The Rev. Karin MacPhail The Baptism of Our Lord (Epiphany 1B) Christ Church, Millwood, Virginia January 8, Sermon from

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1 Sermon from Sunday, 8 January 2012 Epiphamy 1B The Baptism of Our Lord Christ Church, Millwood, Cunningham Chapel The Rev. Karin MacPhail This morning we celebrate the Baptism of Our Lord, and the version of the story we hear this year is from Mark s account of the gospel. You may remember the first part of the reading from Advent, the part about John the Baptist, who evokes the prophet Elijah in his words and dress. John is baptizing people at the Jordan River. It may seem obvious, but it bears repeating, that John was not performing a Christian baptism. He was not baptizing in the name of the Trinity in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the way we do in church. Long before John the Baptist there was a Jewish tradition of ritual immersion in water. The Book of Leviticus instructed faithful Jews that ritual bathing was a means of becoming religiously clean again from all of the various ways one became unclean under Jewish law such as touching a dead body, touching someone who was ill, and monthly for women and after childbirth. Priests were required to be immersed before conducting Temple functions. Scholars and scribes were encouraged to bathe before study of the Scriptures or writing the name of God. Temple visitors passed through immersion pools on their way inside the Temple complex. Immersion was customary before Sabbath worship and annually at Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Immersion in the ritual bath was required for all converts to Judaism. Because of the importance of ritual immersion to Jewish life, the building of a mikveh the ritual bath where the bathing would take 1 of 6

2 place took precedence over the building of a synagogue for a community. 1 This is the context in which we find John the Baptist and Jesus. They are religiously faithful men who would have been accustomed to required ritual immersion as a means of cleansing, becoming ritually clean again in the eyes of God and the religious community. John the Baptist emphasized that the baptism he was performing was a baptism of repentance of sin. This is a special but not unique emphasis. The ritual immersions customary before Sabbath worship and the annual Day of Atonement, in particular, also contained a strong element of repentance. Most ritual immersions in Jewish religious life, however, did not strongly emphasize sin and repentance. They were more of a washing off of the accumulation of what was not clean, but not necessarily anything that was the fault of the person being cleansed. What makes John s baptism of repentance different is that John is focused on sin and on the immediate and imperative need for repentance in the face of the coming reign of the Son of God. John s message is Repent and get Baptized NOW! The Messiah is even now on his way! The end is near! John s baptism wasn t the usual ritual bathing in the usual course of things. To be baptized by John meant that you had been convinced that the world was dramatically changing that God was doing a new thing. You recognized your own sin and asked God for forgiveness, and you were ready to get on board with the new age of the Son of God even though maybe you weren t quite sure what that meant yet. John is proclaiming a baptism of repentance from sin, and up steps Jesus, to join in and be baptized by John. This has presented a conundrum since the earliest days of the church and some questions immediately come to mind: Why would the sinless Son of God need to be baptized to repent of his sins? Does this mean Jesus sinned like everyone else? And if he didn t need to be repent, then why is he doing this? 1 Background provided by Ron Moseley, Ph. D. The Jewish Background of Christian Baptism, appearing in The Tree of Life magazine from The Arkansas Institute of Holy Land Studies. 2 of 6

3 Also, if John s baptism is about getting people ready for the Messiah, why is the Messiah in line with the others who are getting ready? That s like Mick Jagger getting in line for a Rolling Stones concert! Why doesn t Jesus just show up and say, I m the one you ve been waiting for! If these questions bother you you re not alone. They ve been bothersome for two thousand years. One reason that the veracity of Jesus baptism isn t very seriously questioned is that Jesus baptism is just too messy theologically to include in the gospels if it DIDN T happen! Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record it, and John assumes it, but I would bet all of them wished they could leave it out! So how do we explain Jesus baptism? We can t enter Jesus mind to find out the exact reason, of course, though this really is in my top three or four questions for him when I get a chance to ask. Most serious scholarship comes down to some combination of submission and identification. These two ideas submission and identification are somewhat entwined, but the thinking goes that in choosing to be baptized by John, Jesus is identifying himself with all of humanity. He is fully man, after all. He may be sinless, but the rest of us are not. So he takes his place in line at the Jordan with the rest of the people to be part of the community, to identify with their situation and to be a model for what can be done in that situation repent and be baptized! Jesus is also somehow and this is more mysterious submitting to the will of God the Father in his baptism. The will of the Father being that Jesus, though fully God, identify with the plight of humanity, which means taking upon his sinless self the human state of sinfulness and submission to baptism. You could think of this as one stop along the road of what it means for Jesus to be both God and man. The Incarnation what we celebrate at Christmas is the beginning of that story. The God-man is born in a mix of glory and humility, fitting this two-fold identity. The Son of God gets angels and stars and magi, but Mary s baby boy is placed in a manger when no one can find a real room for his family. 3 of 6

