Lost In Translation: The Baptism of Christ 2023

 Lost In Translation

Professor Theodore “Ted” Mauch taught New Testament at Trinity College when I was there. It was his practice to begin the semester with a study of the prophet Isaiah. Many of us didn’t immediately understand. We now understand that the gospels are largely written symbolically, not literally, and Dr. Mauch was helping us to see the bigger picture. 

For instance, as Jesus comes up out of the water he sees “the heavens torn apart.”  Isaiah, writing to a community in captivity in Babylon, writes imploring the Lord God to “Look down from heaven and see…our adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary. We have long been like those whom you do not rule, like those not called by your name. O that you would tear open the heavens and come down…to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence!” [Isaiah 63:15 – 64:2] 

Jesus and those listening to Mark for the first time would recognize: we’ve been here before; we are in captivity as of old, here at home among Romans who do not know you; the Temple, God’s sanctuary, lies in ruins; we are calling out to God to save us again, like God sent Cyrus-Messiah long ago; open the heavens and come down that your name may be known! 

Mark tells us Jesus then sees “the Spirit descending like a dove on him.” The word translated “Spirit” can, and does, also mean, breath or wind – which recalls the opening cadences of Genesis 1:1-2, “When God began to create the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind, [the breath of God], swept over the face of the waters.” 

And in Genesis 2:7, “…then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” Might Mark be telling us that once again, the God of everything that is, seen and unseen, has heard the people’s cry, has opened the heavens and breathes new life into the world. New life, new hope. And a new name! 

For Jesus then hears a voice. The Voice. And like Jacob before him, Jesus is given a new name: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” Whatever Jesus had been doing before this moment receiving the baptism of John, he now has a new name: Son of God. God’s Beloved. This phrase is a mashup of Psalm 2:7 and Isaiah (here he is again) 42:1, where the prophet urges the people in captivity to imagine God sending God’s own son, God’s own beloved, to be with us in our suffering, and to lead us to eternal life with God and one another. And eternal life with God starts now! 

Can we imagine Jesus catching his breath as all this unfolds? Catching the animating breath God blows upon him like the wind over the face of creation? Can we imagine what that moment felt like to the young man who had come all the way from his home in Nazareth of Galilee to join all the people of Jerusalem and the Judean countryside in this ritual bathing of renewal – renewal of  a right relationship with God and one another. A ritual reminder of not only who we are, but whose we are. Jesus, standing in the water is a living reminder of God’s fulfilled promises in the past, present and future. He stands at that moment as an icon of God’s love for all persons, and all of creation – everything seen and unseen. And as science tells us, most of creation so far remains unseen. 

John, we are told, was inviting one and all to “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” Like those in Babylon, like Isaiah, the people in Jerusalem and all of Judea who found themselves under the brutal occupation of Rome, assume they had done things wrong in the sight of the Lord to have landed in the current predicament. And the primary instrument of communication with their God – the Jerusalem Temple – once again was in ruins. They rush to repent their sins hoping to urge God once again, as in Egypt, as in Babylon, to hear their cry, tear open the heavens and come down. And now, standing in their midst, and always in our midst, is the one come down to gather us in right relationship once again with God and with one another. 

On this Feast of our Lord’s Baptism, we will renew our Baptismal Vows and Covenant. We do well to remember a few things. Although baptism is often thought of as a beginning point in our Journey with God and one another, faith really begins before we are even born. The community of Christ stands ready to welcome us, and it is God who chooses to incorporate us into the Body of Christ. As our Book of Common Prayer says, baptism is “full initiation into Christ’s Body, the Church.” I believe this gets routinely forgotten as we scurry about thinking that we are simply friends of Christ. We stand, as Jesus stood in the River Jordan, as representatives on Christ’s behalf to the world – the whole world. Ambassadors of Christ, as St. Paul once wrote. Would that the whole church might ponder just what this means. It has little to do with whether we get the liturgy just right, or that there be no errors in the bulletin, or doing things as they have always been done, or even balancing budgets. 

As important as some or all of that may be, it is to remember that we promise, with God’s help, that everything we say and do will proclaim the Good News of God in Christ. That we will be those people who seek and serve Christ in all persons - not some people, not most people, but all people. And that we are those people who will strive for justice and peace for all people, and to respect the dignity of every human being. That is, we are to be Icons of Christ as Christ is the Icon of God made flesh who dwells among us. 

In our baptism, a ritual cross is traced on our foreheads marking us as Christ’s own forever – forever being a very long time. I was reminded by a little girl named Eleanor many years ago, that we ought to live in such a way that people can see the cross on our foreheads. That each one of us, like Jesus standing in the River Jordan, is God’s Beloved. And that God is well pleased with us. Which means, being well pleased with our very selves. We are to love God as God loves us, and love our neighbors as we love ourselves. It’s a tall order. But the whole world is waiting for us to tear open the heavens and breathe a Spirit of Justice and Peace among all peoples. 

When we see ourselves incorporated into the entire sweep of salvation history, going back to the very beginning of creation itself, we do well to stand and look up into the heavens, feel the wind of God’s breath filling us with God’s love so that we might be bearers of God’s love to one another, and to all the Lord sends our way. May God the Father, his Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, breathe blessings us this day, and make us as a community of God’s Beloved a blessing to others all the days of our lives. Amen.