Sermon: An Epiphany of Christ

Lectionary: Year A, First Sunday after Epiphany, Baptism of the Lord

Texts: Isaiah 42:1-9, Matthew 3:13-17

Introduction

Baptism – an action that ought to unite Christians, but like many other facets in Christianity – is a source of controversy and division. Usually not within a denomination, but typically between them. Literally life and blood have been shed in arguing the proper time and form of baptism.[1]

I am not here this morning arguing whether one form is better than another, or if there is an age criterion, or anything along those lines. Because that argument ends up sounding quite like the argument about the necessity of circumcision among the early Christians. The Apostle Paul wrote an entire letter to the Galatian Christians on this topic. A good summary of where Paul and where he believes Jesus stands on the issue is summarized in Galatians 5:6, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love.”[2] Therefore, I  think that is a good position to take in regards to the mechanics of baptism: that whether one is baptized as an infant, a child, or an adult, and whether one is sprinkled, poured over, or fully immersed, that the act is symbolic of something that is far deeper that is of greater importance. And that is where I would like to take this sermon this morning.

Jesus’ Baptism

Today’s gospel narrative begins with a “Where is Jesus 30 (or so) years[3] after we last heard about him?” From the miraculous birth of Jesus and the flight to Egypt and return, we jump to a mature, adult Jesus. And we find him in the wilderness, at the Jordan, asking to be baptized by John, who is the latest prophetic sensation that has shown up among the Jews.

In the text that comes right before what was read this morning, we read that John was baptizing people as they confessed their sins and committed to repentance. Even some of the leadership of the Jews came to him, but he accused them of hypocrisy, commanding them to show actual results of repentance, beyond merely going through motions. John then predicts that another individual will show up that is far more prestigious and powerful.

It is in this context that Jesus shows up, asking to be baptized. John recognizes Jesus immediately (after all, they are relations, and both had probably heard about their respective miraculous birth stories). It is a surprise that Jesus shows up and asks to be baptized, and therefore, knowing who Jesus is, it is no surprise that John is reluctant to go through with it.

Jesus responds, “Let it be so now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” (Matthew 3:15)

Meaning of “Righteousness”

This is another of Jesus’ sayings whose meaning isn’t obvious, and where scholars have suggested several possibilities. The problem word here is “righteousness.” We are accustomed to hearing and using it in terms of morals and ethics. We use “righteousness” as the antonym for “sin.” But Jesus is without sin, so he could not have been baptized to be cleansed of sin or of any need to repent. So, in this respect, what Jesus said makes no sense.

“Righteousness” has a somewhat different usage and meaning in Matthew. It is still related to ethics, but “In the OT and early Jewish literature, when used for human character and behavior, ‘righteousness’ and related words refer to one’s ethical response to God: obeying and doing God’s will.”[4]

The author of the letter to the Hebrews notes that Jesus “learned obedience…” (Hebrews 5:8)

So, we now must ask, what is it about baptism of Jesus that fulfilled and placed him in obedience to God’s will? Why did God respond, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased?” (Matthew 3:17)

For us, repentance and baptism are conceived as primarily individual actions. Certainly, baptism is symbolic of new birth into a new, spiritual family. But in our cultural setting, there usually isn’t much emphasis on how baptism relates to larger groups.

Fulfillment of Righteousness

In contrast, Jesus’ baptism is all about the larger group; specifically, all of humanity. Christmas was certainly God becoming incarnate into humanity, but Jesus’ baptism is the revealing, or epiphany, of this God-becoming-human to the world.

Matthew’s gospel portrays Jesus as representing new Israel. That is why Matthew is so careful to describe specific echoes and parallels between historical Israel and Jesus: a miraculous birth, a sojourn in Egypt, a return to Israel, and now a baptism. Within this pattern perspective, the baptism has parallels to Israel walking through the Red Sea and through the parted Jordan River. It also has echoes to the anointing of kings.

It is here again that our distance to when monarchy was the norm may be an obstacle to understanding what monarchs represented. Yes, they ruled over subjects, but they were also mediators between their subjects and their deity or deities. Monarchs embodied the entirety of their subjects.

