[Propertalk] 1 Epiphany - Baptism of Jesus
Joe Parrish
joeparrish at compuserve.com
Thu Jan 10 23:28:34 EST 2013
I was driving up the FDR, the highway on the east side of Manhattan, last week and came to the United Nations building that is undergoing major reconstruction, both above ground and in the tunnel it forms over the FDR. Workers had moved some big orange barrels into the center lane, right by the sign that said merge right--but none of us drivers thought, 'that far right'! (Guess it's only a sign of the times.) We screeched to a halt as our lane had simply suddenly disappeared. I complained on 911, and the next day, the barrels were all completely removed off the highway, but the merge sign remained. John I suppose was a sort of barrel remover, but he tried doing a bit of reconstruction along the way, and he was also the sign to us to move right (get right with God as a televangelist might put it). Well, maybe that's the shallow thinking of one living and surviving in New York. :)
I find bumper sticker humour engaging, most of the time. Occasionally
I’m offended. Last week I was brought up short. I was behind a car with
the message, “Follow me to certain death.”
Thanks again for a very thoughtful sermon, Bob!
Peace and blessings,
Joe
-----Original Message-----
From: robertpmorrison <robertpmorrison at charter.net>
To: Propertalk <propertalk at stsams.org>
Sent: Thu, Jan 10, 2013 10:37 pm
Subject: [Propertalk] 1 Epiphany - Baptism of Jesus
Here's my first draft, finished a bit ago.
Happy splashing around with John!
Bob
EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY THE FIRST
SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY (c)
ISAIAH 43: 1 - 7 13th JANUARY,
2013
ACTS 8: 14 - 17
PSALM 29
LUKE 3: 15 - 17, 21, 22
I find bumper sticker humour engaging, most of the time. Occasionally
I’m offended. Last week I was brought up short. I was behind a car with
the message, “Follow me to certain death.”
My mind raced. Was the driver a thrill seeker, an escapee from Deacon
Marj’s care, someone with a warped sense of humour – a person after my
own heart! – or was there a lot of reality to what that message said?
There’s one thing about any sort of message, however, whether we like
it, or are offended, or disgusted, or what. Every message should get us
thinking – thinking about our own standards, our own decisions, our own
behavior, our own relationships. It’s when we’re immune to thought, when
we’re untouched and unreactive, that it might be fair to say that we’re
soul-dead, if not brain-dead.
So that bumper sticker served to remind me that I AM alive, and that
there’s still some work for me to do – even if it does involve driving.
Follow me – there’s a certain biblical ring to that. I’ve heard that
invitation somewhere before – but to certain death? I may have to think
about that for a minute or two.
I wonder if Jesus was apprehensive as He walked towards John. His cousin
was standing in the middle of the river – not a huge river, not the
Calapooia down at Bryant Park, never mind the Willamette – but it was
deep enough that folk could be submerged if they were tipped over. John
was surrounded by folk, so there must have been some jostling at least.
But Jesus didn’t appear to hesitate. He walked into the river. He felt
surrounded by God’s love and that He’d be supported, no matter what.
The faith of the followers of Jesus, we all know, grew out of Jewish
tradition and belief. Two thousand years later, we’ve interpreted Hebrew
Scriptures not only as being relevant to our way of life but as pointing
forward to the coming of Jesus as God’s Messiah. Jesus, however, had to
rest on what He’d been taught and what He surmised. He had to live with
the daily experiences of God in His life. So coming to John at the river
that day must have been a curious mixture of excitement and curiosity,
together with wonderment at how the Scriptures He’d heard read in the
synagogue and the Temple might play out on a day-to-day basis.
John had been preaching out of his disappointment, his anger, his
frustration at how people seemed to take seriously only those parts of
biblical description that suited them at any given time. His heart went
out to those who were sidelined by all sorts of circumstances.
I had a conversation this week about how John must have appeared, how
he must have struck people, especially those who felt that they mattered
in society.
