The Water Before the Woods
Transcript is AI-generated and may not be 100% accurate.
If you're new to this worship space, this is the sermon space. This is the space where we go into a sacred text of our Christian tradition and we try to root our stories inside of it. I say the same thing every week. I want to make sure I say the same thing tonight as well. If you hear nothing else—but I think you're gonna hear something else tonight—if you hear nothing else tonight from me, hear this at least: who you are is more important than what you do. Work, job, hobby, performance, production, you name it. Who you are is more important than what you do, even if what you do gets more attention than who you are.
I had somebody this past week ask me why I am so insistent upon that. The tone of that person's voice made it sound like they were a little bit tired and annoyed with me saying it every week. And so they said, “What's your why behind bringing it up with the Wolves players in an NBA team. What's your why behind starting every sermon at The Table with that?” Tonight we are in chapter one of this year-long Mark series where I want to lay out for you why I'm so insistent about that, why that matters so much to me.
Our text tonight is from Mark 1. I wanna read it to you like this. We again, as I just said, we're going through bit by bit. We're doing a slow crawl through the whole gospel of Mark. We're skipping no spaces. We're gonna go through it, all-in. And our ask of all of you, as we participate in it ourselves, is that we would take it in slowly, take it in seriously, take it in sincerely and say: If we are practitioners in the Christian tradition and we claim that this faith is ours, what does that mean to you? What does that look like for you? Bare minimum baseline, when we read a gospel text, we're not just going to the highlight reel, the crucifix, the transfiguration, we're going through bit by bit. We're going to do that. We're going to keep doing that throughout the year.
Mark 1:9 says this, “At that time, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, was baptized by John and the Jordan. And just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open. Spirit was descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven saying,
‘You are my son whom I love. With you I'm well pleased.’ At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness.” In other translations, it's immediately. The Greek word there is εὐθὺς. And the idea is that like you went from being in one place and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, you were sent into a different place. “εὐθὺς, at once, the Spirit sent him out to the wilderness and he was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan. He was with wild animals and angels attending him.”
Can I nerd out one moment real quick? Go on one quick tangent and let you know. Researchers today have almost unanimously concluded that there were no predatorial wild animals out in the Judean desert at this point. Last week, we talked about how Mark went out of his way to say that John was wrapped in animal skins because the tyrant Nero was killing a lot of Christians in Rome when Mark was writing and Nero was killing Christians while they were wearing animal skins, setting wild animals upon them. The reason why Mark goes out of his way and no other gospel goes out of its way to name the fact that there are not just angels out there in the desert, but also wild animals is to offer up awards to the Roman Christian community saying, “you are not alone. You are being killed. Family members being killed, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, friends, lifelong companions, y'all being slaughtered one by one by the wild animals.” Mark goes out of his way and says, “Jesus knows those same ones.”
Baptism. This is the climactic story if you want to understand why Christians go on and on about the good news of Jesus Christ. For me, this is the good in that news. This story, as benign and as, like, “What about it actually gripped you?” kind of thing. This is the punchline to the gospel story in this moment right here. But oftentimes, theology, tradition, all of our different dialogues as church folk and religious folk, it can kind of like disfigure the baptismal story. And so when you think about baptism, you think about how it's done in 10,000 different ways today. I mean there are some people who think that the sprinkling on the top of a head is sufficient. Other people say you need to do a full fledged dunk. Some people say you can baptize as a baby. Others says you need to be a believer prior to. I mean it's always been spun in 10,000 different ways. It's always a little bit different.
I don't know why I'm remembering this right now. When I was in college, I went to a baptism of a friend, YoungLiife leader, Catholic guy. He had his five year old son being baptized into the Catholic church. And I went there to support in solidarity and celebration and the priest brought the boy up and he said to him before he dunked him inside of the water, and sprinkled on top of his head, he said, “Do you renounce all the ways of Satan?” And this boy, I could tell 'cause I knew him a little bit, started getting real anxious. He looked out at the crowd and looked back at the priest and he said, “Sometimes, sometimes I do. Yeah, I don't know, you want me to be honest? Not all the time, but sometimes I certainly do.” He didn't really know what he was saying.
My point being is that we don't exactly know what baptism is all about or exactly what the proper methodology is. And that's why here at The Table we're not overly fixated on this is the right methodologies, but we are very insistent upon making sure that we understand the message. Making sure that we understand that when we tell the story of Jesus' baptism and why we participate in this way of Christ, why it matters so much.
