The Baptism Of Our Lord
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series VII, Cycle C
Theme For The Day
John the Baptist and Jesus both demonstrate a very different definition of success than the one the world cherishes.
Old Testament Lesson
Isaiah 43:1-7
I Have Called You By Name, You Are Mine
Coming as it does just a couple of chapters after the major change in key that is the transition between First and Second Isaiah, this passage speaks a powerful message of comfort and assurance to those who have been undergoing persecution. The audience, of course, is the community of Jewish exiles in Babylon, soon to return home. "Do not fear," says the Lord, in the tenderest possible terms, "for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine" (v. 1). No longer are the exiles a people who struggle with fears that God may have forgotten them; now they know God knows them and loves them. The mention of passing through the waters in verse 2 is an allusion to the Exodus -- and may, in fact, be the reason the lectionary editors chose this passage for the Baptism of the Lord. The waters of baptism, viewed in this way, are a potent symbol of salvation; even the few drops used in some Christian traditions can be seen as a symbol of a near-death experience, followed by the rebirth of hope.
New Testament Lesson
Acts 8:14-17
Paul And John Baptize Some Samaritans
This passage, while brief, presents significant difficulties in interpretation. This is part of the story of Simon Magus, a man who attempted to purchase the apostles' ability to pass on spiritual gifts through the laying on of hands. His ill-considered offer (vv. 18-24) has given us the word "simony," which refers to the unauthorized sale of ecclesiastical offices. What is so difficult about this passage is the statement in verse 16, that the reason Paul and John must lay hands on the Samaritans is that they have somehow previously been baptized in Jesus' name, but without the Holy Spirit having been involved the first time. The apostles were preaching in a religiously chaotic world, in which there were all manner of competing theologies and spiritual practices. Their approach is not to condemn the questionable baptisms, but rather to regularize them. So, too, in engaging with a culture in which many claim to be "spiritual but not religious," we do well to affirm the good that is there, even as we seek to invite people into a deeper relationship with Christ, through the work of the Holy Spirit.
The Gospel
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
The Baptism Of Jesus
In this selection, the end of Luke's account of the ministry of John the Baptist is paired with his brief account of the baptism of Jesus. The accent here is on differentiating between Jesus and John; Luke clearly makes John subordinate, as he declares, "I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (v. 16). As with the Epistle Lesson, here, too, there is a distinction between water-baptism and baptism empowered by the Holy Spirit. Not only that, but baptism here is associated with fire – the fire of judgment (as is seen in John's reference to a winnowing fork in verse 17, which is outside the lectionary section). The sweet, benign ritual of infant baptism as it is performed in so many of our churches masks the element of perseverance through suffering that has always been part of the church's baptismal witness. The theophany from heaven ("You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased," [v. 22]) is similar to the theophany at his transfiguration (9:35).
Preaching Possibilities
Some folks figured John the Baptist was the biggest thing to hit Israel since, well, since the greatest of the prophets. There he was: straight out of the desert, clothed in garments of camel's hair, living off locusts and wild honey, preaching a seething message of repentance. All the right credentials, in other words, to break into the prophetic major leagues as "rookie of the year."
Did he offend King Herod? Of course! The Romans? You bet! John didn't care. He leveled his monumental rage against anyone he considered unjust, immoral, or just plain lazy. With his wild eyes and his unkempt hair, John seemed always to walk a thin line between prophetic authority and sheer and utter madness.
It made for great theater -- and John the Baptist could always be counted upon to draw a crowd. And what a crowd it was! Hundreds, some said thousands, of people -- even soldiers and tax collectors, no less! -- all wending their way down to the River Jordan to be baptized. "The people were filled with expectation," Luke tells us. "All were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether or not he might be the Messiah."
Then John lets drop the really big bombshell: "I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire."
Say it ain't so, John!
