"Heavenly Showers" - Mark 1:4 -11 - January 12, 2003

I recently met with a young couple who will be married this summer. Since their wedding will be outside they have one major fear. What if it rains? That was their last question to me when I asked them at the end of our session if they had any final questions.

We all have memories of summer storms ruining family picnics, graduation ceremonies or Sunday afternoons on the beach. There isn’t anything we can do about them but we complain nevertheless. Will the fact that it rains bring bad luck upon this new union of people? Will rain ruin their wedding day?

We live in a culture that puts a lot of emphasis on comfort and control. We don’t like interruptions. We don’t like things beyond our control messing up our plans. In fact, few people make provisions for rain. When my daughter graduated from Ohio State in 1998, it rained the entire day. But, Ohio State has no "rain" plan. There isn’t a space large enough to accommodate thousands of people. Since it has only rained twice in the last 50 years on graduation day, they don’t worry about alternatives.

On her graduation day, my daughter was soaked from head to toe. They didn’t cancel the graduation ceremony until after the entire graduating class had walked into the stadium. The class of 1998 still graduated but they also got baptized. One way of looking at rain is to remember our baptism. That was the time we got wet, the rite of passage when we were accepted into the kingdom of God.

On the day of his baptism, Jesus got wet. It became the pivotal moment in his life. Following his baptism he embarked on his mission proclaiming the kingdom of God. It was the commissioning ceremony for his future ministry. From then on he would be in a constant contest, struggling with human beings who would resist God and God’s ways. From that point on Jesus would make a journey which would constantly test his faith and cause him to struggle with all kinds of people who failed to love their neighbors and who did not trust in God.

Many of you have made new year’s resolutions. To take them seriously means you must commit yourselves to a new way of life. It means an about face, a change of mind and heart. It means that your lifestyle will be different than in the past. John preached a baptism of repentance, which meant a turning of one’s life in a new direction. It reminds me of coming about on my sailboat. To change course you must shift the rudder, release the jib sheet on one side and pull it in other the other so that the jib shifts to the opposite side of the boat. Then you wait for the wind to fill the sails and then you are headed in a different direction. It is a dangerous maneuver since at one point the boom will be swinging from one side to the other.

Making changes is our lives is not always easy. There are pitfalls. Just as coming about on a sailboat involves some letting go and pulling in, so does our commitments to new things or new directions. Just as I trust that the wind will carry my sailboat to a new direction we can trust that god will carry us through a life change as well.

One great thrill in sailing is to come about without losing any speed. When that happens the boat slices through the waves thus producing a spray of water on your face. To get wet in that way means you have successfully changed course and you are an accomplished sailor.

To be truly baptized is about getting wet, moving in a new direction, being committed to change and living in the newness of God. In the following verses Jesus leaves the festive nature of his baptism and heads for the wilderness. Life will be an every day challenge as he struggles with people who resist living their lives in a new way. It will involve all of his strength, all of his knowledge and all of his faith. He will be rejected, misunderstood, debated, considered a threat and ultimately put to death, but he will prevail.

When Jesus was baptized he heard the words, "This is my son with whom I am well pleased." Jesus’ ministry was just beginning and in the process he received affirmation. Any psychologist worth his or her salt will tell you that people need positive strokes and affirmation to be motivated, not guilt trips and condemnation. In other words if you want someone to change, your children perhaps, they need affirmation and rewards for their efforts.

In his book, The Myth of Laziness, by Melving Levine, the author says that people who aren’t motivated are not lazy. They suffer from what he calls, "productivity output failure." I interpret that to mean they aren’t willing to get wet. They resist the challenge of changing their lifestyle. The possibility of failure and the struggles they face are too overwhelming. Levine goes on to say that "people who are productive need to be rewarded and affirmed for their productivity."

What happens when you receive no affirmation about something you are committed to? That makes it all the more difficult for us to change. Ironically, Jesus called fishermen as his first disciples. These were common, everyday folk who knew what it meant to get wet. God is not looking for the cream of the crop nor is God looking for those who get all the breaks. God starts with average people who are willing to get wet, willing to go deep, willing to make a commitment.

John tells his listeners that Jesus will baptize us with the Holy Spirit. God gives us something that no one else can give us; God gives us heart. In the Dayton Daily News, Tom Archdeacon said that the Ohio State football team had something the Miami football team didn’t have. They had heart. That was evidenced by their willingness to be in every game to the very end. What they lacked in talent they made up for in guts and determination.

Every one of you has heart. You have been baptized with the spirit of God which means you have a power within you that can sustain you through anything you face. You don’t need anything external to help you turn your life around or help you to follow through on a commitment since you already have all the power you need. Whatever change or resolution you have made you can keep, because you do not have to make it by yourself. When Jesus embarked on his mission he was not alone. The opened heavens, the dove, the voice of God, all gave Jesus the assurance that God was with him.

But you may ask, how do I know for sure that God is with me? Hopefully you will be listening to voices of assurance. Last summer I chartered a sailing yacht on the Chesapeake Bay. It was not my first charter, but the first time I was the only experienced sailor on board. Previously a good friend has assured me that I could command such a craft and navigate the bay. His voice of assurance gave me just what I needed to complete my first "solo" charter on the bay.

To try different things and make changes in our lives we also need the spirit of God. I have pondered over the image of the dove on Jesus at his baptism. When a dove lands it lands ever so gently, peacefully descending to its perch. I believe that the spirit of God does much the same. It isn’t some grandiose, loud fanfare that we experience when we are contemplating a change, it is a slight, gentle nudge that we feel, a reminder that God is upon us, blessing us with God’s presence.

In sailing you only need a few knots of wind to come about. It doesn’t take a strong wind. Changes and commitments in your life can be made with a single minor adjustment or a slight variation.

"Tell me the weight of a snowflake," a coal mouse bird asked a wild dove. "The weight of a snowflake," answered the dove, "is nothing more than nothing."

"In that case I must tell you a marvelous story" said the coal mouse. "I sat on the branch of a fir, close to its trunk, when it began to snow—not heavily, not in a giant blizzard—no, just like in a dream without any violence. Since I didn’t have anything better to do, I counted the snowflakes settling on the twigs and needles of my branch. Their number was exactly 3,741,952. Then the next snowflake dropped on the branch – "nothing-more-than-nothing," as you say – and the branch broke off."

Having said that, the coal mouse flew away. The dove, since Noah’s time, an authority on such matters, thought about the story for awhile, and finally said to herself: "Perhaps there is only one person’s voice lacking for peace to come about in this world."

Dr. Keith Wagner, St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, Sidney, Ohio