God loose in the world

The stones have been arranged and re-arranged so many times over the past 3,000 years, but the archaeologists' best guess is that David, Solomon, and their successors had their chief palace right next to the Temple in Jerusalem.

One might suggest it was because these rulers were so pious that they wanted to be close to the Temple.

Or if one is a little more cynical, it was because they wanted to keep an eye of things, to make sure that they could maintain control of whatever was happening in the courtyard in front of the Temple.

That was clearly what the Romans had in mind when they took over things 900 years after David.

The Antonia was a great fortress to the northwest of the Temple, with a passageway connecting directly to it.

If there was trouble, a public disturbance of some kind, the Roman legionnaires could be there in a minute.

After the first Jewish revolt, it seems that the entire 10th Legion was stationed right at hand.

Nothing will happen under the heavy hand of the Roman soldiers and the ruthless Roman governors; a breath of trouble, and the miscreants are crucified, sometimes by the hundreds or even thousands at a time!

Let's keep everything exactly the same, safe, predictable, controlled, secure, where the future is very much like the past, and mankind is very much in control of what happens.

Surprise! That's not the way that things are going to work out.

God is not safely shut up in heaven.

One of the purposes of the Baptism of Jesus is to make it clear that God is loose in the world.

Watch out! We do not know all of the twists and turns of our road ahead.

We do not know all that God has in mind for us or for the rest of creation.

What we do know is that despite our efforts, we are not in control of the outcome or the processes!

No matter how high we build our defenses, God is breaking through to change us, to transform us, to make us over freshly, to “fit us for heaven,” as the old hymn says, even in the midst of life here and now.

The Genesis narratives make it clear that we have tried to have it otherwise.

Adam and Eve decide to take over God's job and make the key decisions for themselves.

It results in their estrangement from God;

God didn't leave them...they decided to try to leave God,

and in the process, his presence is obscured.

Remember that the Gospel of Mark does not have any birth narratives for Jesus; no shepherds and angels and wise men as in Luke or Matthew.

So this Baptism of Jesus narrative carries the function we heard in the past several weeks' gospel readings.

God is revealing his presence deep in the flesh in the person of Jesus.

This is not just a nice guy who speaks on behalf of God like an Old Testament prophet.

This is God himself, speaking for himself in ways that humankind can hear clearly and respond directly.

This is God on the loose, in our midst, by the personal action and intention of God himself.

We have nothing to do with making it happen, and have only to receive it with joy: This is my Son, the Beloved, listen to him!

The barrier between God and humanity that we have established ourselves is now overcome.

This would be a terrifying thing if God were merely concerned with justice.

We are the ones who messed this up, and thus we are the ones who should bear the price for putting things back together again.

But God has decided not to destroy us because of our sin, but to turn us around, redirect us, restore us to community with himself, continue to love us despite what we do and have done...all of the ways in which we can describe and unpack that big word “salvation.”

Salvation unto us has come

by God's free grace and favor,

one of Luther's thoughtful friends sings in Hymn 297.

Faith looks to Jesus Christ alone,

Who did for all the world atone;

He is our mediator.

We don't have to consult gurus in India, or crystals and tea leaves here.

We don't have to search deep within ourselves for the meaning of life,

for God is breaking into our lives, sometimes when we are least expecting it.

I received this week another of those letters from Covenant House in New York City.

The Sister in charge, or whoever writes those letters, does a masterful job in letting the world know what it is like to work with the throwaway children who end up abandoned on the streets of that and other cities ready to fall prey to pimps and other predators.

This time she wrote about a teen with a hard shell, who, like so many others, was pretending that nothing bothered him, who blurted out one day: “Hey lady, how do you pay for this place and this food?”

“I ask for it,” she replied, “from the people of God all around the country who care what happens with kids like you.”

And the eyes of the hard-shelled teenager suddenly welled up with tears...

that someone, that God and the people of God might actually care about him,

one who had never known a father,

and whose mother told him to get out of the apartment when he was only age 14... it was such stunning good news that he couldn't hold it in.

And the Word became flesh, the Gospel of John sings, and it is still becoming flesh when God's people gather in his Name around Word and Sacrament, and when they do the things that his Body should and can and will do, becoming living good news to all who need to hear and receive it.

“I can't tell you how much it has meant to me to be welcomed into this community of faith,” writes an adult.

“To be hearing of Jesus and having my life shaped by his has made the most profound difference to me.”

God loose in the world does these things!

One of our icon prints is of Christ on the heavenly throne, looking very austere, regal, distant, and stern.

It is a true picture, and we dare not forget that we are talking about the Lord of everything that is.

But there are other icons that give a different and additional message:

such as the one where Jesus embraces the beloved disciple,

or the one where he cares for the festivities at the wedding at Cana,

or the one where he delegates the care of his mother to his disciple John,

or the one where he presides at the meal of the Lord.

This is the Lord of all creation caring about ordinary people, and drawing others into that same care.

This leads us to understand that things need to be done, not just thought about!

And that begins with the baptizing itself.

Jesus subjects himself to the rite of baptism in order to show us the way.

There is a part of learning that can only take place in the actual doing of the subject.

Through lots of years of forking and shoveling as a kid I learned from my father how to use my knee as a pivot point for the tool, to make the work easier,

I could talk about that, but my boys both would give me the “here he goes again” roll of the eyes until we could actually do the shoveling and I could demonstrate and they could practice it.

(However, that the learning involved snow and actual work didn't help the situation, as far as they were concerned, of course.)

The actual doing of baptism, of preparing for baptism, of reflecting on baptism with others of this company are activities that begin the process of molding and shaping us into heavenly citizens and brothers and sisters of Christ Jesus.

It is not just theory, it involves acted-out work.

And it will result in a response on our part:

Repentance, confession of sins, turning around, planning and putting into practice a different way of life.

It sometimes takes our folks on the Way some time to catch onto this.

The “acts of love and mercy” that we ask them to consider are not just nice things that can be done; they are an integral part of the learning process.

We need to do things in order to learn how and why we do them, and also because they are part of the appropriate response to what we know God has done for us in Christ Jesus.

The hymn I mentioned a moment ago (297.4) summarizes it well:

Faith clings to Jesus' cross alone

And rests in him unceasing;

And by its fruits true faith is known,

With hope and love increasing.

For faith alone can justify;

Works serve our neighbor, and supply

The proof that faith is living.

And besides all that, it becomes apparent that you and I simply need to come together to help and encourage each other.

There is the completeness of community functioning as it should.

There is the completeness of understanding the inter-relatedness of the whole created world.

There is the completeness of male and female in marriage.

There is the completeness of Christ and his bride the church that is the special work of God's Holy Spirit.

We don't have it under our control, no matter how many stones we pile up,

no matter how much we scheme.

But God is loose in the world; and he does know all that needs to be known, and he will lead us to understand and be and do the things that fit within his purposes.

God is loose and at work in the world; that is part of what his Baptism means, and it is Good News, indeed. Amen

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.