Power and fire

Baptism of the Lord

FIRST READING: Isaiah 42: 1-4; 6-7. Thus says the Lord; Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him, he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not fail or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law. “I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.”

SECOND READING: Acts 10: 34-38. Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the word which he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace by Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), the word which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.”

GOSPEL: Luke 3:15-16; 21-22. As the people were in expectation, and all men questioned in their hearts concerning John, whether perhaps he were the Christ. John answered them all, “I baptize you with water; but he who is mightier than I is coming, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” 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, as a dove, and a voice came from heaven, “Thou art my beloved Son, with thee I am well pleased.”

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Reflecting upon the life of Jesus years after his death and resurrection, the early Christians seem to have decided that Jesus’ first public appearance had been when he went to John to be baptised. On that occasion, it seems that Jesus had still been mostly unknown. It also seems that he had still no clear concept of what his mission might have been. Luke appears to indicate this by Jesus’ silence. As it turned out, John’s vision was fundamentally different from that of Jesus: Jesus did not simply preach a spiritual message, as John did, but also a social and political one. At the moment of his mainly-symbolic baptism, Jesus seems to have been as yet unprepared for the revolution he would later go on to propose.

Isaiah’s text does not let us lose sight of this revolution. The text is quite remarkable in itself. It is part of a ‘Servant of Yahweh’ cycle, the work of a 6th-century BCE author writing near the end of the Babylonian captivity. The content of the whole cycle—a leader who rules by dying—is so extraordinary and atypical that it seems quite feasible to conclude that, consciously, the author really had in mind no-one in particular when composing such odd texts, and that he must have been inspired to do so. Unknowingly, he could indeed have been writing about Jesus. In any case, the beautiful text we have today fits Jesus like a glove, as does the whole ‘Servant of Yahweh’ cycle.

As Peter and Luke point out, Jesus had not only been full of the Holy Spirit, like John and so many others had been, but also ‘with power’ – ‘dynami’ (Peter) and ‘fire’ – ‘pyri’ (Luke). These qualifications, not at all apparent at his baptism, indicate Jesus’ profound difference from John or any other prophet before him. They are hints of the revolution that he was to bring. They are also clues to our own baptism.

God’s manifestation

Cycle C – Advent 3

FIRST READING: Zephaniah 3:14-18 – Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away the judgements against you, he has cast out your enemies. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall fear evil no more. On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: ‘Do not fear, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak. The Lord your God is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing as on a day of festival.’

SECOND READING: Philippians 4: 4-7 – Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let all men know your forbearance. The Lord is at hand. Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

GOSPEL: Luke 3: 10-18 – The multitudes asked John, ‘What shall we do?’ And he answered them, ‘He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.’ Tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, ‘Teacher, what shall we do?’ And he said to them, ‘Collect no more than is appointed you.’ Soldiers also asked him, ‘And we, what shall we do?’ And he said to them, ‘Rob no one by violence or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.’

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The prophet Zephaniah (living, in the second half of the 7th century BCE) preached during the time of Israel’s kingdom; John the Baptist and Paul during the Roman occupation of Palestine. All three considered the people’s political situation to be very grim and dismal, and that things shall eventually change.

All three thus expected this to come about by some kind of manifestation of God; when God shall tear the skies open and descent upon the world to bring justice and peace. While Zephaniah expected this to happen in some distant future, and John perhaps in the near future, Paul expected it during his own lifetime.

Actually, all three were wrong. There was to be no grand manifestation of God. According to God’s plan, change had to come in another manner which was altogether different: the Jesus way. This is the silent, hidden revolution of hearts and minds. It is in this way that God works; this is how he brings about change.

Jesus birth, which we celebrate in over a week’s time, is ample proof of how God works and manifests himself. You are the change that God promised and planned. You are God’s manifestation which most people shall ever encounter.

The fulfilment of God’s plan

Cycle C – Advent 2

FIRST READING: Baruch 5: 1-9 – Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, 0 Jerusalem, and put on for ever the beauty of the glory from God. Put on the robe of the righteousness from God; put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting. For God will show your splendour everywhere under heaven. For your name will for ever be called by God, “Peace of righteousness and glory of godliness.” Arise, 0 Jerusalem, stand upon the height and look toward the east, and see your children gathered from west and east, at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing that God has remembered them. For they went forth from you on foot, led away by their enemies; but God will bring them back to you, carried in glory, as on a royal throne. For God has ordered that every high mountain and the everlasting hills be made low and the valleys filled up, to make level ground, so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God. The woods and every fragrant tree have shaded Israel at God’s command. For God will lead Israel with joy, in the light of his glory, with the mercy and righteousness that come from him.

SECOND READING: Philippians 1: 4-6, 8-11 – In every prayer of mine, I am thankful for your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruits of righteousness which come through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

GOSPEL: Luke 3:1-6 – In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, in the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness; and he went into all the region about the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet. “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”

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Baruch was the prophet Jeremiah’s friend and secretary. It was he who wrote some of the prophecies of Jeremiah, and also provided biographical data about Jeremiah. What is called the Book of Baruch was most probably not written by Baruch. Nevertheless, it contains the teachings and sentiments of both Jeremiah and Baruch. Both of them lived through the beginning of the Babylonian captivity, which seemed to be a failure of God’s plan of salvation. The writer proclaims that this is not so. However, it is clear that he had in mind something much more than just the release of the Jews from Babylon: a return to the original communal plan which Moses designed for the people of Israel.

This plan became a reality through the Christian community. One such community, and a strong one at that, was at Philippi, a city in Macedon. Paul was a prisoner when he wrote to the Christian community there. It had been the first which Paul had set up in Europe, and, understandably, he had a soft spot for it. Paul rejoiced to see God’s plan being fulfilled. ‘His’ community was a sure sign that new times had begun.

These new times were heralded by John the Baptist. He was never a Christian, and neither was Jesus ever a disciple of the Baptist. Nonetheless, John was another sure sign (one which he could not have imagined in a thousand years) that the ‘age of the gentiles’ was over, and that the ‘salvation of God’ was at hand.