john 3, nicodemus -- the second sunday of lent

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

So spoke Jesus to Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

The first thing to notice about this passage from John’s gospel is that Nicodemus comes to Jesus “at night”. On the surface, this means exactly what it says it means. But the gospel of John is always concerned with symbols – and light and darkness are symbols used and reused throughout John. The Gospel begins by saying that in Jesus was life, and the life was the LIGHT of men. And the light shines in darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1.4-5).

Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night. This is an image of Nicodemus coming to Jesus with a darkened heart and mind. Nicodemus comes to the Lord yet unilluminated by the light of the Truth. He comes out of the darkness of the world, the darkness of ignorance about God, and preeminently about what God had done in Christ.

And Nicodemus’s first words to the Lord manifest exactly this darkness. He says “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him." How often do we hear similar talk about Jesus in our own lives – in the media, from friends and family, sometimes perhaps even on our own lips – that Jesus is certainly a great teacher who is in some sense divine, because he is said to have done amazing things, and his teaching was certainly interesting and revolutionary. “we know that you are a teacher come from God.”

And the Lord’s words to Nicodemus cut right to the heart of his darkness. Jesus doesn’t bother defending himself. He doesn’t bother with correcting Nicodemus on his doctrinal error. The next verse the Lord says “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus could not see the Kingdom of God, which was standing right in front of him. Remember that the Kingdom of God in Greek really means the REIGN of God – the sphere within which God’s will is done. And so Jesus is HIMSELF the Kingdom of God. He is the one in whom the Father’s will is done perfectly and completely. And so back then, if he were standing nearby, you were liable to hear a true prophet like John the Baptist cry out “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!”

Nicodemus sees in Jesus a clever teacher, perhaps even a sublime teacher, maybe like the Buddha, someone who teaches interesting things about God. He can’t seem to see that the Kingdom of God and God HIMSELF, is standing in front of him. He’s only part way there.

“Rabbi, we know that you are a great teacher, we know that you are a wonder-worker, a prophet – we know that you utter divine truths.” And Jesus says gently “Nicodemus, you have to be born again to see the Kingdom of God.”

And Nicodemus is incredulous. “What are you talking about? Born again? How can you be born again?” And the Lord says “You must be born of water and the Spirit to enter the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

Reading this passage about water and the spirit and illumination, we should be mindful of the beginning of the Bible – of Genesis, where for the first time there is again water, and Spirit, and light. The first verses of the first book of the Bible: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the SPIRIT of God was moving over the face of the WATERS. And God said, ‘Let there be LIGHT” (Gen. 1.1-3).

So the Lord is telling Nicodemus that he must become a new creature. He must be recreated by the Spirit. And just as surely as the spirit of God brooded over the waters of chaos at the creation of the world, so the Spirit of God moves over the waters of Baptism – forming those who are becoming members of the Lord’s Body into new and spiritual creatures.

St. Paul writes “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6.3f).

The coming of Jesus Christ means the possibility of new life. It means the possibility of living in the truth of God himself, in the confession of Jesus as Lord. It means illumination – and not merely the ability to SEE the Kingdom of God, but to follow Christ and ENTER it.

Nicodemus appears once more in the Gospel of John, at the very end. He is one of the disciples who buries Jesus. Nicode'mus also, who had at first come to him by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds' weight. “They took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb where no one had ever been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, as the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there” (John 19.39ff).

The womb and the tomb. It is fitting that this disciple who hears the message of the possibility and the necessity of illumination through rebirth by water and the Spirit – this disciple is there at the tomb, seeing the material condition for our rebirth, that the Son of God came to earth to DIE, to take on all the sickness and sin that seeks to destroy us, to BEAR IT, to die under its weight, and to be laid in a tomb… by Nicodemus. All so that we can have life and light with and in and through and by HIM – by being made members of his crucified and risen Body – “the fullness of him who fills all in all”.

For us, this means bearing witness to him, showing him to those around us, and at the same time seeing him in those around us – in our brother and sister Christians, in the poor and the suffering, and even in our enemies. We may measure our life in the Spirit – our growth into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4.13) – we may mark our progress into the Kingdom thus: to what degree do we see him who IS the Kingdom everywhere?

