The Interior Regions
“The Interior Regions”
Genesis 1:1-5 Acts 19:1-7 Mark 1:4-11
Baptism of the Lord Sunday, Year B, January 10, 2021
First Presbyterian Church, Sandpoint, Idaho
Andy Kennaly, Pastor
Well, we’ve had quite a week. Record setting Covid numbers and deaths, riotous criminal behavior in Washington D.C., Presidential politics, white supremacy movements, and militarism getting more money. Lots of external chaos that can be rather unnerving as systems are shaken and tested. It seems more than coincidental that the raid on the Peoples’ House, the U.S. Capital, took place on Epiphany Day, January 6.
Epiphany, a word from Greek and Latin that has to do with bringing to light, showing, appearing, manifestation or perception of the essential nature of something. Lots of things were revealed on that day, Epiphany, January 6th.
For Epiphany itself, tradition focuses on wise men from the east coming in response to a star, and as astrologers, they are seeking a child who is the new king of the Jews. While our manger scenes tend to have the three wise men, or the Three Kings, they are nowhere called kings, and to be coming from the east, most likely Persia, carrying so many valuable items, they were likely a caravan. This type of group would have been at least 80 people to have the correct support and protection for such an important journey. This is a big deal, so when they happen to stop in Jerusalem to ask directions, it gets King Herod’s attention. In other words, they go to the seat of power and ask the current leader who his replacement is. We can see from our own day, this dynamic doesn’t always go over very well.
King Herod was a ruthless tyrant, power-hungry, deeply paranoid and flawed, an authoritarian although under the thumb of Roman occupation. Herod was dangerous, as the ongoing biblical witness shares of his outrage that the wise travelers don’t come back to him to say where this supposed new king is found, so he has all the children from Bethlehem two years and younger killed. The shadow of Herod had a long reach.
The Wise travelers were warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, but to return to their country by another road. These are the first Gentiles to visit Jesus. These non-Jews are participating in God’s action and activity in the world. They present gifts which very likely help Joseph and Mary finance their travels, because Joseph also is warned in a dream to escape from Herod and they leave right away under the cover of night. The family flees to Egypt and live as political refugees. They don’t come back until Herod is dead. (Matthew’s Gospel).
This morning, we have done some leap-frogging. The Bible doesn’t really say much about Jesus as a boy or young man, his formative years. It seems his playmates would have always wanted him on their team, and if somebody got hurt, no worries, Jesus could heal them. But we don’t have stories like that, for whatever reason. I have my own theories of his travels to learn ancient Wisdom and sensing God’s call, but it’s only speculation. What we do have is the beginning of Jesus’ ministry starting with Baptism. John the baptizer, Jesus’ cousin, the son of Elizabeth and Zechariah (Luke 1), is out in the wilderness baptizing people in the River Jordan. This is, of course, scandalous in itself, in stark contrast to being part of the priestly establishment in the cultural and religious center, Jerusalem, baptizing in ritual pools. In other words, the opening scene in Mark is very counter-cultural.
Our culture is confusing so it’s hard to know what to counter. Here we have rioters, for example, destroying property and harming others even while waving banners and flags of revolution, some of them white supremacists, and even Confederate battle flags were waved with pride and taken through the Capital building. I saw one flag waved in the crowd that had a fish on it, that Christian symbol of a fish, and the name, JESUS filling the fish in the center of that emblem. People creating a riot assumed Jesus is on their side.
Contrast that with the official, newly elected, historically significant first female chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives, and she is a retired military chaplain for the US Navy and US Marines, and she’s Presbyterian at that. She gets to help with spiritual care of lawmakers who recently overwhelmingly passed one of the biggest military spending bills in the history of the world. The official, institutional expressions of government, like Nancy Pelosi sincerely praying the words of St. Francis about being peacemakers sowing love; the lawmakers assume Jesus is with them, and there is language of the Capital being sacred ground, hallowed halls, and political documents like the Constitution having Divine status.
Jesus is getting shared across the gamete, as tribal and warrior thinking tends to do. The same Jesus who is baptized by someone in a wilderness river in a counter cultural, non-violent way to fulfill all righteousness motivated by nothing less that unconditional love and the desire to serve God by living this love no matter what may try and co-opt it or suppress it. Thankfully, for Epiphany and at the baptism of Jesus, God’s Wisdom is on the scene.
“Just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.” This is the same Spirit who hovers over the deep, dark waters “in the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth.” Darkness and light held in balance, “and there was evening and there was morning, the first day.” God calls the light Day and calls the darkness Night. Both are given a name, because both belong. Contrary to the use of English language which tends to equate darkness with bad things and light with good things, both Genesis with the Wisdom of God, and Jesus entering the water and rising again, darkness and light are unified and held by deeper Wisdom. Death and chaos are met by life which is big enough to hold it all together, through love and presence. This is a powerful connection, and John the Baptizer recognizes the one who is more powerful coming after him baptizing with the power of the Holy Spirit.
In Acts, we read of the Apostle Paul going “through the interior regions” and coming to Ephesus. Is this simply a geographic description, like some Map App giving directions? Or is this loaded language pointing to Paul’s inner journey through his heart and soul? On one level, it’s practical; Paul did this, then this, here, then there. On another level, people are connecting relationally and the Spirit is empowering them to do ministry even in counter-cultural ways, whatever that culture may be.
Carlo Carretto mentions, in “Love Is for Living,” a couple questions that help us discern the direct link between love and action. Carretto says, “Yes, love is God in me, and if I am in love I am in God, that is, in life, in grace: a sharer in God’s being…. If charity is God in me, why look for God any further than myself? And if God is in me as love, why do I change or disfigure God’s face with acts or values which are not love?” (Carlo Carretto 1910-1988, Love Is for Living, quoted in Carlo Carretto: Essential Writings, Robert Ellsberg; and all this quoted on Suzanne Guthrie’s preaching resource site, Edge of Enclosure, Epiphany 1, “Thou Art My Beloved,” http://edgeofenclosure.org/epiphanybaptismb.html).
Friends, Beloved of Christ, the Baptism of Jesus celebrates connection: Trinity, our relationship to dance with the Trinity, water, darkness and light, everything sacred, belonging to God, inherent links to goodness and grace. Baptism symbolizes and celebrates Love as the only quality endearing and healing enough to create life, and nothing else has that kind of eternity to it. Marked as Christ’s own forever, Baptism is sign and seal of the Holy Spirit that we belong to God, and nothing, even our own limited perceptions and delusions, can ever separate this deep, mysterious, new creation. May we have courage to drop whatever banners we may be waving to open our hands and hearts to praise and glory.
To close, I’d like to quote Gregory of Nyssa, who lived in the 300’s, as he’s quoted on Susanne Guthrie’s Edge of Enclosure website. On this theme of baptism and connections to the love of God, the earth, and others, washing away anything less, we read this: “Leave the desert, that is to say, sin. Cross the Jordan. Hasten toward life according to Christ, toward the earth which bears the fruits of joy, where run, according to the promise, streams of milk and honey. Overthrow Jericho, the old dwelling-place, do not leave it fortified. All these things are a figure of ourselves. All are prefigures of realities which now are made manifest.” (http://edgeofenclosure.org/epiphanybaptismb.html).
The most fortified Jericho is in the “interior regions.” (point to our heart) In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, thanks be to God for baptismal promises and the joy of God’s presence. As we journey through life in both the internal regions and whatever external contexts we face, may the Wisdom and humble Love of God be perceived as our essential nature and made manifest as Epiphany becomes realized, both NOW, and forever. Amen.