You can't be saying you're going to step down, give up the messianic crown? Why, you're the hottest thing in prophecy since -- well, since anyone can remember! Step aside? It's just not done! And who is this "one who is coming after you," anyway -- this mysterious newcomer, whose shoelaces you aren't worthy to untie?
But step aside John does. When he was an unborn child, Luke tells us, John had leapt in his mother's womb when she encountered her cousin Mary, who was bearing the baby Jesus. And now John's very heart leaps with joy at the prospect of giving up his place to the one who is the true Messiah.
Another gospel writer (himself bearing the name of John) tells it even more bluntly. Some of John the Baptist's disciples come to him asking, "What about this Jesus?" John responds with marvelous humility: "You yourselves are my witnesses that I have said, 'I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him' ... He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:28-30). Success. For John the Baptist, it isn't found in the size of the crowd, or the adulation of the multitude, or in how riled up he can get King Herod and the high priests. Success is found in serving the one who is coming after him: the Messiah, the Lord.
For us, though, defining the nature of success isn't so easy. Back when we were in high school, many of us thought we knew what success was. We voted for the student who was "Most Likely To Succeed." Many of us have had the experience of attending high-school reunions, and have discovered that the things we imagined, at age seventeen or eighteen, made for success were not the things that really did.
Much of the time, we define success in financial terms, and that is extremely problematic. The early twentieth-century American philosopher, William James, was highly suspicious of our national predisposition to portray success as anything with a dollar sign beside it. In a letter to H. G. Wells, James complained about "the moral flabbiness born of the worship of the ... goddess Success. That -- with the squalid cash interpretation put on the word success -- is our national disease."
Disease it may well be -- but many, many people today spend their lives trying to catch that particular ailment. And, sadly, most of them fail to achieve the lofty financial goals they've set for themselves. Although we live in the land of "the pursuit of happiness," for all too many of us Americans it's just that: a pursuit. Like greyhounds chasing a mechanical rabbit around the track, happiness is always just out of reach -- just around the corner of the next promotion, the next business deal, the next marriage.
There's no end, really, to the chase of the almighty dollar. Someone once asked John D. Rockefeller, "Mr. Rockefeller, how much money is enough?"
"Just a little bit more," he is said to have replied.
What was Jesus' idea of success? We can tell from the words he spoke at the Last Supper. Spread upon the table before him were bread and wine. "This is my body," he said, "broken for you ... This is my blood, shed for the forgiveness of sins."
That's an awfully strange way for a successful man to talk. His body broken, his blood poured out -- why, he sounds like a pathetic, miserable failure! "Eloi, eloi, lema sabachthani," he cries out upon the cross: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" The crowd, hearing him wrongly, jeers, "Listen, he is calling for Elijah." And they hold up a vinegar-soaked sponge on a stick, and taunt him, saying, "Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come and take him down."
Some success he is -- this one whose sandals John the Baptist is not worthy to untie!
But that's the very heart of the matter. This Christian gospel of ours turns the world's notion of success upside down. John the Baptist gives up his place to the one who comes after him. And the one who comes after him gives up his life for the sins of the world.
The next time we find ourselves wondering about success -- whether we'll be a success, or whether we've ever truly been -- let us consider this image of the crucified God. He comes to baptize us with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
Prayer For The Day
Lord,
we acknowledge and confess
that we spend much of our lives,
our energies,
our substance,
trying to be successful.
Today we see things clearly.
Today you are calling us not to be successful,
but to be faithful.
May we not soon forget it.
Amen.
To Illustrate
In the movie, The Apostle, a rough-around-the-edges country preacher, played by Robert Duval, is running from the law. He has just bludgeoned the youth pastor of his church to death because his wife was having an affair with him. He comes to a river, and -- contrite and repentant, but also a bit mad -- he baptizes himself in a river. He has already been baptized, of course, but he feels the need to do it again. He announces to God and no one else that he is baptizing and ordaining himself as an apostle. He then sets out, under a new identity, to continue the only work he knows, that of preaching -- although this time he will do it as a traveling evangelist.
