1 Epiphany C, January 10, 2010
Trinity, Newark
Kathryn P. Clausen
Isaiah 43:1-7
Psalm 29
Acts 8:14-17
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
“Just a little water…”
“You are my son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” (Matthew, Mar, Luke).
I have often wondered what was the point of John’s baptism of Jesus. Jesus didn’t need to be baptized. Baptism is not a uniquely Christian sacrament. There are many accounts and references to baptism in the Old Testament, all the way back to the great Flood and in the desert during the Exodus, although that word was not used explicitly. Old Testament baptism had mostly to do with washing away sins. It was a rite of purification. Jesus was sinless and John knew it. So why did this take place at all? God could have come to Jesus in a dream, as He did to Joseph or through an angel as he did with Mary. Or he could have appeared in a burning bush or a talking donkey for that matter. Or perhaps Jesus needed only to look at his reflection in a mirror or a pool in order to see the face of God. He certainly didn’t need to be baptized. But he was.
I think the telling point of this story is that it occurred in public. This was Jesus joining in with the faithful, just like all the others, being washed in the Jordan with them. He was affirming John’s ministry by submitting to John’s baptism. But God affirmed Jesus by sending the Holy Spirit like a dove. Do you suppose the others who were there with him saw and heard this? In John’s gospel, it says the Baptist witnessed this and recognized him as the Lamb of God. But the other gospels don’t say. Was this for public consumption? Or was it Jesus recognizing his ministry and mission, being affirmed by the Father and the people, and setting off on his life journey.
When he was baptized, with all the others, Jesus became one with them. He didn’t need to, but he wanted to. At that moment, frozen in time, God identified him as his own. He had been all along, but this act, this union with the people, seems to me to be one of the premier events of the Incarnation. He was one with God, symbolized by the dove descending. But he was also one with humankind, rising up out of the water of baptism. It was kind of a fusion from above and below. They met in the person of Jesus. He was fully God and fully Human. God became man. Man became God.
In the Church today, baptism seems to mean a lot of different things to a lot of people. For families, it is a “rite of passage” and a naming ceremony for a child. It is a time to designate close friends to be responsible for raising a child if needed. In the middle ages, it was thought to be a way of saving a child from eternal damnation, or eradicating the stain of original sin, or washing away the sins of a lifetime. I am sometimes asked by adults who may be considering baptism whether they must be baptized to be saved. Or whether we believe that their friends who might not be Christian would automatically be condemned. As a church, we no longer insist that baptism is a prerequisite for salvation. I certainly don’t. A loving God would not condemn unbaptized infants or the preponderance of the human race who never knew Jesus. There are many ways for people to know God. Other cultures and other religions believe that they have found that way, and it would be presumptuous of us to assume that is not valid. God is the judge of that; we are not.
Even so, for Christians, Jesus Christ is God incarnate, our vision of God in human form. And as the principle sacramental act of the church, baptism is considered full initiation into Christ’s body, which is the Church. We believe it establishes a bond between God and the baptized child or adult forever. In baptism, we are adopted by God and made members of the church and inheritors of the kingdom. Whether voluntary or by proxy through an adult, quite simply, baptism makes a person a Christian. It can never be repeated or revoked. Baptism is the foundation of full participation in all the ministries of the church, for active membership, confirmation, Holy Communion, marriage, and all other sacramental rites.
In many traditional churches, the baptismal font is at the door, at the head of the aisle, or in the narthex. And we sometimes put little holy water stoups at all entries into the church, so that we can touch the water as we come in to pray. Since our font is in front, sometime I’d like to put a little holy water stoup at the entrance to this worship space. This is because we enter the church through baptism. It is our gateway to the church and into the life of Christ. When we baptize a person in this church, it is not just an “Episcopal baptism”. It is a Christian baptism. The whole congregation assembled promises to “help this child grow into the full stature of Christ.”
During our Lenten season, we will be preparing adults for the sacrament of baptism at the Great Vigil of Easter. This period of instruction is called the "Catechumenate" and is the way many were received into the faith when Christianity was in its infancy. If a bishop is present at the baptism, they will be confirmed at the same time. We will soon be providing a curriculum and a schedule and it will be made available to anyone interested in attending, whether previously baptized or not. Many of us don't remember our baptisms. Lent is a wonderful time to take seriously the renewal of our baptismal vows and to walk the walk with the catechumens in their own affirmation of their Christian faith.
I was told once by a very wise priest that it is impossible to be a Christian alone. It is a faith expressed in community. We pray together, take Communion together, support and comfort each other, protect and defend each other, weep and laugh together. Wherever we may go in the world, finding another Christian is like finding an immediate brother or sister, one who shares our beliefs and membership in Christ’s body. We need never feel alone. Our family is endless and worldwide. We are all God’s children, and the proof is our baptism. It is just a little water, and a little smudge of oil. But through baptism, we are “marked as Christ’s own forever.”
