Voices in the Wilderness

Text

The New Revised Standard Version The Proclamation of John the Baptist

1 The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

2 As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,

“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,

who will prepare your way;

3 the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

‘Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight,’ ”

4 John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6 Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. 8 I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

The Baptism of Jesus

(Mt 3:13–17; Lk 3:21–22; Jn 1:29–34)

9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. 11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

Introduction: A Baptism Story

When I was born, I had a condition called a UPJ obstruction.

It required surgery almost immediately.

Naturally this is a pretty scary thing for any set of parents!

So the day of my surgery, my until then still Catholic father wanted to have me baptized.

There is no where in Scripture that suggests in an infant dies before being baptized that they wouldn’t be embraced by God.

But it was scary times, and my parents were looking for some comfort, so my dad called down to the front desk and asked for a priest to come by and baptize me.

So as origin stories go, I think it’s kind of neat that I was baptized by a priest at Forbes Hospital who happened to be in a tremendous rush because he was double parked, all the while my extremely Catholic grandmother screamed “He’s Catholic! He’s Catholic!”

Today is the day that the Church celebrates the baptism of Jesus, and so the question of what’s really at play in baptism is on the front of my mind.

Why do we celebrate this sacrament?

What does this sacrament do for us?

How does this sacrament affect us today?

Exegetical Work

Voices in the Wilderness

This story is set in the wilderness.

If I could, I would take you all with me to the wilderness right now.

Oh…wait!

(Switch shot to South Park Creek)

As odd as this might feel, this is the right place to be talking about baptism.

God does some of his best work in the wilderness.

Moses meets God in the wilderness

In Exodus 3, we see Moses tending his father-in-law’s sheep in the wilderness.

While he’s out there, he comes across a bush that’s on fire, but isn’t burning.

The voice of God comes out of the fire, and lets Moses know that he ought to remove his shoes, because he’s standing on holy ground.

The wilderness itself, where God is present, is holy ground.

Exodus, and the wilderness of Sin

Shortly after their escape from Pharaoh, the Israelites find themselves once again wandering in the wilderness.

In fact, Scripture tells us because of their hard-heartedness, the people of God spend 40 years wandering in the wilderness of Sin.

So from here on out, the wilderness becomes this kind of neat image in the language of Scripture.

When you see wilderness, you can count on either:

A people who have lost their way

God is about to do something

Both

Isaiah’s Voice of one Crying Out in the Wilderness

So later in the story, when God’s people are in Exile, the prophet Isaiah tells them that there will be a voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

People have lost their way.

God is about to do something in the midst of it!

John the Baptizer

Mark uses that scripture to kick things off here, because he sees what’s happening.

John is in the wilderness of Judea, by the Jordan River.

Humanity has surely lost its way.

God is about to do something in the midst of it!

Mark makes clear that this story is about something specific: Repentance and Confession of sins.

Sin and Repentance

We Presbyterians tend to think of Baptism of Children, and so we associate certain words and ideas with baptism:

Cute

Tame

Innocent

Adorable

John Calvin said that the Sacraments are an outward sign of an inward reality of grace.

The cleansing of the waters

The reason baptism, both John’s and ours, begins with water is because there is a recognition that we need to be cleansed.

When you are the parents of newborn twins, there is a very easy formula to follow when it comes to how often to celebrate bath time:

Are they dirty?

If yes, bath time.

If no, leave it until tomorrow.

There is no need to participate in the cleansing of baptism unless there is something for which we need to be cleansed.

I think far too many Christians have convinced ourselves that we are decent people.

We play nasty comparison games, thinking that if someone is worse than us, then we must be pretty ok.

We need to make sure that we are adopting a posture of humility and reality.

A posture of Humility

I am overwhelmed at the posture of humility that folks are displaying in this story.

John

As the one baptizing, and apparently huge crowds of people were showing up to prove he was pretty popular, he still knows where he stands.

The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.

Even with crowds, even with popularity, even with power, John know’s he’s not the real show.

The real show is coming.

Jesus

You may have been asking earlier, if we have no need of cleansing then there’s no need for baptism, why is Jesus here?

Theology nerds like me have debated this back and forth for centuries, and unless you are having a hard time sleeping I’ll spare you the details.

But I think what’s at play here is a posture of humility on Jesus’ part, as Jesus is identifying with his humanity.

