Wild Child

The Baptism of the Lord 2008
(Isaiah 42: 1-9; Ps 29; Acts 10: 34-43; Matthew 3: 13-17)


It is rich beyond belief, this brief time in the church’s rhythm of worship: dreams in the night, a pregnancy before marriage, a third trimester donkey trip, an emperor taxing the poor, angels who sing, shepherds who shake, a baby in the straw, a star in the night, wizards who come, rich gifts in a shed, a killer king, mothers wailing, a family fleeing for its life.

And those are the stories. They have given birth to rich words and ideas. Incarnation and Epiphany—our attempts to put into words the meaning of the astounding stories that we have heard and taken into our hearts yet again.

Today—one more story. We fast-forward and leave behind all those lovely haunting stories of a mysterious child. Here the church serves up another image, a dreamlike tale of not an infant but a man, a young man filled with life and passion and fire, all the promise of a vibrant young person. We like to be around young people because we bask in that life and promise. Today we bask in the young life of promise that walks down to a river in the wilderness. The wild prophet John, the water-dunker, stands waiting. From the depth of Israel’s past we hear the lips of long-dead Isaiah breathe these words as the young man wades into the water, “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights.”

Whispered urgent words are exchanged—is this the right thing to do? Wonder and questions give way to water on skin. And a young man emerges from cool flowing Jordan and sees Heaven and Spirit and hears—not ten more commandments, but a simple message: Here is my Son. He is my Beloved. He pleases me so very much.

Stars and camels and stables have led to the Jordan. Why tell this story here and now? Is this what Christmas is all about?

This is what it is all about.

Here is God made flesh and flesh made God. Here is the one who is beloved. Here is the one who has come to serve. Both are true-beloved and servant. Each reveals the depth of the other. Jesus is beloved of the heart of God. See Jesus, see God’s heart. We see God’s humble servant heart. God-Word-servant-flesh is plunged into the river. At the first beginning God drew order out of the chaos of the primal water. This time God reaches into Jordan’s water and draws forth a new creation, the first wild child of the new humanity. River-water becomes birth-water, the first word he hears is “Beloved.”

We are plunged into the Jordan too. Jesus is our Baptismal sponsor and our fellow-candidate. We are plunged into cool Jordan and up we come again. We are the new creation. We hear those impossible words that many of us despair of ever hearing—you are beloved, God’s own heart. God is very pleased with you. Go with Jesus into the water and know the love of the heart of God. Come out with Jesus and be empowered to love and to serve. We are empowered—to turn from death and towards life and light. We are empowered, to taste and hear and see God in our flesh and in the flesh of others. We are empowered, to be the daughters and sons of the heart of God, to share in the delight and the joy and the sorrow and the heartbreak and the wild hope of the wisdom of God.

The haunting old story has led us here—water on our skin, God’s voice in our ears, the vital young Beloved at our sides. Did he know, that day at the river, where the path of God would lead? The story doesn’t say. He did know that he was called, beloved, made new. As we face the promise and the joy and the challenge of this year, can we ask for anything more?