The Baptism of Our Lord
January 11, 2015
I have always had a fascination with water. I grew up at the bottom of a street that was a lot like of one of those old wooden roller coasters with the peaks and valleys. No matter which way we left our driveway, it was literally uphill both ways. Luckily, the few times I walked to school, there was never 5-feet of snow and it was a least downhill on the way home. There was a large drainage ditch for rain water coming down the hills around us, and the creek it created ran right out of our front yard and into a rock-lined trench in our neighbor’s backyard. I remember being a small child and looking out the window just watching the water going along, sometimes at just a trickle, and sometimes rushing, and I often wondered where it was going. “To someone else’s yard is all that matters,” my dad would often say with a smile.
Some of my most loved
hiking spots in the Great Smokey Mountains and in the South Cumberland Plateau
in Tennessee follow beside streams and rivers. Some of those trails, like Fiery
Gizzard near Sewanee and Abram’s Falls in the Smokies, end at a beautiful pool
of water. One of my favorite bike trails
when I lived in Washington, DC, and owned a mountain bike was the Tow Path that
parallels the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.
It was all too easy to get mezmoreized at the slow-moving water or be
startled by a turtle that popped its head out of the water. More than one
fellow cyclist (luckily never me!) went tires first into that water because
they weren’t paying attention. Among the greatest joys I have as a parent is to
watch my kids play in the ocean and watch their love of water grow, too. Most
days, I wish they had a little more fear of the water, too, especially when
they want to run headlong into the Atlantic Ocean.
Water is all around
us. Seventy-Two percent of our planet is covered by water. Our own bodies are
70% water. New Bern, North Carolina, sits at the intersection of two rivers,
which converge to flow towards the ocean. We use water to bath, to drink, to
cook, to clean, to play. Sometimes I think there are as many boats in this part
of the world as there are people. While
many of us take water for granted, especially since we can take a left out of
our front doors and be at the water in two blocks, there are parts of the
world, even parts of our own country, where water is the cause of great stress
because of its scarcity. If you ask most people, they’d rather the power go out
in their house than the water.
Water is primal. When
God began creating the heavens and the earth, water was already there. Whatever
the “formless void” looked like, the writers of Genesis tell us that the wind
from God swept over the face of the water. Even in the second creation story in
Genesis 2, even before there were plants or herbs, a “stream would rise from
the earth, and water the whole face of the ground.”[1] Almost every ancient creation story, no matter
the religion, starts with water. According to some scientists, evidence of
those primal waters of creation still exists. They’ve found similarities
between the amniotic water we all floated in for 9 months and samples of the
most ancient evidence of water at the beginning of time[2]. Maybe
that’s why another researcher recently suggested that the reason we tend to
come up with some of our greatest ideas in the shower is because the warm
waters remind our deepest subconscious of the formative time in the womb when
all was safe and warm, and we are free to be more creative.
Water is timeless.
While it can change forms (Solid, liquid, gas), the molecules of today’s water
have been around since the wind from God first moved across them. While some water molecules have escaped our
atmosphere into space[3],
the odds are very strong that the same water molecules still exist that were at
the creation of the world, that fell over Jesus’ head at his baptism, that
washed the feet of his Disciples. The
same water that we drink. The same water in which we play. The same water has
always been around.
Without a doubt,
water is holy. There are far too many references to water in Scripture to talk
about in one sermon, but from Genesis to Revelation and in almost every book of
the Bible in between, water plays a role in telling the story of God’s work
through and with humanity. There’s the story of Noah and the Flood, the escape
from Egypt through the Red Sea, crossing into the Promised Land over the Jordan
River, and even the prophet Jeremiah sitting in a well because the king was mad
at him. God uses water to help fulfill the divine mission and let people know
of God’s active presence in the lives of all creation.
So it is no accident
that our Gospel lesson today, on the first Sunday after the Epiphany, we find
ourselves at the banks of the Jordan with John and Jesus. The whole season of Epiphany is about the
revelation of who Jesus is to his followers and to the world, and so Jesus’
ministry, like our own, begins with Baptism. The world began with water. Jesus’
begins his ministry with water, too. There is debate about why Jesus presented
himself for Baptism, especially since the Gospels all tell us that John’s act
of Baptism was a sign of repentance and renewal of life, and many other places
in Scripture tell us Jesus was without sin.
So in a Spiritual sense, no, Jesus did not have to be Baptized by John
(Matthew’s Gospel even recounts a bit of resistance by John.) But Jesus is about relationships. The whole
purpose of the Word Made Flesh was for God to be in closer relationship with
humanity. In order for him to have any validity with his followers, he didn’t
need to present himself as perfect or better than them, “above” being Baptized
as a sign of repentance and forgiveness. For Jesus, being Baptized was an act
of solidarity with the people, to fully associate himself with the human
condition.
In this moment of
solidarity, we hear Jesus receiving an affirmation from God about the very core
of his identity. “You are my Son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased.” I
would argue that at our own Baptism and every Baptism we witness, we receive
the same affirmation. “You are my child, whom I dearly love. In you, I find
great happiness.” I don’t think we have
to only hear it at a Baptism, but anytime we are doing the work of God in the
world.
Our Scripture lessons the next several weeks, especially the readings from the Gospels, will be about Who Jesus Is and how he is revealed to the world around him. We get to spend this Epiphany rededicating ourselves to our own ministries and our main task as followers of Jesus which is spreading the light of Christ in the world around us. Such a perfect Sunday to launch the year-long festivities around our 300th Anniversary. Not only can we focus on the faithful work of the past, but more important, we have the opportunity to focus on the Baptismal ministries of the present and the future as well. Neither Jesus’ baptism nor our own calls us to look backwards or inwards, but instead to look forward and outward, so that we as individuals and as a community can be the light of Christ the world so desperately needs.
Our Scripture lessons the next several weeks, especially the readings from the Gospels, will be about Who Jesus Is and how he is revealed to the world around him. We get to spend this Epiphany rededicating ourselves to our own ministries and our main task as followers of Jesus which is spreading the light of Christ in the world around us. Such a perfect Sunday to launch the year-long festivities around our 300th Anniversary. Not only can we focus on the faithful work of the past, but more important, we have the opportunity to focus on the Baptismal ministries of the present and the future as well. Neither Jesus’ baptism nor our own calls us to look backwards or inwards, but instead to look forward and outward, so that we as individuals and as a community can be the light of Christ the world so desperately needs.
In a moment, we will
re-affirm our Baptismal Covenant, pledging that with God’s help we will seek
and serve Christ in all persons, that we will proclaim by word and example the
good news of God in Christ, what we will continue in the apostles’ teaching.
When have said those timeless and holy words, we will all again feel the waters
of Baptism fall on us again. May that timeless, ever-present, holy water renew
you in all the ways that you serve God.
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