Depths

 Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

Jesus is baptized and today we remember our baptism. There are such depths in the waters of baptism. I have a picture of a child being baptized at Holy Cross. He is standing right near the font gazing, and you wonder what does he see, what is he looking for? I think it is the depth of the Christian life. Some of us have been so scarred by our past experiences in church we kind of keep the depths away. We don't want to be plunged into things which have traumatized us. So we walk around the edges, or we don't want to explore further because it means we may actually have to do something. But plunging into the depths is the invitation of our lifelong renewal of baptismal vows. 

Take today's story for instance. Today we are at Jesus' baptism in the gospel of Luke. Why should this make a difference? Because the story is different than the other two gospels. We expect the gospels to be all the same, to agree on every point, and we loose the significance of the differences the authors give to us. They convey these differences not to challenge our faith, but to deepen us. So let us plunge into the depths of this story.

Jesus is with a whole bunch of other people being baptized by John. This is the only gospel which makes the baptism communal. There is no individual discussion between John and Jesus, no denial from John in saying Jesus is more than he is. After this communal baptism and Jesus prays then the heavens are opened and the whole crowd sees the Holy Spirit as a dove descend and the voice from heaven claim Jesus as beloved.

Why does Luke treat the baptism this way? Why are there not just one but three differences and why would this be important? First, the lack of discussion and whether or not John is worthy to baptize Jesus is missing here. There is no rank of importance or significance tied to Jesus being baptized by John. There is no difference in stature or who should baptize whom. The field is level between John and Jesus. John makes the distinction without Jesus that one is coming who will baptize them with fire. A cleansing fire, not consuming what isn't meant to be. One in which there is Spirit at work. 

Jesus' importance is in our inner life. It is the cleansing and work of Spirit which claims us and keeps us ever deepening our relationship to God. We can't play at the edges of this or we are burned. Now sometimes we are burned and we back away from going into deeper relationship because we don't want to hurt. Yet Jesus calls us to come deeper into the fire and be cleansed. Don't be afraid. It may lead us to question ourselves, it may lead us to seeing something new we didn't know before, and it always leads us deeper into relationship with God in Christ.

Also, Jesus is baptized with a crowd of people seeking baptism. Now this makes sense to the story. Supposedly people were flocking to John. Just before this John is asked by several groups of people what they need to do in order to live a holy life. For each group he has their own answer and we are to find our answers as well here. Do we need to go deeper into the apostles teaching, do we need to see deeper into the breaking of the bread, do we need more lessons on how to respect the dignity of every human being? These are only questions we ourselves can answer. When they are given to a crowd though and not directed right at us we might be able to find ourselves in the story. What is it which resonates within us as maybe a practice we need to do? Making it a Benedictine rule of life consciously might help train us to take these charges into our daily lives as practice and we will be changed by wading into those waters.

Lastly, Jesus prays and the dove descends, calling him beloved. This is a hard one to take deeper into ourselves. It is how we act towards others because the phrase goes love your neighbor as you love yourself. Do you see yourself as beloved? There are so many things in this world which tear at the fabric of our belovedness. In baptism we are sealed with oil, and marked as Christ's own forever. Beloved from our birth. Beloved because we have chosen to walk in this way of Jesus. Because we are beloved we act with grace toward others in our lives. 

This pandemic has stretched our patience. Right now we seem to be taking a step backward instead of forward by doing the Agape meal. There are other churches who have fully gone back to remote services. Our friends across the street at Gateway had no services last week because of a couple of parishioners having COVID and a desire not to spread it further. It is hard, we are weary of all the restrictions. Yet what are we learning and deepening in because of it? Presiding Bishop Curry called this a narthex moment for the church. One in which we are not fully in the church itself, but gathered at its entryway. What welcomes us? What keeps us from fully entering the sanctuary? What keeps us from inner communion with God? 

These are all things Israel had to do during it's lifetime. The temple was destroyed, is destroyed and the way of worship, lost. It is not so different for our Indigenous communities. White people so destroyed the fabric of their community they have lost sacred ceremony indigenous to just their tribe. Instead of losing it altogether some have gone deeper. Looking to reconnect with how things might have been done. We are going through this right now. Everything in the service is supposed to draw us to remembrance. Remembrance of denial for the benefit of others. Remembrance of Christ's denial for the benefit of us all. Do we take this invitation to go deeper into the water, or would we rather stay safely on the shore complaining the water is too cold, too turbulent, too high for us to wade in. 

So these differences invite us deeper into the story. The real question is will you join in the story and wade into the waters, into the depths? Because as the song says, God's a-gonna trouble those waters. In troubling our waters it is for us to decide to plunge in or stay away. What will be your answer?