Seeing is Believing: The Open Heaven
We Cannot Be Resigned
Mark 1:4-11
Rev. Tim Callow
Preached Sun. January 10, 2021
One of the great temptations today, for a disciple of Jesus Christ, is resignation. That is to say, to begrudgingly accept things as they are as if they were inevitable. When we resign ourselves to the way things are, when we think nothing can change, what we are really doing is disbelieving God’s promises. We are disbelieving God’s promises because God promises peace and joy and justice. God promises transformation, and an answer to our hope. When we resign ourselves to the way things are we are saying God does not act, and God cannot keep his promises to us.
The Old Testament shows many examples of this resignation to the world as it is. When God delivers the Israelites from Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, shattering the armies of Pharaoh, the Israelites worry about where their food and water will come from. They demand that Moses strike the rock that they might have water, because they do not trust in the goodness of God. In the days of Samuel the Israelites demand a king so they can be like the other nations. They want a man to fight their battles for them, because they no longer trust in God to fight their battles. They resign themselves to the world as it is, a world of strong men and stronger armies. A world of empires and Kings. They don’t accept the promise of God, that if they love him he will fight for them. The promise of God isn’t real for them, all that is real is bronze and iron.
Even today, after two thousand years of Christian history it’s easy to fall into that same resignation. Whether we resign ourselves to the unfortunate knowledge that the leopard cannot change his or her spots. Or resign ourselves to the injustices of the world. Or we resign ourselves to churches that must shrink, that people just aren’t all that interested anymore. When I was in my last placement, I remember feeling resigned to our program’s limitations. My charge was in a cooperative parish that worked as a General Board of Global Ministries mission site. And our vision for the ministry was far larger than what was realistic. We needed a base of operations for Volunteers in Mission teams and for our materials. But finances had always been tight, and we had nothing saved up. While we looked around, it seemed like a pipe dream. Until we learned an old school was on the market for $10k. And a very generous donor, who believed in what we wanted to do, and believed in the promise and power of God, made the donation. We went from a vision too big for our britches, to scrambling to where God was taking us. If God can make things happen for a few small churches in the middle of nowhere, God can make things happen in our lives.
The wonderful thing about resignation is that you are almost always right. It is often enough a self-fulfilling prophecy. If the leopard won’t change his spots, you won’t give them a chance to do so. If there is no one searching, if Christ isn’t still calling people to his church, then you’ll never find them. But the painful thing is you lose a sense of wonder at the world, and no longer see the work and power of God. If God can save, surely God can transform.
We always resign ourselves when we are certain we know the way things really are, and we know the way things really work. But the beauty of faith is accepting the world is not the way we think it is. Faith is recognizing that we do not need to be in control, because God is in control. And God can lead the leopard to change her spots. God still calls people to be his own. God’s activity in the world did not stop when John of Patmos finished the Book of Revelation. But, in fact, Christ reigns. And Paul tells us he must reign until he puts all enemies under his feet.
Our gospel reading this morning comes from the beginning of Mark’s Gospel. He is recounting Jesus’ baptism. John was baptizing at the river Jordan, and all Jerusalem was going to him to be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. But John was sent to prepare the way of someone far mightier. He says, "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. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” I baptize you with water as a sign of your repentance. But when he comes, the one they call the messiah, he will baptize with the Holy Spirit. The same Spirit that was upon the waters at the creation. The same Spirit that cut the Red Sea in two. The same Spirit by which Elijah called down fire from heaven. And the same Spirit by which the prophets spoke.
We are told that Jesus was among this crowd who came to be baptized, and when he came up out of the waters he saw an astonishing vision. “He saw the heavens ripped open, and the Spirit coming down like a dove.” Then he heard the very words of the Father, presumably through the hole in the heavens, “"You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
Mark is the only gospel that tells us Jesus saw the Heavens ripped open, much like the veil in the Temple was ripped open top to bottom at the crucifixion. It is a powerful and almost violent image. It is through the hole in the sky that the Father speaks and the Spirit comes down. And we are never told that the Heavens, once ripped asunder, were put back together. The implication seems to be that they, in fact, were not. That the hole in the heavens Jesus saw exists to this very day. That the barrier between earth and heaven is torn. And the place where Heaven and earth meet is Christ. The beloved. The lamb of God.
Like I said before, resignation relies on thinking we know how things really are. We know the leopard will not change its spots. We know how the world works. We know life in this age requires certain grim necessities. But how can we be resigned in a world where the heavens have been torn open and the Father speaks? How can we be resigned in a world where we are gifted the very Spirit of God? As we heard in the reading from Acts, we receive that same Spirit in our own baptisms. The heavens remain open. God is still active. This is not a closed world, but it is an open one. Open to the gracious God who lives and who acts and who makes salvation.
How can we ever remain resigned to the way things are, when by grace God fulfills his promises? By faith we know the heavens are torn asunder, and God is living and active. So much of discipleship is learning to see by faith. Learning to see this world not in terms of resignation, but in terms of hope. We cannot predict or calculate the grace of God. We can only follow. We can only rejoice.