The Baptism of the Lord

 

You would think that this Feast Day would be straightforward.  Jesus goes to the Jordan.  John baptizes him (with or without a lot of dialog, depending on which gospel account you are reading), the heavens open, the Holy Spirit descends in (some sort of) bodily form and a voice speaks.  It is the inauguration of Jesus’ public ministry.  Celebrate!  Give thanks!  End of story.

And yet, almost from the very beginning there were teachers who were proclaiming Christian baptism in the exact same terms as the baptism offered by John.  Their call was to John’s baptism, not that of Jesus and the church.  There are people within the larger church who do this same thing today.  They use John language to talk about what they call Christian baptism. 

But what was John’s proclamation?  “Repent!  Renounce your sins!  Make way for the coming of the Lord.  Prepare yourselves for the Messiah, the Christ, the one who will save you from your sins.”  Let’s be clear: “get ready” is not the same thing as “Have faith.”  There are those who claim that their belief system can trace its lineage all the way back to John the Baptist.  They say that with pride.  I don’t get it.  What has John done for them lately?  John’s baptism?  You can have it I say.  John didn’t save You.  You are not John’s disciple.  Nowhere in scripture do you hear a call to proclaim, “John the Baptist is Lord!”  Why then would you want to embrace John’s baptism?

It is true that the larger church has muddled the significance of this Sacrament through the years.  To this day there is no uniformity of opinion as to what the Rite means.  Some communions see baptism as a literal washing away of the stain of sin.  Others see it as an act of professing faith in making ready to join the church universal or a particular congregation.  This is what is meant by “believer’s baptism.”  Some congregations won't even recognize  the baptism performed by other congregations within their fellowship.  The idea is, "If we haven't baptized you, then no one has baptized you!"  

The United Methodist Church (and others) define baptism as an initiation into the Body of Christ and a claiming of the individual into the family of God.  Again, like many other groups the United Methodist Church practices the baptism of infants, with parents or sponsors taking the vows on behalf of the candidate until such time as the individual can affirm those promises for themselves.

I have a book in my library with the provocative title Baptism: The Water that Divides by Donald Bridge.  The work itself is a bit murky, but what a great title!  That which designs to unite believers is in fact one of the great points of contention within the church.  For something that Christ commanded, and that the church has normatively required from its beginnings, there is no consensus among the major faith groups as to what this means at all. 

I won’t enter the discussion about the amount of water that constitutes baptism.  I leave that issue grieving that people will split families and even congregations over what amounts to a measuring cup.

So, owning that this action of the church has no foreseeable resolution, I simply commend the day as an extraordinary one in the life and ministry of The Lord Jesus. It is worthy of our notice and our commemoration.  There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. –Ephesians 4:4-6

Lord, haste the day…

"The Chalking of the Doors"

 

There is a charming seasonal custom that dates back into the history of the church that is known as “The Chalking of the Door.”  It has its roots in a time before there were any concerns of denominationalism, and so it was simply a practice of “the church.”  Modern-day Catholicism continues this practice, but it also has adherents in other communions as well. 

It is, at root, a house blessing.  With chalk (symbolizing a common, ordinary substance and being a material that does no lasting damage to the door) the participants mark a series of symbols on the door.  This year the markings would look something like “20 † C † M † B † 22.”  The numerals are the first and last pairs of numbers that together mark the current year (2022).  The crosses are an invocation of Christian blessing.  The letters C M B indicate two things.  They are the first letters of the traditional names of the Wise Men from the East who visited the Baby Jesus in Matthew 2:1-12 (Caspar, Melchior and Balthazzar).

The letters are also the initials for the phrase Christus mansionem benedicat, which means, “May Christ bless this house.”  These blessings are part of a simple ritual that includes seasonal hymns or carols and a responsive or antiphonal invocation.  The blessing frequently includes reference to the Wise Men visiting the house of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, paying homage and offering gifts.  This accounts for the practice of annually blessing homes on or near the Day of Epiphany.

So, for all of us, in 2022 may Christ bless our houses.

The Epiphany of the Lord

 

 

On the Feast of The Epiphany there is a lot of baggage that needs to be cleared away in order to get to the heart of the matter. Much of the clutter surrounding the day does no harm, but it can obscure our view of the central concern of our observance.