For “unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

catholicism 101 -- part 4/8

CATHOLICISM 101

Church of the Holy Cross

February 10, 2008

Part 4

The Historic Episcopate: the Guardian of the Truth, and the Instrument and Pledge of Grace

• Some residual remarks on the Episcopate:

  • It is the Guardian of the Truth

    • The Truth, in its completeness, was given by Jesus and the Holy Spirit (by God himself) to the Apostles.

      • John 17.6, 7, 19: “I have manifested thy name to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world; thine they were, and thou gavest them to me, and they have kept thy word. Now they know that everything that thou hast given me is from thee…. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth.”

    • The Apostles handed it on to their successors.

      • 2 Timothy 1.13-14: St. Paul writes to St. Timothy: “Follow the pattern of the sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus; guard the truth that has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.”

      • 2 Timothy 2.2: “and what you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”

      • St. Irenaeus of Lyons (in about 175 AD) writes about St. Polycarp: “But Polycarp also was not only instructed by apostles, and conversed with many who had seen Christ, but was also, by apostles in Asia, appointed bishop of the Church in Smyrna, whom I also saw in my early youth, for he tarried [on earth] a very long time, and, when a very old man, gloriously and most nobly suffering martyrdom, departed this life, having always taught the things which he had learned from the apostles, and which the Church has handed down, and which alone are true.”

    • One of the primary jobs of a bishop is to teach and guard this faith which was given by Christ to the Apostles, and who promised to them that the Holy Spirit (the third person of the Godhead) would himself guard this deposit of truth.

      • Matthew 28.20: (speaking to the 12): “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations… teachings them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.”

      • John 14.16f: “And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth…”

        • Note that the promise of the Holy Spirit is “forever” (Greek = “eis ton aiona” = “into the eon”). It cannot therefore be just about the 12 Apostles – who would die well before the close of the eon.

    • When false teaching rose up in the Church, it was the job of the bishops to refute it. That’s what the “ecumenical councils” were for. They were large gatherings of bishops from all over the world.

      • Council of Nicaea in 325 AD and of Chalcedon in 451 AD gave us the Nicene Creed, which we still recite today, every Sunday. It was produced by the bishops to differentiate what was the truth about Christ, which had come down from the Apostles, from some strange things about Jesus that had begun to be taught (like that he was a creature – but no, said the bishops, he was in fact “begotten, not made, of one being with the Father, and through him all things were made”). The bishops were restating what had been handed down to them by the Apostles from the beginning.

      • A few weeks ago, a very good question was asked: how do we KNOW what the true teaching is? Here is what I believe: we know because of the universal witness of bishops of the apostolic succession. This means, basically, three groups of bishops in the divided Christendom: The Roman Catholics (the largest group), the Eastern Orthodox (the next largest group), and the Anglicans (the third largest group). What these groups of bishops teach is what is safe and true. But some of them, you will note, disagree with one another. Here’s how to tell when they disagree: When Rome and the East agree about something and Anglicanism teaches something different (or is silent), Rome and the East win out. When Rome and the East disagree with one another, we are at liberty to believe different things. I am hear advocating a kind of democracy among bishops of the apostolic succession. I think this is right – though it is not “gospel”.

  • The historic Episcopate is the instrument and pledge of grace.

    • Grace is the free and unmerited favor of God, manifested in the salvation of sinners (us), and in the bestowal of blessings.

    • St. Paul calls the clergy “stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Cor. 4.1).

      • The “mysteries of God” are the very profound truths about God, which transcend the ability of humans to understand: like how God can be a trinity of persons and a unity of substance, or the Incarnation – how Jesus can be at once both perfect God and perfect man.

      • But “mysteries” also means “sacraments”. The normal Greek word for “sacraments” is “musterion”. We use this too in English, for example in the Postcommunion Prayer, when we thank God for “assuring us in these holy mysteries”.

    • The bishops are the guardians and dispensers of the Sacraments.

