Christ's baptism displays for us the possibilities that occur when we accept the spirit of God into our lives. The accounts of Christ's baptism by John are interesting in the fact that the Spirit's voice and the visions seen by Christ are for him alone and not for those who are close by. Luke's gospel (Lk 3:21-22) which we hear from this year is not as clear cut as Matthew and Mark in terms of who saw what or heard the voice. However, being the synoptic gospels it is clear that the sources are similar and it is more than likely that the voice and the vision are personal to Christ rather than public. Both come while Christ is praying, in other words, he is paying attention to God. We are prone to baptise children as infants (nothing wrong here) which is why this is not something we often contemplate in terms of baptism. In lieu of this we have confirmation which is a time to allow the presence of the Spirit but often confirmation is passed of as a rite of passage with little to do with our normal lives.
Again in Acts (8:14-17) we have a similar conundrum in that the Spirit becomes available or manifest to those who are in a sense confirmed in the faith. It is something that is emphasised, perhaps for the wrong reasons by Pentecostal theology, an involvement of God's Spirit at a fundamental point in our faith journey. For Christ, the Spirit's presence drives him into solitude and then into his ministry. If we are to take this as something that we too should look for in the present time then perhaps we should pay a bit more attention to our own spiritual and faith journey, especially at its start, whether figurative or actual. Questions arise as we think about these things in terms of baptism and in terms of confirmation regarding the need for us to be close to God i.e. our prayer life. In the modern world we are to often torn apart by the ever pressing needs of the modern seculum that we forget about God's presence in our lives. A presence that is often only found when we communicate with God and make ourselves aware of his love in our everyday. Too many times our reason stands before us and denies us the opportunity that is given in an understanding of that presence that is God.
Due to how we have developed as a society since the time of Christ and since the time of the gospels we have to a certain extent become afraid. We are afraid of expressing our innermost thoughts and our deepest connections to life. This is often not the case when we speak of the indigenous peoples of the world as their connection has not faltered. However, with the development of scientific and enlightenment thought processes we have certainly lost much. That is not to say that such thinking is incorrect but rather to say that we have not balanced our thinking in a way that would enhance our lives. Due to the consumerist nature of enlightenment thinking that tells us that innovative and new is good and must be bought we neglect the things that are intangible and said to be unreal as a result. Some of those things that we find to be intangible are love, justice and peace, attributes which are believed to be part of the God we follow. In not allowing our thoughts and minds to dwell on these things we neglect that which is close to God. We do not teach or show how to attain them simply because we have lost sight of our imaginative and faith sides that embody them in our lives. Quite honestly because of what we are taught in this world we are scared to embrace these intangibilities even though we yearn for them.
Isaiah calls out from God telling the Israelites not to be afraid (Is. 43:1-2) and we hear God's voice in that cry telling us also not to be afraid to embrace that which is other and different. For us what is other is the opposite of the current day. Those things that are tied up with faith, belief and prayer especially when it comes to our faith journey. The thing we need to instil in those who seek for something different is that turn to God and the seeking of God's voice in the midst of our journey as well as at the start. Too often we neglect those things that bring us into God's presence and Christ's actions at John's baptism is telling us to listen for and be guided by that voice that is God's.
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