Baptism of Jesus, 2011 Immanuel Chapel,
Water, Wind and Word
Genesis 1:1-5
Before the beginning,
Before there was ear to hear or eye to spy,
There was God.
Before there was time to tell or space to fill,
There was God,
Nothing other than God.
And God had a plan in his heart,
To end the aloneness.
A plan for both a beginning and an end.
2.
In the beginning,
God created the heaven and earth.
The earth was a welter and waste,
A trackless desert,
A watery mass, chaos.
Valleys towered above mountains,
Atoms, neutrons, quarks and gravity careened about
Without focus or purpose.
Stars and planets had no galaxy or orbit.
And water flowed uphill or down.
Darkness, darker than night, darker than the Onondaga cave
Lay over the uninhabited void.
For God forms both light and darkness.
3.
God spoke and,
The creation listened to the Word.
This Word was with God before the beginning.
The Word was God.
Through Him, God made the worlds;
He is the radiance of God’s glory
Upholding all things by the power of His word.
In the fullness of time
This Word became flesh and lived among us,
Full of grace and truth,
Bestowing on us grace upon grace.
4.
Over the deep dark empty void hovered the
Breath, wind, Spirit of God.
Like an eagle
Gliding on zephyring wind over
the formless deep,
With promise of an end to chaos.
It was the breath of God that made a living being
Of Adam the man of clay.
This was the wind that tamed the flood.
The God - sent wind that pushed back
The waters of the Red Sea
Bringing salvation to Israel and
Destruction to Egypt.
It was the wind, Spirit and word
that brought new life to dry bones.
This Spirit of God descended in dove form
Upon Jesus,
When John baptized him in the Jordan.
The same Spirit came as sound of wind,
As tongues of fire on Pentecost.
It was the Spirit that fell upon you and me
In the word and water of baptism
Opening the heavens for me and you.
The Psalmist says of God, “When you send forth your Spirit,
They are renewed.”
5.
Then God said, “Let there be light.”
And there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good.
The light would guard God’s people
through the wilderness of the exodus.
The light is the life of mankind
shining the glory of the Lord around
shepherds abiding with their flocks in the field.
The Light hung on a cross in the darkness
Of a Friday, quenched, buried
in a darkened tomb and arose again
Before the first light of the first Easter.
The light has risen upon us,
Making us lights to shine in the darkness,
That all may see our good works
and give glory to God.
6.
God has given this ministry to us
To proclaim the light of the gospel
Of the glory of Christ,
Who has called us out of darkness
into his marvelous light.
In the face of Jesus Christ we see the glory of God.
God, has shone in our hearts the glorious plan in His own heart
To unite all things in Jesus Christ,
Things in heaven and things on earth.
7.
In the fullness of time,
God will speak the end of all things,
We new creations by word and water of baptism,
Will receive a new heaven and earth.
There we shall enjoy the water of the river of life,
And the glory of God will give its light
And we shall see his face
And there will be neither darkness nor deep.
“Come, Lord Jesus,”
Amen.
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