      • The sacraments can only be duly celebrated by those who have been authorized by Christ – by the Apostles and their successors.

      • Unless the sacraments are administered by someone sent by Christ to do so, there is no guarantee that they are means of grace (any crazy person can take a bowl of milk and a jar of peanut butter, and wave his arms around and say it’s a “sacrament”).

      • Jesus told the Apostles to Baptize (Matthew 28.19), to Celebrate the Mass (“do this” – cf. 1 Cor. 11.25), and to absolve sins: John 20.22f: “…he breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

      • To say “This is my body,” and “this is my blood”, or to say “I absolve you from all of your sins” would be extremely presumptuous for someone not authorized by God to do so.

      • Moreover, there is no guarantee that these words would mean what Christ meant by them, or that they would effect what he meant to effect when he used them, unless they are used by those whom he sent.

        • Here we can see the connection between the magisterial (= teaching) authority of the bishops as guardians and dispensers of the true faith, on the one hand, and their authority as guardians and dispensers of the sacraments. John 17.8: “I have given them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them…”

    • Thus the historic Episcopate – bishops in succession from the Apostles themselves – is the warrant and guarantee of sacramental grace, of the “musterion theou” – the Mysteries of God.

      • And correlatively, Christian groups who have not maintained the historic Episcopate (most Protestants), have lost with it the ordinary means of grace ordained by God – namely, his sacraments. Those Christians, of course, who act in ignorance will likely be excused by God, and he may reward the faith of such Christians by granting them grace – but it is beyond the purview of his covenant. His covenant is with the Catholic Church.

catholicism 101 -- part 3/8

CATHOLICISM 101

Church of the Holy Cross

February 3, 2008

Part 3

Further Considerations on the Christian Ministry

• The Ministry of the Catholic Church is from God.

  • John 15.16: Jesus says to the Apostles: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide…”

    • The Church’s ministry is chosen and appointed by God. The hierarchy is not merely an expediency – a provisional structure deriving from men to effect the proclamation of the Gospel – rather it is given by God himself, a fundamental component of his self-disclosure and the work of redemption ongoing in the world.

    • The word “appointed” is translated in the Authorized Version (“King James” Version) “ordained” (Greek = ETHEKA – “place” “appoint” etc.).

  • As it was under the Old Covenant, is now: “I give your priesthood as a gift” (Numbers 18.7).

  • So the ministerial priesthood of the Church comes from above, not from below. While priests stand as representatives of the people before God, they are primarily sent by God as His ambassadors to the people.

    • So St. Paul, writing as an Apostle / Bishop / Priest says: “So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We beseech you ON BEHALF OF CHRIST, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5.20).

      • (In 1 Peter 5.1 St. Paul calls himself a “fellow-priest” (Greek = “sum-presbuteros”).

    • And 2 Cor. 2.10 Paul refers to forgiving sins “in the person of Christ” (Greek = “en prosopo christos”).

    • This is a critical point to emphasize, because of our cultural situation (as Americans), we are prone to allow our thinking about civil polity to color our beliefs about Christianity. So we might tend to think of the clergy merely as elected representatives of the people. And while voting and so forth is a PART of ecclesial polity, that process does not endow the ordained ministry with its most fundamental character.

    • And while we make think of this teaching as a kind of exaltation of the clergy, it is actually the opposite. The fact that the priest ministers “in the person of Christ” and with Christ’s authority and power, is a safeguard against pride. The Christian priest, as priest, loses his own identity in Christ.

    • So St. Paul says “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Cor. 4.7).

  • Apostles / Bishops / Priests / Deacons

    • Each of these words (in Greek of course) is used in reference to our Lord himself.

      • Hebrews 3.1: “Therefore, holy brethren, who share in a heavenly call, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession.”

        • Compare John 20.21: “Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you."

      • 1 Peter 2.25: “For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Guardian [Greek = “Episkopon” = “bishop”] of your souls.”

      • Hebrews 5.6: “…as he says also in another place [about Jesus], "Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchiz'edek."”

