Sermon for the Baptism of Christ: Year B 2012

In this season of Epiphany – which simply means manifestation – the Church celebrates not one Epiphany or manifestation of the identity of Jesus, but three:

On Friday 6 Jan: the coming of the Magi, the Wise Men, from the East who had followed their star to find the newborn king of the Jews and fell down and worshipped him and presented their precious and symbolic gifts.

Next Sunday (15 Jan), we will be at Cana of Galilee for a wedding feast and the first of Jesus’ “signs” in John’s Gospel: the water made wine.

On this Sunday after the Epiphany, we are at the River Jordan to celebrate the second of these epiphanies: the Baptism of Christ. All three are seen as epiphanies; as manifestations of the glory of Christ.

They are different facets of the one glorious jewel.

Each gospel writer has his particular way of telling the story of Jesus; his own understanding to communicate; his own community to address in its particular situation.

So, what does Mark see? With this first chapter of Mark we are launched straight into the ministry of Jesus. There’s no hanging about, no infancy stories, just plainly and simply the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry.

Mark sets the scene with a reference to Isaiah, and the one who will ‘pave the way’ for Jesus.

John the Baptist launches Jesus into his public ministry, and as he does so, the heavens were ‘torn open’ and the Holy Spirit came down, like a dove.

The opening of heaven in the Old Testament and other Jewish writings signified revelation. The opening of heaven at the baptism of Jesus signals that he is the Messiah and that the fulfilment of Israel’s ultimate hopes is at hand. If the closing of heaven brought drought; its opening would bring God’s blessings.

At his baptism, Jesus is ordained as Messiah by a God who loves him and tells him so. “You are my beloved Son; in you I am well pleased.” This powerful affirmation, this calling from God, will sustain Jesus through temptations in the desert (which comes right away in verse 12 if we read on) and then through the joys and trials of his ministry. At our baptism we too are claimed as the children of God. At his baptism Jesus is consecrated for his ministry. At our baptism we also are consecrated for our part in his mission. We are not being enrolled into some club or social committee; we are being called and set apart for the service of the others, under God.

Jesus’ baptism was a powerful, public and decisive turning point in his life. Many people experience moments which prove to be decisive turning points. They reach a cross-roads where they are confronted with radically different choices. It may be a moment of revelation, and eye-opening moment, a moment of illumination for the mind – suddenly everything begins to fall into place. If that grace is responded to, people are often lifted out of themselves, and start out on a new path. If it is not responded to, the opportunity may be gone forever.

Shakespeare put it like this:

There is a tide in the affairs of men

Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and miseries.

Such moments of decision can be thrust upon a person like a bolt out of the blue, or it may come gradually. Jesus knew such moments in his life, and his baptism by John was one of them. From this moment on, nothing would ever be the same. He found himself and his true vocation. All his hidden qualities, his power and his calling, which had been growing quietly like wheat in field, now manifested themselves and were given full expression.

Most of us can pinpoint key turning points in our own lives. However, the direction our lives have taken may not be the result of some major single decision, but a series of little decisions.

At baptism we were given a decision and a direction. God wants us to have the fullest possible life and in baptism we share the life of God. In baptism we are called to turn from old ways and be recreated in Christ.

There is a story told of a famous movie-maker who had a huge legal wrangle with his long-time mentor and guide. The younger man simply could not handle criticism, and ended up rejecting the person who had helped him so much. When it was all over a close friend summed up the entire situation: ‘It was all about an ungenerous father and a son looking for affirmation and love.’

It happens all the time: in families, businesses, all over. Many children grow up in our world who have never had a parent say to them (either in words or through hug or a look), ‘You are my precious child’, let alone, ‘I am pleased with you.’ In our Western world, even parents who think these things in their hearts are sometimes too tongue-tied or embarrassed to articulate it.

In a way the Christian gospel could be summed up in this point: that when the living God looks at us, at every baptised and believing Christian, he says to us what he said to Jesus – ‘You are my dear, dear child; I am delighted with you.’ Try saying that with your own name at the start. What is true of Jesus is true of us – simply because of the incarnation, God-with-us, God-one-of-us. When the heavens opened for Jesus, it was rather like a huge invisible curtain being drawn back and new reality, a new picture opening up before him, a new reality. A good deal of daily Christian living is a matter of learning to live by that different reality, that God’s-eye-view of us. Sometimes at those decisive moments I spoke of earlier, the curtain is drawn back and we see, hear or understand exactly what is going on; but most of the time we walk by faith, not by sight. The gospel reading today encourages us to see the heavens opened and hear the heavenly voice. Let that voice change you, shape you, make you somebody new, the person God wants you to be. But, Mark is keen to have his readers understand that, immediately following this wonderfully powerful and revealing moment Jesus is led by the Spirit into a wilderness of temptation and struggle with self and vocation. It won’t, after all, be plain sailing and smooth seas. There is a tension. We know that God loves us and that he delights in us, yet we also know that we will be weak in the face of temptation. It is, however, God’s grace that will cover our shortcomings. We realise that we have a somewhat precarious saint / sinner status. In other words we hear two opposites at the same time: “you have failed me. You are perfect.”

In today’s gospel we hear: ‘You bring me great pleasure’, yet the alternative is always lurking in the background.

As we stand at the beginning of a new year, not knowing the sort of rough seas and calm days we must face, perhaps we could ask ourselves, ‘What must I resolve to do in 2012 to be the recipient of God’s great pleasure?’

I’d like to suggest that together we try three simple things: First, resolve to give pleasure to God – we all know ‘people-pleasers’ with that spaniel attitude that will do anything to get stroked and petted. Living as a God-pleaser, however, gives a quite different complexion to life. It means we will be willing to look far ahead in hope; to envision the possible and dream the improbable. You might not change the world by being a God-pleaser instead of a people-pleaser, but you will change yourself.

Secondly resolve to look for the road signs of righteousness. As we seek to please God, there will be times we find ourselves going the wrong way. There is a simple prayer each of us can pray daily: ‘O Lord, make a dead-end street of every road that does not lead to you today. Amen.’ Dead ends are not endings but opportunities to turn round, readjust, reconsider and start again. If we believe Jesus guides our footsteps, our dead-ends ought to prompt less of ‘Why me?’ and more of ‘thank you Lord for this opportunity to turn round.’

Thirdly resolve to bear the cross. Not pleasing everyone; taking the road less travelled: these are God-delighting decisions. But sometimes we must sacrifice something of ourselves in order to embrace the love of Christ. The shadow of the cross is still cast over the wood of the manger in every crib – as a reminder to us of this truth.

It is sometimes not enough just to turn away from bad-news dead-ends. It is sometimes not enough to stop bending over backwards to please people, instead of bending at our knees to please God. Sometimes we are required to make actual sacrifices. That sacrifice might be to admit we were wrong; to welcome those we least desire; to give sacrificially of self and resources; to end relationships that hurt us, our families or our friends.

When we bear the cross out of love for Christ, out of a desire to live a Jesus kind of life, we end up with the greatest gift we could ever envision. We hear deep in our souls a voice proclaiming, “Well done, beloved. You bring me great pleasure!”

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