Genesis 1:1-5
Psalm 29
Acts 19:1-7
Mark 1:4-11
I.N.I. (In the name of Jesus)
At Confirmation Class last Wednesday, I talked about baptism and the class ducked. I was flinging water at them!
Other times when teaching about the conferring of the Holy Spirit, classes also duck, because I find a head to demonstrate the gesture of choice (laying on of hands).
If you are baptized into Christ, patterned after his own plunging into the river Jordan, you have to get wet!
If you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, patterned after Jesus' experience of the dive-bombing bird, oh it's a powerful experience indeed!
We are grabbed by God through Water and the Spirit and pronounced beloved daughters and sons. We have a lifetime (at least) to bask in the glow, to test the waters, and to live up to our identities.
I can't remember a time when I did not enjoy singing. It's been a part of who I am since I made my debut with the kindergarten Sunday School Class at Christmastime singing "Away in a Manger." I was never afraid to put my voice out there, and am grateful for the tenor section of Somerset Hills Lutheran Church for welcoming me as a teenager and teaching the ropes about part singing.
I arrived at college thinking that my singing voice was my biggest asset for becoming a music major, though I also loved playing the piano and the trumpet. I was in every ensemble imaginable, from the Collegium Musicum which sang Medieval Music to the audition-only Chamber singers. I was given tenor solos to sing, and I did my best under the intimidating leadership of Eldon Balko.
But it was only when I was in graduate school for an extra performance degree that I hit my stride, thanks to the direct tutelage of Ms. Jane White. She cajoled and tinkered, listened and offered advice, she told stories of her own youth, and stretched my capabilities to their limits. Compared to everything that I ever did before, I was in new territory. I had finally arrived, and recognized that my previous singing was limited by my own holding back. Jane White said this: "Tim, you have a big voice and shouldn't be ashamed about it. Let it out!" So ever since then, whenever I am in performing mode, I remember Jane and let my voice out!
God has a big voice. The psalmist paints the picture of the Lord's voice pushing its way through creation, the Lord's voice splintering cedar trees, the Lord's voice making mongo mountains prance like calves, the Lord's voice spreading fire and shaking the earth.
God speaks, with a big voice, and awesome things happen!
You could say, with a big voice, God sings creation into being! In the first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis, at the very beginning, God was there. God's ruach, God's breath, God's wind, God's Spirit, was blowing around the waters. Watch out, whenever you are combining water and God's Spirit! Because there the voice rang out: "Let there be light'; and there was light." Even before there was the sun, here bright light, God's light made its way into the world.
In the Gospel, the second book of New Testament, the gospel of Mark, at the beginning, water appears, the Jordan, now signaling a new beginning a new orientation heralded by John who point to the baptism to come combined with God's Spirit. So Jesus appears out of nowhere (actually Nazareth of Galilee, which is pretty close to nowhere), gets nice and wet in the water, and God's pneuma, God's breath, God's wind, God's Spirit, blew down like a bird. Watch out, whenever you are combining water and God's Spirit! Because the voice rang out: "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased." God's light tearing through the heaven beamed down on Jesus of Nazareth.
Now watch out. Watch out for Jesus, who infused with Water and the Spirit lives out his identity. Watch out to see how he deals with life on planet earth. Right after his baptism the Spirit immediately drives him out to the wilderness to be tempted. Right after that Jesus preaches that the kingdom of heaven is near. Right after he calls followers to drop everything to follow him. Right after that he encounters the sick, and those possessed by demons. On and on Jesus walks and moves, teaching others about losing their life to save it. On and on Jesus walks and moves, until he is arrested and put on trial and killed by execution, abandoned by all who follow his cause. The soldier standing by and watching him breath his last recognizes him and finds his voice, saying: "Truly this man was God's Son!"
Throughout the next weeks, as we read the Gospel, we will have the opportunity to watch Jesus, listen to his voice, and discover how with water and the Holy Spirit we are given our own identities to live the gospel and to beam light against the darkness.
Today I want to ask how you will find your own voice? With God's prompting and the gift of living among the community of the baptized, how will you speak and sing the amazing power and love brought to birth in the world, against all the forces of evil, against hostility and hatred, against boredom and depression, and for the ways of the Spirit?
Let me begin to answer by saying this is the place to practice. Here you have friends, even brothers and sisters, who don't mind your voice, whether out of key, soft-spoken or way to loud. Here, speaking of Christ and trying out ministry in all the ways we do ministry and all the ways we are trying to expand and broadcast our ministry, we should find lots of cheerleaders. Speak to one another about what excites you, join in a conversation with others about what brings them energy here at Christ the King.
And let me begin to say that giving voice to the ways of the kingdom where you live and where you work is most challenging. Just as Jesus was driven into the wilderness immediately after his baptism, finding the right thing to say and the right way to live is tough in the midst of a world where greed is all over the news and competition rules the workforce. Don't forget that you are wet in Christ's baptism and that the Spirit goes with you.
Here today, we sing and speak, and live as the baptized to our hearts' content. It's a perfect day for baptisms, to remind us that we are held and cherished by God and breathed on by the Spirit. Let's make a space for one named Matthew Joseph, who will himself get wet and be lathered in the Spirit. As we watch and cheer and sing, we join with God's big voice in pronouncing Matthew God's beloved son, our new brother. And wherever Matthew goes, from here to his home, growing up in this world, he will practice his own singing and speaking with us. And wherever Matthew goes, we can remind him as we remind ourselves, "Don't forget that you are wet in Christ's baptism and that the Spirit goes with you."
I.N.I.
The Rev. Timothy J. Keyl, Pastor
Christ the King Lutheran Church