      • Luke 22.27: “But I am among you as one who serves…” (“one who serves” = “diakonon” in Greek = “deacon”).

    • After the Resurrection of the Lord, he sent out the Apostles to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28.19). The Apostles in turn appointed “bishops / elders” (i.e. priests) and deacons (Acts 6 explains the deacons) to minister on their behalf in the places to which they were sent (cf. Philippians 1.1).

      • “And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they believed” (Acts 14.23).

    • As the Apostles began to die, they appointed men from the order of bishop-elders (episkopoi-presbyteroi) to succeed to their place of primacy in the nascent Church.

      • So, for example at Antioch, Saint Peter was the first leader of the local church, then Saint Evodius, then Saint Ignatius, and so on. We know this because writings from some of these people have come down to us.

        • We have a number of letters from Saint Ignatius, who wrote while on his way to be martyred in Rome about the year 110, to the Christians in a town called Tralle, in what is now the west coast of Turkey, saying “In like manner, let all reverence the deacons as an appointment of Jesus Christ, and the bishop as Jesus Christ, who is the Son of the Father, and the presbyters as the sanhedrim of God, and assembly of the apostles. Apart from these, there is no Church.”

      • At Rome there were Peter and Paul, then St. Linus, St. Anacletus, St. Clement, etc. etc.

      • So Saint Irenaeus of Lyons writing about the year 180 says: “It is within the power of all, therefore, in every Church, who may wish to see the truth, to contemplate clearly the tradition of the apostles manifested throughout the whole world; and we are in a position to reckon up those who were by the apostles instituted bishops in the Churches, and [to demonstrate] the succession of these men to our own times; those who neither taught nor knew of anything like what these [heretics] rave about” (“Adversus Haereses” Book IV chapt. 26).

      • If you’re industrious enough, you can find out the succession of Bishop Stanton, all the way back to Jesus himself. It’s a matter of public record.

    • So when the Apostles were all dead, toward the end of the 1^st century, the Bishops became the buck-stopping authorities in the Catholic Church. Under them the elders (presbyteroi) and deacons ministered – the quote from St. Ignatius of Antioch, above, is representative of this transition and time period.

    • The next stage of transition was during the course of the 3^rd – 4^th century, as Christianity grew and came to be tolerated by the secular authorities throughout the known world. It spread from the metropolitan centers where it had been planted (big cities like Alexandria, Antioch, Rome, Ephesus, Lyons, etc.) to smaller cities in the vicinities of the metropolitan centers.

    • So the bishops of the large cities (“Metropolitans”) appointed “suffragan” (assistant) bishops to minister in the outlying cities and towns. And as the faith spread further and increased yet more, and as distinct parishes (from Greek “para oikos” = subsidiary house, i.e. subsidiary to the diocese) grew up in within Episcopal sees (the place where the bishop has his chair or “sedes” in Latin), the bishops appointed men from the order of presbyters to minister, by the leave and under the authority of the bishop, within local churches. This took place generally during the 4^th and 5^th centuries. (These transitions and dates are fluid.) It hasn’t changed appreciably since.

  • We’ve seen that the bishops are the successors of the Apostles. Let’s consider four implications of this (fount of the ministry, bond of unity, guardian of the truth, instrument and pledge of grace):

    • The episcopate is the fount of the Ministry

      • All bishops are also priests and deacons.

      • All priests and deacons are made by bishops (as are bishops themselves – i.e. made by other bishops (at least three others, since very ancient times)).

    • The episcopate is the bond of unity

      • To separate oneself from communion with one’s bishop is to separate oneself from the Church of which the bishops are the rulers. It is to become a “schismatic”.

        • Moreover, as the bishops minister in the place of Jesus, to separate oneself from one’s bishop is an act of disloyalty to Jesus himself (2 Cor. 2.10 (above) and Matt. 28.18ff: “And Jesus came and said to them (the Apostles), "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age"”).

catholicism 101 -- part 2/8

My apologies about the formatting of this. The formatting from MS Word doesn't seem to be conserved in the blogger thing.

