Swallowsrest

Baptism of Jesus – 2009
Mark 1:4-11
Marian Free
 
In the name of God who desires that we acknowledge our fallen nature and turn our lives around. Amen.

Mark’s short account of Jesus’ baptism raises a number of questions. Why does Jesus come to be baptized by John? What is the meaning of John’s baptism? Why does John baptize and Jesus does not)? What does it mean that John’s was a baptism for the “forgiveness of sins” and that people were baptized “confessing their sins”? What (especially in the light of the reading from Acts) is baptism with the Holy Spirit?

I don’t yet have the answers to all those questions, but it is obvious that at least two things are happening in this account. The first is that the writer is intent on establishing the distinction between John and Jesus (a theme he will continue to develop). The second is that Mark is establishing who Jesus is and what his role is to be.

As is usual for Mark, the story of Jesus and John is told without any elaboration. A quote form scripture is followed by John’s appearance in the wilderness suggesting that he is the subject of the quote – God’s messenger. He  preaches a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Apparently people flock to him and are baptized – confessing their sins. John declares that the one who is to come is stronger than himself and that he is unworthy even to undo that one’s sandals. He tells us that while he, John, baptizes with water, Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit.

From this short description of John’s activity we can deduce a number of things. Even though John appears to have great success (all Jerusalem and people from the whole of Judea come out to him), he is only the herald announcing another. He preaches a baptism of repentance because his role is to prepare the people for God’s coming among them. John’s identification of Jesus as the stronger of the two evokes an image of Jesus as a divine warrior, or a royal messiah. Thus the scene is set for Jesus’ first appearance in the gospel of Mark.

Jesus’ arrival in the narrative is just as abrupt – “In those days, Jesus came”. However, the language Mark uses: “in those days”, would be familiar to his listeners and would  indicate that Jesus is the one who is expected – that is, he is the one referred to in the quote of v 2 and the one named as Lord in v 3. We are told that Jesus is from Nazareth in Galilee – the only biographical detail we are going to get for the moment.

The voice from heaven combines two Old Testament quotes – Psalm 2:7 “You are my son” and Isaiah 42:1 “behold my servant in whom my soul delights” The first affirms Jesus’ position as the descendant of David and attests to his messianic status, while the second identifies him with the suffering servant of Isaiah. In this subtle way Mark prepares his readers for what is ahead – the one who comes is not the triumphant warrior king, but the servant who will suffer for the people. Mark’s succinct story-telling style is evident here. In just three verses, we are told Jesus’ origin, his identity and his role.

In just eight verses, Mark has demonstrated that John and Jesus are vastly different. One is a prophet who announces the “coming one” and the other both human and divine figure who – we will learn – proclaims the “good news”. One baptizes with water in the OT tradition of ritual cleansing. The other, with allusions to the Old Testament promises of a new creation, will baptize with the Holy Spirit. Here too, Mark has also alerted us to the significance of Jesus. He is the promised messiah but he comes not as a king but as the suffering servant.

But why should Jesus be baptized by John? Surely Jesus would not need to repent? Mark does not provide us with an answer to this question. However, an understanding of the Greek word “metanoi;a ” can help us unravel the conundrum. “metanoi;a” means a change of direction, conversion, repentance. It is not a common word in the NT and is found mostly on the lips of John the Baptist. When John uses the word it means “repentance of sins” in view of the nearness of the anointed one. It is also refers to a change of direction – that is, a radical acknowledgement of God and of the fallenness of humanity – a recognition that involves surrendering the certainty of salvation and in so doing opening the possibility obtaining it.

At the same time, it is not unusual in the Old Testament for repentance to refer to an act of God. So a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, may also refer to a decision by God to withhold judgement either on the basis of an act of contrition by the people or simply as a result of God’s inability to withhold God’s love. Either way, repentance here represents an appreciation of the necessity of throwing oneself on God’s mercy rather than depending on one’s own efforts.

