St. Paul’s Church in
Bergen & Church of the Incarnation, Jersey City NJ
January 13, 2019
Year C: The First
Sunday after the Epiphany – The Baptism of Our Lord
Isaiah 43:1-7
Psalm 29
Acts 8:14-17
Luke 3:15-17; 21-22
Mining the Water of Baptism
Some
of you may remember that last May I had the opportunity to fulfill a longtime
dream of mine – to visit the Abbey of Gethsemani in rural Kentucky.
In
part that trip was a retreat – a chance to get away and clear my head and give
God a little more room and a little more quiet than usual to speak to me.
And,
the trip was also a pilgrimage – a chance to visit the monastery where one of
my spiritual heroes, the writer Thomas Merton, lived out his religious life as
a monk.
Since
silence is kept at the abbey, I didn’t speak with the other guests at the abbey,
but I know that many of them were also there as Merton pilgrims because I could
see the covers of some of the books they were reading – which were either by
Merton or about him.
Now,
I don’t know, probably for some people the whole idea of pilgrimage seems a
little silly. After all, rationally I know that Merton has been dead for fifty
years and is no more present in rural Kentucky than he is in Bayonne or
anyplace else, but the truth is that for many centuries people have found great
meaning in making pilgrimages to places associated with holy people or holy
events – pilgrimages to places like Canterbury or Rome or, most of all, to the
places where Jesus and his first followers walked the earth.
If
you’ve been around here lately, you know that I’ve been thinking about how hard
life was in Israel back in the first century – how hard life was for Jesus and
all of the people we hear about in the New Testament – how hard life was
without the conveniences and the medicine that often we take for granted - and
how hard life was under the brutal Roman occupation.
It
would be nice to be able to say that everything is swell these days in what we
call the Holy Land, but even just a glance at the news shows that’s far from
the truth.
Yet,
despite walls and checkpoints and flare-ups of violence, Christian pilgrims
have continued to visit the holy places, have still trekked to Bethlehem, to
Nazareth, to Jerusalem.
But,
there’s an exception.
For
the past fifty years, pilgrims have not been able to visit the site where
Christians have long believed that Jesus was baptized – have not been able to
visit any of the shrines there because in 1968 landmines were buried along the
banks of the River Jordan.
I
only learned about that recently and I can’t get this image out of mind:
Where
Jesus was baptized – where he heard the voice of the Father – where he received
the Holy Spirit – for fifty years that holy place has been off limits because
of human violence and human fear.
It’s
the human story as old as the Garden of Eden and as new as the Friday night
shooting at the Newport Mall: we are given beautiful gifts which we often
poison with sin.
Today
is the First Sunday after the Epiphany and every year on this Sunday we
remember the baptism of Jesus.
The
fact that Jesus was baptized has always been a little awkward for Christians.
After
all, John the Baptist preached and offered a “baptism of repentance” and we
don’t believe that Jesus needed to repent of anything.
So,
why did Jesus go through with it?
Why
did he take the plunge into the water of baptism?
Well,
I can’t say for sure, but I think that our brother Jesus – yes, even Jesus –
needed the grace of baptism – needed to know in a way that he hadn’t known
before that he was God’s beloved child – needed to feel that bond with God –
that bond that can never be broken – that bond that can never be dissolved, no
matter what.
That’s
what I think Jesus experienced in baptism – and that’s what we’re promised in
baptism, too.
We
are beloved children of God.
God
will never let go of us, no matter what.
But,
although God will always help us in every good work, what happens after our
Baptism is up to us.
For
Jesus, baptism marked the beginning of his saving work.
After
his baptism, Jesus heads out on the road, traveling from place to place,
offering good news, opening the eyes of the blind, healing the skin of the
lepers, forgiving those burdened by sin, raising the dead, and telling stories
that people never ever forgot, stories that people still tell – and puzzle over
– to this very day.
And,
I think Jesus had the faith and courage to do all of this because of his
baptism, because he remembered what he heard and felt that day in the River
Jordan.
How
amazing that nearly all of us were baptized, too – although, unfortunately,
most of us were infants so we have no memory of the big day.
But,
in the water of baptism we are told that we are beloved children of God.
In
the water of baptism, God makes an unbreakable, indissoluble, bond with us
– no matter what we do or don’t do, God will never give up on us, never let go
of us.
But,
what happens next?
So
many of the loudest Christian voices in our country – all baptized, every last
one of them – they place explosives in the water of baptism by being quick to
judge and condemn other people – they place explosives in the water of baptism
by gathering great wealth for themselves while others go hungry – they place explosives
in the water of baptism by supporting – even sometimes idolizing – cruel
politics and politicians.
And,
most of us, we place smaller explosives in the water of baptism not by being especially
bad, but really just by living pretty much like everybody else – signaling to
the world that baptism doesn’t make much of a difference at all.
But,
you know, more and more, around here I see us living out our baptism in some very
Jesus-like ways.
I
see so many of us baptized people not just sitting in here nice and cozy and
well-fed, but going out into the world and offering good news – feeding the
hungry – defending the poor and the vulnerable in our own city - opening our
doors to the homeless – praying for our long list of the sick and the
despairing – coming together as one church after a lot of unpleasant history - I
see us living in such a way that people look at us and ask, what’s up with them
– why and how are they doing this?
With God’s help, we’re living out our baptism
to share God’s love with the world.
So,
you know, there’s good mining and there’s not so good mining.
We
can “mine” the grace we receive in baptism to do good or we can plant
destructive “mines” of hatred and violence in our own lives and the lives of
others.
But,
since God never gives up on us, until our last breath the not so good mining
can be undone and healing and restoration are always possible.
So,
back to the River Jordan.
Last
spring, work began on removing all 6,500 landmines around the shrines where
it’s believed Jesus was baptized.
So
far, about 1,500 mines have been cleared and the Israeli government expects to
have the work done by the end of this year.
And
so, after a half-century as a no man’s land and a symbol of human violence and
human fear, soon Christian pilgrims will return to this holy place, return to
the River Jordan, return to the water of baptism and, with God’s help, remember
that God loves us and will never let us go, no matter what.
Amen.
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