It's the Water -- A Lectionary Reflection
It’s the Water,
and a Lot More
It’s the beginning of Lent, a
journey that takes us from temptation to temptation, from grief to death. It’s a time of reflection and for letting go
of distractions and obstructions. Some
of us do better at this than others. I
must confess to a lack of discipline in these things, and Lent has been no
different than any other season. But the
invitation to allow God access to our lives so that we might be reconciled and
renewed is there. Here is an invitation
to join Jesus in the wilderness, where trust in God is essential.
Reference is made in each of these lectionary texts to water,
which as we know is the foundation for life.
Without it life is, it appears, impossible. This is why astronomers search the heavens
looking for planets that might have water, and thus the promise of life. We know that our carbon-based bodies are made
up primarily of water, and so without water there’s little left except
chemicals. Thus, water is, so to speak, our
life-blood.
Water is the thread that connects these three texts, taking
us from the story of Noah to Jesus’ own baptism at the hands of John, with a
stop to reflect on the salvific effects of the baptismal waters. What we learn is that God is at work in the
midst of these waters, not washing away dirt, but drawing humanity into the covenant
community. Water is, for Noah and for
Jesus, the starting point for a journey into the presence of God, and in 1
Peter, baptism is linked to the Noah story, serving as “mark of a good
conscience toward God.” Thus, as we
begin our Lenten journey, we begin in baptism, which ushers us into the
covenant community.
Although baptism doesn’t figure directly into the Genesis
passage, the fact that the author of 1 Peter appeals to Noah’s experience with
the Flood, which serves as a metaphor for baptism, connects the Noah story to
the other texts. Baptism is for Christians
one of the two foundational sacraments. We may vary in our theologies and our
practices, but whether applied at the beginning of life or at some later time
of accountability, Baptism serves as a sign of reconciliation and inclusion
into the covenant community of God.
To provide a theological context to consider the relationship
of these texts to baptism, I want to point to an invitation given to Disciples
of Christ to deepen their theology of baptism.
In a book edited by Keith Watkins, we hear this word:
Through the signs of water and word, God is reaching out to humanity to join us to God’s own self. It is this transcendent aspect of Christian baptism that has taught us a truth we did not initiate, and that bids us into covenant partnership with God-in-Christ through baptism. In the preamble to our Design, we affirm along with the whole church in every time and place that baptism is ours only as a gift. [Keith Watkins, ed., Baptism and Belonging, (Chalice Press, 1991), pp. 16-17].
With this
thread in mind we turn to three texts that introduce us to the Lenten
journey.
If you grew up in the church, as did
I, you were introduced to the Noah story early on. You probably didn’t hear the whole story, how
God judged the earth and killed every living thing, except Noah, his family,
and the mating pairs of animals who would, like and his family, repopulate the
earth. All we heard was that God told
Noah to prepare for the Flood by building an ark and making room for all these
animals. Later I learned that Noah’s Ark
was located somewhere up on Mt Ararat in Turkey. That was, however, back in my more literalist
days. In this passage, the Flood has
subsided, and before Noah, his family, and the animals leave the ark, God makes
a covenant with them, that never again would the flood waters destroy all
creatures. The sign of this covenant is
the bow that God places in the clouds.
It will serve as a reminder, not to human or non-human life, but to
God. When God sees the rainbow in the
sky, God “will remember the enduring covenant between God and every living
being of all earth’s creatures.”
It’s important to note the breadth
of the covenant partners included in this relationship, especially in light of
recent comments made by a Presidential candidate who accused the President of
having a non-biblical theology that placed humanity below the earth. What is clear in this passage is that God not
only covenants with Noah and family, but with all creatures – great and
small. There is a strong environmental/ecological
message present in this covenant. As
Nicole Johnson writes in her lectionary commentary on this passage:
God’s promise to protect the entire creation calls the faith community to see its own existence and well-being as tied together with the existence and well-being of the rest of the created order, so loved and protected by its creator. Humans are in covenant not only with one another and God but with the natural world as well. (Preaching God's Transforming Justice: A Lectionary Commentary, Year B.p. 129).
