The Drowner

S E R M O N CNR1061

BAPTISM OF JESUS b North Ryde Community Church 8 Jan 2012, 9.30am

Gen 1:1-5; Ps 29; Mk 1:4-11; Ac 19:1-11

(Amended readings: Gen 1:1-13; Mk 1:1-11)

1 THE WILD MAN IN THE JORDAN

1.1 Locusts and wild honey

All the Christmas decorations are put away for another year.

The cards are collected and read once more.

Funny, there weren’t any with John the Baptist on them.

Mark’s Gospel was the first written nearly a generation before the others

and in this Gospel we hear nothing about

angels, shepherds, wise men, stars or mangers.

The first person on the scene is this wild looking hairy man

with his peculiar diet of locusts and wild honey, and possibly bad breath,

not some one you’d ever find on your Christmas cards.

Back in my Sunday School days, our class turned up their noses with disgust and we asked our teacher why anyone in their right mind

would eat locusts and wild honey.

One smart girl piped up that the honey was used

to stop his lunch from flying away.

Somehow we find Christmas pudding a lot tastier.

1.2 John and the Jewish Spring

Who was this peculiar man who is the first person to appear in a Gospel

and what is he doing here?

From Luke we read that he is the son of a priest so he grew up

with the routines and rituals of what priests do

with the expectation that he would follow in his father’s footsteps.

But you know what children are like.

They have minds of their own, particularly when life around them changes.

Young John grew up conscious of the way these Roman governors

and soldiers ran things around the place

and they weren’t always polite about it.

There were always uprisings looking for a Jewish Spring, so to speak,

where the Jews could overthrow these bossy Romans.

Young John could see this wasn’t working

and that some day it would take the promised Messiah, the anointed one,

to pull this off with his baptism of fire.

1.3 Prepare the Way of the Lord

John had read from the Prophets of his Hebrew Scriptures,

particularly the scrolls of Isaiah and Malachi,

that a prophet would come forward to herald the Messiah’s coming.

“Prepare ye the way of the Lord!” (Mk 1:3)

John turned his back upon the formal religion of the day

because everyone was just going through the motions

and nothing was changing.

So, he put on the same garb as Elijah the prophet from centuries before,

went bush and lived off the land like he did, except for the extra protein.

Like Elijah’s successor, Elisha, he focussed on the river Jordan

and the place where cleansing by washing could take place,

just like Elisha recommended for Namaan the Syrian general

who was a leper.

It was this cleansing by washing

for which we have come to know this wild man called John the Baptist.

2 THE GREAT WATERS

2.1 Ritual Washings

The priests would conduct ritual washings in the Temple

before sacrifices could be offered.

Centuries later, Catholics would imitate the process

with Confession before taking Communion.

But nothing was changing and the purpose for these ritual washings

were forgotten as soon as one’s skin was dry.

John would ensure his cleansing by washing

would be something those undergoing it, and undergoing was the word,

would never forget.

2.2 Waters under the firmament (Gen 1:7)

You may have worked out by now that the Jewish people of the day

were not enthused about water in large quantities.

You would have noticed that in the 1st Creation story read today,

there were waters left under the firmament (Gen 1:7).

These were the days when the earth was believed to be flat,

sorry to disillusion anybody, and these waters were kept underneath

lest they emerge to drown you.

2.3 The Many Waters

In Psalm 29, the Psalm of Seven Thunders,

the voice of the Lord God is upon the waters, many waters,

as the only power above them (Ps 29:3).

I think you get the picture.

Water in large quantities is just too awesome for comfort.

Just in case you wish to check this out for yourselves at home

when you are bored with TV,

add to your readings the stories of the Great Flood.

Read about the crossing of the Reed Sea

where Moses and the children of Israel look back

to see even Pharaoh’s mighty, terrible army

overwhelmed by this enormous torrent of water surging through them

sweeping them mercilessly away into oblivion forever.

There’s the story of Jonah tossed out of a boat during a raging storm,

not to mention Gospel accounts of the frightened disciples of Jesus

cowering in a boat on the Sea of Galilee

begging their Master to do something.

Even when you come to the end of the Book of Revelation

where a new heaven and a new earth is described

with the old heaven and the old earth passing away,

there is no more sea (Rev 21:1).

I think there are people in Queensland and in Japan who would understand.

2.4 Life after Drowning

So, with this in mind, what does John go and do?

First, and this appears in Matthew and Luke’s later accounts,

he sears the ears of the people with visions of a baptism of fire

unless they first undergo his baptism by water.

No ritual washing here.

With his none too tender hands pressed upon their heads,

John plunges them downward into the murky waters of the Jordan

so that they experience these waters under the firmament.

The Greek word, “baptizo”, means to plunge, even to drown.

The people have to experience what it is like to be about to die

before they can live again.

Today we would call this shock therapy.

Maginnis Magee would be staying in his log.

3 I WILL BAPTISE YOU WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT

3.1 Mark’s Emphases

In Mark’s Gospel, the punch line from John the Baptist are his words,

“I have baptised you with water

but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.” (Mk 1:8)

Mark’s Gospel is definite about this.

John’s Gospel relates later that,

true, although Jesus underwent the baptism of John,

he never himself baptised with water, and,

true, he did breathe upon his disciples with the words,

“Receive the Holy Spirit.”

3.2 No shock therapy

There have been many disputes about water baptism throughout the history of the church and there are various positions of conscience.

There are a number of solid emphases Mark gives to baptism

and of some I have spoken here before,

but at this time, I am moved to focus here upon

the different ways from John the Baptist

Jesus used to herald the Kingdom of God.

There is no shock therapy from Jesus except for himself

when he later underwent the baptism of fire John was talking about

that we call the cross.

Ah yes, Maginnis Magee, there is pain in baptism but it’s not yours.

3.3 Live in the baptism of spirit

The baptism of spirit means that through Jesus Christ

God binds us together in him

so that we may live the life

that saves the world from imploding the way it continues to do.

It is this baptism of spirit that can hold off the baptism of fire.

So let us live in the baptism of spirit forever.