"What Now?"
Mark 1:9-11
January 11, 2009
St. Paul United Methodist Church
Rev. John A. Fleming
A preacher I know reminded me of one of the great scenes in Pixar's movie, "Finding Nemo." I have probably watched the movie a million times, but I had forgotten this scene. It takes place at the very end of the movie, as the credits are beginning to roll. After a exciting journey across the sea, Marlin, Nemo's dad, has found his son. If you have seen the movie, then you know that Nemo ended up in a fish tank in a dentist's office in Sydney, Australia. Luckily the two lived happily ever after. The end.
Well, not exactly. The main story is over and a father and son have been reunited and changed by the experience, but there is another story that is just beginning. The fish that had helped Nemo escape from the tank managed to free themselves, too. While their tank is being cleaned, they manage to roll the plastic bags they are in across the counter, out the window, down the street, and into Sydney's harbor.
When the last fish reaches the water, there is cheering followed by a sigh of relief. Then there is silence. The reality of their situation has just hit them. They are bobbing in the water, still in their plastic bags. Bloat, the puffer fish, breaks the silence with a question. Just before the ending music begins, Bloat asks, "Now what?"
I have to tell you, that is a good question for today. The drama of Advent and Christmas is over. After their life changing adventure, Mary and Joseph are home. The angels have sung their song and have gone back up to the clouds. The shepherds have headed back to their fields, again watching the flock and the wise men are back in the East.
I love the lessons of Christmas. They make for great sermons. Last Sunday I asked you, along with the wise men, to take a new way home from the manger scene and now that you are making your way there, now what?
I think every January we realize something, something the holidays let us tuck under the tree for a while. We realize that after all the Christmas fuss, we are still waiting. The carols have been sung, the presents have been opened, the lessons have been read, and we are still waiting. We are waiting for the kingdom to come. We are waiting for the church to thrive. We are waiting for the world to be different. It just doesn't seem all that different. We seem to live in the same old world, with the same old people, struggling with the same old demons we have struggled with before and so we ask, now what?
In our lesson for this morning, Mark gives us his answer. Mark, you will remember, doesn't tell the Christmas story. His gospel begins in the chilly waters of the Jordan. He writes, "In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan." Mark's answer to the question, "Now what?" is "Now Jesus."
Jesus went to the Jordan that day and stood in line with everyone else to be baptized. Some have trouble with that. Barbara Brown Taylor says, "The place was teeming with sinners, faulty, sorry, guilty people who hoped against hope that John could clean them up and turn their lives around. They had no illusions of innocence. They had come to be cleaned and they knew that they weren't."
Jesus showed up and got in line with everyone else. Some have wondered why Jesus did that, why he submitted to a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Some have answered, "This is where Jesus will spend much of his life, in the midst of sinners, eating with them, talking with them, healing them, calling them, and restoring them." And so Jesus' baptism is no different than his life with them.
Jesus stood in line with everyone else, and when the time came, he went under the waters of the Jordan, just as the others had. I don't know if he looked heavenward before John plunged him into the water. Mark doesn't tell us if he did. Mark does tell us that when Jesus came up from those waters, wet from the Jordan, he did look up. According to Mark, this is what he saw, he saw the heavens torn apart, literally ripped apart, and he saw a dove descending and landing on him. There's no indication here that anyone else saw what Jesus saw.
I want you to see what I saw this week, something I had missed before. I love it when that happens. Matthew and Luke tell us that when Jesus was baptized, the heavens were opened. Mark writes that the heavens were torn apart. Mark chooses that word carefully. Maybe he had the prophesy of Isaiah in mind. Isaiah once pleaded with God, "Oh, that you would tear the heavens open and come down and make your name known to your enemies and make the nations tremble at your presence."
I have been thinking about this. There is a big difference between something that is opened and something that is torn. Something that is opened can be closed again without anyone really noticing the change, but something that is torn, well, try putting something like that back together. It will never be the same. It will always be different and maybe that is what Mark is trying to tell us. Now that Jesus has come into our world, now that he has stood with us in the waters of baptism, our life with him will be different.
A friend and former co-worker of mine shared her baptism story with me several years ago. She was brought up in the Assembly of God church. She went to youth group one Sunday night and to the worship service after it. She told me that there were three girls sitting on the back row of the church. She was one of them and when an invitation was issued, all three got up and walked to the front of the church and asked to be baptized. Then and there the three girls were baptized. When the service was over, they got in the car with two of their friends and went to get something to eat. She says the ones just baptized were sitting in the back seat together. Their hair was dripping wet. She said, "We were different. We didn't look like our friends. Our hair was dripping wet, but it wasn't just our hair that made us different. I felt different." Things for Anita were never the same.
Once we are baptized, things are not the same for us. The world may seem the same and our troubles may be the same. Do you remember what happened to Jesus just after his baptism? With his hair still dripping wet, the Spirit him led him out to the wilderness where he was tempted by the devil. The world may seem the same and the same troubles are still around, but we are different. Being baptized means that we aren't alone in our wildernesses, it means that God's love for us does not depend on us, and it means that God's grace doesn't wash off.
On this baptism of the Lord Sunday, we're asked to look at Jesus' baptism and to consider our own. On our way to a time of baptismal renewal today, let me give you a couple of things to take home with you. First, remember your baptism. When I say that in a sermon every year I know Susie is going to ask me about it when I get home. She will ask the question she often asks, "How can you remember your baptism? You were three months old when your baptism happened." Some can remember their baptism and some cannot. It was Martin Luther, the great reformer, who encouraged his flock to remember their baptism. Maybe that is where I got the idea. Whenever Martin found himself worried and overwhelmed, he closed his eyes, made a sign of the cross on his forehead, and said, "Remember that you are baptized." It was his way of remembering that he was a child of God.
I started doing a baptismal renewal on this Sunday in January several years ago. I am still amazed by the service. We will do it again and I will give you a small stone to remind you of your baptism. People tell me that they keep these stones in their pockets, on their windowsills, and on their computers. The stone is small, but it's a big reminder of who we are and that we are not alone. So first, remember that you are baptized.
Second, return to God. That is not a bad thing to remember today. A pastor I know tells of a woman who told her baptismal story. The church member was thirty or so now. She remembered being eight when someone gave her a book of Bible stories. She loved that book and read it over and over again. She read it so much that the pages were frayed. Her mother noticed that and was afraid that she was becoming fanatical about it. She took the book from her daughter. The girl remembers it being torn from her hands.
Not wanting to upset her mother, she left God's stories behind, all through her life. She graduated from high school and then college and soon her life was falling apart. Her career was going nowhere and the relationship she was in was ending. One afternoon she went home early. She walked into her apartment. She just wanted to think. She closed the blinds, put on some music, and stretched out on the floor. The room, she tells, was very dark. Suddenly light filled the room. The shades were still drawn and the light was not explainable, but it was everywhere. She says that the moment was a turning point for her. It was her first step back to the stories that had been torn from her hands. It was as if Jesus came through the torn and broken places of her life. Soon she was baptized and asked her new pastor for a strange favor. Near the font, could he put candles all around, symbolizing her turning point? He was happy to do that. As she was baptized, she remembered his words, "You are a beloved child of God."
Now what, friends. Now Jesus! Let us pray.
(Special thanks to the two preachers who helped me with ideas and stories for this sermon. The stones given out today are gentle and small reminders of God's big grace!)