It is the arrogant act of an arrogant man. Contrast it, though, to the baptism of Jesus. Jesus did not baptize himself -- even though, as one who knew no sin, it would have seemed more appropriate to our minds that he would have done so. Jesus, instead, seeks out John the Baptist and insists on being baptized by him. It is an act of humility, and also an act of solidarity with a community.
***
I like to consider this [his baptism] Jesus' first miracle: the miracle of his humility. The first thing Jesus does for us is go down with us. His whole life will be like this. It is well known that Jesus ended his career on a cross between two thieves; it deserves to be as well known that he began his ministry in a river among penitent sinners.
-- Dale Bruner
***
Many voices ask for our attention. There is a voice that says, "Prove that you are a good person." Another voice says, "You'd better be ashamed of yourself." There also is a voice that says, "Nobody really cares about you," and one that says, "Be sure to become successful, popular, and powerful." But underneath all these often very noisy voices is a still, small voice that says, "You are my Beloved, my favor rests on you." That's the voice we need most of all to hear. To hear that voice, however, requires special effort; it requires solitude, silence, and a strong determination to listen. That's what prayer is. It is listening to the voice that calls us "my Beloved."
-- Henri J. M. Nouwen, from Bread for the Journey (New York: Harper Collins, 1997)
***
Never let your failures go to your heart or your successes go to your head.
-- Anonymous
***
There is no limit to what can be accomplished if it doesn't matter who gets the credit.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
***
In my job as a caseworker to the mentally ill, I am called on to take some of my people to the county hospital emergency room or ambulatory clinic. It usually will take two to three hours waiting in the ER to be seen and it can up to six hours in the clinic. It is not very convenient to do this and I often find myself around people I might not feel very comfortable with, but it continually teaches me about humility and patience. If our legislators could spend time at the county hospitals that serve the low-income people they might be more forthcoming with health insurance for the poor. I wonder how many ministers have sat in some of these emergency rooms helping someone. Oh, we would rather leave that up to the chaplain or some other professional instead of volunteering some time of our own. But we are supposed to be willing to reach down and lift up the little ones.
-- Walter Norris, a caseworker for the Dallas County, Texas, Public Defender's Office, "Teaching Humility," in The Prism ePistle, July 20, 2005
***
Humble people don't think less of themselves. They just think about themselves less.
-- Norman Vincent Peale
***
In Fyodor Dostoevsky's famous novel, The Idiot, the title character is a certain Prince Myshkin, who is a misfit in many ways. His peers are very different from him. They are constantly striving for status and power. They judge each other on the basis of such things as money and appearance and family connections. In their world, there is little genuine friendship or intimacy.
Into this striving, self-seeking world walks Prince Myshkin. He "walks to a different drummer." He treats everyone -- rich or poor -- with equal respect and kindness. He has no hidden agenda, no need to dominate others. He is pure in thought, word, and deed. This means that, in the eyes of most people, he is a fool.
But Dostoevsky describes a strange phenomenon. The empty, cynical, status-seeking people who so easily ridicule Prince Myshkin are at the same time strangely drawn to him. The purity of his character attracts others as an outdoor lamp attracts moths at night.
Would that we could all be such idiots for Christ!
***
A wise, old Middle-Eastern mystic said this about himself. "I was a revolutionary when I was young, and all my prayer to God was: 'Lord, give me the energy to change the world.' As I approached middle age and realized that my life was half gone without my changing a single soul, I changed my prayer to: 'Lord, give me the grace to change all those who come into contact with me. Just my family and friends and I shall be satisfied.' Now that I am an old man and my days are numbered, I have begun to see how foolish I have been. My one prayer now is: 'Lord, give me the grace to change myself.' If I had prayed this right from the start, I would not have wasted my life."
