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Home Page
The Rector's Welcome
Worship
Sermons
Music & the Organ
Newsletter
Schedule & Events
History
Programs & Ministries
Tour the Building
Links
Map & Directions
Monthly Calendar
Home Page
The Rector's Welcome
Worship
Sermons
Music & the Organ
Newsletter
Schedule & Events
History
Programs & Ministries
Tour the Building
Links
Map & Directions
Monthly Calendar
Fr. J. D. Ousley
9 January 2005Baptism of our Lord/Mt.3.13-17“Dawn Patrol”
In the Name of God: Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Amen.
Epiphany is the season of the Church Year when we celebrate the coming of the light of Christ into the world.
And for those of us who live in the northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere, this is a great time for a season of light! Our winter nights are long, and our days are short. January storms make the atmosphere gloomy even when the sun is up. The brightness of spring is far away.
The Prophet Isaiah says in today's Old Testament Lesson that the people of Israel shall be "a light to the nations." And in another place, Isaiah writes that Israel's vindication "shines out like the dawn."
The dawning light of the sun is a symbol of God's favor. God offers to his people proof that their faithfulness was worth it. Their trust would be rewarded. To "the people who walked in darkness" — God offers a new and shining dawn.
Now for ancient peoples, the sky was often the site of divine manifestations or "epiphanies." So In the Gospel for today, the sky provides a sign of divine approval.
After Jesus had been baptized by John, he emerged from the water and "a voice from heaven said, 'This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.'"
Unfortunately, modern people may be mystified by some aspects of this story. Hearing voices, after all, often suggests not that God has spoken to you but that you should speak to a psychiatrist!
But there are other parts of this story that modern people ought to ponder. Consider the relationship we have with the sky: the sky from which comes the revelation of Christ's identity, the sky where the dawn appears.
For many of us who are urban dwellers often feel cut off from the sky. This church, for example, is overshadowed by the Empire State Building and other skyscrapers, and as a result, we get little direct sunlight. In fact, if our local neighborhood association hadn't lobbied City Council to prevent the construction of a massive apartment building across 35th Street, we would never get any direct sun on our windows.
So in midtown, "air rights" are precious. When I leave Manhattan for the countryside, one of the first things I notice is the sky. It's up there and all around me! I can see vast areas of blue. I can see clouds. I can see the horizon.
And while I don't hear voices, my view of the heavens does give me spiritual food for thought. When I can see the sun, the clouds — the dawn, the sunset — it's hard for me to believe that it all came into being by mere chance.
People look at the sky and think of God the Creator of all things. Nature leads to "epiphanies."
Notice, too, that dawn in the sky is one natural way of indicating the passage of time. With the sunrise, the day begins: animals wake up. Humans get out of bed and begin their daily round of activities.
Interestingly, just as modern life has removed our connection with the sky, so it has disrupted the relationship humans once had with the dawn. People now get up in response to alarm clocks, not the sunrise. Many people, such as doctors and taxi drivers and police work through the night, taking shifts that are completely contrary to nature's cycle of light and darkness.
And it's not at all clear whether modern society's decision to function 24 hours a day is a good thing. There's evidence, for example, that workers on the night shift have poorer health and more relationship problems than those who work days. Sometimes, it may be better not to try to fool Mother Nature!
Of course, we aren't the first human beings to attempt to reverse the course of natural events. Humans had artificial lights long before the invention of the electric lightbulb.
Jesus told a parable about keeping enough oil for your lamps so that you'll be ready if the Messiah comes in the middle of the night. And, another time, Christ remarked, with his usual blunt common sense, that "It is better to light a lamp than to curse the darkness."
So the dawn heralds not only the sun, but a new gift from God: the gift of time.
And even though most of us live in urban apartments shielded from natural world, we too can recognize the dawn to be a sign of our "vindication" — it can be a sign that God will defend us from the changes and chances of this world.
Think of this in a very practical way. A "good start" to the day requires more than an alarm clock.
Isn't it true that people who have trouble getting out of bed in the morning are likely to be having trouble finding meaning and joy in their lives? A good beginning to the day requires a hopeful attitude — a sense of the Creator at watch over his creation.
With the dawn, then, comes a spiritual challenge. How we begin the day often foreshadows how we'll end it.
When a person appears grouchy, we say that the person got up "on the wrong side of the bed."
I don't know that I've ever had this misfortune of getting up on the wrong side of the bed, but I have had the experience, when traveling, of waking up in a hotel room and wondering for a moment where I was.
This is no way to greet the dawn. In a good spiritual beginning to the day, we're the opposite of "disoriented." In fact, we're "oriented;" we're going in the right direction. It's interesting that "oriented" means facing the east — which in Western countries like ours means being pointed toward the holy city of Jerusalem where Christ rose from the dead. Even today, the front of a church is always referred to as the "liturgical east;" symbolically, the church faces the Risen Christ.
Whenever we get up in the morning, whether we see the sun or not, if we face toward Christ, we won't feel disoriented.
We'll have a reason to get out of bed. The light of Christ will be there, ready to flow into our hearts, giving us a new day to serve God, and to be "a light for the nations."
And now unto that same God Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be ascribed as is most justly due all might, majesty, power, dominion and praise, now and forever, Amen.