It is a
reminder that God’s reconciling vision of a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:19)
must include more than simply human life, but all of God’s creation.
When we come to 1 Peter 3, we find a
discussion about the reconciling ministry of Jesus, who dies that we might have
forgiveness of sins, but who is made alive in the resurrection so that he might
take his place at the right side of God, where Jesus “rules over all angels,
authorities, and powers” (1 Pet. 3:22 CEB).
This is a rather intriguing passage with mysterious connotations. The meaning of baptism is linked to the
Flood, and the ministry of Jesus includes preaching “to the spirits in prison,”
that is the disobedient spirits that had been waiting since the time of Noah to
hear this message of salvation.
There isn’t space here to explore
the implications of this obscure reference, though it has been taken as the
foundation of the so-called “harrowing of hell,” whereby Jesus liberated the
spirits from their hellish existence so that, having heard the good news, might
be saved. It’s a passage that gives some
support to the idea that there are post-grave opportunities to hear and respond
to the gospel. The passage is not clear,
but it is suggestive, and thus worth pondering.
With regard to baptism, Peter
connects it to the Flood, so that even as Noah and his family are “rescued
through water, baptism is like that. It
saves you now . . . because it is a mark of a good conscience toward God” (1 Peter 3:20-21 CEB). Peter links this act of baptism to the
resurrection, which is the ultimate foundation of salvation. Although this reference is not as clear as
Paul’s reference in Romans 6, here it seems that baptism serves as a sign of
identification with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. Even as we go through the baptismal waters we
are saved through the resurrection of the one who sits in heaven at God’s right
side. If the connection with Noah holds,
then baptism isn’t just an appeal of a good conscience, it is the sign of the
covenant that God makes with the world.
With the gospel reading we return to
the Baptism of Jesus, which we observed at the beginning of Epiphany. Once again we hear a word of how Jesus came
to John and was baptized in the Jordan.
Mark’s account is brief and active.
As he comes out of the water, the heavens split open and Jesus sees a
Spirit fall like a dove upon him, and then hears a voice from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I dearly love; in you I
find happiness.” There is, of course, an
adoptionist understanding of Jesus’ relationship to God. There’s no pre-existence or miraculous birth,
just an embrace of Jesus as the one who would be God’s Son – and thus the one
who would represent God in this world.
But the baptism is only part of the
story. We’ve already been to this place
in this story, and so we must move with Jesus into the wilderness. Mark with his forceful delivery tells us that
the Spirit “at once . . . forced Jesus out into the
wilderness.” The wilderness of Palestine shouldn’t be
confused with our understanding of wilderness.
Growing up in Oregon, wilderness means rugged mountains with lots of big
trees. Here the wilderness is a
desert. Water may be the foundation of
life, but here water is a scarce commodity, and thus life is precarious. Here Jesus faces the tempter, Satan. For forty days, Jesus is out among the
animals, facing temptation. What this
temptation is, Mark doesn’t say. Matthew
and Luke fill in the details, but Mark just has Jesus wrestling with
temptation, and as he does, the angels, whom according to 1 Peter, Jesus will
one day rule over, attend to his needs in this difficult hour.
Following this wilderness experience,
and after John is arrested, Jesus begins his ministry. He goes into Galilee, a much lusher place to
live, where he announces God’s good news.
And what is this good news: “Now
is the time! Here comes God’s
Kingdom! Change your hearts and lives,
and trust this good news!” (Mark 1:14-15 CEB).
From Baptism to the travails of the desert, Jesus is prepared to take up
his calling to preach the good news, the news that saves and brings into
existence God’s kingdom. The nature of
the kingdom isn’t defined. But it’s
clear that the kingdom is coming, and it’s time to get ready. So do change your heart and you life, so you’ll
be ready. And know that it is for this
reason that God is happy. The reign of
God in Christ is here.
As we begin this Lenten journey, a
journey that begins in a baptism that draws us into the covenant community of
God, we hear our own calling to announce God’s good news. As Paul makes clear in a passage read during
Ash Wednesday, to us is given the ambassadorship of reconciliation (2 Cor.
5:20). Since the reign of Christ is upon
us, may we trust our lives to the God proclaimed in this good news.
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