Sunday, January 13, 2008

Today, on the first Sunday after the Epiphany, we celebrate the Baptism of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Every year on this day, we dress in the festival color of white – the color of joy and thanksgiving. We dress the church with hangings adorned with rich jeweled and golden symbols. The collect of the day and the appointed hymns all point to the Baptism of Jesus, the presence of the Holy Spirit, and God’s ensuing pleasure. In Year A, the description of the Baptism is quite brief. Matthew’s account is only 4 verses long. (1) Jesus leaves his home in Galilee and goes to his cousin John to be baptized in the Jordan River. (2) John is reluctant to perform the rite. (3) Jesus insists. (4) He goes down in the water, he comes up from the water. (5) The heavens open, the Holy Spirit descends, and God speaks to the world, “This is my Son the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

Much is accomplished in that short paragraph and we may wonder about the details that the writer skips over. In the chapter just before this passage, Herod, the hostile king, has just died. An angel comes to Joseph and tells him to take Mary and their child out of Egypt and back to Israel to the district of Galilee, to the town of Nazareth.

Now, 28 years later, Jesus walks out of Galilee on a quest that begins with baptism. We’re told nothing about the events of those 28 y ears. We’re told nothing about the character or personality of this man. From an infant in swaddling clothes to a toddler in Egypt, to a full grown man, he comes to us unknown. 

We know John, the Baptizer. He is 6 months older than Jesus and is the son of his aunt Elizabeth. John has become a prophet of great esteem. He’s been living in the wilderness, the arid land near where the Jordan River empties into the Dead Sea. John’s been preaching a message of God’s judgment and the need for repentance, the call to renewed faith and deeper commitment. Apparently he is a compelling and captivating speaker. Crowds travel great distances to hear him. At the end of his speeches, they press forward to have him wash them with waters from the river. 

For centuries before the appearance of John in the wilderness, Jews took washing in holy waters very seriously. Before worshipping God in the temple, the people would bathe in pools outside the courtyard. Praising God, thanking God, sacrificing to God in a clean states was a sign of respect and an act of humility. Now, the washing takes on a new meaning. John tells the people the water washes away their transgressions.  The water and prayer said at baptism removes the sins of their former life and renews them. They are made clean and are now ready to live in fresh, wholesome relationship with God. 

When Jesus stands before him, John is confused. John knows Jesus has no need of repentance. Jesus has no sins to be washed away. He is always in right relation with God. In this one instance, baptism would be superfluous. Jesus stands above the sacrament. Jesus stands outside the requisite need for the rite.

But Jesus has a different understanding. He tells John, “there is a purpose we’re called to in this action…there is something here we’re suppose to accomplish. Regardless of your understanding and despite both our assumptions, God means for us to do this. Trust me. I’m following the Father’s will. I just know this is what we were meant to do today.!

So, John consents. Jesus is baptized and the father is satisfied and pleased. Hs will has been served and his plan advances. This moment is important. This is the first time God himself presents Christ to the world. The baptism is the event God uses to introduce His saving plan to humankind. “Here, world. Here, all people, here is my Son, the Beloved. Here He is for you! Listen to Him, follow Him. Good things lie in His way. Go after Him. He will bring you to a good life and eternal life. He will bring you to me.”

At the baptism, God is well pleased. He is well pleased because the Son has discerned correctly. The Son consciously, deliberately looked for divine direction. The Son thoughtfully, faithfully desired to serve the Father and the Father’s plan. In this action, in all his actions, Jesus asks the question, “What would God have me do?”

Centuries removed from Christ’s time on earth, we sometimes forget that while he was in the world, while he walked the earth in human form, Jesus was not all knowing. He and God did not act as one. For those 33 human years, Jesus functioned as we function. To know God’s plan, to understand God’s will, to act in concord with God’s purpose, Jesus had to pray! He had to ask for guidance and for signs.   He had to exercise the discernment principles. Jesus had to “wait” on the Lord. Do you recall that immediately after this baptism, Jesus goes into the wilderness for forty days to get a sense of what comes next for him. For 40 days and 40 nights he is alone in his thoughts and prayers. He battles with temptation. He wavers between his own desires and the plan God has for him. Later in his 3 year ministry, he goes apart with Peter, James and John up a mountain to again get clear direction from God. Before setting out for Jerusalem and the events that will take him to the cross, Jesus spends quiet, deliberate time with the Father in discernment. The night before he dies, Jesus is not calm. He is not sure. He is scared and anxious. He seeks assurance and direction from God. He goes to his Father in prayer.

Throughout his human existence, Christ is a model of discernment and a model of self-awareness. These two attributes may be the most definitive qualities of God’s beloved son.

