Baptism of our Lord (B)
January 7, 2024
Mark 1:4-11
INTRODUCTION
Today we hear the story of Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan. We’ll hear about the heavens tearing open, and the Holy Spirit coming down on him like a dove, and that voice from heaven calling Jesus the beloved son with whom God is pleased. Mark, who is known for his quick-and-dirty writing style, gets us the whole story in just one sentence, but there is a lot packed into that sentence! It calls back to other important moments in scripture – including today’s reading from Genesis, the beginning of the creation story, in which we’ll hear about that same Spirit, hovering over the waters just before God brought all creation into being. When that Spirit returns in Jesus’ baptism, it gives us the sense that baptism offers a new creation. Paul will also bring up that same Spirit in the story from Acts, asking the Ephesians if they have been baptized in the Holy Spirit. This Spirit is something pretty special!
It's special for us, too, in baptism and in faith. And even though we are hearing the story of Jesus’ baptism today, there is so much of it that happens also in our baptism: we, too, receive the power of the Spirit. We, too, are called beloved children of God. So as you listen, hear these promises spoken also to you, the baptized children of God. And then later, when we have the chance to witness the baptism of Naomi, hear them again as if they are spoken also to you! Let’s listen.
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| Naomi is already getting a new perspective on life! |
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
I think I could really learn something from Mark as a writer. I’m the type of writer who uses too many words to get my point across, and then when I go back to edit, instead of taking out superfluous words, I add more!
Mark does not have this problem. Mark has the gift of packing a punch in just a few words, managing to paint a scene and get across a point, as well as including just enough details that our minds are drawn to other stories that do some of the work of fleshing out his purpose. Really, Mark’s Gospel is pretty brilliant.
Mark’s skill is quite apparent in the story of Jesus’ baptism. So today I want to highlight a couple of his details, and what they can illuminate for us not only regarding Jesus’ baptism, but also our own.
The first is the location: the wilderness. Now the other Gospels refer to the wilderness, and I guess we assume that John is doing his work there, but Mark makes it abundantly clear: this key moment that begins Mark’s Gospel and Jesus’ ministry is. In. the. Wilderness.
So why does that matter?
There are a few key stories in Israel’s history that are really important to know, because they pop up again and again as the story of Israel and ultimately that of Christianity unfolds. One of those stories is the early Israelites’ time wandering in the wilderness. Remember the lead up? They were slaves in Egypt for several hundred years, then Moses led them out of slavery and into freedom, through the Red Sea in a mass Exodus, planning to then lead them to the Promised Land. But, due to their disobedience, they ended up wandering through the wilderness for 40 years. This time was marked by hunger and thirst, danger and fear. But it was also a time of renewal, of discovery, of close encounters of the God kind. In the end, the wilderness was a time in which the Israelites learned to trust God, to depend on God for all their needs.
Throughout scripture we see references to “the wilderness,” and each time that location shows up, our minds are drawn back to those same themes: hunger, fear, lostness, limbo, renewal, and the need for complete trust in God. And here, Mark makes such a connection in the story of Jesus’ baptism. So, for Mark, baptism, too, must be an experience that we approach with a wilderness posture: ready to trust utterly in God’s power, to bring about new life and renewal.
Today we will have the delight of witnessing baby Naomi’s baptism. I am often asked why Lutherans baptize babies instead of adults, as seems to be the norm in the Bible. There is a benefit to both practices, but here is what I love about baptizing infants: we believe that baptism is about not what we can do for God, or the strength of our faith, but rather about what God, as the actor, does for us, and about God’s faithfulness. It is a moment in which we acknowledge our utter dependance on God’s promise and grace. And who is in a better position to do that than a helpless a baby? In my experience as an adult, we tend to overthink things, and to rely on our own abilities, right? Adults have a hard time taking on that wilderness posture of trust and dependence on God, until we are having a wilderness experience – a period of lack, and fear, and desperation. But babies come by that naturally. They know better than anyone what it is to be completely dependent on a loving parent to provide all their needs.
And so, when Mark starts his story about Jesus in the wilderness, and drawing all those people out into the wilderness to be baptized, we come to understand that we, too, are meant to come to God in a posture of trust. We leave behind the myth of self-sufficiency, the possibility that we can save ourselves if we just work hard enough at it, and instead admit our reliance on God’s goodness and grace. We come to meet God in the wilderness. …
The second detail I want to point out is what happens to the sky at the moment of Jesus’ baptism: the heavens are torn apart, ripped open, or my favorite translation, “rent asunder.” This detail is unique to Mark’s telling. Luke and Matthew both offer a much gentler “the heavens were opened,” but Mark has no interest in gentleness. For Mark, this moment is dramatic, loud and drastic. Things that are meant merely to be opened, like a door or a box, can generally be closed again. But not things that are torn. Once torn, that is it. It’s open for good.
I take two points from Mark’s inclusion of this detail, one about God and one about baptism. The first, about God, is that in Christ, God has entered the world in a dramatic and drastic fashion, and there is no going back. God is here for good, walking and moving and working among us, no take-backs. Luke gave us an angel choir to hit home the magnitude of the incarnation, and Matthew gave us magi from the East and a giant star. Mark gives us a sky literally torn apart to make way for the incarnate Son of God. This, he says, changes… everything.
And that’s actually the point I want to make about baptism, too: when we are baptized, it is not some docile ritual that we forget about tomorrow. It, too, is dramatic and life-changing. We may not see the ceiling fly off and the sky literally rent asunder today, when Naomi is baptized, but the moment is no less life-altering. Here God will claim her as his own. Here God will make to her eternal promises – of love and belonging, of forgiveness of sins, and life everlasting. Here God will assure her that nothing she does can ever take her from God’s loving embrace, no sin nor fear nor disbelief. These are the promises that will be made to Naomi today, and that were made to all of us in our own baptism. And they change everything.
But to take those promises and go home and never think of it again would be missing the point. For with those promises comes also a call: to go out into the world, as the baptismal liturgy says, “to trust God, proclaim Christ through word and deed, care for others and the world God made, and work for justice and peace.” This is what we are enabled to do, precisely because of those incredible promises God makes to us, when he tears apart the heavens and comes down – not gently, but with force and urgency, to empower us with the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ baptism in the wilderness reminds us that because we rely on God’s power and not our own, it is possible to be a part of God’s world-changing and life-giving plan for all creation. May we all live into this call!
Let us pray… Empowering Spirit, you come to us with urgency, assuring us that with you in the world, nothing can ever be the same again. Encourage us to live into this call, to be a part of your life-changing plan. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Full service can be viewed HERE.
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