The Wind and Water People

Sermon for January 11, 2009 The First Sunday of Epiphany Mark 1:4-11 A.  A new way of measuring the body's "wellness" is being touted as the next "big thing" in health care.  It's not in use yet.  But scientists tell us it's coming soon to your home.  Instead of taking your body's temperature, the doctor literally "takes your breath away"— and then analyzes it. You exhale deeply into a device that measures every component of your breath, and that one breath reveals the health of your whole body.  In short, we'll be able to smell how healthy people are.  Breath-mints anyone? Actually, breath is more than 99% water, but roughly 3000 other compounds have been detected in human breath.   An average sample contains at least 200 other components, including bits of DNA, proteins, steroids, carbon dioxide, bacteria, and fats floating in the mist — the "stuff" we generically call "air."   All this other stuff is in very, very small quantities; what we exhale is still primarily water and wind.   Charles Kingsley wrote a Victorian-era children's classic called The Water Babies.  This book tells the story of London 's poor, abused children whose only escape from the cruelty and grime of servitude is death. But these poor children are "reborn" as "water babies." And as "water babies" they are free, clean, have plenty to eat, and lots of free time. There is only one problem: they have lost their humanity. They are now strictly water-beings, without air, and so without that uniquely human combination of water and wind.  We humans are wind and water people. Wind is key to humanity.  Remember in the old movies how they used to hold a mirror up to an unconscious person's mouth to see if it fogged up.  The breath is a sign of life. According to the Genesis account, you and I were crusty clumps of clay until God "breathed" His Spirit into us, and made of us "living things."  Jewish scripture speaks of the Spirit, the "ruach" of God, as being a creative, active, energizing divine wind.   We differ from the animals of the earth in that we have God's Spirit imparted to us, thus making us able to be in conscious fellowship with the Lord, if we so choose.  Water is key to humanity as well.  Our bodies are composed mostly of water, and we need to drink most of a gallon of water a day to keep our bodies refreshed.  So wind and water, both physically and spiritually speaking, is key to human existence. B.  This brings us to John the Baptist.   This morning's passage of Scripture involves both wind and water – the water of baptism and the Wind of God's Spirit, descending upon the Lord in the form of a dove.  Both are essential for life, spiritually speaking.   In Mark's Gospel, John comes crashing into the scene almost immediately, his only introduction being the prophecies of Malachi and Isaiah, signifying that God has sent a messenger ahead of His Son Jesus, "a voice of one calling in the desert – Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight paths for Him."  Symbolized and illustrated by the chilly waters of the Jordan River, John's baptism brought the cleansing spiritual effect of "repentance" to each person he baptized.   John's ministry was that of announcement – "Now Hear This" -- Jesus is coming!  And his ministry was to "prepare" the world for the One who would bring salvation to all people.  John's water-only baptism was part of this prep work.  While ritual washing was common before meals or before entering the Jerusalem temple, John's baptism was unusual among the Jewish customs of his day. John's baptism of repentance reached deep into each individual's heart, stirring the soul, making the heart fertile for the baptismal seeds of the Spirit.  Repentance leads us to know that we need the Lord, and nothing else will do.  John the Baptist's preaching was both compelling and frightening, in that with his words he put his listeners into the very presence of God.  That is what everybody wants, and that is what everybody doesn't want, because the light at the altar is different from every other light in the world.   In the dim lamps of this world, we can compare ourselves with each other, and all of us come off looking good. We convince ourselves that God grades on the curve, and what's the difference? We're all okay. And then you come in the presence of God and it's all different.  The excuses are over.  Repentance prepares the heart for God's Spirit because after we condemn ourselves, God's grace and forgiveness is all the sweeter. So John comes along in his strange garb of camel hair clothing and his odd diet of honey and locusts.  Mark takes time and space to tell us these things because John is a prophetic link to the Old Testament, and these are the ways of desert-dweller prophets of old.  The Old Testament prophets predict that one day the Lord's Messiah would come.  And John announces His coming with the most insistent of voices, because He is now here.  And just like in the OT, the desert (or the Wilderness, as we more commonly call it) is the place where one meets God.  John had to appear in the Wilderness, because that is where we human beings find God.  Moses led the people of Israel out into the Wilderness, to the pinnacle of Mt. Sinai, and there the people met God, receiving from Him the Ten Commandments.   