Potential Energy

An icon of the Nativity of John the Baptizer

When you hear the name “John the Baptizer” or “John the Baptist” what comes to mind?

-Someone in the desert dressed in camel’s hair?

-A wild man who ate locusts and wild honey?

-A cousin of Jesus?

-An aesthetic who lived in the wilderness?

-An angry man who called stuffy religious folks, “A brood of vipers!”?

-One who was unjustly executed?

-The forerunner of the Lord?

-The Prophet of the Most High?

-The baptizer of Jesus?

-Someone who proclaimed the Good News of repentance and forgiveness of sins?

-How about all of the above?

John the Baptist captivates our theological imagination in ways that few others can. Perpetually we are gifted by this rich character whom we specifically remember during Advent and Epiphany. In Advent we remember John’s prophet-ability as we await Christ’s coming and during Epiphany we celebrate Jesus’ Baptism by John. But, today on the transferred Feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist we are not there yet.

As we dwell in this moment from Holy Scripture when John’s elderly parents celebrated the miracle of this child’s birth, all that we know of this great character is potential. Now, I am no physicist. And, I do not profess to possess a wealth of knowledge about energy, but I do remember learning about potential energy in middle school.

One way of defining this term is “The energy possessed by a body by virtue of its position relative to others, stresses within itself, electric charge, and other factors.”[1] A body possesses within itself a certain amount of could be energy based on where it is, how it relates to surrounding bodies, and other factors both internal and external. This physics definition appears even more intriguing when we connect it to how we relate to the universe theologically or spiritually.

All of us have potential within us. Just like how Zechariah—once his tongue was loosed—spoke of John’s trajectory, we too have a potential path that is laid out for us by our God. God has placed in us energy, life, a divine spark so to speak, through which we eternally connect with our Father in heaven. This is beautiful and wonderful and reassuring to know that like John we have the potential in us to be heralds of the Most High. But, how does this potential become actualized? How does the spiritual energy in us explode from perspective to reality?

All of the wild things that stand out about John would have been completely for naught had it not been for one thing, one catalyst. John knew, his family knew, perhaps the whole countryside of Israel knew John was not acting on his own. He was in the service of God. Put another way, the potential energy in John was actualized by coming in contact with Christ. Sure he would have been an interesting character on his own, but he blasted onto the scene as one who prepared the way. John got people ready to receive the Good News that Jesus had come. John enabled people to repent, so that they could know fully the Most High God was incarnate and was present.

What potential energy lies within you? What is the ministry into which you are called? What is it that God has in store for you? There are a multitude of ways to serve God, here in this church and beyond. Whether it is through preparing for worship, studying God’s word together, reaching out to the community of Decatur, or reaching in to serve other parishioners, there are many ways to actualize the potential spiritual energy within you. Take some time this summer to listen to what God is calling you to do.

Once you see that trajectory allow Christ to inspire you. As you see what God is calling you to do allow the Good News of repentance and the forgiveness of sins to free you. Trust that the spark of Jesus’ love will energize you and ignite in you a ministry like that of John the Baptist.

May all of us trust the potential that God has planted within us. May we be inspired by the Good News of Christ Jesus through repentance and forgiveness of sins. And, may we be energized by the Spirit of God and go light up the world with it.

[1]https://www.google.com/search?safe=active&q=Dictionary#dobs=potential%20energy

EUREKA

Audio of sermon can be found here: http://s3.amazonaws.com/dfc_attachments/public/documents/3201704/Olson_010715_Wed_Noon_Eureka.MP3

Have you ever had a “eureka moment”? You know what I am talking about, right? When something clicks into place for the first time. A time when something becomes clear that was not so clear just a moment ago. Where does it come from?

I got curious about the word itself. Eureka has become an English word, but originally it meant something a little different in the Greek. “I found it,” that’s what eureka means, and the great mathematician Archimedes gets credit for first saying it. Of course, the moment when he said it is more fascinating to me. Archimedes stepped into a bath tub when he realized that the water level rose as his body’s mass sunk beneath the surface, thus he discovered the law of water displacement. Only a mathematician would shout out loud, “I FOUND IT! EUREKA!” when discovering a law in the bathtub.

Have you ever had a eureka moment? A moment when something becomes apparent for the first time. Maybe it was when you first fell in love with your spouse. Perhaps it was that time when you first fell out of love with someone. A eureka moment could be when you happened upon your life’s great passion, or when you came to connect with God in a deeper way.

Yesterday in the Church we remembered a collective eureka moment, the day of Epiphany. Epiphany is another old word that means revelation or manifestation, and it is the time when we celebrate the Incarnate God in the person of Jesus being revealed as messiah to a people outside of his own tradition. This is our collective eureka moment. We most closely connect the Epiphany with the story of the Magi, three wise men from the East following a star, so that they could bestow gifts upon a child savior, but strangely enough today’s story is another Epiphany moment, another eureka!

A professor in seminary once wondered aloud about today’s gospel lesson. She said, “What does it say about John’s gospel account that the first of Jesus’ miracles that he writes down is turning water into wine at a wedding feast in Cana?” “Is he a drunk?” I thought. “Does John just really love wine? Maybe he’s a big proponent of preparing for wedding feasts?” Of course, what my professor was going for is that Our God is abundant and loves to celebrate with us. Hold onto those two revelations from this story for a moment because we need to explore what happens between Jesus and his mother to fully observe this epiphany.

The way that John records this story strikes me as peculiar, at least upon first reading. “There was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.” John needs for us to know that Mary is there. Then he tells us that Jesus and his disciples were there. “When the wine gave out,” the story continues with a twist in the plot introducing us to some drama, Mary says, “They have no wine.” At this moment I am struck that Mary takes on someone else’s problem. This is not her son’s wedding. She could have left this problem alone, but instead she turns to Jesus.

Now, I am not opposed to taking our problems to Jesus, but I do not think that is the eureka moment. This is not what we are seeking to find. Jesus responds to his mother almost coldly, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.” If I talked to my dearest darling mother in this way, I would get at least a death stare if not worse. Yet, what Jesus does here is fascinating. He does not urgently panic about what to do, nor does he immediately coddle his mother or the stewards or the bride and groom. His mother also does not get defensive about how Jesus speaks to her, instead she simply says, “Do whatever he tells you.”

Mary has faith in her son that he will do the will of God. Jesus though is not a magic eraser, he’s not Mr. Fix-it, nor is he some magician who waves a wand over the problems of the world. That is not why God became incarnate.

Jesus was a Jewish man, but for him to ask the servants to fill the jars of purification with water was a big no-no. In this moment he reveals a true miracle: Yes, it is turning water into wine! Yes, it is producing enough wine to open up a Galilean winery! Yes, it is helping the celebration of two people coming together in marriage to continue late into the night! Yet, it is even more than this. Jesus transforms the rite of purification into a moment of celebration. Jesus initiates his ministry with this first miracle not to solve a problem that is not really a problem, but to show that He is God and our God is a God of plenty and festivity.

This is the eureka moment! We have found God and Our God is not just here for purification, but for celebration. Our God is not just here for fixing problems, but for responding to even our small concerns with great richness. And our response to this Epiphany should be following mother Mary’s words, “Do whatever he tells you.” In this time of year when we recognize God’s manifestation as Savior of all people let us observe God’s abundance, celebration, and presence all around us and even within us.