CATHOLICISM 101
Church of the Holy Cross
January 27, 2008

Part 2
The Scriptural Foundations of Catholicity:
Catholic Ministry / Catholic Mission

- The Divine Origin of the Church
o Isaiah 14.32: The Lord has founded Zion, and in her the afflicted of his people find refuge.
o We saw last time how the coming of Jesus and the proclamation of the Gospel (Greek “Evangelos” = “Good News”) meant the expansion of the promises God made to Abraham, to the whole world (all “the nations”).
o The Confession of St. Peter
• Matthew 16.15ff
• “Upon this rock I will build MY Church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it.”
• Jesus announces that he himself will establish the Church, and he calls it “mine”.
• The Lord’s announcement of the establishment of the Church comes on the heals of Peter’s confession: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
• The Church is the domain, the community, of this confession. It is the Kingdom of the Incarnation (the Kingdom of God’s having become carne – meat, flesh). It is the domain within which this wild notion is believed and proclaimed, and by means of which the benefits of the Incarnation, and the Incarnation itself, are perpetuated and extended through time and throughout the world.
o Jesus’ foundation of the Church is the fulfillment and completion of prophecy.
• To David: “Your son, whom I will set upon your throne in your place, shall build the house for my name” (1 Kings 5.5).
• Jesus is called “son of David” throughout the Gospels, especially in Matthew.
• Matthew 1.1: “The Book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”
• Psalm 127.1: “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.”
o Because God has himself established the Church, we may have confidence:
• in its teaching,
• that our souls are secure in the Church’s bosom,
• in the sacramental life of the Church,
• by the intentional conformity of our lives to the Church’s moral teachings;
• that the Church will not pass away.
- The Ministry and Mission of the Church
o Jesus is the great High Priest of Christianity
• “Therefore, holy brethren, who share in a heavenly call, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession” (Hebrews 3.1).
o Jesus appointed others to share and perpetuate his apostolic and priestly ministry:
• “And he went up on the mountain, and called to him those whom he desired; and they came to him. And he appointed twelve, to be with him, and to be sent out to preach and have authority…” (Mark 3.13ff).
• ALL the baptized, who believe in Jesus, share in his work, but some among his many disciples are called to be with him and to share in his work, to be sent out, to preach, and to have authority, in a special way…
• “After this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to come” (Luke 10.1).
• “And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves; and he was transfigured before them” (Mark 9.2).
• In these three verses, we see smaller groups of disciples, called out from among the many, for special work (and these are not the only groups, or even the most important – cf. “the women”) – note the three special groups above: the 70, the 12, and the 3 (Peter, James, and John) – what’s going on with these groups?
• Recall that Jesus is the “prophet like Moses” who knows God face to face, and reveals him to the people:
• “And he said to Moses, ‘Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abi'hu [THREE], and SEVENTY of the elders of Israel, and worship afar off. Moses alone shall come near to the LORD; but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him’… And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD. And he rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the TWELVE tribes of Israel.” (Ex. 24.1ff).
• At the Last Supper, Jesus prays for the 12 Apostles (John 17.16ff): “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; thy word is truth. As thou didst send me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth. I do not pray for these only, but ALSO FOR THOSE WHO BELIEVE IN ME THROUGH THEIR WORD, that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.”
• Paul the rootedness of catholicity in apostolic doctrine: “So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Ephesians 2.19ff).
• Apostolic Succession: the priests and (especially) the bishops of the Catholic Church perpetuate the apostolic ministry of the Word of God (preaching the Gospel, but also pre-eminently offering the sacrifice of the Word made flesh – the ministry of “lifting up” Jesus (cf. John 12.32)).
• “My brother… a bishop in God’s holy Church is called to be one with the apostles in proclaiming Christ’s resurrection and interpreting the Gospel, and to testify to Christ’s sovereignty as Lord of lords and King of kings. You are called to guard the faith, unity, and discipline of the Church; to celebrate and to provide for the administration of the sacraments of the New Covenant…” (Book of Common Prayer, p. 515)
• The succession of bishops (and priests) from the Apostles has been taught since the very beginning:
o St. Clement of Rome (who knew Saints Peter and Paul, and who was himself the third pope) writes about the year 80 AD: “Through countryside and city [the apostles] preached, and they appointed their earliest converts, testing them by the Spirit, to be the bishops and deacons of future believers. Nor was this a novelty, for bishops and deacons had been written about a long time earlier. . . . Our apostles knew through our Lord Jesus Christ that there would be strife for the office of bishop. For this reason, therefore, having received perfect foreknowledge, they appointed those who have already been mentioned and afterwards added the further provision that, if they should die, other approved men should succeed to their ministry” (from St. Clement’s Letter to the Corinthians)

