Page 1 - A Different Kind of Birth Narrative

Tsothohrko:wa – a great coldness
First Sunday in Epiphany – January 10, 2021

A different kind of birth narrative

Acts 19:1-7
Romans 6:3-5
Mark 1:4-11

The gospels of Matthew and Luke offer us beautifully crafted stories of Jesus’ conception and birth;
both of them give us a list of his human ancestors. John, on the other hand, provides a cosmic history
of the Word of God who becomes human and dwells among us – while Mark begins his gospel at a
riverside. And suddenly, just days after our talk of a young child and magi, and the massacre of the
innocents, and the flight into Egypt, we find ourselves with an adult Jesus who is standing in the water,
being baptized by John.

Some have seen in this brief account of baptism echos God’s creative Spirit hovering over the waters
of primal chaos, in order to bring forth life. We see Jesus rise from the gently flowing waters of the
Jordan, we note the Spirit descending as if a dove, we hear Jesus addressed by the divine voice, “You
are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

We are at the very beginning of Mark’s good news. The little we’ve been told thus far is that John has
been baptizing people into a baptism of repentence – people have been feeling the need to turn away
from the things that separate them from an awareness of God’s mercy, into an enactment of God’s
mercy in the ways that they treat others. And, if we pay close attention to Mark’s Gospel we will see
that everything that Jesus does is embodies the compassion of God.

In reading this story of Jesus’ baptism it is important to note that Jesus simply shows up and hears
these words. He hasn’t even begun his ministry; he’s still months and months away from his passion
and death… He is God’s beloved child, simply because he is. And we who trust this, can trust that we,
too, are God’s beloved child – not for anything we do, but because we are.

When I was in Divinity School, I needed to write a paper on baptism – and it became clear that
sometimes the Spirit arrived before one was baptized, sometimes after. What I found interesting what
that one was baptized into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus – in the name of the Father, Son
and Holy Spirit, as we would say now. Historically those who have been baptized as adults or even
older children lean back as if they were resting in the grave, in order to stand again in the newness of
Christ’s life.

In writing to the Romans, Paul says: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into
Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from
the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a
resurrection like his.”