Crossing Jordan

The Jordan River

The Jordan River

The standard question to ask  today, when we gather to commemorate the baptism of Jesus by John is, Why?  Why was Jesus baptized by John?  John was calling people to repentance, and to ready themselves for Jesus’ coming.   But what does Jesus have to repent for?  And why should he prepare for himself?  He is God of God, light of light, very God of very God, the Word incarnate.  Yes, he is like us in every way - except without sin.  So why his baptism?  John, himself, announces that “one who is more powerful than I is coming after me....  He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire!”  It’s baptism into Jesus’ life  - with the Holy Spirit and fire - that interests me.  But that was not what John was offering, and even he knew it.  So why would Jesus go to John to receive John’s lesser baptism?

It’s an interesting and not an unimportant question.  But today, at least, it’s not the question that leads me to any useful conclusion.  Today, I find the various answers to the question “Why?” noteworthy, but without anything very helpful to tell me, or for me to tell you.  When I probe that question I end up pretty much in the same place I was in before; nothing is new for me, or, I suspect, for you.

And what’s the point of coming to church if nothing is going to be new when you leave here?  We tell these stories about Jesus, we recount his life and his teaching, his miracles, his saving death and his resurrection, for a reason... and the reason is because we hope and we pray that we will be shown something new, given something new that will change us or the world around us.  Something ought to be better after the Gospel has done its work on us, even if it’s only a little bit better.  And what I have found is that asking why Jesus was baptized by John doesn’t really change anything - at least not for me.

But there is a question for which today’s Gospel reading provides a ready and an easy answer that has the capacity, the potential, and even the likelihood of effecting some change in my life and in yours.  And it may sound silly to you because the question is so simple and the answer is even simpler.  But I don’t mind sounding silly, and I love an easy answer.

So, here’s the question that I think might matter for us today.  Where did Jesus get baptized by John?  Now, this is an open book question.  You can go ahead and look.  But chances are, you already know.  Jesus was baptized in the River Jordan.  That was easy!

Theses days, you can go to the Jordan River and they will tell you exactly where they think John baptized Jesus.  I’m not so worried about that.  It’s not the specific coordinates of the location that matter.  What matters is that it’s the Jordan River.

Now, you already know everything I’m going to tell you; I’m just going to try to stitch some pieces together for you.

You already know that Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt, chased by Pharaoh’s army, through the Red Sea, which parted in two for Moses and his gang when they went across, and then came crashing down on the chariots of the Egyptians when thy came racing through in hot pursuit.

You already know how Moses led those Hebrew people through the desert, wandering for forty years.  And, I mean, look, you could have found your way out of the desert in forty years if you’d wanted to… or God could have gotten them out of there!

But God must have wanted them wandering.  God must have wanted them grumbling.  God must have wanted them tempted to go back to the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks and the garlic that they had left behind in Egypt.  God must have wanted them hungry.  And God must have wanted them thirsty.  God must have wanted to feed them with quails, and he must have wanted to give them water from a rock.  And God must have wanted to feed them with manna - with bread from heaven!

God had a lot to do.  And what did the Hebrew people have to do?  Not very much.  They had time to spare since they were no longer slaves.

But all that wandering made them realize something, even as they remembered that they were no longer slaves.  All that wandering made them realize that they were also not yet free.  They had been led out of slavery, but they were not yet free.  God wanted his children to know that although they were no longer slaves, they were also not yet free.  That’s must be why God let them wander for so very, very long in the desert, when any normal group of people would have found their way out years sooner.  But God had something for them to do.

God needed them to know that they were lost.  God also needed them to know that they would happily run to their tents, when things looked bad, and gather up their earrings and their bracelets and melt down the gold to make a calf that they could worship… those unreliable children of God, who run after false gods at the first sign of trouble.

All this time, Moses is complaining to God.  “Lord,” he says, “your people are a stiff-necked people.  They are a fickle people, and their faith is weak.  And I am not half the man you need in a job like this, could we please get on with it!?!” 

And God said, “Easy does it, Moses,” or something to that effect.  Easy does it.

You already know that all that while, Moses had been promised by God that God would lead them out of captivity, and out of their wanderings, and into the land he had promised to Abraham - a land flowing with milk and honey, a land that would be theirs, where they could make their home, and be at peace.  You know this.  And for forty years, Moses kept reminding them: milk and honey, milk and honey.

