January 12, 2014
Epiphany 1
Isaiah 42:1-9
Matthew 3:13-17
(prayer)
It is kind of embarrassing for me to admit that it one of my favourite movies of the last 15
years was "Fight Club". It
came out in 1999 and stared Ed Norton, Brad Pitt and Helena Bohnam Carter. As the title implies, it is pretty violent
and centres around the two male leads who establish an after-hours recreational
fighting club.
What I liked
about the movie was… that it was more than I expected - before I went into the
theatre, the general reputation I had heard was that it was just filled with
gratuitous violence with some sexual overtones.
But it turned out to be a real exploration of societal morals and the
struggles of human identity in a world that heaps huge expectations on us. And there is a nice plot twist in the movie
that I won't spoil here.
//
Reputations
always build from some basis in fact, but can grow beyond actual
experiences. In the end, the only way to
know for sure is to go and see for yourself.
// //
John the
Baptist gained a reputation as an intriguing wilderness prophet. He had this 'meeting place' in the Jordan
River valley, east of Jerusalem where he preached and offered a ministry of
ritual cleansing as a means of confessing one's sins.
If we had read
the first part of Matthew , chapter 3, we'd hear that his message was powerful
enough that people came to him. Matthew
writes that people from Jerusalem, Judea and even the regions east of the
river, came to John confessing their sins.
Even established religious leaders like scribes and pharisees, came.
I imagine
conversations like: "Have you heard
about the river prophet, John? A lot of
people I know have gone to see him; it's supposed to be pretty powerful
stuff. They say he just lives out there
- lives on food he scrounges. He's
supposed to be easy to spot: apparently he wears this odd-looking camel hair
coat tied up with a simple leather strap.
So, do you want to go check him out?"
//
One of the
unique things about the John the Baptist narrative is that it is one of the
rare times that all four gospels share essentially the same story. Although, to be fair, John's gospel doesn't
describe Jesus' baptism, but does have John talk about a time he saw the "spirit
of God descend on him like a dove", which is part of the baptism narrative
in the other gospels.
In the version
we read from today, Matthew's gospel doesn't give us any hint as to how Jesus
first heard about John and his baptism ministry. It's the same with Mark and John: Jesus just
shows up by the river one day. Luke is
the only gospel that claims the tradition that Jesus and John were
related. It says the John's mother,
Elizabeth, was an older relative of Mary and that John was born just six months
before Jesus. Even so, in the gospel of
John, John the baptist says that he didn't know Jesus when he first saw him
(although he may have simply meant that he didn't know that Jesus was the 'one
who would baptise with the Holy Spirit'.
None of the
gospels tell us how it came to be that Jesus decided to come down from Galilee
to visit John by the river. One day,
he's just there.
It does appear
that Jesus is very much inspired for his own ministry, based on what he
witnessed with John. I will be speaking
more about this in two weeks. But today,
the focus is on the baptism ministry of John.
//
As we explore
this a bit today, I will rely on all of the gospel texts about John and not
limit ourselves to only the four verses we heard this morning. (cf. Mt3,
Mk1,Lk3,Jn1).
So what was it
that people heard and saw when they came out to John's meeting place by the
river?
John's basic
sermon could be summed up in one word: repent! The original language of our New Testaments
is greek so the basic word used in the text is metanoia, which means 'to change one's mind'. Of course, John most
likely spoke in aramaic (or maybe hebrew), languages where the normal words for
repent (hozer, shuv) both mean 'to
return' or 'come back'.
That is John's
call to baptism - it is a call to return one's thoughts and actions back to
God. To let The Holy be a motivating
factor in life. To be a person of
spirit. John envisioned this
transformation to be deep and authentic, and a conscious reality in every
moment of life. In both Matthew and
Luke, the Baptist does not hold back criticism for those who are too
self-righteous to see their own need for repentance. He called them 'a brood of vipers' and told
them that if they were truly in tune with God's ways, there actions would make
that up obvious: 'bear fruits worthy of repentance'. John sees it as a need for everyone (those
with confident spirituality and those who were wandering) to re-set one's heart
and mind toward God. This transformation
was lived out ritually with John - interested repenters would join him in the
river (the very same river that the Hebrews of the Exodus crossed to enter the
land of promise). The person would go
down into those deeply significant waters: they would have to hold their breath
as the rushing river waters soaked their body and clothes until they were able
to draw new breath as they emerged above the surface. As water dripped from their hair, new life
filled their lungs.
A symbolic
acts go, it is a powerful one. As I
mentioned earlier in the service, baptism with water can have many layers of
meaning:
·
cleansing,
·
a journey,
·
rebirth,
·
it’s like catching a new breath for a new life.
I like the way we share baptisms in
the church. I understand the traditions
we have inherited that have adjusted the ritual from a full, hold your breath,
full immersion experience, to a more gentle pouring of water over the head
(especially when the person being baptised is young and not necessarily able to
grasp the depth of the symbolism of what we are doing).
But for those of us who are able to
go deep into what we are doing, I hope that you are able to imagine that as I
gently pour a handful of water on a child's head that we are trying to convey
that joyous and wonderful experience of catching that first breath, after having
been under water for a while.
We are supposed to be conscious of
the fact that we are opening ourselves to something new. And that we desire to be changed in the heart
and mind.
//
I know that
John the Baptist didn't speak greek, but since greek is the language that his
words and actions were shared with the early church, I want to point out a
special significance the word metanoia
might have had for the greek-speaking audience.
