Mark 1:10-11 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And 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. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
The biggest
lie that I was ever told was given to me when I was a child by both parents and
teachers. It went like this: "Sticks and
stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me". Try as I might, I could never find a way not
to let words hurt, especially those I heard on the playground, words
like ‘four eyes, sucker up to bat, or train-track mouth’. Back in the 60’s and 70’s, no one seemed to think much about
bullying except that it was a fact of life and you either got tough or earned
the even worse label ‘crybaby’.
Words never
hurting was the idea that it wasn’t what others thought of us that counted, but
what we thought of ourselves that mattered.
True enough. But sensitive
children don’t know how to distance themselves from the painful words that
others throw at them. In Grade 7 and Grade 10, bullying was so much
a part of the culture that it had a whole week dedicated to it, called
Initiation Week. This was supposedly a
time of light-hearted high jinks where the oldest kids in the school had the
right to treat the younger ones any way they wanted. I got to clean out a locker, lucky me, but
other kids had their hair washed with shaving cream or were told to swallow raw
eggs or dress in drag. Even the teachers
had a form of initiation as it was always the unaware first year teachers who
got assigned lunchroom duty that week.
Luckily, that
has disappeared from the school system for many years, but it still shows the
power of words. There’s a huge
difference between labelling something ‘initiation week’ versus ‘institutionalized
hazing’. Words do matter. We now know that many children struggle with
depression and suicidal thoughts even as young as 6 or 7. Often it is because of the words that are
used on them.
“You are so
slow, why are you so stupid”, and my personal challenge, “you’re not good
enough.” These kinds of words haunt us
long after we can remember who first said them to us or why.
That’s one of
the reasons why the Hebrew scriptures and the Christian writings are so dear. They recognize the importance of words,
so much that our bible starts with God speaking, “let there be light” – the
idea that words can be so powerful when spoken by the right person that great
things like light and life can be created from chaos.
Mark’s gospel
starts with such a great creation. No
Bethlehem, shepherds or wise magi here.
Two men meeting in the wilderness in a profoundly personal initiation
ritual. Not hazing, but a simple and
symbolic act of drowning in the Jordan River, the historical boundary for the
Hebrew people between the wilderness of Moses and the promised land of King
David. A moment of connection between
two men recognizing the importance of God in their lives and their common bond
of connection to the Mission of God.
John the Baptizer meets Jesus the Messiah in an encounter so profound
that it will change the course of history forever.
And when John
and Jesus meet in that ritual, something amazing happens. God tears the sky apart and Jesus hears “This
is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.”
It is one of the few events that is written about in all four of our
Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
It is right up there with the overturning of the Temple, the
Crucifixion, and the Easter resurrection.
It was words that the disciples thought worth repeating, and core to the
teachings Jesus handed down to his disciples.
God loves us.
That’s bigger
than we might think, and certainly something that Christians might take too
much for granted.
The concept
of God for most people was something to be afraid of, that would judge and
punish and condemn. Even now I hear that
when people say, “oh, I could never come to church, if I did, I would burst
into flames,” and they are only half joking.
That’s not
the God we see here, and not the God that Jesus and John saw when they read
scripture. God choses special messengers
to comfort the poor and help the children of the needy, as it said in our psalm
today. That’s a loving God, not a
punishing one. Yet all too often we
still act and think like God is a punisher who speaks angry words to condemn
us.
If we believe
that God is a bully only interested in punishing us, we will give up on our
lives, ourselves and the people around us.
We will justify acting like a bully because we’re just being like God. And we will struggle with the words that we
speak about ourselves deep in our private hearts. We can be our own worst bullies.
The Globe and
Mail this year published a series of articles about mental health and the
tremendous toll this puts on Canadians.
One of the things they wrote about was mental health hygiene. We are great at brushing our teeth and
washing our hands, but lousy at cleaning our minds of negative words.
As
Christians, we are called on by our scriptures to practise mental hygiene by
remembering the generous and loving acts of our God that led us out of slavery
into freedom, into relationship with the loving Divine. Just as Jesus heard the sky tear, this good
news should turn our lives upside down.
When we put star words, God’s words, at the center of our minds, we join
in that joyful community of saints that know the profound good news, that we
are beloved children of God. May it be
so for us all!
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