Sunday Homily, January 12, 2020, Baptism
"Welcome in, Everybody," say Cody & Richard.
Readings:
Isaiah , 42, 1-4, 6-7, Here is my chosen one.
Psalm 29, The Lord will bless his people with peace.
Acts of the Apostles 10, 34-38, I see that God shows no partiality
Matthew 3, 13-17, Jesus came to John to be baptized
Welcome back out of the hospital, Bill. So good to see you here.
Mike's Homily
Jesus of Nazareth came from Galilee to John at the Jordan River to be baptized by him.
John tried to prevent him, saying,
“I need to be baptized by you,
and yet you are coming to me?”
Wire that old guy up, Hue.
Jesus said to him in reply,
“Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us
to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John allowed him.
After Jesus of Nazareth was baptized,
he came up from the water and behold,
the heavens were opened for him,
and he saw the Holy Spirit descending like a dove
and coming upon him.
And a voice came from the heavens, saying,
“This is my beloved Son, the Messiah, with whom I am well pleased.”
The communion table.
Homily
We are to become the words and actions of the Messiah in our everyday lives; recognizing with joy his presence with us.
Want to know who runs this celebration here?
Chicago is a special place to Judy and I; we spent our honeymoon among our visits there. I still have a story in mind that a Chicago woman wrote when she daily used a bus route getting to work and then returning home. Walking to the bus stop each day allowed her to get to know some of people she would say hello to. She got to know a baker who placed in his window each day donuts and her favorite bear claws. Occasionally she would purchase a small sack of them carefully wrapped.
The Best Music with Shonda & Ben & David.
One such day, on the way home from work all of the seats were taken. She began taking off her coat, her hat, her brief case and her bear claws just as someone got up to depart from the bus. She and the young man reached the empty seat at the same time. He let her enter first after he had taken off his coat, hat, scarf and what he had been carrying.
The Celebration team.
Four or five minutes later he opened the sack of bear claws, smiled at her, and began to eat one of them. She was stunned, and began to give him the evil eye. Having finished the first one, he licked his fingers, of all things, and took a second one from the bag. He nodded at her to join him. She gave him another evil look.
The Candle Ritual.
Not wanted him to take advantage of her again, she took out two of them, and saying nothing ate them rather quickly while he licked his fingers and smiled at her. She knew that there was only one left, so she tore it in two and gave him the smaller piece, and smiled back at him.
Mike homilizes.
The bus came to a halt, and he departed, without her having said anything during the whole time they had sat together. She was angry, especially at herself for having stuffed herself and said without words, “Good Riddance.” A few minutes later she stood to get off the bus. As she did so she put her hat back one, followed by her coat, lifted up her brief case and then her scarf.
The last thing she took from her seat was her neatly folded, and carefully wrapped bag of five bear claws. The messiah had been in her midst, and she had not greeted him with a single word.
"It is Girl Scout cookie time," sez Our Dearest Harper.