Homily for Sunday, 11 January 2015– The Baptism of the Lord

Readings of the day: Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7; Psalm 29:1-2, 3-4, 9-10; Acts 10:34-38; Mark 1:7-11

How many of us enjoy stories or real-life events with a hint of mystery; of suspense? Is not the mystery novel genre successful for this reason? We are given enough information by mystery writers to keep us in suspense, guessing at the final outcome: Which character or characters will ultimately solve the mystery? How will the mystery be solved?

Upon hearing the readings we hear today for this celebration of the Baptism of the Lord, I think the prophet Isaiah would have made an excellent mystery novel or suspense writer; Mark the Gospel writer not so much.

Isaiah presents us with a “servant” whom “the LORD” upholds; upon whom the LORD has put his own spirit. Who is this servant who is given God’s own spirit? Nobody is really sure. Later, Christians would identify Jesus as this servant, but Isaiah likely had in mind somebody who would deliver the people of Israel of his own time from exile in Babylon that they were experiencing. What is this servant’s mission? Isaiah says of this servant, speaking for God: “I, the LORD, have called you for the victory of justice.” What kind of justice is this servant called to promote? It is a gentle and patient justice, but one that will nevertheless change the hearts of the people; show the people by the servant’s deeds of justice who their source of life and love is. And who is our source of life; of love; of gentle and patient justice? There is little mystery in this question. We know that the source of life; of love; of justice is the LORD himself. The LORD will guide the actions of the mystery servant of God’s justice identified by Isaiah.

Mark, like Isaiah, gets his story of mystery and suspense off to a good start. Mark introduces an important (although, we find out later, secondary) character, John the Baptist. Now, if our goal were to write a thrilling suspense story, would it not be effective to begin with a weird man baptizing a great number of people in a muddy river, the Jordan, in the middle of a desert? And so we have our weird but somehow compelling and holy man in Mark’s mystery, John the Baptist. The mystery deepens with Mark’s introduction, through John, of another character in this story. Indeed, this character will be more significant to the events that follow than John is. “One mightier than I is coming after me,” John proclaims. “I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

If this were the television miniseries version of a suspense novel, this would have been an excellent “cliffhanger” ending to an episode: Weird but holy man baptizes in a river in the middle of a desert. He proclaims one to appear after him who is greater than he is; who will baptize not “with water” but “with the Holy Spirit.” Fade to end credits… Are we not in suspense? Who is this “one mightier than” John who is to appear?

But then poor Mark ruins the mystery for us much too soon. Spoiler alert: Mark says, “It happened in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John.” Way to go, Mark! Here perhaps is the reason why Mark became a Gospel writer, not a mystery writer.

The identity of the one “mightier than John” who baptizes “with the Holy Spirit” is no mystery; no surprise to us. The person John baptizes is Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, the source of our life and our love; God made human. St. Gregory Nazianzen, the brother of St. Basil, says this about the Baptism of our Lord: “The Spirit comes to [Jesus] as to an equal, bearing witness to his Godhead. A voice bears witness to him from heaven, his place of origin. The Spirit descends in bodily form like the dove… and so gives honor to the body that is one with God.”

But there is still mystery left to reveal in this event of Jesus’ baptism. Not only is Jesus’ “body” revealed as “one with God”; Jesus is revealed by his baptism as one with us, too. St. Gregory Nazianzen says this of what Jesus’ baptism means for us: “Christ is bathed in light; let us also be bathed in light. Christ is baptized; let us also go down with him, and rise with him… Jesus rises from the waters; the world rises with him.”

Jesus’ baptism reveals him to the world as both God and human, fully divine and yet fully one like us. Jesus’ baptism unites us to his own death and resurrection, at the core of the mystery of our salvation into which we are baptized. In Jesus’ baptism our source of life and love is made known to the world. But this is not an end; it is a beginning.

By Jesus’ baptism; by our baptism we begin our participation in making Jesus Christ, our life; our love; our salvation known to our world. The great mystery that we celebrate by this feast of the Baptism of the Lord, then, is not the identity of the person baptized by John in the Jordan. We know who this person is. Our Gospel identifies the person whom John baptizes: “Jesus… from Nazareth in Galilee.”

No, the great mystery of Jesus’ baptism, and ours, is this: What, in practice, does Jesus’ baptism mean for us? How do we make known our life and our love, the presence of Jesus Christ, to our world? How do we “baptize” our world in this life and love of God made human and baptized by John in the Jordan?

Our first reading from Isaiah and our second reading from the Acts of the Apostles give us some idea of how we might do this. In Acts, Peter invites his hearers to be mindful that “in every nation whoever fears [God] and acts uprightly is acceptable to him.” If, by our actions, we are like God, this will show by our kindness to all people; our love for all people, rich or poor, of whatever race or religion; regardless even of whether these other people love us and are kind to us in return. We will make Jesus’ presence known in our world if we are as impartial in our love as God is; if we, like Jesus, do “good” and “heal all those oppressed by the devil”; oppressed by other people; oppressed by extreme poverty; oppressed by violence. We do not need to be doctors or nurses to heal. To heal the suffering and oppressed; to make known and present our life and our love, Jesus Christ, in our world, we need only compassion. We are invited to suffer with those who suffer; to be joyful with those who are joyful; to forgive those who seek our forgiveness.

Isaiah never says who God’s mystery servant is, but he does say that the “servant whom” God upholds “shall bring forth justice to the nations.” Christians later identified this servant with Jesus, but what if this servant is us? What if we, as God’s servants, were to bring God’s justice to the world; God’s kindness, life, love, and healing to where it is most needed?

What a mystery, and not just a mystery we read in books or see on television, but a mystery we are living! Nobody, I think, will complain if the outcome of this mystery is revealed too soon. Spoiler alert: We have been baptized into Christ. We are God’s mystery servant, the servant of “the victory of [God’s] justice,” kindness, and healing; God’s “light to the nations.” Jesus Christ has been baptized in the Jordan. We are now invited to reveal the saving outcome of this mystery; to participate in Christ’s baptism and, from it, mission; to make God’s presence known in our world; to baptize our world in Christ, our life and our love.