If someone tries to sell you and me something, whether it’s a new car or
the special of the day in a restaurant, how the person selling presents
her or himself DOES appear to matter. If the wait staff person is
wearing an apron with yesterday’s soup splattered on it, we might not be
too thrilled. If the car salesroom is staffed by people with multiple
body piercings and spiked hair and wearing a T-shirt with a skull on it,
we might tend to wonder if we’d slipped into a scene from Dante’s
“Inferno”.
Obviously such appearances might appeal to someone, but certainly not
everyone. If your chalice bearer this morning looks as if she’s just
been rebuilding her Ferrari model 054 V10 engine and has grease oozing
out from under her fingernails, you might want to pass. 1
But think about John the Baptist. Hadn’t had a shower in months – if
ever. Hair flying everywhere. Teeth that would make anyone cringe. But
he’d a powerful voice and a message, and there was no shortage of
audiences, even the well-to-do stood at a careful distance, but they
listened – and some of them took offence.
On the other hand, Jesus walked right down. He probably guessed that
speaking to John, and receiving Baptism from John, might not mark Him
out as the most influential person in town. Yet He wasn’t deterred.
Have you ever wondered why Jesus went through with some of these
things? It’s helpful to think back to other
momentous figures in our religious heritage to see what they did. Moses,
for instance: he stood in front of that bush that was absolutely covered
with flames, yet it wasn’t consumed. Surely this was a sign that
following the lead of God’s message might well bring about great
difficulties, but it wouldn’t be the end of everything, it wouldn’t
destroy life.
So when Isaiah’s prophecies popped up in the synagogue’s weekly
lectionary, and Jesus heard the words, “When you pass through the
waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not
overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and
the flame shall not consume you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy
One of Israel, your Savior.”; when Jesus heard that, as He must have,
several times, He must have thought about God being with Him when He
walked into the cold water of the Jordan.
But the REALLY interesting spin that Luke’s Gospel puts on things is
that the Spirit didn’t descend on Jesus as He submitted to baptism, or
even as He came out of the water. The Spirit came on Jesus when
EVERYBODY had been baptised. The gift of the Spirit, for Luke, is seen
as a community event. So even if the action of Jesus – His faith, His
trust, His hope – is acknowledged, it’s done so in the context of all
those who made similar commitments, and I tend to think that the gift of
the Spirit must have splashed on those others who’d come to John and
sought some sort of renewal and encouragement for their lives. John’s
prophecy was coming to pass right in front of his eyes and the eyes of
everyone there. He poured the water, the presence of Jesus with everyone
else guaranteed the pouring of the Spirit.
This sounds incredibly like Pentecost – a story that we know only
because of the same writer of this story, first at the end of the Gospel
and then at the beginning of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles.
Coincidence? I doubt it. We’re compelled to look on the Baptism of
Jesus as a community event in which everyone’s role is affirmed,
granted, some more loudly than others. Some accepted, some rejected the
role. What we’re walking through this morning, then, is the second part
of last week. Whether by tradition of the Church, Epiphany’s revelation
of God’s Presence on earth for everyone without exception has a direct
relationship with the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. It’s the
continuation of God’s act of love in drawing us all to understand that
God DOES have a plan for everyone in creation. Moreover, God will not
only provide signs for the astute to see and follow, but God will also
give us affirmation when we’re on the right track.
I don’t think we can know how vital this was to Jesus’ ministry. Jesus
wasn’t really the sort of person to go around drawing attention to
Himself and telling folk how blessed He was. But He did pray – He prayed
all the time – for Himself and His relationship with God; for His
friends; for the sick, the depressed, the forgotten; for the leaders of
the day. He emptied His heart, He poured out His soul to God as He
refreshed Himself, and God refilled it.
John saw that baptism with the Spirit would lead to inevitable
challenges. That’s where I see that car’s bumper sticker as being sort
of Baptist-like in reminding me that following Jesus doesn’t guarantee
freedom from struggle, or decision-making, or of having invitations to
all the best parties, and so on. In fact, following Jesus almost
inevitably leads us into confrontation. We have to decide how to apply
our faith all the time.
