honestly, how can i be calm right now
to tell you the truth, i ain't been sleeping too well
We all have riffs in our lives, places where tensions threaten to pull our lives apart, don’t we?
Despite our best attempts to mends those riffs, we haven’t been able to repair the breach. So, instead, we’ve made our compromises, we’ve done what we can to just try and get along, to not let the riff grow any bigger…
We all know, though, we can’t hold the tear together forever…
And ain’t it just like us, folks who have decided the best we can muster, is to hold the tear together for now to hear something truly remarkable; and reply with a distracted yawn, as if we had merely heard the weather report?
We hear about Jesus’ baptism, and we only start thinking about the things that need to get done it we’re going to hold the breach together today.
Despite our cold hearts, though, today’s Gospel is doing everything possible to get us to sit up and listen!
We hear how Jesus was baptized by John…
In fact, in case we were too distracted to notice, all subtly is put aside and we’re clued into a starling, and frankly, ominous fact: not only does the Holy Spirit come down upon Jesus in his baptism, but as Jesus comes out of the Jordan’s waters, the heavens themselves are shredded! Shredded!
As we yawn, lean back in our pew and start to let our mind wander; the Gospel throttles us and points to the baptismal font.
Jesus! Jesus, this one our Gospel just said, only three verses earlier, is the Son of God, the Messiah, that one is baptized, baptized of repentance for the forgiveness of sins!
Before we can even shake off our stupor to ask what God’s Son would be doing in that kind of baptism, though; everything is just laid out: In that unreasonable and unexpected act of God, the heavens themselves are shredded. Jesus’ baptism has burst the heavens wide open!
The Gospel is shouting that we’re not in control right now, so don’t get too comfortable, don’t sit back and think about what else needs to be done to hold together the riffs in our lives today.
The Gospel insists what we just heard is not like any other story, the kind that can be read at leisure and then put on the shelf. No, what we just heard is an entirely different kind of story, the kind that has power, the kind that can rip the heavens apart: the story of the Good News of Jesus, the Gospel…
And here we were, thinking this was just another ordinary Saturday/Sunday.
No, the Gospel is telling us that in Jesus’ baptism, God has fired a shot across the bow! Today’s Gospel is warning us, really; warning us that nothing can be the same, the heavens have been torn apart, they can’t be put together again. The Gospel is a heads up; in Jesus’ baptism, the barrier between us and God is destroyed, destroyed forever; God is now out, on the loose, on the prowl capturing folks pulling apart at the seems.
So watch out…
The Gospel wants those of us who have gotten a little too used to these riffs in our lives, to get uneasy today. The truth is, the Gospel wants you to be unsettled, because Jesus’ baptism is an unsettling event, an event that rattles the heavens and earth themselves…
And honestly, that is the best thing folks like us can hear today…
Each of us, we all have places in our life that seem to be pulling apart at the seams:
that broken relationship at home, that overdraft statement we can’t repay, that person we can’t or won’t talk to, that addiction we can’t seem to kick, that anxiety we can’t seem to make go away, that broken heart we can’t put back together, that diagnosis we can’t ignore anymore, and on and on and on; heaven knows I could go on…
We all struggle with riffs like that, riffs that threaten to pull our lives apart. Riffs that we can’t seem to repair ourselves, despite our best attempts. Riffs that we all just do what we can to try to just keep from getting worse.
We’ve all tried to at least make our peace with those ruptures in our lives. But honestly, the terms of peace aren’t all that peaceful.
There isn’t anything else we can do, though. All we can do is just try to keep the tear from getting worse. Even though, deep down, we know we can’t keep this up forever. Soon the breach will grow, and this life we’ve been doing everything we can just to hold together, will finally fall apart…
Honestly, we can’t keep going on like this; something has to give, each day the tear grows a little more. In those fleeting moments when we actually do admit that the riffs in our lives are tearing us, we can’t help but join the cry of Isaiah, “Oh that you wold rend the heavens and come down, O lord,” because we can’t do this on our own anymore.
That’s why the Gospel today does everything in its power to unsettle you. Jesus is the fulfillment of scripture, the fulfillment humanity’s longing.
‘Listen up, look up to the heavens,’ the Gospel shouts.
Jesus’ baptism is not more of the same ‘ol, same ‘ol.
When the Son of God, the Messiah was baptized into this baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin that we all know; something happened, something happened that could not be undone.
In Jesus’ baptism, something finally gave, something finally broke, in fact.
Only you’ll never guess what broke! It wasn’t our lives, those riffs we all know haven’t torn our lives into shreds. No, instead God shredded the heavens to get to us, with all of our own riffs!
God didn’t stay up in heaven, keeping perfection up there in the realms of glory. Instead God tore apart the very heavens, to come and mend this broken world, this world that always threatens to break apart under the strain of its own tears.
When God’s very son went into those waters we’ve dirtied with our own sin, something broke, heaven. When God’s very son went into those waters we’ve dirtied with our own sin, God shattered heavens to come to this world fissured by all those riffs we can’t mend.
In Jesus’ baptism, God has done something unexpected and extraordinary, God didn’t let this world tear apart. Instead, God tore apart the heavens to come and mend our riffs.
So sit up and take notice; because here’s the thing, as we gather and read Mark’s story, the Gospel does what he set out to do, split the heavens.
Hear this Word and the heavens themselves will burst. Hear this Word and God gets loose and comes to those tears in our own lives.
Sisters and brothers, Mark telling us about the heavens tearing is not a metaphor; and these words right now are not wishful thinking, either. No, the heavens tearing and these words both, are the very Word God has commanded to get to work; get to work right now, for you. God comes, and makes these Words come true here and now!
Now is the moment of crisis, the moment the heavens themselves are torn and God gets out on the loose, out on the prowl for those of us who need to be rescued from our own deadly riffs.
Sisters and brothers, as the promise is proclaimed to you, the heavens split again as God get to us to make a promise; God will not abandoned you or forget about you. No, God has shredded heaven to get to you.
The divine invasion has begun.
Hear this Word: Right now the heavens are rent asunder as God bursts into your life to make a claim on you that is stronger than any riff, to make a claim on you that is powerful enough to breaks the heavens apparently, to make a claim on you that can even bring the dead to life again.
Amen
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