4 All of Jesus life will show this interplay of God and man in this one person, Jesus, and it may be helpful to think about that interplay when it comes to Jesus baptism. If the will of God all along, as far as the Incarnation is concerned, is for God to get as close to us humans as he possibly could, then the way to do that was to live a human life. A full human life has sin no doubt about it. The Bible is the story of God and God s people a relationship of love and sin, our running away from God, and God chasing after us again. God s will all throughout that story is for us to CHOOSE God and CHOOSE God s way; to turn away from the things that destroy God s image in us and in others, to turn away from sin and evil and corruption and abuse and to repent and choose God and choose love and the fullness of life God intends for us. Jesus is going to live a real life that shows us how to do that. God called the prophet John the Baptist to preach repentance and baptize people into new life looking forward to the coming of Jesus, God s Anointed One, who would live that life. So sinless Jesus fully God and fully man desiring to be as close to us as possible and experience what we do participates in this baptism as part of a whole community of repentance, as one showing us what God would have us do which is what Jesus is always going to do show us how God wants our lives to be lived. Jesus is so attuned with God and God s intentions for humanity that he is always seeking God s way. And baptism is God s way because turning toward God is always God s way. So Jesus is baptized, and if there were any lingering doubt whatsoever that this was the right thing to do, we have a moment of Epiphany, a moment of theophany when the border between earth and heaven between God and man disappears. Jesus comes up from the water, and sees the heavens torn open and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. He hears a voice from heaven, You are my Son; the Beloved; with you I am well pleased. One New Testament professor put it this way: The Spirit and a voice descend through this tear in time. In this moment of Jesus baptism, heaven and earth are transparent to one another. Jesus looks to the heavens in love, and the voice calls out in love. The Spirit, the love 4 of 6

5 between the first and second persons of the Trinity, is manifest. And all creation is caught up in this great love. The prophet s prayer that God would tear open the heavens and come down (Isa 64:1) is answered, and the promise of a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert (Isa 43:19) is fulfilled. 2 Jesus was baptized to participate fully in the turning toward God that John s baptism was about. In the Epiphany of Jesus baptism the descent of the Holy Spirit and the voice from heaven announcing this was God s beloved Son Jesus further transforms what baptism will then become for his followers. Theologian John Calvin has said that the Church s baptism, Christian baptism, is, like the baptism of John, a public ritual using the physical sign of water. The hidden work of the Holy Spirit upon our souls makes the ritual effective. We claim that something similar to what happened in Jesus baptism also happens to us in baptism. The Holy Spirit descended on Jesus in his baptism and then drove him into the wilderness before leading him into ministry. God gives us the Holy Spirit in baptism the Spirit that will lead us into and empower us for ministry. God announced at Jesus baptism that this was the Son of God. In our baptisms, God adopts us as God s own sons and daughters. So what began as Jesus communion in baptism with those who were following John, now becomes a means by which we can commune with Jesus in our baptisms, sharing in the gift of the Holy Spirit and being marked as Christ s own as God s own forever. Since the earliest days of the church, the church has understood itself as a baptized community a community both of ongoing repentance and a community of God s children, marked as Christ s own forever, empowered by the Holy Spirit, in ministry to the whole world. Sometimes on a Sunday morning in church, we take for granted that everyone among us is baptized, but that is almost never the case. So I close with an invitation. On behalf of the church, if you have not been baptized, I invite you into the baptized community of followers of Jesus Christ. 2 Ted A. Smith s essay for this lesson in Feasting on the Word 5 of 6

6 If you are considering baptism and have questions, please talk to me. If you want to be baptized but have just never gotten around to it, talk to me. If you really hope you were baptized but aren t sure whether or not you ever were this is more common than you think please let me know. Or if you just want to ask more about what baptism means, please ask. Talk to me after church, send me a note, call me. Baptism is open to everyone, and everyone is welcome. 6 of 6