Mark does that here. He doesn't tell it explicitly though. Mark, as one of my old seminary profs would say, he writes his story less so with the typewriter or pencil and more with the paintbrush. He shows more than he tells. He's more about demonstration than explanation. More about demonstration than articulation, which for me, is the highest proclamation of what the gospel should be. Because you might be able to tell me all the x's and o's of propitiation atonement theory and why this is the way that it is, but if you're still mean to your kids, do I really care what you have to say? No. I want to know, does what lands in your head translate to your hands? What is the demonstration of this whole thing?
Mark is the shortest gospel. He is the source material from which all the other gospels are driving their information, understanding who Jesus actually was. And he paints this picture right here and he tells this story. So listen to the story. Jesus shows up on the scene at 30 years old. He is post-puberty, post-acne, fully facial hair present, but he has been obscure all the way until then. We have no idea what he was doing in Nazareth prior to. We have some guesses that yes, he was in Nazareth, a city by the sea. We have some guesses and understand that he worked with his hands. He was a laborer, perhaps carpenter, more likely a stone mason of sorts. He was one of the fellers. But aside from when he turned 12 and he went inside the temple and he gave all kinds of priests job insecurity for the very first time, 'cause he started strutting his stuff and was like, “Actually this is what God says.” We don't know much about his story prior to him coming out at the age of 30. 30 is this transitory stage, 30 is this graduating moment is this climactic moment in, in the biblical life, but also in our lives, where you move from one stage of life to another stage of life. Jesus turns 30, the same age as when Joseph rules over Egypt. The same age is when the Levites turned and became fully responsible of their duties as priests. 30 is not fly-over territory. Jesus turns 30 in podunk Nazareth and he's driven into the Judean desert all the way to the arms of his cousin John who was out in the Jordan River baptizing people.
I spoke word about John last week, let me speak one further and say: John was a wild guy. John was living on the edge of life knowing that his life might be extinct real quick because he was calling out every emperor, every unjust system, every normal status quo that was leaving the oppressed further oppressed. He was the one who said “no more, we are not to be the people who exploit one another. We are not to be the people who exploit those who have already been exploited. We need to go about it in a different way.” And so he would bring people into the Jordan River, a place that is historically pregnant and he'd say, “Leave those old ways behind and step into something new.”
John is out there preaching one day when all of a sudden he notices all of the Judean desert is coming. All the Judean like countryside, the villages, they're all coming out to watch the son of thunder preach a good word. This man who has spoken to kings with no fear in his throat. All the people are there participating in his service and all of a sudden he sees the Word made flesh creep into the back row. And this man, who had eyes of fire suddenly felt his knees get weak. This man who had spoken to kings with no fear in his throat suddenly said in a faint whisper, “Behold, here is the lamb of God.” Can you imagine what that moment was like for John? Can you imagine what it was like for the one who was tasked with paving the way to see the one who actually was the Way show up at your church and go, “my duties here are done. It's your time now.”
Mark spares us any kind of dialogue, the other gospel's more generous. They share a little bit of the back and forth, always consistent with John who is hesitant. He's afraid, he's going, “this is not my place. I am not worthy.” And yet Jesus approaches foot by foot all the same. Says “you need to do this, you need to go through with this.” And so he does.
John brings Jesus into the water. And this man from podunk, nowhere Nazareth—and I say that, being born and raised in a place like Arden Hills that was full of cultural impact and historical importance. And so I can be on my high horse right now. This man that nobody knew anything about, this man when he showed up in that back pew of the church of John’s, he didn't have to blend in because he didn't stand out. He had done nothing up until this point. He hadn't straightened any crooked legs. He hadn't opened any blind eyes. He hadn't turned like Aquafina into Pinot Grigio. He hadn't done anything yet. What, what? What's with the fanfare? Why would the paparazzi be here? Nobody notices a thing, but all of a sudden the son of thunder, John the Baptist, he goes weak. And this man approaches him. Be in the moment with the scene that mark's trying to paint for you:
John embraces Jesus. Jesus goes down into the water. And when Jesus breaks forth off of the surface of the water, the word, a voice came from heaven. Not John's, not yours, not mine. “You are my son whom I love, with you I am well pleased.”