-- Paul J. Wharton, Stories and Parables for Preachers and Teachers (Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1986), p. 31
John the Baptist and Jesus both demonstrate a very different definition of success than the one the world cherishes.
Old Testament Lesson
Isaiah 43:1-7
I Have Called You By Name, You Are Mine
Coming as it does just a couple of chapters after the major change in key that is the transition between First and Second Isaiah, this passage speaks a powerful message of comfort and assurance to those who have been undergoing persecution. The audience, of course, is the community of Jewish exiles in Babylon, soon to return home. "Do not fear," says the Lord, in the tenderest possible terms, "for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine" (v. 1). No longer are the exiles a people who struggle with fears that God may have forgotten them; now they know God knows them and loves them. The mention of passing through the waters in verse 2 is an allusion to the Exodus -- and may, in fact, be the reason the lectionary editors chose this passage for the Baptism of the Lord. The waters of baptism, viewed in this way, are a potent symbol of salvation; even the few drops used in some Christian traditions can be seen as a symbol of a near-death experience, followed by the rebirth of hope.
New Testament Lesson
Acts 8:14-17
Paul And John Baptize Some Samaritans
This passage, while brief, presents significant difficulties in interpretation. This is part of the story of Simon Magus, a man who attempted to purchase the apostles' ability to pass on spiritual gifts through the laying on of hands. His ill-considered offer (vv. 18-24) has given us the word "simony," which refers to the unauthorized sale of ecclesiastical offices. What is so difficult about this passage is the statement in verse 16, that the reason Paul and John must lay hands on the Samaritans is that they have somehow previously been baptized in Jesus' name, but without the Holy Spirit having been involved the first time. The apostles were preaching in a religiously chaotic world, in which there were all manner of competing theologies and spiritual practices. Their approach is not to condemn the questionable baptisms, but rather to regularize them. So, too, in engaging with a culture in which many claim to be "spiritual but not religious," we do well to affirm the good that is there, even as we seek to invite people into a deeper relationship with Christ, through the work of the Holy Spirit.
The Gospel
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
The Baptism Of Jesus
In this selection, the end of Luke's account of the ministry of John the Baptist is paired with his brief account of the baptism of Jesus. The accent here is on differentiating between Jesus and John; Luke clearly makes John subordinate, as he declares, "I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (v. 16). As with the Epistle Lesson, here, too, there is a distinction between water-baptism and baptism empowered by the Holy Spirit. Not only that, but baptism here is associated with fire – the fire of judgment (as is seen in John's reference to a winnowing fork in verse 17, which is outside the lectionary section). The sweet, benign ritual of infant baptism as it is performed in so many of our churches masks the element of perseverance through suffering that has always been part of the church's baptismal witness. The theophany from heaven ("You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased," [v. 22]) is similar to the theophany at his transfiguration (9:35).
Preaching Possibilities
Some folks figured John the Baptist was the biggest thing to hit Israel since, well, since the greatest of the prophets. There he was: straight out of the desert, clothed in garments of camel's hair, living off locusts and wild honey, preaching a seething message of repentance. All the right credentials, in other words, to break into the prophetic major leagues as "rookie of the year."
Did he offend King Herod? Of course! The Romans? You bet! John didn't care. He leveled his monumental rage against anyone he considered unjust, immoral, or just plain lazy. With his wild eyes and his unkempt hair, John seemed always to walk a thin line between prophetic authority and sheer and utter madness.
It made for great theater -- and John the Baptist could always be counted upon to draw a crowd. And what a crowd it was! Hundreds, some said thousands, of people -- even soldiers and tax collectors, no less! -- all wending their way down to the River Jordan to be baptized. "The people were filled with expectation," Luke tells us. "All were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether or not he might be the Messiah."
Then John lets drop the really big bombshell: "I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire."
Say it ain't so, John!
