"God the Great Seeker"

Sermon Text: Isaiah 43: 1-7

Other churches I’ve been a part of have a tradition of standing for the reading of the Gospel text each week. I think the idea is that whatever is being read from the pulpit when it’s out of Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John is so wonderful – so filled with good news – that it is literally uplifting. It’s supposed to lift you out of your seat into a standing position.

This sounds like a lovely theory, but it’s never worked out for me. Sometimes, the reading from one of the gospels doesn’t much sound like Gospel at all. Our four gospels are called such because they are said to contain Gospel – which means “good news” in Greek. And those four particular books of the Bible do contain good news…just not all of the time. It’s always a little hard for me to get excited about standing up when Jesus calls that one woman a dog, or when John the Baptist gets his head chopped off, or when the women leave Jesus’s empty tomb and refuse to tell anyone that he’s been resurrected because they’re afraid.

And then there’s the issue of ONLY standing for the reading from the gospels. As if there weren’t any Gospel news in other parts of the Bible! Just as there are some parts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John that seem to be decidedly NOT good news, there are plenty of parts of Exodus, Ruth, Jeremiah, Psalms, Acts, Revelation and all the rest that ARE good news.

That’s why I think I’ve always liked it best when people start the reading for the day with, “Listen now for the gospel….” or “Listen now for the word of God…” It makes me sit up and pay attention. It’s like we’re all on a treasure hunt together, searching for a word of encouragement from God. We have to pay attention, or we might miss it.

And I have to admit, I’ve always had this little fantasy that one day – maybe just one day – people sitting in the pews would hear the Gospel – the good news! – within the text for the day and would jump to their feet. Uplifted by the word of God buried in the text. It would look a little like that that legend about Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus – people just standing up because they were moved.

If that were to ever happen, I have to imagine that it would happen with a text like the one from Isaiah 43 that we just heard. It may not be a part of the four gospels, but is there any question that these seven short verses from the prophet Isaiah are filled with good news?

The Gospel truth found in the words of Isaiah is that the people Israel are loved by God.

These words are given as a gift to a people who are often bullied by the bigger kids on the block. They have been through tough times and are likely to see more. They often found themselves wondering, “What did we do wrong? Why is this happening to us?”

And the Gospel of Isaiah is that God loves the people and promises to go with them.

Notice that Isaiah doesn’t promise them a rose garden. He doesn’t say that nothing bad will ever happen to them. Instead, he promises that come what may, they will be accompanied by the love of the great Holy One of Israel. He promises that the waters will not overwhelm them and the fire will not consume them.

This is not a new concept in the Bible. You know the words well, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For thou art with me…”

·      God is with the people Israel for the same reason God is with the laid off factory worker trying to swim upstream in a global economic system that doesn’t much care about the rent that’s due next Thursday.

·      God is with the people Israel in the same way God is with the parents of a special needs child as they struggle to find shelter in a hailstorm of administrative paperwork and claim forms.

·      God is with the people Israel just as God is with the ninety-two year old retired football coach as he takes step after fumbling step through the hallway of the nursing home – striving to walk through the fire of an aging body without being consumed by the flames of despair.

Why does God walk with all of these people? Isaiah makes it plan, “Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you.”

God loved the people of Israel. And God loves every one of us.

And God shows that love today in the same way God showed that love during Isaiah’s time:

God creates us, forms us, redeems us, goes with us, honors us, gathers us.

This is no Hallmark greeting card kind of love, filled with promises made to be broken.

This is real love. This is active love. Love that reaches out, again and again, even when we are walking through fire and swimming upstream through a raging river.

This is love that will not let us go.

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God reaches out again and again and I do believe that, no matter what we do, God will never stop trying to claim us as children. But I also know that, from my own experience, the whole relationship works a lot better when I allow myself to be loved. When I am open to receiving God’s love, it seems all the more real to me.

It makes me think of a great story by Robert Fulghum of All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten fame. (Fulghum is, by the way, a retired Unitarian Universalist minister, so he has pondered a thing or two about God.)

Anyway, one of his stories that I love is the one about the kids playing hide and seek. Fulghum is looking out his window one day and notices a kid who has been hiding in a pile of leaves for a long time. The other kids are about to give up searching for him – he’s hidden too well. Unsure of how to be helpful, but desperately wanting this kid to understand that the game just doesn’t work if everyone hides too well, he yells out, “GET FOUND, KID!” And the kid scurries off.

God is not like those kids playing hide and seek because God doesn’t give up. No matter how well we hide, God seeks us out. But the joy in being in relationship with the Holy – the thing that makes the game work – is most easily found when WE are found.

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Baptism is one of the most visceral and ancient ways that God finds us. Long before the time of Jesus, Jewish people were participating in a ritual that looked a lot like baptism. I’d be willing to bet it happened in other religions, too. Something about the rushing of waters takes people back to an elemental place.

