The Baptism of Jesus, Jan 13, 2013
We had 42 today on a foggy Sunday. The river was fogged in and conditions were abyssmal driving from Fredericksburg.
We began "Emergence Christianity" in adult education. Today was an overview of the definitions of "Emergence Christianity" and "Emergent Church". We saw some example of the latter and were introducted to the writers we will investigate in the next 3 weeks – Phyllis Tickler, Diana Butler Bass and Brian McLaren. The Emergent Church derives influences from Pentecostalism in its emphasis on a personal relationship with God and missional influence from Evangelicals.
The first Sunday after the Epiphany is devoted to the Baptism of Christ. Besides that we celebrated the birthdays of Terri, Cookie, Linda and Chris. The window sills were adorn with water bowls and candles remembering the Luke passage from 3:15 – "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" It also a reminder that we are the beloved children of Christ.
If you remember anything about this service it would be the "third eye" mentioned in the sermon. "This place on our foreheads has been known throughout history as the place of the third eye, the all seeing eye…The pineal gland, in case you’ve forgotten your high school biology, which I had, is located deep inside the brain, tucked into the area where the two hemispheres of the brain come together. Mystical traditions since the time of ancient Egypt have considered this area of the brain, the pineal gland, as the connecting link between the physical and spiritual worlds.
"In his book The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See, Rohr describes the idea of the third eye as a way of bringing together everything we take in through seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and feeling along with our knowledge and reason into an integrated way of understanding—what Rohr calls ‘presence.’…This level of awareness, having the mind of Christ, comes through prayer—the opening of the third eye, connecting heaven and earth.
Luke among the Gospel writers only mentions that Christ was praying when baptized. "Jesus was baptized only once, as we are baptized only once, but the renewal of our baptism, and the opening of our third eye through prayer, is a lifelong process. And we gain this renewal, this energy, this openness, this awareness, this deeper way of seeing, through the daily practice of prayer. "
"At the beginning of this sermon, I said that knowing Jesus helps us to see beyond the things that are around us, to understand with a wisdom that is deeper than human knowledge. Baptism helps us begin this process. We have the rest of our lives to develop this wisdom, through the daily renewal of our baptisms through prayer." The readings are here and the bulletin is published.
According to Lutheran David Lose baptism gives us something tangible – identify and relationship. It is worth quoting his comments in detail:
"First, baptism is about identity. As in Mark, the voice from heaven is addressed to Jesus in the first person: “You are my Son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased.” Baptism teaches us who we are – God’s beloved children – and confers upon us the promise of God’s unconditional regard. In an era when so many of the traditional elements of identity-construction have been diminished – we change jobs and careers with frequency, most of us have multiple residences rather grown up and live in a single community, fewer families remain intact – there is a craving to figure out just who we are. In response to this craving and need, baptism reminds us that we discover who we are in relation to whose we are, God’s beloved children. We belong to God’s family, and baptism is a tangible sign of that."
"Second, whatever your feelings about when the best time for Baptism may be, all Christian traditions emphasize that this is God’s work. Notice, interestingly, that in Luke’s account John does not actually baptize Jesus. In the verses omitted by the lectionary (19-20), we learn that John is imprisoned by Herod. Who, then, baptizes Jesus? The Holy Spirit! In fact, it’s the same Spirit that baptizes us! Baptism, then, is wholly God’s work that we may have confidence that no matter how often we fall short or fail, nothing that we do, or fail to do, can remove the identity that God conveys as a gift. Our relationship with God, that is, is the one relationship in life we can’t screw up precisely because we did not establish it. We can neglect this relationship, we can deny it, run away from it, ignore it, but we cannot destroy it, for God loves us too deeply and completely to ever let us go. Again, in an age when so many relationships are fragile or tattered, it may come as good news that this primary relationship remains solid and intact no matter what. In fact, trusting that this relationship is in God’s hands, we are freed to give ourselves wholly and completely to the other important relationships in our lives."