In another story of the baptism, John tries to stop Jesus, but Jesus says “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.”

I think if we are baptized Christians, we too need to adopt the posture of humility.

We need to know our place in the story.

We need to know Jesus’ place in the story.

And we need to do so to make room for the work of the Spirit.

The Work of the Spirit

Mixed in with this whole story is who Francis Chan calls “The Forgotten God” for us Protestants, the Holy Spirit.

We don’t really love talking about the Holy Spirit, because it’s crazy super hard to understand the Spirit.

One of my confirmation students a long time ago said that writing that part of her statement of faith was like trying to nail ice cream to a wall.

But all the same, this is an important text for our understanding of the Triune God.

God is present in the Son, Jesus Christ.

God is present in the Spirit, descending on Jesus like a dove.

God is present in the voice of the Father.

All three persons are together at one spot in scripture.

The Spirit’s presence in this passage is to serve as advocate, to do what the Spirit is always doing, allowing communion between God and humanity.

So what does the Spirit have to communicate to Jesus?

You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.

The word for well pleased is Eudeokeo, which in the Greek is from the root Doxa, where we get our word Doxology.

To be well pleased with Jesus is to take glory in who Jesus is as a person.

Part of why I think Jesus engages in the practice of baptism is to give us an example to follow.

I think that sometimes it is vital for us as Christians to come in to the wilderness

Perhaps literal wildeness spaces like this one...

Or perhaps the wilderness in our own hearts.

…to hear what God has to say to us.

You…beloved son. Beloved Daughter.

With all your trying, succeeding, and failing.

With all your attempting to keep it together during a global pandemic.

With all your attempting to shine light in the darkness of this age.

With all the ways you feel like you might not measure up.

You are loved, and with you God is well pleased.

Practical Application

Know your place

John is crystal clean on his place in the story.

Jesus first, others second, myself third.

We as Christians must maintain a posture of humility.

To be a Christian is to put Jesus Christ in the first place in our daily lives.

To be a Christian is to put others ahead of ourselves, looking out to the needs of our neighbors, our brothers, our sisters, and the least of these around us before we look to our own needs.

To be a Christian is to also know our place of love and acceptance from the Creator God who’s marked us as his own.

Too often, Christians are seen as arrogant, or Holier than Thou.

Perhaps we have confused blessing with power.

Perhaps we have resolved that our way of life, and worship, and religion is the only correct way, and that even brothers and sisters of different denominations are in the wrong.

Or perhaps even we’ve taken the grace that God has gifted us for granted.

Whatever the case may be, we must hold a posture of humility, and not entitlement as baptized believers in Christ.

Give voice to the pain

We as Presbyterians engage in a weekly pattern of confessing our sins.

We join together in a unison prayer, confessing out loud before one another that we don’t have it all together.

We join together in silent prayers, to come before God and name our personal sins.

And we together hear an assurance that those sins are pardoned.

We do this because in reality, all sin is pain, and all pain is sin.

Whether we feel it or not in the moment, our sins both great and small do harm to the created order of God.

We hurt ourselves, we hurt others, and we hurt our God.

And in God’s perfect design, there should be no pain.

So on some level, any pain we feel is a result of sin, of the world not being how it ought to be.

When we confess our sin, we are acknowledging where we stand, but we are also giving voice to the pain of our lives.

And we can do so confidently knowing that God always draws near to bind up the brokenhearted, and to comfort us in our distress.

Remember your name

There’s an old pastor’s joke.

A pastor goes to visit with a parishoner in the dimensia ward.

The pastor says “Jane, do you know who I am?”

And Jane replies “No…but if you go to the desk and ask them I’m sure they’ll tell you!”

It is vitally important that we remember our names as Christians.

In Ephesians, Paul reminds us that we are adopted into the family of God, and that our inheritance is sure.

Which means that what God says to Jesus in this baptismal moment, he says to us.

Son. Daughter. You are loved. And God take pleasure in you.

Not for what you could be

Not for what you’ve been.

But for who you are right here, and right now.

Maybe you’ve always held on to that.

Maybe this pandemic has made it a bit more difficult to hear God’s voice.

Maybe we need to pay better attention to the voices thundering in the wilderness.

But it’s still true.

You are beloved. You are God’s. With you he is pleased.

X3