A place where we remember who formed us and who names us. A place where we can surrender ourselves to that Great Love and say yes to God.

Baptism is one way that we accept the good news that God has already said yes to us.

God is standing out there – the great Seeker – ready to find us. Sometimes we bring children, tiny babies even, to the community of faith. We present them as children already formed, named, and loved by God. We say to God, “Here is my child. We know that you promise to keep finding her for the rest of her days.” The water is an outward and visible sign of something that has already happened – this child has been claimed as one of God’s precious children.

Other times, we come to God as adults. Maybe we’ve been hiding in a pile of leaves too long. Or maybe we’ve just been going about our lives, not realizing we want to be found. We bring ourselves to the community of faith where we discover that we are already formed, named, and loved by God. We say to God, “Here I am. I am so glad that you claim me as one of your own.”

Jesus knew this feeling. Just like many of us, Jesus was baptized – claimed as God’s own child. And when he came out of the water, he heard words that sound strikingly similar to those from the prophet Isaiah, “You are my child, the beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

Jesus got found. And it gave him the strength and courage to go on doing what he needed to do in the world.

Now, please don’t misunderstand me, I’m not saying baptism is some kind of “you have to have it or you’re doomed to be separated from God forever” kind of thing. People who haven’t been baptized are no less loved by God.

Baptism is one way that we, as a community, come together to celebrate something that is already a reality: God the great Seeker never loses a game of hide and seek. Every child is already found.

In her novel Gilead, Marilynne Robinson has a great story about baptism. I wish I could take credit for having a good enough memory of the book to have made this connection, but I’m indebted to Kate Huey, who reflected on today’s Luke passage on the UCC website.

Gilead is a lovely, gentle book about an elderly retired pastor named John Ames reflecting on his life and ministry. John tells the story of being a pastor’s son and getting together with a friend to baptize a litter of kittens. When John’s father finds out that they’ve been baptizing kittens, he chastises them telling them they must respect the sacraments. John recalls, “I did no more baptizing until I was ordained.”

And now, near the end of his life, he reflects on the many humans he baptized during his years as a pastor. But he also remembers the kittens.

"I still remember,” John writes, “how those warm little brows felt under the palm of my hand. Everyone has petted a cat, but to touch one like that, with the pure intention of blessing it, is a very different thing. It stays in the mind….There is a reality in blessing, which I take baptism to be, primarily. It doesn't enhance sacredness, but it acknowledges it, and there is a power in that. I have felt it pass through me, so to speak. The sensation is of really knowing a creature, I mean really feeling its mysterious life and your own mysterious life at the same time.”

The act of blessing gives one the sensation of really knowing a creature.  Of seeing them for who they really are. Seeing them in the light of the reality that they are a beloved daughter or son of the Most High.

Fully loved, named, redeemed, claimed, sought after, and found.

What a privilege to offer a blessing to another creature of God. To look at another soul, touch them, and say, “The divine that is within me recognizes and blesses the divine that is within you.”

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On this Sunday as we gather to celebrate the Baptism of Christ, we also gather to celebrate and remember our own baptisms. And we are called to do one more thing, I think. We are also called to be in ministry: to go and bless others.

What a privilege to touch another soul and say, “You are loved.” What a joy divine to recognize the holy in another person.

As we prepare for a time of silent reflection, I invite you to consider reflecting with your feet and hands as well.

Those of you who have been around for a few years may remember this little exercise. Up here in the front, we have a bowl prepared with water. In the bottom of the bowl, there are glass stones. If you’d like, I invite you to come to the water, dip your hand in, and remember your own baptism. Remember that you are God’s beloved child – that you are always found and never lost – and that God is well-pleased with you.

As you remember your own baptism, I also Invite you to reflect on this question: “How can I recognize the sacred in another person? How can I offer a blessing?” You may find that you want to go offer a blessing right now – in this very sanctuary. And, if you do, I say go for it! Or you may find that you need some more time to ponder that question. That’s okay, too. Just remember the wet cats, though, and how good it feels to “really know a creature” and do offer your blessing at some point. It is one of God’s great gifts to us.

Finally, I recognize that some of you have not been baptized, thus making it difficult to “remember your baptism,” huh? No worries. You are not excluded from this time of reflection. Please do whatever makes you most comfortable. You are certainly still invited to come to the water and reflect on the reality that God loves you and has named you. You may want to offer a blessing. You may want to sit quietly. And if, in all this baptism talk today, you are starting to feel like baptism is something you want to know more about or something you want for yourself, please talk to Jack or me. We would love to be with you on that journey.

As always, let’s be on the lookout for people who might need assistance – some folks may need you to take some water to them and there are small cups for that purpose. Children may need help reaching the bowl.

Come now to the water – Remember that our God is the great Seeker and has never yet lost a game of hide and seek. We are always already found.