Plowed and Drowned
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Have you taken a look at the ground that’s been broken in our parish’s back yard, out by the playground? It’s difficult to see it now, of course, but late in the fall Eileen Wilkinson and Renee Ruder established the plot for the garden we’ll develop next year to provide veggies to soup kitchens and to programs for senior citizens. This is a hands-on project of our Mission Committee, and Renee and Eileen have taken a huge leap in establishing the plot.
The ground has been turned over and the old turf removed. Stones have been cleared out of the soil and railroad ties have been moved in to delineate the garden’s borders. Next spring the soil will be worked again and this time Renee will bring in her chickens to eat up all the grubs that would otherwise threaten our crops.
Now I want us all to hold onto this description of our new garden for the rest of this sermon. Because I’m going to make the point that being baptized is a lot like being plowed under, turned over, being readied for the growth to come.
Today’s gospel gives us Matthew’s version of Jesus’ baptism. Each one of the gospels alludes to the baptism of Jesus but only Matthew worries with the apparent paradox of the Sinless One receiving John’s baptism of repentance. The best explanation I could find for why Jesus needed to be baptized was that in doing so, Jesus was obeying his Father. Note that the text says “he came to be baptized.” That implies that Jesus was coming to John in order to do what he was told to do.
In being baptized Jesus “offered himself as the answer to John’s call for all people to repent.” [Steven D. Driver, in Feasting on the Word, p. 238] Jesus is the way of repentance; faith in him demands a turning away from the not-good and a turning toward the good. He is our exemplar. So in this way I think it makes a little more sense. Jesus offers himself as one to be emulated and followed, beginning at baptism.
Jesus went into the water fully and then came out changed, audibly blessed by God the Father and anointed by the Holy Spirit. In many places in the Bible we have instances where people pass through water and emerge different. They emerge reborn or reoriented. They are changed. It’s as if emergence in the water is a kind of death to the old person and the re-emergence out of it is a conferring of new life.
Can you think of any of the instances in the Bible where passing in or over water marks a change? I came up with Noah, whose passage over the flood marked him as God’s new chosen one; Jacob, who wrestles with the man/angel on the banks of the River Jabbok and limps away with a stronger understanding of God’s provision; the Hebrews who gained more understanding that they were God’s Chosen People by passing through the Reed Sea while Pharaoh’s army drowned; and Jonah, who emerged from the belly of the big fish a changed man, a prophet who had no trouble obeying God’s call and being honest with God after his ordeal.
And it is also true of Jesus. After his immersion in river water he emerges with a strong blessing from God. From what we read in the gospels he’s given a deeper understanding of his mission from this time forward. And what is his mission? It’s what we hear over and over in the book of Isaiah and particularly in today’s reading. Jesus fulfills the prophet’s idea of who Messiah is to be. He is to bring forth justice in the world. He is to be meek. He is to teach. And he will be crushed.
He is to bring forth justice. And this is a part of our mission, too. We are to bring forth justice, to work so that oppression of people nearby and far away is a thing of the past. To dedicate our lives to bringing God’s word to others so that healing and reconciliation of peoples may occur. To work and to give so that wealth will no longer be so concentrated that its imbalance causes suffering.
This may sound radically Socialist in tone. It is.
Our prayer book says it well. On page 855 of the BCP we read, “What is the mission of the church?” And the answer is: “The mission of the Church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.” And then it goes on to ask: “How does the Church pursue its mission?” “The Church pursues its mission as it prays and worships, proclaims the Gospel, and promotes justice, peace and love.” “Through whom does the Church carry out its mission?” “The Church carries out its mission through the ministry of all its members.”
ALL its members—that’s you and me and everyone who is baptized. Our purpose in this life, as baptized Christians, is to worship, to pray, to share the Gospel, and to work for justice, peace, and love.
We’re given this purpose at our baptism, whether or not we’re old enough to realize it. It’s at our Confirmations that we publicly take this purpose on for ourselves. We pass through the water and the old person dies with Christ. We come out of the water and we are changed.
Our baptisms prepare us for this huge mission by making us good ground, turned over by the Holy Spirit, in which vital things can grow—if we let them. We grow in the Spirit, in holiness, only by allowing the growth. Our baptism gets us ready, and then we allow the growth, we allow the seeds to sprout within and the good things to develop. We say yes, by the grace given us in baptism, to the growth that desires to burst forth within us.
This is the change that baptism brings about in us.
Now, back to how John the Baptist resisted baptizing Jesus . . . After Jesus gave him reassurance that it was all right, that it somehow was a good idea, then John consented. Our ability to consent is one of the astonishing huge gifts of God to us at our creation. Also called freedom to choose or free will, we are graced with the ability to consent or decline God’s advances. And God respects our ability to say “no” or to push back first. And that’s because God knows that a decision made in freedom is a decision well made.
Almost all of us here have been baptized. We’re like plots of ground that have been readied for planting. And we can say yes to the planting or no the planting. We can foster growth or we can remain barren.
We’re invited to open up to how God desires to cultivate us as we go about living out our commission from God to worship, to pray, to share, and to work. And we’re invited to do this in community, because it’s clear that we help each other to grow when we come together.
Growth is so much slower in isolation. It happens best here in this body, not on the soccer field, not at work, not on the golf course or the sledding hill or at the beach. There are times for these wonderful activities. And there is a time for worship, for the renewal of faith, and for the gaining of strength for the work ahead.
So remember your baptism. Give thanks for the gift of growth that’s there for us. And give thanks for water, the material sign of our being made ready for new growth. Water drowns us, it washes us, and it brings us new life.
Amen.
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