A Watershed Moment

Below is the sermon I preached this past Sunday, Jan. 12, based on Matthew 3:13-17.

Why did Jesus go to be baptized by John? John was out there in the wilderness, like a modern day Elijah, preaching up a storm, telling people they need to shape up, to stop messing around and do God’s will, be obedient to God’s laws and ordinances. And people were coming from miles around to hear this. John the Baptist is like Joel Osteen in reverse. Osteen says things that tickle our ears and make us feel good, with his slicked back hair, polished teeth, and tailored suit. John the Baptist is the exact opposite and he isn’t giving out platitudes about positive thinking. But people are eating it up. Throngs of people are coming out to see and hear John the Baptist. They confess their sins and then John baptizes them in the Jordan. And they believe that in that baptism they are being cleansed from the stain of their sins and they are getting a new start in life. Everyone wants a new start, right? A chance to start fresh? John was offering that fresh start.

            Then Jesus shows up. Why did he feel the need? He had no sins to confess. He didn’t need a fresh start. There’s no obvious reason why Jesus would be there, unless he was just going over there to check this thing out, see who this John the Baptist was that everyone was talking about. But Jesus wasn’t there just to check things out. He got in line.

            And John shares our confusion. He doesn’t understand what Jesus is doing there either. He knows a little bit about Jesus. He knows that Jesus is his master, that he is more holy, more powerful. He sees Jesus standing before him and he says what we all are thinking, “Jesus, you should be baptizing me.”

            But then Jesus says something that helps explain why it is that this sinless man is standing in the water to be baptized so that his sins, which he doesn’t have, can be washed away, which makes no sense. Jesus says, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Both John and Jesus care about being righteous, about being obedient to God’s will. That’s what it means to be righteous, to do God’s will. So there is something about John baptizing Jesus that is a part of God’s will. God’s will is the unfolding of salvation. That’s what God is up to. God’s will is that all of creation be saved, be renewed, be restored to life. And in this moment, John and Jesus had a specific role to play in the unfolding of this great drama, this epic unfolding of God’s will that all of creation be made new. So that is what is going on here. That is why Jesus is being baptized by John, because it has something to do with fulfilling God’s will.

            But what does baptism have to do with it? Why does God want John to baptize Jesus so that God’s plan of salvation can continue to move forward?

            Water is a powerful symbol in the history of Israel. I’m not going to take time to review all the key points in the history of Israel where water is involved in significant ways. Water shows up at Genesis 1:2, where it says the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the water. You could say that the history of Israel is dripping with water.

            One moment where water shows up is in the Great Flood. The earth needed a good scrubbing. God’s creation had become so corrupt, so impure, so far from what God had intended, that God decided to start fresh. So God opened the flood gates and wiped out every living thing on the earth with the exception of one righteous man, Noah, with his wife and kids, with their wives, and two of every kind of living creature. They were put up safely in the ark so that after the flood waters receded and they got off the boat, they could start anew. God’s plan of making everything new was fulfilled by wiping everything out with water and then starting over again with Noah.

            John was calling the people to repent of their sinfulness, to be sorry for what they have done, and to make a vow to start over. And then they got into the Jordan river and had their own Great Flood experience. They got into that water, all the way in, and then came out, declared clean, and given a new beginning.

            And here comes Jesus. The angel said that he was to be named Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. The one who saves his people from their sins goes out to the place where people are looking to be saved from their sins. Looking at it that way, where else would Jesus go, than to be with a bunch of sinners wanting a fresh start?

            Then Jesus, the sinless one, gets in the water with the rest of the sinners. Back in the days of Noah, only Noah was the sinless one, the only righteous person on the planet. And when the Flood came, he was above it all, safe and secure in the ark, while all the sinners drowned to death. And here stands another Noah, the only righteous one on earth, but he isn’t safe and secure above it all. This righteous one gets in the water and goes under with the rest of the sinners. Jesus identifies completely with the sinners. In this baptism, Jesus identifies, stands with, you and me.

            And as Jesus comes out of the water, the heavens open. Maybe it was a cloudy day when Jesus went out to see John that day. Maybe it was raining a little bit. But when Jesus came up out of the water, the clouds broke, the sun came out. I wonder if maybe a little rainbow was forming. And a dove appears out of nowhere and lands on Jesus’ shoulder.

            Do you remember, after the rains were over, and after the ark had settled down on a rock outcropping, that Noah released a dove? The dove circled around but couldn’t find anywhere to land, so the dove came back. Noah waited a few days and then sent the dove out again. This time the dove returned with an olive branch in its mouth, a sign that it was about time to get out of the ark, for the waters were receding. Then Noah releases the dove a third time, and the dove didn’t come back.

