and in the conversation about it afterwards.
In that guided meditation, everyone
was asked to shut their eyes and go to a place where they knew Jesus to be and
spend time with him. And since we were
trying to discern where God was leading us and this congregation on the issues
before us at the congregational meeting, we asked Jesus to take us on a journey
and show us where he is leading.
What happened next was
incredible. Each person had a different
experience, but all the experiences were rich with images.
One person met Jesus in a
field. Another in a
pavilion. Another
in a large glass room where openness and healing could be felt. Surprisingly, two people met Jesus on a
mountain. They were a married
couple. When each found out the other
met Jesus in the same place, it reduced them to tears.
And what did people feel while they
were with Jesus? One person said she
felt love so powerful, so pervasive, so full and fulfilling, that she had never
experienced anything like it ever in her life.
Another said he met Jesus right there at this altar, and he told Jesus
he hoped that the ministry he served would be helpful to others, and Jesus told
him straight out, “It will.” It was the
first time Jesus had ever said anything to him, ever, he told us.
What was awesome was discovering
that although different people had different experiences of God, there were
links between the experiences, common themes.
The first six reports all visualized Jesus outdoors. Two people saw Jesus in faces, faces of
others. Openness kept coming up. Water and a lake kept coming up. So did healing.
We didn’t always understand the
message behind the common themes, but we saw the links, heard the stories, and
knew it was God. God was here. God was in our midst.
And our discussion
about where God is leading in relation to our congregational meeting? We learned one thing that is most important
that I have to share: God IS in
control. God IS leading. God IS interacting with us here. And it’s going to be alright. God showed us that in those experiences of
loving us, affirming us, being with us, giving us peace. It’s going to be alright.
We learned something else too. It’s time to get close to God. We talked about needing to shed some things
in order to know God’s will. We need to
shed some things even to follow it. It’s
time to get close to God and get rid of everything that’s in the way, or we’re
not going anywhere. We learned that too.
It was quite a day. A day that I think many will remember as
being about as significant as the day Jesus went to the
It’s a day that is available to you,
folks. You are people of God. You too have a relationship with God, as
Jesus did that day he went to the
If you come to God, he will come to you. God WILL come to you. But you have to LISTEN. You have to be quiet, and LISTEN. You have to stop talking, and LISTEN. God WILL come to you. In ways that may be just as extraordinary as
our gospel story – just as extraordinary as our discernment day story.
It’s the Baptism of Our Lord. It’s a Spirit day. God is here today. Right now. It’s a Spirit day and God has come down. You can come to him here – at the altar. You can come to him in your prayer. Just LISTEN.
He will come to you.
And when he does, when he comes, he
will speak. If you LISTEN, you will hear
him. If you are quiet enough and stop
talking yourself, you will hear him. And
you will know his love. You will hear
him call you sons and daughters, and you will know his love. You will know that he IS in control. And you will know that everything is going to
be alright.
That is the Good News for
today. Everything is going to be
alright.