January 12, 2020: May God’s words alone be spoken, may God’s words alone be heard. Amen.
Now, if you have been here these past few weeks of Christmastide and the Feast of the Epiphany, you would be right thinking that Jesus sure grows up fast, I mean we just celebrated his birth, then last week he’s a kid being visited by Magi, and now he’s a grown man! I know our younger years can seem to fly by, but dang at this rate a week from now should be Palm Sunday, right? Wrong. Still, you couldn’t be blamed for feeling a bit of lectionary whiplash right about now. Kinda the way you feel the day after Christmas when there’s stuff in the stores for Valentine’s Day.
But back to this story of Jesus. Now, as I said last year on this very Sunday, we know that even among the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, that we get different perspectives on who Jesus is, yet called synoptics in that their basic story of him is similar, even two of them seeming to be drawn on the third. The gospel of John being the outlier for a lot of reasons, and this is one of them – there is no birth narrative in that gospel (nor is there one in Mark), and there is no baptism in John, because that would go against all that gospel proclaimed him to be.
But today we hear from Matthew, because we are in Year A, and we will hear a lot from this gospel. And there is an important and distinct difference in this account from the other two in Mark and Luke, and it is what happens when he rises from the water.
Today we hear this from the Gospel of Matthew: “And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” In the other two, all the rest is the same, except the words that were heard…and to whom they were directed. In Mark and Luke it is “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
The words heard in the gospel today, that third person proclamation, signals something…that this baptism, this Jesus, is for all of us. It is a public revealing or manifestation of who Jesus was and is…to him, to those who were there then…and to us now – which is the very definition of Epiphany.
Because that is what Epiphany is all about. It is from the Greek επιφάνεια: “manifestation” or “appearance,” and it is when we come to fully understand what Christmas really was about – to really grasp the impact of the incarnation on the world, and on each of us too.
Today, the baptism of Jesus offers an epiphany – that he is the beloved of God, who delights God’s very soul (or in whom God is well pleased), and there is more. Jesus’s identity would be a public one, his ministry in the world something lived out openly. And just to make sure we know this, this gospel account directs God’s proclamation not to Jesus, but to everyone else. Yet there is more to how we come to know this about Jesus than this third person demonstrative statement. It is because of what Jesus did AFTER he was baptized, no matter which of the synoptic gospels you read.
Oh sure, he makes a stopover in the wilderness first, but then what happens? Does he go home to Nazareth, show up on the sabbath to worship each week, and then back to work on Monday? Well, yes to all three, actually, but he also knows that as the anointed, the servant of God, the one in whom God is well pleased…he must let his light shine far and wide too. And so he begins his life ministry in the world. He rose up out of those waters, and nothing for him, or the world, would be the same.
And here’s the thing…it is the same for you too.
When you were baptized into him, God was well pleased in you also. You too were marked by the Holy Spirit. Okay, there may not have been an actual dove, but God claimed you, Christ sealed you, and the Holy Spirit anointed you in no less a way. And that identity is not something to be kept submerged and hidden, but to be proclaimed and lived out.
I am reminded of a story I have used when leading retreats, including for our vestry. As told on NPR in 2015 by Alexandra Starr (see article here: Article on NPR), “A drought in the Mexican state of Chiapas has led to the reappearance of a mid-16th century church. Lack of rain in southern Mexico has dropped the water level in the Nezahualcoyotl reservoir, revealing the Temple of Santiago, a church built in 1564.
This is the second time the church has become visible since the construction of a dam led to the flooding of the structure in 1966. In 2002, according to the AP, water levels fell so low that visitors could enter the Temple of Santiago and walk inside it.
At its highest point, the church stands 48 feet. According to the Huffington Post, it’s normally under nearly 100 feet of water. As water levels have dipped by more than 80 feet, local fishermen have been taking visitors in boats to see the remains up close.
The church was originally constructed by monks led by Friar Bartolome de las Casas, a Dominican missionary who advocated for the abolition of slavery in the Americas. The church was abandoned after plagues swept the region in the late 18th century. “It was a church built thinking that this could be a great population center, but it never achieved that,” Mexican architect Carlos Navarrete told the AP. He adds that it probably never even had a dedicated priest.”