And you know that God told Moses that he (Moses) would not, himself, get to enjoy the reward of arrival in the Promised Land.  But that’s a story for another time.  Poor, old Moses died after God showed him the Promised Land from the top of Mount Nebo.  Moses died with a song of blessings on his lips.  But he never made it to that Promised Land.

Then, God appointed Joshua to lead his children after Moses died.  And Joshua led them into the Promised Land.  And the first thing they had to do to get there was to cross the River Jordan, which was running high because of recent rains.  They were carrying the ark of the covenant with them, and when the priests who were carrying the ark of the covenant stepped into the Jordan, the waters on one side of them were cut off, and the waters on the other side were held back.  And they were able to walk across the river, with the waters parted that way for them.  Remind you of anything?

And the priests stood there in the middle of the river bed, with the waters held back in a heap.  And the people of Israel filed past them, as the priests stood there in the river, holding aloft the ark of the covenant, until every last man, woman, and child had walked across the dry bed of the River Jordan and into the Promised Land.

Here we are, all these ages later.  And we are nowhere near the River Jordan.  But I have to tell you, I hardly know a person these days who is not lost - at least some of the time - and I include myself in that number.  I hardly know a person who hasn’t suffered, or isn’t lonely, or anxious, or trapped in their own lies, or longing for peace, or vexed by injustice, or shackled to anger, or haunted by the past, or stymied by an uncertain future, or exhausted by pain, or deluded by greed, or frightened, or bored, or self-loathing, or timid, or over-compensating, or grieving.  Nearly everyone I know is lost or broken in at least some small way.  And I wonder if Moses’ people felt like this when they were wandering.

And I remember that Moses had to keep reminding them: “God is doing something here.  God is leading us somewhere.  Don’t give up.  Put down that golden calf.  Eat your manna.  Hang in there a little longer, you stiff-necked people!  God is not done with us yet”  And I remember that God needed to teach his people that they were not yet free, even though they had been brought out of slavery by his mighty arm.

And I wonder if God is trying to teach us this lesson too - that we are not yet free, not in any meaningful sense of the word, not free as God wants us to be.  And I wish and I pray that God would please get on with it!

And then I wonder if we even know where we are going.  I wonder if we believe in a Promised Land anymore.  And I wonder how we think we will get there if we have stopped even wondering where or what it is.  How would we know if we had even passed by anywhere near the Promised Land flowing with the milk and honey of God’s loving kindness?  How would we know if we ever got close?  How would we even remember that we are supposed to be heading there?

And then I think to myself, that that’s it: that’s why Jesus was baptized by John in the River Jordan.  Because Jesus came with a new covenant, and a new promise, in order to show us the Way.  And his ministry begins with a stop at the Jordan River, where John stands in the middle of the river, just like one of those priests carrying the ark.  Except that the waters have not parted, and John is holding Jesus by the hand.

This scene is supposed to remind us that God has someplace for us to go.  It’s supposed to remind us that we are not yet free, but that we can be, and we will be if we follow Jesus.  And that journey is always going to lead us through the water.  The Jordan River flows through the most surprising places.  Sometimes, even right here, down Locust Street.

And Jesus is standing there by John, so that he can wave to us... to remind us…. “Over here!” He’s calling to us, as we are led in every other conceivable direction.  “You’ve got to cross the river, but don’t worry, I’ve already crossed it, and the water is fine.”

The archaeological evidence for the wandering of Moses and his people in the Sinai Desert for forty years is actually slim to none.  It is not clear that God actually put his people through such an unpleasant test.  What seems clear to me is that God must have known that here in the 21st century, so many of us would be lost, wandering, and largely without anything that truly resembles hope.  And we would not yet be free.  God must have known that we would need a narrative planted deep in our psyches that assures us that we have someplace to go.

And God must have known that would be lost, wandering, grumbling, hungry, thirsty, unreliable, ready to chase after false gods.  God must have known that we would be a stiff-necked people.  God must have own that we would need to be shown the Way.  And how easily we would forget his covenant of love.  Which, I think is why he sent his Son Jesus to meet with John, there on the banks of the River Jordan, calling to anyone who comes by: “Over here!”  Reminding us, simply by virtue of where they are, that we are not yet free, but that we can be and we will be… if we will follow him.

Preached by Fr. Sean Mullen
12 January 2020
Saint Mark’s, Locust Street

Posted on January 12, 2020 .