1 Epiphany – George Yandell
The account of the baptism of Jesus begins a pattern in the ministry of Jesus we don’t take seriously enough: Jesus continually pushes those in his kingdom movement to serve. Stanley Hauerwas says John was calling Israel to repentance as a nation. Jesus is all about Israel turning to God, because the kingdom of heaven, where the poor are blessed, is coming. [Adapted from an article in the “Christian Century”, January 2023 issue.] He doesn’t limit the power of God to his own ministry. Matthew’s story of the baptism, when set with the other gospel accounts, offers a subtle but powerful pattern: the grounding, the program of the Messiah, is imbuing power to all those who come after Jesus to continue God’s mission of bringing new life. [ibid]
When John the baptizer protests that he should be baptized by Jesus and not Jesus by him, it foreshadows what will come further on in the gospel: Jesus demurs claiming for himself messiah-like authority and power, as many expected the messiah to do. John wants to reverse the action about to take place. The messiah Jesus intends John to continue his own work; Jesus expects to carry out his mission alongside John. Jesus intends them both to serve the earth rather than ruling it. [ibid] His passion for God means he takes the form of a servant, as Paul says in Philippians. He is a different messiah than most expected.
Jesus insists regularly from this point on that the power to heal the world is from the Holy Spirit. Jesus builds his mission by submitting to the Spirit’s power then sharing it with all who come to him, multiplying its effect. [ibid] As the Acts reading has it, Peter says, “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears god and does what is right is acceptable to God….The message God sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all.” // Jesus is Lord of all people.
Dom Crossan has said that John the baptizer was ritually re-enacting the Hebrew people crossing the river Jordan into the promised land after the death of Moses. [Notes from lecture at Calvary Church, Memphis, Feb. 27, 2008.] So all those who came out into the wilderness to the Jordan River and were baptized by John were crossing over into a new promise. They entered a new expectation through the water of the Jordan.
Recognizing Jesus as the reason for his baptizing ministry must have made John shake with amazement and wonder- the holy Spirit had moved him to initiate his baptizing movement, and in front of him was the one for whom he was preparing. For John, Jesus himself WAS the promised new kingdom of God.
The spirit that Jesus imbues is not limited to his own band of followers. Holy Spirit work is diffused and more radical than we in the Church often care to admit. We don’t have a franchise on the good news and its action of renewal and grace. Sometimes the ‘greater things’ that Jesus foretells that his colleagues will do, is done for and at the hands of outcasts or those outside the circle of belief: tax collectors, Roman soldiers, Samaritans. Those of us who are baptized and regularly come to the table and know we are beloved by God don’t have an exclusive franchise on the Holy Spirit’s kingdom work.
We should expect that words and actions of truth, justice and healing will be spoken outside our walls for us to see and hear. Deeds pleasing to God will be carried out by those who don’t worship with us nor follow our program of ministry. Whenever we think we’ve established the turf for doing Jesus’ work, the Holy Spirit sets up camp just beyond our program’s reach. [Christian Century article adapted.]
Once I was taught a lesson about exclusive claims to ministry. I was a young priest, the vicar of St. James the Less Church in Madison, TN, a suburb just north of Nashville. I was confronted by a Seventh-Day Adventist pastor in a clergy meeting. The group of us met regularly to pray and carry out mutual ministry. We were planning the annual community Thanksgiving service and deciding who we should invite to participate. Someone suggested we invite Ira North, the pastor of the world’s then largest Church of Christ- the conservative group sometimes called Cambell-ites. That gigantic Church was two miles from where were meeting in the Roman Catholic Church. I piped up, “We don’t need to invite him, he’ll never come- his congregation looks down on the rest of us as not being true Jesus followers.” The Adventist pastor said, kindly, “George, I’ve discovered I need to be with folk most different from me to see how God works through them. I vote we invite Ira to participate in the program.” And all of us voted to invite Ira and his congregation to participate. I never forgot what the Adventist pastor told me.
If every Baptized Christian is to be a minister of God’s unending blessing on all creation, then we take our bearing from the promises made in our baptisms. They direct us to be as deeply immersed in the world as Jesus is. [ibid] Our baptisms open us to God’s kingdom work, whoever does it. Our baptisms drive us to cooperate wherever the Spirit inspires people to submit to the Spirit’s power. The program of Jesus demands we share the work of the Holy Spirit with all who are placed in our path, multiplying its effect. Let us renew our Baptismal Covenant on page 292 of the Prayer Book.