Amen.
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2 Epiphany C, January 17, 2010
Trinity, Newark
Kathryn P. Clausen
“The first Miracle”
I think it is absolutely delightful that in the Gospel of John, Jesus’ first miracle is at a wedding. John describes Jesus’ miracles sparingly, only seven, and the word he uses for them is “signs”. They seem to be intended, not only to solve some immediate problem or crisis, but to indicate the power of Jesus and to give a foretaste of the Kingdom to come. He feeds the 5000. He walks on water. He raises Lazarus from the dead. He heals a lame man and restores sight to another. And he turns water into wine.
Given the enormous magnitude of most of these signs-healing, feeding, raising the dead, one can only wonder why something as seemingly ordinary as a wedding feast was included among them. My theory, which is always authoritative, is that God loves weddings. It is an expression of his divine creation, a fulfillment of his pronouncement that man should not be alone and that the race should continue and flourish. Weddings are engraced or at least can be.
This whole scene is a little strange. It takes place in Galilee, Jesus’ home. And he has been invited to the wedding, along with his disciples and his mother. Mothers always turn up at weddings. It seems to be an unwritten law. And there is a very curious little exchange between Jesus and Mary. The wine runs out early, a wedding catastrophe by any standard,( especially for Episcopalians). So Mary goes to Jesus to tell him. I wonder why. His response is a sort of “why is that our business?” It should be up to the host to take care of that. It seemed that Mary was offering Jesus an opportunity to demonstrate his power, but he did not think the time was right, not yet. But she persisted and told the servants to do what he asked. And, as with many of the miracle stories, after first declining, he gives in. In some examples, he questions the person making the request by responding with another question, like here. In others, he is downright insulting like he was with the woman who begged him to deliver her daughter from some evil spirit (he likened it to throwing children’s food to the dogs). But in spite of his initial response, he relents and performs some wonderful act of kindness, generosity, or awesome power. He seems to be testing people, to see if they really mean what they are saying. In this case, he gives in immediately, perhaps because it is his mother doing the asking.
And his response is not grudging, it is overwhelming! A hundred and eighty gallons of wine of the best quality? Wow! That is enough wine to float a ship. The party must have continued for a whole week.
Jesus was not just demonstrating his power. He was showing the people a preview of God’s riches and abundance. This is what will be in store for them in the kingdom. Unending food and drink, happiness and contentment. And, like the wine, in this story, God has saved the best for last.
We think of miracles as events and phenomena that we might have trouble explaining and understanding. In the ancient world, sometimes magic tricks and sleight of hand were passed off as miracles. Clearly, they were not, but they did cause awe and wonder to the people who saw them. Every day, science reveals phenomena that would have been regarded in past ages as miracles. Just go to the internet and click on the images of the Hubble telescope. Any commonplace of science today would have astonished all the scribes and schoolmen who studied such things in ages past. Like New Guinea tribesmen, they would probably have fallen down and worshipped an airplane.
For a person of faith, I think a miracle is simply something that reflects the hand of God in the world. We probably experience miracles every day and may not even be aware of them. Maybe it is our frame of reference. I think we often see only what we are prepared to see. That is why eyewitnesses to events can be unreliable, because they filter the event through their own previous experiences. Just ask any law enforcement or newsperson and they will confirm that no two eyewitness accounts of the same event are ever exactly the same. Sometimes they are wildly discordant. When I was studying pathology, much of my residency training consisted of reviewing microscopic slides of conditions and diseases in order to build a visual memory. It had to be done alone at first and then confirmed with an instructor. I would often look right at something and not see it until it was pointed out. It took a full five years of daily review before I was confident that I could identify most cells and processes, or at least see them, because I had seen them before and knew or believed that they could exist. Sometimes science disregards or disbelieves new discoveries because they don’t make sense or aren’t supposed to work. “It can’t be so, so it isn’t. So much for scientific objectivity. Too bad for us.
I think miracles may be like that. Sometimes they have to be pointed out for us before we can even recognize the hand of God in our lives. It might be a commonplace like the birth of a child or recovery from an illness. Or it might be extraordinary like a supernova or discovery of something lost for many years or generations. Maybe we should adjust our definition of “miracle” in order to be open to God’s work in the world. What was once regarded as supernatural might now be understood to be natural; extraordinary events might actually be ordinary now that we have the tools to discover them. But discovery should not take away our sense of awe and wonder at this world. Science does not undermine a mature faith. Our faith prepares us to recognize miracles, whether they exist in nature or human endeavor or outer space.
Epiphany is the season of light. It is the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles and to the world. Through Christ, we will see the world in an entirely different way.
The wedding at Cana was the site of the first miracle of Jesus, but it was not the last.
If we let the light of Christ shine in our lives the world will seem a different place and we will see that miracles abound. Amen
