In the beginning...
Baptism of Jesus - Year B
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Baptism of Jesus - Year B
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Let us pray: O God, we gather here as your people, anxious to experience your presence among us, encouraged to be ones who live our faith and hope in you, and conscious of your desire for peace and justice in this world. May these words be ones which help us to know the story, and may they be words which inspire us to respond with hope and confidence in our connections in the world around us. Amen.
Imagine, if you will, the building of a life of faith in the same way that we might consider the building of a home. There is a well known parable of Jesus which gives us a starting point in this consideration. Jesus invited his listeners to think about two houses - similar in every respect except for the land they are built upon. One is built upon sandy soil. The other is built upon rock. The shifting sand is no match for the erosive effects of wind and water, and the building soon follows. Meanwhile, the house built on rock can withstand the blowing and flowing because it is sturdily anchored to the solid, unmoving stone.
So then, we know that a solid foundation is important as a starting point. It’s not the only thing, for a shabbily constructed house built on rock won’t last just because it is situated on an immovable piece of land, but even the best construction materials will prove to be no match for the shifting nature of a sandy foundation.
Given the opportunity to use the same principles in guiding our faith lives, it makes sense that we should give ourselves a solid foundation on which to build our understandings of God and the spirit, the call of God to be people who work for justice and peace and the important responsibility of determining what is right and wrong in this complicated world.
The best time to make sure there is a good foundation in any building project is at the beginning. We heard this morning in the reading from the Hebrew Bible, the first of two stories told by the Hebrew people to explain creation. It seems fitting that the very first words of our book of faith should be: In the beginning...
And then the story continues to describe not just the building of a house, not just the building of a life of faith, but the building of the universe in which we live, but not just the universe - our very existence. It could be an unimaginably complicated story to tell - to try and summarise all the relationships that are part of this complex of creation. Even the smallest square millimetre of creation holds within it an infinite of mysteries and questions, connections and symbiotic relationships. But instead of choosing science to explain the work of creation, the Hebrew people chose art - describing the work of creation in poetic and metaphorical fashion, and as we heard this morning beginning with the creation of light - thus creating night and day. The separation of land and water soon follows and the work of creation continues as the story progresses.
Water is also a prominent element in the gospel story today. It too tells of a beginning. Water - a symbol of life, a symbol of purity, is the dividing line between past and future. John the baptiser, uses a ritual cleansing in the water of the Jordan river to help people experience forgiveness and make a new beginning, to take a dramatic turn in their lives - moving from past mistakes and poor choices to a forgiven life that is directed by better choices and a focus on following God’s way.
John’s offer of baptism as a symbolic beginning of new life, is also one that appeals to Jesus. Mark is the minimalist gospel writer, so he doesn’t go into any detail about Jesus’ motivation for seeking to be baptised by his cousin John. Mark just states that it happened. What we do know from Mark is that Jesus experienced this as a beginning - he experienced the presence of God’s spirit and the affirmation of God for this moment as the beginning of his time of teaching, preaching and healing around the Galilean countryside.
And so it is that this act of baptism, told so simply and matter-of-factly by Mark has become the mark of our own beginning as followers of the way. The first Christians, as we learn in the reading from Acts this morning, were baptised as adults - people who were prompted to follow the way shown by Jesus. In Ephesus, some of the early Christians had been baptised by John already, but there was an additional element to their initiation as followers of Jesus - they were baptised by John with water, but Paul completed their Christian baptism by laying hands on them and inviting the Holy Spirit to be with them.
Over time, of course, new generations were born among these followers of the way of God as exemplified by Jesus and baptism became a rite of initiation for people of all ages. Baptism of infants was a sign by the young Christian community of acceptance, and the laying of a foundation for the building of a life of faith. Over the centuries there have been debates about whether baptism should be reserved for those who can make a profession of faith on their own, and some traditions of the Christian faith have made this choice. Other traditions, such as ours have made the choice that baptism is a sign of blessing and acceptance by God and that it can take place at an age when children may not be able to express their faith in the same kinds of ways that adults do. However, as we discuss during the baptism preparation sessions, we all know that children are able to express their faith in other ways - holding on to an image of God which is very much incarnate and expressed by their belief in their parents. It’s an awesome responsibility of parenthood to be reminded that we are the divine presence for infants, and it is important to remember that this is God’s doing and not ours. Of course, we only have to wait a few years until these same infants become teenagers to know that that particular image of God for them soon passes!
We live in a world where there are many opportunities in practically every aspect of life. We also live in a world where attitudes to organized religion have changed greatly - some for good reason, and some not for any good reason at all. The choice to seek baptism for a child is therefore not as likely to be taken as a given. Indeed, it would seem that there is more choice available in making the decision to have a child baptised, and therefore that choice itself is made with thoughtfulness and intention. Some people might say that in a time when there are so many choices it would make sense to leave the decision for a later time in life, when having the chance to consider all the opportunities and decisions about the spiritual life can be a personal one. I believe, however, that it is important to claim who we are as spiritual beings, and that it helps us to consider and claim our own spiritual journey when we have a basis or a foundation to use as a guidepost along that journey. No choice can be made in a vacuum. Every life is guided by a set of moral principles and ethical considerations. We need a path in order to choose a path. And so it is that we seek to build our faith lives on solid ground - ground with substance and stability - ground that gives us a basis to consider who and whose we are. A beginning laid on a solid foundation is one which gives us stability to choose from among the choices available to us without having to worry about whether things are collapsing all around us. When we know who we are we are better able to understand and choose who we might be. Amen.