Epiphany 1, Baptism of our Lord
Matthew 3:13-17
An alien spacecraft lands in our parking lot on a Sunday morning at 10:44 A.M... Just for the record it lands in the far parking lot by the dumpster so we who are gathered to worship don’t notice it. A tribe of little green creatures enter through entrance A and are attracted by the sound of the opening hymn down the hall. The bass pipes are on the same frequency as their telecommunicators so they are mesmerized. As they stand at the doors to the sanctuary peering in the small windows these alien creatures watch as a tiny baby human is brought by what appears to be parent units to a strange flat bowl beside a large table. It’s like a wok are they planning to stir fry the child—but no as they watch the bowl is filled with water in an unnaturally pompous way. Then the poor, frightened creature is held perilously over the wok where it is splashed with the water till it squirms and cries. Then the four parent units proceed to the other end of the table where they grease the babies head. Look they’ve lit a fire, are they now going to burn this poor creature? But no, instead all the people watching simultaneously yell some kind of greeting further terrorizing the small one till it shrieks and hides in the maternal unit’s shoulder. What is this thing that these people are doing?
What is this thing that we are doing? No doubt it would appear quirky to an alien visitor or even to an uninformed human. But how much more does it mean to us? Does it’s meaning transcend the social ceremony, the rite, the customary ritual. In Martin Luther’s small catechism he teaches “Baptism is not water only but water and the word.” Oh well that explains it; baptisms are loaded with words—lots and lots and lots of words. Ancient words. “Do you renounce the devil and all his ways?” “Modern words, “Do you promise…” But it’s not words that baptism is about but rather THE WORD. Again the catechism “How can water do such great things? Clearly the water does not do it, but the Word of God, which is with and alongside the water, and faith which trusts this word of God in the water. For without the word of God the water is plain water and not a baptism but with the word of God it is a baptism, that is a grace filled water of life and a “bath of the new birth in the Holy Spirit.” God’s word entering our world for us as it did for Jesus right there in the river Jordan.
We talked about our text in the Thursday morning Bible study this week. In a flight of fantasy I was saying that if we had Steven Spielberg in our church or we were one of those special effects Disney churches I could imagine a dull mist resting over the congregation and then collecting itself into a tight ribbon that would wind its way into a vortex above the Baptismal font. There it would spin until it was sucked down into the waters of the font. For that place, that bowl, that water is the collection of all of holy history.
In our text today when John protests that He rather should be baptized by Jesus, Jesus utters the first words that he speaks in the whole gospel. Jesus says “let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” To fulfill all righteousness, to do what we are told, to be obedient to God’s command. In this moment Jesus gathers up all the past holy history. It was not an accident that John was at the Jordan River when Jesus came to him. Here at the Jordan Joshua had rolled up the waters so that the people could cross into the Promised Land on dry ground. Here at the Jordan Elijah bequeaths his spirit twofold to Elisha so that Elisha might continue to carry God’s word to the people. Here in this moment we remember God’s spirit resting, hovering over the waters of creation. Jesus first words, "To fulfill all righteousness," to do as God commands.
Just about anybody who has been to the Jordan River will tell you that it is a disappointing. experience. The Mississippi it is not. The Jordan River is small sometimes not more than a trickle and it is muddy. Here in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus divinity is expressed in his obedience, his willingness to get down in the water so to speak, to “get his feet wet,” standing knee deep in the muddy Jordan with the rest of us sinners.
I think that Matthew, in telling us about Jesus baptism, is also telling us something about our own baptism. Our baptism is in submission to the righteousness of God, our part in the whole, the bigness of holy history. In baptism we get caught up in something that is bigger than we are, that is beyond our poor abilities to understand. Now we can see this submission, this obedience as a burden or we can see it as a great gift to be caught up in something larger than our lives. “We often become most fully ourselves when we at once lose ourselves and find ourselves—the Gospel language seems the only appropriate description for the experience—in a community that transcends ourselves. William Placher puts it this way, In Indiana, one always starts illustrating this point with an example from basketball. In a team sport, the players who are always asking, “How am I doing? Am I getting my share of the shots? Am I going to be the star with my picture in the paper?” never in fact play to their potential. On the other hand, we have all seen the games, and some of us maybe have had the luck to take part in them, where the players lost themselves in a team effort that involved a type of self forgetfulness that paradoxically made them the best players, as individuals that they had ever been. One can tell similar stories about artists lost in their work, lovers lost in their beloved, workers lost in the excitement of a common enterprise, contempletives lost in God. Afterward perhaps, they look back on themselves and say, “What a remarkable thing I did there,” but part of what was remarkable was that at the time no such thought crossed their minds. One tossed aside the part of oneself that always stands watching on the sidelines, and in forgetfulness of self became most fully oneself.
That after all is a gift—to be caught up in something bigger than ourselves—to be caught up in, to be subservient to the mission of God. To be marked with the cross of Christ forever. It’s a little oil really but indelible in the eyes of God.
A young man was changed forever when he attended the baptism of friend’s child. At the end of the baptism the priest held up the baby in one arm and in his other hand he displayed the morning newspaper. The priest proceeded to tick off the headlines of the front page of the paper. Typical things; wars political dealings and business deals none of which is now remembered. Then he said “Do you realize that what we did here today is the most important thing that happened in the world today?” He shook the newspaper and continued, “Nothing we read about in the paper here begins to compare with the event we just witnessed. All the other things that went on today will pass away, but this child will live forever with God...” Forever!
The aliens would be stymied—they’d leave shaking their heads at these crazy people but we know that we are part of the most important thing that happened today.
Amen