One of my kids had his basketball tryouts with the Minneapolis Lakers today. Anybody else have anxiety from middle school tryouts of that kind? Just me? All right. Never made a team just trying to experience other people's athletic giftedness. We're driving there though and um, we're about two seconds away from leaving the parking lot entering into the gym. And Wyatt says “dad, I'm a little bit, I'm a little nervous. What if this doesn't work out? There's an A team, B team, C team. What if I don't make a team?” In some iteration I said, “Buddy, you are my son whom I love, with you I'm well pleased.”
This is the good news of the gospel. This is the punctuating part of all of Jesus's story. Lauren and I were talking today saying, “Can you imagine if all of the world could hear the echo of the father's heart spoken over their lives and saying, ‘you are my daughter, you are my son whom I love with you. I'm well pleased.’” Now, most of us in today's society, we hear not a “with” but a “by,” not a “with” but a “by,” not “as is right now,” but “because you have proven it.” Because you've shown it to be true. Because you've been doing the thing, you've given the time. You, you've side stepped the different traps that are embedded in all of our pasts. You haven't been bothered by any of that. It's, it's “by you I am well pleased.” We live in a society that is pleased by the producers and the performers, the people who can fill up stat sheets and bank accounts and make followers out of people who do not know you. All of these different stories that we say “you are definitely favored by God.” That's not what this story says! “With you” is a far cry from “by you.” “With you” says, “as is, right now, sufficiency. As is, you're enough. As-is, you're validated.” You don't need to look to your activities to provide you with an identity because your identity precedes all of your activities. “With you,” as-is, because you exist, because there's air in your lungs.
And the good news of the gospel is that if Jesus represents all of us, as Paul would go on to say, is that what is spoken over his head at this point right here is spoken over yours, but do you actually hear it? I need you to hear it because in the very next moment, which I'm assuming caught all of Mark's readers off guard, the same dove that descended upon his head turns into a fire and drives him from the water into the woods. Jesus is sent out. Great temptations, meets the Satan out in the wilderness, out in the woods. And if you read the other gospels they give us more of the dialogue, the temptations, there's a difference between all of 'em, but one of 'em is “If you are indeed the son of God, then you see that stone over there, you might as well turn it into a piece of bread at least then you won't have an empty stomach while you're out here.” “If you are the son of God, why don't you just fall? What harm will actually be cast upon you? You got angels at your side that will keep you safe.” “If you are, if you are, if you are,” all the temptations are a little bit different, but don't miss that. The root cause is all the same. The accuser, the opposition that I felt 10,000 times in my life. I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume that you've heard it for your own life, says: what you heard in the water about you being the sun, about you being loved, about you being enough. Now that we got you out of the water, we're out here inside of the woods. Prove it. No, no, no. Go ahead and show me that you actually are God's beloved. Show me that you actually do have angels at your side. Prove it.
And what makes Jesus unique among all of the stories that our sacred traditions hold is that he's the first one to stand up and say “no.” You need to understand that if you read the Hebrew scriptures time and time again, he is not the first person to have the voice of God speak over their lives and say, “you are my child, loved as-is, you are loved.” But he is the first person to have the audacity to actually believe it to be true. What sets Jesus apart is not the water that he walked. It is not the miracles he performed. It's not even the cross that he endured. What sets Jesus apart from everybody else is that he had the audacity to believe that what he heard in the water still stood as truth when he was in the woods. Do you?
When you read the life of Christ and you look at the images provided, we don't see a picture of ourselves, but we do see this glimpse at what it might mean to be who we actually are. Mark makes a point when he arranges the story of Jesus to say that at the start of Jesus' story, he went into the water and he heard the voice of blessing and belovedness and validation and affirmation and as-is right now, you're good. Mark makes the point to say that he went from the water to the woods, sent out by the same spirit that descended upon him moments ago, wet with the water as a baptism. You heard the voice of the accuser and he still stood his ground and said, look, I have nothing I need to prove to anybody because I know who I am. I know whose I am and I can stand my own ground. Thank you very much. And Mark makes the point to say that when he comes out on the other side after 40 days of being in the woods, he says, now is the time.
