Sermon for 8 January 2011: Baptism of the Lord- Well pleased!

Old High St Stephen's, Inverness
Sunday 8 January 2012: Year B, Baptism of the Lord

SERMON
Texts: Genesis 1:1-5
Mark 1:1-11
 

(Texts from the New Revised Standard Version)

Well pleased!

In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Today we have two readings which are about beginnings. The first reading tells of something of the beginning of creation- the ancient Hebrew story of the beginning of the world, from the book of Genesis (which means 'origin'). 'In the beginning' are the first words of the Bible. And our Gospel reading, too, is a beginning: the start of Mark's account of the life and mission of Jesus: 'The beginning of the good news [or 'gospel'] of Jesus Christ, the sun of God'. It's good to have these two 'beginnings' near the beginning of a new year.

And for us, as a congregation, this could be a year of new beginnings. We are about so start a process called 'Future Focus'.
It's a project in which everyone who is part of our congregation is asked to participate. For it is an attempt, as the title suggests, to focus ourselves on the future- to ask ourselves, where will be as a congregation in the future. I know that every organisation- every congregation- needs to have a process like this every so often, so that we can refresh our vision for the future. So we will be asking the views of everyone in the congregation, but also looking at the communities we serve, so that we can find a way into the future as we seek to continue to be faithful to God in our uncertain and fast-changing world.

Yet one of the things I ask myself when I think about the Church in the world today is, 'What is our message?' For some people, that may seem a strange question to ask- they will have their own very obvious answers. But when you think about it, the question of 'what is our message?' is given many different answers by Christians today, and throughout history. For we talk about what Mark the gospel writer calls 'the good news' to different people in different ways. The Bible is a large and complex book, and we have spend over 2,000 years reflecting on it, so I don't think you can encapsulate the Gospel in a soundbite. But as we embark on Future Focus, we should be asking, 'What is the message we want to take the world around us? How can we communicate to others what it is about God and Christ which has been so important to us over the years?

In Mark's account of the baptism of Jesus, there are some clues. We are told that Jesus like many other people, he has been drawn to the desert, and in the waters of the Jordan he is baptised by that strange character, John the Baptist. And then Mark tells us, 'And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased"'. This is a strange experience which is being described here- perhaps Jesus had some kind of vision, and he told it in this form to his disciples afterwards. But it tells us something about how Jesus saw himself- and, I think, how we who call ourselves followers of Jesus might understand what we are about, and something about the kind of message we have for the world.

There are two things I want to ponder: the way we hear that God's Spirit descended on Jesus, and the words Jesus heard from heaven. Those words, 'You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased'. This seems to be heavens way of assuring Jesus that he is loved by his father God in heaven.

This week, the Princes Trust, which works with vulnerable young people, produced a report- their annual 'Youth Index'- which looks at how young people feel about themselves. The BBC summarised it by saying: 'Children who grow up without a daily routine of set bedtimes and mealtimes do worse at school, a report suggests. Research for the Prince's Trust suggests those with poor exam grades are twice as likely to claim their days lacked structure as they grew up'. It seems that if a child has a secure background as they grown up (little things like bedtimes and mealtimes being fixed are very important) they will have more energy to think about things like schoolwork and other activities that will help them get on with life. One could argue about the details here, but I think many will feel that this is research which confirms what seems obvious- that generally speaking, it's good to grow up with some sense of security. Of course, just because you have good parents won't guarantee success in later life, nor does it mean that people with a chaotic upbringing can't make a success of their lives. But usually it's a very good thing for a child to know that his or her parents love them.

This is what the voice and the dove does for Jesus. God calls Jesus his Son, and says he is 'well pleased' with him. Nowadays I think that sounds a bit like street slang. If a teenager said he was 'well pleased' with you, he would be giving you a great compliment! Well, God is saying that he is 'well pleased' with his son, Jesus.

Of course, it isn't just parents who contribute to a child having a feeling of well-being. This Christmas I came across a jokey wee book of the sayings of Scottish grannies. One of the things the author mentions is that a good granny is always very proud of their grandchildren: hence the story of what happened when wee Jimmy had a minor accident and his granny phone for an ambulance. Time was of the essence, and so she only said what as necessary: 'Come quickly, please! My grandson Jimmy, who's top of his class at school, has cut his finger!' Of course it is good for us to feel that we are surrounded by that kind of love!

