Cathedral Sermons
The Baptism of Christ, Sunday 10 January, 2010
Readings: Isaiah 43:1-7; Acts 8:14-17; Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
Things don’t always happen the way we expect them to. They certainly didn’t happen the way the crowd expected them to that day in the desert about which we just read from Luke’s gospel. Consider if you will, the experience of a young woman who had gone to hear John speak in the wilderness.
Expectation was high at the time. We were all well and truly sick of the Roman authorities. Everyone was talking about how things were going to change. There were different opinions around about what He would look like and how it would happen - but we were expecting Him to come. The messiah – the anointed one, a king from the line of David who would rise at the end of time and save us – Save Israel!
So when that guy John appeared out in the dessert around Jordan, telling us all to turn from our sins and offering to baptise us, you can imagine why we all thought he might be the Messiah.
The amazing thing was, that no-one actually asked, but he answered our question. It was like he read our minds – assuring us that he was not the Messiah. Someone more powerful than he was coming, he said. This someone would bring judgment and baptise with wind and fire. That sounded so impressive! I’d love to see it for myself. Imagine being there… How cool would that be?
As it turned out I was there! Just a few days later. I’d decided to get baptized, like so many others from my village. Some of the people had traveled a really long way. I met this one guy, who had come all the way from Nazareth. He said his name was Jesus, he said he was John’s cousin or something. He was baptised too. And then he sat down to pray.
That was when it happened. If I hadn’t been there I probably would not have believed the stories…but I saw it with my own eyes. It was just like they said…The heavens opened, a dove descended and there was a loud, booming voice. We were all so scared! But the words weren’t threatening. They were somehow loving and tender. “You are my Son, the Beloved.” The voice said. “With you I am well pleased.”
The entire crowd fell silent. I was filled with a sense of awe and wonder. And I suddenly realised what I had just seen. This was it… this was him…Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. The voice itself had said it – he was God’s son!
We remember the Baptism of Christ in the Epiphany season because, like the visit from the wise men, this event reveals to us the special relationship between God and Jesus. Jesus is revealed as the incarnate eternal word.
Revelation of God is recorded in many places throughout the bible. Moses, for example was told God’s name at the burning bush. And Elijah heard the voice of God not in the wind, earthquake of fire, but in a small voice. Each of these events involves the self-disclosure of the nature and purpose of God. The unveiling of that which was previously hidden. They do not confirm that which is already know, but offers a glimpse into the very heart of the mystery of God. But even in the event of revelation God remains paradoxically hidden. We never know everything. We never see God fully.
As Christians we believe that the revelation of God is decisively embodied in the person of Jesus Christ. In Christ’s proclamation, ministry, death and resurrection; in the renewing work of the Holy Spirit which Christ sent to his disciples; a new relationship between God and humanity is revealed – we are able to see that which was previously hidden. The nature and purpose of God is revealed in Jesus Christ. But even in the person of Jesus Christ, God’s self-disclosure remains partly hidden in Jesus’ servant nature and the foolishness of his crucifixion in the eyes of the world.
Just like the people who lived in biblical times we can find it very difficult to understand the nature and purpose of God in our own lives and in our world. We might expect God to act in a certain ways, to speak through certain people, or to ask of us certain things. We know of God’s love for us and of the reconciliation offered by God to the world through Christ from the scriptures and tradition which is handed down to us through the church. We may use our sense of reason to understand or deduce certain things about God. But scripture, tradition and reason are only illuminated for us through the work of the Spirit. The revelation of God’s nature and purpose continues today through the work of the Holy Spirit. Just as on the day of Jesus baptism, the Spirit of God works in our world, our community and within each of us, opening our hearts and minds to the message of God revealed in Christ Jesus.
I offer by was of example a story which I read this week in a book by Daniel Migliore. It is the story of a woman named Mrs Turpin. While it comes from a context somewhat different from our own I think it is able to speak to our experience none the less. Mrs Turpin was a hard-working, upright, church-going farmer’s wife in the united States of America. She was unexpectedly accosted by a mentally unwell teenage girl in a doctor’s office. The young woman had heard as much as she could handle of Mrs Turpin’s superior attitude and demeaning remarks about white trash and blacks. She suddenly threw a heavy book at Mrs Turpin, and began to strangle her, calling her a “wart hog from hell”. When Mrs Turpin returned to her farm she could not get the girl’s words out of her mind. Standing beside her pigpen she was outraged by being called a wart hog. She knows she is a good person, certainly far superior to white trash and blacks. She reminded God of that, as well as of all the work she had done for the church. “What did you send me a message like that for? She angrily asked God.
But as she stared into the pig pen, she had a glimpse of “the very heart of the mystery of God”. She had a vision of a parade of soul marching to heaven with white trash and blacks and homeless people and other social outcasts up front, and respectable people like herself at the rear of the procession. The shocked expressions on their faces showed that all their virtues had been burnt away. Mrs Turpin returned to her home with the shouts of hallelujahs from the heaven bound saints ringing in her ears.
This story reflects a little of what revelation is about. It does not confirm that which we already know. But utterly surprising and disturbing, turns our expectations on their head.
It is interesting to note that in Luke’s record of the Baptism of Christ, Jesus is praying. Jesus is often found at prayer at significant points in Luke’s gospel. It is an important reminder to us all, I think, that in order to receive the revelation of God though the Holy Spirit we too must be found in prayer. We must take time to look for and to listen to what the Spirit is saying to the church and to us as individual believers. We can spend all the time we like reading the bible, or coming to church to hear the proclamation of God’s word in preaching and in the sacrament, or thinking deeply about and studying theology. But if we do not open our hearts and our minds to the awe and wonder of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ – we do a disservice to ourselves, our church, our God and our world.
Revelation is God’s free gift to us. God’s self-disclosure graciously and freely given to God’s people. It can be disturbing and unsettling, challenging the ways we understand God, our lives and our world. As we attend to the movement of the Holy Spirit in our lives we are moved in turn to a personal faith response. We a moved to respond freely and joyfully to the truth of the good news which we have received and to share in the responsibility of interpreting it and living it out.