Beginnings

This year, my sermons will concentrate on texts from the gospel of Mark. Mark begins not with Jesus' birth, but with his baptism. Why do you suppose that is? This sermon might give you an answer.

Some of you might wonder now and then (maybe when you can’t get to sleep at night) how I choose the scripture texts for my sermons. I don’t have one method that I use all the time; but for the most part, I preach from the lectionary. Now, some of you may not know what a lectionary is. A lectionary is just a list of scripture readings for each occasion of worship in the Christian year. The lectionary that I use – the Revised Common Lectionary – supplies four scripture readings for each worship service: an Old Testament reading, a text from Psalms, a New Testament reading, and a text from one of the gospels. My lectionary is on a three-year cycle. With respect to the gospels, all the readings are from Matthew in the first year (Year A). In the second year (Year B), the gospel texts are from Mark; and in the third year (Year C), Luke supplies the readings. The gospel of John appears mostly during Lent and after Easter of all three years.

Right now, we are in Year B of the lectionary cycle. That means that the gospel readings for this year will come mostly from the gospel of Mark. Now, I want to say just a word about Mark. If you ask a random sample of church-goers what their favorite gospel is, most people won’t respond with Mark. Mark just doesn’t have the pizzazz that the other gospels do! For example, Luke is chock-full of parables; Matthew gives us the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount; and John paints the beautiful picture of the Word made flesh! But Mark’s gospel isn’t really very distinctive. In addition, it is very short, with only 16 chapters. 6 of those chapters take place during Holy Week. That leaves only 10 chapters for Mark to tell us about all the rest of Jesus’ life! Besides, most of the material in Mark’s gospel is also in Matthew and in Luke. Many scholars believe that Luke and Matthew copied whole chunks of Mark when they were writing their own gospels.

So why do we even bother with the gospel of Mark? One very important reason is that it was the first gospel that was written. Mark wrote his gospel only about 35 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, just as the apostles were dying of old age. The stories that they told about Jesus were in danger of dying right along with them. So Mark wrote his gospel in order to pass on the stories about Jesus to future generations of Christians. We certainly don’t want to lose the very first gospel that the early church used! But an even better reason to take Mark seriously is that Mark wrote his gospel to teach and encourage early Christians in their faith. It can do the very same thing for us, if we will let it. Its very structure is like the faith journey of a new believer in Jesus as the Messiah. In chapters 1 through 8 we are introduced to Jesus; and we watch him teach and heal and perform miracles. In chapter 9, we see him transfigured, and we realize that this man is more than just a miracle-worker. In chapters 9 and 10, we learn what we are called to do as Jesus prepares for his crucifixion and resurrection. In chapter 11, we watch him ride into Jerusalem and reject the religious establishment through cleansing the Temple; and we learn about the coming kingdom of God. And when the gospel ends with Jesus’ resurrection, we come face to face with the question “Will we tell anyone about what we have heard and seen?” We’re not that different from Mark’s original readers, are we? So during this year, we’re going to become very good friends with his gospel. We’re going to examine it, and we’re going to invite it to examine us. We might be surprised at what we’ll find there!

Like everything else, Mark’s gospel has a beginning. But it doesn’t begin where we expect it to. Mark doesn’t say anything at all about Jesus’ birth. He doesn’t tell us about angels or shepherds or Bethlehem or a star or the wise men. No, those stories are in Luke and Matthew. Instead, Mark begins his gospel with Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River. Now, Mark could have skipped all that and started with what is now verse 14 of the first chapter: “Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.” After all, that’s what Mark’s gospel is, God’s good news as shown in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But Mark started with Jesus’ baptism. Why would he have done that? What kind of beginning is baptism, anyway? Maybe it’s worth a look.

The simple answer is that baptism marks the beginning of a life in a community of faith. Baptism is the sacrament that celebrates a person’s entrance into a particular Christian community, as well as into the Christian church as a whole. That’s why the very first question that I ask anyone who wants to become a member of our congregation is “Have you been baptized?” Now, don’t misunderstand me. Anyone is welcome in this church, whether they have been baptized or not! But making a commitment to a church first requires a commitment to Jesus Christ. Baptism is the public sign of that commitment. But there’s more to baptism than just the first step to church membership. Baptism is a lot more than just learning a membership oath and a secret handshake so that you can join the Loyal Order of Water Buffalo. Anyone in the early church would have known that baptism isn’t just the start of life in a faith community; it’s the start of a completely new life! Mark’s description of Jesus’ baptism gives us a picture of what that new life looks like.

First off, God acknowledges us as his beloved children. When Jesus came up out of the waters of baptism, he heard a voice from heaven saying, “You are my Son, whom I love. I am so pleased with you!” God said that to Jesus; and he says it to each one of us, too. We tend to forget that. It’s easy to remember that we are God’s creations, made in the beginning with all the rest of the cosmos – grasshoppers and galaxies, salamanders and stars, planets and puppies. But because of the mess that we’ve made of things in our world, it’s easy to forget that we are also God’s children. Our baptism reminds us that we are not just creations of God, but children of God; and that, despite all the messes that we make of our lives and of the world around us, God is pleased with us.

Because our baptism means that we are God’s children, it also means that we are invited to live our lives in God’s presence. When Jesus was baptized, the heavens were “torn open,” and God’s presence was available to us in a new way. The same thing happens to us. The heavens are “torn open” at our baptism, too! When we are baptized, God is present with us in a new way. Our baptism reminds us that nothing – not sin, or mistakes, or limitations, or gender, or race, or creed, or color, or anything in all creation – can ever separate us from the presence of God.

And our baptism means that we are filled with the Spirit. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean that we speak in tongues, or deliver prophecies, or have powers of healing. Some people do those things; and we know that they are the Spirit’s doing. But most of us don’t do anything special. We follow Jesus the best that we can, we try to love our neighbors as ourselves, and we show compassion to those who need it. Who do we think leads us in doing that? We couldn’t do any of those things without the guidance of the Holy Spirit who filled us at our baptism and continues to fill us throughout our lives! Just as the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus, it descends on us, too.

Do you remember your own baptism? If you don’t, then you were probably baptized when you were a baby, just like I was. I don’t remember wearing a white baptismal outfit, or my family proudly sitting in the front pew while the pastor took me in his arms and sprinkled a few drops of water on my head. But those of us who were baptized as babies are a powerful symbol of a reality that we must never forget: God accepts us as his children before we can respond to him! Even before we know our own names, God knows us and loves us and adopts us as his own. None of us have earned God’s love any more than a baby in a bassinet has earned the love of her mother! The good news is that in God’s kingdom, there’s plenty of love to go around.

And some of you do remember your own baptism. If you do, then you probably made the decision as an adult to join the great crowd of disciples who follow Jesus Christ. You remember the pastor putting water put on your head – or maybe even immersing you in a baptistery or in a local river (when hopefully, it wasn’t as cold as it is now)! If that’s the case, then you are a powerful symbol of another reality. Even though God accepts us before we know anything about Jesus, we have to make the decision to follow him for ourselves! God doesn’t force us to follow Jesus. He gives us a choice, and he respects what we eventually decide to do. Infant baptism and adult baptism are two different sides of one reality: that God loves us and accepts us no matter what; but that we have to respond to that love ourselves.

Whenever you were baptized, though, just as Jesus’ baptism was the beginning of his life of ministry, baptism is the beginning of a new life in Christ for us. Remember your baptism, children of God! Remember your baptism, and be glad! And as you remember, give thanks for the new life that fills you through the Spirit, and leads you ever closer to the presence of the Father who is well pleased with you!