[Gen. 9: 8-17; Mk. 1: 9-15]
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
What would be a good sign, a good indication that someone cares for you? Like Noah and the rainbow. How do you know that you’re appreciated, loved?
A poke or a wave on Facebook? A friendship bracelet? An unexpected gift or visit? Someone you can ring in the middle of the night and who will drop everything, hop in their car and be there in a flash?
It’s a commitment that defines our relationships as human beings: care, love, interaction.
It’s one thing to love though, to be committed, but how stable is that commitment, how productive? Or is it just an after hours thing, when we have some spare time because our lives are very busy, very full after all.
God’s commitment is a covenant.
We’ve mentioned this before, a covenant is far more than any other agreement or contract, it goes far deeper.
It’s what defines humanity’s relationship with the Creator.
The promises it contains, God’s promises cannot be erased like normal ink, its words are lasting, there’s no expiry date.
And the conditions are simple: faith to God and love to the neighbour; it’s a movement in the shape of a cross: faith to God | love to the neighbour — .
Follow the commandments which inspire and describe a life of mutual support.
Take care of all which has been entrusted to you and don’t ever be scared, don’t ever be ashamed to live out a full and wholesome life as a frail and at the same time strong human being.
Never forget, be-ing is a continuous tense, it’s an ongoing action.
Never forget, before you manage even to scratch the surface of your duties and your responsibilities, God has already taken the first step because God always takes the first step out of sheer Fatherly love, with no merit of our own.
God comes with forgiveness, with healing, with righteousness.
God justifies us because God reckons humanity, Creation is worth being justified.
God doesn’t do this because of the covenant, because God feels somehow obliged.
God isn’t obliged, God is committed.
The covenant is an enduring expression of God’s commitment.
Think of it every time you see a rainbow, just for a second or two, and smile a joyful almost childlike smile and let your heart be filled, you deserve it! You’re worth it!
Baptism is a covenant, a very personal one, a very individual one (not individualistic, mind!).
Just as at Christ’s baptism, every time a child, a person is baptised God is saying: ‘you’re Mine, I will hold you, walk with you, cary you. I claim you as you’re allowed to claim Me.’
There are many close and intimate relationships in life, baptism must surely be at the very least in the top three, if not at number one.
It’s said that Maarten Luther, the German Reformer, had written baptizatus sum, ‘I’m baptised’ in chalk on his desk, and he would look at it every time he felt assailed by the devil. It would give him comfort and he believed the devil would leave him alone, not because of the words but of what they represent.
Now in Luther’s time the devil was a real-life entity, an everyday character, something we don’t always understand or agree with in the 21st c.
Whatever our interpretation, the story caries an important message, one which Luther repeated occasionally in his writings: we’re to hold on tightly, cling to the fact that in baptism God claimed us for His own, no person or thing can ever take that away from us. We can be absolutely certain that in our baptismal covenant we’re loved, we’re forgiven, we’re saved.
And when the devil, the opposer, who represents non-creation and anti-creation, pulls at us, harangues us, then we can say: ‘Away, I am God’s, in baptism I’ve become a new creation!’
And when hurt or despair or any sin of our own or hardship due to those around us are getting us down, really down, deep, very deep in places we seemingly can’t breath anymore or feel beyond help, then we can say: ‘Away, I am God’s, in baptism I was raised from the darkness of the tomb into the light of Christ’s resurrection!”
And when we see people struggling, in self-destruction or self-delusion, messing up so much our heart breaks, then we can say to them: ‘Come, we are God’s, we’re forever connected in our baptism! You to me, I to you, together to God.’
All are part of the covenant: between Creator and Creation, between the divine and the earthly, between our Father and we His children; it’s a covenant that never seizes, never hesitates, never disappoints, an ever moving covenant, a covenant that’s very personal, very real, very down to earth if you will in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, God’s only-begotten Son.
How far better is that than a like on Facebook or a card at Valentine’s!
This morning’s gospel is the shortest of the four and Saint Mark has condensed a lot of information in these seven verses: the Baptism of Christ, the forty days of temptation and the proclaiming of the Kingdom.
It’s a summary of the covenant: our own baptism, our own repentance because forgivenesses isn’t an excuse to go and sin more, and action in word ánd deed.
Lent is a good time to contemplate this in a more profound way.
Perhaps we could start each day by telling ourselves, by saying out loud: “Baptizatus sum! I’m baptised!”
Then go out and be an example of the covenant freely given to you and enjoy living in it and enjoy living it out in the World.
In Lent we’re often asked to meditate and pray on Christ crucified and Christ resurrected. This year let us add Christ baptised to that.
Jesus of Baptism, Jesus in covenant with our loving Father.
“This is my beloved,” the voice proclaimed, “in whom I am well pleased.”
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.