Heaven Torn Open

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday January 8, 2012, Baptism of the Lord Sunday and the 1st Sunday in Ordinary Time.

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Genesis 1:1-5

Psalm 29

Acts 19:1-7

Mark 1:4-11

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen

I have always been fascinated by thunderstorms. I’m sure growing up in the heart of Tornado Alley had something to do with this. Their power has always left me awestruck. Last week I said that I wanted a word that meant “awe with a bit of fear,” this word is also helpful for how I feel about tornadoes. When I was in college, my first major was meteorology; I wanted to forecast weather and especially thunderstorms.

As for why I chose a career in higher education instead of weather forecasting, Calculus III and Engineering Physics destroyed me, I mean destroyed me. When people asked why I chose my career path I told them “Engineering Physics made me the man I am today.” When they pointed out that my career had nothing to do with physics or higher math, I told them that they were exactly right.

These days, there are two reasons I’m halfway collected during a big storm. The first is that we have better information about storms and it is more available to people in the path of storms. The other reason is that Marie freaks out about storms more than I do. We can’t have both of us screaming like frightened children, so I suck it up and act like the calm one. In over fourteen years of marriage, so far so good.

I don’t know if I have ever really seen a tornado. I remember once being at the store with my sisters and seeing one on the other side of the Interstate while Mom went to get the car. Honestly I don’t know if that’s a real memory or if I created it; could be either. It could have just been a big storm (which it was) and once I heard the sirens (which I did) I thought I saw a funnel.

I was once on a Boy Scout camping trip at Lake Perry in Kansas when a storm ripped through the reservoir. The weather guys said the winds were blowing up to 105 mph. We took shelter from the storm on the troop’s old school bus. The bus wasn’t overturned or anything like that, but I know why you should never ride out a tornado in a trailer. What I can remember was the fear and the noise. The noise was outrageous.

This wasn’t the only tornado to rip its way across Lake Perry. In the late 70’s, the faculty and staff of the Emporia State University Library Science College, one of the most important Library programs in the country at the time, was celebrating the end of the school year on the lake. While on the water, an East Kansas thunderstorm came up with little warning and dropped a funnel. The storm capsized the boat where the party was taking place. Many were killed. It took nearly ten years for the University and the college to regain accreditation and begin to rebuild its reputation.

Living on the high plains, another tornado hot spot, we could see the skies boil for miles. One day, when the skies were angry, Marie pointed out a cloud that appeared to be turning a color of green that should never be in the sky. Fortunately, I was able to point out that because the land was so flat that the horizons were further in the distance than she was accustomed. Those clouds weren’t bearing down on us, they were over the city of Eads, Colorado, more than 30 miles north. That’s like us being able to see the skies over White Oak from here. That freaked her out almost as much.

It could have been a mess last spring when the twister touched down four miles south of the interstate, five miles from our house. Marie and I watched the weather reports out of Shreveport and saw video from their Marshall tower cams. No funnels, but there was a lot of boiling sky between the square and the south. We eventually went to the closet with the weather radio. Of course the storm was a mess for the family who did lose their house.

Then there are the storms that reek havoc over the earth. The Great 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak lasted from May 3 to May 6, 1999 bringing violent storms to Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Texas, and Tennessee. On May 3 alone 66 tornadoes broke out in Oklahoma and Kansas. The most significant of these first touched down southwest of Chickasha, Oklahoma, and became an F5 before dissipating over Midwest City. The storm tore through Bridge Creek, Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, Moore, Del City, Tinker Air Force Base and Midwest City, causing $1.1 billion in damage. Forty-eight people perished during the outbreak. With estimates ranging from 66 to 74 tornadoes, it was the most prolific tornado outbreak in Oklahoma history.[1]

The Greensboro, Kansas tornado of 2007 began forming on May 4 after 5:00 pm in the northeastern corner of the Texas Panhandle, and strengthened during the early evening across the Oklahoma Panhandle. It slowly organized itself as it moved northeast through portions of Oklahoma, and then into Kansas. The first tornado warning with this cell was issued at 8:35 for Clark County, Kansas, and the tornado first touched down that evening just after 9:00. This storm was particularly devastating because it is quite difficult to visually spot a twister at night.[2]