Jesus knows that love from his father. Even although his life will be tough, even although he will encounter hostility, misunderstanding and even betrayal, even although he will have to court controversy and even face death, he does all this, I believe, because he has the basic security of knowing that he is the beloved of God, the Son with whom his Father is well-pleased. And he invites us to believe that we are also in that kind of relationship with God. He invites us to know God, to know God's love, to live lives secure in the knowledge of the boundless love God has for us.
As he hears these words from heaven, Jesus also sees a dove- symbol of the Spirit of God- descend from heaven. This is the symbol which strengthens the words. The Spirit is the guarantee that God is at work here. For if we go back to the book of Genesis, we also find the Spirit at work 'in the beginning'.

But... imagine the scariest film scene you have ever seen, or the most frightening description of something horrific you have ever read. Over the centuries, we have been fascinated by things that make our flesh creep- monsters which interrupt our carefully organised lives. The vampire which comes out of the dark, the werewolf howling in the distance- or the UFO whose aliens might get you. In recent years, there seems to have been a spate of films about zombies walking abroad (there was a news story last year about a council in England who had a enquiry from a resident about what they would do in the event of a zombie invasion). Maybe none of these things frighten you, for we all know that there are other things which frighten us because they threaten to throw our lives into chaos. For me, one of the things which was terrible about September 11, 2001, was watching an area I knew somewhat- lower Manhattan- descend into the chaos of a war zone. We all of us have things which make our flesh creep.

The ancient author of Genesis wanted to make his readers' flesh creep when he wrote, 'In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep'. Those words might seem harmless enough to you, but there is something there which would make an Israelite's flesh creep. For this is a picture of chaos- a profound and frightening chaos. It's not just that the very earth we stand on has become a 'formless void'. It's not just the 'darkness'- although darkness is often scary. It is that the 'darkness covered the face of the deep'. This would evoke a picture of the sea, and the Israelites did not like the sea. For all that the lived very close to the sea, the Israelites were not seafarers. Their neighbours the Philistines were the seafarers. The sea, for the Israelites who never mastered it, was deep, and scary. They believed that its bottomless depths was inhabited by monsters, like the Leviathan: in the book of Job, God asks Job, 'Can you draw out Leviathan with a fish-hook?' (Job 41.1)- of course not- no mortal can grapple with the monsters of the sea. And the sea, as the Israelites saw it, was a place where chaos could descend suddenly, when a flat calm could suddenly turn into a storm. So the most famous book in the Hebrew Scriptures about the sea is the story of Jonah- the prophet who goes to sea, only to get caught up in a terrible storm. And when he's thrown overboard, he's swallowed by a monster fish- it's an Israelite horror story!

So the Bible begins with a picture of chaos, darkness, and unfathomable horrors- and yet God is there, and there is about to be something formed from the chaos: 'In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters'. Like the dove, the wind is also a symbol of God's creative Spirit. The wind sweeps across the face of the deep, and yes, that can be frightening. But this Spirit is blowing in order to create, not more chaos, but form and order. This is how creation happens: the wind of God blows, the Spirit moves across the water, and things start to take shape. God commands light, and the darkness flees. In subsequent verses, the wind blows the water away to create sky and land. A semblance of order is created, as the Spirit of God keeps the chaos of the deep at bay.

And that is the same Spirit is the one who gives meaning, and sense, and purpose to the life of Jesus. And so Jesus can confidently face what lies ahead: in the very next verses, he faces temptation in the desert. But because he knows that God's Spirit is upon him, Jesus remains true to his vocation. He knows that God is his refuge and his strength.

Like Christ, each of us has been baptised. The circumstances may have been different, but the meaning is the same. We have gone down into the waters of chaos, yet the Spirit of God was there, and each of us is beloved of God. Despite our many failings, we can return to God and know that he loves us unconditionally, that we, too, are his own dear daughters and sons. And from that knowledge of the depths of God's love for us, from that confidence and security which comes of knowing that we are beloved by God, we can face the joys and sorrows of life.

But for many people, the world is like the first chapter of Genesis, with the references of God taken out: 'the earth [is] a formless void and darkness [covers] the face of the deep'. They do know the joy and security of faith in a loving God. They have no idea that the God who created the world loves them, and wants them to him and to find security in his love. But we have a message for them: about a man called Jesus, who knew that his Father God called him his Son, the Beloved, the one in whom he is well pleased. And Jesus calls us on also to recognise, to have faith, that we too, can have this kind of relationship with God, so enabling us also to live in the circle of God's love and grace. What a heartening message this is: it is truly Good News that we have to share with the world!
 
Ascription of Praise
 
Now to God
who is able through the power
which is at work among us
to do immeasurably more
than all we can ask or conceive,
to God be the glory
in the church and in Christ Jesus
from generation to generation for evermore, Amen.

Ephesians 3:20-21 (REB)

Biblical references from the Good News Bible
© 2011 Peter W Nimmo