I can remember a particular afternoon. I was walking with my son towards the pond; we had fishing on our minds. He was grinning up at me because I was singing St. Patrick’s breastplate, and he thought that was funny.
I'm sure it was.
The connection with this older brother seemed precious at that point in my journey, so I was making the effort to learn the hymn that bears his name. I had the lyrics in my pocket and needed to refer to them often. I can still see the muddy “worm dirt” of our bait smeared on the white sheet.
Fishing poles, afternoon warmth, St. Patrick, and my boy . It's a special memory.
Anyway, I can remember meditating on the words of the first cycle. Everything made wonderful sense- chiefly for the catholic (and so evangelical) concern of the prayer. Everything clicked with one exception- the line where I claimed Christ’s Baptism as my own. I wasn’t quite sure what to do with that. Perhaps, you can see what I mean. Leave it out and what is lost?
My upbringing and then current religious tradition had prepared me for claiming our Lord’s incarnation (though inadequately, for sure), his death and burial and triumphant ascension and glorious return, but baptism in the Jordan river….?
The answer lay in a full and firm affirmation of the third cycle of the hymn. Starlight, sun’s ray, moon’s luminance, wind’s deep howling, lightning’s flash, rocks of earth and salty seas are each included in my blessing for the sake of the mystery of the Christian gospel. I read this as poetic…fluff. It was a colorful way of saying that God works all things together for my good- even using stuff to do it.
Of course that is true, but I think it makes a smaller utilitarian point about something that is much more grandly the case. God loved the cosmos! He loved it enough to dream it up and call it into existence. He loved it enough to put it on. He loved it enough to take it into himself for all eternity. The gospel is more than a proposal to be hawked to the mere acceptance of individuals. The gospel is a proclamation to be shared with every creature. Rocks, worms, stars and mankind are radically affected by the truth it proclaims. Jesus, the crucified and risen king of Israel, now sits on the throne of all of creation.
This matters for you and me and our families. That's for sure.
But it also has meaning for the lawn outside, the animals in our homes that we call by name and those outside, who are made strangers to us by Eden's curse. The farthest nebula and deepest oceanic ravine have a Sovereign, and this champion has promised their final perfection and deliverance.
The feast of Epiphany/Theophany completes the declaration of Christmas morning’s promise: No more let sins nor sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make his blessings flow, far as the curse is found!
The early church saw Christ’s baptism as the beginning of the undoing of the triumph of the curse. Water was the most basic element of creation. The story in Genesis affirms that everything was called forth from its depths. In the curse of the great flood, God unmade all that he had made, and returned creation to a formless and void expanse of water. It was an anti-creation occasioned by the sin of men and women. With mankind’s rebellion came the sting of death, and the water over which God had hovered in creative love, became a symbol of chaos, destruction and the very enemies of God and his people.
It was with this context in mind that God stepped down into the dirty waters of the Jordan. Through the primordial element, God himself entered into our afflicted and bent world. From this point on we read of demonic opposition in the ministry of our savior. Apparently, the dangerous proclamation of Christ’s baptism in the Jordan was understood by the demonic forces that had usurped heavens rule in the good creation that began in our God’s prodigal mind.
So often we see the gospel accounts of Christ’s healings and provisions as simple instances of compassion towards hurting individuals, and they were certainly that. But there's a greater fullness in seeing them as a working out of his baptism. The rule of chaos, evil, disease and pain was being rolled back. A shock wave of purity was issuing from the ripples that his holy toes caused in the muddy water. A miracle was occurring…and continues to occur. The kingdom of God was advancing. Satan’s kingdom must make way.
This transformation was otherworldly and not according to the principles of this world. In the land of Adam, corruption was the contagion. Like my dirty fingers on the whiteness of St. Patrick' hymn, filth contaminates purity. Lay a clean cloth in the mud and the cloth becomes dirty. Touch a putrid piece of rotten meat to a table and the table becomes unclean. But with the coming of the kingdom, this was stood on its head. An unclean woman touches the hem of the Lord’s garment and his cleanness washes over her defilement. How can this be? Purity as contagion. Health and life flowing into the heart of darkness and death. What must it mean that our Lord descended into the depths of creation? Satan and his demons knew, it is our responsibility to make sure our children know.
This is why we will bless the waters this coming Sunday…Lord willing. We will fulfill the charge given to us by St Mark to preach the gospel to every creature. By speaking clearly to the foundations of the world, the entire cosmos will hear the good news of Christ’s victory.
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