Every time I get the opportunity, and I'm grateful for each opportunity to speak in front of our community that I love deeply and dearly, I hope you hear the same message, at least at one point, seeping through. You're enough, you are loved as-is, right now, celebrated right now, seen. I know we all come into the sanctuary with different kind of anxieties in lists of things we didn't do. I'm coming in right now with things that I failed as a dad, husband, pastor. I just have, that's the thing that grabs the most like space inside of this cranium. But the baseline note of any, any kind of human flourishing is that we do not go into the woods looking for an identity. We go into the water first. We hear who we are, so we don't have to search for who we are. Baptism is the declaration of value over your life before the world can ever come around and sniff out to find. Is it true what you heard back there? Is it actually true?
I wanna end with the story here. Uh, one of my favorite pastors, writers, authors is a man named Brennan Manning, the whiskey priest himself, the ragamuffin. And he tells this story that I read when I was in college and it's been stuck in my brain ever since. He says that when he was teaching at a seminary, he met a young boy named Larry Malaney. Larry was not your standard kid that would come through town. Larry did not easily blend into the crowd. Larry was somebody who struggled to find his way in the world. He described him as somebody who had, uh, like hair going in four different directions. He kind of said awkward things was never like an easy fit in, he was just a tough person to love and he knew it. And so he identified as that. Brandon talks about his story and says that in all my days, I've never seen anybody who looked at their life and walked away with such low self-esteem. Now, in their private conversations, Manning would say that Larry had a lot of challenges that he would unfold. He'd be transparent, he's about, he'd be authentic. And he said, ultimately, I know that you're a pastor. I know that you're big into the Jesus thing, but I'm gonna let you know right now I'm an agnostic. It does not make sense to me because look at my life, look at yours. I can see how you landed where you are. But I'm assuming you can also see how I landed where I am. Manning says that he never rejected him, was always patient with him, always caring for him, always made space for him. And eventually when they went out to dinner, Manning actually told him at one point, “Hey, Larry, let me know when you move from agnostic to atheist. When you can at least be declarative about something, I would love to buy you a dinner on that night,”
One Christmas, Larry went back home and he had returned home to Providence, Rhode Island where he spent time with his family. Larry's father was this lace curtain Irishman, which meant that at every meal, regardless if it was a Sunday or a Tuesday, he was wearing a full business suit, prim and proper at all times. Hair combed to the side. He was a serious man. And every time Larry would try to connect with him every time it was a fumble. Larry went home to Rhode Island on that Christmas and his expectations for his dad and his engagement, they went as he expected that they would. It was a disaster. It wasn't good. It wasn't fun, it wasn't healthy. It wasn't like the best of what we would hope it to be. It was always frustrating, like this should be better than what it is.
And so eventually, Larry, before even Christmas came to be, he turned to his dad and he said, Hey, I'm gonna grab a bus in the morning. I'm gonna go back to Ohio. And dad didn't know the words, he wasn't equipped, didn’t know how to relationally engage in this moment. Next morning, Larry goes to the bus all by himself, luggage bag in hand, and he gets there and some other kids are there who have already been on the bus and they're yelling from the windows above saying, Hey Larry, look at you big boy. Who could ever love you? You are the epitome of the ugly duckling. You are the base note of what humanity could be. You are not what anybody would hope you to be. And as Larry is crumbling within, he turns around, away from the boys and he sees his prim and proper dad standing behind him and his dad without words, brings him into his arms and he kisses him on the lips, something that he hadn't done since he was three. And he says, “you are everything I've ever wanted and more. You are the the essence of me and your mom's dreams. You are beautiful. You are enough, you're loved as-is right now.”
Larry then got on the bus. Manning says that the boy who went home that Christmas came back as a son of love and he would never be the same again. The one who looked down at his desk at all times suddenly looked ahead with eyes wide open, excited about what might be. There's something beautiful, powerful for all of our stories. When you go into the water, before you go into the woods and hear how loved you actually are, I would hate for you to spend the rest of your days without knowing who you are.
Will you pray with me? [Prays] Jesus, with all that we got going on in us, all the baggage that we bring to a sanctuary on Sunday. All the crap, all the drama, all the gossip, all the lies, all the myths, let us hear your voice. We are not just rejects, failures, broken, flawed, addicts, alone, liars. We are loved. And at the end of all of our days, God, that is the truest part about who we actually are. Help us to sing a song with the rest of our days that is more in line and in harmony with who you actually are and what you say about our lives. Help us to recognize the dove that descends upon our head. In Jesus' name we all pray. Amen.