The Space in Between — Promises Made in Community

Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

This Sunday we celebrate the Baptism of our Lord. We will baptize a child into our community and make promises to support this child as they grow in Christ and reaffirm our own promises as we do so. This mutuality of promise is important. I can only support someone else in their journey if I am also tending to my own at the same time. Faithfulness cannot happen in a vacuum; it is always relational. My rule of life gives thanks “for the rub of community life.” I always hear this as the opportunity we have in the daily encounters to be Christ and see Christ. It is in the “rub” that we are made more whole—or holy. This feast day is also when I was ordained to the priesthood twenty years ago. The moment I always carry from that service was when I prostrated myself on the floor while the gathered community sang prayers. That deep sense of being enfolded in prayer is the only way I can imagine priestly ministry. It is not something I do alone, but only with the presence and mutuality of those with whom I share ministry.



Jesus modeled mutuality to us, and it helps me to answer a natural question we have each year: Why did Jesus need to get baptized in the first place? Our usual assumptions about the need to turn toward a new way of life seem not to apply to Jesus. And the account we have in Luke is quite spare compared to the other gospels. John the Baptist is the larger-than-life character in this story. So much so that the people are filled with expectation and wondering whether he might be the Messiah. Luckily, John is sure of his own place in the narrative, so he tells the people that he is but the forerunner. The one who is coming, he will not be worthy to untie the thong of his sandal. But this is not a question of assessing our worthiness. If I think of Jesus and the mutuality of love he offers, his baptism is about joining me in the water.

Luke reminds us, “Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized…” He doesn’t have some lengthy dialogue between John and Jesus. Instead, he has Jesus joining in radical affiliation with those who are in need of repentance. That affiliation ultimately comes to fulfillment on the cross. There is literally no place that Jesus will not go to be with us. In this season of Epiphany, when we look for God made manifest, what a grace to know that we are in this with one another—looking for Christ and bearing the light of Christ to one another.

Peace, Beth +