catholicism 101 -- part 1 of 8

The following is the outline of the first session of our current Sunday School series at Holy Cross.  The subject of the series is Catholic Christianity, what it means to be a catholic Christian, to believe catholic beliefs, and to worship as a catholic.  The following is the outline of the discussion from Sunday January 20.  The series runs until Palm Sunday (through - and including - Sunday, March 9).  We meet between the Sunday masses, beginning at 9:30 am.

CATHOLICISM 101

Church of the Holy Cross

January 20, 2008

Part 1

God’s Covenant / God’s People

I. God created the world out of love.
a. He endowed man with a free will, because he wanted to relate to man in love, not servility.
i. Therefore man was endowed with the ability to reject God.
b. Man rejected God. This rejection poisoned the world. (Cf. Gen. 3.9ff)
c. God was not willing that sin should be a definitive ruining of the world.
d. This history of the human race is a history of God’s patient love following humanity, despite our rebellion (cf. Gen. 3.21) – God from the beginning pursued us with love, encouraged us to return to him, and promised a definitive restoration.

II. Early on God deals with individuals and families – the Patriarchs.
a. Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc.

III. With Abraham things change somewhat:
a. Abraham shall become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by him… (Gen. 18.18.)
b. This is the people of Israel. you are a people holy to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, out of all the peoples that are on the face of the earth. (Deut. 14.2.)
c. Israel is God’s “ecclesia” (Greek), or “Church”. (cf. Acts 7.38.)
d. To Israel God revealed the moral law (Exodus 31.18),
e. the right to approach God by sacrifice (Leviticus),
f. the divine blessing (Exodus 6.7), and most importantly:

IV. The promise that God himself would bring about a definitive restoration for the whole world from the midst of Israel – that God himself would come from among them as a vindicator, to undo the brokenness of the very creation by the power of mankind’s sin in the beginning. This promise is not just for Israel, but for “all nations” – the “gentiles”. (Psalm 96 vv. 3 & 10, Is. 11.10, Is. 49.6, Is. 66.19, Jer. 16.19, Zechariah 8.22, Mal. 1.11).
a. Malachi 3.1 et seq: "Behold, I send my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? "For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver…”
b. And Malachi 4 ***
i. Note the promise of Elijah. And see what Jesus says about John the Baptist (Matthew 11.14 passim): …if you are willing to accept it, he is Eli'jah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

