Baptism of the Lord: A Beginning: Baptism and Mission
Can you recall a time you began something new? Perhaps it was a course or a career? Perhaps it was a trip or a journey. Maybe it was a new relationship, a friendship or even a marriage. We set out on many adventures in our lifetimes. Each of these beginnings are marked by anticipation,… and anxiety. What will we achieve? What will be the risk? What will it cost us to reach our goal? Can we even achieve our goal? Baptism can be seen in this light. It sets us out on a journey or an adventure. A better word might be a mission.
This weekend we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. It marks the beginning of Jesus’s mission to bring the Reign of God into our world. The Gospel writer Luke tells us, (Luke 3:15-16, 21-22) Jesus walks to the Jordan River with others. All are filled with expectation and asking John the Baptist for baptism. Some even think he could be the longed-for messiah. John indicates someone was coming who would fulfill their hopes, not him. After his baptism, Jesus comes up from the water. Luke tells us: “Heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon [Jesus] in bodily form like a dove.” With this gift of the Spirit, Jesus begins his mission.
What is this mission? The short answer is that Jesus received the call to proclaim and make present the Kingdom or the Reign of God in our world. The whole meaning of the Incarnation, what we have just celebrated in the Feast and season of Christmas, is that in Jesus God shares in our humanity and our experience. There has been an entry of God into our world and our lives. The point of this entry of God is that God’s Reign takes root and grows in the midst of creation and our human history.
And now the “So what” question. What difference does this make to us and our world? Several years ago, Fr. Richard Rohr in an online reflection quoted theologian Brian McLaren: “For centuries, Christianity has presented itself as an ‘organized religion’ – a change-averse institution… that protects and promotes a timeless system of beliefs that were handed down fully formed in the past. Yet Christianity’s actual history is a story of change and adaptation. We Christians have repeatedly adapted our message, methods, and mission to the contours of our time. (e.g. Vatican II)”
Like the baptism of Jesus, our own baptism launches us on a mission and that mission is to build the Reign of God in our world. Like Jesus, we are to speak the Good News to the world of our own time and place. In this we model Jesus as we share his mission. How to do this?
Jesus, in his mission formed a community of believer around him, his disciples. Together they were to come to know the mission and then include others in it. It was not so much a personal undertaking or a “conversion” as individuals. Our baptism, like that of Jesus, is always with and for others. We are a communal faith, a grace or gift from God out of love. Out of love we share this gift out of love. In doing so, like Jesus himself, we are to speak of love, live in love and plant, grow and nurture a world of love, mercy and compassion… for all.
Only recently, in the Synod on Synodality, our faith community had the opportunity to reflect on the baptismal call we have received and are called share. Pope Francis, as he opened this Synod, pointed to three hopes of what we can become as a faith community, if we truly accept and live the Synod. These are hopes of our baptismal community. May we become this church:
May we become this baptized Christian community and reveal it in word and action,
in our own time and place.
John Jennings
Feast of Baptism of the Lord