One of the places I was looking forward to most on our
trip to Israel was the Jordan River, the site of Jesus’ baptism. The story of
Jesus’ baptism has become an important story in our life together at Boston
Square as we seek to be mindful each week of the gift of baptism, as we seek to
grow in our awareness of our baptismal identity.
This year I got to preach the story from the gospel of
John, where Jesus, having recently been baptized, invites some of John’s
curious disciples to ‘come and see,’ to come and spend the day with him. As I
worked on the sermon, I tried to imagine the scene – the light sparkling off
the water, a warm sunny day, and I was very curious when we were in Israel to
see if the scene would be anything like I imagined it. It wasn’t really. We
pulled into a parking lot full of buses and you couldn’t see the river. Instead
what you saw were people. Crowds of people from all over, dressed in every way
imaginable – there were the huge tour groups dressed in matching brown safari
vests, there were pilgrims from Eritrea in beautiful white dresses and suits. And
doves flying all over the place.
To get to the river you had to go through the crowds,
down terraces with benches, to a roped off section of the river, which was also
full of people, some being baptized, some dunking themselves, children
splashing each other and no clear order about who should go where when. The
water was the color of hot chocolate; it was the people who sparkled in it, not
the water itself. There were the sounds of splashing and singing and praying
and shouting in lots of different languages.
Pastor Bill, before we went down to get into the
water, reminded us that in scripture water is often associated with chaos. In
the creation story God takes the waters of chaos and makes shalom, the garden,
with everyone and everything in right relationship. And in Jesus’ baptism, he
entered the chaos, the mess of this world, to be with us and to restore shalom.
We were then invited to get into the water (if we wanted to) as a way of saying
‘I am willing to enter into the mess, the chaos, in Jesus’ name, so I can bring
shalom, good news to the world.’ Did I mention that you couldn’t see anything
in the water? That it was brown? There were steps built under the water for you
to wade in, and we couldn’t really reach the bottom…
Some of us are reading the book Liturgy of the
Ordinary together, and the first chapter is mostly about baptism, about
remembering each day as we wake up in the morning, that we are beloved children
of God. As the title suggests, there’s an emphasis on the ordinary. The author
quotes Martin Luther who reminded his church folk to consider their baptism as
a garment to be worn daily. I’ve been thinking about that as I get dressed in
the morning – I’m clothed in Christ. And I’ve been thinking about the chaos of
the Jordan River too. Remembering that Jesus is with me in the murky waters of
my mind, in the emotional turbulence of another day of online school, in the
uncertainties ahead. Jesus is with me in the chaos and invites me to be in it
with him, to follow him into the waters each day, remembering that I am clothed
in Christ and God’s beloved child.
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