In contrast to John, there is very little evidence that Jesus preaches repentance. When Jesus uses the word “metanoi;a” he does so in the context of his preaching of the Kingdom of God. He begins his ministry proclaiming: “Repent and believe in the good news.” For John repentance is associated with a change of heart in relation to the fallenness of humanity, for Jesus it is associated with a change of heart in relation to what one believes and how one responds to the teaching and actions of Jesus. In other words, Jesus eliminates the connection of repentance with judgement.

Why then does Jesus come to be baptized? He surely does not need a change of heart? Here in Mark’s gospel, by submitting to John’s baptism, Jesus is demonstrating his solidarity with fallen humanity. He is one of us, one with us.

In this three verse description of Jesus’ baptism, Mark has introduced Jesus, shown him to be both human and divine and implied that he is both the one sent to redeem us and the one who will suffer for and with us.

Mark is a person of few words. That does not mean that they are not well-chosen or that their content is lacking, only that we need to heed what he is saying and to grapple with the layers of meaning contained within.

Mark’s intention is to share with us the good news of Jesus Christ. Our goal should be to allow that good news to change our hearts and transform our lives so that we can in our turn share the gospel with others. Mark’s succinct story-telling style is evident here. In just three verses, we are told Jesus’ origin, his identity and his role.

Holy Innocents 2008                                                                                                                                         Matthew 2:13-23
Marian Free
In the name of God who, in the vulnerability of Jesus, confronts us with the destructive nature of our greed and our desire for power. Amen.
The killing of children to secure a succession or to annihilate the opposition is sadly not unusual. The OT is full of such stories – from the killing of all the male children in Egypt to the wholesale massacre of Ahab’s 70 sons. Nor is such behaviour limited to the distant past. Over the centuries the various Royal families of Britain have been established and destroyed by murder and intrigue as a ruling monarch shored up their position or the usurper ensured that there was no one remaining to threaten his or her authority.
So Herod’s action is not without precedence. In the unstable political climate of his corner of the Empire, everything depended on his maintaining a grip on his power. The report of the birth of a legitimate claimant to his throne created not only a threat to his position, but also brought with it the possibility of civil war. The latter had to be avoided at all costs if Herod’s rule was to retain the support of Rome.  So, according to Matthew, when the wise men did not provide the whereabouts of the new king, Herod’s only choice was to order the killing of all children who fitted the description – that is all boys who had been born in and around Bethlehem in the previous two years. That this involves the slaughter of innocent children is of no concern to him. In Herod’s mind they are expendable, their deaths a necessary expedience to ensure his continued power.
It is easy and comfortable to think that such barbarity belongs to the distant past, but we only have to review the last few years to be reminded that greed and a lust for power continue to wreak havoc on the lives of the innocent. In recent times we only have to think of Dafur, Sierra Leonne and  the Congo  where women are raped and children killed as one group tries to assert its dominance by destroying another. We are regularly reminded of the nations in which children lose their childhood or their lives when turned into soldiers or sacrificed as suicide bombers or simply forced to languish in refugee camps.
Our media constantly reminds us that the darker side of human nature commits horrendous atrocities on others to protect or extend territory, to safeguard or increase wealth, to defend or expand power.
From a distance it is easy to believe ourselves separate and uninvolved. But it is important to remember that the world is made up of complex relationship and that what happens in one place can have ramifications in many. Western nations create so much waste from their more extravagant life-styles that they are continually looking for places to dispose of it. For example, there are children in West Africa who are exposed to poisonous gases on a daily basis, as they search through the carcasses of burning computers in order to find small amounts of copper which they might sell. Our preference for lower priced goods, means in some cases that women and children work for very low wages in sweat shops in third world countries. A desire to protect our exports leads to trade restrictions which limit the ability of other nations to compete and so build their own economies. And so it goes on.
Globalisations means, that now, more than ever before, what we do in this country has the potential to affect others whom we barely know exist. It is a salutary though to realise that we live well, in part because others do not.
Of course the issues are complex and I am not claiming to understand, nor would I dare propose an answer. However, on this day when we remember the slaying of innocent children in order to protect the power and position of a corrupt official, we would do well to remember that we are not without our own flaws and weaknesses, our own needs for power, security and wealth. To understand that our needs impact on our behaviour towards others. To recognise that such needs can blind us to the plight of others. To accept that we may indirectly contribute to the oppression of others. through our thoughtlessness or greed.  As Christians, we are challenged to replace complacency with responsibility and ignorance with knowledge. To try to understand the ways in which our lives make a difference to the lives of others and to try to build on those things which help and to reduce those things which damage.
It is human nature to want to protect what is ours, to seek to secure our well-being and to build a buffer against an uncertain future. In a community – whether it is a family, a neighbourhood, a  nation or the whole world, compromises have to be made so that the needs of one group do not overshadow the needs of another, or worse still, destroy the other.
We are all part of the global village. As followers of Christ, let us do what we can to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. Let us do what we can to make a difference in our neighbourhoods, our nation and in the world.

