12th
Sermon - Let’s Start at the Very Beginning
11 January 2009 - Baptism of the Lord
In its witty and soulful telling of a journey home, the film O Brother, Where Art Thou makes constant reference to Homer’s classic epic poem The Oddessey. This Coen Brothers’ movie is one of my favorites, featuring George Clooney as Everett Ulysses McGIll an escaped convict with two goals: saving a $1.2 million booty from a bank heist hidden at a place that will be flooded in just 4 days and saving his marriage and family that is threatened by the engagement of his wife (and mother of his seven children) to a more bona fide man.
The action takes place in the Mississippi delta in 1937; and the real hook of the film, besides the wonderful soundtrack, are the great characters that Everett encounters on his journey. The first of these characters are Delmar and Pete, who must accompany Everett from the start because the three of them had been shackled together on the chain gain. Delmar is a loveable dim-wit, while Pete is bad-tempered; they are the perfect foil to Everett, who is dapper and silver-tongued
The planned flooding of Everett’s homestead to create a TVA-style hydro-electric plant is the constant doomsday clock that drives the action through obstacles of Cyclopean Bible Salesman, a gubernatorial campaign and a KKK rally, just to name a few. One of the most memorable scenes deals with a different kind of flood
First, there is the baptism of Pete and Delmar. Delmar goes first, finding himself drawn into a river, breaking in line with a procession of white-robed church-goers as a preacher immerses each of them backwards into the muddy water.
Pete, who has been taking it all in from the river bank, says, “Well, I’ll be. Delmar’s been saved.”
Delmar leaps with joy in the water. “Well, that’s it boys,” he cries. “I’ve been redeemed! The preacher done washed away all my sins and transgressions, the straight and narrow from here on out, and heaven everlastin’ is my reward!
Delmar is beside himself with relief. “The preacher says all my sins is washed away, including that Piggly Wiggly I knocked over in Yazoo.”
A skeptical Everett says, “I though you said you was innocent of those charges.” “Well, I was lyin’,” Delmar said, “and the preacher says that sin’s been washed away too. Neither God nor man’s got nothin’ on me now.” And then throwing his arms up, he shouts, “Come on in boys, the water’s fine!”
This morning, as we gather to celebrate Jesus’ baptism in the River Jordan, we also remember that we have joined a long line of church-goers who have been baptized. For most of us, this has not been as radical a conversion experience as depicted on so many Hollywood films; if you are like me, your baptism occurred while you were still an infant. Yet, on this Sunday and others we are implored by the liturgy to “Remember our baptism and be thankful.” Today we do so while also remembering Jesus’ own baptism.
Jesus’ came to John for baptism, joining a long-line of seekers and repenters who had gathered around this powerful hermit of a preacher. He is the one foretold by Isaiah, a voice in the wilderness shouting, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord,” and “repent, the time is at hand!” As we heard from this morning’s Gospel lesson, John is a lot more popular than Jesus at this point in their lives. Mark’s Gospel even begins as though it might be John who is more significant than Jesus, and at other points in scripture we see that John still has his own followers who create a sort of rivalry between the two camps of Jesus and John.
It has always been a bit of a puzzle to explain why Jesus is baptized by John. In other Gospels, great care is shown to have John himself protest their roles of baptizer and baptized, but Jesus tells him to go forward with the act. Jesus may not have been in need of personal repentance, but he still enters into the water to be baptized by John.
Water is a starting point for Jesus, just as it was for all creation in Genesis. Throughout scripture we find that water marks a new beginning in the life of the faithful, from the creation of the world, to Noah and the flood; from Moses leading the people out of Egypt through the Red Sea, to Joshua leading the people into the promised land through the Jordan River. Just as the snow outside gives us a brief glance at what it might mean to have a fresh start, water is a symbol of grace: the great loving power of God that is constantly offering us the opportunity to “Start at the very beginning.” Water in scripture is also the water of the womb of God, a source of new birth.
At creation, God moves over the face of the water, and the scene of Jesus in the Jordan River offers a recollection of that event. As Jesus comes out of the water of baptism, the heavens are opened and God’s spirit descends like a dove. Here is a moment of new creation, of God breaking into our world. Here is our first experience of our God as trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God’s own voice confirms it, addressing Jesus, but somehow also addressing you and me: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
For the writer of Mark’s Gospel, this is the proper way to start the story of Jesus (he doesn’t have any of that Christmas stuff in his first chapters). Instead, Jesus is plunged directly into public ministry. Baptism is Mark’s birth narrative.
I think we could argue with Mark that baptism is the very beginning. It is our initiation into the redemptive work of God, both for our individual lives and for our world. In fact, our baptism marks us as partners with God in working for the salvation of our world. The waters of baptism are the starting point for our faith, as affirmed by our United Methodist rituals for marrying, burying and Holy Communion.
As a minister, participating in baptism represents the moment of single most priviledge. Whether I am baptizing an infant whose parents are taking the vows on their behalf, or an adult who can take the vows for themselves, each baptism is a moving, powerful moment in our life together as a church. If you have not been baptized, I urge you to speak to me about it. Baptism is a sacrament through which God achieves God’s act of salvation, that’s not to say God cannot act to save those who have not been baptized, but that this is a central part of who we are as Christians,
Which is why we are told to “remember our baptism and be thankful.” In this act of remembrance and thanksgiving we are stated that God has a claim on our lives; that God has not only given us our name, but has called us by that name into ministry in and to our broken world. Baptism marks our entering into covenant with God, which means we make promises and have responsibility to God, just as God make promises and has responsibility to us.
In our movie, O Brother, Where Art Thou, the Soggy Bottom Boys—as they become known—find themselves twice more at the water’s edge. Once it is after giving into the seduction of the sirens’ song: three beautiful washer-women who ply them with strong drink and seemingly turn Pete into a frog. And at the place of the treasure. The object of the Boys’ odyssey has shifted by the film’s end, it is no longer the $1.2 million that Everett seeks, but his wife’s wedding ring which is in the drawer of the bureau deep in the valley that will soon be the bottom of a lake. They are met at the spot of this treasure by Sheriff, executioner and freshly-dug graves. The pardon given them by the governor has no persuasive power on the lawmen. This seems to be the end of Everett, Delmar and Pete, until the ground begins to shake and water appears, first as a trick and then as a deluge. The flooding has begun and it’s the only thing that could have saved them from their demise. The movie closes with Everett starting at his own beginning, courting the woman he had married with seven kids in tow.
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Here is our moment of beginning: at the waters of our own baptism. Here is the moment of God’s new creation. This is our odyssey home. “Come on in boys, the water’s fine!” While our national conversation includes talk of another WPA or TVA, the works-progress that is promised to us is rooted in the work of God’s Holy Spirit washing over us, giving us a new beginning and inspiring us to discipleship: the meaningful work of partnering with God to minister to the world around us. Remember. Be Thankful.
AMEN.
