Genesis
9: 8–17; Psalm 25: 1–9; I Peter 3: 18–22; Mark 1: 9–15
This is the homily that
was given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, February 18, 2018
by Fr. Gene Tucker.
“I’M A
PERSON, AND I CAN CHANGE, I GUESS”
(Homily texts: Genesis 9: 8–17, I Peter 3: 18–22, and Mark
1: 9-15)
A
few years ago, there was a wonderful comedy show on Public Television entitled
“The Red Green Show”. It came to us from Canada, and centered around the activities
of men in a small community. Each week, the men would gather in the men’s
clubhouse, filing into the rows of benches, and would stand to begin their
meetings with the men’s oath, part of which went like this: “I’m a man, and I can change, I guess.”
Let’s
adapt this phrase for our Lenten purposes, changing it to say: “I’m a person, and I can change, I guess.”
Change
is at the heart of the business of Lent. God seeks to change us, expunging
those things that are less-than-holy, less-than-pleasing to Him. God would also
like to change us so that we are more willing to establish relationships with
other human beings who have been created by God, in God’s image and likeness
(see Genesis 1: 26 – 27). And then, God also seeks to change us by reinforcing
those things that are pleasing to Him. In truth, we human beings are, more than
likely, a combination of pleasing, displeasing and indifferent qualities.
Our
three appointed lectionary readings for this day are remarkably well matched,
for each of the three has something to do with a water crossing: Our Genesis reading recounts God’s covenant
with Noah as the waters of the Great Flood recede; St. Peter, writing late in
his life, recalls God’s promise to Noah, likening it to the passage of water
that is Baptism; and then Mark recounts Jesus’ baptism by St. John the Baptist.
Water
crossings cause, mark and create change.
Consider
Noah’s situation: Once the flood water receded, Noah had forever left the
wicked world that existed before the flood, for that world was destroyed. Then,
Noah, his wife, and Noah’s three sons and their wives (eight persons in all[1], Peter
reminds us), were commissioned to begin anew, to create a better, more
righteous and more pleasing-to-God world.
In
our Lord’s case, His baptism marked the end of His previous life and the
beginning of His public, earthly ministry.
Water
crossings make it impossible to return to something that existed before.
Consider the crossing of the Red Sea, as God’s people made their way out of
slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land. Consider also the crossing of Jordan
River as God’s people entered the land that had been promised to their
forefathers, the Patriarchs. For those that crossed the Jordan on dry ground,
there was no returning to life in the wilderness.
Water
crossings also mark covenants made with God. Certainly this is true in Noah’s
case, as God promises that He will never again destroy the whole world by
flood. The sign of this covenant is the rainbow. God’s covenant, in this case,
is an unconditional covenant, for God simply promises to do what He will do,
without regard to any human response.
As
we enter the waters of Holy Baptism, we become inheritors of God’s
unconditional covenant, for in Baptism, an indelible mark is impressed on the
soul. We can never return to the life we may have known before coming to Christ
in Baptism. We are buried with Christ in a death like His, only to be raised to
new life in a resurrection like His, as St. Paul reminds us in Romans 6: 3–9.
But,
if we look a little further into the world as it came to be after God had made
that covenant with Noah and with all of Noah’s descendents, we can see that the
world that came to be was far from perfect. Wickedness again abounded. But,
again and again, God intervened to straighten things out. We can see this quite
well in the Red Sea crossing account, for God, in His mercy, made it possible
for His chosen people to escape from bondage in Egypt. As those same people
made their way into the Sinai Desert, they grumbled, they complained, they made
an idol in the form of a golden calf, and they were attacked by fiery serpents.
Yet, in each case, God reached out to them in mercy, given them water from the
rock, manna and quail from heaven, and a bronze serpent which would deliver
them from the dangers of the fiery serpents.
God’s
mercy called His people to change their ways, to become the righteous and holy
people that God’s plan outlined for their way of life. The Old Testament
accounts, especially when we read the prophets, is replete with accounts of the
wayward ways of God’s people, followed by times in which God’s people repented
and changed their ways.
Human
history reads a lot like what we read in the pages of the Old Testament, for
people waver between faithfulness to God and unfaithfulness.
God’s
voice calls to us, however, in the times in which we wander away from God,
entreating us to change our ways. We are called to remember that we have passed
through the waters of Baptism, and are “marked as Christ’s own forever,” as our
baptismal rite states. So for all the baptized, life is forever changed.
Gradually and with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can live into the holiness
of life that God’s unconditional covenant, made with us in Baptism, entails.
So
perhaps our prayer might be “I’m a person, and I can change, I know I can, with
God’s help.”
AMEN.
[1] I can’t resist inserting a comment that, in
Holy Scripture, the number eight represents a new beginning. Examples of this
include: The creation of the world in
six days, after which God rested on the seventh day, and then, on the eighth
day, that new creation begin to operate; Noah and his group, numbering eight
persons; Jewish boys were circumcised on the eighth day of life; and King David
was the eighth son of his father Jesse.
Perhaps there are other examples that don’t come to my mind at the
moment.