Epiphany 2009
Matthew 2:1-12
Marian Free

In the name of God who reveals himself to all who look for him. Amen.

I can’t speak for you, but I know that there have been times when I am a lazy bible reader. I don’t mean that I don’t read the bible, but that when I do, I pass over interesting points, inconsistencies, additions or omissions. For example, it took me quite some time to realize that the parable of the prodigal son – one of our most quoted and best loved parables –  occurs only in the gospel of Luke. Even now, after a Phd and lecturing on the letters to the Romans and Galatians, I am still surprised by expressions and ideas that I have failed to notice before.

Most of us are uncomfortable with dissonance – we tend to smooth over differences, or conflate stories so that instead of contradiction we have agreement. This is particularly obvious with the narratives about Jesus’ birth. Most of us would probably say that the angel appeared to Mary, that Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem, that Jesus was born in a stable and was visited by shepherds and then by the magi. That’s well and good, but what do the gospels say? Mark and John do not report Jesus’ birth. The former begins with Jesus’ ministry and the latter with Jesus’ pre-existence. So it is to Luke and Matthew that we owe our knowledge about Jesus’ birth and they tell two quite different stories.

In Luke, Gabriel appears to Mary who responds to God’s call. We don’t know Joseph’s reaction to the pregnancy, only that he takes Mary to Bethlehem from Nazareth for the census and there the child is born and placed in a manger. Angels appear to shepherds who come to visit the new family. In Matthew Mary simply becomes pregnant by the Holy Spirit. It is Joseph who is visited by an angel. In a dream he is told not to divorce Mary. We understand that Jesus is born in Bethlehem, because when the magi (number unknown) come seeking a child who was born “king of the Jews” they are informed  that they will discover him in Bethlehem as the prophets foretold. Because King Herod later kills all the children under two, we surmise that the magi appeared on the scene some time after Jesus’ birth.

It is quite obvious that part of Matthew’s purpose is to demonstrate that scripture has been fulfilled – a young woman’s pregnancy, the birth in Bethlehem, the killing of the children, the flight to Egypt and the return to Nazareth are all qualified by the statement: “This was to fulfill the scripture”. Another motive is obvious. In introducing the magi, Matthew is making the point that Jesus is to be seen as the Saviour of all nations, that Jesus’ birth has significance for all the world and not just for the Jewish people. So we notice that the magi come from the east. They believe that the strange star has a meaning, and have deduced from their reading that it indicates the birth of a king – the king of the Jews. Apparently they do not have access to the Jewish texts, which is why they need to ask Herod where the child has been born. They have studied the sky and believe that they are able to interpret it, they are presumably educated people, and while not kings, are possibly members of a royal court, advisors to the rulers of their own country.

The point is, that even though they are not Jews, they find something in Jesus that is worthy of homage, and on finding him are overwhelmed with joy.

For most of my life, I have heard the lament that no one comes to church anymore. I have been bombarded by programmes to encourage people to come back to church, I have been in more study groups than I can remember that have looked at how the world has changed and how the church can respond (in order to attract people to attend). In all this time, I have never once been party to a discussion about what it is that we believe that the we have to offer or what is the mystery that we have to share with the world.

The proliferation of “spiritual books”, “healing techniques”, meditation groups and so on, indicates that while people may not be in church, there remains a hunger to find a deeper truth, a desire to connect with a force greater than oneself. The reason that truth is not always sought in the Christian church is that we have been poor at identifying who and what we are, bad at naming what we are really about and diffident about what it is we have to offer  We have spent so much time worrying about why people are not coming to church and have been down so many side-tracks to attract people to our number that we have not paid enough attention to our core business – sharing with the world the life-giving power of the gospel, the saving event of Jesus.

