First Sunday after the Epiphany

Sunday, January 11, 2009

St. David’s Episcopal Church, DeWitt NY

The Rev. James C. Bresnahan, Interim Rector

“Spiritual Experience”

Mark 1:4-11

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

9.In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10.And 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. 11.And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’

Two years ago I traveled out-of-town for a two-day seminar. The seminar sponsor had rented out space in a large mega-church - the first mega-church church I had ever been in.  The central hallway was long as a football field and nearly as wide.  You could fit ten St. David’s in the hallway alone. Off the sides were cafes, play areas, lounges, a childcare center, a library, and meeting rooms with the most-up-to-date technological equipment. The largest of the rooms featured plush seating for thousands, and a giant stage with a stadium-sized video screen above it.

In the hall, posted on kiosks, was a weekly schedule of events.  I thought, looking at it, you could spend all day and night here and never be bored – there’s so much to do. And wouldn’t many pastors see that as a sign of success for their people to be so busy with religious activities?

I bring this up because of a recent article I read by a mega-church pastor who had a change of mind about success. He discovered, to his surprise, that people’s spiritual hunger was not being met by mere involvement in religious activities. If fact, he concluded, too much religious busyness was getting in the way of real spiritual growth.

Might it be that one of the reasons for the emptiness of spirit many people are feeling these days lies in too much busyness in their life and too little quiet time within oneself to focus on one’s own deep spiritual needs?

Time and again in the Gospel accounts, Jesus retreats from crowds to be alone.  Sometimes he gets in a boat to sail away.  Sometimes he climbs a hill.  But always it is to find a place off somewhere where he can reflect, and pray, gain clarity and not be distracted by all the demands on him.

Jesus’ ministry had its beginnings in a spiritual experience that nobody knew about except he.  It was an experience of the spirit that shaped the rest of his life. Today’s Gospel reading tells about it.

At the point the story begins, Jesus had left behind him the daily routine of work in Nazareth, the day-to-day activities that had marked his life throughout his youth and adult years. He would not go back to them.  He has gone to be with a prophet named John, who is calling people to a life of conversion through an act of immersion.

Jesus has joined up with him. And there, on this day in the thirtieth or so years of his life, in the waters of the Jordan River, Jesus has a vision. 

He sees the heavens torn open as it were. He feels a power descending on him, and he hears a voice, saying, “You are my Son, whom I love.  I am pleased with you.”

It was a experience of the spirit.  No one else, Mark says, saw anything.  No one else, Mark writes, heard anything. Jesus alone did. And it led him on a journey of purpose and conviction.

Now the thing to notice in this story is this:  It was not so much that Jesus had a revelation about God.  It was that by the grace of God Jesus had a revelation about himself.  In this experience, Jesus became self-aware, aware that he was God’s child, and loved, and accepted, and as son, meant and called to serve the Father’s will.  Jesus became clear about himself.

There would be other experiences like this one in Jesus’ life – like the Transfiguration, or the time in Gethsemane before his crucifixion when he wrestled with death and dying. But in all the in between times as well, there was the daily praying, and wrestling, and asking, and seeking that is part of a spiritual life.

Jesus invited his disciples and all his followers into that same kind of spiritual experience when he said, “Ask, and you will receive.  Seek and you will find. Knock, the door will open.”

He was not talking about asking and seeking for money or things, or asking to live fifty more years.  He was talking about a seeking that results in discovery, a knocking on the door to our heart and soul where illumination takes place and we come to see what we had not seen about ourselves.

Spirituality is always about a seeking and searching within, about our asking ourselves the right questions about ourselves, and praying for the illumination that God brings.

Illumination is the essence of spiritual experience.  More than changing our mind about God, spirituality is God’s changing our mind about ourselves, and having our mind opened to ourselves.  We see ourselves more clearly, and we become clearer about our purpose, our real needs, and what gives our life depth, meaning, and satisfaction.  We see what we mean to God and what we should mean to each other. We come to see what we need to be about, and what it means to be loved and to love.

It is our plan during the Lenten season to learn about different spiritual disciplines that can help us focus us on the vitality of our own spiritual life.  We’ll explore ways to become more self-aware, ways to listen for how God illumines us, ways to break through the worries and fears that immobilize us, and the franticness that avoids reflection. And we’ll learn about ways to move beyond the stagnation or drift that keeps us from living a bold and courageous life, fully trusting in God. 

I invite you to be part of that learning by making time for it.

Now, as I was writing this sermon, it struck me how part of my work as interim rector is to help us be illumined about ourselves as a congregation – spiritually illumined.

As we work at preparing a profile about ourselves toward calling a new rector, there are the obvious things to see and write about ourselves – how many we are, how much our giving, how educated or cultured we are, how we have aged in place, and short on youth, and all the similar such and such.  None of that is spiritual. None of that says anything about our spirit and what we spiritually are, need, and long for.

Our spiritual life and needs as a congregation are harder to see.  They relate to questions like these: How do we deal with adversity?  How do we resolve differences?  How much are we trusting God?  How much do we love God? How forgiving are we?  What makes us anxious? What has helped us make good decisions?  What has led us to make bad decisions?  What are the signs of our serving God faithfully?  What are the signs of being unfaithful? What burdens do we carry from our past?  What fears? What joys? How do we go about discerning the will of God when we are making hard decisions? 

The answers to those questions would make for an interesting profile, wouldn’t they?

Whether it’s individually or corporately as parish, God is always working to get through to us, for us to be clearer about ourselves and God’s will for us, and to live a more faithful and loving life out of that clarity. And it begins with the invitation and prompting to keep asking, to keep seeking, to keep knocking.  “Ask,” Jesus said, “and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will open for you.”