January 11, 2015 ~ “Water” from John Knox Kirk on Vimeo.
A sermon preached at John Knox Kirk of Kansas City, Missouri, on January 11, 2015.
Acts 19:1-7
Genesis 1:1-5
and Mark 1:1-11
(Click above link for the Scripture texts upon which this sermon is based)
Editorial note: I’m working on correcting spacing issues. Thank you for your patience in the meantime.
Today you get a treat, three scripture readings instead of just two.
In addition to the Mark text,
the primary reading on this Baptism of the Lord Sunday
and in addition to the reading from the Acts which
Pat offered for us a moment ago
the other reading for us today is from Genesis,
the first five verses of our Bible.
They are a fitting match for our other reflections this morning:
In the beginning
when God created the heavens and the earth,
the earth was a formless void
and darkness covered the face of the deep,
while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.
Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.
And God saw that the light was good;
and God separated the light from the darkness.
God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.
And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
and then our primary reading for the day, from the Gospel according to Mark:
The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,
‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way;
the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight” ’,
John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness,
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
And people from the whole Judean countryside
and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him,
and were baptized by him in the river Jordan,
confessing their sins.
Now John was clothed with camel’s hair,
with a leather belt around his waist,
and he ate locusts and wild honey.
He proclaimed,
‘The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me;
I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.
I have baptized you with water;
but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee
and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
And just as he was coming up out of the water,
he saw the heavens torn apart
and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.
And a voice came from heaven,
‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’
May God bless to us our reading, and our understanding, and our applying of these words, to how we live our lives. Amen.
///
“It isn’t what I expected.”
If there is a mantra to the last several years—this may be it.
“It isn’t what I expected.”
How often have we said or heard that…?
Just look at the economy:
the jobs that just aren’t there,
the starkly rearranged retirements…
You go to the doctor,
you talk with your teacher,
your coach wants a word with you,
the college notification site delivers disappointment…
…”this isn’t what I expected.”
It’s not all bad news…this unexpected world.
In fact, it’s almost always decidedly ambiguous…it’s mixed:
Thirty years ago, who would have expected:
the fall of the Berlin Wall,
or the Arab Spring,
or the devastating rise,
and now the hopeful signs about AIDS.
or how, over those thirty years,
the percentage of the world living in extreme poverty
has decreased from 52 to 21%.[i]
“It’s not what we expected.”
For the Bible, “NOT what is expected” is familiar terrain.
