Worship > Sermon Archive

The Reverend Beth Fain

January 13, 2008

Epiphany 1a RCL: $2.50 Holy Water for free (Matthew 3. 13-17)
Have you heard of the newest thing in bottled water?
While there are some of us who are trying to find environmentally friendly alternatives to buying bottled water in throwaway containers, some people are offering a whole new kind of bottled water.
Holy Drinking Water.
There are several websites selling drinking water with sacred attributes.
There is "Liquid OM", which reports to be super-purified water.
All who drink Liquid Om will receive a positive outlook on life-or so the website says.
There is "Holy Drinking Water" (brand name) from Wayne Enterprises in California that has been blessed in the warehouse by Anglican, Roman Catholic, or Presbyterian clergy.
It is the company's hope to have water blessed by holy hands from every faith tradition; all licensed clergy can apply for the job on line.
The website says that this water is not being sold for profit; ˝ Liter bottle is $1.49 or you can get a case for $23.75 (plus shipping and handling).
Then there is "Spiritual Water" which comes with your choice of ten different Christian labels, including the Virgin Mary bottle with the Hail Mary printed on it in both English and Spanish. The labels must cost a bit since the price for Spiritual Water is $2.50 per 1/2 liter bottle. I am not making this up.
This morning we are reminded that each of us has our own Holy Water for free.
Starting with the water of the River Jordan, the place where Jesus is baptized.
The River Jordan, 150 or so miles long, the distance from here to Austin, connects the Sea of Galilee with the Dead Sea; it is the lowest river, by elevation, in the world-hundreds of feet below sea level.
The River Jordan is full of history.
It is the place where Moses interprets the Torah to the Children of Israel.
It is the river that those same Children of Israel cross to enter a land of freedom, the Promised Land.
It is where the great prophet Elijah passed his mantle of prophecy on to Elisha.
It is where the leprous captain of the Aramean army, Namaan, washed as commanded by the same prophet Elisha and received a gift of healing.
It is this same chock-full-of-history-river that Jesus walks in to be baptized.
Jesus' baptism in the River Jordan is one of those hinges of history where all that has come before is connected to the new thing that will occur afterwards.
Now Jesus was not a young man when he decided to be baptized.
Yes, Jesus was 30 or so years old, but in Jesus' day, with a life expectancy of 20 to 30 years old, even with the high infant mortality rate skewing the upper age levels, Jesus would have been considered an older man.
More of a Dick Van Cleve or Harry Robinson than a James+.
Jesus' baptism is where all that Jesus has been preparing his whole life to do begins. Relatively late in his life.
In the earliest days of the Church, the Feast celebrating Jesus' baptism held much more prominence than any celebration of his birth.
It was one of the three Feasts of Light (along with the Feast of the Epiphany and Feast of Jesus' First Miracle at the wedding in Cana in Galilee), so called feasts of light because they illumined who God is.
What do we learn about who Jesus is at his baptism?
Because Jesus' baptism is not so much about why he did it but about who it shows Jesus to be.
Who is Jesus? At his baptism it is confirmed by the voice from heaven that:
He is God's son.
He is beloved.
What Jesus does pleases God. Well pleases God.
If Jesus' baptism was the point in his life when he knew who he truly is and was created to be, after 30 or so years of getting ready to be that person, what does our baptism say about who we are?
Jim Wallis, called one of the new breed of Evangelicals, (in a recent interview on American Public Radio), talked about the difference between the world's perception of Christians (who we become at our baptism) and the world's perception of Jesus.
When asked by all sorts of folk, "What is a Christian?" Christians are given a variety of descriptions ranging from a follower of Jesus to a hypocrite; from a generous giver to a dogmatic bigot. You can add more, I'm sure.
But pretty consistently when people are asked who Jesus is, even those who don't accept his divinity, people will use words like healer, compassionate, lover of the poor and, a man of peace.
Where's the disconnect?
Why don't we as Christians garner the same adjectives as the one we espouse to follow, the one we say came to show us how to live our lives?
If we become Christians at our baptism, why don't we act more consistently like who Jesus became at his? Child of God. Beloved. Doing what pleases God.
On last Sunday's "This I Believe" on NPR (On Weekend Edition Sunday, January 6, 2008), Sister Helen Prejean of "Dead Man Walking Fame" said, "I watch what I do to see what I really believe…….
The only way I know what I really believe is by keeping watch over what I do."
What do we do? What do we believe? If we can't say it with words, what do we show with our lives?
If Jesus shows who he is through his baptism, who do we show Jesus is through the way we live our lives?
For example, what are you showing that you believe through being at St. Mary's today?
I look at all of you gathered today and I wonder, "What does it say about who you are that you got up early this morning, and not being paid to do so, deprived yourself of extra sleep or a leisurely breakfast with the Sunday paper and come to church?
Why did some of you go through the ordeal of getting children out of bed and dressed for church while listening to protests or complaints?
Why would anyone give up the opportunity to commune with nature on the golf course or run a marathon or watch a marathon and come and worship?
Why would anyone give up going to the opera or to the ballet or to a sports event and choose instead to sit in a not too comfortable seat and join with a bunch of other people who have also chosen to give up similar things and to be part of a group of people listening and singing in a way that takes a little extra effort and work?
Why did each of us choose between the push/pull of the attachment to our own pleasures and easy life and come to St. Mary's today?
This morning you have said something about who you are and what you believe through being here at St. Mary's.
Each thing that Jesus did, starting at his baptism, told who he was.
Each thing we do this week will say who we are.
We don't need to pay $1.69 (plus shipping and handling) for a bottle of Holy Water.
We got all the Holy Water we'll ever need at our baptism.
We don't need to pay $2.50 to get a drink of that Holy Water.
Each Sunday each of us is given the holiest drink and the holiest food we could ever consume.
How we spend our time this week will say whether or not we believe that.
AMEN

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