“Then he consented.”
I’ve heard today’s Gospel hundreds of times yet, this week, I really HEARD one sentence:
“Then he consented.”
John consents to baptize Jesus, even though he thinks Jesus should be doing the baptizing, the anointing and the redeeming.
But, he gives in after Jesus tells him that it’s not his place- John’s Jesus’ or ours---to question the will of our Creator God.
So John, not knowing the full extent of just what’s in store, agrees. He consents.
And by being baptized, Jesus, too, consents.
And when we’re baptized, when we, as a congregation, witness the baptism of another, when we renew our baptismal vows, we, too, consent.
Baptism is about consent.
Consenting to God’s will.
Whatever that may be.
Jesus consented, but did he know to what? Did he know what was going to happen? All that he was going to go through?
All that would be done to him and to those he loved?
Did he know that soon John would be hauled off to jail, tortured and beheaded? Did he know his own family—his brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, cousins and other kinfolk would reject him, write him off as a nutcase?
Did he know that he would experience the incredible love of his mother, the first apostle, the one who was with him through his entire life, the one who nursed him as a baby, scolded him when he wandered away in the temple, the one who urges him to begin his ministry when he doesn’t think it’s time, the one who followed him, without equivocation, from the manger to the cross?
When he consented to God’s will not his, did he know that he would find a strength within him previously unknown? A strength to reach out to the outcast, a strength to grant forgiveness to the unforgiveable, repentance to the thief, hope to the destitute, grace to the despised, life to the dead, redemption to the sinner?
When he consented did Jesus know any of this?
I doubt it.
When he consented what did Jesus know?
He knew that his life was not his, but God’s.
He knew that his will shouldn’t direct his life. That the will which mattered, the will which endures, the will which would lead him—which leads us---- is the Will of God.
A will, which at times confounded him and confounds us. A will that at times terrified him and terrifies us. A will that, in the end, saved him and will, us.
Not your will, John, said Jesus, Not my will, said Jesus, but yours, God. Your will, not mine, not his, not ours.
Relenting, consenting, turning over. Saying good-bye to living for ourselves and beginning a life of living for God through our interactions with others--baptism is about consent.
About dying to a life ruled by our own will and being born anew into a life where we accept and embrace that God’s will rules, not ours.
Baptism is about rejecting the rule of darkness, about turning our backs on a self-serving “look out for number one” life. Baptism is about a new life.
Of course the practice of infant baptism makes this notion of dying to an old life and being born into a new one problematic …how can a baby need a new life? How can a baby sin? Of course they don’t and they haven’t. What the infant baptism does is set a foundation, a foundation given in water and oil, a foundation formed through the promises of adult sponsors, of a loving congregation. A foundation which unleashes a process, a process of consent –an ongoing decision by those who love us as children and then, as we mature, a consent we renew and remember again and again, a promise to live a life in of and for God vs. living a life in of and for ourselves.
Baptism is central to our life as Episcopalians, central to our life in Christ because by virtue of our baptism we accept that we are children of God. We accept God’s will—not ours---as our guide.
When Jesus emerged from the river Jordan, the heavens opened and Jesus was marked and sealed as God’s son, the beloved.
When we’re baptized -----and each time we touch the water of baptism in these fonts, each time we renew our vows of baptism(as we will in a few moments)---- we are sealed by the Holy Spirit, marked as Christ’s, as God’s own, forever. Our baptism, just like Jesus’ is one step in the many steps needed to fulfill God’s goal---that dignity justice and the respect for all of God’s creation will , one day,reign. Your baptism, the baptism of Jesus, the baptism of our children, their children and all the children to come is an act of consent, an act of humanity saying to God, we will work with you, not against you. Your will God, not ours.
All of our baptismal acts----each and every time we follow the commandments to love God and to love one another as God loves us----unequivocally state that we are indeed, God’s beloved and that God, is ours.
The act of consent, which is our baptism, sends us spiraling into an eternal love affair, a love affair between our Creator and us. But like all love affairs, this relationship, can be difficult, confusing, infuriating. This consent opens us up to all the vagaries of relationship, all the challenges of love, all the risks of commitment.
Did Jesus know just what he unleashed as he emerged from the River Jordan?
Probably not.
Do we know what’s been unleashed in us, each time we renew our faith, at the font, at the altar, in our hearts and souls?
Probably not.
But, just as Jesus was sustained through the unbridled grace of God’s outrageous love, so are we, for we, too are beloved children of God, with whom God is well pleased.
In light of this yes please stand and turn to page 292 of the BCP as we repeat our consent, as we open ourselves up to our Beloved God and God’s most precious Son, Jesus through the renewing of our Baptismal Vows:
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