January 14, 2018 – Mark 1:4-11
Mark 1:4-11
Artisans of the Common Good – or, How Would Jesus Drive?
Baptism of Our Lord – January 14, 2018
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
When John takes the people out to the wilderness, he is re-enacting a scene from Israel’s history,
a scene that took place over a 1000 years earlier.
It’s a new beginning.
They’re starting over from ground zero.
The original event was the crossing of the Israelites through the waters of the Jordan
into the Promised Land.
For 40 years after the Exodus from Egypt, the Israelites lived and learned in the wilderness.
It was there that they learned a whole new way of being,
a way of being that focussed on the common good of all people,
not just the select few at the top of the hierarchy, like in Egypt.
God was teaching a way of being in the world that had not been seen before.
A way of being in which the vulnerable were cared for,
and in which everyone had a role in welfare of everyone else.
When the manna fell each day the people learned that their daily work was simply this:
to make sure that everyone got a share –
that none went hungry and that none had too much.
In the wilderness they learned that the goal and purpose of life was
the common good of all people and that everyone has a role in that purpose.
God sends gifts and our work in life is to make sure that everyone has access to those gifts.
Gifts of food, nurture, care, dignity, health, well-being, peace, and justice.
After 40 years of learning, it was time to live what they had learned.
An entire generation of people had been schooled in the new way,
so different from the hierarchical way of Egypt where they had been slaves.
And so graduation day came, when they were to cross the Jordan River and
enter the Promised Land and live what they had learned.
So they crossed the waters, and began a new way of life – a new way of being.
Over a thousand years later, John discerns that God is wanting to recreate that moment.
That God is ready to start all over again.
That God wants the people to return to the wilderness, relearn the lessons they learned there,
enter the waters and come out again ready to live this new way of being again.
So John invites them out – and they come! Loads of them come!
And John reminds them of the lessons of the wilderness,
of their purpose being the common good of all people,
and that they all have a role to play in that!
And then, when he senses they are ready to graduate, to begin living what they have learned,
he takes them into the water . . . and leads them out again to start anew in
the very same river they had crossed on graduation day a thousand years earlier:
the Jordan River.
That is the primary meaning of baptism.
A commissioning and a new start into a new way of life,
a life of sharing the gifts of God among all people for the common good of all.
God is on a loving mission to love, bless, heal and feed this whole world and every person in it.
And when you were baptized, you were baptized into that mission.
Every single one of you has a role in that mission.
The Christian movement is a movement of people focussed on the common good of all people –
because God has great love and great concern for all people,
for every single person on this planet regardless of income, status,
race, gender, sexual orientation, age, ethnicity, or anything else.
That means that by virtue of your baptism you have a place and a purpose in that movement.
On this day we remember that Jesus was baptized into this movement by John.
He too had a role in God’s mission, the central role as it turned out.
As disciples who are also baptized, we follow his lead,
knowing he too has waded into the waters and is with us when follow him.
On New Year’s Eve, the Pope reminded us of just how important our roles are as the baptized.
As one commenter noted in the New York Times, over the past several years,
“we have done an outstanding job putting total sleazoids at the top of our society.”
And yet, as Pope Francis pointed out, the people who have the most influence on our world,
the ones who truly shape the kind of society we live in, are the regular people,
the normal folks, through their normal everyday actions.
(David Brooks at https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/04/opinion/how-would-jesus-drive.html)
Those who are kind in public places.
Those who are attentive to the elderly.
Those who report things in the city that aren’t right and need attention.
Those parents and teachers and educators who
seek to instill a sense of responsibility for those around them.
These are the people who truly shape our city.
These are, the Pope says in a wonderful phrase, the artisans of the common good.
By virtue of your baptism, you are an artisan of the common good.
That is your job.
And you can express being an artisan of the common good in everything you do.
This is how your faith is expressed in daily life.
The Pope particularly praised those who – wait for it –
drive their cars with good sense and prudence.
I just love that.
Like: How Would Jesus Drive? Hahahaha! With good sense and prudence!
As one person has expressed it,
“driving is precisely the sort of everyday activity through which
people mold the culture of their community.” (Richard Reeves in ibid.)
As the writer in the New York Times says, “If you speed up so I can’t merge into your lane, you’re teaching me that the society around here is basically competitive and not cooperative. If, on the other hand, you give me a friendly wave after I let you in, you’re teaching me that this is a place where kindness is recognized and gratitude is expressed. . . . Driving puts us in a constant position of asking, Are we in a place where there is a system of self-restraint, or are we in a place where it’s dog eat dog?” (ibid.)
Small deeds, says the Pope, “express concretely love for the city.”
(https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2017/12/31/new-years-eve-pope-francis-delivers-silent-majority-speech/)
So: what you do matters.
Your baptism matters.
The way you drive.
The way you interact with clerks.
The way you do your job.
The way your raise your kids.
The way you treat the elderly.
The way you notice and care for the vulnerable – it all matters.
The consistency and care with which we feed our neighbours at our Community Meals
every other Wednesday is a way in which we express concretely our love for the city.
We have been doing this for many years and it has changed the culture of our street.
It says We Are All Neighbours.
It says Hospitality is a Value of First Lutheran Church.
It says God Loves the Intersection of Sargent and Victor.
It says Everyone is Welcome.
It says God’s Gifts are for Sharing.
It says All Are Valued.
It says You Can Make a Difference.
It says: We are Artisans of the Common Good.
So maybe my Baptismal certificate here isn’t just a Baptismal Certificate.
Maybe it’s a Driver’s License too.
And a Food Handler’s Certificate.
And a million other things through which my baptism, like Jesus’s,
baptizes me into God’s Mission.
You and I: we are all artisans of the common good by virtue of our baptisms.
We show our love for the city in small concrete deeds.
And we shape the people and the culture and the world around us.
It’s an amazing thing being baptized into God’s mission.
So with Pope Francis and John and Jesus,
with the people of Judea and those Israelites on the banks of the Jordan long ago,
let us remember: we are Artisans of the Common Good, and with them
let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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