Sunday January 1st, 2024 Worship

When you imagine the voice of God, what do you hear? Think about that for a second. I was in college when my campus pastor told me for the first time that the voice of God could be something other than a deep, masculine voice like how it’s always depicted in shows and movies. Now, I know this might be weird to think about, but for some reason growing up, probably because of the movies, I always imagined God sounded something like Morgan Freeman. I didn’t realize that how we felt God’s voice should sound influenced our understanding of how God speaks to the world because there is a lot that we miss out on if we assume God’s voice only sounds a certain way.
Yet, no matter how we understand God’s voice to sound, our Scripture attests today that there is power in God’s voice. Both power for creation and for destruction. When God speaks, people and creation listen, especially because God infrequently communicated directly with humans. We have this rich history of the prophets who were chosen to be God’s voice in the world, the ones who would be God’s messengers. So, when God spoke directly to humans, whether that is to Moses through the burning bush in Exodus or today’s claiming of Jesus as God’s Beloved, we are called to pay attention. Because God’s voice has power to it, and I’m not speaking about volume level here. It’s why on this Sunday of the Baptism of our Lord, our first reading is actually the beginning of God speaking creation into existence. When God chose to speak, it mattered.
So in today’s Gospel reading, it matters that God’s self was the one who spoke to claim Jesus. This is also the moment that many believe is what really begins Jesus’ life of ministry. Because Mark’s Gospel skips over the birth and life of young Jesus, it’s hard to know here how much Jesus knew about his own identity and mission in the world, but it is made pretty clear to him today in the tearing open of the heavens, the descent of the Holy Spirit like a dove, and the voice that claims him (Mark 1: 10-11). Mark gives us no other details, besides the next section which immediately whisks Jesus away to be tempted in the wilderness by Satan. What a way to start his ministry! Yet, Jesus’ life will not be the same after this moment in the Jordan River.
One of the things that I find the most interesting about Mark’s version of Jesus’ baptism is that, unlike Matthew and John’s versions, it doesn’t really seem like the gathered crowd is able to witness this exchange between God and Jesus. When it is a public spectacle in the other Gospels, it is this private moment here, which I think is also a really tender moment before all of the chaos that will ensue in the next few years. There might not be much that God can do to protect Jesus from the pain ahead, but they can have this moment together.
And, in some ways, I think this makes Jesus’ life of public ministry both easier and more difficult. It seems easier because without the public witnessing this, Jesus is still not put into the political spotlight and seen as a threat to those in power. It doesn’t mark him as opposition from the very beginning. Although, I do really wonder what the people did see then, if they didn’t see the heavens opening and a dove descending because I’m sure it still would have been weird to watch Jesus have an invisible encounter with something. Did they stay to watch or just back away slowly? And, the reason I think it makes his ministry more difficult is that there wasn’t a public spectacle to get people interested in what Jesus was doing and teaching. It meant that all of the work truly did fall to him. Although, maybe this was actually easier too because then people didn’t bring their preconceived notions with them to his ministry. Even so, I think it matters that Jesus’ ministry begins with this naming and claiming in the act of baptism. This spiritual moment before he is sent out into the world.
I think about too how this connects to our own baptisms. How in baptism we are publicly claimed as beloved children of God. But, how our baptisms aren’t just a one and done event that leads us to living our lives exactly as we had been before. Now, I know that many people are baptized as infants, but even still from that moment on we are a part of the priesthood of all believers or all the baptized as some prefer to say. In many ways our baptisms kick off our own lives of ministry too, even if that might not be so obvious in our childhood or it wasn’t as dramatic as Jesus’ entrance into ministry. It is a reminder that a life of ministry isn’t just for the ordained or the people who volunteer countless hours at church, but that we are called to many different and varying vocations in life. Whether that is being a spouse, being a parent or grand-parent, being a mentor, for some it might be the jobs that we work, it could be the roles we play in our community, including our roles of civic engagement like being voting members or mentors to others. The heavens may not be torn open at our baptisms (which honestly I think would be a pretty terrifying thing to witness), but our baptisms are still important for understanding who we are and whose we are, no matter what age they occur.
So, what I love about Jesus’ baptism story today, as well as our own baptismal promises, is that it says so much about who God is. That God wants to be in that relationship with us enough to meet us in our naming with the water. It tells me that God isn’t just some great puppet master in the sky, but that God genuinely has an interest in who we are as the created. And, I mean that in a deeper sense than when athletes give all their glory to God for making them good at basketball, etc. To me, because of God’s drawing of humanity into relationship through Christ, God remains present with us when we suffer, or have doubts, or feel anxious. When God speaks, creation listens. What does it mean for us then, if we see ourselves as being worthy of hearing that. Because that is what’s happening in our baptisms. We have already been called worthy of that relationship. It’s up to us, now, what we do with it, because like Jesus, our life of ministry continues too.