The root meaning of metanoia
is beyond (meta) [one's] mind
(nous). As I said earlier the greek concept of
repentance is a kin to changing one's
mind, but the literal word-play goes beyond what we think we know and
understand, to go beyond our mind and go into a larger mind - the mind of
God. To repent is to turn one's life
around, but it is also a process of attuning ourselves to God's way of thinking. We could say that what the
church learned from John the Baptist was to open our selves up to a 'higher',
holier way of thinking.
So, it might
have been just that, that attracted Jesus to John. Later on, Jesus would centre his own ministry
on very practical day-to-day justice: what action should I take to best express
God's hope and compassion for the world?
This is a concept he may have picked up from John.
//
Luke's gospel
goes on to give practical examples of how 'bearing worthy fruit' could be lived
out in a spirit of justice and compassion: Do
you have an extra coat? You should share with someone who has none. Same thing with food - don't hoard more than
you need, feed the hungry. To those
whose jobs were open for corruption or abuse (specifically he spoke to tax
collectors and soldiers), John preached: collect
only what is required; don't use threats or violence to advance yourself or to
line your own pockets.
The one who
preached this is the one whom Jesus sought out.
We have no idea how much time Jesus had spent with John by the river
before he made the decision himself to take the plunge. But Jesus saw something real and true in what
John was doing. And so, at some point
Jesus joined the line heading down to river.
He waded out to the baptist and held his breath as those waters (which
bounded God's promise of liberation in the time of Moses) now enveloped the son
of Mary. And he came up gasping for new
air to refill his empty lungs.
//
What happened
next is the stuff of legends: the story found its way (in some form) in all of
the gospel accounts. Just as Jesus came
up from the water (or maybe later after everyone was baptised and Jesus was
praying - cf. Luke) something physical happened around Jesus: it was said to be
the Spirit of God, or the Holy Spirit or just The Spirit came down from the sky
(aka... the heavens) and it came to rest on Jesus. First century storytellers likened it to a
dove coming in for a gentle landing; they said it was kind of like that. In fact, by the time Luke got the story, the
way it was being told was that the Holy Spirit had actually taken the physical
form of a dove.
The second
part of the story (told in Matthew, Mark and Luke) is a holy voice that
proclaims that Jesus is God's beloved son and that God was well pleased with
Jesus. These are words of connection and
affirmation.
It is not
clear from the various accounts whether anyone else in the crowd besides Jesus
(and maybe John the Baptist, as well, according to the Gospel of John ) saw the
spirit and heard the voice. Matthew and
Mark do say clearly that it was Jesus
who saw the spirit descend and heard the voice; Mark and Luke have the spirit
speaking in the second person, directly to Jesus: "you are my beloved son, with you
I am well pleased." Other than
John the Baptist mentioning (after the fact) seeing the descending spirit,
there is no record of any crowd reaction.
One thing this
tradition does say is... that Jesus himself experienced an affirmation from God
for the new direction his life would take.
When Jesus came down from Nazareth to Judea to join John at the Jordan,
he was approaching a fork in the road for his life. In the coming weeks, we will delve into some
of the stories about the path that Jesus chose and the style of leadership he engendered.
//
The early
Christians found (for themselves) fresh meaning in the old servant songs in the
book of Isaiah; they saw Jesus described in those old words. Today's reading from Isaiah 42 has language
that was echoed in the gospels: "this is my chosen servant, in whom my
soul delights" does sound a lot like "this is my beloved son, with
whom I am well pleased".
The early
Christians quoted the Isaiah servant songs to describe Jesus for new
generations of believer. Look at some of
the servants traits.
God's servant
brings justice to the nations, not by loud and boisterous proclamations, but by
gentle actions. When Isaiah says that
the spirit-filled servant will not be like one who 'screams his words in the
streets' I think it means that the faithful servant's method of leadership
should not bring to mind a charismatic leader who yells from the bully pulpit,
high above the people: spewing a take it or leave it dogma. So many of the examples that come to my mind when
I think of that style of leadership are some of humanity's cruelest
dictators. In the bigger picture, we worry about
dictatorships because we worry about the quality of leadership – whose needs
will be met? What about those who are on the edges?
Now, there are
moments when small amounts of dictatorial leadership can be very helpful and
somewhat socially acceptable, especially on small scales. Parents do it all the time: "because I
said so". But it also exists in
cultures that enjoy high levels of democracy and consensus building - we call
it delegation or empowerment, when we have certain people make certain
unilateral decisions in certain situations, even if everyone who might be
affected isn't consulted. Leaders who
hold this kind of power can only be effective way if their decisions are seen
as wise over time.
I think that
Isaiah’s main point is that the spirit-filled, faithful servant of God is
careful to ensure that the vulnerable are not forgotten, or worse ignore. The already bruised reed will not be broken
for the sake of more efficient progress; the dimly burning wick will not be
snuffed out in a world that desperately needs every light it can get to counter
the darkness of fear and loneliness, the shadows of oppression and worry.
Justice will be brought forth in a just way.
//
As we delve
into the various aspects of the ministry of Jesus (that was inspired in the
company of John the Baptist), we will see just why the model of gentle, just
leadership (espoused by Isaiah) also described Jesus.
Let us pray:
Holy God,
descend upon our hearts and illuminate us as we seek the wisdom of choosing the
best path forward. Amen.
#100VU
"When Jesus Came to be Baptised"
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