The Baptism of Jesus; St. Andrew’s, Pictou, NS January 16^th 2005

 

Blessing as Justice

 

Isaiah 42:1-9

Acts 10:34-43

Matthew 3:13-17

 

I was participating in one of those ecumenical services several years ago. I was taking part in more of a bemused way rather than one of passion. I wasn’t overly excited about it. Maybe I didn’t know what to expect. Standing behind a huge altar in a Roman Catholic Church to lead in the “Our Father” was a different kind of experience. But the Presbyterian minister who preached the sermon had a different take on feeding the hungry. She said that being able to eat when you are hungry was “a justice issue.”

 

The Bible is full of entreaties to feed the hungry, and Jesus was very clear that one of the things we should do as Christians is to feed the hungry, but I had never heard of anyone saying that eating food was “a justice issue.”

 

With the western United States experiencing a drought over the last several years, water resources are getting severely short. Las Vegas will soon not have enough water for its fountains, car washes, hotels, golf courses, and its people. We know the US government will think that they have a “right” to Canadian water, in much the same way that they have the “right” to Iraqi oil. When the US runs out of water, old agreements will be called obsolete, old rules will be said to be unfairly biased. Canadian considerations will become secondary to US rights and demands.

 

Water too, will become “a justice issue.”

 

Had I ever been given the task of re-naming the Bible, I would have no hesitation in calling the Bible, “God’s Book of Justice.” The word often used in the Bible for God’s justice is “righteousness.” As the people of God, we exist as a benefit of, and to serve God’s righteousness. Our human concept of Justice is simply part of God’s righteousness which is an umbrella that embraces all creation.

 

Since many of us distain self-righteous people, unfortunately the word is unfairly loaded towards the negative for us. But righteousness and God’s righteousness is a beautiful expression of God’s justice that covers and serves all creation.

 

God’s righteousness says that the hungry should have food to eat and water to drink.

 

When Christians sheltered Jews from Nazi terror during WWII, the Jewish people honoured these courageous people by naming them as “Righteous Gentiles.”

 

So we have our human concept of justice with thousands of courts making thousands of laws but we live under the larger umbrella of God’s justice: called God’s righteousness where people have the right to food and water and life and loving friendship.

 

The Gospel reading today has Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist in the River Jordan.

 

I want you to consider what an amazing event that was and what it tells us about Jesus, God and God’s righteousness.

 

Why would Jesus, the son of God, the Saviour, even need to be baptized in the first place?

 

We have Jesus who is God’s son who comes to tell us directly how the Creator wishes us to live together in peace, harmony, friendship, and justice. We are told that Jesus has the power to heal, and forgive and that all who believe in him are saved.

 

Baptism is a ceremonial washing away of our sins in a covenantal connection that we have with God in Christ accessed through our faith. We administer the sacrament to those who believe, or to the children of those who believe who promise to bring them up in the love of the Lord through fellowship in the church.

 

So with Jesus having this superior position and all of this power, we could ask ourselves as to why Jesus needed to be baptized. Why did Jesus need to be made clean?

 

The first answers that we have are with the Hebrew Scriptures where for example we see in Isaiah that the Messiah (who is to be a light to the nations,) is to be a servant king. The Messiah is to “Bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry or lift his voice, or make it heard in the street;

A bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice.

He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth;

And the coastlands wait for his teaching.”

 

The Messiah is not to be a power freaking dictator, but as Isaiah says,

“a light to the nations to open the eyes that are blind,

to bring the prisoners out from the dungeon,

from the prison those who sit in darkness.”

 

When John the Baptist tried to refuse to baptize Jesus and said it made more sense for Jesus to baptize him, Jesus put the record straight for John and for all of us.

 

“Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.”

 

Imagine! We have Jesus Christ himself telling us that he had to be baptized by this mere human, John, “to fulfill all righteousness.”

 

Not only does Jesus’ baptism verify his servanthood and solidarity with us, because we are baptized, too but it seems to me that there is a deeper issue.

 

Isn’t baptism a kind of blessing?

Isn’t baptism a building block of identity and an affirmation of us as being full-fledged human beings?

In addition, isn’t baptism an affirmation that we are acceptable, acceptable even to God?

 

Jesus said that his baptism was “to fulfill all righteousness.”

 

Would that not make baptism a justice issue like food and water?

 

The conclusion I get from all of this is that blessing is a justice issue before God.

 

Blessing is a justice issue before God.

 

For boys and girls, and for women and men, is it not then a justice issue before God that all people experience blessing as a rule of God’s law in Creation to make them whole?

 

Is it not then an essential undeniable need for all people to be blessed?

 

If we cannot be healthy and fulfilled human beings unless we “fulfill all righteousness,” according to Jesus, then is it not a justice issue that people be blessed because people need to be blessed every bit as much as we all need food and water?

 

If we say that we follow God in Christ, not only do we need to be blessed, but don’t we absolutely have to bless other people; bless children, bless adults?

 

We Christians are called to be full time workers in “the blessing business.”

 

I conducted a wedding in Toronto a few years ago where the groom made an amazing speech. In thanking his parents and his bride parents, he said “I want to thank the four of you for teaching the both of us about the kind of love it takes to have a life-long lasting marriage.”

 

What a profound statement this young man made. What a blessing he gave. What a healing moment to savor. What a man this woman found.

 

When the father of the bride rose to speak, all he could say was how proud he was of his daughter and her new husband, how proud he was of his family, how proud he was of his wife. That was what his speech was: over and over in various ways, he said how much he loved them and how proud he was of them. His talk was full to overflowing with blessings.

 

I was sitting with the bride’s father and his wife. His wife explained to me that he had several serious medical problems that just could not be corrected and they didn’t know just how long he had, but it wouldn’t be long before he died.

 

I told his wife that his speech was so full of love and blessings, because he was closer to God than any of the rest of us in the room. She gave me a beautiful smile at this explanation.

 

Like the father of the bride, if you and I didn’t have much time left to live, wouldn’t it be best just to spend it administering blessings to all those we meet and love? Maybe we could just love all those we meet?

 

Isn’t that what Jesus Christ did when he was here on planet earth; he spent his time in the giving and receiving of blessings? Jesus was in the blessing business.

 

Why couldn’t we start doing “the Jesus thing” right now, today, this hour?

 

May God bless you all that in hearing the word of the Lord, that you receive God’s blessing in the way that you need, and that you share those blessings with all those you meet.

 

In the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, AMEN                                      Rev. Alan Stewart