You can't be saying you're going to step down, give up the messianic crown? Why, you're the hottest thing in prophecy since -- well, since anyone can remember! Step aside? It's just not done! And who is this "one who is coming after you," anyway -- this mysterious newcomer, whose shoelaces you aren't worthy to untie?
But step aside John does. When he was an unborn child, Luke tells us, John had leapt in his mother's womb when she encountered her cousin Mary, who was bearing the baby Jesus. And now John's very heart leaps with joy at the prospect of giving up his place to the one who is the true Messiah.
Another gospel writer (himself bearing the name of John) tells it even more bluntly. Some of John the Baptist's disciples come to him asking, "What about this Jesus?" John responds with marvelous humility: "You yourselves are my witnesses that I have said, 'I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him' ... He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:28-30). Success. For John the Baptist, it isn't found in the size of the crowd, or the adulation of the multitude, or in how riled up he can get King Herod and the high priests. Success is found in serving the one who is coming after him: the Messiah, the Lord.
For us, though, defining the nature of success isn't so easy. Back when we were in high school, many of us thought we knew what success was. We voted for the student who was "Most Likely To Succeed." Many of us have had the experience of attending high-school reunions, and have discovered that the things we imagined, at age seventeen or eighteen, made for success were not the things that really did.
Much of the time, we define success in financial terms, and that is extremely problematic. The early twentieth-century American philosopher, William James, was highly suspicious of our national predisposition to portray success as anything with a dollar sign beside it. In a letter to H. G. Wells, James complained about "the moral flabbiness born of the worship of the ... goddess Success. That -- with the squalid cash interpretation put on the word success -- is our national disease."
Disease it may well be -- but many, many people today spend their lives trying to catch that particular ailment. And, sadly, most of them fail to achieve the lofty financial goals they've set for themselves. Although we live in the land of "the pursuit of happiness," for all too many of us Americans it's just that: a pursuit. Like greyhounds chasing a mechanical rabbit around the track, happiness is always just out of reach -- just around the corner of the next promotion, the next business deal, the next marriage.
There's no end, really, to the chase of the almighty dollar. Someone once asked John D. Rockefeller, "Mr. Rockefeller, how much money is enough?"
"Just a little bit more," he is said to have replied.
What was Jesus' idea of success? We can tell from the words he spoke at the Last Supper. Spread upon the table before him were bread and wine. "This is my body," he said, "broken for you ... This is my blood, shed for the forgiveness of sins."
That's an awfully strange way for a successful man to talk. His body broken, his blood poured out -- why, he sounds like a pathetic, miserable failure! "Eloi, eloi, lema sabachthani," he cries out upon the cross: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" The crowd, hearing him wrongly, jeers, "Listen, he is calling for Elijah." And they hold up a vinegar-soaked sponge on a stick, and taunt him, saying, "Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come and take him down."
Some success he is -- this one whose sandals John the Baptist is not worthy to untie!
But that's the very heart of the matter. This Christian gospel of ours turns the world's notion of success upside down. John the Baptist gives up his place to the one who comes after him. And the one who comes after him gives up his life for the sins of the world.
The next time we find ourselves wondering about success -- whether we'll be a success, or whether we've ever truly been -- let us consider this image of the crucified God. He comes to baptize us with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
Prayer For The Day
Lord,
we acknowledge and confess
that we spend much of our lives,
our energies,
our substance,
trying to be successful.
Today we see things clearly.
Today you are calling us not to be successful,
but to be faithful.
May we not soon forget it.
Amen.
To Illustrate
In the movie, The Apostle, a rough-around-the-edges country preacher, played by Robert Duval, is running from the law. He has just bludgeoned the youth pastor of his church to death because his wife was having an affair with him. He comes to a river, and -- contrite and repentant, but also a bit mad -- he baptizes himself in a river. He has already been baptized, of course, but he feels the need to do it again. He announces to God and no one else that he is baptizing and ordaining himself as an apostle. He then sets out, under a new identity, to continue the only work he knows, that of preaching -- although this time he will do it as a traveling evangelist.