At every moment of his life on earth, Jesus is self-aware! Self-awareness is not self-absorption or self-centeredness! Self-awareness is understanding what God created you to be. Self-awareness is the insight one has about one’s best, God-given qualities and about one’s limitations. Self-awareness points out qualities that will likely take one away from God’s perfect plan. Developing and possessing an awareness of who we really are helps us act in authentic ways. We relate to people easily. We handle life’s troubling situations confidently. When we identify our God-given personal skills and attributes, we use them in the world well. We use them to create healthy, productive, joy-filled lives for ourselves. When we know that, along with those positive qualities, we also carry particular, personal limitations. 

We learn to manage our challenges better. Self-awareness helps us make good decisions about our lives and keeps us from falling into ineffective, destructive behaviors and habits. 

If you look over the landscape of Jesus’ life, you’ll notice he could interact with anyone! He was at ease with every class and personality type. Pharisee, priest, prefect, pauper, sinner, saint, intellectual, dullard, Jesus could relate. He remained calm and patient and engaged with all stripe of folk because he was at ease within himself. He knew himself well and so he was not threatened by other people and their agendas and their styles of interaction. He knew himself well so his buttons rarely got pushed. He wasn’t taken off guard to a place where he reacted badly. Jesus was also sure of his purpose, his next move and direction. His confidence came as a result of his discernment. He developed an orientation towards God. God was his true north, his beginning and ending point, his constant reference point.

Jesus looked in God’s direction for direction. He practiced a discipline, a way of being where he habitually asked “What does the Father want from me, what does the Father wish for me? In this situation, in this interaction, in this arena, in this phase of my life, where is God pointing me?”

Self-awareness, awareness of God’s strong impress on us and our particular frailities, coupled with the practice of discernment are the hallmarks of Christian maturity.

If we are to follow the example of Jesus, if we want to become able agents of love, mercy, justice, high level thinking and functioning in the world, these are the two attributes to develop.

A dispassionate inventory and appraisal of ourselves is critical. What are our best, most positive, most easily accessed virtues? What do we do particularly well with grace, joy and ease? What are our least attractive qualities? What behaviors, attitudes, and habits have the potential to embarrass us or make us wince in retrospect? What situations are likely to call out our defensiveness, our anxiety, our guilt or fear? Where are we most at ease, most ourselves? Who encourages our best natures? Who brings out our worst reactions? What do we appreciate about ourselves, what do we dislike intensely in our make-up? These questions and their answers tell us about God’s plan for us. They tell us how and for what we were created. They tell us where we’ll likely stumble and fall away from our divine purpose. The more we understand about our light and our darkness, the better we’ll navigate our true, intended course.

Along with knowing ourselves well so that we can respond to God’s plan for us, we must also do the work of discernment. “Given who I am, given the qualities you gave me when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth, given the places I’ll likely mess up – what’s your will for me today, Lord?” This is the question raised in discernment. This is the question Christians ask again and again.

“Lord, in this place – what would you have me do?” “Lord, at this phase of my life, where would you have me go?” “As a father to his child, not his brother or his sister, but this one, how do you want me to parent him?” “Lord, it’s three years later, how do I parent now?” “God, I thought I was following your lead in this relationship with my sister. It feels out of balance. What would you have me do?”  “God, I took this job to support my family. I was good at it, but now I feel weighed down and beleaguered. My spirit isn’t engaged. I don’t like my time at the office, where do you want me to go now – you are not calling me to this stressful place, are you? If so, what do you want me to learn?”

Lord, I think you called me to serve on this committee, how do you want me to function here? Am I to be a visionary or an implementer? Am I to keep us on task or do you want me to be the consoler and encourager? What group dynamic am I to serve, the clarifier, the team builder, the dissenter?

God, is this the time for me to step up or step back. Others are serving me here, is it time for me to serve? In this arena, all I do is give, give, give. Is it your will for me to rest? Is it your intent to make a space for others so I need to move aside? 

Lord, I’m very, very busy but am I busy where you want me active? Are my priorities the priorities you’ve set for me? Am I focused too inward? Too outward?

Dear friends, these questions are the heart of discernment. We ask God, “given I am what you made me, where do you want to use me?” We ask for this direction because being used for what we are built to be gives us the most pleasure, the most confidence, the best sense of peace. Living into God’s plan for us is the best achievement we can accomplish on earth. It’s also the surest way to secure our place with God in eternity. Discerning God’s will and following it through is a positive practice all the way around.

And discernment is not an amorphous transcendental ideal. Discernment has formulas and routines. For folk who like clear instructions, Saint Ignatius developed a practical template. Copies of his way were given out at our adult forum this morning and other copies are at the back of the church.

If we follow the example of Jesus and ask ourselves the hard questions required in self-awareness, if we put into practice the discipline of routine discernment, our lives will take on the qualities of His life.

We will become more and more our God intended images. We will become more and more secure, confident, calm, peace-filled, competent, gracious, high level functioners. We will become more and more like the Son, the beloved one.

And then… at any moment…the heavens could open and a voice might say…

“This is my son, this is my daughter, with whom I am well pleased.”