The Heavens Torn Apart
Mark 1:4-11
Baptism of the Lord Sunday—January 8, 2011
Belmont UMC
Ken Edwards, preaching

It was cool, sunny day in early December. Our tour bus pulled up beside a popular tourist spot somewhere along the Jordan River. It was suggested that this place, or a place much like it, could have been the place where John the Baptist preached and welcomed people into the waters of repentance.

On that day in December I took off my shoes and socks and rolled my pants up to my knees and waded into the cold water. I tried to imagine hundreds of people lining the banks of the unimpressive little river—people as far as I could see in my minds eye, people from all over Judea and from Jerusalem.

I could hear John preaching, loud and authoritative, and I could hear the quiet rumble of agreement and astonishment among the crowd. Occasionally, I could imagine hearing the voices of playing children, oblivious to what was happening on that river bank, and I could hear the hushing from their elders.

And then everything became quiet, like the quiet before a storm. I could see a man walking down the bank and into the river. He was walking toward John and everyone’s eyes were on him. This is the one whom John predicted would come, the one more powerful than John, the one who will baptize with God’s Spirit.

I could see the man covered in water as John poured water it over him. I looked up and I imagined the heavens being torn apart and something like a dove descending on the man. Then the silence was pierced with a voice that came from the opened heavens, “You are my child, the beloved, with you I am well pleased.”

On that day the heavens were torn apart!  This is an interesting phrase and I suspect it’s a phrase that we gloss over as we read this text and others like it. The heavens being split apart indicates that God is about to speak or make God’s self known in some way. The Irish might call these moments “thin places,” places where the veil between this world and the next is so sheer that it is possible to step through.

This is the season of Epiphany and the season begins and ends with these heaven splitting stories of baptism and transfiguration. During Epiphany we begin to get a clearer understanding of how the life of the Christmas baby will unfold. We understand that this is God’s child and God is pleased to share this child with the world.

We began the Christian year on the first Sunday of Advent and with a lament from the prophet Isaiah. He speaks to God, “Oh that you would tear open the heavens and come down. You could make the mountains quake, and the waters to boil and the nations would tremble at your presence.” (Isaiah 64) The prophet wants to choreograph God’s activity. There is a plea in this lament, a plea that comes at the time of exile, for God to do something dramatic. How many times have we offered that same plea? “God, rip open the heavens and do something extreme to rescue us!”

But the Prophet admits, “But you did things we did not expect.” The prophet admits that God is the potter and we are the clay and God’s activity cannot be choreographed or manipulated. Epiphany is a time for us to watch and see what God is doing in Jesus Christ and in the world, and often what we see from the birth of a baby in a manger to the mountain of transfiguration is the God who does things we do not expect.

I was struck by contrasting images over the holidays. I saw images of shoppers storming a store and shoving each other, just to buy a pair of Air Jordan shoes. I saw images of people being pepper sprayed in shopping malls and at an Occupy Movement site. These were troubling images and they got lots of attention in the press. One day I read a story about a widow, whose husband died last year, and who didn’t plan to celebrate Christmas. One day she walked into a K-Mart store and she paid off all the lay always for people who could not afford to do so, and she walked up and down the line at the check out and gave people $50 bills to help them buy the toys in their carts. It was the unexpected and as I read that story and I looked up I think I saw the heavens split open, just a little bit, just a glimpse, but there it was.  

Another observation: I’m concerned about how quick we are to identify people as our enemies! We seem uncertain of ourselves unless we can point to a group or groups and call them our enemies. In our culture we have wrongly identified people from the immigrant and Islamic communities as our enemies. And they have victims of our hatred and even violence. Sometimes this hatred is perpetuated by political leaders. And what is worse, sometimes this hatred is perpetuated by groups claiming the name of Christ. This is antithetical to Christ’s teaching that we are to love everyone and Christ’s blessing of those who are peacemakers. May we hear God calling in this New Year to live into Christ’s teaching and find time to get to know those we might want to call enemies.

But there was an unexpected moments when my wife and I saw the movie “War Horse” over the holidays. The movie features a horse named Joey raised and trained by a young boy from Devonshire who fell in love with the horse. But when the Great War came to England and they found themselves at battle with Germany, Joey was sold to the British army to make money to save the farm. Joey winds up serving in both the British and German armies as a war horse, but a sympathetic German soldier sets him free at the height of battle. And Joey runs and runs until he gets tangled in strands barbwire used to slow the enemy. Caught somewhere between the foxholes of the German and English soldiers, fierce enemies, he is rescued by a soldier from each side, and in a beautiful moment of peace making the two soldiers free the horse, shake hands, share personal information and wish each other well. When peace is made, when weapons are laid down, when enemies are loved and forgiven, the heavens are split in two and the grace of God descends like a dove.

Today we baptized a baby boy, son of Justin and Carrie Hall, brother of Caroline. The Halls love this church and they are loved by all of us. They have given their time to serve as youth counselors. Carrie served as an interim youth director while we were searching and finding Chris Allen. Justin has served as Chair of our Board of Trustees. There are typical of the committed Christ followers who come here each week and seek to live this unique and often countercultural life. Their presence here today reminds us that it is indeed a privilege and a joy to be a part of this faith family. And today as we shared with them in the service of baptism and answered the questions of discipleship with them and watched as the water is placed on the head of Ian Marcus Hall, the heavens opened up and we experienced the profound grace of God.

When Jesus entered into the Jordan River that day, something new and radical and challenging was entering the world. And from that day on being a disciple of Jesus would be filled with adventure and surprising grace. Throughout our lives we will experience the God who does what we do not expect, who acts outside of our narrow mindset, who surprises us with moments of grace even though our tendency is to focus on the darker things going on around us.

This God invites us into the refreshing water today to renew our baptismal vows, to remember who we are and whose we are, and to watch the heavens split apart—even just a little—and hear God say, “You are my child, I love you, and nothing pleases me more than to call you my child.”

Thanks