Most recently was the catastrophic EF5 multiple-vortex tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri in the late afternoon of Sunday, May 22, 2011. It was part of a large late-May tornado outbreak sequence that ripped a path in excess of a mile wide during its rampage through the southern part of the city. It rapidly intensified and tracked eastward across the city, and then continued eastward across Interstate 44 into rural portions of Jasper and Newton counties in Missouri.

The insurance payout for these storms is expected to be $2.2 billion with some estimates as high as $3 billion—the highest insurance payout in Missouri history and higher than the previous record of $2 billion in the April 10, 2001 hail storm which swept along the I-70 corridor from Kansas to Illinois. By July 15, 2011, there had been 16,656 insurance claims.[3]

I give you examples of the heavens being torn open and the earth being ravaged. I give you examples of destruction, sorrow, loss, and death. In these images are shock, pain, devastation, and despair. There is sorrow and grief. Rent the skies? Rent your clothes as anguish overwhelms conscious thought. Scripture tells us the Holy Spirit intervenes and knows and takes our prayers even when they are only moans. It is in these times that we need the Spirit’s intervention.

In my own limited way, this is what I think of when I think of “heaven being torn open.” We might see the skies being torn and inflamed. The clouds being whipped into a frenzy from all directions. We can see the funnels form behind wall clouds. We will be able to feel the temperature fall. Lightning crashes to the earth with the rumble of mighty thunder. We will see the effects of the wind as the grass, trees, and even buildings pitch and moan. This is what I imagine.

But in the beginning…

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.”

In a time before there were heavens as we understand them, they were torn open. After these created heavens and earth God spoke the light into being. Before the sun and the moon were placed in the heavens to govern the day and the night, the heavens were created and opened that God created light, light that is good. This is how it all began.

I give you pain and anguish, God gives us the heavens and earth. It reminds me of a conversation in C. S. Lewis’ “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” where the children had just learned from Mr. and Mrs. Beaver that Aslan, the son of the great Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea, was a lion.

“Ooh!” said Susan, “I'd thought he was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”

“That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver. “If there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly.”

“Then he isn't safe?” said Lucy.

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver. “Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”[4]

God is not safe. God is not like a tame lion. But God is good.

Then “At that time, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

I wonder what Jesus saw. I gave you my opinion of what I imagine the heavens torn open to be, but is that what Jesus saw? He saw the Spirit descending like a dove. He hears the voice of the Father. In this moment in time, all three persons of God descend upon the Earth to give one fully divine fully human a message, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

The heavens being ripped open is probably not safe, but God is not safe. Still, God is good.

Now imagine what everyone else saw, the people of the Judean countryside and all of Jerusalem. According to scripture, they saw nothing special. Scripture tells us only Jesus saw what is written in scripture as he was coming up out of the water. Only Jesus saw heaven torn open. Everyone else saw life its own self, business as usual.

As the line from the old song goes, “I hear the drums echo in the night, she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation.”[5] Jesus sees everything, the people saw nothing special. Maybe today, as we ordain a new class of Elders to the Session, some will see nothing special. For others, it will be life changing.

Let us all make life in Christ a life changing event. Like the heavens being torn open, not everyone will be able to see it. Those who do will not see it in the same way. So Lord hear our prayers and transform us, even if our prayers are little more than moans.

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[1] 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Oklahoma_tornado_outbreak, accessed January 7, 2012.

[2] May 2007 Tornado Outbreak, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_2007_tornado_outbreak#The_Greensburg_tornado_family, retrieved January 7, 2012

[3] 2011 Joplin Tornado, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Joplin_tornado, retrieved January 7, 2012

[4] C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe New York: Collier, 1970, 75-76.

[5] “Africa” by Toto, to me, this is one of the greatest lines in pop music.