Where it all begins

Sunday, January 7, 2018
Trinity United Church of Christ, Deerfield
Kent M. Organ, Interim Pastor
Text: Isaiah 42:1-9; Mark 1:4-11

“In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee  and was baptized by John in the Jordan.”  According to Mark, it is this incident that constitutes the beginning of the good news.  It’s the beginning of his Gospel.  There, in the muck and mud of the Jordan River, is where it all begins: the miracle of grace, the manifestation of God’s love, the ministry of reconciliation through Jesus Christ our Lord.  It all begins  with John’s baptism of Jesus.

It’s not only Mark who says so.  Each of the Gospels  makes the Jordan River  the place where it all begins.  True, in the other Gospels  there  are preceding events.  But all four agree  that the baptism of Jesus  is the moment  when he begins to fulfill his destiny.

We are naturally curious about the earlier years.  We wonder about the influence of Joseph and Mary.  What did Jesus learn from them  about their faith tradition?  What was his experience of God  as a child,  as a teenager?  How did he arrive at his sense of vocation?  Aside from  one story – about the 12-year old’s visit to the Temple – we know next to nothing about any of this.  These were the silent years.  Fred Craddock says,  “You don’t hear  roots  growing.  They had to be silent years.”

All we know  is that, one day,  Jesus  put down his woodworking tools, took leave of his family and his hometown,  and went out into the wilderness  where John was preaching “a baptism  of repentance.”  There,  Jesus joined all the others  who were responding to John’s preaching.  Along with them,  he also  waded into the river  and was baptized.

The question is,  why?  We ask,  because John’s baptism  was for the forgiveness of sins.  What  was Jesus doing  in that crowd?  What did he have  to repent of?

That he was there – in the Jordan, undergoing baptism – is something  even the most skeptical participant in the Jesus Seminar  does not dispute.  The reason being  that  no believer  would have made up this story.  The Savior of the world  submitting to a “baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins”  is a little embarrassing.  And the Gospel writers are nervous  in telling about it.  According to Matthew, John the Baptist was reluctant, saying  he needed to be baptized by Jesus.  He went through with it, Matthew says,  only because Jesus insisted.  Luke makes as little of the event as possible.  The Fourth Gospel is so defensive about Jesus’ sinlessness  that it doesn’t explicitly say  that he was baptized.  It just says  that John saw the Spirit descend on Jesus like a dove,  but neglects to mention  that Jesus was standing waist-deep in the Jordan River when it happened.  Mark seems the least embarrassed,  but even he has John proclaim of Jesus, “…I am not worthy to… untie the thong of his sandals.”

So, what are we to make of Jesus’ baptism?  In spite of their discomfort about it,  why do all four Gospels insist  that Jesus’ baptism  is where it all begins?
Here’s what I think.  Jesus went out to where John was baptizing  because the time had come for him to respond  to God’s claim on his life.  John was baptizing  at the Jordan – the very  river boundary  which,  when the children of Egypt  came out of the wilderness,  they crossed  to enter the Promised Land.  Many Israelites, during this time,  were seeking a renewal of their peoplehood.  What did it mean  to serve God  together  in this world?  Where had they failed?  What was required of them now?  Galvanized by the witness of John,  the people returned  to the  place  of their beginnings in a new land:  to the Jordan.  It was like  going back to Ellis Island   to start over,  at least  to get a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty  to remember  what  our peoplehood  is all about.  Friends,  a pastoral interim  can be something like this, as we’re seeing. It is an opportunity  to step back and remember: Who are we?  Why are we here?  What is it that God wants us to be, and do?  Getting in touch with our Christian identity, and our unique calling.

So, of course,  Jesus went there – to be baptized – identifying with all  who recognized the need  to start over again  on a more faithful path  as servants of God in this world.

* * * *

The Baptism of Christ, observed today in churches around the world,  witnesses to Jesus’ solidarity with  and compassion  for  all of us who come  on a Sunday morning,  just as our ancestors went  to the Jordan River.  They went, and we come,  with a multitude of aspirations  and anxieties,  with our failures – individual and corporate – in what we have done  and not done.  The Baptism of Jesus was then  and is now  the sign that Christ saves us  not  by shouting instructions from the safety of the shore,  but is down in the mud  with us,  joining us in the sorrow of repentance  and the joy of a new beginning.  

What would have constituted sin  for Jesus  would have been for him  not to have been baptized – to turn away  from his destiny,  to refuse to be  Emmanuel, “God  with us.”  But he didn’t refuse.  He didn’t separate himself  from us  with our questions, our failures of will  and of nerve,  our failures  to do the good we know.  He went down to the Jordan  and joined us.  His baptism is a luminous sign  that he is truly  one of us.  Which is why Mark calls it “the beginning  of the good news  of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

What was not obvious  then,  but is  now  is how his baptism marked the beginning in another sense.  It launched him on a ministry that would take him from the Jordan  to the poor, to lepers, to the tables of social outcasts, public sinners,  to the weak and powerless, to those who are weary and carrying heavy burdens,  and finally – on Calvary – to a convicted criminal at the place of his execution,  His baptism, in other words,  is the beginning of a journey  that will lead Jesus  to the cross  where, as Paul declares,  “For our sakes [God] made him  to be sin  who knew no sin,”  and where,  as the Philippian hymn says,  “Though he was in the form of God, he emptied himself,  taking the form of a servant.”

* * * *

The account of Jesus’ baptism  belongs  to the season of Epiphany.  Epiphany means “manifestation,” “disclosure.”  What Jesus’ baptism  discloses  is who  he is – the beloved Son – and what he does,  as the beloved Son:  he becomes one  with us.  In the end, his identification with us  and his commitment to us  will take him to the cross.  But it begins  at the Jordan.  From that act of solidarity,  it was almost inevitable  that the time would come when, as Paul puts it,  God  would prove God’s love for us  in that  while we were sinners  Christ would die for us.

Baptism is where it all begins – not only for Jesus, but also for you and me.  That is to say,  our journey of faith begins  at the baptismal font.  It is there  that we first know the grace of God in Christ.  It is there  we are first shown that our lives are not our own.  “In baptism God claims us, and puts a sign on us to show that we belong to God.”  Like Jesus at the Jordan,  at the font  we are given our identity:  “See what love God has for us,” we are told, “that we should be called children of God, and so we are.”  At the baptismal font  we not only learn who we are,  we learn  what we are to do – we are given our vocation.  “By water and the Holy Spirit…  we are joined to Christ’s ministry of love, justice and peace.”

For us too,  baptism is where it all begins.  It’s where God first says to us, “You belong to me; you are loved by me.  Stop worrying about  whether that is true or not, and start learning to follow the way my Son  shows you.  Stop fretting about who you are – you are my beloved!  Get on  with the life I have called you to live, and with the work I have given you to do.”

Each year, on this Sunday, we at Trinity  are encouraged to renew our baptism vows. Why so often? Why – every year? Because it is easy to forget  to whom we belong. Are we primarily  Democrats, or Republicans? White Sox fans, or Cubs fans? Caucasians,  or members of  the human race? Americans, or citizens of the world? Here, today, we remember – and attest – that fundamentally,  we  belong  to God,  the God we know  in and through Jesus the Christ. Which tells us important things  about  those  other  belongings of ours.

Baptism  is where it all begins.  For Jesus, it’s at the Jordan River.  There  he begins to fulfill his destiny  as Emmanuel, God with us.  For us, it is  at the font.  That is where we  re-begin  our life-long journey  as God’s  own.

- With thanks to Gene Bay, John Burkhart and Barbara Brown Taylor