We have just celebrated the period of Epiphany, that period some days after Christmas when the Magi come with presents to the baby Jesus. Now we are focusing on the ministry and identity of Jesus.

Today, as the January series on beginning anew in this still year continues, I want us to think about and reflect on and respond to what it means to be commissioned and confident in Jesus and in the ministry we do in this place.

To be commissioned is to be sent with authority to do a particular task. For instance, the Christian Church in Ohio Commission on the Ministry has been charged with the responsibility of interviewing and encouraging women and men responding to a call to ministry on behalf of the whole church. And we are all commissioned by virtue of our relationship with Jesus Christ to live and share the good news of Jesus Christ.

To be confident is to have a sense of self-assurance, a set of beliefs on which we are willing to stand. We are confident, for instance that a congregation that is welcoming and diverse is who we have been called to be. Confidence is a good thing. But confidence, when it makes its case that no one else ought to feel self assured is conceit, it is arrogance and hubris, but being confident in the gifts of God has given to us and to others is a good thing to do. God is not stingy or tight-fisted with the gifts given to us or anyone else, so it is not the case that the more one church has, the less there is for us.

We may have different degrees of confidence, but we are nevertheless commissioned and called to a certain assurance. It is not always easy but the lessons from Exodus and Mark show us how to live our out our mission and how to do so with certainty.

Moses, hidden at birth, raised in Pharaoh’s house, avenger of his people, a fugitive, on the run is called by God to return to Egypt and say to Pharaoh, “slavery time is over, let God’s people go.” But we can almost hear Moses as he finds himself in the middle of a crisis of confidence. Listen as he says to God, “You want me to go to one of the most powerful men in the world and tell him that you said, ‘Let my people go.’ Hear him as he tries every argument about why he is not the person to go and as God responds to every one of them. When Moses says, “who am I that I should go, I am not qualified, I am not important enough.” God says, “I will be with you.”

“But, what do I say when they ask what my God’s name is? It is not Isis or Pharaoh. They don’t know you. God says, “Just say that my name is I AM WHO I AM.”

“What if they don’t believe me? What if I am not credible enough?” God had given Moses a staff with the power to transform itself. It would help him keep his balance as he walked, he could hold it up and use it to guide the people, and it could become a snake if necessary. It was the symbol of his authority. It was a sign of the presence of God.

We join the story as Moses offers the last of his reasons why not. “I am not good with words, I stammer sometimes.” God says again, “I am with you, I am the one who gives speech, who helps you and others form thoughts and words and sentences. By the power of my Spirit, I will be your mouth.”

Finally Moses says what he has been thinking all along. “Look, please don’t make me do this. Send someone else.” Have you ever had a Moses day? It is not a literal day. It is a period in your life when the task was just too much. It was too hard, too dangerous, too impossible and you were miffed with God for asking you in the first place because we just can’t do it, or so we think. Many people approach a call to ordained ministry that way. They resist and do their best to argue with God. Some yield the argument quickly and serve the church and the society in other wonderful ways. Others over time come to realize that they are ill at ease until they say yes.

In his mind and in his spirit, Moses was not worthy of the task that lay before him. Most of us have been there and done that. But God had a mission for him and God has one for us too. His was to free his people. Ours is to free ourselves from the chains that bind us to traditions that no longer give us life, and attitudes that are more about what we cannot do by ourselves than they are about what we can do with God, who made and kept a promise to Moses and who makes and keeps a promise to us. God is with this church in this place, and God will send us out to be the church in every place. There is a mission for us – to be a welcoming church, a church that enjoys fellowship with each other as we will later this month and early next month, and a church that engages in outreach.

And the good news is that we do not have to do it all by ourselves. If Moses couldn’t speak, his brother Aaron, eloquent, articulate, a member of the class of leaders who understood that their role in the community was to communicate instructions from God to the people would speak for him. Moses was not alone and we are not alone so we can claim confidence and live our mission of building up this diverse, welcoming church so that all who desire to be here can find a place. God tells Moses to pick up his staff and go. God just might be saying to us – look at the resources you have, get the help you need from wherever it might come, and then be the church and do ministry in my name. God was with Moses and told him to go. God is with us and is telling us to stay.

