January 8, 2006

THE MARK OF MUD

Genesis 1: 1-5; Mark 1: 4-11

            I admit I watch a lot of football games this time of year, which means I watch a lot of television commercials.  I have come to the conclusion that the most popular commercials are the ones touting a variety of next generation SUVs.

            Each ad looks about the same, attractive people load up their oversized 4x4 to head out over some terrain negotiable only by Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep throwing up dirt and gravel all the way.  This automotive action is usually followed by an image of the same folks setting up camp or jumping into a kayak or dangling off a rock.

            The truth is that only about 5 % of SUVS are ever taken off road which means that you’re more likely to see a Range Rover at Panera Bread or Starbucks than anywhere near a mountain lake.

            This creates a problem.  The allure of these big SUV, car/trucks, is their ability to go just about anywhere.  Given the current gas prices, oil shortages, environmental impacts, and the fact that these vehicles get single digit miles per gallon just taking the kids to soccer practice is kind of embarrassing.

            But wait!  Thanks to a new product, SUV owners don’t need to put up with either guilt or critics, with the product Spray on Mud they can create the illusion that their SUV has on more than one occasion been baptized in mountain mud.

            For a mere $14.50 per quart-sized bottle you can buy actual mud to spray on your vehicle in order to make it look as though you’ve just come back from a wild ride in the wilderness.

            The promotional material reads, if you’ve got an off road vehicle, spray on mud will send a message to anyone who disapproves or is just plain envious that you actually use your off roader off road as well as on it.  Inside each quart-sized plastic container is real dirt, mixed with water and a secret ingredient which helps the mud stick to the vehicle’s body.  A few squirts on the fenders and wheels and you’ve got an SUV that’s dirtier than a mudslide.  Now the 5 % of SUV owners that actually drive off road know that the best mud is free and available.  As adults, we tend to avoid mud and whenever possible, I still hear don’t forget to wipe your feet.

            When Jesus burst on the scene in first century Israel, one of his first actions was to travel off road through the mud.  He traveled all the way to the Judean wilderness to see his cousin John.  John lived a solitary life but preached a message so compelling that people were willing to get their feet dirty to go find him.

            Standing there in the notoriously muddy water of the Jordan River, John offered a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  John called on everyone to be baptized or marked.  For John baptism was a great equalizer, it was for rich and poor, Jew and non-Jew, it meant that all must turn toward God.

            And herein is a paradox, you don’t wash dishes in dirty water, yet John calls his disciples to be washed, marked, or cleansed in the dirty waters of the Jordan River, and it is dirty.

            When Jesus comes to be baptized John is incredulous and says Jesus should baptize him.  Yet Jesus steps down into the same muddy water to take on the same mark as all the people.

            When we are baptized we take on that same mark, Jesus’ baptism is the prototype for those of us who would follow him.  What does our baptism say about us?

            We understand baptism as a mark of God’s favor.  Jesus comes to the Jordan River to be baptized by John and for him it is a form of anointing, not just with water but with spirit.  Here we see the Trinity in action, the Son receiving the blessing, the Father expressing his love for the Son and the Spirit descending on him.  Baptism marks Jesus as the beloved of God, in which God’s own nature is revealed and with whom God is well pleased.  It is a powerful expression of the intimacy of God’s own relational nature.

            For us, baptism is a sign of God’s favor as well, but it is favor that is unmerited, we “come clean” to God through repentance and confession and through baptism God sees us as very good.

            There’s more, the baptism of Jesus is a form or anointing by which the Messiah, the Promised One would save Israel and the world.  For Jesus Baptism is preparation for ministry.

            Baptism is a sign that we pledge allegiance to a different kingdom, the kingdom of God.  And that allegiance is worked out in our service to others.  Baptism marks us, sets us apart as different.  Our baptism calls is to be a different, peculiar, and passionate people who are sent out to follow Jesus in changing the world.  In other words, we are called to go into the world and get dirty serving others.  There’s no room for pretending or keeping to our own side of town.  Our baptism is a commission and a call to go out into the wilds of a hurting world.

            Jesus, God in the flesh, lived and moved in the world but was not of the world.  He was tempted like us, human like us, but recognized that his kingdom was beyond the human realm.  Jesus didn’t merely call people to get straightened out so that they could fly off to heaven when they died.  The real good news that he preached is that God’s kingdom, in the person of Jesus, had broken in, a new reality was coming to the forefront.  Jesus saw heaven not as being far away but rather quite close at hand, active, working, engaging and breaking into human history.

            What we do now matters, to be agents of this in-breaking kingdom where we are today, be it on an urban street or a rural back road.  We can experience the promises and purposed of God in our present lives.  Our baptism then invites us to live in that new reality, a heavenly; God ordained reality, seeing eternity not out there somewhere but also seeing God at work here and now.

            Living as baptized followers of Christ is something we can’t fake, no amount of spray on mud or religiousity can hide who we really are.  As Jesus waded into the muddy water of the Jordan River he set the example for us! 

            Bottom line, if the Son of God is willing to get dirty changing the world, we who follow need to do the same.

            In the early church the congregation at baptism actually participated.  The person in charge, the pastor, would take a hyssop branch and dip it in the water and fling the water out into the congregation, inviting them to remember their baptisms and be thankful.

            As we think about and celebrate the baptism of Jesus we should remember the muddy water as well, a mark that reminds all of us who it is that we follow into the world.

            Amen.

            Let us pray.