            The dove came back.

            There is something about the baptism of Jesus that marks a new beginning for all of creation, a new covenant for all God’s people, for Israel and the nations. Jesus’ baptism, in a way, was a watershed moment. It marked the beginning of something. And at the end of the gospel, Jesus instructs his disciples to go to all the nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching everything that Jesus had taught them. It is this same baptism that you and I have received. It is a baptism that marks a new beginning. It is a part of the fulfilling of God’s righteousness for our lives, our participation in God’s ongoing work of redeeming, making right, bringing back to life, all of creation.

            It is good for us from time to time to be reminded of this mystery, this new covenant that has been established by God for us, the new beginning that baptism provides for us. We come to the waters to remember that we too are sons and daughters of God, God’s beloved, with whom God is well pleased…most of the time. We come to be reminded that these waters that once symbolized death and destruction, as in the days of Noah, now symbolize cleansing and renewal. Today, we will come forward, to gaze upon and touch this water, and remember what this water represents, in all of its mystery, in the unfolding of God’s plan to make all things new.

From a Monastery Cookbook

I bought many years ago a cookbook from a monastery that I visited with a group of seminary students for spiritual formation retreats. The cookbook is a collection of recipes from a Trappist Monastery. They are divided up by seasons. On a whim, I thought I would work my way through the cookbook. So, I turned to the Autumn section and went to the first recipe, called Soup Julienne. It is a simple and tasty soup.

3 leeks (white part only)
4 carrots
2 medium turnips
1/2 head green cabbage
1 onion
3 bouillon cubes (I used low sodium chicken bouillon)
3 quarts water
salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup minced fresh parsley

Cut the vegetables up into thin strips about 1 1/2 inches long. Put them in a large soup kettle with the water. Add the bouillon cubes. Bring to a boil. Then lower the temperature to medium, cover and cook for 45 minutes, stirring every now and then. When the vegetables are done, add the salt, pepper and parsley, give it a quick stir, and then put the lid back on and simmer for another 15 minutes. Serve hot. It makes about six servings.

The state of resurrection

Here follows a wonderful quote from Olivier Clement's "The Roots of Christian Mysticism."

We are continually tempted to appropriate the world, to take possession of it as a kind of prey. We thus increasingly enslave it to death, and today we are in danger simutaneously of collectively committing suicide, and destroying nature. But by the intervention of the mystery of Christ and of the witness of his followers a state of death is transformed into a state of resurrection. In Christ the world becomes Eucharist. In him we can transfigure the world by integrating it into the human consciousness of the Risen Christ, who offers resurrection to everyone and everything. It is up to Christians to show people that the cross, all the crosses of history, call upon us to advance from possession to sharing and offering, to discover the Giver through the gift. They invite us to respect nature and spiritualize it, and to share the blessings of the earth like brothers and sisters, because, as Dumitru Staniloae, whose thought is summarized here, writes, "They are destined to serve interpersonal communion" (Dogmatic Theology, I, 344). Sanctity imparts the divine light not only to our bodies but to the whole cosmic environment. Today, when history itself is raising the ultimate questions, we are called to what Simone Weil termed a "holiness of genius" that is able to communicate the light to the very foundations of culture.

Good Friday reflection

A beautiful prayer by Isaac of Nineveh:

Lord Jesus, our God, who wept for Lazarus, and shed for him tears of grief and compassion, accept the tears of my bitterness. By thy sufferings assuage my suffering. By thy wounds heal my wounds. By thy blood cleanse my blood. Pour out on my body the perfume of thy life-giving body. For the gall that thou was given to drink changes the bitterness of my soul into sweetness. May thy body stretched on the wood of the cross draw to thee my spirit crushed by the demons. May thy sacred hands pierced with the nails snatch me from the pit of damnation and bring me back to thee, as thou hast promised. May thy face which suffered blows and spittle enlighten my face that is defiled by my wrongdoing. May thy soul which on the cross thou didst give back to thy Father lead me by thy grace to thee. I have no broken heart to start me on the quest for thee, no penitence, no tenderness. I have no tears with which to pray to thee. My spirit is in darkness. My heart is cold. I know not how to make it warm again by tears of love for thee. But thou, Lord Jesus Christ, my God, do thou give me complete repentance, the breaking of my hearts, that with my whole soul I may set out in quest of thee. Without thee I should be without all reality. May the Father who in his womb begot thee in eternity renew in me thine image. I have forsaken thee. Do not thou forsake me. I have wandered far from thee. Do thou set out in quest of me. Lead me back to thy pastures with the sheep of thy flock. Feed me together with them on the fresh grazing of thy mysteries where the pure heart dwells, the heart that bears in it the splendour of thy revelations. May we be worthy of such splendour through thy grace and by thy love for humankind, O Jesus Christ our Saviour, for ever and ever. Amen.

