Baptism Sermon: "You are created from everything!", (Psalm 139) May 20, 2018

Baptism Sermon

— You are created from everything! 

Psalm 139:12-14

Happiness, or the state of being happy, is always an interesting topic; it’s what our life’s goal and dream in general is invested in nurturing, attaining or maintaining. “Be happy” is a great slogan, and we actually say it to one another a lot of times! “Happy Easter”, “Happy Birthday!”, “Happy Thanksgiving!”, “Happy Anniversary!”, “Happy Hanukkah!” 

Now, if we add “Always” to “be happy”, it makes us think. In our Christian Bible, we’ve heard the Apostle Paul encourage his readers, repeatedly, to “Rejoice in God, always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” (Philippians), “Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Corinthians), “Rejoice at all times” (1 Thessalonians). Similarly, in the Jewish mystical tradition, there’s a repeated reference to happiness: “It is a vitally important commandment always to be happy.” In both traditions, the emphasis is on “always.” 

How is it possible to always be happy, when we’ve also learned by experience that there is a time for weeping and a time for laughter? As happiness and joy in life are what we largely invest ourselves in exploring, finding and cultivating, I am sure that as Aiden grows and explores this amazingly beautiful, complex and dynamic world he will encounter a deep time to ask this ancient question about what it means to be happy, and indeed to be happy always. (When the issue is not just about being happy, but “to always be happy” it transforms from a lifestyle issue to a matter of spirituality. Think about it.)

To answer this question about happiness, it is necessary to understand the nature of human happiness. Happiness is not the same as comfort; it is not necessarily to be found in ease, in luxury and plenty. Ease, luxury, and plenty are not shameful, but they are not happiness. Too much comfort can, in fact, cause a weakening of the body or depression of the spirit, if comfort is isolated from higher purposes and life-giving forces. 

We human beings, (really, the whole creation living on this sky-blue planet), like God, who created us, yearn to build. I’m not talking about building with bricks and mortar (Well, birds build their nests; beavers dams, but) – I mean our desire to build relationships. Being God’s creation means that our happiness in our world is to be found in creation. And when we are creating, pain, like in the process of birth, is often the channel that moves us to a deeper understanding and true capacity of loving and being loved. You know, the process of birth is hard for both mother and child, yet that is the moment of one more universe being created, opening up in the dynamic of the two. One (mother) becomes two (mother and child), while two is yet one in the body of the mother. Then, after birth, the two become separated physically: becoming two distinctive individuals — mother and child —. Still intensely connected in a spiritual bond of love, this connection expands with father, with grandmother, with grandfather, and so on and on until it expands to the point of interconnection with all human beings and animals and plants and air and earth and water of the present, of the past, of the future. Here’s my favourite approach to reflect on birthing or genesis. And this is my exclamation for every one of you and us and Aiden! 

One of the Christian doctrines that has engaged our Christian imagination for a long time is Creatio ex nihilo, meaning “creation out of nothing’. Which means, there was nothing before “in the beginning”, and with that first event, all things were created after God’s Word, “Let there be…” from Zero (or even minus, negative) to countless millions (positive). God has created the whole universe — the Sun, the Moon, the stars, animals, birds, bugs, water, earth, flowers, human beings, the complicated and delicate web of life, every entity in it and its beauty - out of nothing, from nothing, without any previous material in place before God, and before God’s Word. Yet, the faith I wish to share with you is this: God of Creation exclaims to us that “You are created from everything.” Not out of the void, not out of emptiness, not out of the vacuum, not out of separation, you are created from everything! From light as well as darkness, from the squalling of infants, from supernovas on the far side of the universe. From the tidal waves of human experiences of loss, grief, anger, despair as well as the experience of the extreme, pure joy of laughter and tears. You are created from everything, and you will continue in the process of creation from everything! Your beginning is already full, flooded in the water of everything; God’s breath is hovering upon the face of your beginning, the quiet vibration on the face of the deep… you.

Happiness is not a sensation of ease and comfort. Happiness is the deeper satisfaction we find when we create: indeed, create from everything we experience… No part is less worthy to be used as the right material to create, and to join with God to create: regardless of whatever form it takes in our life: constructing a physical object, composing a work of art, or raising a child. 

We experience happiness when we have touched the world and left it different according to our will — as long as it is attuned and listens to God’s will for love and more love —. And God whispers to us, in small voices, I am “the lover of Justice.” (Psalm 99) We experience the greatest happiness when we have touched the world and left it better. Certain works of ours will only be accomplished through struggle, with pain, and then with true happiness.

Today, let us remember our baptism. Remember how we have begun. We were created from everything and are still now being created. Happy Beginning!