Although Moses was not a king, his actions reveal some of the expectations of ideal ancient monarchs as they related to their subjects. At Sinai, when the people craft and worship the golden calf, God tells Moses that God will destroy the people and instead make Moses a great nation. But Moses intercedes on behalf of the people, and God relents.[5]

Josiah, king of Judah, is another example. He is recorded as being one of the righteous kings. He ordered the restoration of the temple, and in the process the Book of the Law is found. As the book is read to him, Josiah tears his robes because “our ancestors did not obey the words of this book…” (2 Kings 22:13b) Their sin is understood as having accumulated over time and over the entire people. Even though Josiah himself is not responsible, he identifies with and takes responsibility for the past and for all his subjects and repents. As a result, God delays the judgment that will eventually fall. Josiah continues to lead a reign of reformation and repentance, and the period of his reign is relatively peaceful and uneventful.[6]

I am now quoting two extended paragraphs by Timothy Beach-Verhey, in a commentary on Matthew 3:13-17:

Kings have always claimed to have a special relationship to God. Part of their legitimacy comes from being God’s representative among the people… On the other hand, monarchs have always seen themselves as the representation, in one person, of the whole people. This has been the other source of their legitimacy. Monarchs exist as mediators between God and the people, presenting God to the people and the people to God…[7]

In his baptism, Jesus shows himself to be the one true king, who represents God to humanity and humanity to God. He is invested with divine authority and power through the descent of the Holy Spirit and God’s proclamation to the whole world… He also embodies and represents lost humanity, by appropriating the human responsibility to repent and turn toward God in the face of the impending kingdom of heaven. In his baptism by John, Jesus identifies himself with the human condition and represents them in his right relationship with God. This baptism, therefore, not only bestows upon him the mantle of divinity; it also marks his kenosis (self-emptying) on behalf of humanity. He is the king, the true and only mediator between God and humanity.[8]

Representing God

If Jesus represents God, and if we are baptized into Christ, and if our lives and characters are to reflect that of Jesus Christ, what does that look like? Today’s text from Isaiah offers some suggestions.

It is the first of the four sections in Isaiah known as “Servant Songs”. These four sections, in Christian tradition, are interpreted as prophetic texts identifying Jesus as Messiah. The connection between God’s response to Jesus’ baptism and the opening of the Isaiah text cannot be missed:

Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
    my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my spirit upon him;
    he will bring forth justice to the nations. (Isaiah 42:1)

But that is not the only plausible interpretation for these texts. The identity of the servant has been debated among Jewish and Christian scholars, and multiple potential identities have been suggested.

The penultimate king of Judah, Jehoiachin (or Jeconiah), is one individual that is suggested as the servant referred to in Isaiah.[9] Many of us might find that identification surprising, but there is some fit when rabbinic sources are considered where Jehoiachin repents and becomes an example and leader of righteousness and obedience to the Torah for the exiled Jews.[10]

Another identification is in the Second Servant Song and names Israel itself as the servant.[11]

Others have suggested that these texts don’t point to any specific entity but portray an ideal response from those called by God.[12]

There are likely others, but here is the list of identifications just given: Jesus, Jehoiachin, Israel, and an ideal response. We have individuals and communities offered as possible entities that could fill the role of the Servant. Richard Ward, commenting on today’s Isaiah passage writes:

If the church opens only that part of Israel’s gift that defines its understanding of Jesus, then it misses its wider blessing. There is the portrait of the church’s Christ here, but there is so much more. Why confine the reach of this Song to one individual or even one servant community? It is a portrait, but it is also a silhouette. Anyone who “brings light and (God’s) promise of hope to the nations” (v. 6) stands in the place of the Servant.[13]

We Are an Epiphany

I think that the ambiguity is appropriate. We can read the Servant Songs and see multiple applications. Traditionally we have probably limited the application to Jesus and stopped there. But today, I would like us to re-read at first song as something that Jesus left as an example for us to follow in, as individuals and as a community.

42 But [you are] my servant, the one I uphold;
    my chosen, who brings me delight.
I’ve put my spirit upon [you];
    [you] will bring justice to the nations.
² [You won’t bring attention to yourself
    with loud speeches or gaudy parades].[14]
³ [You] won’t break a bruised reed;
    [you] won’t extinguish a faint wick,
    but [you] will surely bring justice.
⁴ [You] won’t be extinguished or broken
    until [you have] established justice in the land.
The coastlands await [your gospel] teaching.