V. Then there is the advent of the promised Salvation, the birth of Jesus: But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir. (Gal. 4.4)
a. We are made heirs of what God promised to the descendents of Abraham:
i. And I will dwell among the people of Israel, and will be their God. (Exodus 29.45)
ii. I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD; and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart. (Jeremiah 24.7)
iii. Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant [“new testament”] with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (Jeremiah 31.31ff)
iv. Jesus said: Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them. (Mat. 5.17)
v. And St. Paul writes: I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin…. Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles…. if the dough offered as first fruits is holy, so is the whole lump; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in their place to share the richness of the olive tree, do not boast over the branches. If you do boast, remember it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you. (Romans 11 passim)
b. The whole purpose of God’s choice of Israel, and their receiving of his self-disclosure (his word, his law, his commandments), was to prepare the way for Jesus – the eternal Word made flesh, and his work – the work that saves us from the world’s brokenness-through-sin.
i. the law was our custodian until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith. (Galatians 3.24)
ii. The revelation of the Old Testament is completed and fulfilled in the New Testament.
iii. The old sacrifices are completed and fulfilled in the sacrifice of “Christ our Passover” – the Lamb of God. (cf. Jn. 19.14)
iv. The moral law revealed in the Ten Commandments is completed and fulfilled in the “Beatitudes” – the Sermon on the Mount (Mat. 5, and Luke 6)
v. The Levitical priesthood of the Old Testament, descended from Aaron, is completed and fulfilled in Jesus, our “Great High Priest” (Heb. 4.14) and the spiritual descent of Christian priests of the “apostolic succession”.
vi. Israel as a “kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19.6) is completed and fulfilled in the “royal priesthood” of the whole Christian Church: But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (1 Peter 2.9)
vii. The old sign of circumcision, as the means of incorporation into the old covenant, is completed and fulfilled in the sacrament of Holy Baptism by which we are made members of the new Covenant in the flesh of Jesus, members of the “one Body” of Christ (1 Cor. 12.13, Col. 2.11-12).
viii. In short: All of the Old Testament, the Law and the Prophets, are fulfilled in the Body of Christ, and in his work: the reconciliation of humanity with God, who had desired us and sought to be with us since our initial rejection of Him and the ensuing brokenness of the world and of human relationships. It all comes to a head and a fulfillment in Jesus – his proclamation, his action, and his person. And this proclamation, action, and the very person of Jesus, is perpetuated in the world down to the present in the Catholic Church.

the baptism of our lord -- january 13 2007

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 

And when Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him; and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."

 

Have you ever wondered WHY Jesus was baptized?  After all, we say in the creed “we believe in one baptism for the forgiveness of sins”.  If baptism is FOR the forgiveness of sins, then why was Jesus baptized?  The Bible says that he was without sin (Heb. 4.15).  And John appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Mark 1.4).  So what is Jesus doing being baptized?  WE are the ones who need to be cleansed by HIM, and yet here he is presenting himself among the crowds of people conscious of their own guilt, seeking to be cleansed from sin.

 

People down through the centuries have come up with a number of ideas about this question.  Most of them are wrong.  When this question first occurred to me, I asked a priest about it and he said he suspected that Jesus really didn’t know what he was doing, but that his identification with us – confused earthlings that we are – meant that he shared our confusion:  confusion about our calling, about what the right thing to do might be in a given situation, and so forth.

 

But this way of answering the question of why Jesus was baptized does not do justice to the depth and profundity of what is being revealed in this passage.  This passage isn’t supposed to make us feel warm and fuzzy because a really important guy was once just as confused as we are.  What it shows, rather, is the renewal of creation:  it shows the way OUT of the confusion and chaos and fear that stand at the center of human life.

 

To the ancients, water, particularly large bodies of water, were a dark and mysterious force, a symbol of danger and death – though always charged with the possibility of deliverance and life.  The Holy Spirit had brooded over the waters of the primordial chaos, and out of it God had spoken order.  The world had been destroyed in the waters of the flood, and Noah and his family had been delivered through their obedience to God’s command to build the ark.  The children of Israel had passed through the waters of the Red Sea and been delivered from the armies of Pharaoh, who was seeking to perpetuate their bondage and slavery.  Through the agency of Moses, God had divided the waters of the Jordan which stood in the way of Israel’s entry into the land of promise, and the children of Israel passed into their inheritance on dry land.

 

Up until the baptism of Jesus, God had delivered his people FROM the waters of the deep.  It is as though God rebuked the disorder of the primordial waters when he spoke the dry land into existence.  It was a divine action of separation and division.  So too was God’s dealing with the waters of the Red Sea.  Israel was delivered precisely because they DID NOT go into the waters, but passed over miraculously on dry land (Exodus 15.19).  And at the end of Israel’s wanderings in the wilderness, when they are poised on the very edge of the land of promise, the waters of the river Jordan stand in their path not as an efficacious sign of God’s boundless mercy, but as a hindrance, as the final obstacle to their taking possession of their inheritance – and again God must intervene; pushing the water back so that the children of Israel do NOT pass through the water, but enter the land ON DRY GROUND (Joshua 3.17).  Going down into the depths of the waters meant death.

