1st Sunday after Epiphany

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a
formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God
swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there
was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from
the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And
there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

I love that line:
“A wind from God swept over the face of the waters.”

Before the voice there was the wind:
Wordless power trembling over a void of formless night,
There was blackness,
darkness,
a watery deep.

Before the wind and water:
Before the murky land:
Before even heaven and earth:
There was pure essential silence and absolute nothingness.

And yet:
though there was NO thing:
There was ALL fullness:

For there was God.

In the beginning: God sits enthroned in perfection:
And even now: God sits enthroned in perfection:
And God says: “It is good.”

The font of all love:
All love begotten:
All love created:
All love shared.
Creates, and proclaims loving goodness.

Julian of Norwich, a 14 th century mystic and theologian once said:
“He who created it everything for love,
and by the same love is it preserved and always will be without end.”

In the beginning: when God created the heavens and earth:
Love is the beginning:
Out of the stillness:
Even before the creation of the heavens and the earth:
Even before the very first words of the Bible found in Genesis:
Love:
Even then: was the going forth that caused heaven, earth, and water to be.

Our God: Who moves over the face of the waters:
speaks in love:
“let there be light.”

And order, distinction, intelligibility, and purpose:
All grounded in love come to be.
And this creation IS.
And as it “IS”
It is preserved by love.

Loving over and over again:
Time and time again:

Love for the guilty.
Love for the weak.
Love for the frail:
Continues the creative process.

Creating:
Over and over again:
The wind and the waters,
The birds and the trees,
and even the Church itself.

All throughout the history of the world:
Throughout the history of Humanity:
God speaks and creates out of love.

In Mark’s Gospel today:
We hear about Jesus’ baptism.
A pivotal moment in Jesus’ life and ministry:
Where God continues to speak and create out of love.

At this pivitol moment:
The heavens are torn apart:
The very heavens that God created:
Are torn as God speaks love to his Son:
His Beloved.

And at this pivitol moment:
The rest of us will follow:
Through our own baptisms:
Through God’s continual creating out of love:
A church is created and born:
Again and again.

And this church IS a community over which the Spirit moves:
Just as in the beginning the spirit of God swept over the face of the waters.

Just as in the moment of Jesus’ baptism the spirit of God descends like a dove:

In every baptism:
At every moment:
A new humanity is born and created.

A new song,
a new commandment,
a new creation,
a new beginning:
Given life out of love.

There’s beginnings all around us:
The Genesis story, the first part of which we read today,
tells us of the very beginning:
Of God’s relationship with creation.

Last week, we heard John’s creation and Christmas story:
The very beginning, wrapped up in the beginning of Jesus’ human life.
Where John tells us that in the beginning was the word, and the word was with
God, and the word was God.

And today, Jesus’ baptism tells us of the beginning:
Of Jesus’ relationship with humanity:
And the foundation of the church.

The story from Acts tells us of a beginning:
The beginning of a faith journey for a few Ephesian disciples.

And for us, this week:
We’ve entered the beginning of a new year.

These beginnings in our readings:
And the beginnings all around us
Should remind us of God’s continual creating:
Continual beginning:
And God’s continuous speaking out of love.

Sometimes beginnings can be scary.
Change can be scary.
The unknown is most often scary.
Beginnings, change, and unknown are often signs that things will never be the
same again.
And that’s pretty scary.

But we have a great God.
Who creates, speaks, moves, and begins:
Always out of love.

After God entered the scene on day one of creation:
The world would never be the same again.

The formless void and darkness over the face of the deep was no more.

Likewise: as we hear in the book of Acts:
After the Holy Spirit entered the scene with those Ephesian disciples:
And after Jesus emerged from his baptismal waters with the sound of the Father’s
voice above,
Their lives would never be the same again.

Yet God:
Continually speaking and creating out of love:
Reminds us of the goodness in these beginnings.

Because wherever God enters the scene:
Goodness is to be found.
Wherever there is creation:
God sees goodness.

At the beginning of the created world:
At every step along the way:
God declares that it is good.

At Jesus’ baptism, the beginning of his earthly ministry:
God declares that there is goodness there.

God is IN the beginning.

And God finds and sees goodness there.

When God enters your scene:
Whether its at the beginning of a faith journey,
or the beginning of a new day,
or somewhere in between:
Brace yourself!

Because when God enters, amazing things happen:
Because every new day,
Every new beginning:
All of it is created out of God speaking love.

And in all of it God see’s goodness.
And says, “It is good.”

Amen.