January 10, 2015 – Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
The Zamboni Sermon
Baptism of our Lord – January 10, 2016
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
There are three things in life people like to stare at, says Charlie Brown.
A flowing stream, a crackling fire, and a Zamboni clearing the ice.
There is something mesmerizing about it.
People often cheer when the Zamboni makes its appearance on the ice between periods.
There is something deeply satisfying about seeing the ice that’s been cut up by
skates become pristine and new again.
It’s not flashy, and it’s not super exciting.
Its top speed is 9 miles an hour!
Yet, everyone loves the Zamboni.
Everyone loves seeing that ice become new again, regularly, at every intermission.
The Zamboni machine was invented by a guy named Frank Zamboni in the 40s.
Believe it or not – Frank was not Canadian!
He was an American and he lived in – California! Yes! In a suburb of Los Angeles!
He owned an ice making company as well as a large public skating rink called . . . Iceland!
Really! Iceland!
It was huge – 20,000 square feet!
So it took a long time to scrape the ice down, shovel away and clear the snow, and reflood it.
Up to an hour and a half.
Frank wanted to do it more efficiently – he wanted to build a better mouse trap.
So, being an inveterate tinkerer, he got to work.
10 years later he had perfected a machine that has become an industry standard and that can
clean a sheet of ice in ten minutes – five if you have two machines!
Here’s how it works:
a large blade scrapes a very thin layer of ice from the surface, a sixteenth of an inch.
Then, a system of augurs transports the ice shavings from the back of the machine up
into the large reservoir that takes up most of the bulky square front end of the machine.
Finally, hot water is sprayed on a towel at the back of the machine that evenly distributes
the water in a thin layer to the surface of the ice that freezes within a minute.
And, as Pepe le Pew would say, “Viola!” You have a pristine ice surface for
hockey, figure skating, ringette, or recreational skating.
The machine leaves a trance-inducing surface that ESPN magazine once described as
“smooth as Lou Rawls baritone, as shimmering as hand-blown Bohemian crystal.”
As for the fascination with the Zamaboni, Dan Craig, the NHL’s “ice guru,” has said:
[It’s] Something about torn up ice magically becoming pristine again right in front of your eyes. From 6 to 96, everyone sits there entranced, like they’re watching a campfire. Even I still look at it and go, “Wow.”
The ice has been torn up by the hard blades of steel that leave it cut up, messy, and dull.
It becomes hard to skate on and, if you’re playing hockey, hard to move the puck on.
It becomes disfigured and messy, far from what the ice guru longs for it to be:
a magical surface to glide smoothly on and enjoy.
And so, in comes the Zamboni.
And the Zamboni beautifully resurfaces it and makes it new again – with water.
With nothing but water.
With water it began – and with water it is renewed.
With regular, every day, out of the tap, water – it’s all made new.
I think a large part of the fascination with the Zamboni is because that is what we long for.
The Zamboni touches something deep inside us – whether we’re 6 or 96.
We all long for renewal – for ourselves, for our family, for our friends, for our world.
The steel of life gouges us and leaves us feeling disfigured,
far from the beauty our creator intends for us.
Job difficulty scars us and relationship difficulties mar us.
Words wound us and actions appall us.
Difficult experiences accumulate and leave it hard to move,
hard to act and move freely and graciously the way it feels when you’re skating
which is one of the most magical feelings in the world.
The snows of sinfulness slow us down.
And so we long for renewal, like we long to see the Zamboni machine.
Jesus comes to a world that is deeply scarred and chewed up by
selfishness and apathy and political brutality.
It is a world gouged by hierarchy and exclusion.
It’s a world in which it’s difficult for everyone to become what the creator intends.
It’s world in need of renewal.
And that renewal begins in Jesus’ baptism this morning, with water.
And the water is sign of renewal, of newness.
And with the water of renewal is this word of renewal: you are my child! My Son! My Daughter!
You are valuable! You are Beloved! You are making this day special by just being you!
You are not defined by the things that you have done or the things that have been done to you!
You are not defined by the cuts and gouges of life!
You can make a difference – and you will.
Let the waters wash away all the stuff that makes it hard for you to feel valued.
Let the waters wash away all the failure you feel.
Let the waters wash away all the shame you experience.
Let the waters wash away the hurtful words and all the hurtful actions.
The things that make it hard for you to move and feel beautiful and full of worth and
able to make a difference.
That make it difficult for you to be the person your creator intended to be:
gracious, loving, and strong.
Jesus’ baptism gives him a sense of his value before he even does a thing.
His life and his mission begin in baptism.
His sense of belovedness is essential to his being able to do things he will need to do
to play his part in renewing the world: forgiving and feeding and healing and including.
His sense of worth is essential to his having the freedom and the courage to
do the things he is called to do as he plays his part in God’s renewal of the world.
And at difficult parts of the story, the Zamboni machine will come out,
and renew him, just like it does every intermission.
Jesus is reminded of his baptism as key moments in his story.
At the mid-point of the story on the mountain he will hear the same voice he hears at baptism
renewing him and strengthening him to keep on going:
This is my beloved child, the voice will say.
And from even the gouge and cut of death Jesus will be renewed and live again.
For there is no surface so marred, there is no life so gouged that it cannot be made new again.
So this morning, let the waters of baptism renew you and define you.
You are beautiful and you are beloved.
You are full of worth and you can make a difference.
Come into the freedom that knowledge can give you.
And then – in the biggest dream any child can dream –
be prepared for the most exciting thing that can happen:
as Jesus, driving the Zamboni, invites you to get on up and join him in his mission to renew and
resurface and make new this whole and every person in it.
So together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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