As you do ministry, as you nurture yourselves, build up your community, reach out and welcome others today, listen to the prophet’s voice. That is what these opening verses of the gospel of Mark call us to do.

Mark gives us, “the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1.1) and it is John who presents Jesus to us.

John emerges from the wilderness speaking like a prophet, dressed like a prophet, eating like a prophet. He lived and died fulfilling the mission God had for him. A prophet is one whose God inspired speech prepares people for what God will do. John, the New Testament preacher took on the prophet’s role when he told the people, “Get ready, the one God has promised is here, get ready to receive him. The method of preparation was baptism as a sign of repentance. Now we think of repentance as a scary thing, it can be especially when the call to repent comes with a heavy dose of human judgment as it seems to when spoken by a number of preachers we see on television. We need to reclaim the word.

“We tend to think of repentance as feeling guilty about our sins, but guilt is just a starting point. Guilt is the push and pinch that says we can do better and we can do things differently than we have done before. The Greek word, metanoia means change of mind. When we learn a new and better way of thinking, we respond naturally by acting in accord with our new beliefs (www.lectionary.org/English/mark 1.1-8, p. 5).

Repentance for John was about preparing to receive Jesus, the Son of God. He is coming, John says, and he is so magnificent that I am not worthy to stoop down and untie his shoes. Untying sandals was the work of slaves. John is saying that he is not worthy to be a slave to the Messiah, and then Jesus appears, presenting himself to John for baptism. Why? From what sin did he need to repent? From what did his life require turning? Nothing. Jesus’ baptism is not about his repentance. It is about telling the world who he is. “The baptism of Jesus provides the occasion for the revelation of is identity” (Texts for Preaching – Year B. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993, p. 103).

Early in the movement that became the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) the connection between repentance, baptism and forgiveness was taught simply in a method called the “five-finger exercise”. Walter Scott would arrive in towns in Ohio and West Virginia. He would gather dozens of children around him. He would ask if they knew God’s plan for salvation. They would says no. He would then use his hand to teach them these five steps to turning to God and responding to the Spirit of God in them.

1. Believe in God and Jesus Christ
2. Repent of your sins
3. Be baptized
4. Receive God’s forgiveness
5. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Then he would tell them to bring their parents to the church service he was conducting that evening. Walter Scott’s method led to phenomenal growth for our church because he was commissioned to spread the good news, and he was confident about how to do it.

God has given us a mission to be the church of Jesus Christ is this place, and God has given us the confidence to move into our mission. We can believe and trust God. This is the God who was with us in the past, who is with us now in this present moment, and we can trust that God will be with us in the days ahead.

About a year ago, someone sent me an anonymous note that said among other things that ours is a depressed congregation. That is correct to some extent, as you will hear in our meeting, we are in some tough times. But we are also commissioned to be the church of Jesus Christ here and we can be confident in God’s presence as we commend ourselves to God and to God’s Christ. Our choir has encouraged us from time to time by singing “trust and never doubt, Jesus will surely bring you out, he’s never failed us yet.” And he won’t.

As Jesus emerges from the water, it is as if God throws back the curtains of heaven, looks down and says, “yes, well done. You are indeed my son, and I am pleased to present you to the world today.”

The poet Robert Browning said, “ah but our reach should exceed our grasp, or what’s a heaven for.” Heaven and earth are for celebrating that we have reached out beyond what is easy to grasp and that our extended fingertips have taken hold of hope and we are ready to take hold of the next thing God has for us. We can know that when we have rational reasons for why not, God will do for us what God did for Moses and assure of God’s presence, and let us know that we have within us all that we need. Like John the Baptist, we can find our voice in the wilderness and tell everyone we know that we know that Jesus lives.

The hymn gives us the words, “I know his promise never fails, the word he speaks, it cannot die…I know I know that Jesus lives, and on the earth again shall stand; I know eternal life he gives, and grace and power are in his hand” (“I Know That My Redeemer Liveth” by Jessie Brown Pounds #225 Chalice Press. St. Louis). We are a people commissioned, and God wants us to have confidence in the ministry we will do in his name. When we do, we will be blessed, God will be pleased, and Jesus Christ will be praised. Amen.

Dr. LaTaunya M. Bynum
Senior Pastor