The Sacrament of Membership
January 12, 2025
Theologian Rev. Dr. Mitzie J Smith, says that the Gospel of Luke, is filled anticipation. Right from the angel visitation to Zechariah and Elizabeth, then Mary and Joseph and finally the shepherds responding to the song of angelic hosts saying to each other, “come let us go and to see this thing that the of which the angel spoke.” But the anticipation doesn’t end there. When Jesus is brought to the temple on the eighth day of his life to be presented and circumcised, the family encounters Simeon and then Anna who both separately predict great things for this child. Then we jump twelve years to Jesus being left behind in the temple and then jump another number years to the story we hear today. We guess that Jesus was about 33 because we know which Herod was in power at his birth and which Herod was the King at the time of his baptism. Naming the leaders places the story in a specific timeline. We know that Caesar Augustus ruled Rome during that time. This was after the assassination of his adoptive father Juleus Ceasar first emperor of Rome. Although Augustus brought great stability to the Roman government, he brought further uncertainty to world because when Romans weren’t fighting each other they had energy to fight everybody else so they could grow the empire. That international uncertainty was the culture in which Jesus was born raised and would enter ministry. When things are good anticipation takes a back seat because you already have most of what you could ever want but when times are hard or frightening, anticipation might be the only thing you have to hold on to.
This week I introduced some wisdom of Rev. Cameron Trimble at the Forest Hill Council meeting. Rev. Trimble was about to speak to a group on Leading in the Age of Collapse, and she wrote down some thoughts from that lecture for her blog. She wrote: “Historians and sociologists remind us that civilizations rise and fall. They are born in bursts of creativity and vision—building cities, art, and systems of governance—and they decline in cycles of greed, inequality, and infighting. Everything moves toward entropy, from order to disorder, and societies are no exception.
The prophet Micah’s words echo across time: “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8). This is not a call to fix the world as we live in it, overnight. It’s a call to live with integrity in the face of uncertainty, to resist apathy and greed, and to keep showing up for one another.
We cannot stop the forces of history, but we can shape the character of our response.
We may not be able to stop the tides of history, but we can face them with courage. And in doing so, we may find that even in the midst of collapse, something new is already being born.” Or that we are unknowingly planting the seeds for the future that is to be.
Now one level that puts a lot on our shoulders. That in the midst of declining, economic choice, declining memberships and increased needs in the world, just ask anybody who is connected to a food bank, we are being called to find the energy to plant new seeds. We are already weary, and this seems like one more huge job. But we don’t have to see it as another job. In the scripture today Jesus hears the voice of God publicly saying, “I am well pleased with you” (3:22b). Yet only thing Jesus has done so far in his ministry is to humble himself by submitting to be baptized by a man who describes himself as unworthy to even untie Jesus’ sandals.
Perhaps this demonstrates that something mystical happens when we humbly enter into community with others. In a couple of weeks, I am beginning a book study on Holy Currencies, 6 Blessings for Sustainable Missional Ministries. I believe that the premise of this vision is that when we humbly offer the gifts that God has given us, to others, that it opens unseen doors of potential that exist all around us. It was the anticipation for the coming Messiah that prepared the hearts of the disciples to follow Jesus, long before Jesus steps into the light or into the water. Anticipation that there are unopened doors of potential in our lives ought to open our hearts to each other, as we enter into this spiritual community through the gift of communion. The gospel lesson today teaches us that it is not what we do that makes the difference but rather if we can live in community with an open hopeful heart anticipating holy blessings, even in an age of decline. Amen