Remembering our Baptism

Psalm 29   Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.  Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name; worship the Lord in holy splendor.  The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over mighty waters.  The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.  The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.  He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox.  The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.  The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.  The voice of the Lord causes the oaks to whirl, and strips the forest bare; and in his temple all say, “Glory!”  The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as king forever.  May the Lord give strength to his people! May the Lord bless his people with peace!

Matthew 3:13-17        Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And 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. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

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At the Sermon Roundtable this week we discussed the selected texts for this Sunday, which marks The Baptism of the Lord.  Some questions that seem to always come up in this context were raised:  Why was Jesus baptized?  Does it mean the same thing as our Christian baptism?  Was there a Jewish tradition of baptism predating this?  And, of course, did anyone else hear that voice from heaven?

The Psalm was selected for this Sunday because of the image of God’s power over the waters.  I like to put baptism in the perspective of the myriad water images in the scriptures.  Water is primordial chaos.  It is powerful and destructive.  But the Lord’s power over the water is awesome.  In God’s hands, water becomes salvific.

I was reminded in our session of the value in reading aloud.  As we read the psalm responsively, we all became acutely aware of the voice of the Lord in this psalm.  We wondered together about the significance of this, noting that in the ancient world a voice was the means by which people learned so much.  The voice was powerful.  Does a voice still carry as much power?

In our discussion of the gospel text, we considered those questions noted above, and we also considered our own baptisms.  As we shared the stories of our own baptisms, we realized that each one is unique.  Each one carries its own personal meaning in addition to the shared meaning we invest in it. 

One recalled being told by a priest, “I would not baptize your bastard son,” because their marriage had taken place outside the Catholic church. 

I recalled a line from the story Lila, by Marilynne Robinson, which we read recently in our book group.  Lila was abandoned as a child, and cared for by a homeless woman, whose real name Lila never knew.  As an adult, Lila became concerned about getting baptized.  She said to the Reverend Ames, “Nobody seen to it for me,” when she was small.  This failure of anyone to do this for her seemed to be a great concern. 

It made me wonder what baptism says about our care for one another.  Whether or not we “see to it” for our children, whether or not we extend this gift to others, what criteria we use to decide who gets it and who doesn’t.  Do these things say anything about how well we care for one another?  Or not?

It is most likely unfair to assume that there is a lack of care involved when baptism is denied.  Each case is unique, each family is unique.  But I will think about baptism and care this week, just the same.  What do you think?

The Desert and the Dow

Isaiah 35:1-10      The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus ²it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. ³Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. ⁴Say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.”

⁵Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; ⁶then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; ⁷the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. ⁸A highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not travel on it, but it shall be for God’s people; no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray. ⁹No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. ¹⁰And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Matthew 11:2-11 ²When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples ³and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” ⁴Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: ⁵the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. ⁶And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”

⁷As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? ⁸What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. ⁹What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. ¹⁰This is the one about whom it is written, ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ ¹¹Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

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This week we are looking ahead to the third Sunday in Advent.  Where does the time go?  John the Baptist follows us into this week, but he is much subdued and, even, contemplative.  And we continue with Isaiah, who gives us some stunning words of hope this week.

“Be strong, do not fear.  Here is your God.”  Yes, there are things to panic about.  There were then, there are now, things to panic about.  Such as the stock market. 

That was mentioned at the roundtable.  It surprised me, but the more I think about it, the more I saw how fitting it is.  Many of us depend on the market for our long-term security.  Anyone who has a retirement account can watch their funds wax and wane as the market fluctuates.  I know little about it, but I understand that the stock markets are very sensitive to uncertainty or instability in the larger society.  Late in the evening on November 8, when the widespread expectation that Hillary Clinton would be our next president was suddenly shattered, the market went into a freefall.  I am told that this is actually not uncommon on election night.  The markets hate uncertainty.  The stock markets are a tangible reaction to our fear of the unknown.

If we listen to Isaiah, we hear assurances that no matter how dire things appear, we may look with hope to our God, who will come with vengeance and recompense.  Our God will save us.  I am sure this does not mean that God will right the markets and bolster capitalism.  We are to look for this salvation in other places.

But here I am reminded of how we so often do things backwards.  We form opinions and search for rationalizations.  We identify our wants and reformulate them as our needs.  We embrace solutions and reach for problems to attach them to.  We are no more likely to fall trustingly into the unknown than the market is to hum along industriously in the face of chaos and panic. 

At the end of the year many churches are finalizing budgets and gathering pledges for the next year.  It is a curious thing that many church members will refuse to make a pledge without knowing what the budget is.  They must know what the church needs before they can decide what to give, they say.  Are we to assume that they will increase their pledge if it turns out the church needs more than they expected?  Quite frankly, I have only seen the opposite: when individuals decide that the church is spending profligately and respond by withholding their pledges.

It is equally curious that budget shortfalls will lead to panic (as though the stock market is crashing), and we hear the cry of alarm – “the church is failing!”  Are healthy bank accounts and endowments the sign of the true church?  Do we hear such an outcry when the church fails to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and grow in discipleship?

Which brings me to the gospel.  A more subdued John, from his prison cell asks, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”  I give John credit for asking the question, while noting with disappointment that he needs to ask.  He doesn’t know, because John, like everyone else, was looking for something different.  They were looking for what they wanted, for the solution they had embraced.  This solution, perhaps, shared some qualities in common with our solutions.  There is certainty, we believe, in money in the bank.  There is certainty, they may have believed, in a messiah with an army.  It hardly seemed as though Jesus was able to bring the restoration they were hoping for.

But Jesus patiently points out that he is bringing the very things that the prophet Isaiah described.  God’s vengeance and recompense will give the blind eyes to see, the deaf ears to hear, the mute voices to sing for joy.  And the way will become clear.  This is a new age, Isaiah is showing us and Jesus is bringing us. 

This all leaves me wondering: in what is the church placing her hopes?  Are we hoping for the wrong things?

Do we dare to step into the desert trusting in the almighty God to bring life?