Year A, Matthew 3: 13-17
First Sunday after Epiphany, the Feast of the Manifestation of Christ
to the Gentiles—the Nineteenth Day of
Christmas, and my true love gave to me . . . .
Any trees and greens still up beginning to show their age now . . .
the kids finally all back in school, working-around the ongoing winter cold
weather and snow days . . . Wise Men long-ago home again after their pilgrimage
. . . the Holy Family now returned from their time in the refugee camps in
Egypt. Joseph of course goes back to
work in his career as a tekton, variously
translated as construction worker, builder, carpenter. The boy Jesus grows up with the other boys
in the village, has his lessons with the village rabbi, travels with his
extended family and many others of the village and region up to Jerusalem for
the great festivals. Then the scene
fast-forwards. “Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him.” A new chapter.
From Christmas to Epiphany. So
to begin by saying: in these days of rapid innovations of technology and consumer goods it inevitably happens once
or twice on Christmas morning that the festive holiday wrap comes off the
package and the box is opened: “wow, this is great! Thanks very much! But, um: what is it? How does it work? What does it do?”
Songs of the Angels still echoing in the far
distance. And questions for us. What child
is this? Who is he? Why does he matter? How is this "Christmas" thing supposed to work? This
is the project of this season after the Feast of the Epiphany, the next weeks
in the cycle of the Christian year.
Exploring those questions from a number of different angles and
perspectives.
And we begin this first Epiphany Sunday by noting that all four gospels
tell us in one way or another that an important part of the way to begin to
understand who Jesus is and what he is about and what he means for us is to see
him in the context of John the Baptist.
Echoing the song John’s father sang at the time of his birth, “thou, child, shalt be called the Prophet of
the Highest, for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord, to prepare his
way.” In Matthew 3 verse 2 we are given this
synopsis of John’s preaching, “Repent,
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
And in Matthew 4, verse 17, we are told that after John had been
arrested by the authorities Jesus also began to preach, and the content of his
sermon—and it sounds pretty familiar: “Repent,
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
In any event this scene at the Jordan, the first meeting of these two
cousins since the time when their two pregnant mothers were together as we read
in Luke, when the child in Elizabeth’s womb leaps for joy, and as Elizabeth,
filled with the Holy Spirit, repeats to Mary the words of greeting spoken first
by the Angel, “blessed are you among
women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”
John’s message about repentance, and then of course the message that
Jesus would later preach, was very much in synch with what we remember of the
message of so many of the prophets of Israel.
The Baptist out there in Judea, in the desert beyond the walls of
Jerusalem, dressed in homespun camel’s hair, eating the food of the desert, as
the wandering Hebrews of old would have done, not manna from heaven exactly, but a wilderness diet
nonetheless: locusts and wild honey--
calling the leaders and the people to turn away from the worship of false gods.
As Carlos Santana and his band sang many
years ago, “you’ve got to change your evil ways, baby.” Turn away--from the false gods of political
power and ambition, prestige, collaboration, from the powers and principalities
of a social and economic system built on pervasive injustice and oppression, from
the false gods of materialism, greed, corruption, gluttony and lust, the whole
roster, outward and visible signs of our inward corruption, and to return again
to the worship of the one true God who had spoken to them at the mountaintop of
Sinai and who had led them 40 years through the wilderness. And to
seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, to seek themselves--to seek
ourselves--to live lives of holiness, righteousness, justice, purity of heart,
body, and mind. To allow our lives to be
formed by his word.
And John’s signature prophetic gesture and symbol was baptism in the
Jordan. The river that was the mother of
life for the people of this Promised Land.
The River through which n ancient days Joshua led the people on dry
ground when they came to the end of their exodus journey. The
river in which the Prophet Elisha told the Syrian General Na’aman to bathe for
the healing of his disease.
Early Judaism had the practice of many times of ritual washing, sometimes
simply, sometimes in elaborate ceremonies, before the Sabbath, before the Holy
Days, after coming into contact with something that made you ritually
unclean. John the Baptist announces that
the whole people have become unclean, body, mind, and spirit, individually and
corporately, offensive to God in their sinfulness--and that the time is now to repent
and return to the Lord. And as a living
sign and symbol of that intention, he called all the people to come out again
with a new heart and a new spirit, to let a ceremonial washing in the waters of
the Holy River be a sign of deep cleansing and purification, a sign of new
birth. Personal commitment and re-commitment. The movement led by John the Baptist a
sweeping revolutionary movement with impact in personal lives and in the social
and political and economic spheres.
“You’ve got to change your evil ways, baby.”
Here in Matthew 3, when John sees Jesus here he knows exactly who Jesus
is. “Why do you come to me? I’m the one who needs to be baptized by
you!” We know who he is too. Yet we are transfixed by this moment even
so. Jesus of course doesn’t have need of
repentance or purification, but there is something more that he sees, as he
says, “let it be so now, for us to fulfill all righteousness.”
Reflecting St. Paul. Philippians
2: Though he was in the form of God he did not count equality with God a thing
to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in
the likeness of men. And being found in
human form he humbled himself and became obedient. And First Corinthians 13. Love is patient and kind. Love does not insist on its own way. We remember that saying attributed to St.
Francis, “preach always, when necessary use words.”
Jesus doing this thing, stepping into the water
with John, not for himself, but for those who are watching, the crowds, for
us. Preaching. John has prepared the scene, and now Jesus is
going to show us the way, by himself being the way. And in this moment inviting us all to follow
him out into the Jordan. Giving way in obedient love to the will of the
Father. Wading out there with him, head
down, total immersion-- the whole Body of Christ. The one who says just a little later in
Matthew, in the Sermon on the Mount, that he has come not to destroy the Law,
but to fulfill and complete it. His
prayer at the end, “not my will, but thine.”
In this act of generous obedience, then, not because he has to, but
because he seeks only to please the Father in an offering of praise, there
comes the eternal blessing. The heavens
are opened, the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well
pleased.” It is this deep, abundant,
reciprocal, mutually self-denying love that is the energy that flows in and
among the Persons of the Trinity. Baptism
not simply about what happens in the water, but about a life to be shaped in
relationship to the Father; not just about following Jesus into the river, but
about following him out again. Not
simply following rules, but about giving up ourselves in his service and
love.
What in our 1979 Prayer Book is called the “Baptismal Covenant,”
prefaced by these solemn commitments by those who are to be baptized, or on
their behalf by parents and godparents, setting the framework for Christian
life: six questions, and when I hear them every time, it just about takes my
breath away. “Do you renounce Satan and
all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God? Do you renounce the evil powers of this world
which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God?
Do you renounce all sinful desires that draw you from the love of
God? Do you turn to Jesus Christ and
accept him as your Savior? Do you put
your whole trust in his grace and love?
Do you promise to follow and obey him as your Lord?” Following Jesus into the water.
An amazing sixteen baptisms recorded in the parish register of St.
Andrew’s Church in 2013, and I met with a family this week to begin preparation
for what I expect will be the first of 2014.
Following Jesus into the water, and then following him out again into
the wide world of our lives, our homes, our families, as we work, as we live in
our neighborhoods and communities, to be refreshed and renewed. In a world centered in identity and self-fulfillment,
where the greatest triumph of all is to find oneself, where the bumper sticker announces, “the one
who dies with the most toys wins,” we would be invited here to lose ourselves
in him, with Jesus to pass through the waters of the Jordan, with Jesus to open our hearts and our minds to
receive the blessing of the Father. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased.
No comments:
Post a Comment