THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST

Some Christmas classics:

• Who is never hungry at Christmas? The turkey: it is always stuffed!

• Why are Christmas trees bad at knitting? Because they keep dropping their needles.

• What do you get if you cross a snowman with a shark? Frostbite!

• Who delivers presents to cats at Christmas? Santa Paws!

• How do you know if a snowman doesn't like you? He gives you the cold shoulder!

• What does a snowman wear on his head? An icecap.

• Why was Santa's little helper upset? Because he has low elf esteem!

• Who's afraid of Christmas? Noel Coward

I enjoy reading the autobiographies of people I admire, so last year I read Terry Wogan, Gordon Ramsay, Billie Piper and Peter Kay. A couple of years ago I read Sting’s autobiography. He’s a very reflective person and the well written book highlights some of his formative experiences which help make sense of the man he is today. One of those insights is the fact that he realises he does tend to go over the top praising his kids whenever they do something, or produce something. And he traces this back to having a father who said very little in encouragement - he wasn’t destructively negative, it just wasn’t in his nature to praise or admire achievement. So as an antidote to that Sting recognises that he goes overboard to say nice things to his children - almost - he says - to the point of sloppiness!

What kind of a huge affirmation was the voice from heaven for Jesus? His Father spoke saying “This is my Son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased”. Jesus was affirmed at the start of his public ministry: not an over the top sloppy sentimental gesture, a word of love from Father to Son. No room for low elf esteem... no smothering in cotton wool...

The reason we think about the Baptism of Christ in Epiphany is that it’s another example of manifestation - about Jesus being shown or revealed as somebody very very special. If Christmas is about the incarnation - about God becoming a human being like us in a particular place at a particular time - then Epiphany is about that truth being recognised or shown.

As we ponder the Incarnation and the Epiphany - the coming of God and the recognition of that - we need to realise that it maybe wasn’t as obvious as we think today with the benefit of hindsight... when God stepped into our world in person, very few people realised... the Inn keeper, the population of Bethlehem, Herod, the Romans... non of these people noticed - if they had the Son of God wouldn’t have been born in a stable... In fact those who did recognise God at work were working class social outcasts and foreigners from a different religion.

One of the ways in which God seems to work in the world is to operate with us in a relationship based on faith. God doesn’t give us incontrovertible proof of his existence - otherwise we’d have no choice but to believe. God offers us hints, and as we respond to God; and as we move towards him in faith; as our relationship develops; and as we learn to open our eyes and our ears - we see more and more of those hints.

What are the hints? They are all around us: the existence of the Church; the scriptures; prayer; our experience of faith; our experience of love; the people in our lives; the beauty of the world around us; the orderedness of creation; the life-force we experience - what does the old hymn say? “New every morning is the love our waking and uprising prove...”

And here today, as we consider Jesus’ baptism, we see more hints about God getting involved in our world, of God being around... a dove, a voice... On another occasion when a voice speaks from heaven some in the crowd said that it thundered... others that an angel had spoken... [Jn 12.29 ] - sometimes we miss the hints and signs. Some saw Jesus performing amazing conjuring tricks with bread and fish and turning water into wine... In his gospel John sees “signs”. Hints of God’s activity.

God’s hints are all around us... and the challenge to us who claim to be God’s friends is to look, hear and actively ask God to show us himself in those people and circumstances we come across.

So Jesus’ baptism is about seeing God - but it’s also about belonging and identification...

Why was Jesus Baptised? Isn’t baptism about forgiveness and cleansing from sin - surely Jesus didn’t need it? John’s baptism was about repentance and forgiveness - even John said it was inappropriate for Jesus to come to him... Christians believe that Jesus was without sin - that he was the perfect human being, fully God and fully human... So why the need for baptism?

Yes, baptism is a sign of repentance, of sin and forgiveness. But it’s also a sign of belonging... and for Jesus is was a symbol of identification - that’s why it’s a “Christmas” - an incarnation - thing. Only as fully human could he represent us, and only as fully God could he redeem us...

