|
| |
“Marked with the Seal”
Ephesians 1:3-14; Mark 6:14-29; Psalm 24
Rev. Sandy Nuernberg
Oakland-Cambridge Presbyterian Church, Cambridge, WI
15th Sunday in Ordinary Time - 6th
Sunday after Pentecost
July 16, 2006
Not long ago I was driving, no, I
was literally ‘flying’ from a meeting to get somewhere else in the day. I have
been known for driving fast--there’s no ifs, ands, or buts, about it!! I was
taught my driving techniques by my mother, but I really think it was all in
learning how to accomplish a lot in a day. Her mother, my Nana, did more than
anyone I know in one day’s time period, and then finished her day having the
ladies from church come for bridge. I knew when Nana had her nylons rolled down
to her ankles her day was hot and exhausting! I also believe strongly that these
traits are passed down from one generation to another
I was just off the belt-line and
on the frontage road after my meeting and I saw a police car to the side of the
road; I knew, I just knew I was speeding! I stopped in the road, felt the guilt
of shameful wrong, and veered to the ‘freight’ entrance parking at Slumberland,
not the customer parking lot. I waited and watched; this was a clue to
myself that I had done something wrong.
I felt the weaknesses of my
offense coming on. How long will this take? How much will this cost if I cannot
talk myself out of this ticket? After answering the officer that I was not an
employee at Slumberland, he knew, I knew, that my ‘goose was cooked.’ I did not
say, “Officer, I’ll do anything you ask.” Calmly, guiltily, I told him my story,
not of hurriedness, but that I was coming this way to schedule a delivery for
us, and didn’t know where to park to do it. And he told me he’d leave my ticket,
along with a citation, in my car! Riding home, I was afraid to look at it; how
many points, how much in $$$, how do I tell my husband; all of these came to
mind.
Lest you think I discredited the
entire experience, I have almost finished the probation of lost points and, I
still have the humiliation of the guilty conscience of my actions. Believe me,
in the cautions I have been given in driving to and from the church now, I watch
closely and observe many a patrol car at all hours of my travels. For me, I felt
hunted (or marked) initially by authorities, but now I feel the warnings, the
whispers, and the wisdom and courage that have been the power, the enlightenment
for me to slow down and not have to pay the consequences.
Our text just read in Mark is
gruesome; there are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. One way to look upon it is a
gory story of John the Baptist set between the mission of Jesus’ disciples and
their feeding the five thousand; two successes between a horrific failure.
Surprisingly too, Jesus is not any part of this story. Yet it is a story similar
to Jesus’ fate in his last days; King Herod definitely knew of Christ Jesus and
all that Jesus was about in Galilee. Herod ( like the Roman governor Pilate)
wanted to believe in the Christ and the resurrection, but tragically allowed
John the Baptist to be executed. He felt guilty of his wrong doing and now
asked, what was he going to do about it?
Have you ever done something
wrongly, and then waited until the world finds out? You say to yourself, ‘how
could I have knowingly done this.’ Kinda like speeding!! Now, it’s on my
record. Deep down, Herod, wanted, I wanted someone, something, to happen to get
us out of our guiltiness and shame. Herod asked for John’s head for public
proof, but we know he knew and believed in the resurrected Christ when he said,
“ John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.” The disciples did the right
thing–they laid the body of John the Baptist in a tomb.
Paul so poignantly tells his Asian
churches, the earliest of Christians, and us, that we are redeemed through God’s
grace. It is God’s plan for us that in our unity, we be reconciled as God’s
people through the death and resurrection of Christ. And as the church, the Body
of Christ, this is, we are the means of God’s plan and purpose. This text in
Ephesians is a blessing, also known as the great benediction, and in the Greek
style, is unusually lengthy. These verses are originally one long sentence and
are quite Trinitarian. The importance for us is that in God’s plan for our
fullness of time and life, Jesus Christ is the means or assistance of what is,
and the Holy Spirit is the assurance of what will be done.
The writer, whether Paul or not,
reminds us that we are chosen, destined, redeemed, obtained as an inheritance in
Christ so that we might live for the praise of God’s glory. These words are very
emotional and yet comforting for me and many of us; they state what we believe
about God; they describe God, God’s omnipotent grace. They are words of our
adoption, our inheritance of being baptized into Christ, and redeemed as God’s
own people. Christ has first place as the foundation of our knowledge of God’s
sovereign love; our life is marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit, as God’s
plan.
Our confession of the ‘Brief
Statement of Faith’, which we will state about Christ Jesus in part, shortly, is
a statement of trust in the trinity, and it is not merely a confession of the
past, but seeks to cast a shining light, I believe, on the priceless heritage of
the present, and a desire for shaping the future. It is specifically gender
inclusive and I love it; it expresses the Holy Spirit that gives us courage.
Cynthia Campbell, our seminary president, and my professor of Christian Theology
at McCormick, and who, incidentally, will be our guest preacher for my
ordination here at our church soon, told us that this entire confession,
approved in 1983, ‘concentrates on what we do believe, and not on what we
don’t believe.’ Cynthia knows because she was a part of the 15 person
committee who worked on and proposed this confession for the General Assembly
and the church.
In our Presbyterian tradition of
being reformed and always reforming, the good news for us today is there are no
ifs, ands, or buts about it! In God’s plan we are marked with the seal of the
Holy Spirit; it’s our responsibility to allow God to lead us. As we listen for,
lean into, and are led by the Spirit, we are becoming disciples of Christ
Jesus. The people in Jesus’ time were listening and watching, and were in awe of
finding the authentic voice of God; in Christ Jesus, God’s only Son, they heard
it.
Jesus brought to these first
Christian believers, and to us this day, power and might through the sights,
sounds and actions of his teaching and healing, and in his life the very being
of God. They didn’t, and we don’t, need a guilty conscience of Herod in their
wrong-doing, for they and we are marked with the seal of assurance of the Holy
Spirit, a seal of courage that was and is regarded as traits being passed down
through Christ Jesus. In all we are and all we can be, we can accomplish
together our activities in God’s kingdom; we can give praise to God’s glory.
THIS IS THE WORD
OF THE LORD. THANKS BE TO GOD. AMEN.
|
