Baptism of our Lord
Gen. 1:1-5, Mark 1:4-11
They call it wrap rage, not r-a-p rap but wrap w-r-a-p. You've probably experienced it trying to get into those pesky CD or DVD's or anything sealed in hardened plastic. Studies in Britain have shown that injuries caused by packaging cost the National Health Service about 25$million a year. Spokesman Allan Truman says that every year more than 60,000 people require hospital treatment for injuries sustained while grappling with food packaging. Wrap rage--Extreme anger caused by product packaging that is difficult to open or manipulate.
No doubt you are wondering about now how this topic has anything on God's earth to do with First Epiphany or Jesus Baptism or anything else even remotely related. Anything on God's earth--that's the key. Our readings this morning began with the ancient creation story from Genesis 1:1. "In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth the earth was a formless void..." And so begins the beautiful images that furnished the Old Testament mind. When we infrequently are able to view that night sky apart from the lights of the cities around us and free of the pollutants of our atmosphere we can well be moved by the poetry that formed a world view for pre scientific people. We can imagine people looking at that sky and believing that they live under a large dome, the firmament, with holes punched in it here or there to let in the rain or the snow. We can see God hanging lamps, the sun and the moon to give light.
Old Testament scholar Lawrence Boadt says that in the understanding of the ancient Hebrews the earth was like a round plate surrounded by water not only on the sides, but underneath and above as well. A firm bowl--this dome spoken of in Genesis--kept the upper waters back but had gates to let the rain and snow through...From below the plate, the waters broke through as wells, rivers and the ocean, but the earth stood firm on pillars sunk into the waters like the pilings of a pier.
To us as a people who are able to photograph galaxies this is no doubt a crude picture of the universe. And yet I'm not so sure that we've come so far from those days. Some people still refer to God as "the man upstairs" as if you could prop a ladder against the sky and climb up quickly to where God is. Even the more scientific among us have trouble giving up the idea that God is "up there", in Heaven, wherever that is. .. Along with all those leftovers of an ancient cosmology we may have held on to the idea that there is between God and ourselves not only distance, but also a barrier. Buried in our primitive unconscious there may be the memory of a sky like a solid dome, separating the waters from the waters, and separating us from God.
So hear the good news of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Gospel of Mark. "In those days," Mark says--in the days when people still thought the sky was a dome and God was up there somewhere watching us, the days when John was stomping around in camel's hair saying "repent and be baptized," and dropping strong hints that God might at any time reach down through one of those heavenly windows and squash the unrepentant like ants at a picnic--In those days, says Mark "Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the sky ripped open, torn apart and the Holy Spirit came fluttering down like a dove and the voice of God, "you are my beloved son. With you I am well pleased."
The sky was ripped open Mark says...wrap rage
In Mark's account you can't tell that anyone else saw or heard what Jesus saw and heard, but by the time Mark writes it down this event has become part of the good news of Jesus Christ. In this single, startling act the Creator smashes through the barrier that has separated us. God does it not in anger but in love, and in that moment bridges the gap between us forever---starting from God's side. I don't think God ever intended to be separated from us as we have imagined. Perhaps the truth is that we separated ourselves from God. It may be that in those primitive times, as now, some people just felt more comfortable having God on the other side of the dome. But what the Bible tells us is that God didn't want to be there. In the story of the Incarnation we hear about a God who lifts the lid, who sends God's son to live "inside the dome". In this story of Epiphany we learn that God can't bear to be unknown among us--God cracks the dome open and shouts in a voice "here is my son!" and at last the barrier is gone.
Perhaps this makes too much of that single phrase, "he saw the heavens torn apart", but I don't think so. I think that whatever happened on the day of Jesus' baptism Mark saw it as an epiphany, a moment of God's breaking through to humankind. This image of a ripped open sky is a wonderful illustration of God's determination to know us, and to be known by us--with a great tearing sound God removes whatever barriers might stand in the way. Just so, God tears open the barrier at our Baptism, as we are tied to Christ we are reunited to that which we really belong. Each Baptism we celebrate as an inbreaking epiphany.
Epiphany is not so much a moment as it is a movement, God's coming to us again and again, breaking down all those barriers we put in God's way because if the truth be told we are the ones who have put up the barrier between God and ourselves.
It is God's action to call us and claim us and to commission us. This sacrament is not ours to orchestrate, it is rather dripping and refreshed from the water that we are infused with the Spirit and hear those vital words "you are my child".
We long to know at a deep level of our being how precious we are, how we are loved. We are hungry for clarity about who we are and to whom we belong. We yearn for an intimate connection with God and here it is. God has torn apart the heavens.
The story is told that when Martin Luther was troubled, and he was often troubled, that he would touch his forehead, make the sign of the cross and say, "Martin, calm your nerves. Remember you are baptized. You are baptized. You are baptized."
And so our charge this epiphany is to remember--to listen to that heavenly voice telling us that we truly are-the beloved--to listen together as the church, the community of faith and to proclaim in word and deed this same love of God for the world.
Frederick Beucchener calls this a "crazy holy grace". Crazy because who would have predicted it? And holy because these moments of grace come ultimately from farther away than Oz and deeper down than doom, and grace because they heal and hallow. " Remember this crazy, holy grace.
Amen