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Sunday, January 11, 2015

Genesis 1:1-5

Mark 4:1-11

Something in the Water

New Year. New Beginning. New You. The advertising world has picked upon this theme as many people make resolutions to change themselves as they change the calendar. Often these resolutions begin with a need to bring about physical changes including the desire to eat healthy, lose weight, exercise. But what about other changes that one might want to resolve to accomplish. Maybe we each need to look at where we are in the life as a whole person. That is, to begin with who we are.

Our reading from Genesis is one of the stories of creation and this particular passage begins with darkness- void-emptiness, hollow- nothing. What is amazing is that God takes this emptiness and nothingness and there is water-deep water and the Spirit hovers over it, that is the Spirit goes close to the surface and moves about randomly and freely. But then the voice of God speaks—Let there be light. Just like when we flip a switch on a wall- there is light and immediately there is both light and dark and change. There is a difference of night and day. And this is what God called it.

Sometime each of us might feel that we are empty, there is nothing, and we just merely exist. We might even feel that there is darkness all around us and we are slowly disappearing into this darkness. Maybe you are facing this darkness or uncertainty in your life—relationships, jobs, transitions with family members, loss of loved ones—and everywhere you turn there seems to be more choices, decisions or nothing. What do you do? If you believe in God you just need to be reminded that all he needs to do is speak—and there is light. It starts off as a flicker of light, a spark of hope. And then that flicker or spark whether it is near or far can grow. But it is up to us to ask God to bring His Light to shine brighter in our lives. For when God’s light shines—it is good, there is change there is life.

When God created the heavens and the earth there was deep water. And over the surface what where the Spirit hovered. And from the heavens and earth and water God separated it all in time to make sky, and water. So water is an essential part of the beginning of creation and as we understand it, of life. Water is essential to our human living but it is more than this because it speaks of our creation when we lived in water in our mother’s body. It also speaks of deliverance, promise, salvation, service and cleansing. Water is also a sign of dying and rising and as we pray it is a sign of our relationship with Jesus Christ. But we might also ask what is this relationship we have with water and is it like what Jesus

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experienced as he was led into the Jordan River, baptised by John the Baptist and lifted up out of the water. We say “we are buried in the waters of baptism and rise again to new life in Christ.” But just what does this water of baptism signify?

John the Baptist was the man whom God sent to prepare people for Jesus’ coming as the messiah/ teacher/ saviour. It was John the Baptist who fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy about a messenger who would prepare the people for the saviour. This messenger would call for the people to come to the River in the desert region and there he would preach a message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. People went to him from the Judean countryside and when asked, they confessed their sins and were baptized in the water of the Jordan River. This water touching their bodies was significant in letting go of the sins of the past and beginning anew. But John also told these people that he would baptize with water but the one who was to come the One he was preparing them for, the promised One of God, would also baptize that is surround them with water and the Spirit of God.

One day, Jesus went to John the Baptist and although Mark’s gospel does not say it but in John and Matthew- John the Baptist tries to deter Jesus from this yet he also tells what happened when Jesu was baptized by him. And what happened when Jesus was baptized. John the Baptist led him into the water, Jesus went down under the water and when he emerged from the water—the heavens opened up with light, and aa voice was heard—You are my Son. Whom I love; with you I am well pleased. The Light of God shone on Jesus in those moments and the Spirit of God was upon him. In Jesus’ situation the Spirit sent him into the desert where Jesus prepared for what was to come for him. But this Spirit is also upon each person / adult or child/ who is baptised and never leaves. We however, may turn away from God and His Spirit, yet the waters of baptism surround us, like the Spirit which hovered over the waters of creation.

But why is the story of Jesus’ baptism important—God revealed Jesus as His Son in love. And this occurs when we present our children and ourselves to God—in love. We trust that the spirit of God will hover with the waters of baptism throughout our lives. And because of this we are changed—we grow in faith and we are given a new outlook for living, we are stronger—we are able to face life and all its uncertainties with hope, confidence and the knowledge that this is not new to Christ, He has been there before and we can handle life together.

What does the waters of baptism mean to you? For many people who were baptized as infants- we don’t remember what it was like when we were baptized. Our parents made those promises on our

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behalf. But prayerfully, at one time you made those promises yourself and confirmed them for yourself. And so now when we experience baptism you remember the day that you believed, were changed, you became God’s faithful child by choice and became a brother/ sister in Jesus and you had a new faith and an outlook that took over your life. There was a new you and you received new life in Christ Jesus. Your life once filled with darkness was filled with God’s Light and you learned to trust God and live.

The waters of baptism changed your life and now you live for Christ. When Jesus was baptised he was revealed as God’s Son. You are a child of God through faith and this faith is made stronger in what you do and say. Remember your baptism—be faithful and stronger and know that through Christ you are changed the old is gone—let it go. And take on the new you for this new year—in Christ for there is something in the water.

PLAY—Carrie Underwood—Something in the water.