Sermon for January 10, 2021 Baptism of Our Lord House of Prayer Lutheran Church

Mark 1:4-11 Rev. Karl-John N. Stone

Just a couple weeks ago we enjoyed a very cold, yet merry, Christmas Eve service out in the parking lot here at House of Prayer. We got to imagine ourselves as being like the shepherds, keeping watch over their flocks on a cold night. Now, we know from the angel’s message on Christmas that the good news of Jesus is for everyone. But we also know that the first people who got to hear the good news from the angel were the shepherds, out in the fields. Why? Because they had a hard job, and needed some cheering up. They needed to know that God cares about them, and that in all the difficulties they lived through, God is with them.

It’s the gospel of Luke that tells the story of the shepherds, and from Luke’s perspective the birth of Christ is when the good news begins. Today, though, we hear from the gospel of Mark. Mark does not include the story of Jesus’ birth in his gospel; Mark doesn’t mention the shepherds--because from Mark’s perspective the good news begins when John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness with a message of repentance, and John baptized people preparing the way for Jesus. Even though Luke and Mark begin their gospels from different perspectives of when the good news begins, their differences actually have an important similarity. Luke begins with an angel, Mark begins with John the Baptist. And that word “angel” literally means “messenger”--a messenger from God. In the gospel of Mark, instead of an angel, the special messenger of the beginning of the good news is John the Baptist himself.

And similar to the shepherds being out in the fields, John the Baptist is also out in the fields. He is in the wilderness, doing the hard job of calling people to repent from their sin. Even though he had a challenging word to share, it was a word people wanted and needed to hear--because it was a word that grounded people in reality, in honesty. And you can’t be grounded in spirituality if you are not also grounded in reality and honesty.

John did not have a cheery message--but it was a message that, if you take it seriously, ultimately does help you feel better. Not only you personally, but your relationships and your way of being in the world improve--because you have turned to God and, you’ve let God form you through Christ’s love into who he wants you to be.

Well, whether we’re looking at the gospel of Luke or the gospel of Mark, the good news begins in the wilderness. The shepherds were in the wilderness. John the Baptist was in the wilderness. Did you know (if we look at the Old Testament) that the Hebrew name for the Old Testament book of “Numbers” is actually not “Numbers”? That title comes from the Latin translation of that book. In Hebrew, the name of that book is “In the Wilderness”. That sounds a lot more interesting than Numbers, I think; and the wilderness is the place where the Israelites had to learn many lessons before they were ready to enter the Promised Land.

Important things happen in the wilderness. Even though it is an uncomfortable and disorienting place, God is present and active in the wilderness. So, like the shepherds and John and people from Jerusalem and the whole Judean countryside who were going out to hear what John had to say--sometimes, we need to go out to the wilderness, too. Very often the wilderness we encounter these days is not a far away land, but it is the wilderness of our circumstances: a pandemic; an illness; a disability; a job loss; loneliness; disorientation. Or it is the wilderness of our own hearts and minds and souls--the places within ourselves that we have not opened up to God so he can shine his light of honesty and reality there.

Every now and then, we all need to spend some time “in the wilderness”. Important things happen in the wilderness, and God is present and active there. That’s where all the clutter of life can be set aside, and we can take to heart the message of John the Baptist: to seek repentance for the forgiveness of sins; to turn toward Jesus who fills us with God’s love and grace; to receive the Holy Spirit who guides us to put our faith in God, and who guides us to put our faith into action by loving and serving our neighbors.

So, if on Christmas we got to meet the shepherds out in their fields, today we get to meet John the Baptist out in the wilderness. Also today we get to join the “people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem”, who were going out to meet John, as Mark describes. Notice, as well, it was people from the country and from the city. It was everyone. If Mark were writing his gospel today, maybe he’d say “people were coming from the red states and the blue states” to go meet John the Baptist, so everyone could get a dose of reality and honesty; so everybody could deepen their relationship with God.

And who else comes to meet all these people--all these people from the country and the city? From the towns and the suburbs? From the mountains and the prairies? Jesus. Jesus comes to meet them. To be with them. Jesus enters that chilly water and is baptized by John, indicating that he is a person just like we are, reflecting God’s image into the world. Jesus shares the experience with them; he enters their lives. And he takes it a step further, beyond what John the Baptist is able to do. Because as he was baptized and came up out of the Jordan River, Jesus saw the heavens torn apart and the Holy Spirit descending like a dove.

The baptism of Jesus was, in its own way, a kind of a Christmas story, because when Jesus was baptized a new reality was being born--a promise was being made, that through Jesus, God is to be found everywhere--in the country, in the city, even in the wilderness. And God is to be found with everyone--residents of Jerusalem, shepherds of the countryside, even you and me.

I don’t know about you, but during these winter months I like to drink a lot of tea. Next time you steep some tea, watch how the brown goodness from the tea leaves seeps into the clear water, becoming one and inseparable. Think of that as an analogy for God’s love and grace, seeping into the world, as the heavens were torn apart and the Holy Spirit descended when Jesus was baptized. And imagine that is like God’s love and grace seeping into every spot of your soul, becoming one and inseparable, as you turn to God in repentance and faith. What a promise we received from God on that day when Jesus was baptized in the wilderness!

And when you were baptized, this promise came to be born within you: that Jesus Christ, who lived and died and rose again, who has defeated death forever, and who’s opened the door to eternal life, is with you. He has torn open the heavens to send his Holy Spirit upon you, to stir up your faith, to lead you in the reality and honesty of true repentance for the forgiveness of sins; to lead you through the wilderness and to the Kingdom of God. Amen.