First Sunday after the Epiphany
The Baptism of Our Lord
Rev. Dr. Stephen M. Larson
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland
Thanks for hospitality. Greetings from the Evangelical
Lutheran Church of Geneva. Greetings too from the Lutheran World Federation
and the World Council of Churches, headquartered in Geneva, for you are linked
to them through the ELCA. For a congregation with the name, “Lutheran Church
of the Holy Spirit,” this is your Sunday. The Holy Spirit breathes through
to unite texts. From the dawn of creation in Genesis, within the Psalms‚
poetic rendition of God’s voice thundering over the water, through Jesus‚
dripping wet in the Jordan in Mark, into the proclamation and teaching of the
early church in Acts; and right up to today’s baptism in your congregation
- the Holy Spirit breathes through these texts and animates them with expectation
and life, hope and mission.
The season of Epiphany unfolds today with the voice of the Lord proclaiming
over the waters of the Jordan River: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with
you I am well pleased.” The season will end with a similar declaration
in seven weeks‚ time: from a mountaintop with a dazzlingly strange vision
of Jesus, Moses and Elijah God’s voice will again thunder: “This is
my Son, the Chosen One; listen to him.” The entire Season of Epiphany reveals,
manifests Jesus. Like a well-crafted novel, the Season reveals just who it was
born at Bethlehem.
Last Monday, on Epiphany we heard the story of the Magi whose gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh foreshadowed Jesus‚ identity as a king, a priest and as one who would die. Unlike the discarded Christmas trees along the streets, today we are drawn back and deeper into the mystery of Christmas as we hear echoes of Advent themes fulfilled. Do you remember back six weeks ago to the first Sunday of Advent? That Sunday we read Isaiah’s hope: “O that you would rend the heavens and come down.” In today’s Gospel, Mark writes that at Jesus’ baptism the heavens were torn apart and the Spirit descended. On the Second and Third Sundays in Advent we read the story of John the Baptist as the embodiment of Isaiah’s longing for the voice of one crying in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord. And it is Isaiah’s text that punctuates the sentence not as “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord.” But rather, “The voice of one crying: [colon! Full stop!] In the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord.”
Today Mark declares to us that it is precisely
there -- in the wilderness -- that the scene unfolds. Mark writes that John
the baptizer appeared in the wilderness proclaiming a baptism of repentance
for the forgiveness of sins and that “people from the whole Judean countryside
and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him.” If you’ve
been there, you know that is the long downhill road into the wilderness of the
Good Samaritan, the Jordan River Valley realm of death’s salt sea. It is
a geography of danger and crisis.
But before we go there, we need to ask: What is
Jesus doing in Jordan’s water? If John’s Baptism is about repentance
for the forgiveness of sins - what is the sinless one doing in the water? If
Baptism is about rebirth - what is the miraculously born one doing in the water?
If Baptism is for eternal life - what is the pre-existent Word of God who was
made flesh doing in the water? Like his passion and resurrection, baptism is
central to the story of Jesus. (You know, of course, that all four gospels together
are needed to fix a portrait of Christ. Of the four Gospels, only John has the
water to wine miracle at Cana’s wedding. Of the four, only Luke has the
Parable of the Good Samaritan. Imagine a Christmas pageant based on the Gospel
of Mark - it would be very short, for there is nothing there about a birth;
or based on only Luke - no Wise Men, Slaughter of the Innocents or Flight to
Egypt.) Yet all four gospels agree on the centrality of the baptism of Jesus
by John as the starting point of Jesus‚ public ministry. And together they
draw us into the scene as they paint a portrait of meaning.
First, there’s Expectation - In a time of
political oppression, when Rome, the world’s superpower occupies the land
– “All the people” are longing in expectation for the Messiah,
for the reign of God. Jesus stands with the people in the water in their longing
for reign of God. So for us baptism is a longing for God’s reign in our
lives and for the world. We pray that longing every time we pray the Lord’s
Prayer: Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Then, there’s Identity – “This is my beloved son” links
Jesus to the Servant Songs of Isaiah. Yet even John wonders. Not long after
the baptism, John is in prison. He sends word through his disciples to Jesus:
“Are you the one who is to come or shall we look for another?” And
Jesus replies: “Tell John what you see. That the blind receive their sight,
the deaf hear, the mute can speak and the lame dance and the poor have good
news preached to them.” That is the exact job description of Isaiah’s
expectation of the Messiah, God’s Suffering Servant. So for us: baptism
is identity - we are the beloved of God for a purpose, not a reward.
Perhaps your congregation, like mine, uses the
order of Affirmation of Baptism from the Lutheran Book of Worship when you receive
new members. There is a question of identity therein: “Do you intend to
continue in the covenant God made with you in Holy Baptism? To live among God’s
faithful people? To hear God’s Word and share in our Lord’s Supper?
To serve all people following the example of our Lord Jesus Christ and to strive
for justice and peace in all the world?” And the response is “Yes,
and I ask God to help and guide me.” The response is an affirmation of
our baptismal identity and a prayer for God’s help to live it out in mission
and ministry.
