The Reverend Donald L. Hamer
January 11, 2009
The Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord

Mark 1:4-11

As we gather here on this snowy New England morning, the image of being plunged into a river is probably not the most inviting.  And yet the image of Jesus’ baptism on this first Sunday after the Feast of the Epiphany, which we celebrated this past Tuesday, is a powerful one in our life as Christians.  It is powerful in at least two respects:  It points to who Jesus is, and secondly it points to the significance of our Trinitarian baptism – our baptism of water and holy oil in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

First, it points to who Jesus is.  The Feast of the Epiphany signifies the manifestation of Jesus to the surrounding world – up to this point, he is known only to Mary and Joseph, some animals in the manger area, a few shepherds.  On Epiphany itself, we celebrate the arrival of the three magi from the east – led by a star, they are the first outside of that small inner circle to encounter this child.  And throughout this season after the epiphany, we will hear a number of stories about the ways in which Jesus gradually becomes known to the outside world.

We start this morning at the beginning of the Gospel of Mark who, unlike Matthew and Luke, does not have an infancy narrative in his Gospel.  His gospel starts with the public ministry of Jesus, and so, in only the fourth verse of the first chapter we are told the story of Jesus’ baptism as an adult by John the Baptist.  This baptism marks the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry – and the circumstances tell us a lot about who this Jesus is.  This is the first manifestation not only of Jesus in his public ministry, but of the Holy Trinity – the three persons in one God.  We have Jesus, the man, presenting himself to his cousin, John the Baptist, who initially refuses to baptize Jesus, the one whom he was sent to proclaim.  But Jesus insists.  And then in this remarkable scene, we see John – who up until now has baptized with a baptism of repentance – baptizing Jesus in the Jordan River as he has countless others.  Except this time is different.  This time, the pouring of the water is followed by the voice of God the Father, saying “You are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased.”  And it is accompanied by a dove – the symbol of peace and of the Holy Spirit. 

St. Augustine, in his composition of Questions (Question 43) asks:  “Why did the Son of God appear as a man, and the Holy Spirit as a dove?  Because the Son of God came to show humanity a pattern for living, whereas the Holy Spirit made his appearance to bestow the gift which enables excellent living.”

Let’s think about that for a second.  Jesus shows us a pattern for living; it is the Holy Spirit that gives the rest of us the ability, through God’s grace, to attempt, in our own finite, mortal way, to live that pattern which Jesus modeled.  John’s call to repentance, the 2nd century Tertullian observes, is only to lead the way, and actual remission of sins is to follow.  The baptism which each of us has received actually serves to redeem us, but it does more than rectify past sins of humanity – it imbues us with the Holy Spirit which strengthens us and enables us into the future.

And so the 3rd century priest and theologian Hippolytus writes of Jesus’ baptism:  So it happened not only that the Lord was being baptized – he also was making new the old creation.  He was bringing the alienated under the system of adoption (The Discourse on the Holy Theophany).  Those things which had become alienated from God’s plan, those aspects of creation which were not working toward God’s purposes – that is what Jesus came to reconcile.  That is what Jesus came to bring back into the fold – to once again align God’s creation with the purposes for which God created it.That’s why on this Sunday our Old Testament reading is from the first chapter of Genesis – the story of the creation of the first day and the first night – to remind us Jesus’ baptism is more than a ceremonial act:  it is the reminder to the world of God’s purposes for God’s world, and the tremendous love for that creation that caused God to become one of us in order to bring it all back to its original purpose.

And this is the second important aspect of Jesus’ baptism – how it reflects the meaning of our own baptisms.  Listen again to the beautiful words of Hippolytus:  For this reason did the Father send down the Holy Spirit from heaven upon the One who was baptized . . . .   For what reason?  That the faithfulness of the Father’s voice might be made known . . . .   Listen to the Father’s voice:  “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  This is he who is named the son of Joseph, who according to the divine essence is my only begotten.  “This is my beloved Son,” yes, none other than the One who himself becomes hungry, yet feeds countless numbers.  He is my Son who himself becomes weary, yet gives rest to the weary.  He has no place to lay his head, yet bears up all things in his hand.  He suffers, yet heals sufferings.  He is beaten, yet confers liberty upon the world.  He is pierced in his side, yet repairs the side of Adam  (“The Discourse on the Holy Theophany 7”).

Jesus’ baptism is the event through which God makes Jesus our brother, and teaches us how to live beyond ourselves.  It signifies that our lives have meaning beyond our mortal bodies or our finite existence on this earth.

Thought of in this way, Jesus’ baptism – and our own – takes on particular meaning for us in the midst of our current economic and military struggles.  You may have read during the past week that the German billionaire Adolf Merckle took his own life by stepping in front of a moving passenger train.  His family controls some of Germany’s best known companies, including cement maker HeidelbergCement and generic drug company Ratiopharm, with about 100,000 employees and more than $40 billion in annual sales.  In 2008 he was ranked as the world’s 94th richest person, and Germany’s 5th wealthiest.  A family spokesperson said, “The desperate situation of his companies caused by the financial crisis, the uncertainties of the last few weeks and his powerlessness to act, have broken the passionate family entrepreneur and he took his own life.”

In December, Frenchman Theirry Magon de la Villehuchet, 65, a co-founder of money manager Access International, was found dead in a New York office building, distraught over losing up to $1.4 billion in client assets in the Bernard Madoff scandal.  He slit his wrists with box cutters.

May their souls rest in peace although their minds and hearts could not.

While I hope none of us has felt close to the desperation of these two men – and if you have, I pray that you will call the church or get some other professional assistance – it is easy to become anxious and even depressed over the present situation of our economy.  Some in our parish already have been laid off, and others live in daily fear that they might be laid off.  The celebration of Jesus’ baptism – and our own – is the celebration of the certainty that our lives have importance and significance beyond what we do, or what we make, or what we have.  Jesus has a purpose for each of us individually, and collectively for us as a community of faith called to further God’s mission through this community.  I pray that this commemoration of Jesus’ own baptism serve as an opportunity for each of us to reflect on our own baptism and take this opportunity to renew – not only in words, but in action – the covenant relationship that it signifies.  AMEN.

Copyright © 2009 by The Reverend Donald L. Hamer