January 10, 2021
Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, January 10, 2021 – Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7; Acts 10:34-38; Mark 1:7-11
Oh my. What a week. What a year. The last time I faced my people with this much of a burden was right after September 11th, 2001. Then, we were all united in our anger, fear, and sadness. Now, we’re all divided in our sadness, fear and anger. Every single minister who faces a congregation recognizes that she or he must speak this morning to the great confusion and turmoil. Knowing what to say, however, is very difficult. Each of the four gospels for this Sunday tells of Jesus and John the Baptist’s encounter. The one from Mark’s gospel, that we read today, is extremely important in many different ways. And I look forward, every third year, to talking about why it’s so important. But today, it is the first reading from the book of Isaiah that invites us to hold it alongside the challenges that face us, and see what God is saying through the prophet.
I asked you if you could pick out the five different things that God is saying. The first one is counterintuitive. He begins by saying, “All of you who are thirsty, come, come to the water. You are hungry, come, and eat rich food. Come without paying a dime.” When we think of our relationship with God, we tend to think of it in exactly the opposite way. That first we have to jump through all the hoops, and then we’re invited to the banquet. But here, God begins by inviting us to the banquet before anything is required of us in any way. But when you think of it, that’s the way of nature. The very first thing a newborn baby needs is nurture. As soon as people turn a corner, in a grave illness or after surgery, the first thing that the doctors order for that person is food. Food is essential for life. And food is not given to us because we deserve it; food is given to us because we cannot survive without it. And, of course, here, in some ways, the food is metaphorical.
But when you think about it, even in these times of trouble, there is so much that is nourishing for us. In literature, in music - all kinds of music - in movies, in biography and autobiography, in technology and in science. All the things that are out there, that are part of human ingenuity and genius, are there to nourish us. But our society has begun to seek only junk food, stuff that is not satisfying and is not filling. God, on the other hand, invites us to nourish ourselves on those things that have lasting value.
The second thing that God says is, “Come to me heedfully.” Come to me heedfully. I hate when the weight of a sentence rests on the adverb, because nobody ever pays attention to adverbs. But this was extremely important. Heedfully. It suggests that most of the time we don’t really pay attention to what our faith is saying. And that’ll be true of people of every faith. But God says, “Pay attention.” Because if you pay attention, you find that there’s something down deep inside of you that resonates with the teachings of every church and with the instincts of all human beings. And those things are liberty, equality, honor, and service. Those four things are lurking down deep within each one of us, but we don’t hear them. God attempts to draw them out of us because they echo the things that He says all through the Old and New Testaments.
The third thing he says is, “Tell the nations.” Tell the nations. Tell them what? Tell them about what resonates deeply inside of you and inside of every other human being. The problem is that witness is not the same as confrontation. Witness puts love for the person to whom you are speaking above love of being right. When you witness, you do not come away from the encounter having angered or wounded the other person. Nor do you come away angered or wounded yourself.
Then the next thing God says, is the thing we expect him to say first. He saves it for number four. “Let the scoundrel forsake his way.” Scoundrel is a little harsh for most of us. But honestly, at some point, in our lives, we have all been rascally in some way. There’s something hidden in our past or in our present, that we would die if anyone else knew. We have moved past it because of the mercy of God. But in order for freedom, equality, honor, and service to emerge, there needs to be change. Change in your life and mine. Let the scoundrel forsake his way. And finally, God’s word ends with this magnificent metaphor. “Just like the rain and the snow that come down from heaven to water the earth, my word will not return to me empty, but will accomplish the purpose for which I sent it, or, for those who are Christians, the purpose for which I sent Him.
Now, the ancient peoples largely were an agrarian society. They didn’t have farming science like we do today, but they had acute powers of observation. They noticed how, long before they put the plow to the earth each spring, the snow that sat and slowly melted, prepared the soil for the seeds. They noticed how every year’s crop depended on the early rains and the late rains. Ask any farmer in the black dirt country, they’ll tell you the same thing is true today. The onion crop, the celery crop, depends on the early rains and late rains. They also noticed how, early in the morning, the dew rises from the mountain tops; it seems to go back up into the heavens. And on a very hot day, when the stones are untouchable, they noticed how water thrown on a stone rises up in steam. So they recognized that what comes down from heaven, returns to heaven. They also noticed that the process was somehow mysterious. They didn’t know why it took the snow and the early and late rains. They didn’t know why it required the dew and the steam to complete this process. They only knew that it took time. It takes time for people to change. But, if we give people that time, and they are heedful, and they have been nourished, then what eventually emerges is equality, honor, liberty, and service.