Our Mysterious and Intimately Loving God – Mark 1:1-11

/

Lectionary Readings for Jan. 10, 2021 Epiphany/Baptism of The Lord, Year B
Genesis 1:1-5      Creation
Psalm 29 v11 The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace.
Acts 19:1-7          Paul blesses 12 people in Ephesus with the Holy Spirit
Mark 1:1-11           Baptism of Jesus

Peace Quotes

“The mind is like water. When it is turbulent, it’s difficult to see. When it is calm, everything becomes clear.” ~ Prasad Makes

“Water is the softest thing, yet it can penetrate mountains and earth. This shows clearly the principle of softness overcoming hardness.” ~ Lao Tzu

If we seek to create peace within us and around us, we are most likely to succeed when our minds are calm and clear and when we work with steady persistence in our ONGOING work to soften hardened hearts.

Any time I preach or lead a group, regardless of age, I start the same way. I’m going to say three short sentences. Please repeat each sentence, with enthusiasm.
God made me.           God loves me.            God has plans for me.

Preface to Today’s Scripture Reading

Today’s story is a smorgasbord of material; we could spend a month digging into what today’s verses do and do NOT say. We will spend the rest of January exploring the first chapter of Mark and we’ll stick with Mark through Easter. For that reason, my introductory remarks today are longer than I offer each week simply because we’ll be spending so much time in Mark. Let me start today’s preface to the reading by answering some questions that came up in this week’s Bible Study group.

Mark is the second gospel in the New Testament, but it’s considered the first one written, shortly after the destruction of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD. Mark is the shortest of the four accepted Gospels (ignoring the Gospel of Thomas or the Gospel of Mary Magdalene which are worthy of reading in their own right for historical awareness). Notice today that Mark offers us no birth story; Jesus just shows up as an adult.

For centuries, most Biblical scholars have believed that Matthew and Luke used Mark’s text plus a hypothetical document called “Q” as the basis for their own gospels. That’s why we call Matthew, Mark, and Luke the “synoptic” gospels – all three are a synopsis (or summary) of Jesus’ life and ministry with very similar stories and structure. Oh, and don’t get too attached to those names; we really don’t know who wrote these gospels because many followers of Jesus shared their writings under pseudonyms to avoid harassment by the occupying Roman government.

Mark was written in Greek for a gentile audience, most likely citizens of Rome and/or possibly the communities around the Sea of Galilee. As with the other gospel writers, Mark was focused on sharing his understanding and experience of his faith with people interested in following Jesus’ ministry. Consequently, we shouldn’t read any of the gospels as literal, journalistic accounts of events. Humanity has always been flexible in how we retell both our history and our faith.

“Mark’s Gospel stresses the deeds, strength, and determination of Jesus in overcoming evil forces and defying the power of imperial Rome. Mark also emphasizes the Passion, predicting it as early as chapter 8 and devoting the final third of his Gospel (11–16) to the last week of Jesus’ life.”  https://www.britannica.com/topic/Gospel-According-to-Mark

And now for a quick geography lesson!

The photo you see here is believed to be where Jesus was baptized near – not in – the Jordan river.

But exactly where is this? Great question!

Look for the little red dot on the Jordan River separating modern Jordan to the east from the West Bank (Palestine) on the western shore. The baptismal location is about 20 miles east of Jerusalem; a healthy walk over rocky mountains. Notice that there are two sites that claim to be THE site of Jesus’ baptism.

Not only is the location disputed, it’s also been subjected to wars over the centuries. Most recently, “Israel placed all the mines between 1967 to 1971 because there was a war,” but they have worked with neighboring governments and organizations during the past several years to clear the more than 6,500 landmines and booby traps surrounding the seven bullet-riddled churches in this area. https://www.timesofisrael.com/more-than-1500-landmines-cleared-at-jesus-baptism-site-on-jordan-river/

As you hear today’s story, imagine yourself walking 20 miles through rocky mountains to hear John preach a new, exciting, and controversial message: Forget the ancient sacrificial system to atone for your sins! Confess your sins here and now, put them behind you, let the waters of the Jordan river wash away the guilt of your past. Repent and follow a new paradigm of faith that hinges, not on following 613 ancient laws from Moses, but hinges on the concept of a personal relationship with a loving God. Step into these waters with all your life’s baggage and step out a new creation.

 Let’s open our ears, minds, and hearts as we read today’s text.

 

Read Mark 1:1-11.

 

Today I’m going to tackle only the last two verses of our reading. And even at that, I run the risk of trying to cover far too much in one message. Much like walking up to a casino buffet’s dessert section, prepare your hearts and minds to gorge on the incredible richness in these two verses.

And here are my concluding thoughts before I begin: 1) God is not way out there; God is intimately close to us. 2) God presence is mysterious, and that’s ok. We need to learn to embrace what we can’t capture or explain. 3) God loves passionately and loves us passionately. We can learn how to love others by seeing how God loved Jesus – Himself in the flesh.