Immediately after His baptism, the Spirit drives Jesus deeper into the Wilderness, where His commitment to His God-given mission in life is tested.  The Devil does the tempting, but Jesus still prevails, and the angels attend to Him after it is all over.  The Wilderness is where one meets God.  We need to keep reminding ourselves of that fact when times are tough.  God is at His closest when He seems to be the furthest away.  Wilderness times strip us of our own insolence, and make us so we can hear the Voice of the Lord in a clear and present fashion. C.   The action, and therefore the message, of this passage takes place in three movements.  Each movement speaks to us in our contemporary situation.  First, there is Expectancy.   Mark tells us that when John appeared, "The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him."  John's appearance and message created great excitement for a people tired of Roman occupation and who longed for a renewed Kingdom of David.  Something great is happening here!  Let's go see what it is!  Let's go here what John has to say!!  John stirred up a hornets' nest of excitement.  Now not everyone got excited by John's presence.  Some groups of people, such as the Pharisees and the tax collectors, were really put in their place by the Baptist.  He told them how to straighten up and fly right in their dealings with others.  But the crowds were excited.  There was great expectancy of what was about to happen.   Now historically speaking, John was no doubt playing on the strings of apocalyptic fervor of the day.  No one liked the Romans, and the Jews longed for a new national identity, like in the days of King David.   The people were looking for a Messiah, someone who could bring them hope and a sense of pride.   John knew that the time for the Messiah's arrival was at hand:  "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near." (1:15).  They all expected that the kingdom of Rome would soon be overthrown and replaced by the kingdom of God.  Many scholars have argued that John the Baptist was affiliated with the Jewish sect called the Essenes, a group that authored and housed the Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of texts that also portrays an apocalyptic worldview and an ascetic lifestyle.   No certain conclusion on this matter is possible, but the suggestion that John had affinities to the Essenes has real merit.   Well, whenever a preacher uses the word "Essene," then its time to shift the conversational gears.  What strikes me about this passage is that the people's excitement was contagious.  They were looking for something good to happen, and it did!  I wonder how often we are that way in our faith-walk.  Do we look for God to surprise us each day with His goodness?  Do we approach life with a sense of expectancy?  Are we anticipating that God has got something good all lined up for us as we turn the next corner of life?  I don't know about you, but all too often I find myself dwelling on the negative possibilities of life, rather than the positive ones.  I find my thoughts wandering to what I can't do a whole lot more than what I can do!!  Our faith should be anticipatory!  We should expect the best from our good and loving God.  Even if things aren't going the way we want them to go, the eyes of faith tell us that God can bring good out of bad.  Expectancy needs to be a part of our life with Christ, because it gives spice to that life. The story is told of a 10 year-old boy named Cameron, who walked into the pastor's office and said he needed to talk. Fresh from soccer practice, and wearing his Cincinnati Reds baseball cap, he said, "I'd like to be baptized.  We are learning about Jesus' baptism in Sunday School. The teacher asked the class who was baptized, and all the other kids raised their hands. I want to be baptized too."  Using his best pastoral care tone of voice, the boy's pastor said, "Cameron, do you really want to be baptized because everyone else is?"  His freckles winked up at her and he replied, "No. I want to be baptized because it means I belong to God." "Well, then," he said, "How about this Sunday?"  But the boy's smile turned to concern at that prospect and he asked, "Do I have to be baptized in front of all those people in the church? Can't I just have a friend baptize me in the river?"  The pastor asked where he came up with that idea.  "Well, Jesus was baptized by his cousin John in a river, wasn't he?"  "You have a point," he said,   "But, if a friend baptized you in the river, how would the church recognize it?" The boy responded, "I guess by my new way of living" he said.  Cameron knew that baptism calls us to a new way of living.  He didn't know what to expect from it, but he knew it had to be good.  He anticipated the best.  And so should we in our own walk of faith. The second movement of the action and the message in this passage is that of Repentance.  John preaches and baptizes, the hearers sin and repent, and God forgives.  Now the word we translate as Repentance in the NT Greek – metanoia -- was originally a military term.   Literally, it meant to "turn around" or "about face".   