 

But with Jesus’ baptism, God does something new.  John has the same reaction that many Christians have to Jesus’ presentation of himself for Baptism:  “I need to be baptized by YOU, and do you come to ME?” (Matthew 3.14).  Jesus’ response seems a little mysterious: “Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” then he consented (Matthew 3.15).  The key to understanding Jesus’ answer is in the word “righteousness”.  In the Jesus’ world, RIGHTEOUSNESS is man’s response to the Torah.  To be righteous is to accept God’s will, and so to “fulfill all righteousness” is to accept God’s will TOTALLY.  (Cf. Benedict XVI in “Jesus of Nazareth”)

 

When we think of Jesus accepting the will of the Father, our thoughts inevitably turn to the night before he suffered, when he is at prayer in the garden of Gethsemane.  His prayer that night is “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, NOT AS I WILL, BUT AS THOU WILT” (Matthew 26.39).  Jesus fulfills all righteous by doing the will of the Father, and the Father’s will is done, and all righteousness is fulfilled, with the death of Jesus on the cross.  Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan therefore prefigures his crucifixion – where he does the will of the Father, and so fulfills all righteousness.  That’s why Jesus refers to his death as his “baptism” when he asks the sons of Zebedee: “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”

 

Jesus stands on the banks of the Jordan, accepting the will of the Father, for our redemption.  At his baptism, our Lord shoulders the weight of chaos – of the darkness and rebellion and fear at the center of human life – the Lord of life plunges into the depths of it, and he rises up from it victorious.  “And behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him; and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3.16-17).

 

Jesus is the true Jonah, the servant of God who is NOT delivered from the depths, but who plunges in, who stands on the deck of the storm-tossed ship and says “Take me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you” (Jonah 1.12).  The Lord was not baptized in order that he might be cleansed from sin, but that he might renew creation, that by descending into the dark waters of chaos and fear and rebellion against God, he might sanctify the water itself, and make it efficacious for our cleansing.  Whereas the ancients saw in the seas the dark and powerful forces of chaos, we who are in Christ now see in the water the sign of our redemption.  We see that the power of fear and darkness and rebellion has been broken for us – that because Jesus entered into the depths, the depths have now been sanctified (cf. Remigius and Augustine).  We may now rise cleansed from the same water that Jesus entered, burdened with our sin.  And we may now rise to life victorious from the same death which Jesus suffered for our sake.

 

Jesus was baptized not because he was unsure of himself, but because he was quite sure.  He came to do the will of the Father – and the Father’s will was that we should be delivered from all that burdens our souls:  from all the confusion and darkness and sin and chaos of life in this world.

 

Therefore let us pray.

 

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

…and going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him.

Its too bad we no longer have the great antiphons from the old Daily Office.  They are available in various places (the English Office, the Breviary), but they aren't a standard part of the Daily Office in the Book of Common Prayer.  They were "reformed" away.  Here, for example, is the old antiphon on the morning canticle "Benedictus" (Luke 1.68-79) aka "the song of Zechariah" for the Epiphany --

"Hodie caelesti sponso juncta est Ecclesia, quoniam in Jordane lavit Christus ejus crimina : currunt cum muneribus Magi ad regales nuptias, et ex aqua facto vino laetantur convivae, alleluja."

or rather:

"Today the Church has been joined to her heavenly Spouse, for Christ has washed away her sins in the Jordan; the Magi hasten with gifts to the royal nuptials, and the guests are gladdened with wine made from water, alleluia."

What a beautiful expression of the mystery of the Epiphany!  You could spend years unpacking the mystical content of that antiphon.  Note, for example, the references to the nuptial aspect of the Incarnation: that in Christ, divine nature and human nature become "one flesh" in the person of Jesus; that we are guests at the banquet.  Note too the oblique reference to Ephesians 5.25 et seq:  "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word..."

What sublime mystery!  We should bring back the antiphons to our office, at least as readily available options.