So then, Mission - Baptism was the starting point of Jesus‚ public ministry.
He came up out of the water and with new vision saw his calling. Empowered by
God’s Holy Spirit - Jesus was anointed by the Spirit. So for us and so
for Ian Edward baptized this morning - Ian, like all of us, will be sealed by
the Holy Spirit; every breath we draw should remind us of God’s Spirit,
the breath of life breathed into us, animating not only our life but our ministry
and service.
Finally, Death - Cross looms over the water. Some
time later when James and John ask for the best seats in the kingdom, Jesus
confronts them about his death in baptismal imagery: “I have a baptism
to be baptized with.” So for us - baptized into Jesus‚ death; with
Ian Edward today, we are marked with the cross of Christ forever. We are baptized
into Christ’s death that in order to share a death like his we may also
know a resurrection like his. What is Jesus doing in the water? He is Emmanuel
- God with us in our expectation; identity; mission; empowered by Spirit; unto
death - and beyond: all leading us to life. So for us to join Emmanuel in the
water, we go into the wilderness.
So we might ask: what are we doing in the wilderness?
We too know all too well something of the wilderness. For our wilderness is
the world which impinges on our lives - even amidst these beautiful woods of
Lincolnshire -- it is our life! Looming war in Iraq that many fear would have
devastating consequences well beyond Baghdad. Last week at a meeting in London,
I was with my colleagues Michael and Susan Thomas, ELCA pastors serving Lutheran
Church of the Redeemer in the Old City of Jerusalem, wondering when to evacuate
their sons from Jerusalem? A member of our Geneva congregation, Mukda Bellamy,
who is originally from Thailand lives in Baghdad where her husband works for
UNHCR. I fear for her and for the tiny Christian community to which she now
relates.
Wonderful serendipity of the Ecumenical Prayer
Cycle that today many churches of the world are praying for Iraq and Iran. There
is an approaching famine in Ethiopia and Eritrea that threatens to make the
last famine look like a picnic; the current HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan
Africa where pastors in our partner Lutheran churches are performing 6 and 7
funerals a day as their people die of AIDS; news this morning of the commutation
of death sentences of all on Illinois‚ death row. While undoubtedly controversial,
that is a sign of mercy and hope in our wilderness world that capital punishment
may not be the best response to violent crime and that prisons might be places
of rehabilitation. The list could go on and on and on.
The wilderness world of St. Francis - not that
one, St. Francis of Ghana - born in prison in Geneva, who’s Mother is a
“mule” - an inadvertent drug trafficker - baptized in prison at Hildenbank
Federal Prison for Women near Bern. I call him “St. Francis” because
all the baptized are saints - he taught me that there is no prison of our own
making that God in Christ cannot enter and be Emmanuel for us Another little
child teaches us today. He’s from your own congregation. In our time of
crisis, in this secular wilderness world of ours, Ian Edward teaches us this
day how and where we should journey: for he, like Jesus enters into the waters
of baptism to find meaning, identity, purpose. This day, God’s voice will
speak to him over the waters: “Ian Edward, you are my Beloved son.”
Do you know Henri Nouwen's book, “The Life of the Beloved?” It sums
Jesus‚ statement of his ultimate mission. Nouwen writes that Jesus’
life was Eucharistic. As bread is taken, blessed, broken and given in the Eucharist,
so Jesus was - Taken - chosen at baptism - Blessed - anointed with Spirit -
Broken - sacrifice of his life - Given - as the Bread of Life to the world.
That same pattern happens to us - all the baptized.
For you too are the beloved daughter or son of
God. And the Life of the Beloved is servant/sacrifice. We are called to the
gentle task of Isaiah’s dazzling, prophetic vision: to stand with the bruised
and abused, to shelter and support those who feel as fragile as a dimly burning
wick, to depend on the Spirit and not grow faint, to trust in God’s call,
to take God by the hand and call upon God with the intimacy of Abba, our parent,
to dare to be the Lights of the world, to open the eyes of the blind through
faith-full enlightenment, to take by the hand and bring out of their prison
those who are dungeoned by addiction or despair, hopelessness or sorrow.
You members of Lutheran Church of the Holy Spirit
know that ministry well, for I read about it in your newsletter - your support
of the Lutheran World Hunger appeal, Elijah‚s Pantry in Chicago and COOL
food pantry in Waukegan, your youth group’s interest in Chicago Night Ministry,
your ministry with Lake County PADS providing food and shelter and more importantly
care and human contact to the homeless, ministry in support of parents with
HIV/AIDS, all are ways of your living out your baptismal identity and mission.
But it’s only the beginning into our broken,
wilderness world. Yet Beloved daughters and sons of God, be not afraid; fear
not that you undertake this courageous ministry alone or on your own. God in
Christ has entered our world. He stands with us in the waters. For you have
been sealed with the Holy Spirit. You have been marked with the cross of Christ
forever. You have been called to the Table of the Lord to feed on Christ and
be strengthened and sustained in your ministries. The Beloved One of God gives
of himself as food for our journey into the wilderness of our world.
Amen.