The Baptism of the Lord, Year B

The Spirit Working in Us

Readings: Genesis 1:1-5; Psalm 29; Acts 19:1-7; Mark 1:4-11

Yesterday the Feast of the Epiphany, the visitation of the Magi to the Holy Family, and the Sundays that follow it celebrate the revealing of God's incarnate self to humanity, the unfolding of the great mystery of the Incarnation. It is an unfolding, not only to the people of Israel, but also to the whole world.

Today we are focusing on the Baptism of the Lord. It is a fitting celebration as we bring Isaac into the body of Christ through baptism and renew our own baptismal promises. We read in Scripture of how God is revealed to us through the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives. In the Old Testament reading, the spirit is revealed as “a wind from God which swept over the face of the waters.” The creating spirit of God hovered over the waters, the source of life. In the reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Paul points out to the people of Ephesus that the Holy Spirit should have been the great gift of their baptism. He is surprised to find their lack of understanding at how God is revealed. He wants them to experience the Holy Spirit in their lives as a gift of grace. Finally in the Gospel, God is made manifest through the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River.

The Jews were constantly looking for God’s revelation. But they came to a time in their spiritual life as we all do when God seemed not to be present with them. As God became more and more absent in their lives, they looked back with yearning to the days of the prophets when God had been very much a part of their experience. They felt as if the Holy Spirit had been absent since those days. The voice of God which had spoken to the prophets was heard now only as an echo. They looked for the time when the sky would be opened and God would once more speak directly to the people.
And then it happened. Jesus came to John to be baptized. The heavens opened. The dove hovered over him. God called out words of affirmation. “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” Clearly in Mark’s Gospel the voice is Jesus’ personal experience. The onlookers are unaware of what is happening. But we who read the Gospel are to understand it as a revelation, an epiphany, a manifestation to us, the people of God. Through it we are to understand Jesus’ unique relationship to God, and his call to ministry.

But we are called to understand far more. For this incident in our Lord’s life is within the experience of each of us. We are intended to experience that same descent of the dove in our lives. We are to experience God’s presence in our lives. How is God revealed to us? Where for us is the deep sense of peace, the sense that our wills and that of God are in harmony? Where is the sense of a presence from whom we receive affirmation of our call to ministry?
When I was leaving my teaching position to prepare for ordination my colleagues had a farewell for me. One of my good friends gave me a lovely gift, a glass swan on a mirror. She explained that it was intended as a ‘marker’. Her mother had always marked special occasions in her life, graduation, changes in her job and so on, with something that she could treasure and keep. She wanted me to have such a marker for my own life. I do treasure that keepsake that she gave me. Yet I know that in my life is a far more significant ‘marker’, one that in pursuing ordination I was attempting to live out. For at my baptism I was marked with the sign of the cross and made Christ’s own forever.

So I want to remind the Harper’s as they bring Isaac for baptism, that from today on there is a marker in his life. I want to remind them first of all that baptism is a sacramental act. There is an outward and visible sign, the water that is used to remind us of our need to be renewed, to be cleansed, to die to sin, to be reborn. But there is also that invisible ‘marker’, that inward and spiritual grace that is given and that carries us throughout our lives.

In one of the parishes I served, I baptised a four year old. He came to the preparation. One of the things that I showed him was the oil of chrism that I would use on his forehead. I said that it would become a marker in his life, a permanent reminder of his baptism. That made an impression on him, for a couple of years later he showed me his forehead and asked if I could still see the marker. As we are baptised we become part of the new life in Christ. We share in Christ’s power through the baptismal covenant. We are called by baptism to serve. It is, in effect, our ordination, a beginning of our ministry.

At baptism we are promised God’s gift of grace working in our lives. However, like the Ephesians we may not even be aware that there is a Holy Spirit at work in our lives. What is more, our lack of commitment to spiritual things may make it difficult for others to see God in us. We separate the Spirit from our mainline faith traditions, relegating it to the naïve or to certain denominations. Oh! We trot the Spirit out at Pentecost! But we are suspicious of people who are overly enthusiastic about the faith. We are suspicious of people who study scripture, who pray, and who share their faith. Or we think that we simply do not know enough about our faith to share it with anyone and we are certainly not going to expose our lack of knowledge by attending a Bible Study or a Prayer meeting.

How do we recover that sense of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit as the source of our gifts? We need to experience the Holy Spirit at work in us with the understanding that such encounters with God are God’s gift to every Christian. We need to expect that God will meet us in our everyday lives. God is constantly revealed to us and in us to others. Each new discovery takes us deeper into relationship with God. It is not about knowing everything there is to know about God; it is about knowing God. What a great thing that is to experience in our lives!

No matter at what stage of our Christian life we may be, there is possible a deeper encounter with God who waits to enter our experience. We must be prepared to search and to be open to such a possibility. We cannot be self-satisfied. We must journey into a maturing and deepening spirituality. Each new discovery takes us deeper. It becomes a new beginning, a new birthing, a renewal of our baptism.

In a few minutes we will welcome into the body of Christ our newest member, Isaac. As his parents and sponsors promise on his behalf, we will renew our baptismal covenant. May it bring to us that deep sense of peace, that sense that our wills and that of God are in harmony, that sense of the presence of God in our lives, and our willingness to become all that God calls us to be. May it be a time when we understand that we are beloved children of God! May it be an epiphany for each one of us! Amen.

