In his report for this past year, our co-moderator, Michael Kelting, quotes Yogi Berra known for his baseball career and his verbal wisdom. The quote is: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” In those simple, almost comical, words and complex vision we come face to face with a defining moment. It is a moment so real that we may want to dismiss it or deny it as being meaningless. I say, don’t dare hide from that defining moment. It will find you…there is no hiding place from the moments that define us, that give us our ultimate meaning and value in life and in our lives of faith. And I use the word “moments” – plural – intentionally because our lives are full to overflowing with the defining moments which makes our attempts at hiding from them even more impossible and frustrating. I think God wants us to fully recognize and embrace those moments, those times, difficult or joyous, painful or healing, simple or complex.

“And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.” Sounds simple, these words from our Genesis reading. The first day, the first fork in the road, the first defining moment. It may appear to be an easy black and white statement but, it is only the beginning…literally…of a complex relationship with our God. “In the beginning” are code words from God that say to us…life is going to be full, difficult, not particularly easy but not despairing – I will be with you from the beginning to the end, through the complexities and the healings, through broken and restored relationships, through loss and gain, through doubt and certainty, through growing ego and the forces of humility, through betrayal and truth. “And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.” So much, on just the first day!!!

Now, from Mark’s gospel reading, these first words: “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Then the writer of Mark, chronologically the first gospel written, quotes Isaiah, the familiar “Prepare the way of the Lord” passage to get our attention. Something new is happening…a fork in the road, a defining moment. Then there is a description of John the Baptist and the passage concludes with the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River. This is a revolutionary moment…the Spirit descends on Jesus like a dove…and a voice comes from heaven with the words: “…you are my Beloved.” YOU, are my beloved, and like Christ, we are immediately taken into the wilderness to live a life full of the unseen that awaits us in the complexities, the beautiful flowers and the poisonous snakes, of desert existence. And, like Jesus in the wilderness, the angels minister to us. Do you believe in angels? I do. I would encourage you also to believe, to move about your world knowing there is guidance beyond your abilities, power, and knowledge.

I also encourage you to look at the defining moments in your own lives. My own experience tells me that doing that kind of reflection is rare and, sometimes, difficult. Often we can point quickly to powerful moments or events in our lives – like this sermon!!!! – that change us forever. Sometimes, such as in Mark, it is a baptism. Sometimes it is, as we also experience in Scripture, a painful moment, a time of rejection, a return to a way of life, a pattern, that we know is destructive – yet, it still has strong meaning in our lives. Sometimes that defining moment is very personal and often so quiet we don’t even notice it but still it cries out to be embraced.

Defining moments also take place on a global scale and while it is very visible, often we want to turn away from its truth or its complexities. The massacre of Palestinians in Gaza by Israel over the past two weeks is an example of a moment that needs immediate resolution. Close to 900 Palestinians have been killed, 250 of them children, young children, starving and dehydrated children. Over 3,300 Palestinians have been injured, half of those children. Thirteen Israelis have been killed, at least half of those by what is affectionately known as “friendly fire” – killed by their own soldiers. The Israeli Defense Force (the IDF) has been attacking by air, land, and sea, and has cut off Gaza from the outside world by refusing to let international journalists into Gaza and by refusing to open the border for humanitarian relief supplies. The International Committee of the Red Cross has accused Israel of numerous violations of the Geneva Peace Accords. United Nations officials have suggested that Israeli leaders are guilty of war crimes. And in a particularly offensive move, the United States abstained from a vote by the U.N. Security Council calling for an immediate ceasefire by Hamas and Israel. To me that is a cowardly act that in our inaction (remember that vote is on our behalf) cries out almost as loud as the mourners of Gaza. An eye for an eye has turned into 900 eyes for an eye. It is a blood-soaked God that weeps over the Israelis and the Palestinians, the religious warfare that blurs almost into oblivion the line between terrorist and terrorized. Judaism is a large part of our Christian heritage and tradition and Scripture, therefore, I feel that it is imperative that we, as a part of the problem, speak and act on behalf of an immediate ceasefire, the removal of Israeli troops from Gaza, and the opening of the borders in order that relief supplies reach what is essentially a city of refugees. This is a defining moment and it is being violently desecrated.

We are moving into a new year. Keep alert for your defining moments, your baptisms, the events in your life that give you meaning and that give you opportunities to BE the church in the best possible ways. Some of it will be risky, even life-threatening. But remember what the angels say so often: “Do not be afraid.” Put yourself in Gaza and define your moment.

AMEN