I'm going to give you just a little refresher about the bible and the four gospels now before we talk more about this. We get the bulk of our information about the story of Jesus' life on earth, his death and resurrection from the four gospel books, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. All four of these writers tell the same basic story but we are blessed to have all of them and not just one because they were different people from different backgrounds and slightly different times and they experienced and understood things differently and that comes across in their writing. So we can look to different ones for different details, different emphasis and that kind of thing.
The gospel lesson for today comes from the writing of St. Mark and there are two really important things about how St. Mark experiences the baptism of Jesus. First this is like Christmas for Mark. Mark doesn't have any grand story about the birth of Jesus. There are no wise men, there is no stable, there is no Mary mild. That doesn't mean that those things didn't happen but what it might mean for Mark, is that the event equivalent to the birth of a Messiah, the coming of a newborn king, is Jesus' baptism in the river Jordan. For all of the gospel writers baptism is where Jesus begins his ministry but for Mark it is more, it is the event of new life, it is like Christmas.
In addition to being the only gospel writer who first introduces us to Jesus in this way, Mark is the only one who tells the story with God speaking directly and only to Jesus. It is as if everyone else fades into the background for the moment of Jesus' baptism and it is just him and God, looking down lovingly, only at Jesus saying you are my son the beloved with whom I am well pleased. This is the place in the bible where we get baptism from, this account of Jesus' baptism and I think it means something that St. Mark writes that Jesus had an encounter like this with God at his baptism.
Not everyone, not just anyone, but at the baptism of Jesus, Jesus encountered God. You might even be able to take this to a level where for Mark the birth of Christ that mattered was the new birth through water, the Holy Spirit and the very breath of God.
A friend of mine just had a baby and through the magic of the internet I was able to see pictures of her and this child almost immediately and, of course, because there were grandparents there, there were a lot of pictures! But the most striking ones, the most striking ones always it seems, are the ones right after the baby was born and it, the new baby is handed to it's new parents and it is as if everyone else, even the face behind the camera fades into the background and for a few moments it is just mother and father and baby and you can almost hear a voice, whispering, you are my child.
A similar thing just happened with some friends of mine who recently adopted some children. There are lots of pictures, pictures of the kids beforehand, pictures of the kids meeting their new parents for the first time before the adoption, pictures of them all playing and getting to know one another over some time but, if you ask me, the only picture that is needed of the whole process is the first one after they officially became a family and are all in their new home together looking dazed and in love and like a family. It is hard to even see anything else in the picture because the new life, the new family in the middle is so prominent, so decided and strong but tender and reassuring. Everything else just fades away and again you can almost hear a voice whispering, softly, you are are our children.
It was like that, that day in the Jordan. So many people around but they faded away and Jesus looked up and he heard, you are my son. It was like that too when each of us was baptized. For just a second everything else faded into the background and we heard, whether we remember it or not, softly, you are my daughter, or you are my son.
There is of course more the the story, there always is. In the case of this gospel writing, Jesus went into the desert and was tried and tempted after this. He wandered alone in the wilderness without food, without companionship and almost without hope. It was one of his most difficult times and it came right after this, one of his most affirming. Being a beloved child of God did not keep him from hard times, from trials and temptations, from pain, loneliness, hunger and suffering of all kinds but it did sustain him throughout. The text says that angels waited upon him and helped him to get through the trials but I wonder if more of what happened was that he waited on the Lord as he spoke those simple, familiar words to himself: "you are my son with whom I am well pleased. Over and over. If he remembered that moment, like in an old family photo of when you or your child or niece or nephew or grandchild was first brought home, and he knew, because of that moment that he was ever loved, and never alone especially once the abundance of water was gone and he found himself in a dry place with no glowing voice to speak to him and no crowd to gather to him.
This is why we are baptized not into Trinity Lutheran Church, not into American Christianity, not into Lutheranism, not even into our biological families but into God. Because we need to have that memory to look back on and that assurance to rest on, that even when things are at their most dry, their most scorching, we have been called beloved children of God in a moment that is just between us and our Father in heaven. This is the good news of the gospel lesson today and it is the good news into which we were baptized.
And because of that good news I would like for us all to stand now and take a moment
to remember our baptisms. This is a version of the prayer of thanksgiving that is
part of our baptismal rite:
Blessed
are you, O God, maker and ruler of all things. Your voice thundered
over the waters at creation. You water the mountains and send springs
into the valleys to refresh and satisfy all living things.
Through the waters of the flood you carried those in the ark to safety.
Through the sea you led your people Israel from slavery to freedom.
In the wilderness you nourished them with water from the rock, and
you brought them across the river Jordan to the promised land.
By the baptism of his death and resurrection, your Son Jesus has carried
us to safety and freedom. The floods shall not overwhelm us, and the
deep shall not swallow us up, for Christ has brought us over to the
land of promise. He sends us to make disciples, baptizing in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Pour out your Holy Spirit; wash away sin in this cleansing water; clothe
the baptized with Christ; and claim your daughters and sons, no
longer slave and free, no longer male and female, but one with all
the baptized in Christ Jesus, who lives and reigns with you in the
unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
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