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DonateJanuary 11, 2009 |
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Genesis 1:1-5
Psalm 29
Acts 19:1-7
Mark 1:4-11
The season of Epiphany celebrates the generosity of divine revelation abundantly bestowed throughout the earth. Not restricted to the Judaism, or later Christianity, revelation embraces magi from the East and the Gentile world. On the Sunday in which the church celebrates the Baptism of Jesus, Christians may boldly proclaim the revealing power of word and sacrament, but they are also called to see God’s revelation in all things and in the many religious traditions of our world. As a visible signs of God’s grace, baptism and communion point to the interplay of divine universality and divine variability. While God’s revelation—and, accordingly, God’s offer of salvation—is global in scope, it is also intimate and personal. In the interplay of call and response, divine revelation may be more lively and energetic in certain places, for example, the sacraments of the church, the wisdom of spiritual leaders, and the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. Divine revelation works within the chaos of life, bringing forth pattern and wholeness from disorganized potential. God is not a homogenous force but a lively choosing companion with each creature and all creation.
Genesis grounds the sacrament of revelation in God’s primordial earth-creating activities. God creatively and artistically brings forth an orderly world in the context of movements of chaos. As Catherine Keller notes, God creates within the chaos— “the turbulence, the uncertainty, the storms, and the depths of our actual life process.” In the continuing process of divine creation, light and darkness alike reflect the creativity interplay of divine order and novelty, which never rests but constantly brings forth new forms of order and novelty. Our lives are rooted in the ongoing artistry of God, whose handiwork embraces and brings forth goodness from both light and darkness. Rather than once or for all, shrouded in mystery, creation is an ongoing process in which novelty and order alike emerge in the context of randomness. This is true both for human life and the process of emerging evolution. (For more on the relationship of divine creativity and chaos in Genesis 1, see Catherine Keller, On the Mystery: Discerning God in Process and Face of the Deep: A Theology of Becoming.)
Psalm 29 continues this meditation on divine artistry in its highlighting of God’s world-creating word. God’s voice is lively, energetic, and powerful. The Psalmist is filled with awe in pondering the scope and power of God’s creative world. While Psalm 29 does not glorify divine power, it points to complex, interdependent, and beautiful universe emerging from the lively and constantly moving divine imagination. It celebrates the awe and majesty we experience when we sing “How Great Thou Art” as well as the glorious order and comfort of “This is My Parent’s [or Father’s] World.” This 14 billion year old universe, composed of 40 billion galaxies, with new galaxies emerging, is awesome, wondrous, and wild.
Amazement and awe, along with gratitude, wonder, and compassion, bring life to worship and worship to life.
Acts 19 proclaims the liveliness of God’s Holy Spirit. As Romans 8 affirms, God’s spirit speaks in sighs too deep for words in both the human and non-human worlds. No doubt God’s Spirit was present in a saving way in the lives of these Gentile “followers of John and Jesus” long before Paul visited them in Ephesus. God had already been at work in the Ephesians’ encounter with Christians who followed the path of John the Baptist. When Paul lays hands on them, divine energy bursts forth in lively spiritual experiences, including speaking in tongues and prophetic words. Paul did not invoke God’s ever-present Spirit, but created a space for a more lively manifestation of God’s saving and transforming power to emerge.
Mark 1 celebrates the baptism of Jesus and invites us to remember and, then, to seek divine transformation in the rituals of Christian spirituality. As he is being baptized by John the Baptist, Jesus has a mystical experience by which the lively and guiding manifestation of God’s Holy Spirit takes birth in him in an “enhanced” way. Mark is unclear as to the public nature of revelation. Did God’s voice boom across the heavens like thunder, or did Jesus alone hear the words of affirmation, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased”? At his baptism, Jesus experienced what the Celts describe as a “thin place,” in which God is utterly transparent and active in his life.
This is not “adoptionism,” but rather the recognition that God who called Jesus to the vocation of healer, world savior, and way maker, was now inviting Jesus to take the next step in embodying his unique vocation. For those who see this interpretation as a challenge to Jesus’ unique relationship with God, it is important to remember the words of Luke 2:52, “and Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in divine and human favor.”
Jesus was always growing in relationship to the Divine Parent. God guided and Jesus responded more and more fully to God’s vocation for his life.
Mark’s account of Jesus’ baptism is an invitation to reflect upon our own revelatory experiences, whether during baptism and throughout our lives. All life is sacramental, but some moments and practices awaken us to the holiness of the world and the blessedness of our lives. God’s covenant with creation is universal, but expressed to us one moment at a time.
Baptism, like creation, is not a once for all event, but an invitation to constant growth and creativity. Aware we are God’s beloved, we are invited to grow in wisdom and stature and companionship with god.
Now, how do we “practice baptism” on a regular basis? Pastors can once more invite their congregants to live out their baptism – by glorying in God’s nourishing with every shower, bath, or cup of water; by recognizing their “beloved” reality as God’s children and bringing out the “beloved” in others; and by trusting everlasting grace in times of challenge and trial. In practicing baptism, we can experience the new possibilities of order and growth that emerge from the most chaotic and challenging situations.
Bruce Epperly is professor of practical theology and director of Continuing Education at Lancaster Theological Seminary and co-pastor of Disciples United Community Church. He is the author of fifteen books, including the recently-published Holy Adventure: Forty-one Days of Audacious Living (Upper Room), a progressive Christian response to the Purpose Driven Life; The Four Seasons of Ministry: Gathering a Harvest of Righteousness (Alban) and Feed the Fire: Avoiding Clergy Burnout (Pilgrim).
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