SLIDE19 Sermon:
Look up! See the Dove and feel the Spirit.
Look up…. Open Your eyes to the altar this morning.
Look up…. To the beautiful stained-glass window. We are indeed blessed with these beautiful stained-glass windows which enchants our church and lift our eyes and spirit.
Look up…. open your eyes and ears to see as you once again listen to the Words of today’s Gospel:
“Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came for heaven: You are my Son, the Beloved; wit you I am well pleased.”
Look at the colors. The shapes.
Look at the flowing swaying colors of green, blue, and yellow. The blue and green symbolizing our beautiful green and blue planet. The yellow symbolizing the spirit, gods holy spirit, hovering over the world and breathing in everything. As a perfect illustration to the Gospel, Jesus Christ is standing just under the descending dove, with his feet till wet from the baptizing waters of Jordan. Thorvaldsen beloved sculpture glows pure and white in the colorful image, as Jesus Christ as our savior now blesses us when we are baptized and when we come to him as baptized.
Come to me! Look up!
With faith, with hope and with love.
Look up to find faith, hope and love.
Look up is the call of faith to call us to live in faith with the heavens wide open and our spirit flying free, but it is also the call of faith to look out: look out on the world, to your neighbors, to nature, to the pains and struggles of the world, to the joys and loves of this world; to look out and listen to that call: to live and be light in the world.
The Gospel about the baptism of Jesus and the descending dove, it the constant call to all of us baptized to remember our baptism, to honor our baptismal vows in how we look up, look out and live. Do not look down with downcast eyes and heads in misery, guilt or pain, - but look up with bright eyes and lifted heads of faith.
Remember Christmas Eve: I encouraged you to notice your possible crossed arms and I encouraged to open your arms to each other, to life and to faith. To live with wide open arms to embrace each other, life, the world, the possibilities, the blessings and the forgiveness.
So today: I encourage you to lift your eyes and look up and look out.
Do not look down.
There is a very timely and entertaining movie on Netflix these days with so many fine actors on display: Meryl Streep, Leonardo de Caprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Tyler Perry, Cate Blanchett etc. It is a smart satire about our modern world. There are laughs from time to time, but the movie uses the satire and humor to reveal darker truths. It is a fun satire about our time and age, our way of literary and metaphorically looking down at our smart phones and not looking up to reality and truth. It is a funny movie, but also depressingly sad as it seems all too real. It is a timely comment about climate crisis, disregards of knowledge and common sense, manipulation through media and politics. The movie: “Don’t Look Up.” Is a timely tale about what happens if we do not look up, if we keep staring at the fabricated manipulated truths on our smart phone, on our selected news channels and clever headlines, listening to the political selling points, instead of looking out and looking up.
There even is a chant in the movie “Don’t look Up.” to keep people misinformed about the looming dangers and the sad truths.
I thought about “Don’t look up!” when reading the Gospel about the baptism of Jesus.
I thought about the opposite call from God to us to look up and look out! To make the world bigger and not smaller. To expand our world instead of making it smaller. To train our eyes to look further and farther, to look deeper and truer, to look up… to see the dove, the spirit of God who calls you into being and to baptism.
The dove is such a beautiful symbol of Spirit. It captures the flying fluffy features of the Spirit, it captures the profound promises of peace, and it makes us look up, follow the soaring bird.
Throughout the bible there are other symbols that describe the Holy Spirit.
FIRE: Fire is a strong symbol of passion and presence. At Pentecost we listen to the story about the tongues of fire settling on the disciples changing them to be strong witness in the world. Today John the Baptist says that Jesus “will baptize with Holy Spirit and fire.”
WATER: Fire and water an element of nature. Water is life and purification. Water gives life and sustains life. We were baptized with water as Jesus were baptized in water.
WIND: The wind is the 3. Element of nature to describe the Holy Spirit. Wind is also purification and change, and even more lifegiving breath.
THE DOVE: and then finally the dove. This beautiful symbol of spirit and peace. It is one of the most beloved symbols in art.
In the OT we meet the dove when it is sent out as a messenger by Noah to find dry land after the flood, and it returns with a green leaf in its beak.
In NT we meet the dove in today’s gospel. As Jesus is baptized the heavens open and the dove descends. The Holy Spirit descends from heaven to earth.
So, look up! So, look out!
See the dove, feel the spirit and believe in God.
Today is a fine day to remember our own baptism. To remember the day, we were baptized, and God’s blessed voice told us: You are my beloved daughter, You are my beloved son. With you I am well pleased.”
With this blessing our baptized lives began.
You might have been baptized as a small child as I was. I cannot remember the day in October 1964 in Ryslinge Denmark, as I was only 3 months old. But I remember the pictures of me in my baptismal gown: laying on the beautiful blue coach with my grandmas on either side under my favorite painting of my parents: the beautiful swan painting. Not a dove, but still an image of an elegant bird.
You might have been baptized as a little older child or a teenager with vivid memories of the day. You might have been baptized as a grown up.
Regardless of age, circumstance, church, month or year, the voice from heaven was the same. “This is my son. This is my daughter. You are the beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
What a blessing to be able to live a life marked with this baptismal blessing.
What a blessing to be able to believe that the descending dove, the moving spirit and the purifying water marked our life for the rest of our lives.
The words of the baptismal sacrament told us and tells us again and again:
“The almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who have now borne you gain by water and the holy spirit, and has given you the remission of sin, may he strengthen you with his grace until eternal life. He preserve your going out and your coming in now and forever more.”
What a blessing! What a promise! That we may indeed live and die on.
So always look up and look out! Because God looked at you and still looks at you. God blessed you and blesses your life every day. So be a blessing to others in your life too.
Remember you baptism. Remember the promise. Remember the sprinkle of hope.
Look up. Look out. And always believe that God is near. Amen. .