Baptism of the Lord, Year A

Treaty as Covenant

Readings: Isaiah 42:1-9; Psalm 29; Acts 10:34-43; Matthew 3:13-17

You in Orono live, as many Canadians do, on Treaty land. In fact, you live under the same treaty as I do in Port Hope. This community is part of Treaty 20 known as Surrender M. It consists of almost two million acres of land for which the British paid $10 in goods to each person. And so I begin this sermon by acknowledging the First Nations in whose territory we live and express my thanks for this opportunity to meet here today.

This series of sermons is intended to help educate this congregation about the process of truth and reconciliation. How will we share in the ministry? How will we honour the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission? My intention in this sermon is to focus on our Baptismal Covenant and how it calls us to that ministry. It is no accident that I focus today on our Baptismal Covenant. This Sunday celebrates the Baptism of the Lord. Baptism for Jesus was an encounter with the Holy Spirit that led him into a life of ministry. We like Jesus encounter the Spirit in our baptism. How do we live out that encounter? We do it by affirming the promises of our baptism. We revitalize our sense of mission, our sense of what we are called to through baptism. We live in an age of fulfillment. Jesus came; he was baptised by John. He was filled with the Spirit. He entered into mission with us. We are redeemed and reconciled. We are charged with the task of being "a light to the nations…." And whatever our avocation – that which we do to feed and clothe our bodies – our vocation is to serve God, to emulate Christ, to witness through word and deed and to communicate God's love and grace. That is our baptismal call. That is the promise that we made, or that was promised on our behalf in our baptism.

Following this sermon, we will renew our Baptismal Covenant. One of the questions that I will ask is, “Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?” It is an important question as we focus on this issue. One of the vocations of contemporary Christian life and witness is to shed light in human society on issues to which many are blind. We Anglicans have a history with our First Nations people of being, not only blind to, but also complicit in the abuse that has taken place. It is important for us to know and understand the history, but even more important to find ways to bring God’s justice to our First Nations brothers and sisters who have been so hurt.

Today as we renew the promises of our baptism, let us consider what our mission is. What is God calling us to do? How can we respond to that call? How can we learn and grow and be transformed by God's love? The heart of the Christian faith is that by baptism each of us is brought into intimate relationship with a loving God. The simple fact is that you are God's beloved son or daughter. It is for each of us to claim that and to live in the joy and confidence of it. Then we will follow Christ with the conviction that we are following God's design and destiny for our lives.

I see a deep correlation between Covenant and Treaty. When our First Nations people were “discovered” by European explorers some five hundred years ago, their communities were based on values of freedom, equality and the worth and dignity of the individual human being. If that sounds rather like our baptismal covenant, consider these facts. Our First Nations people helped the early explorers survive the hardships of our northern climate. They cured the settlers of scurvy. They treated the newcomers with respect. That is the foundation for the peace and friendship treaties negotiated and finalized with the Europeans. The treaties recognized the sovereignty and nationhood of Aboriginal peoples. Both sides agreed to respect each other’s territories, cultures and political systems. They agreed to share the land and its resources.

Unfortunately that is a far cry from what occurred. We have not honoured the treaties. We have not respected the territories. Rather we have taken the best for ourselves and relegated the First Nations people to the leftovers. Rather than experience the peace and friendship between nations that the original treaties envisaged, First Nations people have experienced violence and dislocation. Their nationhood has not been recognized. We have not respected their culture. In fact, our policies have been designed to deprive them of their land and assimilate them into our culture. Generations of systematic racism and government policies stripping them of their rights have left them amongst the most vulnerable and marginalized members of society.

So how must we as Christians understand treaty? It has similarities to Covenant, and we believe ourselves to be people of the Covenant. In an article by Stan McKay, a “Treaty Indian” from Saskatchewan, he speaks about it as a covenantal relationship.

“When the treaty party arrived in the Qu’Appelle Valley,” he says, “they were met by First Nations leaders who then left after initial conversations. They went away for ceremonies and prayer. The government officials grew impatient, but the First Peoples returned to complete the process. The elders had guided the leaders to understand that the agreement through treaty was a tripartite project. It involved the Creator, the Queen’s representatives and First Peoples. We have spoken often about the spirit of the treaties and have maintained that it is much more than a legal document. We are bound by a covenant.”

He goes on to explain that if you look at covenant in the Old Testament it follows the same pattern. The covenant in with Noah in the Book of Genesis is between “all living beings, and all birds and all animals”. God makes an everlasting covenant with creation, a binding promise between God, creation and Noah.

He also notes that the Queen’s representatives did not hold the treaties as sacred documents, but as a means to gain access to the land.

The Old Testament reading from Isaiah speaks about God’s servant, God’s chosen. The intention is to introduce Israel as God’s servant. For Christians the portrait drawn is of Christ. He has the task of being a light to the nations, of opening blind eyes, of bringing prisoners out of bondage, and feeding and clothing the poor and hungry. It points out our need for justice that goes far beyond our human understanding of justice.

That is what the story of Jesus’ baptism is all about. Jesus, the righteous one insists on being baptised by John. God’s covenant, God’s promise to humankind, God’s promise to all of creation, is captured in that moment. The covenant is renewed. And Jesus begins his earthly ministry of healing and reconciliation.

And is that not the purpose of the Church? We are called to be a servant community. We are to pursue justice until it is brought to the ends of the earth. So let us hear ourselves as the servant, the chosen of God. Let us know that God’s Spirit is in us. We are redeemed and reconciled by the Spirit. We are called to follow Jesus who is sent by God. We have the task of being light to the nations, of opening blind eyes, of bringing prisoners our of bondage, and feeding and clothing the poor and hungry. Our baptismal ministry is to serve God by emulating Christ through witness in word and deed. That is how we communicate the love of God to all. Especially let us be agents of healing and justice for the First Nations people of our land. Amen