BAPTISM OF JESUS
Jesus said: “If you continue in my Word you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free”
By: Meg Illman-White
This week past I had a wonderful opportunity to listen to several sermons by other preachers:
one of these by scholar Marva Dawn of the Lutheran church in the USA. She began her sermon with a prayer from the same passage I just quoted. Except when she reached the end of the short prayer she asked that the “truth will make us odd”. I knew in that moment that I wanted to hear what this woman had to say… and I knew at exactly the same time that I knew just what she meant. The absurdity of God's love expressed in Jesus makes us free to live who we really are…
How
much time and energy have YOU spent trying to be and live and speak the way
you believe that the rest of your world expects
you to speak? Trying not to stick out, appear unusual, look different, sound
silly? Trying to “tone down” your passion for living so that it doesn’t
threaten someone else? Trying really hard NOT to be yourself
but to be the image of what you think
other people think
that you should
be… When likely they are doing exactly
the same thing? Absurd eh? If anything
drives me crazy
its’ the energy we waste trying to live by someone else’s rules:
(Nelson part 1)
Today
we hear the story of Jesus’ baptism. No one could’ve been more shocked by
Jesus’ arrival at the river than was John the Baptist. Hadn’t John just said
that he wasn’t
worthy to untie the sandals on
Jesus’ feet? And wasn’t the baptism of John the baptism of repentance?
What did God's very own beloved need with repentance?
Yet Jesus does come to the river and enters into the baptism of repentance and in doing so, becomes “odd” for us, aligns himself with us and with all sinners… God shocks us by entering our reality by loving us that much.
In coming to the river Jesus models repentance as essential to human relationship
In rising from the water Jesus hears the voice affirming God's partnership: “this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased”
In the act of his baptism, Jesus creates ripples that spread and grow and change the course of history forever…
But
is all of this mere flowery “doubletalk”? Does God honestly
have any power at all? Sure we hear it in the stories of Jesus, but what about
the evil we see all around us today?
It doesn’t seem that God has much power or refuses to USE it. People die of
poverty, disease, natural disaster, terrorism and war every
day. Our society remains silent
in the face of
such widespread injustice. Can God's power really transform this world? Can
God make any
difference in you or in me?
On
a personal level, have you ever noticed that the same negative issues dominate
your life over and over? That the patterns you grew up with continue on a
daily basis? That your negative, self limiting views sound exactly the same
from one “down time” to another?
I’ve
been thinking about the dynamics of abuse a lot these past few weeks. Abusive
behaviours are still so prevalent in our society. Our children face them in
name-calling and verbal abuse on the playground. Sometimes they face them in
bullying and intimidation and threats. How many people truly make it through
to adulthood without experiencing some form of verbal, physical or sexual
abuse? Abusers strike fear into our hearts and it takes such immense courage
to name the reality and to invite repentance that most of us spend our lives
pretending, avoiding, and enabling abusive behaviours to go unchallenged. It
takes such heartbreaking courage
to break free of the “silence” that seems to be society’s “answer”
to violence.
If you grew up with violence in your home, as I did, perhaps you:
learned to be silent and afraid, cowering in the presence of those who abuse their power and try to exert control over others.
or perhaps you learned to be violent too… striking first so that you will never again be hurt that way
maybe you are always trying to keep the peace, figure out what will set someone off.
or maybe you learned to put yourself always on the line to protect someone else but now you don’t know when NOT to fight anymore
Into
a world that is so broken, so sinful, Jesus comes as one of us inviting us to
be “odd”, to break free of the “prisons” of silence and powerlessness.
The heavens are torn open at his baptism and a voice claims Jesus as
“God’s own beloved”. He is, for us, the fulfilment of Isaiah’s
prophesy, the servant whose ministry proclaims justice with strength and
power. Biblical justice is not “legal
justice”, it isn’t the court system we are familiar with today. It isn’t
punishment for wrongdoing. God’s justice is much deeper… it shakes
the very foundations of a society that abuses power, which
exploits the powerless and makes profit at the expense of the poor. God's
justice is an overturning of the existing order, it is in fact our “becoming
odd”. Isaiah mentions justice 3x in this short passage; for
Hebrew’s the number 3 is a divine #, showing that God's justice is what
faith is all about. Justice is the mission of the servant in Isaiah. It was
clearly Jesus’ mission too. And it is the ongoing mission of the church in
the world. This invitation is one of knowing that God is about the work of
justice in the world and that all we
have to do is say “yes” and join in. This Jesus, God's word made flesh, is
no passive weakling. This Jesus stands in
the face of those who abuse power and who exclude the
powerless. Jesus did not
keep silence. This Jesus offends and challenges exploitation. In
a world where silence=death, Jesus offers life.
Does God have power to transform?
* Isaiah believed and visioned so.
* Jesus lived so, died trusting and shows God's power in his resurrection.
* And we, the living, breathing body of Christ are given the choice to live so too.
Abusive behaviours do not “go away” on their own. Unchallenged they are not forgotten. The damage and pain continues for abused and abuser. But when a new reality is proclaimed, things can begin to change.
In creation God made a choice. It was to invite us to be co-creators with God. It was to freely share power with us, to name us and to trust us as God's hands and mind and heart. God models a new order, a new reality. We humans cling desperately to our need for control even as we long in our deepest being for mutual relationship. But God who does not have to share power has chosen us! God has chosen relationship and partnership. God's power is ours to deny or to choose. As God's co-creators, we have the power, the freedom, to say “yes”.
* “yes” to being God's beloved.
* “yes” to participating in God’s work of justice in the world.
* “yes” to being the people God created us to be.
* “yes” to being “odd”.
When
we choose life,
when we choose
to continue in God's word, then we must live as if we actually believe
that we are
God's beloved. When we believe that we
are God's beloved, then we begin to live
differently, to act as God's beloved, to risk living in a new way. To live as
God's freed and odd people: in the way we worship, in the way we make
decisions as a faith community, in the way we respond to those who have been
beaten down by the world and in the way that we begin to stand firm and to say
“no” to the behaviours that limit and oppress.
Yes, God's power to transform is real and strong and vibrant in our world today. I am certain of that. It is found in the “body of Christ”; in the church at prayer, in worship, in praise and in action. God's power is found in our willingness to be “odd”, to challenge one another, to hold one another to account. It is found in your courage when you name abuse and misuse of power. God's power is claimed when you and I have the courage to repent and seek forgiveness when the misuse of power is our own. It is found in God's beloved, choosing to say “yes” and to live in the light of God's will for the world which is God's passion for justice for all people. (Mandela 2)
“Go
then to live out your baptismal calling – to be God's covenant to the
people, a light to the nations and to bring out of their prisons all who live
in the land of restraint”
Let
us pray: Transform
our hearts and minds Oh risen Christ so that all people will know that we are
your disciples and so that we will know the truth of your limitless power.
Grant us freedom in that strength that your truth will make us odd. Amen
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