A recent article pointed out that the true test of our Christian faith
isn’t so much how often we come to listen to one another, and to praise
God, and to sing only the nice hymns that we know. The author talked of
our faith leading us to “A deeper life of discipleship, marked by
personal spiritual practices that infuse all of life, not just time
spent in a church building.” 2
Maybe that’s why John the Baptist didn’t hang around the font in any of
the synagogues or in the Temple at Jerusalem. Maybe that’s why the
crowds, including Jesus, weren’t baptised within the confine of four
walls and a roof. The people might have thought that that was where
their ministry lay, that that was where they’d find the Spirit working
and empowering. Similarly, in the companion story of Pentecost, although
one version has Jesus’ followers being dowsed by the Spirit in a room,
they’re compelled to go into the city and countryside immediately.
God’s work IS done in this room, I don’t doubt that. But the Fire
Marshall said that he’d only let 144 folk in here at any one time. Even
if every worship building in this city were full, we’d need to have
liturgies every hour on the hour in order to make sure that everyone in
Albany and the surrounding neigbourhoods got fired up – and protected –
for the ministry to be performed.
No, we’re invited to experience the working of the Spirit here in such
a way that when we burst through the doors after a couple of cups of tea
or coffee and some delicacy to eat, we’ll be able to witness to the
first person we meet as soon as we’re out of here.
That’s how serious this job is, this Baptism, be it of water or of
fire. It’s given to help us deal with the struggles of the world. And,
of course, you know that the world is waiting eagerly for us to get out
there to straighten things out – NOT!
Getting out into the community isn’t going to be trouble-free. You know
the ending of the Gospel story from last week – the awkward, the
shocking bit that we didn’t dare speak: that Jesus’ birth, and His
recognition and acceptance brought unspeakable horror.
“When passions run rampant within, then those influenced often turn
to persecute and hurt those who cannot defend themselves easily, or not
at all. Human history is full of examples of this hurt and fury poured
out on the innocent and the helpless. This lust for blood and hurt
makes any sensitive human heart shudder. The bones of the Holy
Innocents still sit behind the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem as a
witness of these children and their mother’s sacrifice for Christ’s
Incarnation in the flesh to save us all. Their sacrifice has glorified
their memory here, and they are glorified also in Heaven.
“(Yet) Jesus clearly taught that we should help those who are weak
and helpless, as in the Parable of the Good Samaritan. He helped those
whom others would not help, like lepers and publicans, adulteresses and
sinners, and taught us to do the same….
“(We have to reach out, every day,) in heartfelt prayer to the Lord to
help and protect those who cannot help and protect themselves, and when
we see an opportunity, have the courage and fortitude to step in and
stop this senseless shedding of innocent blood.” 3
You know, it sounds more and more that whoever stuck that bumper
sticker on that car had it right. “Follow me to certain death.”
All we have to remember is that certain death leads to certain life, in
all its fullness.
When you get a chance, look at that ikon on the Psalm page of the
bulletin. 4 Ask yourself how similarly the position of Jesus’ body in
the water, together with the flow of that baptismal water, looks like
other ikons you know of Jesus being laid in the tomb. AND of Jesus
rising out of the tomb.
God said, “Good job!”
Jesus said, “Follow Me!”
NOTES:
1 See, for instance, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula_One_engines
2 “Lessons from Unlikely Sources: What a Market Researcher and a
Megachurch are Teaching a Few Episcopalians about Growing the Church.”
By The Rev. Jay Sidebotham (Church of the Holy Spirit in Lake Forest,
Chicago) in “The Anglican Theological Review” Summer 2012 Volume 94 •
Number 3
http://www.anglicantheologicalreview.org/read/issue/season/summer/
3 Ikon of the Holy Innocents St Isaac of Syria Skete stisaac at skete.com
4 Gentile, da Fabriano, ca. 1370-1427. “Baptism of Christ”, from Art in
the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library,
Nashville, TN.
http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=46770
Robert P Morrison
Interim Vicar
The Episcopal Church of St Alban
PO Box 1556
Albany OR 97321 541-921-1076 (cell)
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