Holy, Chaotic Waters of Life - Mark 1:4-11
The author of Mark is an "economic" writer. He doesn't waste words.
There is enough going on in the relatively few verses we share this week to make you head spin and ask what just happened. It does this while painting a rich, detailed picture.
The rich detail shows us the down to earth nature of the gospel. We can see and hear and feel this world, our world that Jesus has stepped into. We can smell the water and feel the scratchy clothes. We can hear the crowds and taste the bugs. We are startled, maybe even paralyzed by the tearing sky. This world is real, tactile, fleshy. There is no mistaking that it is ours.
It is into this wilderness of our own chaotic lives that John arrives proclaiming hope and possibility. It is into our personal and communal brokenness that the Spirit erupts in Jesus' presence.
Something has happened, the kind of thing not seen since the bursting forth of creation, or the deliverance of the people from Pharaoh.
I wonder if baptism, being immersed into the waters of creation, is not so much about getting out of this world and into the next. I wonder if sinking into and re-emerging from the water of life is more about remembering and proclaiming the life-creating, ever-healing, always-giving holy presence in the world today. Maybe, this week, we are being reminded to recognize and offer God's eternal life among us and around us here and now.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Alan