In a world in which many are searching for answers, we need to be clear about who and what we are and who are what we are not. We are not the moral guardians of society. We are not a social club. We are not about placating a God who demands unquestioning obedience and deals out punishment to those who fail.

We are those who believe in a God who was and is fully engaged with us through the person of Jesus. We know that God, having experienced what it is to be human, understands the full gamut of human existence – what it is to laugh and cry, to have friends and to be betrayed by those friends, to suffer and to die and to find life on the other side. Because of Jesus, we know that we have been set free from sin to live life to the full and through his life, death and resurrection, we know ourselves loved unconditionally, understand that God’s forgiveness knows no bounds and believe that even the worst situation can be redeemed.

We believe in a God who constantly surprises, who refuses to be limited and contained, is comforting and challenging, liberating and encouraging and who sent Jesus into the world to set us straight and to set us free – in short we believe in  a God who has so much to offer a world that is looking for answers.

Instead of asking ourselves why people no longer come to church, perhaps we should ask ourselves – Why are we here? What does our faith mean to us and what difference does it make to our lives? What is the saving message of the gospel? What has God achieved in Jesus Christ? When we can answer these questions we can share those answers with others, and when the incarnate presence of Jesus is visible in our lives, others will seek what we have and, having found it, will be overwhelmed with joy.

Christmas Eve 2008
John 1:1-14
Marian Free

In the name of God, as close as a breath and as vast as eternity. Amen.

“The word became flesh and lived among us.” Over the centuries the nature and meaning of the Incarnation has been a matter of considerable debate. People have argued about the the true nature of Jesus and God’s purpose in coming into the world. Yet the ancient hymn at the beginning of John’s gospel sums up the mystery beautifully and succinctly: ”In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. The word became flesh and lived among us.” Through prayer and meditation, John had come to realize that Jesus (the word) pre-existed from the beginning with God. At a point in history, the word (Jesus) took on human form and lived the full human experience – birth, death, joy, pain, friendship, isolation.

Why would God the creator, enter the creation? Why would God subject himself to all the messiness of humanity?

Of course, one of the reason for God to enter our existence was to demonstrate God’s deep and unconditional love for us, but another, and often overlooked intention was to make a profound and confronting statement about us – about our capacity to realize our true identity as children of God, created in God’s image . By becoming one of us, Jesus demonstrated that we are not limited by our human form but that we are capable of great and godly things and that, weak as it is, human flesh can withstand temptation, can allow God to work through it and can express the divine to its fullest extent.

The Orthodox Christians say: “God became human so that humans might become gods.” .In his life and teaching, demonstrated that the ideal relationship of God – one of trust and obedience allowed God’s presence to be most fully known. Through his openness to the presence of God within, Jesus was able to share the goodness and healing power of God with all with whom he came into contact and, understanding the depth of God’s love, he shared that love by word and example to the deserving and undeserving. Jesus did not allow his humanity to overwhelm or diminish his divinity, nor did he allow his human needs and wants to limit the presence of God within. Rather, his whole being was suffused with the presence of God.

What does it mean for Christians in the twenty first century? It means that the challenge of the Incarnation is for us to allow what is god-like within us to develop and grow until the best of human nature takes precedence over the worst and until in our attitudes and way of life we begin to let what it godly show forth in our lives. It means recognizing and accepting the presence of God within, noticing the holy in the midst of the unholy, nurturing and encouraging God’s Holy Spirit and slowly and steadily allowing God’s presence to transform our lives.

We who celebrate the coming of God into the world, need to celebrate the continuing presence of God in our own lives. We who understand that Jesus is God Incarnate, need to allow God to be incarnate in our own lives. We who celebrate the holiness of this night, need to live lives that demonstrate that holiness everyday.

The best Christmas present of all is God’s presence in and with us. We have already received the gift – all we have to do it open it and set it free to work miracles in our lives.