Baptism of our Lord
First Sunday after
Epiphany A
Transcribed from a
sermon given on
January 9, 2011
By Rev. Valerie Ann
Hart
At St. Barnabas
Episcopal Church
Acts 10:34-43
Matthew 3:13-17
Today is the first Sunday after the
Epiphany. Epiphany can also be translated as manifestation. It is the making
known. We think of an epiphany of a new idea as an opening, as something
becoming known to us. So the Epiphany is sometimes described as the
Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles. The manifestation of God, the god
described in Isaiah - the servant of the
light, manifested to the gentiles, to the ones who aren’t Jewish.
In the Eastern Orthodox tradition,
Epiphany is a more important celebration than Christmas. That manifestation of
Christ, Christ becoming known, is considered even more important than the date
of his birth. And in the East there are three aspects to the Epiphany. Most of
us, when we think of Epiphany we think of the Magi, the wise ones who saw the
star in the East and came and worshiped the Lord. But that is just one aspect
of the Epiphany. The second manifestation was through his baptism. And the
third manifestation of Christ was at the wedding in Cana when he changed water
into wine.
What we celebrate today is the
baptism of Jesus; we remember it and we celebrate it. We have as our gospel
reading the story of Jesus’ baptism and the reading from Acts that is really a
story of a baptism as well. That segment of Acts that was read today is the
middle of a story, so I am going to tell you the rest of that story.
It is about Cornelius. Cornelius
was a centurion. A centurion was a roman soldier who was an officer who had a hundred
people who served under him. Cornelius is described in Acts as being a very
caring and good man who is very interested in the Jewish religion, who
supported the synagogue, who was very beloved, but he never officially became
Jewish. He was a gentile. Now it is understandable why he never became Jewish because
for a man to convert to Judaism he had to be circumcised. During the time of
the Romans there were universal baths that everybody shared together. Even the
sporting events were often done naked. So if someone were to become circumcised
it would not have been private affair, it would have been a public thing, and
it could have effected his authority as a military officer.
So he had not become Jewish, and
this is important because at that time Jewish people did not go into or
socialize in the homes of non Jewish people; especially they didn’t eat together
because the Jews had very clear traditions of what was acceptable food and what
was not acceptable food. And the food that they ate had to be prepared in a certain
way. So if they were to eat with gentiles they were liable to eat food that was
considered ritually unclean. So this is the context of this story of Cornelius.
One time Cornelius was praying and
he had a vision. His vision was that he was to send to Japa, which was a town
about two days walk away, to get a man named Peter to teach him about God. So
he sent several of his officers to go and get Peter. Just when they were about
to arrive in Japa, Peter, the follower of Christ, the leader of the church, who
was in Japa was praying and he had a vision. He had been praying in the upper
room or on the roof of the house, and he had this vision that there was this
hug sheet, like a sail, and it was being lowered out of heaven, and on it there
were all kinds of animals, including snakes and things that crawled on the
ground. There were ritually clean animals and unclean animals. Then he heard a
voice that said, “Peter, kill and eat.” And he responded with, “No, I can’t do
that. I have always followed the dietary laws. I can’t eat these things, they
are unclean.” And he heard the voice a second time, “Peter, kill and eat.” “I
can’t do that.” And then a third time the voice comes to him and at that point
Peter realized that he was being told that the dietary restrictions were no
longer relevant. Just at that moment the people from Cornelius arrived at the
door, and they invited Peter to come with them. Now having just had this vision,
he didn’t delay in going with these gentiles.
When they got to Cornelius’ house he
went inside and Cornelius brought together his family and friends to hear what
Peter had to say. That is when we get to the passage read today. The first
thing that Peter says is, “I truly understand that God shows no partiality.” I
truly understand that God shows no partiality - that is a radical statement. It
is a radical statement today, to say that there are not restrictions to God’s
love. That it doesn’t matter, that God shows no partiality based on ethnic
background, based on where you were born, based on your social status, based on
anything. God shows no partiality. It is radical today but it was certainly
much more radical back then. Back then it was very tribal and to the people of
Israel it mattered if you were a descendant of Abraham. It mattered if you were
part of the tribe. It mattered if you ate the right foods. It mattered whether
you were a Jew or a gentile. But Peter said, “I truly understand that God shows
no partiality.” Powerful statement.
