January 10, 2021: May God’s words be spoken, may God’s words be heard.  Amen.

Soooo, anything interesting happen this week?  Lordy.  I saw a Facebook meme that said “I’d like to cancel my subscription to 2021.  I’ve experienced the free 7 day trial and I’m not interested.”  Yup – about sums it up, don’t ya think? 

Today we heard the gospel story of the baptism of Jesus.  Well I have news for ya folks – this baptism thing – it happened to you too – and it isn’t about some family celebration that ends with a nice lunch – it is a transformative experience that calls us to new life – his life.  We die to what keeps us complacent, comfortable, and separated from God’s creation, and we are given a new life – a new identity – as Christ’s own.  The gospel tells us that as Jesus was rising from the waters of baptism, a voice from heaven said, “You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.”  And I am telling you right now…it is the same for you too.

When you were baptized into him, God was well pleased in you also. You too were marked by the Holy Spirit. Okay, there may not have been an actual dove, but God claimed you, Christ sealed you, and the Holy Spirit anointed you in no less a way.  And that identity is not something to be kept submerged and hidden, but to be proclaimed and lived out.

We are living in a world where being a part of the body of Christ is already looking far different than it did in years past, but the core identity of who we are in Christ has never, nor will it ever, change for us.  That we are called to love and serve the least, the last, the lonely, and the lost.  And right now Jesus needs us to live into that life.

You know, last week somebody ripped down our banner that showed an immigrant family fleeing

persecution as a modern Holy Family.  The banner read “Love one another.” “Welcome the stranger.” – really, the entire bible.  It declared that we recognize the Jesus in the immigrant and refugee coming to our shores to escape oppression, just as the Holy Family had to flee to Egypt to escape Herod’s extermination of children.  Another banner that welcomed all was partially taken down.  Perhaps the person was interrupted before they could complete their task. 

I want you all to know that I put the Welcome banner right last week, and the other banner was purchased again and put up.  We will never be prevented from proclaiming the gospel, from standing with Jesus, from living out our baptismal call.  And right now, after what we all witnessed last week, we have no other choice!

There is so much to say about what happened on January 6th, besides the arrival of the Magi to the Christ child, but one thing is for certain – it will be a day like so many others that will be seared in our collective memories – and we will always remember where we were when we heard the news – just like on 9/11, or the Challenger explosion, the moon walk, or the Kennedy Assassination. 

And remember it we must…

We must never forget the blatant racism on display – confederate battle flags, a symbol of treason and racist dogma, flown in our Capitol – the people’s building.

We must never forget the openly racist differences in the treatment of these terrorists – these nearly all white terrorists – allowed to desecrate those hallowed halls of Congress without arrest, while we remember the way in which Black Lives Matters protestors were tear gassed, people in wheel chairs protesting for accessible and affordable healthcare were carted off – in their wheelchairs, the kneeling pastors, including one newly elected Senator Warnock, who were praying in the Capitol building, were placed in handcuffs and carted away.  Yet these terrorists, who built a gallows on the mall, who destroyed property, who murdered a police officer – they were allowed to roam throughout the building. 

We must never forget that among these terrorists were people wearing a Camp Auschwitz t-shirt that had the words that greeted the people imprisoned, tortured, and murdered in that place on it: “Work Brings Freedom.” Others were seen wearing t-shirts that bore the code: 6MWE.  Do you know what that means?  Do you?  It means that in the minds and hearts of these people, that the six million Jews, Gays and Lesbians, dissidents, and physically challenged people executed in the Holocaust were not enough!  They believe that more should have been brutally murdered.  Let that sink in.  They wear t-shirts telling the world that people – your sisters and brothers – Jesus – should be exterminated!

On a usual Sunday before the pandemic – I would look out on this beautifully diverse congregation – people of many countries, about 50% of you people of color, another 30% or so of you LGBT.  They mean you and me.  That’s who they think should be executed – that is what they are applauding – that is who they see as worthy of complete extermination. 

And as if that were not enough, they had the gal to carry bibles and crosses, and wave signs that said Jesus is my savior.  Folks, that’s like standing there, nailing Jesus to the cross, and all the while saying – I believe in you – I am your follower.

I have had ENOUGH! 

I have had enough of the racism?  Haven’t you?