If you want to see a picture of the church, click on the link to the original sermon above, or check out this one here: Article With More Pictures, but for now your imagination will be all that is needed. Here was a church quite literally rising out of the water – from being the church below the surface, hidden and unknown, to the church breaking the surface, where the world takes notice. Talk about an epiphany!
Now we all know that a building is not the church, but the people inside it…or perhaps the people outside it…or really – both are the church. Yet the metaphor here is an important one. We, the body of Christ, the people of the church – we are not meant to be submerged. We are not meant to be only a building. We are far more than that! If only we can see it.
This is why Jesus is revealed to us in this season of epiphany! As he becomes manifest to us, he becomes manifest in us! And we discover that we too are God’s beloved, and what that means. We also begin to understand better the call of prophets through the ages, like the one in the passage from Isaiah we heard this morning.
There we hear God proclaim to the prophet, “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights…” Folks, what Jesus’ baptism, what our baptism, teaches us is that this call of God isn’t just about the prophet in this second part of Isaiah, or only about Jesus – it is about you and me too. For God is saying to all of us, “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights…”
Think about that – YOU are God’s servant! YOU are upheld by God! YOU delight God’s very soul! Take that in for a moment! Breathe that into your heart!
But there is more. That passage from Isaiah, doesn’t end there. God followed that initial proclamation in this way “I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.” In fact, if you really look at that whole passage in Isaiah, you may just find a bit of our own experience today, and what God hopes for us. God speaks of a world in pain, as bruised reeds and dimly burning wicks. Jesus certainly found that to be true in his earthly ministry, and we are no different. Today we might talk about this as being those who are oppressed, and those who suffer from compassion fatigue for battling day by day on behalf of others.
And so into this troubled world God sends Jesus, sends the prophet, sends us, with the knowledge that we are God’s chosen, the beloved, the one in whom God’s soul delights, the one upheld by God – and in this way lets us know who we are, what that means, and that God is always with us.
Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor once said “We don’t accomplish anything in this world alone…and whatever happens is the result of the whole tapestry of one’s life and all the weavings of individual threads from one to another that creates something.” I think we might all agree with that to some degree or another, but as a people of God we also know that she left something out. We don’t do anything alone, because as God said to the prophet “Here is my servant, whom I uphold.” How powerful is that!
In this troubled world, we need one another, and we need God…and God needs us too! God needs us to live the life we are called to live – to be the servant, the chosen, the body of Christ alive in the world – to not be submerged in our faith, leaving it at the church doors when we leave here on Sundays, but break the surface of those doors to carry it forward to the wilderness of the world and beyond. In this way, the Christ manifested to us in Epiphany becomes the Christ manifested to the world through us! And because of this, because of who we are, and what that means, we must also rise out of our baptismal waters and step boldly forward to be the church seen and not submerged.
Later in this service, we will renew our baptismal vows, and when we do, think about your faith – where is it submerged, where is it breaking the surface and rising up. And as you leave here, take your bulletins with you and read that first part of Isaiah over and over again this week, only like this: “Here am I, God’s servant, whom God upholds, the chosen, in whom God’s soul delights.”
Because it is true – God has put a right spirit upon you in baptism, that you might bring forth justice to the nations.
Jesus has marked you as his own that you might bring forth his light to those in darkness.
The Holy Spirit has descended on you that you may follow her into your call.
For you are God’s servant, whom God upholds, the chosen, in whom God’s very soul delights!
Listen to that.
Breathe that in.
Be that in the world.
For whether the church you are, and that the world needs, is seen, or hidden away, is up to you.
Amen.
For the audio from the 10:30am service, click below, or subscribe to our iTunes Sermon Podcast by clicking here:
The Rev. Diana L. Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
January 12, 2020
The First Sunday After The Epiphany
1st Reading – Isaiah 42:1-9
Psalm 29
2nd Reading – Acts 10:34-43
Gospel – Matthew 3:13-17