 

Three-Tiered Universe
Verse 10 begins with “And just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart…” Stop right there! This would have been a mind-blowing vision and concept for the people of Jesus’ day.

For most of human existence, the Mediterranean world believed in what we call the “Three-Tiered Universe.” In a nutshell, here’s how it works.

The watery heavens are way “up there.” God lives “up there” in a mythical utopia where you are safe, happy, comfortable and there is no suffering.

Humanity lives in the middle which includes the sun, moon, stars, and our sky filled with air and birds, as well as everything on the ground with us. It’s not utopia, and experiences (joy and misery) can vary dramatically for person to person here in the middle.

But then there’s the underworld; a mythically dark, cold place where many believed your soul went when you died. It’s not nice “down there.”

All of this is summarized in Revelation 5:3 which says, “But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it.” 

The “Three-Tiered Universe” is how humanity thought the universe worked until about 400 years ago (1608 AD) when two Dutch guys invented the first telescope and we started exploring “the heavens.” That invention and the resulting revelations were paradigm changing.

If all of this sounds too historically distant to you, consider how we continue to teach this 3-tiered concept to our children and grandchildren. God is “up there.” We lift our prayers up to God. The big loser (the devil) is “down there.” When you die, which way are you going? Hint: you want to go up. So much of our theology (what we actually believe about God) has yet to catch up to the telescope.

This forceable ripping open of the “heavenly firmament” meant that there was no more natural barrier between God and us. If that forceable ripping sounds conceptually familiar, you might be thinking about Mark 15:38-39 describing the hour of Jesus’ crucifixion when the temple curtain ripped in half – announcing to the world (especially the Jewish world) that there was no more barrier – natural or human – between humanity and God.

Like a Dove
When God’s Spirit descended like a dove on Jesus, what did that look like? We really don’t know, but the eyewitness’s best description was “like” a dove.

This is one of my favorite images for today’s story because it’s a dove, but it’s not. Even a child could tell you that you’re seeing flames in the shape of a dove. And that same child would tell you that it’s clearly NOT a dove, even though it looks a LOT like a dove. For me, this image conveys the mysterious nature of God’s presence in and around me. In some ways, that presence seems so obviously clear, and at the same time… it is so… ethereal.

Ancient Middle Eastern religions have a LONG history of using doves to symbolize peace and fertility. For Jews, Christians, and Muslims, this goes back before Abraham to the story of Noah and the Great Flood – roughly 4-5,000 years ago – a story which includes a dove bringing an olive branch back to the ark to indicate it was safe to walk on land again. Doves have long been associated with ancient fertility goddesses, and the Hebrew word for God’s Spirit is a feminine word. Thus, connecting that peaceful, feminine symbology with God’s Spirit (aka the Holy Spirit) was culturally a natural fit.

 

God’s Words of Affirmation
Today’s reading ends with God speaking to Jesus like the World’s Greatest Dad speaking to his beloved child. “You are My Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

This apparently public profession (it’s not clear who heard it) conveyed three key emotion-charged concepts so rapidly that we can consider this a single, unified proclamation.

First, the Creator of the Universe announced the intimate relationship between them. We’re not just friends, we’re not distantly connected, YOU are MY son.

Second, God expresses emotional intensity, “I love you.” Not just I made You; not just I like You, but… I LOVE You.

Finally, God conveys honor on Jesus, which was a BIG deal in the culture of Jesus’ time; honor was everything. God proclaimed His pride in and approval of Jesus. This is somewhat equivalent to a father in the bleachers at a sporting event standing up and yelling, “That’s my boy / girl!”  

Whether you are a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, cousin, or next-door neighbor, you have numerous opportunities to share similar words of connection and affirmation with others. Kids and adults need to hear these concepts: we are connected; I care about you; I’m proud of you. Each of those are powerful and important by themselves. Combined… they are truly priceless and can be life-changing.

 

So what do we do with all of this? We can use these two verses to remind ourselves that…

  1. God is not way out there; God is intimately close to us and has gone to great lengths throughout history to demonstrate that.

  2. God’s presence is mysterious, and that’s ok. We must learn to embrace what we can’t capture, control, or fully explain. Nevertheless, we must explain our faith and our spiritual experiences (as best we can) so that others may be drawn to God through us.

  3. God loves passionately, and we can learn how to love others by seeing how God loved Jesus – Himself in the flesh. 

When we keep these verses in the forefront of our hearts and minds, we are FAR more likely to deeply experience God’s love and peace within ourselves. These verses ALSO push us to follow God’s example and make God’s love – through us – up close and personal to the people around us.

That folks, is how we create Kingdom of God moments in our homes and in our communities.
Amen? Amen!