Pasadena Presbyterian Church Sermon Text
January 9, 2000: "Of Water and the Spirit"
Preaching: The Rev. Dr. Barbara Anderson

Scripture -- Mark 1: 4 - 11
(4) And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  (5) The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him.  Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him the the Jordan River.  (6) John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.  (7) And this was his message:  "After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.  I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.  (9) At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.  (10) As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.   (11) And a voice came from heaven:  "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

Steve Young, starting quarterback for the 49ers until this year when he was sidelined by concussions, was interviewed about a book he has written for children called Forever Young. "If you want therapy," he says, "sit on a sofa with a seven-year-old and let him or her ask you questions about your life."

With equal honesty, Young spoke about the deep fears of his own childhood, and of his desire to help children overcome their fears today. This seemingly fearless quarterback was so afraid as a child that he refused to attend second grade unless his mother went to school with him. He was so afraid that he never went to a sleep-over and he never slept away from home until he went away to college.

"How did you overcome your fears then, and how do you do it now?" the television interviewer asked. "What I learned is to hold on," he said, "to hold on."

This is a season of new beginnings: a new year, new century, new millennium, new church officers, new ordinations. It is a time of endings and beginnings, of excitement and anxiety, when we are reminded that we are engaged in a lifelong adventure of the unknown. Like Christopher Columbus sailing off for the West Indies, even when we think we know where we are headed, each of us actually ends up somewhere else.

If we approach that unknown ocean with the right attitude, it becomes an adventure, an exploration of a new world: whether the unknown adventure into the new world is a new school, a new job, a new insight, a new way of being, a new century, or a new calling to service in the church.

For some the new world is a new chapter in your marriage or life. Maybe it's a new career or a new project or a new relationship or discovering who you are in retirement. Maybe it's discovering how to put one foot in front of the other after a death or divorce or sobriety.

Communities enter new worlds as well. Pasadena's adventure into an unknown world includes finding ways to bridge the chasms that exist between the financial haves and have nots, building relationships between different racial/ ethnic groups, and providing an excellent education for all our community's children.

Pasadena Presbyterian's adventure into the new world includes sharing the good news of God's love within our church family and beyond, developing an exciting and faith-building program for children and youth, developing new kinds of community ministries in Pasadena, and enriching our ministries of caring within the congregation.

In each dimension of our life, personal, community and church, the new world is around the next bend, out of sight. We hear God call us to the journey and we see the initial road we will tread. But although we know the general direction, we can never see all the actual details of what that new world will be. All we know about the future are these two truths: First, that whatever happens, the future will not be the same as today it will be different. And second, that God will be with us in the future, for God is here with us in the present and is also already in the future, waiting for us to catch up.

"Hold on," says the quarterback. Good advice, but to what shall we hold? To God, says the Christian. Hold on to God and everything is possible, for God is not only with us, God is up ahead of us. Wherever we go as individuals, as a community and as a church, God is already there, waiting.

It has been said that when we decide to follow Jesus, "we join a people on the move, like Jesus' first disciples, breathlessly trying to keep up with Jesus. It is an adventure with many unknowns, internal arguments over which turn to take in the road, conversations along the way, visits to strange places, introductions and farewells, and much looking back and taking stock. When we are baptized we. . . jump on a moving train. . . . We become part of a journey that began long before we got here and shall continue long after we are gone." (Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon in Resident Aliens)

This morning we both hear of Jesus' baptism in the Jordan River, and we ordain and install new church officers. Both events are significant moments of commitment to God and to God's work in the world. Both Jesus' baptism and the ordination and installation of officers are the beginning of an adventure the end of which only God can see. Both then and now, the Spirit of God descends with power to make us part of a journey that began long before we got here and shall continue long after we are gone. Thanks be to God for calling us and being with us on that journey. Amen.