I have had enough of the sexism and misogyny?  Haven’t you?

I have had enough of the abuse of LGBT people?  Haven’t you?

I have had enough of the anti-semitism, anti-muslim, anti-anything but white so-called Christianity that demeans the gospel of Jesus and crucifies him by word and deed!  Haven’t you?

I have had enough of those who hate proclaiming allegiance to the Prince of Peace.  Haven’t you?

Haven’t you?

I have had enough – and I say to all of you we must RISE UP!

RISE UP and reclaim our faith from those who deny the Jesus before them, who nail him to a cross, who crucify hymn openly and gleefully.

RISE UP and stand with Jesus – the Jesus who is black, who is gay, who is female, who is an immigrant, who was and is Jewish – by God – he was Jewish and so were all of his disciples.  Rise Up and stand with the Jesus who is transgendered, who is Muslim, who is in a wheelchair, who is being tortured, killed, mocked, spit on, denied openly, and betrayed by false prophets.

RISE UP and stand with Jesus!

RISE UP because when we do there is no hate that cannot be conquered, no darkness that his light will not overcome, no wall of exclusion that cannot be replaced by bridges of love, no despotic ruler that cannot be brought down, no violence that cannot be quelled by peace.

You know…in the wake of the destruction wrought on our Capitol, in the wee hours of the morning, a man was seen in those halls on his hands and knees pulling out trash from under a bench.  As the Associated Press reported, “I think it was 1 in the morning,” said…New Jersey…Rep. Tom Malinowski. “There were a couple National Guardsman and I noticed somebody on his hands and knees leaning under a bench to pick something up and it was Andy all by himself, just quietly removing debris and putting it in a plastic bag. He was clearly not doing it for an audience…”

Andy, was Rep. Andy Kim from our state, a descendent of Korean immigrants.  Once someone asked him about it, he said ““When you see something you love that’s broken you want to fix it…It really broke my heart and I just felt compelled to do something. … What else could I do?”

“What else could I do?”

That, my friends, is a question for us all.  And we must answer it.  We, who are baptized into him, who accepted the baptismal covenant to seek and serve Christ in all people., we must always ask “What else could I do?”

And today – the answer we must give is that we will rise up!

We will rise up, by kneeling down, as Rep. Kim did – clearing away the debris of destruction, praying for strength, and making it possible to build a new future of hope.

We will rise up by taking to the streets to stand with the oppressed, to speak for the voiceless, to repel the evil forces of sin, making it possible for bridges of love to replace walls of hate.

We will rise up by reclaiming Jesus from those who defile his name with hate, and who deny and crucify him with acts of violence, and by our witness to his love and peace, bring about the beloved community – the very Kin-dom of God – he proclaimed.

We have had enough.

We are rising up.

We are rising up and standing with Jesus!

And I say to the white supremacists who terrorize my people, who crucify my Christ – I see you, and I am putting you on notice – your day in the sun, your time is long past up.  Because I have had enough.  This follower of Jesus Christ has had enough – long past it really.  I will never stop proclaiming his love and grace until the kind of hate and fear you espouse is destroyed –

until day by day bridges of love are built from the rubble of your defeat –

until all of creation sings with the freedom from abuse, oppression, hunger, and fear that you sinfully seek to spread.

I am rising up. 

The people of Jesus are rising up.

And make no mistake about it – a new day will dawn in this country.  A new hope will spring forth upon this earth.

I want to leave you today with another poignant moment that night in the aftermath of this insurrection, and it came when Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a faithful Roman Catholic, stood on the dais of the House of Representatives, and began the prayer of St. Francis – a prayer we all know well, found in our Book of Common Prayer.  She recited it in part, but let us be reminded of it – all of it:

Let us pray.

“Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is
hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where
there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where
there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where
there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to
be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is
in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we
are born to eternal life. Amen.” (Book of Common Prayer 1979, p. 833)

For the audio from the 10:30am service, click below, or subscribe to our iTunes Sermon Podcast by clicking here:

Sermon Podcast

Rev. Diana L. Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
January 10, 2021
The First Sunday After The Epiphany
1st Reading – Genesis 1:1-5
Psalm 29
2nd Reading – Acts 19:1-7
Gospel – Mark 1:4-11