While the world has long since moved on from Christmas, the church is still basking in the light of the birth of the Savior. We want to savor the birth of the Savior. The Christmas season, though, reaches its conclusion today with the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. It is the last in a series of manifestation (epiphany) stories that we have been reading during this Christmas season. In these stories, God makes himself seen by us, in the shepherds or the wise men.
When Jesus rose from the Jordan River, two things happened. First, the dove. As you might remember from the story in the Book of Genesis about the flood and Noah’s ark, Noah sends out a dove to see if there might be any dry land after the deluge. The first time is unsuccessful: the dove comes back. The second time is more successful: the dove still comes back, but it has an olive branch in its claws, letting Noah know that there is something—new life?—out there. The third time succeeds: the dove doesn’t come back, indicating to Noah that there is a suitable place out there in the cleansed world where new and good life can continue.
Tearing open the Heavens
The second thing that occurred at Jesus’ baptism was the voice from heaven, and the words that the voice spoke: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased.”
Matthew tells us that as soon as Jesus came up out of the water,
“he saw the heavens open and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon him, and he heard a voice call out from heaven, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved One, with whom I am well pleased.’
Humans long for the idea that God will show himself to them and be present for them. This is exactly what Jesus experiences as he comes up out of the water, the intimate and immediate presence of the Father and the Holy Spirit. The ripping open of heaven is a statement of the possibility that man and God can close the gap that divides us. Man longs for intimacy with the Almighty, longs to embrace God as he would a lover. I have often heard people say that they will pray for some loved one’s needs; pray until the heavens open up and grant their prayer. Sometimes speak of storming the heavens with prayers. We humans long to see God. But the great revelation is that God also wants to be with us. We do not have to storm heaven as if God had locked Himself away from us.
Isaiah writes
“Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
that the mountains would tremble before you!” Isaiah 64:1
He also tells us that God longs for his darling creation. That God wants that same relationship. God forgives with an open hand, and welcomes back those who have sinned and been forgetful of the love and loyalty they owe to God.
Isaiah 63
9 In all their distress he too was distressed,
and the angel of his presence saved them.
In his love and mercy he redeemed them;
he lifted them up and carried them
all the days of old.
11 Then his people recalled the days of old,
the days of Moses and his people—
where is he who brought them through the sea,
with the shepherd of his flock?
Where is he who set
his Holy Spirit among them,
15 Look down from heaven and see
from your lofty throne, holy and glorious.
The breaking open of the heavens is mentioned in John’s Gospel when Jesus promises Nathaniel that he shall see the heavens opened and angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. (John 1)
The tearing open of the heavens reveals God in all his majesty and mercy; it is our way of saying that God will show himself to us and help us in our distress. The opening of heaven is our Way of dreaming about the possibility that God will live among us and be one with us. “What if God was one of us?”
Some poets and philosophers may talk about the order of things, where God is his heaven and we are down below in some sad desperate existence. Man simply exists and God simply watches with cold detatchment, like a cold-hearted clock-winder watching our folly and our desperation. Robert Browning writes that “The snail’s on the thorn, God’s in his heaven and all’s right with the world.” (Pippa’s song.) But that view of God’s detachment from our real-life struggles is opposite to the Catholic reading of the Scriptures and the Tradition. For us, God is in our midst, he is Immanuel, God among us, God for us and God become flesh for our sakes
Our God does not sit in the cold heavens looking at us with distain and disgust, regretting that he ever bothered to make us. The truth of God’s fascination with his creatures is captured in the Gospel, “This is my beloved in whom I am well pleased.” What Jesus knew from the moment of his baptism, we take the whole of our life’s journey to truly know. Christian life is about the journey to that place where the shoe drops and we realize we are beloved by God. We suddenly realize that God takes pleasure in our relationship, that he takes delight in his people. We may spend a lifetime in the doldrums, but when I stand in the light of God’s smile, it is well worth it all. We are God’s sons and daughters, beloved and wanted. We are God’s delight when we allow his love and grace to get hold of us.
We are a bit slow, like that dove in the story of Noah’s Ark. We take three or more times to truly know our God-given identity: This is my beloved Son, this is my beloved daughter. At first, we come back to the safety of the ark of human sinfulness, not too sure that there can be anything new—new land, new possibilities, new life—out there. What I am used to is safe – even if it is miserable. The second time, we find something, but we still are used to our old ways of living and being and doing. The third time, we finally trust that we are God’s son, God’s daughter, and we don’t come back to the previous ways of sinful and death-dealing life. We know that God has drowned our sins and past ways in waves of mercy. We can rightfully claim our true identity: that we are saved by God’s grace; that I am a beloved son or beloved daughter. By grace, the generous gift beyond all telling I can stand on the new ground of God’s delight, soaking wet, bruised and broken, but knowing, deeply knowing that this is who I am. For the Lord takes delight in his people.
We am not our past, we are not the sum of all the evil, sinful things we have done. We are born of Adam, reborn in Christ. By grace I am a child of God, a man with whom God is well-pleased.