02-21-2010
Sermon for 2-21-10
Problem-
How is it that baptized people also still experience wild thoughts and actions; even though Baptism is promised to change our human nature for the good, forever?
Gospel Answer-
Baptism doesn’t alleviate wild tendencies or situations; rather, baptism changes the way we can deal with them through God’s love.
God’s love changes fears and failures into freedoms, acknowledging that we can’t control the wild people, the wild thoughts and actions, of the world by ourselves, so, baptism gives us the experience of God reviving the world each person at a time.
Today’s gospel makes sudden moves, strange moves, as it goes suddenly from Jesus’ baptism and into his wilderness experience. It’s mere moments between Jesus receiving the most important gift of God’s loving identity, within moments of this being called a child of God, beloved and pleasing; within moments Jesus is rushed into the scary world to be examined.
And I have heard it said that kids grow up too fast these days, before you know it, there are those babies- who were once the center of the world, they are suddenly coping with being led like the spirit led Jesus, into entering the dangers of world where wild people roam and wild tendencies tempt the spirit once cleaned- to try things out, to see if it all could really be so bad…
How is it that baptized people are still confronted with controlling wild tendencies and situations, even though Baptism is promised to change our human nature for the good?
To begin with, Baptism doesn’t alleviate wild tendencies and situations; it changes us in the way we can deal with them.
Mark tells us that Jesus was “with the wild beasts”. To be fair, Mark doesn’t actually say whether they were threatening, but only that Jesus was there with them. Oh, and it mentions the devil of temptation was there too.
But that’s not all, there were angels there too, but what good were they in not keeping Jesus from testing or difficulties? Eventually they don’t even help Jesus when he’s on the cross and wild people are gambling for his clothes. What good were the angels if they don’t prevent, and what good is baptism if it does not escape us from the wildness in our hearts and worlds?
Indeed, Mark leaves no doubt that in the time following baptism, where God’s presence is so pronounced as to say to Jesus, and to you and you and you- you are my child, with you I am well pleased; that it is following this, that there is next the greatest lifelong struggle not to lose faith in our identity , in who we really are inside, inside us.
Perhaps, like the promised change in the waters of baptism for us, while it may not keep us from temptations or wild thoughts, the angels and baptism were there for Jesus- and for us- to assure us that indeed we are not alone, even in suffering, the angels showed Jesus that his Father was with him, was loving him, acting through him, energizing the Spirit in and through him so that Jesus could change the world not by killing evil, but by controlling sin one person at a time through the power of forgiving the world, but by controlling sin one person at a time through the power of forgiving the world..
It’s as if a boy thought that if by acting like a scary animal, he was really being true to who he really was inside. But we know better, we know from the promises made by God, that we are not scary animals at our core, but we are humans who need love from each other, and especially love from God.
Problem-
How is it that baptized people also still experience wild thoughts and actions; even though Baptism is promised to change our human nature for the good, forever?
Gospel Answer-
Baptism doesn’t alleviate wild tendencies or situations; rather, baptism changes the way we can deal with them through God’s love.
God’s love changes fears and failures into freedoms, acknowledging that we can’t control the wild people, the wild thoughts and actions, of the world by ourselves, so, baptism gives us the experience of God reviving the world each person at a time.