⁵ God the Lord says—
    the one who created the heavens,
    the one who stretched them out,
    the one who spread out the earth and its offspring,
    the one who gave breath to its people
    and life to those who walk on it—
⁶ I, the Lord, have called you for a good reason.
    I will grasp your hand and guard you,
    and give you as a covenant [representing me] to the people,
    as a light to the nations,
⁷     to open blind eyes, to lead the prisoners from prison,
    and those who sit in darkness from the dungeon.
⁸ I am the Lord;
    that is my name;
    I don’t hand out my glory to others
        or my praise to idols.
⁹ The things announced in the past—look—they’ve already happened,
    but I’m declaring new things.
    Before they even appear,
    I tell you about them.[15]

Today, as many among us are reminded about our baptism into Christ and his body, and as others potentially consider their steps to baptism, let us ponder the fullness and revelation of Christ and what it means to be his disciples, following his path and becoming his ambassadors in this present life. What does it mean for us and the church to be an epiphany of Christ in this world today?

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[1] Anabaptism - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anabaptism)

[2] All texts from New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition, unless otherwise noted.

[3] Luke 3:23a, “Jesus was about thirty years old when he began his work.”

[4] Feasting on the Gospels: Matthew, Volume 1, page 141 (Kindle location around 1686).

[5] Exodus 33.

[6] 2 Kings 22-23.

[7] Feasting on the Gospels: Matthew, Volume 1, p. 135 (Kindle approximate location 1605).

[8] Ibid. (continuing)

[9] Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 1, approximate Kindle location 8301. “It would seem to the present writer that the person assigned the role of the Suffering Servant was most likely the exiled King Jehoiachin and his fellow exiles carried to Babylon in 597 BCE.”

[10] JEHOIACHIN - JewishEncyclopedia.com (https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/8560-jehoiachin)

[11] Isaiah 49:3. “You are my servant, Israel…”

[12] Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 1, approximate Kindle location 7421. “Biblical scholar Paul Hanson finds in this passage not a reference to a historical figure or community but ‘a catalyst for reflection on the nature of the response demanded of those who have received a call from God.” [quoted from Isaiah 40-66, Interpretation series, p. 41.]

[13] Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 1, approximate Kindle location 7540.

[14] The re-writing of this verse based on The Message.

[15] Common English Bible, Isaiah 42:1-9, with my edits.

Sermon: New Year 2023

Lectionary: Year A - First Sunday After Christmas, Holy Name of Jesus, New Year's Day

Texts –

• Ecclesiastes 3:1-13
• Revelation 21:1-6a
• Luke 2:15-21

Happy(?) New Year

·       After all the anticipations and celebrations of the past few weeks, New Year’s Day is almost anticlimactic. Sure, in the Christian calendar, at least for those that follow it, it is the eighth day of Christmas: it is also celebrated as the day when Jesus was presented at the temple and circumcised and was formally named “Jesus.”

For most of the world, and perhaps for many of us here, New Year’s Day is a day to get our minds and bodies finally away from the holidays and back into our regular routines of daily work and living.

The New Year is also a time when many people around the world use as a starting point for self-improvement, life changes, and new projects. Some of it may stick, while many others eventually revert to old habits. But there is always another New Year to try again and start over.

Time

That’s the thing about time. Although time is linear, it also has circular properties. We live life according to the 24-hour day, the 7-day week, 30-or so days per month, and 12-months each cycle around the sun. We mark decades of our own lives, and we place special emphasis on changing of decades. If we are lucky enough to live at the turn of the century, that is an even more seemingly significant marker. We group history by decades, centuries, and millennia.

As we look back into human history, we see trajectories of progress, but we also see patterns. It is often said that “history repeats”, but more recent historians would say that “history rhymes”. In other words, the details of historical periods and events are not identical, but there are similarities of patterns that appear frequently in history.

Examples include long-term view of human civilization from nomadic to agrarian to urban, and then as one civilization falls another rises, often following a similar pattern. On a shorter scale, nations may undergo cycles of prosperity and decline. Between nations there are cycles of conflict, war, and peace. History shows the development of democracies, followed by corruption, a fall into authoritarianism, and then a collapse or a revolution that begins the cycle again. We see cycles in business. We see cycles in religion. We have cycles in our personal lives.

Today’s reading from Ecclesiastes chapter 3 can be interpreted as the author looking at life and seeing the same patterns repeat. These words even made their way into a rock song by The Byrds in the 1960’s, “Turn, Turn, Turn,” bemoaning the repetitive nature of war and violence and calling for peace to break in and remain.[1]^,[i]

The author of Ecclesiastes, too, sees no end to the repetitive nature of life, at least as far as he can see. Yet he has a sense that maybe that’s not all there is to all of history. He writes, “[God] has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”[2] (3:11b) The author holds out hope that there could have been a beginning and that there will be an end; but he can’t see it, because of his limited perspective.