reflection on the Trinity

I had to share this new insight I just read about the Trinity that resonated with me. The Father is God apart from us, the Son is God with us, and the Holy Spirit is God in us. The other thing I read went something like this: in any living thing, we can view it in a Trinitarian way. For example, consider a bird. The existence of the bird is made possible by the Father, who is the Creator. It's design and purpose is made possible by the Son, who is the Word of God. And the vitality, dynamism and growth of the bird is made possible by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of life. Imagine comprehending the whole world through the eyes of the Trinity!

How Are People Called Out?

This is a section from one of St. Cyprian's letters that gave me pause. He is writing about the tradition of how people are claimed for ministry. Instead of a person saying, "I think I have a call to ministry" and going to their pastor about it, perhaps the congregation should say to a person, "We think you have a call to ministry." Looking for comments. It does seem logical that people who are truly called to ministry and would be effective clergy would be limited to those who are called out by the people, and not those who present themselves on their own. Thoughts?

From Cyprian, letter 67, to the clergy and people living in Spain:
Which very thing, too, we observe to come from divine authority, that the priest should be chosen in the presence of the people under the eyes of all, and should be approved worthy and suitable by public judgment and testimony; as in the book of Numbers the Lord commanded Moses, saying, "Take Aaron thy brother, and Eleazar his son; and let Aaron die there, and be added to his people." (Num. 20:25,26) God commands a priest to be appointed in the presence of all the assembly; that is, He instructs and shows that the ordination of priests ought not to be solemnized except with the knowledge of the people standing near, that in the presence of the people either the crimes of the wicked may be disclosed, or the merits of the good may be declared, and the ordination, which shall have been examined by the suffrage and judgment of all, may be just and legitimate. And this is subsequently observed, according to divine instruction, in the Acts of the Apostles, when Peter speaks to the people of ordaining an apostle in the place of Judas. "Peter," it says, "stood up in the midst of the disciples, and the multitude were in one place." (Acts 1:15) Neither do we observe that this was regarded by the apostles only in the ordinations of bishops and priests, but also in those of deacons, of which matter itself also it is written in their Acts: "And they twelve called together," it says, "the whole congregation of the disciples, and said to them;" (Acts 4:2) which was done so diligently and carefully, with the calling together of the whole of the people, surely for this reason, that no unworthy person might creep into the ministry of the altar, or to the office of a priest. (italics mine) For that unworthy persons are sometimes ordained, not according to the will of God, but according to human presumption, (italics mine) and that those things which do not come of a legitimate and righteous ordination are displeasing to God, God Himself manifests by Hosea the prophet, saying, "They have set up for themselves a king, but not by me." (Hos. 8:4)

On Working

A great nugget from John Chrysostom, from his commentary on the Book of the Acts.

What can be less pleasant than the condition of a man who has nothing to do; what more wretched and miserable? Is it not worse than all the fetters in the world, to be always gaping and yawning, as one sits in the market-place, looking at the passers by? For the soul, as its nature is to be always on the move, cannot endure to be at rest. God has made it a creature of action: to work is of its very nature; to be idle is against its nature. For let us not judge of these things from those who are diseased, but let us put the thing itself to the proof of fact. Nothing is more hurtful than leisure, and having nothing to do: indeed therefore has God laid on us a necessity of working: for idleness hurts everything. Even to the members of the body, inaction is a mischief. Both eye, if it perform not its work, and mouth, and belly, and every member that one could mention, falls into the worst state of disease: but none so much as the soul. But as inaction is an evil, so is activity in things that ought to be let alone. For just as it is with the teeth, if one eats not, one received hurt to them, and if one eats things unfitting, it jars them, and sets them on edge: so it is here; both if the soul be inactive, and if inactive in wrong things, it loses its proper force. Then let us eschew both alike; both inaction, and the activity which is worse than inaction. And what may that be? Covetousness, anger, envyings, and the other passions. As regards these, let us make it our object to be inactive, in order that we may obain the good things promised to us, through the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, with Whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, might, honor, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.