Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons - 9 January 2022

Baptism of the Lord

Whatever selection of readings we choose for this feast of Christ's Baptism, all of them have that song of Theophany, that visible manifestation to the human world of the Holy One .The deep refrain is the voice of God thundering above the waters, but only heard after the baptism of others-when Jesus steps into the Jordan, the heavens open and the dove appears. It is only then that John, Jesus, and possibly others, hear these words of the Holy One's resonance: "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."(Lk 3:22) We know what they are supposed to mean, for we understand that the juxtaposition of the Divine voice, the Spirit and the manifestation of Jesus as Son-of-God, reveals to us the Triune God. But what else does it mean for us?

I sincerely hope that each of you will take time to look at the byzantine icon that goes with this feast, because its symbolism can open up for us the real sacred encounter that not only took place at the baptism of Jesus by John in the River Jordan, but of what our own baptism continually reveals and still opens up for us! Start by reminding yourself that though Christianity is an historical faith, it is also one in which the activity of Christ continues now-in-us, the events that we celebrate in the liturgical cycle of our Church calendar are not simple anniversaries, for as this feast hints, when we stand together to remember, something else takes place, 'Kairos' happens!

There are good theological definitions of that word, but perhaps I can just suggest that unlike linear, chronological time, 'Kairos' in our sense of celebrating and remembering in the Liturgy, is a moment of 'God-time' when we are in a very real sense linked to the event that took place, and which continues to have its effects now. I'll give a quick example, when we hear the liturgical texts of our great feasts, such as the introits of the mass or antiphons of the psalmody, we often hear the word, 'Today', not once upon a time! The Byzantine Kontakion ( Hymn) for this feast gives us an example: 'Today You appeared to the world, and Your light, O Lord, has left its mark upon us as in fuller understanding we sing to You: "You came, You were made manifest, the unapproachable light."

So let us approach the image shared with us. Those waters of Jordan, might they not also stand for the travesty of care we as humans, have left about us? The Jordan is hardly one of the most photogenic of rivers, murky, small, often full of heaven knows what, yet it is into this dirty river, not the great sea, not the lake that John baptises others. I can easily make a connection between the silt-dust, that foundational material of creation, there suspended in the muddy water that brings us to life in another recreation, and the figure of Jesus naked , standing before us not as God but as a vulnerable human, who after others have been baptised takes on the sins of all, to have them washed away, not by John, but by the Divine Love that appears as Voice and Dove with him. In that moment we have hope, deep hope that all is not lost, for with Christ and the Spirit we can repair, renew , make good again, this is what this baptismal feast is about! Pictured around Jesus the whole of creation is somehow lifting itself up in rejoicing, the icon writer very cleverly show the hills as somehow like uplifted hands, on either side earth and its contents are represented, but in the middle, the New Adam, stands in those waters, ready to bring us with him stripped of the old, to be reborn in this river, the baptismal womb of God, three times drawn out of the waters, to be sealed, signed, marked for ever as Gods own beloved, by the self same Spirit.

So perhaps on this feast you might like to think of that other family you belong to through your baptism. We are brothers and sisters of Jesus, part always of His life, now God's own beloved. But he is the elder brother, for he is now and always the one responsible for each and every single one of us. As Karl Barth puts it : 'This is what Jesus began to do when He had Himself baptized by John with all the others. This was the opening of His history as the salvation history of all the others."

Lectio

A task:

Why don't you make a personal baptismal litany of the saints you were named after, those who are your 'patrons', your 'special friends' in heaven, and then perhaps add to them those you love, but more than this add into the litany all the hidden saints of your lives . Ask them to help you renew and live out the hope and gift of that relationship.

Karl Barth on the Baptism of Jesus

From Church Dogmatics IV.1,259

"Jesus of Nazareth-among the many who in Jordan received the baptism of John for the future forgiveness of sins-was the One in whom God was well pleased as His beloved Son, the One upon whom John saw the Spirit descend from heaven, Himself the One who, proclaimed by John, was to come as the bringer of forgiveness. In this way, in the free penitence of Jesus of Nazareth which began in Jordan when He entered on His way as Judge and was completed on the cross of Golgotha when He was judged-there took place the positive act concealed in His passion as the negative form of the divine action of reconciliation. In this penitence of His He "fulfilled all righteousness" (Mt. 3:15). It made His day-the day of the divine judgment-the great day of atonement, the day of the dawn of a new heaven and a new earth, the birthday of a new man."

Poem:

Jordan

As if in joy, or gladsome expectation,
The boundary hills each lift up their hand,
The creatures of air and water scurry
Hastening to be spectators, who then waiting stand.

Why is this, why the whole of creation,
Gathers by the Jordan, whose waters muddy run,
What deep desire draws them to their station,
Drawn from the shadows to the burning sun?

Waters soil touched, full of rubbish thrown
by uncaring people toiling in the riverside fields,
not the stuff of magic or of riparian beauty,
just a sluggish channel that to the needy yields.

Yet here ,where beauty is tarnished by our living,
Something more glorious, more subtle has appeared,
In those waters, Adams' ancient dust renewing
John the Baptiser, a stronger voice now hears.

'See the New Adam, Jesus in these waters,
Standing in that rubbish of all creations mess?
See the Heavenly Dove in triumph now descending,
Here now Jesus, the Son of God confess'.

All is made holy by this rivers' water,
Blessed by Creator, Spirit, and the Beloved Son.

All are reborn by water and the Spirit.

Heaven and Earth are together joined as one!

Fr Robert Gibbons

MMXXII