Our presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, just recently preached at All Saints Episcopal Church in Birmingham. The occasion was the Baptism of Christ at which there were several baptisms. Her theme was, that as the Baptized, we are called to be light bearers amid a world shrouded in darkness. She reminds us that God’s first act in the process of creation is to call light into being to cover the darkness, for the light to order the abounding dark of chaos. But as experience teaches us this is not a one time act, but an ever unfolding process of creation still being created, the resonant big bang continuing, as it were….that the light must continually be called upon to calm the roiling dark. That is the role of the Baptized, the generations of the saints of God, the living and the dead, to remind the dark that the light will have the last word. On the ground, in the “real” world” such light bearing requires hope and courage and perseverance, our fears and doubts notwithstanding.
As the season of Carnival arrives, I am also reminded, that the vocation of light bearing requires a sense of humor as well. Carnival as you know was not founded in Mobile (although we claim it began here before it began in New Orleans), but is a very ancient custom among many cultures around the planet expressed in myriad ways…the indigenous natives of this continent during the season following the winter solstice would light torches, partake of hallucinogens (not suggesting anything here!) and process through the tribal villages and camps singing and dancing until sunrise….During the Carnival season we put on a garish display of light mocking the cold dark, perhaps even frightening it with such outlandish rollicking bravado…putting the dark on notice that the light dares to sing and dance in its midst.
This Sunday we will initiate eleven more through Baptism and Confirmation into the fellowship of light bearers, again putting the dark on notice that the light persists still. May these eleven souls bear this light of compassion, liberation, dignity and justice honorably and with whole hearts, for the world will be changed yet again, the process of creation alive and well…as we the fellowship of light bearers repeat God’s first words of creation with authority and in loud refrain… “Let there be light!”
Great post, Jim. It occurred to me yesterday during Sunny’s baptism that what we proclaim as Christians in baptism is indeed scandalous in the eyes of the world. We are saying that death has no power over us, neither the fear of death. We renounce the way of death in its many guises including injustice, poverty, coercion, racism, exploitation, violence, indifference, greed, self-interest, and all the other evil powers of this world which corrupt and destory the creatures of God. We put on the new life of community, compassion, justice, dignity, mercy, and, as you so often put it, the art of paying attention.
In a world rife with images of death, the Church carries a sacred flame in the powder horn, a light in the darkness, water in baptism, bread and wine in the Eucharist, the Church in the world, liturgy in life.
Pete, I can’t add anything to your reply; you’ve got it….other than the final quote in the last scene of McCarthy’s “No Country for Old Men” The sheriff is recounting a dream about his deceased father he had the night before to his wife: “And he had his blanket wrapped around him and his head was down. When he rode past, I seen he was carryin fire in a horn, the way people used to do, and I could see the horn from the light inside of it, bout the color of the moon. And in the dream I knew that he was goin on ahead. And he was fixin to make a fire somewhere out there in all that dark and all that cold. And I knew whenever I got there, that he’d be there. And I woke up.”