Baptism Identity
Rev. Jay Rowland
Mark 1:4-11
Baptism of the Lord, January 10, 2021, First Presbyterian Church, Rochester MN.
This sermon utilizes material, some of it verbatim, published by John J. Pilch, The Cultural World of Jesus (pp. 19-21), and by Peter Lockhart, "Jesus’ Baptism" Reflections on Faith and Spirituality, 2012, https://revplockhart.blogspot.com/2012/01/?m=0
As has happened too often in recent months, something upsetting has happened … again. Something has seized our attention, the attention of our nation and the attention of many around the world.
The scene in Washington DC on Wednesday, the day of Epiphany, diverted our attention from anything else we were concerned about. As if the ongoing crisis of the global pandemic and deadly resurgence weren’t enough, … as if previous months of racial and civil and political upheaval were not already overwhelming … what we saw on Wednesday afternoon and evening was indeed an Epiphany of sorts: surreal images of an angry mob invading the Capitol building, smashing and grabbing and fighting their way past police … storming the floors of the Senate and the House of Representatives in an attempted coup.
Anything I had planned to say prior to Wednesday now seems somewhat untimely, like whatever I say will sound something like, “Meanwhile, back in Nazareth of Galilee ... “ and that feels naive … unworldly.
But perhaps whatever’s “going on” back in Scripture compared with the chaos going on around us is not so untimely. Perhaps it’s critically important. Perhaps the Gospel comes to us for just such a time as this, able to powerfully re-calibrate our attention to reality through the presentation of the overarching Story within which--under which--our story is forever unfolding. And so it is that …
John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole (Judean) countryside and all the people (of Jerusalem) were going out to (John), and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. … In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “you are my Son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
Mark 1:4-5;9-11
The importance of Mark’s brief description of what was then and continues to be a world-changing event is somewhat camouflaged, hidden between the lines of what Mark presumes his ancient audience understood implicitly about identity and kinship and matters of paternity and community.
To help us see what they saw and understood, I turn to Biblical scholar John Pilch and his work, The Cultural World of Jesus (quotation marks below indicate words belonging to Pilch). Pilch points out something I never previously saw: that when Jesus goes to John (to the Jordan River) just outside of Jerusalem this in itself is almost literally a matter of life and death:
“In the ancient Mediterranean world (because) it was impossible to prove who was the actual father of a child ... only when a father acknowledged a baby as his own did that boy or girl truly become a (legitimate) son or daughter.”
“And we know that even though Mary was not pregnant by Joseph, when Joseph agrees to wed her, he publicly acknowledges that Jesus is his son and embeds Jesus into his family to give Jesus honorable standing and a secure setting in which to live.“ … In the ancient Mediterranean world, family of origin is everything. An Individual has no identity or meaningful existence apart from family. “… a person not embedded in a family is as good as dead.”
And so when Jesus leaves behind family and village to go to John in Jerusalem he is taking a great risk. He is, practically speaking, cutting himself off from his family, abolishing his prior identity, declaring himself dead for all intents and purposes in society.
“The circumstances of the baptism of Jesus provide an immediate answer to this startling situation. A voice calling out from the torn-open heavens declares Jesus’ identity as the Son of God, beloved and highly pleasing to God, (the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth …)”. The term torn-open heavens isn’t fanciful language, it declares that this is a public event. Otherwise this experience is merely personal to Jesus, meaningless to wider society.”
“But Mark does not mention crowds or any witnesses. So who else hears God’s declaration? Who will acknowledge and confirm this public claim to honorable status for Jesus? Mark … expects those who hear and read the gospel to recognize the exalted source of Jesus’ honor and provide the required confirmation. That is, his original followers, and so on down to you and I who are expected to recognize Jesus’ identity as the Beloved and pleasing Son of God.”
And so, Jesus’ baptism of repentance is not a baptism for his sake but for ours, on our behalf, for our sake. Jesus does need to turn back to God, we do. … This is why our own baptisms ... are so important: because they signify that our lives are drawn into Jesus’ own baptism and our lives are now shaped by being baptized people who in Christ and by God’s grace are turned back to God, not through our action of turning towards God but [through] Jesus. (Lockhart)
It is not for Jesus’ own sake that the Spirit is seen descending like a dove but for all who testify to God’s love. The Holy Spirit shares in the life of God just as Jesus the Christ accommodates the Spirit into his own fleshly life. It is in the sharing of this life that the Spirit of God is then poured out after Jesus’ death into his disciples and then among all peoples drawing all into Jesus and by the Spirit into sharing in God’s own life. (Lockhart)
What is occurring in and through Jesus is no less than the re-creation of the world! … just as the Spirit hovered over the waters at the moment of creation (Genesis 1:1-5) so too the Spirit hovered over Mary’s womb … and now today over Jesus’ baptism. (Lockhart)
This is the story of God’s decision and action in and through Jesus Christ to renew Creation. It is a story bigger than any of our personal experiences yet compassionate and aware enough to draw in our personal experiences into that grand narrative of God’s love for the world. (Lockhart) Including our experience of living during a global pandemic, witnessing an attempted coup in Washington DC after months and months of political and civil and racial upheaval…
Jesus’ baptism and the descent of the Holy Spirit point to the reality of God. It is a promise of God’s intention not simply for those who may have seen or heard that John baptized Jesus but for you and me and all of God’s Creation.
The act of Jesus’ baptism is a decisive act revealing God’s love and grace for all the world. In the same way that Jesus’ baptism declares God’s love and action in the world, so too our gathering as baptized people here today--be it digital or physical--declares that God is in charge, keeping the world with all its calamity and chaos.
For we live in a world that continues to live and act as if there is no God. And so, our gathering and the gathering of congregations everywhere—whether it be digital or physical--declare by Jesus’ repentance our resistance against the forces of chaos in our midst. Our worship today celebrates the promise and hope for all creation: Everything shall be made new! We are people of this new creation as we have a foretaste of all nations at peace with God and one another. (Lockhart)
In this, the church is that which it signifies, it is the beginning of the new creation. We did not and do not make this new creation; we cannot offer any word to the world; nor any other salvation to the world other than one already given in Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and ascension. (Lockhart)
We are to be a light to the nations not because we behave or live as people returned to God but because we live acknowledging the One who turned back to God on our behalf and in whose life we share by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Lockhart)
Our purpose in being the church is none other this: to point away from ourselves and the powers and principalities of this world and point instead to the Author of our Salvation who has made us a light among the nations, just as the Israelites were to be a light among the nations. We exist as the church not for our own ends, not as ordinary social gatherings (Lockhart) … but to remind the world that God is and God has a future for the whole creation even when all we can see is chaos and human arrogance and death and despair.
In Jesus God has redeemed the world and has begun a new creation in which by grace and through the Holy Spirit you and I are already citizens!
Remember this as God with Holy wisdom and the Spirit guides us all into the living of these days.
