Show up!

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
January 7, 2024

The Feast of the Baptism of Jesus 

          On Ash Wednesday each year, we have a special service for children and their parents.  The service is not the one from the Book of Common Prayer, which, while meaningful for adults, really doesn’t work for 6 year olds.  Instead, we look at the ashes and pretend to make little humans with them, using our imaginations to blow the breath of God into the ashes the way we are told in the book of Genesis that God created humans from the dust of the earth and blew the breath of life into us.  Then, as in the other Ash Wednesday services, we are marked with the ashes in the sign of the cross.

          I ask the children whether they pack or buy their lunch and if they pack their lunch, how they know which lunch is theirs.  They know which lunch or which backpack or which jacket is theirs because it has their name on it.  When we are baptized and anointed with oil in the shape of the cross, or when we are anointed with ashes on Ash Wednesday, that is Jesus’ name being written on us in divine permanent marker.  We belong to Jesus.

          This morning, we hear the voice of God claim Jesus as God’s own beloved son.  The account of Jesus’ baptism in Mark’s gospel is so short that we read the account of John the Baptist from the second Sunday of Advent in order to have a gospel reading of more than two sentences!  But I am glad that we hear about John the Baptist again this morning because the contrast between John the Baptist and Jesus is fascinating.  We hear John the Baptist’s job description-to baptize for the forgiveness of sins.  We watch as all the people flocked out to the wilderness to be baptized.  We have a visual for what John was wearing-camel’s hair with a leather belt.  We are told, but would prefer not to taste, John’s diet of locusts and wild honey.  And we hear John’s words about the one who is coming after him.  In this short passage, we learn quite a bit about John the Baptist.

          What do we know about Jesus in this passage?  Next to nothing.  In Mark’s gospel, Jesus emerges from Nazareth to be baptized with no mention of his birth or childhood.  We have no clue what Jesus wore or what he ate and he says nothing.  He just shows up.

          Because Jesus was willing to show up and be baptized, three astonishing things happen.  First, the heavens are torn apart, the very heavens that God created.  Then the Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove.  This is the same spirit or breath of God or wind from God that swept over the face of the waters at creation.  That spirit infused Jesus with God’s presence.  Lastly, a voice from heaven said “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”  In case the open heavens and the dove are not enough to connect Jesus with the Creator, God makes it very clear with God’s own voice, the voice that called creation into being, the voice of the Lord that the psalmist tells us is a powerful voice that breaks the cedar trees, splits flames of fire, and makes Lebanon skip like a calf.  The voice of God makes things happen.

          Jesus’ baptism is all God’s action.  Jesus just shows up, open to God’s action.  The God who created the heavens landed on Jesus and claimed Jesus as God’s own.  Then, as we will soon hear, the same Spirit immediately drives Jesus into the wilderness for forty days where he was tempted by Satan.

          Likewise, our baptism is all God’s action.  Yes, the church pours the water and anoints with the oil. But without God, the water is just water and the oil is just oil.  We baptize babies in the Episcopal Church because babies model just showing up.  Just show up and be open to being infused by the Spirit of God and marked as Christ’s own forever.  Baptism does not mean that we will never enter any wilderness where we would rather not be.  Baptism means that no matter where we go, we belong to Christ and God’s spirit dwells within us. 

          We can easily think that our Baptismal Covenant is what we promise to do in order to be baptized. But nothing could be further from the truth.  We reaffirm our baptismal covenant at every baptism and on baptismal feast days like the Baptism of Jesus because that covenant is how people live who have been sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever.  We promise to be faithful in worship, to repent from evil, to proclaim the gospel in word and action, to work for justice and peace, to seek and serve Christ in all people, and to respect the dignity of every human being not to earn bonus points from God but because we believe that this is the way people who have been marked as Christ’s own forever live. We believe that this is the way the Spirit of God works through us.  And we keep that covenant with God’s help, the spirit of God with which we were sealed at baptism, because we cannot keep those promises alone. 

          Over and over again, God calls us to show up and let God work through us to change the world.  Over and over again, God calls us to show up in the places that need to hear the good news of God’s love and let that love pour through us.  Over and over again, God calls us to show up as people who have been marked as Christ’s own forever and live so that people know to whom we belong.                                             Amen.