A sermon by K. Dean Myers, interim pastor
Fairmount Presbyterian Church Cleveland Heights, Ohio
Sunday, January 1, 2012 New Year’s Day
Scripture: Genesis 1:1-5; Acts 19:1-7; Mark 1:4-11
Genesis 1:1-5
1:1In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2the 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. 3Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. 4And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
Acts 19:1-7
19:1While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul passed through the inland regions and came to Ephesus, where he found some disciples. 2He said to them, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?’ They replied, ‘No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.’ 3Then [Paul] said, ‘Into what then were you baptized?’ They answered, ‘Into John’s baptism.’ 4Paul said, ‘John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus.’ 5On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied— 7altogether there were about twelve of them.
Mark 1:4-11
1:4John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5And 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. 6Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7He 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. 8I 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. 10And 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. 11And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.
I
Did one of you give this to me? It’s a poem entitled, “In the Evening We Shall be Examined on Love,” by one Thomas Centolella. The title is attributed to late-16th-century mystic and counter-Reformation figure St. John of the Cross. It has the number “5” printed at the bottom as if it is page 5 of something. Its layout looks familiar. I feel as if I know where it came from, but I cannot quite put my finger on it.
I found it in my sermon preparation folder on December 28 after our return from England. I must have put it there before we left on the 19th. But where did it come from? I can’t remember a thing about it. So, did one of you give it to me?
On December 31 of any year it’s hard to remember, and it’s fearsome when you cannot. As I hang up a new calendar and gaze at January 1 and ask about all that happened the previous dozen months, I am pretty sure my memory was at least a little better a year ago. You probably know what I mean if you are somewhere beyond middle-aged. After 60 or so calendar replacements that mark the passage of one year to the next seem harder and harder to negotiate. Hopefully we can notice some of that without fearing either dementia or impending knee surgery, though they may both be out ahead of us one day.
Who knows what the New Year will bring when you are not even sure what the Old Year brought and why? A year ago I was serving a smallish church in Ashtabula; who’d have thought that as 2010 dawned? Now I’m in a largish church in Cleveland Heights, and I’d have been the last to think that at the beginning of 2011. I confess to remembering what I needed to know faster in that smallish church than in this largish one, including names and faces (which has never been easy for me, and is not getting easier). Blame it on the size difference alone if you want; I think it’s me. I need a workout in a brain gym! Good thing a long-suffering staff is patient to remind me and help me.
What about 2012 will surprise me twelve months hence? It’s impossible to know, not matter how clear our memory.
II
What can we count on as year turns to year? “God of our lives, through all the circling years, we trust in Thee”? Yes, but can we be more specific, more to the point? Can we trust in something more tangible than “God”? But dare we trust in less? And if we trust in God, does that not leave everything else up for grabs? After all, God is the great unknown whom only our arrogance makes us think we can predict or control.
We know this: life and death, living and dying intervene in the best laid of our plans. Yes, we had a wonderful time in England with our daughter, son-in-law, and two perfectly adorable granddaughters.We learned that American and English Christmases share a lot of common traditions but also rather decisively do not share many others. For example, “Happy Christmas, and would you like a mince pie?”
Our sojourn there was wonderful. But it was darkened by news of the death of a beloved family member back here in the States, and by concern about another close family member who welcomes the New Year with an appointment for angioplasty. Our “Happy Christmas” was shadowed by sorrow and concern.
We cannot escape the realities of this life, no matter how far away we fly, so God, how can we “trust in Thee” when surprises so easily ambush us? What exactly does it mean to trust One who ordered chaos with a command for light; to trust the One who unsettled the urbane Ephesian Christians with a Holy Spirit; to trust the One from whose bag of tricks suddenly appeared John the Baptist, intent upon preparing the way for an unlikely Savior, Messiah, Christ? Give us something predictable to trust, something we can grasp in our hands and mould into a shape we can see and touch and be sure of…give us that, you “God of our lives!”
III
Did you give me this poem? You haven’t told me. Where did it come from?
One thing I found out: it isn’t brand new. Wikipedia says Thomas Centolella is a contemporary American poet. Garrison Keillor read “In the Evening We Shall be Examined on Love” on Writer’s Almanac back in 1996. One of my scary things about aging is the reality of all the poems and music I won’t hear in time…
How can I know the New Year if I cannot remember the Old? Well, the poem holds a response that helps me, and may help you, too. We cannot know the future, much less control it…ever…and so we cannot be expected to pass an examination on tomorrow. But, “In the Evening We Shall be Examined on Love,” right? Is that an easier or a harder test? One thing for certain, when it comes to love, we are graded on the curve, and that curve bends in our favor. Listen with me:
In the evening, we shall be examined on LOVE.
And it won’t be multiple choice,
though some of us would prefer it that way.
Neither will be it be essay, which tempts us to run on
when we should be sticking to the point, if not together.
In the evening there will be implications
our fear will turn to complications. No cheating,
we’ll be told, and we’ll try to figure the cost of being true
to ourselves. In the evening, when the sky has turned
that certain blue, blue of exam books, blue of no more
daily evasions, we shall climb the hill as the light empties
and park our tired bodies on a bench above the city
and try to fill in the blanks. And we won’t be tested
like defendants on trial, cross-examined
till one of us breaks down, guilty as charged. No,
in the evening, after the day has refused to testify,
we shall be examined on Love, like students
who don’t recall signing up for the course
and now must take their orals, forced to speak for once
from the heart and not off the top of their heads.
And when the evening is over and it’s late,
the student body asleep, even the great teachers
retired for the night, we shall stay up
and run back over the questions, each in our own way:
what’s true, what’s false, what unknown quantity
will balance the equation, what it would mean many years from now
to look back and know
We did not fail.
“what’s true, what’s false, what unknown quantity will balance the equation”? An “unknown quantity” will let us know “we did not fail.” But what?
Why, love itself, love in our flesh, the love of God in God’s Beloved, Jesus Christ, who both examines us and saves us from failure. In the evening, when we are examined on love, the One who loves us completely will not let us fail. Amen.
