Rev. John Duncan
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; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen
First Reading: Genesis 1:1-5 (NRSV) 1In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. 3Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
Psalm 29: 1 Ascribe to the LORD, you gods, * ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
2 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his Name; * worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.
3 The voice of the LORD is upon the waters; the God of glory thunders; * the LORD is upon the mighty waters.
4 The voice of the LORD is a powerful voice; * the voice of the LORD is a voice of splendor.
5 The voice of the LORD breaks the cedar trees; * the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon;
6 He makesLebanonskip like a calf, * andMount Hermonlike a young wild ox.
7 The voice of the LORD splits the flames of fire; the voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness; * the LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
8 The voice of the LORD makes the oak trees writhe * and strips the forests bare.
9 And in the temple of the LORD * all are crying, “Glory!”
10 The LORD sits enthroned above the flood; * the LORD sits enthroned as King for evermore.
11 The LORD shall give strength to his people; * the LORD shall give his people the blessing of peace.
Second Reading: Acts 19:1-7 (NRSV) 1While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul passed through the interior regions and came to Ephesus, where he found some disciples. 2He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” They replied, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 3Then he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They answered, “Into John’s baptism.” 4Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus.” 5On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied—7altogether there were about twelve of them.
Gospel: Mark 1:4-11 (NRSV) 4John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. 8I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” 9In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. 11And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
Sermon:
Our Lessons begin today at the very beginning, “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth.” Creation is basic to our understanding of God and the world we live in. It is unfortunate that we have let those who want to argue about how God did Creation muddy the waters. In the early 1600′s James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland calculated the date of Creation to be 4004BC. The Bible gives no date for Creation. Bishop Ussher calculated the date by working backwards from events known in the Bible. Notwithstanding that many Bible scholars disagree with his calculations, he also assumes that there was no time which is not included in the Bible narrative. I think that is an unsagfe assumption. The problem we have today is that there are a large number of folks who think that scientific dating that does not agree with Ussher’s calculations deny the truth of the Bible. In my lifetime the scientific date for the beginning of creation has moved from 8.3 million years ago to just under 14 billion years ago. I wouldn’t be surprised by any new numbers.
The important thing is that these arguments distract us from seeing what is really amazing about Creation. I have no problem with Big Bang Theory. The God I know could certainly do that. I don’t have any problem with Creation beginning 14 billion years ago instead of 6000 years ago. God, being eternal has no need for things to happen within a human scale of time. What I think is important is the purpose of Creation. Scientists these days are beginning to speak of an anthropomorphic bias to the universe. That is a fancy way of saying that the universe is rigged in a way to lead to the development of human life. The Bible was way ahead of them. As Isaiah said, “For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it a chaos, he formed it to be inhabited!):” (Isaiah 45:18). This is what is important about the doctrine of Creation. The God we worship created this universe and us in it, and God intended it from the beginning to be a place where we could live. This earth and you and I are not the products of dumb luck but we are what God intended to create.
Having said that, the next two Lessons are about Baptism. The Lesson from Acts finds Paul travelling toEphesuswhere he finds some disciples. He begins talking to them and asks, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” They answer that they didn’t even know there was a Holy Spirit. Paul asks them into what baptism they were baptized and they answer that they were baptized into John’s baptism. When I read this I am transported back to my days as a camp counsellor at a YMCA camp. After the campers went to bed most nights there was some staff time, with a few of us on “cabin duty.” There wasn’t much to do and most nights there were imaginary adventures presided over by the senior counselors, led by a very large, aggressive sounding guy. The worst thing that could happen was to have the game change the night you were on cabin duty and to show up the following night and try to operate on the rules from two nights ago. When I hear these disciples say, “We never knew there was a Holy Spirit,” and “We were baptized into John’s baptism,” I know how wrong those answers were. But Paul wasn’t Big Ray, and Paul’s intention was to include rather than make sure others knew where they were on the pecking order. Paul’s solution was to baptize them in the name of the Lord Jesus and lay his hands upon them and they had a powerful experience of the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues and prophesied.
In the Gospel Lesson we are introduced to John the Baptizer and his ministry of baptizing people for repentance. The Greek word that became Baptism simply meant washing as did the Hebrew tradition behind John and his baptizing. In first century Greek speaking society you would baptize your dishes and baptize your clothes. They probably baptized their children and even the family dog. John’s baptism was a washing to show you were trying to clean up your act. Probably many of John’s followers were baptized a number of times. Matthew, Luke and John have some problems with Jesus being baptized by John, but Mark simply reports that it happened. But something unique happened when Jesus was baptized. John probably did not get into the water. He would stand on the shore and preach and those who were ready would go into the river, slosh water on themselves, and maybe duck under the water. It was a matter of washing and the one being washed did the washing. When Jesus had finished his washing, as he came up out of the water he saw the heavens “torn open.” That is a powerful image. The heavens didn’t simply open, they were torn apart. Then Jesus saw the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descending upon him and the voice came from heaven, the voice we celebrated in the Psalm, saying, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
This is what Paul meant when he distinguishes between the baptism of John and the baptism of Jesus. The defining characteristics of Christian baptism are the gift of the Holy Spirit and God, the Creator of the Universe, claiming us as his beloved children. Eventually this would lead the Church to understand that baptism cannot be repeated because you cannot become God’s beloved child when you already are God’s beloved child. It may be true that you have done the prodigal thing and you need to repair the relationship, but once God has claimed you as his own child you are his child forever.
I have no memories of my baptism. I do remember some of what my parents told me, and somewhere in the house there is a picture of me in my baptismal clothes. I don’t remember speaking in tongues and prophesying. If I said anything it had to be in tongues. I didn’t speak English yet. Like many of us I was baptized as an infant. Even though I don’t remember the event I do know that the effects of that baptism have been active in my life. I know the presence of the Holy Spirit with me. I know that I am a beloved child of God.. I know that the Creator of the Universe is my loving parent in Christ.
Today we began reading about Creation. Then we read about the second Creation, the action by which we ordinary people are baptized and made children of the Creator of the Universe. Give thanks for Creation. Give thanks that we and this world are not the result of dumb luck, but the result of a caring Creator. Give thanks that that Creator deeply desires to claim us as his beloved children with whom he is well pleased. Give thanks that you are God’s beloved child with whom God is well pleased.
In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
