Well, it’s been a disturbing week, and I hope everyone’s okay. While I won’t be referring explicitly to recent and ongoing events, I heartily commend the message that the Presiding Bishop posted on Friday, which is available online; and I do think that today’s celebration of the Baptism of Christ—and, by extension, our own baptism—gives us grounds for hope and encouragement in unsettled times.
Today’s juxtaposition of readings is designed to convey the message that Christ’s baptism in the River Jordan signals a new creation. The Holy Spirit descending in the form of a dove upon Jesus as he emerges from the waters evokes the mysterious image from Genesis of that same Spirit—the ruach, wind, or breath of God—moving over the primordial waters in the beginning. By submitting to John’s baptism of repentance, Jesus, the sinless one, identifies himself with us in our fallen humanity, subject to sin and death, precisely so that we, through identification with him in our baptism, may rise to eternal life with him as members of God’s new creation.
Notice that in both the old creation and the new creation, God speaks. Not only is something done, but something is said. “In the beginning, God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”
Psalm 29 echoes this divine speech in the wonderful poetic imagery of a thunderstorm coming in from the sea over the forests and mountains: “The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of glory thunders; the Lord us upon the mighty waters.” The psalm uses the phrase “the voice of the Lord” no fewer than seven times: “a powerful voice … a voice of splendor” which “breaks the cedar trees … makes the oak trees writhe … [and] strips the forest bare.” At the Baptism, however, this same voice speaks words of loving affirmation and approval: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
Commenting on Christ’s baptism, the fourth-century Church Father Saint Gregory of Nazianzus writes of the Spirit’s descent and the voice from heaven as forms of divine witness: “The Spirit comes to him as an equal, bearing witness to his Godhead. A voice bears witness to him from heaven, his place of origin.” This was a new insight for me this year: at Christ’s Baptism, God bears witness to God! The First and Third Persons of the Holy Trinity bear witness to the Second Person, now incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth. Just as in the beginning God said, “Let there be light,” so now God acclaims Christ as the Light of the world.
Following this divine example, we’ve similarly been committed at our baptism to bearing witness to Christ. In a few minutes, we shall be praying the words of today’s Collect: “Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan proclaimed him your beloved Son and anointed him with the Holy Spirit: Grant that all who are baptized into his Name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly confess him as Lord and Savior …”
Two of the promises we make at our baptism take this form: Question: Do you turn to Jesus Christ and accept him as your Savior? Answer: I do. Question: Do you promise to follow and obey him as your Lord? Answer: I do. Then, in the Baptismal Covenant, there follows: Question: Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ? Answer: I will with God’s help.
“By word and example.” Notice there again the combination of something done and something said. A certain saying is sometimes misattributed to Saint Francis of Assisi: “Preach the Gospel at all times; when necessary, use words.” I hope it doesn’t come as too much of a disappointment to be told that he didn’t really say that. The things he did say had more to do with the preacher’s need to conform his life to his words in order to be credible—which in Francis’s case was certainly true as one of the greatest preachers and holiest saints of the Christian tradition.
The point is simply that in the fulfillment of our baptismal promises, good deeds by themselves aren’t enough. The very personal question that today’s readings invite us to consider is what more we might be doing in our own lives to “proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ,” and “boldly confess him as Lord and Savior.”
Let me be the first to acknowledge that this is easier said than done! We live in a society that doesn’t really encourage public professions of faith; and in the culture of our own beloved Episcopal Church we sometimes tend to be a bit reticent and reserved about discussing spiritual matters. After all, they’re very personal, and we don’t want to subject our most cherished beliefs, feelings, and experiences to dismissal and ridicule. That’s all very understandable.
Look, by contrast, at the example of the disciples whom Saint Paul encounters in Ephesus in today’s reading from Acts. When he asks them into what they were baptized, they reply, “John’s baptism.” But as John the Baptist himself says in today’s Gospel, “I have baptized you with water, but the one coming after me will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” So, when Paul baptizes and lays hands on these Ephesians in the Name of Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes upon them powerfully so that they speak in tongues and prophesy.
But let’s not let that image put us off. Not all Christians are called to speak in tongues and engage in what used to be called “religious enthusiasm.” (I love that phrase!) On the other hand, some are, and it’s not our place to judge them. Part of the richness of life in the Body of Christ is the diversity of gifts to be found in the various parts of the Church.
The deeper point is that those disciples at Ephesus received the grace to proclaim Christ in their own time in their own way; and we’ve also received the grace to proclaim Christ in our own time in our own way. At our baptism we received the same Holy Spirit who descended upon Jesus at his baptism in the River Jordan, and who came upon those Ephesian disciples at their baptism at the hands of Saint Paul the Apostle.
Our baptism itself empowers us to fulfill our baptismal promises. We need only ask God to stir up the Spirit’s gifts within us; then we’ll be given the right words to say in precisely those moments when we really need to say them. In this way, God will continue to equip us to keep the covenant we have made, and boldly confess Christ as Lord and Savior.
No comments:
Post a Comment