For instance, our creches and our hymnody insist on three wise men.  Matthew chapter two, where the single biblical account of the visit of the wise men occurs, does nothing to enumerate these Eastern travelers.  Tradition has calculated that total because of the number of gifts that the gospel records.  Matthew says in verse 11 that they offered the child gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  There is nothing, however that indicates that there was “one wise man, one gift.” The number of visitors could have been two, and the gifts may have been presented collectively.  It is interesting to note that some Eastern Christianity practitioners give twelve as the number of wise men. Some Christian traditions name the wise men, designating them as Melchior, Gaspar and Balthasar.  The Cologne Cathedral in Germany houses a great shrine of the Magi, even purporting to house relics from “The Three Holy Kings.”

The designation Magi is the plural of Magus.  (This is the from which we receive the word “magic.”)  The Magi were priests or other adherents of Zoroastrianism in Persia.  The existence of the sect is verified from a variety of non-biblical sources.

In many modern-day manger scenes, the Wise Men play a significant symbolic role.  In some depictions, one of the three figures is quite young.  A second is middle-aged.  The third appears as a very elderly man.  The meaning is clearly that people of all ages respond to the coming of Christ into the world.  In like manner there are creches that have one wise man of fair skin, blond hair and blue eyes.  A second member of the group has olive skin and straight, dark hair.  The final traveler has very dark skin and thicker features.  These diverse characters indicate that the Savior comes not to one group, but to every nation.

That these visitors receive the title “kings” comes from scriptural references such as Isaiah 60:3 “Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn,” or Psalm 72:10 “May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles render him tribute, may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts.”  Again, while the association is certainly present, the actual designation of the Eastern travelers as kings is nowhere explicitly present in Matthew.

Henry van Dyke’s The Other Wise Man is a delightful story, but it, too, serves to muddy the water a bit.  There are scores of other fictional works and seemingly countless fragments of Christian lore and legend that also take a kernel of truth and expand on it beyond the boundaries of literary precision.

So, if we set all of these things aside, what do we know?  I am not engaging in any literary-critical questions here.  I do want to take a look at what is before us in the received text.

What we have is a declaration that God is at work in order to bring about the final realization of God’s divine plan.  This will occur in spite of the most wicked expressions of opposition, such as those exhibited by King Herod.  Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah of the Jews; he is the fulfillment of Old Testament scripture; and he is the savior of the entirety of creation, in spite of any artificially-erected boundaries.

In the early days of the church, it was Epiphany rather than Christmas that was the pre-eminent winter feast.  The revelation of worldwide salvation took precedence over the birth of the king of the Jews.

Sadly, the church now treats this great day as an ending of something, rather than a beginning.  The Epiphany comes at the conclusion of the Twelve Days of Christmas.  It has its moment as a flash in the pan and then the calendar moves on.  Even though the following eight weeks (in 2022) receive their designation as “The Season After Epiphany,” observances such as The Baptism of the Lord and The Transfiguration move to the forefront during these days.

But, today is the great Feast Day.  Let’s not let it slip away too quickly.

Cornelius the Centurion

 

 

Today is the Feast of Cornelius the Centurion.  In point of fact, it is a feast of Cornelius.  The Roman calendar recognizes him on February 2 (already a busy day of observances) and the Orthodox Churches place this feast on September 13.  The Anglican calendar chooses today.  It’s not a bad day to celebrate his life.

Acts 10 tells his story. According to verses 2 and 3, Cornelius was a devout man who feared God with all his household; he gave alms generously to the people and prayed constantly to God.  He resided in Caesarea.  In a vision he received a command to send servants to Joppa to fetch Peter.  While this was going on Peter had a vision while a guest in Joppa.  In this vision, Paul had a three-time revelation about being commanded to eat what he understood to be ritually unclean food.  Each time he protested there was a voice that instructed him that What God has made clean, you must not call profane.  (verse 14)

When he woke Peter received the delegation from Cornelius at God’s command.  The next day he accompanied the servants to Caesarea.  Cornelius explained his own vision and in verse 34 made the now-famous statement I truly understand that God shows no partiality.  He preached to a small crowd and the Holy Spirit came upon them.  Peter baptized them and remained with them several days.

