Mark 1:4-11
The Question of the Day is: How are you feeling about what happened in Washington, DC on January 6? To read the community’s reflections, go to the Grace Facebook page live stream worship feed for Sunday, January 10.
I am weary, angered, and saddened by the events of this past Wednesday in Washington, DC, the forced entry into the US capitol by citizens of this country, the violence perpetrated, the response to an election so free and fair that numerous courts served by judges of both political parties have found no credible evidence of fraud, the disproportionately lax response by capitol police to this violence compared to last summer’s demonstrations. I love our democracy, and I am inspired by our shared values of freedom, space for a diversity of opinions, and the method of debate and discussion over violence in solving problems. Those who hurt and threatened others and dishonored boundaries in the US capitol do not in any way embody the shared values of this nation. The physical assault and threat of physical assault of law enforcement, bystanders, and elected leaders is not the reasoned, peaceful articulation of a dissenting opinion.
How do we make sense of this? What is going on? Quite obviously, the answers to these questions are wide and deep, and we will not be able to completely understand until we look back 50 years from now with a more critical and objective eye. I assume these actions stem from a mixture of growing division, systemic racism, lack of trust in government, decay of community life, and our culture which allows violence (instead of ending it—because we can end violence), our culture that nurtures blame (instead of truth and accountability), and our culture that assumes punishment is the most effective strategy for making change (instead of practicing grace and solving problems together).
In addition to these causes, I wonder also what need is being articulated. I was struck by President Trump’s words to the people who entered the US capitol and perpetrated violence. While he encouraged them to go home peacefully, President Trump also said, and I quote, “We love you. You’re very special.” I wonder if we are a people yearning to hear these words—and that we will receive them with gratitude even from one who bullies and name calls and disrespects others. I wonder if we are people desperate to be loved. I wonder if the need articulated by those who perpetrated these acts is a need to be loved, recognized, acknowledged.
While I am weary, angered, and saddened by what has taken place, I understand the need to be loved. I need to be loved too. Without simplifying the complexity of what has happened, I would like to know what I can do, what force I can exert, what light I can shine in a world broken by all the aforementioned acts and long-entrenched systems.
Of course, we can write our legislators. We can work for justice in situations of injustice. We can learn and read and discuss what we do not understand. We can build relationships with a variety of people and listen deeply to them. But most of all, first of all, essentially, we can love. Because the only way is love. The only way is love.
We can go twenty rounds about what is truly loving, but friends, we know. We know love when we see it, feel it, hear it. You, the people of Grace Lutheran Church, by the grace of God, you are pretty amazing at love. During my sermon preparation, I started to list the ways I see love manifest among you, but my list got too long. I realized that I would have to include every single one of you by name in order to capture the depth and width and breadth of the love we, by the grace of God, individually and collectively exercise. In this moment when we could easily succumb to anger or fear or sadness, the good news of Jesus invites us to, instead, practice love. For this moment in our nation requires us to love others more deeply, to love ourselves fully, to love God such that we trust this way of love. Love does not mean we ignore lies and betrayals; it means we see ourselves and others as broken people who are trying to find their way. We can hold ourselves and others accountable while still showing grace and compassion.
Thanks be to God that our God is the Source of all love! In our gospel story today, people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem gather at the River Jordan to be baptized by John. John offers a baptism of repentance, invites people to renounce their sin, to turn from their broken ways, to tell the truth about what they do, say, and think, no matter how ugly or beautiful it is. The people gathered at the River Jordan are open, honest, vulnerable. They know they have fallen short. They come to the water not because they are perfect but because they know they need help. Jesus, too, comes to the River Jordan and is baptized by John. We who read this story two thousand years later probably wonder: why would Jesus come for a baptism of repentance? Of what would he possibly need to repent? And so I wonder if the reason Jesus treads down the banks of the Jordan and allows John to baptize him is that God needs to tell the truth too, to tell the truth about Jesus, to tell the truth about all humanity. When Jesus comes up out of the water, he sees the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. A voice from heaven, possibly heard by all gathered, declares: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” The truth about Jesus is that he is God’s son, and he is beloved. The truth about all humanity, even when our actions and words and thoughts are ugly and broken, the truth about all humanity is that we are God’s daughters and sons, and we are beloved. On this festival of the Baptism of Christ, I am deeply glad and rejoice that God loves us not simply when we are right and good but that God loves us when our deepest wounds and very worst traits reveal themselves. God comes to the banks of the Jordan! The Spirit descends not in the temple, not in the holy place, not at a moment of human triumph but when people are literally on their knees.
The love of God revealed on the day of Jesus’ baptism is a love we too receive from God. We are beloved. And so is everyone else. Thanks be to God! Amen.