You are my Son the Beloved, with you I am well pleased

 

Sunday 10^th January – The Baptism of Christ

Genesis 1: 1-5. This creation story was obviously chosen because it refers to the spirit of God sweeping over the waters – except that in the NRSV translation it says “wind” instead of Spirit. This is because wind and spirit are the same word in Hebrew – Ruach - (like the spirit at Pentecost came as the “blowing of a violent wind”). A good comparison because like the wind, you cannot see the Spirit but you can clearly see its effect.

Acts 19: 1-7. John’s “baptism of repentance” lacked the fullness of the revelation of the baptism of Christ so these early followers of Jesus needed to receive the “full revelation”. The fullness of Christian baptism is an immersion into the ubiquitous Spirit of God who is “all in all”. The evidence that the Spirit has been appropriated can be seen in the effects which are manifested. “Speaking in tongues and prophesying” became a shorthand way of describing the moment when the penny dropped, and the full import of Christ became a living reality for a person.

Mark 1: 4-11. Jesus was about 30 years old when he submitted to baptism by John in the river Jordan – the event that ignited his active 3-year ministry on earth. What happened then was a “theophany” - a God event full of symbolism. The heavens were torn apart, the same Spirit that had hovered over the waters in the creation story alighted upon Jesus in the form of a dove and the voice from heaven proclaiming Jesus as God’s son - meaning his exact image and likeness on earth. Interestingly the voice is addressed directly to Jesus -You are my son – so is more like an internal validation. This is changed in Matthew’s gospel to a public pronouncement “This is my son” that could be heard by others.

 

While the visit by the Magi is the main Epiphany story in the Western world the main story in the East is the Baptism of Christ in the river Jordan.

At his baptism Christ had his identity confirmed by the voice of God “You are my Son the beloved, with you I am well pleased” and God’s spirit in the form of a dove alighted on the person of Jesus and permanently dwelt within Him.

What had been intuited by the Magi thirty years earlier was fully revealed at the river Jordan that day.

Jesus had been living a normal undocumented life up until that point until this earth-shattering personal experience of God propelled him into his active ministry – a journey which ended on the cross barely three years later.

The eternal Spirit of God found full expression in the life of Jesus of Nazareth that day for which the Biblical record uses the term the “son of God” for Jesus.

However aware, humanly speaking, Jesus was or wasn’t about his relationship with the Father before this point, you might say that at his baptism Jesus became fully cognisant of being “the Christ”. He heard the words “You are my Son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased”

That this event is paired today with the creation story at the beginning of time is a masterstroke. The eternal will and purposes of God finds full expression within a human life and becomes a template for all life.

That God was intimately involved and connected with all created things “in the beginning” is given prominence at the same time as that same God is shown manifesting within a human life in Jesus.

That God can be found by looking within as well as looking outside to the heavens is a point that has only ever been fully realised by Mystics and contemplatives. Indeed, that God can be found within the created order is I think a major insight of Epiphany.

God is not separate from us and never has been. He has always been intimately involved and apprehensible if we know how and where to look.

The “Where” is within. “How” is through contemplation, communion and stillness and what has been called mindfulness – Living in, accepting, and appreciating the present moment which produces a feeling of gratitude and unity with all life that leads us to see ourselves as St. John calls us “Children of God” fellow heirs with Christ.

Some might call that a life of prayer.

Saint Paul called it living in Christ and Christ living in me.

That is the difference between the baptism of John and being baptised into Christ that Luke talks about in the third reading from Acts.

It goes far deeper than a simple intellectual assent to a theological notion.

The disciples in the story in Acts had never heard of a baptism into Christ where the Spirit of God suffused every facet of their lives. They were stuck at the level of knowing that they were sinful and needed to change.

A necessary stage but there was much more to be revealed.

Living in Christ, seeing the world through Christ’s eyes, and when you look at the world seeing Christ looking back at you is the goal of every life who finds they are growing in discipleship in the Christian way.

Seeing and perceiving in that way is when we consciously become a child of God.

One of the best ways to make sure we grow as a church is to nurture at every opportunity the fact that we really are all children of God and can live in that freedom. The church has a 2000 year old treasure trove crammed full of resources to encourage and nurture our spiritual development.

I would want to prepare the ground and see these grow organically within the RMC to make us a spiritual powerhouse for the Kingdom of God in East Devon. Drawing on time honoured methods that engage all the senses with art, music, meditation, contemplation, incense and icons we can start to show people how to grow in Christ.

The church has traditionally concentrated far too much on “what“ to believe but devoted much less time or energy on “How” to believe and how to grow in Christ. I intend to try and start changing that in the RMC this year and carry it on through to the end of my time here.

That process will be a natural extension and corollary to us being a truly Eucharistic and truly sacramental church which is the very essence of true Christianity.