So, Cornelius and his household were among the first Gentile converts (the narrative concerning the Ethiopian Eunuch is in chapter 8).  The events in Caesarea caused a great controversy, as you can imagine.  But in the end, the Gentile believers were accepted by the early church and the door opened for a larger Gentile mission.

Eunuch or Centurion, someone has to be first.  The universal grace of God is sometimes revealed in stages.  The recognition of Cornelius’ profession changed the complexion of the church for ever.

Thanks be to God.

The Feast of the Holy Innocents

 

Even though we count the Days of Christmas as our twelve-day celebration moves on, the Christian Calendar reminds us that the birth of Christ neither takes place in a vacuum nor does it occur without consequences.  I have heard it said, “One lights a candle, but casts a shadow.”  The story moves on, not letting the baby remain in the manger for long.  There are repercussions for the birth of a Savior.

 December 28 is the Feast of the Slaughter of the Holy Innocents, alternately known simply as the Feast of the Holy Innocents.  We read their story in Matthew 2:16–18.  In a nutshell, King Herod instructed the Magi, the Wise Men from the East, to bring word back to Herod once they had located the new born king so that Herod himself could “pay him homage.”  This is undoubtedly Herod’s code for “so that I can kill him.”

 The Wise Men found the child, gave him gifts, worshiped him, and “being warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their own country by another way.” –Matthew 2:12

 But when Herod decided that enough time had passed for the Magi to carry out his orders, the king determined that he had been duped.  In an angry rage, he decreed that all male children under two years of age should be killed so that he could make sure and eliminate his rival.

 Joseph, father of Jesus, received his own warning in the form of another dream, and he fled with Mary and Jesus and sought refuge in Egypt.  So, while an undetermined number of baby boys died at the hands of Herod’s minions, the target child was spirited away.

 This is a dreadful story.  Yet it is not outside our understanding of Herod’s character.  He brutally killed his wife, brother-in-law, three of his sons, 300 military leaders, and many others, as recorded by firsthand sources (notably the Jewish historian Josephus).

 It also recalls the story of the Hebrew children in Exodus1:15—2:4. Pharaoh attempted the murder of newborn Israelite boys, but Moses eluded that fate and obviously became the great leader and law-giver of the people.  Matthew portrays the infant Jesus as being in the same peril and experiencing the same deliverance.

 The coming of Jesus into the world can have unforeseen fallout.  Sometimes pure evil, in its efforts to combat or eradicate faith, commits acts of unspeakable depravity.  Beyond that we can never fully explain such occurrences.  But this Feast Day reflects our resolve never to forget.

 The calendar reminds us that the consequences of the appearance of Jesus in the world are many and varied.  Some involve deep intentionality.  Others can appear absolutely random.  But Jesus is not a presence that we can ignore.  For good or ill, the world knows that.

The Feast of St. John the Evangelist

 

Today the church celebrates the life and ministry of John, brother of James, son of Zebedee.  His name has historically been associated with the Fourth Gospel, the three New Testament epistles that bear his name, and the Book of Revelation.

The Gospel of John never mentions the name of its author.  The term “the disciple whom Jesus loved” that we find there is traditionally understood as John, but he is never explicitly identified.

 Tradition holds that “John, Apostle and Evangelist” was one of the leaders of the church at Jerusalem after the ascension of Jesus.  He remained in a position of prominence until the fall of Jerusalem in AD 72.  From there John went to minister in a variety of locations (traditionally) and settled in Ephesus, from where, again church custom holds, he did much of his writing.

Christian tradition holds that John was the only one of the twelve apostles who lived to an old age and died of natural causes.  The others, according to church lore, were martyred.  

Yesterday we meditated on St. Stephen, the martyr, who because of his faith died at an early age.  Today we ponder the long and faithful life of a servant of Christ who lived to be full of days.  We can never be fully certain where the life of faith will take us.  The calendar reminds us today that it could be, it could be, that it is possible for the disciple to enjoy a lengthy and abundant life.  It would be a disservice to the Apostle to claim that he was healthy and content every day of his life.  After all, the writer of the Book of Revelation did his composing while he was in exile on the island of Patmos.  But, overall, this life reminds us of the fullness of spirit (if not of years) to which Christ calls us.