A homily for the Baptism of the Lord, Jan. 10, 2021
Is 42:1-4, 6-7, Acts 10:34-38, Mk 1:7-11
What would you do if, on any given day, the clouds parted, a blinding sunbeam spotlighted you, and a thundering shout — or a barely perceptible whisper — said, “I love you. You rock!”?
You’re not crazy. It’s not a practical joke. It’s not “Candid Camera” or “Punk’d.” It can — and should — be an everyday occurrence for each of us. We just need to understand that we have a role to play in the scenario.
Our role is a lot like Jesus’s role as he was baptized by John in the River Jordan: to serve and not be served, to lead our brothers and sisters to God by example from within the flock. To do the right thing at the right time, even if other people don’t think it’s necessary.
The Baptism of the Lord is one of a handful of events that are recounted in all three of the synoptic Gospels — Matthew, Mark and Luke. Its significance, therefore, is huge.
To differing degrees in all of the accounts, John tells Jesus he has nothing to repent, that Jesus should be one to do the baptizing, that John is unworthy to drench him. Jesus disagrees, saying this is the right thing at this time.
And in all of the Gospels, God makes clear that Jesus is beloved and that God is well pleased. Even though the evangelists each describe the event a bit differently, the core message is identical.
The core message is that God Who is Love loves his son, and by extension, all of us, the other children of God.
Because, as a good parent, God doesn’t play favorites. God always loves every one of us, even when — as painfully imperfect humans — we turn away from God. When we act like 2-year-olds and shout, “I don’t love you anymore!”
That clearly displeases God.
But God’s love is eternal and persistent. God loves us even when we do something displeasing. God’s love is there, waiting for us, always. Thus, one way God is again well pleased with us is repentance and re-embrace of God’s love through the example of Jesus.
That seems to be the simple-enough answer to the question about staying in God’s good graces. But it’s a blue-sky concept, and we live down here in the weeds.
Speaking of the sky…
In today’s Gospel, when the sky opened
“And a voice came from the heavens,
“You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
why exactly was God pleased with Jesus at that moment? Was it because Jesus went to be — and was — baptized? Was it because of the ministry of Jesus to that point? Was it because of everything Jesus had been and done since his humble birth?
Any of those. All of those.
And that’s a challenge for us as we seek to emulate Jesus in our daily lives, and try to keep God well pleased with us.
Should we aim for a sinless life of charitable perfection, leaving the workaday activities of this world behind in a quest for God’s eternal kingdom? That’s an immensely high bar.
In all honesty, it’s an impossibly high bar, an unrealistically high bar. We live in the here and now, in a world of pandemic and political unrest and ongoing systemic racism and sexism and homophobia and classism and ism-ism, and Christ more than once in his 33 years and countless more times in the 2,000 years since has demanded that we bring the Kingdom to Earth.
Christ died and rose again, never more to die, because of humanity’s sins — born of disobedience — that brought imperfection into the world. His resurrection is a template for our understanding of sacramental baptism by water and the Holy Spirit, dying to sin and being reborn in the Light of Christ.
So we daily renew our own baptismal promises through renouncing sin, slapping Satan in the face, embracing the Kingdom as a child would, by serving as Jesus did.
And by feeding and clothing and sheltering and visiting and consoling the least among us, making God smile.
