January 11, 2015 – Mark 1:4-11
Mark 1:4-11
In the Water with Jesus
Baptism of our Lord – January 11, 2015
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
In the beginning there’s just all this water.
It’s muck, it’s messy, it’s like water and dirt all mixed up together.
It’s mud. There’s no order to it. It can’t sustain life the way it is
So God sends a wind, or breath, or an even better translation, the Spirit.
And the Spirit begins to create a space in which life can flourish and be safe.
That is the work of the Spirit.
To create spaces and places in which life can flourish and be safe.
This Spirit of God is at work in all creation, creating and sustaining life.
That’s the picture we get in Genesis, and throughout the Old Testament.
But God continues to dream of more life, of better life,
for all people and all animals and all plants.
What the earth needs, God dreams, is a renewal of the whole earth.
So what God does is take a deep breath, inhales all the Spirit, and breathes it into
a single person, into Jesus.
It’s this Spirit that Jesus receives at his baptism in the Jordan River by John this morning.
It is as if the Spirit that is at work throughout all creation is not focussed in this single person,
like the light of the sun concentrated into a single intense point of light by
a magnifying glass on a hot summer day.
The Spirit of life is concentrated into a single person, in Jesus,
like the narrow point of an hour glass.
And now wherever this person goes, the Spirit is at work creating life, sustaining life,
creating safe spaces and places for life and people and animals to flourish.
And so where Jesus goes, life flourishes.
The sick are healed. The hungry are fed. The outcasts are welcomed and included.
The poor are given hope and good news. The sinners are forgiven.
Even the dead are raised to life.
Jesus creates relationships in which people experience themselves to be accepted just as they are,
in which they experience themselves to be beloved,
in which they experience themselves to be safe.
And then he challenges them and commissions them to go and do likewise.
And it all begins in his baptism.
In Mark’s telling, Jesus’ life begins in his baptism.
It is literally the beginning of the story in Mark’s Gospel: it’s how his Gospel begins!
Like I said in the e-mail this week, this is kind of Mark’s Christmas story:
it’s where Jesus’ life begins.
It is the high point of Jesus’ life and the most important day in Jesus’ life.
Everything in the story flows from here –
the rest of his life is simply a working out of his baptism.
As the Professor of Preaching David Lose points out in this blog this week,
everything begins with God’s words of unconditional love and grace and acceptance.
“You are my Beloved. With you I am well pleased.”
Everything flows out of this acceptance, this belovedness, this being valued.
As he writes:
Again and again as Jesus casts out unclean spirits, heals the sick, feeds the hungry, and welcomes the outcast, he is only doing to others what has already been done to him in his baptism: showing them by what he says and what he does that they too are beloved children of God, that God is well pleased with them, that they are valued and accepted just as they are.
Jesus’ whole life, really, is a working out of his baptism.
It’s the way in which the Spirit of love and acceptance given him as a free gift in his baptism is
shared just as freely with any in need and is put to work by him in the world.
And so the world begins to turn.
And safe places are created in which life can flourish again.
When Jesus is baptized, he is not alone, right?
There are others in the water with him whom John is baptizing.
That’s the picture Mark paints for us.
Jesus comes to stand in the waters of chaos and injustice with those who find themselves there.
That would be us.
At Confirmation Camp at Luther Village,
I occasionally get to lead the Affirmation of Baptism Service at the end of our time,
just before we head back home.
I like to lead everyone out into the water so we’re all standing in the water together.
And then I lead the service just like I led it at the beginning of worship this morning.
We remember, then, that Jesus is standing in the water with us.
We remember, then, that even though the waters of chaos, and injustice, and vulnerability,
and despair, and loneliness, and difficulty are often where we find ourselves –
we remember that we are not alone in those waters.
We remembers that it is right into those waters that Jesus comes to stand with us,
right beside us,
We remember that it is right in those waters of difficulty and death that Jesus comes to name us
Beloved, Valued, Prized, Accepted, Worthwhile, Loved,
We remember that it is right in the midst of those chaotic waters that a safe place is created for us
by a good and gracious and loving God, by Jesus in whom
the Spirit of life is concentrated like an intense point of life.
And we remember that that Spirit was first given us in baptism – and that, like Jesus,
that is the true beginning point of our true lives.
For, like Jesus, everything flows from there.
We, too, then have the opportunity to simply do to others what has already been done to us.
We, too, then have the opportunity to show others by what we say and by what we do that
they too are beloved children of God, that God is well pleased with them,
that they are valued and accepted just as they are.
Our lives in Christ, then, simply become a working out of our baptisms.
And so the from that single intense point of light,
from that Spirit that was focussed so intently in one person,
the Spirit is again unleashed into the chaotic world – through you.
You now are the ones called to stand in the waters with those who need a
safe nurturing accepting space created for them – so their lives might flourish.
The narrow part of the hourglass of the Spirit once again expands out into and through the world
– through you.
If we hear about the wide part of the hourglass of the Spirit in the reading from Genesis as
it is blown into the waters of creation,
and if we hear about it all of it being focussed and concentrated into
the single person of Jesus at his baptism,
then we hear finally of it’s being poured into the church, the body of Christ on earth, into you,
in your own baptism, in the reading from Acts today,
where the Hourglass of the Spirit begins to flow out into the world through you.
When Paul lays his hands on the disciples in Ephesus, they receive the baptism of the Holy Spirt:
When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them.
And so the Spirit has an opportunity to expand into the world again and create safe places for
all living things – through you.
The love and acceptance and valuing Jesus receives in his baptism is powerful.
It changes his life and through it he is empowered by the Spirit for his ministry.
We know this, right?
When a child feels unconditionally loved and accepted they have a solid foundation for life.
When they are made to feel safe and valued for who they are just as they are,
they are able to accept others and to value others for they are and work for their benefit.
When human beings are unconditionally loved, then they are able to love.
Think for a moment of a time in your life when you knew yourself to be completely,
totally unaccepted and loved by another human being.
Maybe it happened when you were a child.
Maybe it happened when you were an adult.
Maybe it happened recently – and maybe it happened a long time ago.
Call that feeling to mind.
And then hear these words again –
You are a beloved child of God, God’s beloved apprentice of love and mercy in the world
With you God is well pleased.
You have been marked with the cross of Christ and sealed with the Holy Spirit forever.
As you hear these words, may they assure you that
no matter what you have done or what has been done to you,
God continues to love you, accept you, value you, and hold onto you.
And may that empower you for mission as the church here and now
in this place at 580 Victor Street.
May you feed as you have been fed, may you value as you have been valued,
may you accept as you have been accepted, may you forgive as you have been forgiven.
So together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
