This Sunday’s Gospel describes John’s water baptism of repentance, and the deity who seemingly requires it. The Gospel also describes John’s baptism being transcended. Humanity is invited instead into an immersion in Jesus’ revelation of Divinity as a gentle Spirit; peaceful and loving: “the Spirit, like a dove, descended upon Jesus: And a voice came from the heavens, ‘You are my beloved.’” An immersion into a revelation of God as a peaceful loving Spirit requires a reconsideration on our part. The reconsideration is of our spiritual and religious formation, which is the deeper meaning of baptism.
Who is baptizing Christians in our time, in other words, who is forming us as a people? Is it people who are immersed in Jesus’ revelation of God as a gentle Spirit; peaceful and loving? Or, are we instead being formed by Militarists, people who violate Jesus Spirit? There are self-titled Christians who would baptize us in blood. They pay homage to an old idol, Yahweh, the Old Testament military idol who inflicts violence on those who do not submit to him. Is Sarah Palin forming us? Her theology on baptism extends far beyond her own Assembly of God congregation: “Waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists.” Is Duck Dynasty Evangelical Phil Robertson forming us? He asserts that the better way to deal with terrorists is to “either convert them or kill them.” Are Methodists George W. Bush and Dick Cheney forming us? Both spoke of their torturous war crimes, including their murder of 500, 000 + human beings across Iraq, in terms of faith: “I believe very deeply in the proposition that what we did in Iraq was the right thing to do.” Are all the Christians in the U.S. military that carried out the Bush/Cheney war crimes forming us? One such military officer, Evangelical Gen. William Boykin said of an enemy warrior on the battlefield, “I knew my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol.”? It is necessary to ask whether both battlefield warriors believe in an idol.
All people shaped by those listed above are immersed in the bloody baptism of Jesus’ killers. They are not shaped by Jesus’ revelation of God as a gentle Spirit; peaceful and loving.
Prayer: Dear Spirit; Je Suis Charlie, Hashim, Jalal, Fateha, Khowla, Safia, Ammar, Noor, …
Question: How can we persuade self-titled Christians to convert to Jesus’ peaceful and loving way?
January 11, 2015 Gospel Mark 1:7-11 The Baptism of Jesus