It is the arrogant act of an arrogant man. Contrast it, though, to the baptism of Jesus. Jesus did not baptize himself -- even though, as one who knew no sin, it would have seemed more appropriate to our minds that he would have done so. Jesus, instead, seeks out John the Baptist and insists on being baptized by him. It is an act of humility, and also an act of solidarity with a community.
***
I like to consider this [his baptism] Jesus' first miracle: the miracle of his humility. The first thing Jesus does for us is go down with us. His whole life will be like this. It is well known that Jesus ended his career on a cross between two thieves; it deserves to be as well known that he began his ministry in a river among penitent sinners.
-- Dale Bruner
***
Many voices ask for our attention. There is a voice that says, "Prove that you are a good person." Another voice says, "You'd better be ashamed of yourself." There also is a voice that says, "Nobody really cares about you," and one that says, "Be sure to become successful, popular, and powerful." But underneath all these often very noisy voices is a still, small voice that says, "You are my Beloved, my favor rests on you." That's the voice we need most of all to hear. To hear that voice, however, requires special effort; it requires solitude, silence, and a strong determination to listen. That's what prayer is. It is listening to the voice that calls us "my Beloved."
-- Henri J. M. Nouwen, from Bread for the Journey (New York: Harper Collins, 1997)
***
Never let your failures go to your heart or your successes go to your head.
-- Anonymous
***
There is no limit to what can be accomplished if it doesn't matter who gets the credit.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
***
In my job as a caseworker to the mentally ill, I am called on to take some of my people to the county hospital emergency room or ambulatory clinic. It usually will take two to three hours waiting in the ER to be seen and it can up to six hours in the clinic. It is not very convenient to do this and I often find myself around people I might not feel very comfortable with, but it continually teaches me about humility and patience. If our legislators could spend time at the county hospitals that serve the low-income people they might be more forthcoming with health insurance for the poor. I wonder how many ministers have sat in some of these emergency rooms helping someone. Oh, we would rather leave that up to the chaplain or some other professional instead of volunteering some time of our own. But we are supposed to be willing to reach down and lift up the little ones.
-- Walter Norris, a caseworker for the Dallas County, Texas, Public Defender's Office, "Teaching Humility," in The Prism ePistle, July 20, 2005
***
Humble people don't think less of themselves. They just think about themselves less.
-- Norman Vincent Peale
***
In Fyodor Dostoevsky's famous novel, The Idiot, the title character is a certain Prince Myshkin, who is a misfit in many ways. His peers are very different from him. They are constantly striving for status and power. They judge each other on the basis of such things as money and appearance and family connections. In their world, there is little genuine friendship or intimacy.
Into this striving, self-seeking world walks Prince Myshkin. He "walks to a different drummer." He treats everyone -- rich or poor -- with equal respect and kindness. He has no hidden agenda, no need to dominate others. He is pure in thought, word, and deed. This means that, in the eyes of most people, he is a fool.
But Dostoevsky describes a strange phenomenon. The empty, cynical, status-seeking people who so easily ridicule Prince Myshkin are at the same time strangely drawn to him. The purity of his character attracts others as an outdoor lamp attracts moths at night.
Would that we could all be such idiots for Christ!
***
A wise, old Middle-Eastern mystic said this about himself. "I was a revolutionary when I was young, and all my prayer to God was: 'Lord, give me the energy to change the world.' As I approached middle age and realized that my life was half gone without my changing a single soul, I changed my prayer to: 'Lord, give me the grace to change all those who come into contact with me. Just my family and friends and I shall be satisfied.' Now that I am an old man and my days are numbered, I have begun to see how foolish I have been. My one prayer now is: 'Lord, give me the grace to change myself.' If I had prayed this right from the start, I would not have wasted my life."
-- Paul J. Wharton, Stories and Parables for Preachers and Teachers (Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1986), p. 31
