A Sudden Realization

Sermon-1 Epiphany Year A-Jan. 9, 2011
The Cloud of Unknowing, "O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of that Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Matthew 3:13-17
13Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. 14John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 16And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

You’ve heard this story before, right? Jesus goes out to John in the wilderness , baptizing people in the river Jordan, and he asks to be baptized. You’re familiar with it, right? So, what’s your favorite part? It’s a very short gospel reading-some of you have heard it dozens of times-which part do you like the best? Which part of this short episode speaks loudest to you?
We’re in the season of Epiphany. Here’s a definition of Epiphany that I like: ? a sudden realization: a sudden intuitive leap of understanding, especially through an ordinary but striking occurrence. A sudden realization. The season starts with the coming of the wise men on January 6th. And every year the first Sunday in Epiphany we hear the story of the baptism of Jesus. Then for the next several weeks we will hear about other epiphanies, other sudden realizations. Every week in the gospels. And every year this season ends with the great epiphany of Jesus being transformed on the mountaintop. That’s all I want to tell you about this season for now. But I have much to say about baptism.
Tertullian the early Christian theologian wrote about baptism in the 2nd century: "When we are going to enter the water," he says, "we solemnly profess that we disown the devil, his pomp, and his angels. Hereupon we are thrice immersed, making a somewhat ampler pledge than the Lord has appointed in the Gospel. Then, when we are taken up, we taste first a mixture of milk and honey. And from that day we refrain from the daily bath for a whole week.” Did you know that early Christians were always baptized naked? They would go under the water and when they came up they were then dressed in a white robe symbolizing purity. “It was a sign that they had literally put on Christ like a garment. They wore those robes for a long period as a reminder of who they were and what they had done.” That would increase attendance on baptism Sundays, wouldn’t it?
You may think that the baptism of Jesus story is pretty harmless, but in the first century Christians were very embarrassed by this story. Why would Jesus, the Son of God, their savior, need his sins washed away? It was one of the “scandals” of Christianity. The baptism of Jesus was terribly embarrassing to the church. These days it is usually an opportunity for a party. The Rev. Dr. Bill J. Leonard the dean of the Wake Forest University School of Divinity, tells this story about baptism in the Baptist church: …in 1807, a Kentucky slave woman named Winnie was disciplined by the Forks of Elkhorn Baptist Church, where she was a member, for saying that "she once thought it her duty to serve her mistress and her master, but since the Lord had converted her [since her baptism] she had never believed that any Christian [could keep] Negroes or slaves." And she got into more trouble with the church for saying that "there were thousands of white people wallowing in hell for their treatment of Negroes--and she did not care if there was many more.”
So when you (again) hear today the story of Jesus being baptized, what’s your favorite part? Does the story have the power to move you? To free you? Make you think? If you don’t feel scandalized or intrigued by the story, do you feel any interest in it at all? How about scared? Listen to this story from The Scott Black Johnston, senior pastor of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York
“Early Christian icons, devotional pictures of this scene at the Jordan River, depict Jesus submerged up to his neck in the water. John stands nearby, gently touching the Messiah's head. Above, a lone dove glides down a ray of heaven-sent light, while on shore, angels wait with ready towels for God's beloved Son to emerge. My friend with the water collection, Stan, once pointed out to me that these icons usually include a curious figure. There in the water along with Jesus you can often find a small elderly man carrying a jug. He is the river god, the spirit of the Jordan [River], the sometime enemy of humankind. This aqueous [water] sprite reminds viewers that water is not always so friendly. It destroyed the earth in Noah's time. It threatened to swamp the disciples' boat in a storm. It nearly drowns both Peter and Paul. In one Eastern icon (Ohrid, Yugoslavia, c.1300), Jesus raises his foot to squash this river god. And that's not the only adversary that the Messiah will find in the depths. The waters of the Jordan in these icons are frequented by dragons and great sea serpents. In these icons, when Jesus goes into the river, he goes to do battle against the powers of evil.
So when you hear the story of Jesus being baptized do you imagine him fighting the river spirits? The dragons and sea serpents of the Jordan? Do you see Jesus, gentle Jesus, going to war? Setting prisoners free? Rescuing people from hell?
I tell you all this because when you hear a story a lot it’s hard to stay focused, to stay interested. But you know what I hear when this story is told? When Jesus comes up out of the water “the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
When I hear the story of Jesus baptism, I hear a story of approval and acceptance-I hear a story of love. I think of that every time we have a baptism here. The first baptism was a story of God loving his son so much that he couldn’t NOT say it. He didn’t tell the people to follow Jesus, or to bow down to him, or throw money at him-or even to give him a party. All he said was, “I love you so much, and I am so proud of you.” And I think to myself, this is what every person, no matter how old, whatever the circumstances, this is what every person wants and needs to hear-from God, from the church. When our new life begins with God, that’s what we need to hear-not promises, not threats, not warnings, not enticements-we need to hear what every child craves to hear from a loving parent-I love you, you’re mine, I am so proud of you.
Fr. Henri Nouwen was a famous Catholic writer, speaker, teacher, when he decided in his 60s to leave that life behind, and to share his life with mentally handicapped people at the L'Arche community of Daybreak in Toronto, Canada. He wrote this in a sermon many years ago: “I would like to speak to you about the spiritual life as the life of the beloved. As a member of a community of people with mental disabilities, I have learned a lot from people with disabilities about what it means to be the beloved. Let me start by telling you that many of the people that I live with hear voices that tell them that they are no good, that they are a problem, that they are a burden, that they are a failure. They hear a voice that keeps saying, "If you want to be loved, you had better prove that you are worth loving. You must show it." But what I would like to say is that the spiritual life is a life in which you gradually learn to listen to a voice that says something else, that says, "You are the beloved and on you my favor rests."You are the beloved and on you my favor rests. Jesus heard that voice. He heard that voice when He came out of the Jordan River. I want you to hear that voice, too. It is a very important voice that says, "You are my beloved son; you are my beloved daughter. I love you with an everlasting love. I have molded you together in the depths of the earth. I have knitted you in your mother's womb. I've written your name in the palm of my hand, and I hold you safe in the shade of my embrace. I hold you. You belong to Me and I belong to you. You are safe where I am. Don't be afraid. Trust that you are the beloved. That is who you truly are."
I want you to hear that voice. It is not a very loud voice because it is an intimate voice. It comes from a very deep place. It is soft and gentle. I want you to gradually hear that voice. We both have to hear that voice and to claim for ourselves that that voice speaks the truth, our truth. It tells us who we are. That is where the spiritual life starts -- by claiming the voice that calls us the beloved.
This is the Epiphany season, a season when we hear stories of sudden realizations: sudden intuitive leaps of understanding, especially through an ordinary but striking occurrence. This is the season when we talk about the light bulb coming on, and we can see something ordinary in a new way. Today we talk about the baptism of Jesus, a story you may have heard a 1000 times. But today, see if there is an epiphany for you, any kind of realization. What do you hear when you hear the story now? What speaks to you loudest? Maybe God is trying to let you know in some mysterious, intimate way, how much he loves you and approves of you. Maybe today you can make an intuitive leap and hear a voice claiming you as his beloved. Perhaps when we hear the old familiar story of baptism we will hear God not just speaking to Jesus-but also speaking to us. Amen.