Repentance calls us to take stock of our actions, and then, if they are neither pleasing to God or to ourselves, we need to "turn around" and start living the other way.  Repentance calls for commitment of the Will.  But most importantly, repentance calls for us to have the courage to look at ourselves as we really are, and then to allow the Lord to take our weaknesses, our sins, and our burdens upon His broad shoulders.  We can't change ourselves, but we can allow God to wash us with His Spirit, changing us over time from what we were to what God wants us to be. There is an old book, entitled Gates of Repentance, where we find these words.  "In the fall, the leaves turn from green to red to orange.  The birds turn and head south for the winter.  The animals turn to store their food for the cold days that will soon come.   For leaves, birds, and animals, turning comes instinctively.   But for us, turning does not come so easily.   It takes an act of will for us to make a turn.   It means breaking old habits.   It means admitting that we have been wrong, and this is never easy.   It means losing face.   It means starting all over again.  It means saying I am sorry.  And this is always painful.  These things are terribly hard to do.   But unless we turn, we will be trapped forever in yesterday's ways." Epiphany is a good time to take stock, and take our confessions to the Lord.  The Light of God shines into our lives to illuminate the dark corners, allowing us to see them for what they are, and then give them over to Jesus.  We can turn around.  We can make a new start.  God is the God of new beginnings, and second chances, if we but take half a step in His direction. D.  The third movement of the action and therefore the message is that the long awaited Coming One has finally arrived, and everything is different now that He has arrived.  John preached the coming Kingdom of God.  John announced that the Lord's Messiah was on the way.  And then one day Jesus appeared, and submitted Himself to be baptized by John.  He was not being baptized to repent of past sins.  Rather, His baptism was further proclamation that God's time had finally arrived, and God's Kingdom was real and present.  And then Jesus' Heavenly Father ratified the baptismal proclamation.  "As Jesus was coming out of the water, He saw the Heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove."  In the Roman imagination, the descent of a bird was a crucial omen for the life of a great leader.  In Rome, this descending bird was almost always an eagle, the symbol of Roman legions and military might.  In Mark the descending bird is not the bellicose eagle but rather the peaceful dove.  The Prince of Peace had arrived, to take away the sins of the world.  Of course, this was no bird; it was a visual representation of the Holy Spirit. Mark points out that when Jesus came up out of the waters of the River, the Heavens were "torn open."  This is the same verb that is used at the Crucifixion.  When Jesus died, the curtain of the Temple was "torn open", meaning that full access to God is now granted through faith in Christ.  God declares Jesus as His beloved Son.  This is a private epiphany – only Jesus hears the voice and sees the vision of the dove-gift of the Spirit.   And interestingly enough, throughout the rest of the Gospel of Mark, people never do see who Jesus really is.  The demons perceive it well enough – over and over they call Jesus God's Son.  But it was only at the Crucifixion, with the proclamation of the centurion that "This man is truly the Son of God," that Jesus' identity becomes obvious to all.  It is only through the Cross that the whole world will realize that Jesus is the Son of God.   The good news is that Christ is here.  He is with us, the presence of the Living God as Holy Spirit.  We have just finished the Christmas season of the Church year, the season in which we celebrate the coming of Emmanuel, God with us.  Christ is with us, through good times and bad.  He is with us even when we ignore that He is with us.  He is with us when we don't think He is with us.  His hand is upon our shoulder, guiding us, blessing us, leading us, never abandoning us.   When we know Christ is with us, and that He isn't going to leave us, life has an under girding of assurance.  It's always fun to know a secret that someone else doesn't know. In Princeton, New Jersey, there is a legendary tale about the eminent scientist Albert Einstein walking in front of a local inn and being mistaken for a bell boy by a rich and famous celebrity who had just arrived in a luxury sedan.   She orders him to carry her luggage into the hotel, and, according to the story, Einstein does so.  He receives a small tip, and then continues on to his office to ponder the mysteries of the universe.  True or not, the story is delightful, precisely because we savor from the beginning a secret the celebrity doesn't know: namely, that the strange-looking, ruffled little man is the most famous intellect of our time. God has revealed to us the greatest secret of all.  Christ is alive, and He is with us.  He has come!  And because of that, the world will never be the same.  Oh, and there's one more thing.  Let's not keep it a secret!!  Ok?!   Keith Almond P.O. Box 4388 Leesburg, VA  20177 703-344-3569 almond_keith@yahoo.com