Baptize
It’s more God’s mercy than judgment.
John the Baptist said, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is more powerful than I, and I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
JtB said this before he baptized Jesus.
John baptized Jesus in the Jordan, and then this happened: “And a voice from the heavens said, 'This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."
Beloved. Yes. And so much more.
The age-old theological question is, “If Jesus was perfect, then why did he need to be baptized?”
What is it that Padraig O’Tuama says? Mu – meaning – un-ask that question. It isn’t about that – what we ask to distract ourselves from the ‘Yes’ God says to our lives … right now. Jesus is baptized to enter into the fullness of our human experience.
Okay. Let’s stop. Let me explain.
Jesus was perfect – but not in the way we usually think of perfect. In the 21st century, we understand perfect like a pitcher throwing a perfect game: nine innings without any batter reaching base for any reason — no blemishes or mistakes. I remember competing in a solo band contest where our performance was judged on a somewhat subjective scale. Did I do this right or that properly depending on how the judge was feeling at 6:07 p.m. on a Friday after a long day of teaching?
Perhaps this teacher would say, “I’m only human.” And they aren’t wrong. And yet, they aren’t right. Because to be human transcends being right or|and wrong.
It isn’t very clear. I know. But hang in there.
We misunderstand the definition of perfection as it is presented in the Bible. In Matthew 5:48, Jesus gives us this instruction: Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Be. Perfect.
Simple enough. Right?
It actually is, and here’s why: perfection in this context is wholeness. A letting go of ego desires and an acceptance of the Divine presence in our lives – this is wholeness. I’ve heard it said that only God is perfect. But we can participate in God’s perfect mercy, God’s all-inclusive and impartial love. As St. Bonaventure said, “Christ is the one whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.”
Here's the thing about this – if God is Wholeness, and we belong to this Wholeness – then at our core – is Wholeness. I love what Fr. Richard Rohr says about this:
This is the Wholeness that holds you. You can’t figure this Wholeness out rationally, nor can you control it. All you can do is fall into this Wholeness that holds you when you stop excluding, even the dark parts of yourself.
So – wholeness is – then – an acceptance of all of who you are – all your parts. Integrating those parts, we are told to keep separate from ourselves. Or to put it another way, the acceptance of our humanity.
I’m not interested in the conversation about the ‘why’ of Jesus’s baptism. I am interested in the idea that, by being baptized, Jesus enters into the human story in its fullness.
To even ask why Jesus needs to be baptized presupposes a flawed or imperfect identity.
Oof-duh.
Jesus enters those waters the same way God entered the waters way back in the poem of Genesis 1 – to say ‘Yes’ to creation … to our very humanity.
Here’s the deal, friends: we can’t start this journey into the interpersonal, intrapersonal, and transpersonal on a negative note. Why? Because God didn’t and doesn’t. If we seek God out of fear, guilt, or shame (which is often the legacy of original sin), we won’t get very far. Starting negative results in staying negative. We need to begin positively—through a wonderful experience, something greater than life, something that dives into the depths of our own being. That’s what the word baptism means, “to be dipped into.”
Baptism by the Holy Spirit – we are drawn into – equipped | gifted – with the very essence from which we come from: Divinity.
Jesus isn’t just baptized in the Jordan, but into this life—our life—being human. Then, the Dove descended into Jesus, and afterward, Jesus was sent into the wilderness. Everything about Jesus' baptism—what John was proclaiming—centers on the relationality of the Divine to creation, to us.
Let me let Fr. Rohr summarize what I’m getting at:
The common manifestation of this ever-recurring pattern might simply be called perfectionism. The word itself is taken from a single passage in Matthew 5:48, where Jesus tells us to “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Of course, perfection as such is a divine or mathematical concept and has never been a human one. Jesus offers it as guidance for how we can love our enemies, of which he has just spoken (5:43–47). He is surely saying that we cannot obey this humanly impossible commandment by willpower, but only by surrendering to the Divine Perfection that can and will flow through us. In other words, we cannot be perfect of ourselves—but God can. Yet we used this one passage to give people the exact opposite impression—that they could indeed be perfect in themselves!
As much as we want to make baptism about us – believer vs. infant, etc. – it’s always been about God. God’s mercy, not God’s judgment.
Imperfection is wholeness.
And to think God created us this way – to be human, ourselves. Once we set aside the ego’s desire to pursue some perceived perfection, we will wade into our wholeness.
Whenever I try to accomplish a test of perfection handed to me by those other than the Divine, I can’t help but think of this line from Merton:
"Dance in the sun, you tepid idiot. Wake up and dance in the clarity of perfect contradiction.”
I may not be perfect by Webster’s definition – but I can be completely myself in this moment, integrated and whole … just as God intended.
So, remember your baptism, be thankful, and take time to wake up and dance in the clarity of our contradiction. After all … isn’t that proof of God’s mercy?
No comments:
Post a Comment