The Relational God

Matthew 3:13-17

Baptism of the Lord

Yesterday afternoon the dogs and I stood on the bridge watching the water race by. The Haw River was the highest I have ever seen it. The clay colored water was full of debris – logs and plastic bottles and other trash. And as I watched the river race by I thought of our gospel lesson and the meaning of baptism. John preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Water has the ability to wash away all the “trash” in our lives, especially when there is a lot of water! And we all have a lot of “trash” in our lives that needs to be washed away. Perhaps we all need a flood to rush through our lives every once in a while to carry away all the debris.

Well, all of us except Jesus. Jesus knew no sin. And yet here he is in today’s gospel lesson, having traveled from Galilee to the Jordan, to be baptized. There is no “trash” in Jesus’ life. There is no debris to wash away. So what is Jesus doing at the Jordan River? Why has Jesus come to John to be baptized?

John is asking the same question. He is wondering what Jesus is doing there. Jesus doesn’t need to repent. Jesus has no sin to confess. Jesus is the Son of God! He does not need to be baptized. So we are not surprised when John tries to prevent Jesus from being baptized, saying, “I need to be baptized by you.” But Jesus answers: “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.”

When I ask people why they want to be baptized, or why they want their children baptized, the most common answer is so that our sins can be washed away. While there is no doubt that this is an important part of baptism, we all know that sin lurks around every corner. While we are born again and made new through baptism, this flesh – these mortal bodies – continue to stray from God. So there must be more to baptism than this.

So today, as we celebrate the baptism of our Lord, I invite you to reflect on the meaning of your baptism. Whether you were baptized as an infant and have no memory of that day, or as a youth or adult in response to God’s invitation into a deeper relationship; whether your baptism was a moment of profound encounter with God or simply a moment when you got wet – how does your baptism impact the way you live your life today? What difference does it make that you’ve been baptized?

Jesus tells John to go ahead and baptize him in order to “fulfill all righteousness.” Righteousness, at its most basic level, simply means being in right relationship with God, or living in a way that is acceptable to God.  We are right to wonder how Jesus’ baptism will fulfill all righteousness. How does Jesus’ baptism put us in right relationship with God?

Listen again to Matthew’s words: “And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’”

Something truly extraordinary happened when Jesus was baptized. We are invited into the relationship between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. So often when we talk about the Trinity – the three Persons who make up the One God – it feels like this piece of Christianity that we just have to accept because nothing about it makes sense. If we try to talk about the three faces of the One God we are accused of heresy. If we argue that God the Father is the Creator and God the Son is the Redeemer and God the Holy Spirit is the Sustainer we are told that we can’t assign different roles to the different persons – for they all act together in creating, redeeming, and sustaining.  If we push back and point out that the word “Trinity” isn’t even mentioned in scripture, we are reminded that the Doctrine of the Trinity is central to who we are as Christians. Theologians have written entire books on the Trinity, and yet we are still left trying to understand this God who is three in one.

As I have been working on my ordination papers, I have been reminded of this odd reality that we can best see the differences between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit when they are interacting with one another. With that in mind, it is quite a gift that we get to witness the interactions among the three Persons in Jesus’ baptism!

As the Son comes up out of the water, the Spirit descends like a dove. The Son, who has chosen to take on flesh and become fully human, rises out of the waters of the Jordan. This is the river the Israelites crossed when they entered the Promised Land. As Jesus comes up out of the waters we are reminded of the way God liberated the Israelites from captivity in Egypt and gave them new life. God brought them through the waters of the Red Sea and through the waters of the Jordan to a land flowing with milk and honey.

We are often overwhelmed by this promise of new life seen through the Son, and we witness this new life as the Spirit simultaneously descends like a dove. The dove is this incredible symbol of peace and new life. Remember the dove that brought the olive branch to Noah pointing to the promise of new life for Noah and his family? After all that rain, the land was once again producing new life. And the Holy Spirit descends like a dove and rests on the Son.  This is a moment of intimacy; the peace that passes all understanding rests between the Spirit and the Son in this promise of new life.

But there’s more. A voice from heaven announces this incredible good news: “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” The Father pours out his love on the Son, affirming and delighting in their relationship. Beloved. In that moment we witness the Father’s abiding love for the Son.

And in Jesus’ baptism the Trinity is very real. We can see and hear and feel the three Persons who make up the One God as they interact with one another. It is a moment that is full of mystery and beauty. But perhaps the most amazing thing about this moment is that we glimpse just how deeply relational our God is. We glimpse the obedience of the Son and the love of the Father and the peace of the Holy Spirit all wrapped together to create something that is so much bigger than any one part. When we are able to enter this moment, the peace and joy and love that overflow from our God invite us to encounter the full depth of what it means to be in right relationship with our God.

For in the moment of Jesus’ baptism we are being invited through our own baptism into the fullness of the Trinity.  Our Three-in-One God is drawing us up into this divine relationship, longing for us to be one with God and one with one another through our baptism. God is inviting us into a deep and all encompassing relationship that is lived out in the midst of God the Father’s abiding love for us revealed through the Son and by the Holy Spirit.

Maybe we have missed just how powerful the moment of baptism really is. For through our baptism we have been incorporated into the very heart of God. And here, in the very heart of God, we are able to experience what it means to be in right relationship with God for here we witness the beauty of right relationship between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

 

In just a few minutes we will be reminded through our liturgy that baptism is a sacrament – an outward and visible sign of an inward grace. Through our baptism we have been incorporated into God’s mighty acts of salvation and given new birth. All this is God’s gift, offered to us without price. Certainly our sins have been washed away, but more than that, we have been drawn into right relationship with our deeply relational God. We’ve been drawn into the very heart of God. And through this intimate relationship with God we have been drawn into relationship with one another. No wonder the two greatest commandments are “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” Those fulfill all righteousness!

Today, as we pause to renew the covenant we made with God through our baptism, I invite you to experience the fullness of our Three-in-One God. Touch the water and remember that the Son has experienced the fullness of humanity, in all its joy and sorrow. Allow the Spirit to rest on you and fill you with peace and new life. Listen to the voice of the Father, affirming that you are a deeply beloved child of God. Welcome the embrace of our profoundly relational God and be reminded that you are never alone. God loves you.