So for Jesus, he didn’t just step into our shoes by taking our flesh, he fully identified with us. The life we experience as human beings involves sin and failure. It involves missing the mark, it involves not taking our responsibility, it involves disappointments and being let down, it involves self centredness... we know that - that’s part of what it means to be human; and by sharing our baptism Jesus identified with all of our life.

But we also know about being sinned against... by others, by corrupt systems... We know about sin from both sides: our own failures and those who sin against us. We know that sin is a serious, negative, life-sapping and destructive thing; we’re not under any illusion that sin is a good thing, or somehow just a bit overrated. Interesting that Jesus didn’t come with a message about sin. He didn’t call for repentance as John had done - he told people that Good News had arrived - that God is on our side. He realised that people KNEW about sin - their experience was that sin was a part of their lives - they didn’t need reminding of it, they needed helping out of it and from it... How does that impact us today in our explaining the faith to others?

If we’re not careful to sort out our understanding of God (our theology) then in our evangelisation we are merely perpetuating unjust and oppressive systems where God is seen as obsessed by our individual sin; or God is depicted as a headmaster with a cane just waiting to wallop us if we step out of line... But what did the prophet Isaiah say the Messiah would be like?... “I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness...” Is 42.6

Jesus baptism doesn’t mean that he was sinful, but it does mean he walked where we walk, he ate as we eat, he loved and argued and slept and hoped and was disappointed and was let down... as we are...

And that identification continued in his ministry

• as he ate with sinners,

• as he broke taboos,

• as he talked with Gentiles, women, the sick and outcast,

• as he healed on the Sabbath and apparently didn’t fast when he was expected to,

• as he brought sight to the blind, light to those in darkness, liberation to those oppressed and freedom to those who were in shackles...

That identification with human beings would lead him to the cross, where he redeemed sinful and failed human beings: because at Calvary God met sin - not with punishment or violence, but with forgiveness and love.

Jesus baptism was an act of solidarity with flawed human beings, still made in God’s image, tarnished but still redeemable; strayed off centre, but not hopeless or beyond rescue.

There is a popular legend that during the Second World War when the Germans occupied Denmark and were trying to single the Jews out for persecution the citizens of Denmark ALL wore the star of David on their arm - not because they were Jews, but because they wanted to stand with the Jews against the oppression of Nazi ideology...

(In fact it’s not strictly true but in the book Queen in Denmark by Anne Wolden-Ræthinge the Danish Queen Margrethe II says about the legend: "It is a beautiful and symbolic story, but it is not true. The myth about the King wearing the star of David ... I can imagine that this could have originated from a typical remark by a Copenhagen errand boy on his bicycle: 'If they try to enforce the yellow star here, the King will be the first to wear it!' To me, the truth is an even greater honour for our country than the myth." [ http://home19.inet.tele.dk/aaaa/Denmark.htm ])

True or not it’s another story about solidarity and standing together. In his baptism Christ was identifying with us.

So the Baptism of Christ is about seeing where God is acting; it’s about identification and it’s about belonging.

It’s about belonging because in baptism Christ chose to belong to us. In our baptism we belong to Christ, to the Church and to one another. Baptism is about belonging.

We may be used to the idea of our baptism making us those who belong; but I wonder whether we often think about how Christ’s baptism made him belong to us?

Christ is ours! Not a distant deity who swanned in and breezed out, an untouched and untouchable God who keeps us at arm’s length to avoid pollution or infection... A God who chose to belong to us.

So what does that say about you and me? That we are worth bothering about; that we were worth choosing... The father’s voice from heaven may have reassured and elevated Jesus - reminded him that he was loved and on the right track... but the Baptism of Christ must also be a voice speaking to us too... A voice which says: I chose to belong to you, I embrace you, I stood where you stand; I love you - you are my own beloved child - in you I am well pleased...
 

Fr Andrew Perry

Rector, St John the Evangelist, Pevensey Rd, St Leonards on Sea