Sermons
The Rev. Eric K. Hinds
Rector, St. Matthew's Episcopal Church
Sermon preached by The Reverend Eric Kimball hinds at The Episcopal Church of Saint Matthew on 20 January 2008, The Second Sunday after Epiphany. Year A lessons: Isaiah 49:1-7; Psalm 40:1-12; 1 Corinthians 1:1-9; John 1:29-42.
In the year 1938 a biological exploring expedition entered the Grand Valley of the Balim River deep in the interior of West New Guinea.
Europeans discovered New Guinea in 1562 and Dutch missionaries took up residence in the 19th century(1852) but the interior of the country had little attraction for missionaries or colonial governments because it was so remote and the terrain so difficult to traverse.
The 1938 expedition led by Richard Archibald to record what unique flora and fauna might be discovered in this remote pristine region previously unseen by human eyes.
Imagine the shock of Archbold expedition’s when upon reaching the Grand Valley they discovered that the region was densely populated by over 50,000 natives who were still living in the Stone Age. Not only were The Papuans a previously unknown human population, they were equally unaware of the existence of any other people in the world. Their society lived believing that they were the sole inhabitants of the world. Today we find such geographic isolation hard to imagine.
When I visited the Holy Land 7 years ago I was surprised to discover the extent to which the advertising of two Western products dominated my travels through market areas. The red and yellow logo promoting Pringle potato chips and the famous red and white signs advertising Coca-Cola could be seen everywhere. Where I lived in East Jerusalem the Coca-Cola logo was stylistically labeled in Arabic while if I ventured to walk through the West Jerusalem where the population was almost entirely Jewish, the Coca-Cola logo was reformed in the letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
When my study group took a two day journey into the Sinai desert and then climbed several hours by camel to the top of Mt. Sinai— a place of haunting beauty still remote and a long way from the nearest village— there at the top of that ancient sacred mountain was a shack where you could buy candy bars, potato chips (Pringles) and of course Coca-Cola. We not only live in a world of instant communication but in a world where there has been extensive exchange of culture through trade and commerce. It is hard for us to imagine that in the not too distant past of human evolution-- every human group was ignorant of the world beyond its own lands and had very little contact with their immediate neighbors— with most peoples never traveling more than 10 miles from their ancestral lands. In his book The Third Chimpanzee, Jared Diamond points out that for societies living 10,000 years ago the notion of trusting or tolerating Unrelated outsiders would have been unthinkable.
For human populations the development of a distinct language and culture has always seemed to be accompanied by a strong measure of xenophobic hostility— a deep seeded suspicion and fear of those who look and act differently from one’s own culture. When I was young boy on vacation with my grandparents at a luxury hotel in St. Petersburg, FL with a beautiful view of the ocean— I can remember at the end of one day my brother and I playing with the only other child in the pool who happened to be black. For a child raised In the north— I could not understand the interest of my Grandmother’s friend who in taking our picture commented that she was taking our picture because otherwise her friends would not believe that the two races were interacting in the leisurely world of the hotel pool. As I grew older— I gradually became aware of the depth of division between white and black America and the enormous amount of work that was yet to be done for integration and acceptance to replace hostility, fear and hatred.
As we approach the annual observance and celebration of the life and ministry of Dr. Martin Luther King tomorrow-- perhaps we can pause and reflect how far we have come as a country and a people with regard to bridging and healing our racial divide-- while we also consider how to measure our progress and integration in other areas of social conflict. This morning we encounter the gospel writer John’s account of the beginning of the adult ministry of Jesus. The passage begins with the encounter between John the Baptist and Jesus to describe how Jesus is destined to eclipse his own ministry an impressive proclamation as John has attracted a large following. This part of John’s story should be familiar to us for we hear similar words in each of the other gospels of how the role of John the Baptist is to point towards the coming ministry of Jesus.
And yet of all the Gospel writers it is John who goes out of his way to tell us that not only will the ministry of John the Baptist be eclipsed, but, in the space of a few lines Jesus as revealed as “the Lamb of God who takes away the Sin of the world” “…he will baptize with the Holy Spirit” “this is the Son of God” “look, here is the Lamb of God” he is simply referred to as “Rabbi” and finally Andrew tells Peter that “we have found the Messiah” What we miss in John’s introduction is a sense for the strong support for the ministry of John the Baptist, the attraction of a figure standing in the prophetic tradition, speaking to the people of Israel proclaiming the difficult message of repentance yet the proclamation resonates with a familiar audience.
By assembling a list of titles to describe Jesus—early on we begin to appreciate that the life and ministry of Jesus will outpace our list of titles that in his ministry Jesus will break with accepted norms. He includes outsiders and foreigners, he intentionally reaches out to include women. Jesus crosses yet another taboo by ministering to those labeled unclean and he garners the condemnation of many who count themselves as religious because he dares to include sinners before they have formally repented. Early on in his Gospel, John prepares us for the magnitude to which Jesus will challenge the established order. He takes on the deeply entrenched societal sin of exclusion. Jesus made and continues to make religious people nervous because of the way that he challenged our tendency to circumscribe and label who belongs and who is excluded.
When you think about it we—humankind usually take great pride in our own group. Whether we be English or French white or black Christian, Jewish or Muslim-- or any other identify that defines us— and we can work to preserve and to take pride in various aspects of that identity— but at the same time we should be aware of the awful price that we have paid when allegiance to one group is so strong that it works to obliterate others and to treat the people of different cultures, races, religions or nations as less than human. One of the powerful aspects of Dr. Kings preaching was that he used biblical imagery to proclaim the inclusion of all of God’s children in the kingdom of heaven. Today we are past the time where we are going to discover large new populations completely isolated from the rest of the world. And yet when we look around society has a tremendous ability to stratify and isolate even in the midst of our modern world. It takes active effort on our part to overcome our estrangement-- to reach out and travel across the lines of culture, color, and class So perhaps In the gospel writer John’s account we are given so many titles for Jesus early on so that we have something to fall back on; it is a reminder that the place where Jesus is calling us may not always be easy.
We have to conquer our fears and extend our love and compassion beyond our borders of comfort. It is Jesus himself who offers the example and gives us the strength and the courage and the will To do so And it explains why standing there in the river Jordan, John the Baptist could look up and seeing Jesus coming toward him proclaim, behold “Here is the Lamb of God— Who takes away the sins of the world.”
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