Sunday, January 11, 2015

Fringe Benefits


Fringe Benefits from Joseph Taber on Vimeo.


Acts 19:1-7 (169)
1While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul passed through the interior regions and came to Ephesus, where he found some disciples. 2he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” They replied “New we have not even heard there is a Holy Spirit.” 3Then he said, “Into what were you baptized?” They answered, “Into John’s Baptism.” 4Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus.” 5On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied - 7altogether there were about twelve of them.

This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God

Mark 1:4-11 (42)
John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5And people from the whole Judean countryside were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around is waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop to untie his sandals. 8I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

9In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. 11And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God.

A crowd begins to gather at the edge of town. You can hear the commotion long before you can see what's going on. Drawn out by the spectacle, you try and see what has started to happen, maybe it's the beginnings of a fight, maybe an especially talented street performer.

Instead, you're confronted by a voice crying out in the wilderness, declaring in the language of scripture that the day of The Lord is coming. This roaring prophet sounds the part, his voice carries over the whispers and murmurs of the assembled throng, firm and powerful with conviction, yet it also has a burned-out tone to it, a crunchy edge to his words brought on by too much shouting. It's a wild man from the wilderness, dressed in Camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, the way the great prophet Elijah is said to have dressed. This must be John the baptizer.

Rumor has it that he is spends so much time in the wilderness that he doesn't even have room in his diet for the many kinds of food available in the city. He has traded the comfort of civilized life, with the fruits and meats from all across the region, for insects and whatever wild honey he can find. John the baptizer lives by an unrelenting trust in what God gives him. You push through the edges of the crowd, finding room a few rows back from the prophet, surrounded by the excitement of a crowd that wants to hear God's word spoken anew.

At the town limits, on the banks of the Jordan river, at the edge of the wilderness, John tells the story of something amazing about to happen, the world is on the fringe of renewal, The Lord is coming. God is not stuck in the middle of a temple, or even bound by a particular community. God is free to come even to the fringes of the culture. ”He proclaimed, 'The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop to untie his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.'" God is free to share the benefits of grace with the poor and oppressed instead of the wealthy and powerful. God is free to change the world, starting at the Jordan river. It’s wild. It's weird. It's...strangely compelling...

So many of the folks in the center square were turned inward, only looking at what they could grab and hold for themselves: power, wealth, comfort, security. The folks in the center are too afraid to move because they might lose something, and they have so very much to lose. Every step comes with the question, "what will it cost?"

But here on the fringes with John the baptizer, we can see the benefits of a world made new, like the sunrise over the wilderness as it reflects off the water of the river Jordan, dancing over the ripples every time someone new is baptized. From the fringes, we can see the freedom of God, dismantling the status quo and continually creating and recreating in the world. ”Into the wilderness of our own broken lives and our own bleeding world erupts the promise of a baptism of new life.” John brings a promise that God is coming, that our sins can be cleansed, that we can turn away from self-centeredness and toward the fringes where we have the benefit of seeing what God is freely doing in the world.

But the one who is coming after John brings an even more promising future. “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan” The freedom of God is such that even absurd things, like joining sinners in baptism, is possible. The freedom of God is such that a promised future can be expanded, grace can be abundant, and the world can change.

John's Baptism is cleansing, but like everything else he does, Jesus's involvement adds to human experience by his participation. Baptism maintains its cleansing, but also becomes a claiming and a commissioning. John is the herald, Jesus is the Lord. Jesus’s baptism is not one of turning away from sin, but of turning toward his identity as the Son of God. "The cross reveals that the sonship declared at Jesus's baptism involves obedient suffering. This is evident in the baptism scene itself, for Jesus voluntarily joins the ranks of penitent sinners.”

The more promising future is ready to emerge, the kingdom of God is at hand! At the town limits, on the banks of the Jordan river, at the edge of the wilderness, something amazing happens. Jesus steps forward and is baptized, and the fringe of renewal expands, and takes us further out into the wilderness where we will meet God.

Yet Jesus, even before he takes a deep, dripping breath, on the fringe between the river and the ground, on the fringe between Jerusalem and the wilderness, finds that he has intersected another fringe. “Just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.” God rends sky in Jesus’s view so that God can share this moment, this space, this affirmation, with Jesus. “and a voice came from heaven, “you are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” A private moment of revelation, a private joy within the Triune God, a powerful intersection at the fringes between heaven and earth, earth and water, civilization and wilderness.

From the shore, all we can see is another one of John’s baptisms. We don’t know, living in Mark’s narrative of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that the central event of human history is about to unfold. ”Jesus knows who he is by means of an experience that is not accessible to objective public verification. Others must discover this truth by listening to what Jesus says and by watching what he does.” God is also free to wait for human discernment, not every divine intervention is accompanied by angelic armies or thousands of conversion. God is free to act apart from humanity, sharing a moment with Jesus as the ongoing story moves towards a cruciform climax.

And yet God’s freedom also means inviting us to participate in building the kingdom, inviting us to be uncomfortable with a fallen world and to show that a redeemed life can impact that world, but we can’t participate in what God is doing on the fringes if we stay stuck in the safety of self-centeredness. God is free to move beyond our comfort zones, and the challenge of Christian discipleship is to follow, whether that leads us to the outskirts of town, or the river Jordan, or even into the wilderness of we-know-not-what.

John comes from the wilderness to offer Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus, immediately following his baptism, is driven out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. Perhaps we are too eager to stay in the embrace of these walls and pews. Maybe we're too quick to come in from the wilderness, to come up from the water. I wonder, if we stayed a little longer, would we see the Holy Spirit too? Would we see the heavens torn apart and be forever changed by it?

If we stay in the center, we're not likely to find out what God is doing out on the fringes.

It's not just about God becoming a person, giving up cosmic, transcendent power, and taking on the dustiness of human life. There's also an empowering by the Holy Spirit. Jesus doesn't just take on sin and suffering, he also receives the power of the Holy Spirit and uses it to breathe life back into the human condition. "Baptism matters because we are who God says we are. The identity declared at baptism, however, is only a word until it is revealed with convincing power in the unfolding story of our life and death - and resurrection.” We join Jesus’s baptism so that we can follow him in his death, and in his resurrection. We are who God says we are, and God says we belong to God. We do not belong to ourselves or our own self-centeredness, we belong to God, who sets us free to follow Christ to the fringes. We are no longer concerned about our own benefit, but about responding in faith and gratitude to God.


We do not fear judgment, because we know God is gracious freely. We do not fear death, because Christ has given us life. We know the benefits of living on the fringes: that’s where we experience God.

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