Jesus' Baptism, Our Baptism
David C. Myers
January 11, 2008
Epiphany - 2nd Sunday
Genesis 1:1 - 5
Mark 1:4 - 11
Text: "I have baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." ...Mark 1:8
Today there is a very obvious connection between the Old and New Testament lessons. Both are about creation and beginnings - not modest, but spectacular beginnings. Genesis talks about the very creation of all that is. It is verifiable. One may not understand it all, but all one needs to do to appreciate it is to take a good look at the outside world and the universe above. It is a creation of all of the physical world; it is empirically verifiable, and what a wonder it is.
For example, one of the joys I have had in Nicaragua is to sleep out under the stars in the very remote community of El Guarumo, town that had no light or water. What a view of God's creation - not an electrical light for 10 miles to contaminate the view of a spectacular star-filled sky!
The Gospel of Mark, on the other hand, talks about the beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This is not necessarily empirically verifiable. There is no visible observation. It is felt inside, in our spirit, in our soul. It is humbling like the birth of a baby.
The Gospel of Mark, the earliest Gospel written, begins not with the beginnings of Jesus' life but with the beginning of His ministry at His baptism. Yet this remarkable first, this new moment in human history, is not brand new. It links the old and new together. Before Jesus comes on the scene, Mark recalls the prophecy to Isaiah: "See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way." John the Baptist is himself a link between old and new.
Mark marches naively (or cleverly) past the most problematic part of the story. How is it that Jesus can be baptized by John who proclaims that his baptism is "a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins"? (If Jesus is the Son of God and fully divine, what are the sins for which He needs to repent?) Not a problem for Mark, for he is more interested, not with the physical, but with what it means, the spiritual. Mark goes beyond the fact of baptism. Mark concentrates instead on signs that understand the meaning of baptism for him. The heavens are torn apart and God's Spirit descends and says, "You are my Son, the Beloved. With You I am well pleased." Mark makes a statement of faith.
There is more to life than the physical; more to life than facts alone. Facts represent the old. But facts cannot account for most of what we hold near and dear.
Facts cannot explain the mystery of our feelings toward our children. At about 12:25 pm June 10, 1980, the doctor handed me a pair of scissors and asked me to cut Nathan's umbilical cord. At about 2:26 am September 29, 1983 I watched in awe as the nurse passed a screaming Sarah to Debbie after a heart stopping moment when Sarah did not breathe after being born with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. I can tell you many facts about the circumstances of those births, how they responded to our touch, how the furniture was arranged in the hospital rooms, and many other seemingly insignificant things about the birth of our children. But facts cannot explain the bonding that took place immediately. Nor are their any amount of facts or circumstances that will dissuade me from believing that our children are gifts from God. There is much more to our relationship to our children than facts alone.
And part of those relationships are the days when we choose to baptize Nathan and Sarah. Almost as soon as Nathan was born, Ada Berry, an 88 year-old matriarch of the Federated Church of Ayer gave me a present. It is this silver baptismal cup that had been in her family for generations, originating in England. She said she wanted me to use it when I baptized Nathan and any other children I had, and to pass it on to my family. It has been honored; and will be used today.
In 1983 when it came time to baptize Sarah, I heroically, but stupidly, left my bed with a herniated disc in my lumbar spine that would be operated on the next week, to hold Sarah, as my best friend, district superintendent, and colleague, Ellis Johnson baptized her. To this date I am not sure if my tears were of joy or from the pain running up and down in my back and legs. No, I know, it was the emotions rose far above the facts.
Baptism, whether it is infant or adult, involves more than facts; it is a statement and a leap of faith. The baptismal waters have significance and meaning because we believe God has conquered sin through Jesus (the old baptism of repentance practiced by John the Baptist) and that through this sacramental act by the power of God's Spirit we are given a new identity and worth as part of the Body of Christ.
In a very real sense, the date of our baptism marks the date of our second birth. While the heavens are probably not rent in two and no divine voice may declare us members of God's family, our baptism does seal our astonishing relationship to a gracious God. It is the beginning of the good news that we are part of God's new creation. The moment of baptism is to give us our most fundamental identity, as members of God's family.
Martin Luther, the great reformer; in the midst of his years of reforming the church, in his battles with the Roman Church that threatened to excommunicate him, would begin each day by touching his forehead and saying, "Martin, remember your baptism." It was an acknowledgment that his Baptism marked his identity more fundamentally than any institution.
The baptism and other experiences in the life of Jesus are facts. We can find evidence to prove that Jesus lived and much of what He did. But only faith can declare Him unique. We cannot prove it, we can only believe it.
The existence of the Bible is a fact. In some ways it represents the old. Just reading it may be fascinating, even insightful on occasion, but it is not until we allow it to have its way with us can we declare it as the Word of God. And I am convinced that can never really happen in solitude. The Spirit works best within the context of other people. That's why our Baptism marks our entry into the whole Body of Christ, it marks that we have a new primary family - joining the family of Christians all across the globe.
This is the season of Epiphany and today is the day that celebrates the Baptism of the Lord. The focus of this season of the church year is to celebrate the manifestation of God's Christ to the world. Something - call it the power of God's Spirit - led the three Wise Men, magi, or Kings, whatever they were, from the Eastern countries to give homage to the Christ Child. Something - call it the Spirit of God - overcame John the Baptist at the river Jordan to baptize Christ, and then God took over so that is was not a baptism of repentance, but a baptism of the Spirit, for "the heavens [were] torn apart and the Spirit descended like a dove on Him. And a voice came from heaven, 'You are My Son, the Beloved; with You I am well pleased.'"
Jesus' Baptism is tied to a history that leads back from John the Baptist to Isaiah to the first words of Genesis. Our new life is bound to those who prepared us for faith, and through them to the history of the church - not just Chevy Chase United Methodist Church, but the entire history of the Christian Church.
Something - call it the Spirit of God - moves us to declare this church is more than a building, but a living, breathing manifestation of God that is a people who become "for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by His blood."
Only the newness of Christ's Spirit within us takes the given facts of the world - the homeless, the hungry, the impoverished, those of different language and culture - and makes them our brothers and sisters so that we will tend their needs as we tend to our own.
Only through the newness of our birth in the Spirit that comes through our baptism can we dream that the old thought of natural enemies one day becoming as the wolf and the lamb and lie down together - and then our world will find reasons to look for pathways to peace when all roads appear to lead us to war.
Only in faith can we proclaim that the cold tomb is not the end of life and enable us to walk through dark valleys as boldly as we stand beside still waters.
Call it the power of God's Spirit through Christ. Call it claiming our membership in Christ's Body and family. It is Jesus' Baptism, the Baptism of our Lord, the Baptism by water and the Spirit that makes it all possible. It brings us together, out of our old lives of separateness into a new life of togetherness united by our belief in the redeeming power of Christ.
Remember your baptism and be thankful.