“A Wild Beginning” Mark 1: 1-8
by Rev. Dr. Christine Johnson
It’s a wild beginning for Jesus.
He leaves the comfort and routine of Nazareth
to make his way to the wilderness surrounding the Jordan River.
He meets a wild man in the shape of John the Baptist,
who believes that repentance of sins is an important way to cleanse your soul.
But it’s not enough that you just say it, or believe it.
John says you have to be dunked in the brown water of the Jordan River
in order to really understand that your sins are forgiven.
He wants you to go down, down, down, and die to your old life,
so that in raising you up, you realize that forgiveness has offered you a new life.
He’s doing this, not because he’s the messiah, which is what a few people think,
but because he’s preparing the way for the one who is the messiah.
He wants people to be ready to truly hear and understand
the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
It’s a wild beginning for Jesus.
For here in this wilderness,
he dies to his old way of life and is born into a life of teaching and healing.
He then stays in the wilderness,
for forty days and forty nights,
and is tested by the devil.
In the wildness of the wilderness, with the extra challenge of hunger and fear,
he must examine his own self-understanding in order to make sure
he doesn’t use his knowledge of God for all the wrong reasons.
In the gospel of Mark,
Jesus comes to us as an adult.
His birth into a God-centered life comes through baptism.
This is the day he is born to fulfill the promise of his destiny.
John the Baptist becomes his herald, his messenger,
announcing that Jesus will offer a new type of baptism,
one in which the Holy Spirit drenches us with the water of divinity.
As many of us know,
any type of birth is usually a pretty wild beginning.
For each one us has made a journey out of the bodies of our mothers,
whether through the birth canal,
or because of a surgical procedure.
And that journey involves the blood, sweat and tears of
a thousand dreams and fears.
Whether we’re at home or in the hospital,
the birthing process breaks open new life and possibility.
This gift of life is wondrous,
as well as being wild:
for when we are alone with a crying and sickly baby it can feel like we’re in a wilderness.
It’s then that our resolve to raise this child is truly tested.
as we examine our own self-understanding in order to make sure
we don’t raise this child for all the wrong reasons.
This gift of life is what we celebrate in the sacrament of baptism.
And although the infant cannot speak for themselves,
the parents vow to raise their children in the Christian way.
And we, as the community in which this has happened,
vow to support the parents in that task.
All of us together make these vows because
the gift of life, as beautiful and precious as it can be,
includes the pain and suffering and desolatiion of wilderness moments.
It’s an ongoing process of delight and discovery, of fear and foreboding.
And once you’ve given birth it never ends.
Just last week, I received an upsetting call
when I found out that my eldest son, Nathan,
had been assaulted in a Toronto subway.
Someone wanted the book he was holding
and when Nathan tried to explain that it was a library book,
the man punched him three times in the head,
breaking his glasses in the process.
I was glad it was Nathan who called me because I knew he was okay.
But, still my heart sank, and my 24-year-old suddenly became the infant I held for the first time.
So that is why we raise our children in the Christian way.
The Christian way doesn’t prevent bad things from happening,
and it doesn’t shield us from disease or pain,
but it does help us to deal with whatever challenges come our way.
The Christian way gives us a set of values by which we live.
It helps us to negotiate the hills and valleys of life.
But what is the Christian way?
The Christian way is the way of hope, peace, joy and love.
It values forgiveness over vengeance.
It values reconciliation over estrangement.
It values the need for choosing a way of healing,
when resentment and anger tear you apart.
It values the beauty and sanctity of life,
and calls us to take care of the earth and each other.
It values the stories of Jesus,
and helps us to always be ready to hear new insights.
But lest we get into the mindset of a pastoral scene,
in which only wonder and peace exist,
remember this passage from the gospel of Mark.
For it is in the wildness of the wilderness of the valley of the Jordan River
that it all begins.
Many people from Jerusalem and Judea traveled here as well,
out of their way, out of the routine of their own lives
so that they could confront their way of life.
And it’s the same journey we need to take.
The Christian way demands that we risk ourselves in the service of God,
and others.
For the sake of all the children of the world,
whether young or old,
we want them to know the peace and joy that we know.
That’s why we go into war zones, even if we’re peace lovers.
That’s why we raise money for countries that are going through famine.
That’s why we study for years and years to be able to do an obscure medical procedure,
so that someday somewhere someone might be healed because of it.
That’s why we try to understand climate change,
so that weather events won’t alter the world as we know it,
or if they do, we’ll be able to respond to them.
That’s why we engage in the political process,
and march in protests,
and camp out in tents,
because we believe we have the right to express our opinion.
In all our attempts to create the perfect lives,
don’t forget the wild side of the Christian way.
There’s just too much injustice in this world for us to become complacent.
There’s just too much pain for us to turn a blind eye.
Our passion for others is the advent light which burns brightly in our souls.
It’s that determination that drives us to give to others what we have first been given.
Our baptism is our initiation into this Christian way.
And believe me, its wild beginning is only a foretaste of what’s to come.
For the birth of Jesus means we have not only been baptized with water,
but also with the Holy Spirit.
And with the Spirit, our flame can never be extinguished.
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