crofftdesigns

Baptism of the Lord Sunday (Jan. 8. 2012) Mark 1:4-11

"In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was

baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up

out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit

descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven,

“You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

Mark 1:9-11

I am totally captured by this text, especially here in Mark. He punches his way through the passage like a baker punches down a yeasty bread dough

or a potter wedges clay before putting it on the turntable. It's not just a very visual image, it's a very physical one full of the heavens tearing and Christ rising up out of water.

Which is such a polar-opposite to what most folks in the pews observe

when a baby is baptized! The people coo and smile and say how cute/

darling/sweet the baby is. And most of the time there's no fuss/screaming/

kicking and the comments follow about 'how good s/he was!'

But, as several commentators featured at www.textweek.com pointed out, baptism is no nice, sweet, 'pretty' event. It's a life-changing tearing apart

of the person who was before from the new person who is afterward.

"Their lives after baptism are different because they are

called God's beloved ... Immersed in the Christian life,

soaked in the stories of scripture, they (we) are "marked

as Christ's own forever." Torn apart from the life that might

have been, we are made whole by love."

Rosemary Beales 1/2/12 responding to David Lose's 1/1/12 post

on Lectionary Homiletics 'Homiletic Hot Tub' blog.

So my question for this week: how is God still tearing you apart from the life that might have been, calling you beloved, making you whole instead?