Epiphany / Baptism of the Lord - Tearing Apart the Heavens By Rev Hooker

Sermon: For Wesley Chapel 11:00 service January 10 2021 by Rev Amiri B Hooker Lead Pastor  There’s nothing ordinary about Ordinary Time anymore. There is certainly nothing ordinary about this week. But then nothing recently can be called “ordinary.” The season of Epiphany has always been about seeing the light that is Jesus the Christ breaking forth into the world in which we live. Seeing is only the first step, however. We don’t see the light of Christ the same way we see the beauty of the sunrise at Myrtle Beach, for example, or a particularly beautiful sunset in the Buford Marsh. While there is beauty in the presence of Christ, it is a beauty that calls forth a response. There are many ways to respond to the presence of Christ. In this series, we focus on the invitation to follow. It is the mission of the church to make disciples, even as we are being made disciples. It is an ongoing process to follow Jesus; a transformation that continues through every stage of our lives. I wish I could say I was surprised by the events that happened in the capital on Wednesday. But as Bishop Holston said well “The violent storming of the U.S. Capitol during the certification of the 2020 presidential election results was disturbing, disorienting and deplorable – but we cannot allow it to define who we are.” I watched in horror, as did the rest of the nation, behavior on Wednesday that felt much more damaging to our spirit than to our buildings. We can replace windows. We can sweep floors. We can shampoo carpets. But what kind of damage have we done to our souls, not just in this riot, but in the years of lies leading up to it? Fretting over the soul of our nation, I found solace in Isaiah 58:12: “Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.” This scripture is the foundational scripture for the Poor Peoples sister organization Repairer of the Breach. Many spiritual and political leaders need restoration having given cover and comfort to an administration that has laid ruin to truth, toppled innumerable norms, and sent snaking fissures spreading across the foundation of the world’s oldest democracy. Perhaps, however, the best of us can emerge from our response to these dark impulses, but only if we can muster the courage to speak truth to the wide swaths of people in our pews and under our pastoral care about the one, true transformative Jesus of Nazareth. Now is the time more than ever to announce as John did that there is one coming who is worthy and who will make a difference.