Then he goes on to tell the story
of Christ and how he healed, and how he was crucified and died, and how he rose
again. The next thing that it says after what we read today, the next thing it
says is that Cornelius and the people who were gathered there were filled with
the Holy Spirit, and they began speaking in tongues. They knew they were filled
with the Holy Spirit because they were speaking in different languages. There
are lots of different ways the Holy Spirit can manifest and that is one of
them. When Peter saw that these people gathered there, these gentiles who were
gathered had been touched by the Holy Spirit he said to the others who were
with him, “What is to keep us from baptizing them.” And they were all baptized.
And it is the first time that non Jews were baptized. Before that everyone had
to first become a Jew, agree to all the rules and restrictions of Jewishness, and
be circumcised, but here that boundary was broken and this was the beginning of
the mission to the gentiles. It is a powerful and important moment in the
history of Christianity. Where Christians stepped outside of the mind set of
smallness and limit and realized that God knows no. It is interesting that in
this case Cornelius and his friends experienced the Holy Spirit before their
baptisms. It brings up all kinds of questions about the meaning of baptism, but
we are not going to go there today.
In the Gospel reading we hear of
Jesus being baptized in the River Jordan, and as he comes out he experiences
the Holy Spirit coming upon him like a dove. Now clearly there wasn’t a bird
that landed on his head. It was like a dove. It was a simile. It was trying to
express this experience of the Holy Spirit coming upon him. The description
that is used in the Gospels of a dove is something that people of that time
would be used to as a simile, as a description of the Holy Spirit. It is
something that people of that culture could relate to.
But let’s try another image. We
live in a very different time. We understand electricity, that there is this
energy that you can’t see that goes and moves through wires and then makes
things work. We have a new movie Tron that takes place inside a computer (Tron
2 I guess) and there is light zooming around. We have these images of energy
and we understand it. It makes sense to us because of our culture. So I’d like
you to just use your imagination, and if you are not real visual and don’t want
to be imaginative, just think about the things I said earlier in the sermon and
tune out.
If you have seen some of the
really old movies about Jesus the character or actor that plays Jesus is
sometimes just fuzzy. Or sometimes in the old back and white ones they make it
so there is sort of a little bit of glow around him. Now we have much better
special effects and if I were going to do a movie about Jesus I imagine it like
this: As Jesus comes up out of his baptism suddenly there is a shower or a
waterfall of light that comes down over him. Like drops, tiny droplets of light
just flowing all over him and into him and filling him. And as he gets out of the water these little droplets
of light come off him like water dripping off someone after a shower. Then as
he walks through the world he would look like a man but every now and then this
little bit of light would just drip off of him. When he would touch somebody
maybe a drop of light would be on the shoulder and when did a healing maybe a
whole bunch of light would go into that other person. It wouldn’t be that he
would glow all the time, but there would just be these little drops of light as
he walked along, you know, just like water falling off of him. Can you imagine
that? Can you see Christ that way? As the Holy Spirit coming into him as light
and just kind of going out of him as droplets into the world.
With the baptism of Jesus the
understanding of baptism changed. Baptism was an ancient rite that goes back to
prehistory as a rite of going and washing to prepare for spiritual events or to
wash away sins. It was a common thing to go into the water. What changed with
Jesus is the coming of the Holy Spirit as part of baptism. Now baptism, as we
understand it, is not a symbol of washing away sins, rather we see it as a sacrament.
A sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. At
a baptism not only is the water put on a person, but the Holy Spirit it comes
upon that person. So if you have been baptized think of that light coming into
you, and washing you, and filling you and transforming you and then coming
through you to other people. Imagine yourself filled with the Holy Spirit.
Most of us have had some moment in
our lives when we knew there was something special happening, when we experienced
the Holy Spirit. Maybe subtly, maybe in the sun set, maybe at a time where you
felt energy and healing, maybe at a church service or a communion or at a
celebration of some sort. Maybe someone once said something to you that transformed
you and you felt the Spirit’s presence. The Holy Spirit is an energy that can
come into us like light. Like light that fills us. And like light that can flow
out of us so that if we are filled with the Holy Spirit today and we go out of
church and we smile at someone in the grocery store that is a little bit of
light going to them. Like a droplet that we give. That is what we are to be as
Christians. We are to conduits for the Holy Spirit we are to let the Holy
Spirit come into us, fill us, transform us and then go out and give it to the
world. That is who we are and that is who we are to be. Inviting the Holy
Spirit and sharing the Holy Spirit with others, with everyone, for God shows no
partiality.
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