A call of the Spirit

 Baptism is known today to be an initiation sacrament for the Christian church. It is for the purposes of the church an extremely important event that is celebrated by families and congregations through out the world. However, it is perhaps also seen as a preliminary step towards acceptance at a better school or educational path, if we are to be cynical about the modern age. In the celebration of today we are celebrating what precisely? Christ's baptism, but so what? While it is to a certain extent an inaugural event for the church that shows Christ willing to be baptised despite his sinless state. It is, so to speak, an indicator of Christ's closeness to the body public rather than the priestly elite of the time. However, we need to understand this whole event as it is the initiatory event that casts Christ into the wilderness experience.

John is baptising in the river Jordan which is a border that remains extant in today's world. A border between countries and outlooks. In the modern world all borders are to a certain extent porous allowing some movement between that which is beyond and that which is enclosed by the border. So conceptually speaking it is likely that those that were being baptised where symbolically and perhaps literally entering into the 'promised land'. Whilst not provable in any manner the likelihood is that the people being baptised where actually moving out of and then back in via the initiation rite of baptism. Thus, they were saying that they had broken the covenant and in returning to the land promised by God they were re-affirming their vows. This was a moment of metanoia of returning to God or changing their ways in a form of penitence symbolised and marked by water. In a similar manner their ancestors had been marked by water on their entrance into the promised land under Joshua's leadership.

Perhaps not quite what we imagine in place, circumstance or spiritual development

This sets our scene into which Christ comes as a normal person in the same manner as everyone else. In Luke's gospel there is little interaction between Christ and John, in fact none. The other note of worth is that we once again assume something from our reading that the descent of the Spirit was public. There is nothing to indicate this other than the presumption that all heard the voice from heaven but did they? I am certain that this interpretation is somewhat lacking as a miracle such as this would have wowed the crowds but there is no indication of this. Are these words for Christ used as a spur so t speak, that sends him out into the deserted places to ponder and grapple with their meaning? A deliberate nudge for him to go and start the ministry that was his. In this case the baptism becomes a source of inspiration that leads him into ministry. Like many that have followed who have perceived a call into ministry there is a time for reflection prior to taking that ministry up.

However, what does this mean for us in the present day? No matter how we relate to the baptism of Christ we can suggest that it is for us a template, something that we can follow in our own lives. Christ is praying when he hears the voice from heaven. This has to be our starting point. Our connection to God is through our own effort in prayer and the seeking of God's voice in our lives. It is only when we connect with God and understand what God is saying to us will we start to have a more fruitful life. Yes, this always comes with a certain amount of hard work. Unfortunately all of us now a days have a lazy attitude to our spiritual journey. unless we get our work ethic right in terms of listening to God's voice and God's direction in our lives we will linger in our laziness and not progress along the journey we undertook at baptism.

Three - Who says?

 The three wise men is a long standing tradition and we have the Matthean gospel to thank for it. Depending on the translation they are classed as magi, wisemen, kings or astrologers. It is suggested that they are from Mesopotamia of the time as the country's intelligentsia were very much involved in the study of the stars. The Greek word translates as a person who has 'magic' powers. this one could presume to be people who were highly intelligent and displayed some form of power/authority that was lacking within the Roman empire at the time. Whether it was just sleight of hand or illusion it was a wonder to those they interacted with. Whatever the case as to who these people were I would suggest that they were important in the sight of the local populace and were foreigners in the land. In other words they were from outside of the Roman Empire. They were obviously learned. Scripture does not place a numerical figure on them and they are unnamed. Of course for the main crux of the story the focus is on not the travellers themselves but on the gifts that they bear. Gold, oil of Lebanon and Myrrh from Smyrna.

Who said there where three? Perhaps we need t think a bit more.

Yet, should these be the focus or should the presence of these wise men be the more significant? In a manner both are important for us as Christians in the modern day. The presence of those from outside the community of the Hebraic faith acknowledging the presence of God in a child has enormous implications for us. We cannot make assumptions that it is just those within the Christian faith that have an understanding of God's purposes. The presence of the wise men implicitly directs us to an understanding that those outside of the religious norm are just as capable of accepting God into their presence. If we truly think about it this is how we bring God into others presence by understanding that that is where God can be found in the fullness of God's love. We cannot be so blind as to ass-u-me that this is not the case or else we will continue to preach to the converted and not bring God into the lives of those we see as 'unworthy' or utilise some other word to ostracise where God demands us to be inclusive.

Looking at the gifts we need to change things around a bit by looking at the gifts from the point of view of the three monkeys. You know the ones see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil. We start with the first of the gifts which corresponds very neatly to all of them. The riches of Gold that signifies kingship in our tradition is also truly representative of our current world experience. We just need to think of exposes over recent years with regards to corruption, especially the greed shown in some areas of politics, and bribes in many places through out the world. The gold and its signifying of wealth has the dark side of preventing words being said or turning a blind eye when there are injustices in plain sight, For others to turn a deaf ear to what they hear as corrupt dealings and less then loving ways within communities and societies throughout the world. Gold's riches should encourage us to speak out for justice and never to turn a blind eye or deaf ear to those in need but rather to pave the path to communities rich in love and awareness of their neighbour. This is God's gold offered and accepted by Christ.

The second of the traditional gifts, λιβανον (lebanon as it is written in Greek) or Oil of Lebanon (Frankincense) actually points to the church and indeed in many ways to the clergy themselves. This gift speaks to us of the priesthood a recognition of Christ our great high priest who ministers from the crib to those who come to adore him. Yet, when we look at this gift it so often that the church blinds itself to hypocrisy and injustice in the world failing to speak out. More often then not it is often those who should know better who, like the Pharisees criticised by Christ, lead believers away from love by not listening to truth and only believing what they want rather than what God requires. Death comes to us in many ways and σμνρναν (Smyrna or commonly called myrrh) reminds us of this fact. The very point of death is that it is part of our being and should not be denied. Christ accepts death as part of the way to a new life but we so often deny death or else assist in true death rather than renewal into a new life blessed by God.  The reason we deny death is that we do not want to change or have to go through the process of change. This is what the gift of myrrh challenges us with that sometimes we have to see that somethings need to die in ourselves and our lives to move into a new life of love and understanding. We so often deliberately not listen to promising new ideas and fail to speak about new things whilst not seeing opportunities. This often means change in all of its difficulties and challenges. It serves us better to accept the gift as the Christ child does knowing that change is as inevitable as death and taxes to bring God's love into the world.