In the meantime, the author’s conclusion and advice is “¹² I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; ¹³ moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil.” (3:12-13)

This has often been interpreted as hedonism and merely a response to resignation at life’s futility. But perhaps it is also something that should be considered as wisdom. After all, no one is guaranteed tomorrow, however healthy you might be and how safe you think your environment is.

Too many in the modern, industrialized world spend too much time working hard for a future retirement when they will finally be able to enjoy the fruit of their labors. In the process many wreck their health and relationships, and when retirement comes, they find little to enjoy. Instead of placing so much into a future nest that may never materialize, why not learn to be content and enjoy the present, as much as possible with the friends and family that are around you now?

Cycles or Linear?

Is there a beginning and an end? Modern physical cosmology suggests that there might be, at least as far as this universe is concerned. It began (most probably) with the Big Bang.[3] The ultimate end of the universe is unknown; however, various hypotheses exist from a universe that becomes cold and dead (or hot and dead), to a singularity, or to a cycling into a new universe.[4]

Ancient cosmologies presupposed that there was no beginning; that something always existed. This is true even of Hebrew cosmology.[5] Although we read “In the beginning,” in the opening of Genesis, this applies strictly to the visible world. It does not communicate that something was created out of nothing. Genesis 1:2 reads, “The earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep [i.e., ‘sea’], while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.” When the Flood comes in Genesis 7, the world is destroyed by its reversion to the pre-creation state of chaotic and deep sea, and then it is re-created in chapter 8.

New Creation

It is not until well into the writings of the Christian New Testament that the idea that history has a distinct beginning and an end finds form. An articulation is found in the text from Revelation 21 that was read today. From this text the author makes clear that the cycles of physical cosmology, religious cosmology, and history will finally come to an end, and that an ideal world and history will be created, never to end. God is declared to be the Beginning and End itself.

³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

“See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them and be their God;
⁴ he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.”

⁵ And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” ⁶ Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. (Rev. 21:3-6a)

For Christians, although what we observe and experience may appear and feel cyclical, we believe that there is a beginning and end found in God, and that the flow of time is moving purposefully toward God’s ultimate conclusion.

God Enters Time and History

The biblical Christmas story is our evidence and guarantee that history will not cycle forever. God has intervened in history. Not only that but God became one of us. God came to dwell with us. God entered human history.

The shepherds, Mary, and Joseph, however, probably did not comprehend the full significance of Jesus’ birth. When they were told that Jesus was to be Savior and Messiah, their understanding was probably limited to what they already hoped those terms meant. And so,

²¹ When the eighth day came, it was time to circumcise the child, and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. (Luke 2:21)

Even naming a child “Jesus” was not that significant. It was a common name. “Jesus” is the English form of Yeshua/Joshua.[6] It can mean “God saves,” “God is my help,” and other similar meanings.

It is only in hindsight, taking all of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection into account, that we realize and understand the significance of this one human’s entry into history. When we accept the name “Christian” as part of our identity, we are agreeing to adopt the ways of Jesus and how he lived and related to people, God, and to structures and institutions.

Three Resolutions

On this New Year’s Day, I propose three resolutions.

1. Our individual histories have no guarantees, so let us resolve to find more joy and enjoyment, whenever and wherever we can.

2. While not dismissing the realities of the difficulties and setbacks in life, let us resolve to maintain a hopeful outlook as much as we can, because we trust that God will bring present history to a just close, and that all will be recreated anew to an ideal, eternal world.

3. Let us resolve to not just identify as “Christian” but to live the full depth and being of what that name means, as exemplified by Jesus.

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[1] Turn! Turn! Turn! - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn!_Turn!_Turn!)

[2] Unless otherwise noted, texts are from the New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition.

[3] Chronology of the universe - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_the_universe)

[4] Ultimate fate of the universe - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_fate_of_the_universe)

[5] Biblical cosmology - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_cosmology)

[6] Jesus (name) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_(name))

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[i] I ended up referring to Wikipedia quite a bit for this sermon. Not that I consider it authoritative, but it is a decent check on my assumptions. And it is a good place to find a list of more authoritative references, if that is needed.