Epiphany 1A, January 8, 2017; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

O God, manifest in us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

Today is the day in the church liturgical calendar called “The Baptism of our Lord.” In the early church, the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord was much more important a celebration than the Feast of the Birth of Our Lord (which we know as Christmas). The ancient church celebrated three feasts of light: Epiphany, which was the story of people wise enough to seek after and find Jesus, The Baptism of Our Lord by the incredulous John at the River Jordan, and the Wedding Feast at Cana where the story goes that Jesus changed water into some really good wine. These feasts of light were understood to illuminate the nature of God, they were manifestations or revelations initiated by God and noticed by people. These three feasts demonstrated to early Christians not only what God is like but also Who (God) wishes us to be in community – in relationship to one another.

So today is a day when the Church pauses to remember Jesus’ baptism and the baptisms of all Christians. Before I go further, I want to say that I’m certain that not everyone here is baptized, and that is just fine at Emmanuel Church. Our welcome to this service and to this table is not conditioned on baptism. Furthermore, I’ll tell you that when I think of baptism, I don’t think of special privileges conferred, but special obligations taken on (or bestowed on) the baptized. For me it’s not about privileges, it’s about obligations (which I think are a joy to have). It reminds me of what my beloved colleague, Pat Krol often says, when facing a difficult situation, “I’m so grateful for the opportunity to have this challenge!”

When I speak of remembering baptism, I don’t mean recalling, because none of us (not even Matthew the Gospel writer) was around when Jesus was baptized and many of us have no memory of our own baptisms. It’s a different kind of remembering — remembering as a way of putting the pieces together again – the pieces of our lives as Christian community and the ways in which we live out our baptismal promises. Someone asked me recently, “how do I know if I’m keeping my baptismal promises?” What a lovely question. I think the answer is not easy, but it has to do with personal reflection and communal accountability, that is, the discipline of being a part of a community of faith . This past week has given me the opportunity to think about how much antipathy many Emmanuelites have for the word “member” because of how it implies defining who is in and who is out, and Emmanuel is an all in kind of place. I wonder, could we use the word piece instead?! Instead of wondering if someone is a member of Emmanuel, we could wonder if someone is a piece of Emmanuel! (Like being “a piece of work,” only better!)

As we remember the story of Jesus’ baptism and our own baptisms, we are invited to put the pieces back together, especially the words that may never have been spoken out loud, but they were the most important message of all. They are more important than the creed and the baptismal vows – in fact, the creed and baptismal vows don’t matter at all – they don’t matter one bit — if the essential message of these words is not remembered.

The words are part of the story of Jesus’ baptism that gets re-membered in Matthew’s gospel account — the voice of God that Jesus heard. Matthew was putting the pieces back together and he wanted the hearers of his Gospel to pay attention. A few weeks ago I mentioned that there’s a Greek word in Matthew that means “pay attention” that he used 62 times: idou. The translators render it either ‘behold’ or ‘hark,’ but mostly, and ironically, they ignore it completely. Matthew is putting the pieces of Jesus’ baptism together and he says, “pay attention the heavens were opened to him as he came up from the water and he saw the spirit of God step down as if a dove and come on to him and pay attention he heard a heavenly voice say this is my son the beloved in whom I am glad, in whom I am delighted, in whom I am well pleased.”

The way Matthew puts the pieces together, Jesus was the only one who heard God’s voice at his baptism. Matthew says [pay attention] Jesus saw God’s spirit like a dove and heard a heavenly voice. [pay attention] The heavenly voice did not come out of the sky, it was like it came from the sky. According to Matthew, those who were right next to Jesus didn’t hear the voice at all. It’s a surprisingly quiet scene. It’s not an outside–in voice; it’s an inside-out voice. Matthew was writing a Gospel about and for people steeped in ancient Jewish tradition. He was putting the pieces together that voice that Jesus heard, in Jewish tradition, was the bat-kol.

Bat-kol is sometimes translated as “the still small voice” – it’s the voice that Elijah heard when he realized that God was not in the commotion of the wind or the earthquake or the fire. Bat-kol, literally translated, is the voice of a little girl, or the daughter of a voice – an echo. In Jewish tradition it is the divine, the heavenly voice, which comes from deep within – often in dreams, sometimes in prayer or meditation. It’s hard to hear – because it’s so quiet – so small. It’s subtle – clear, but subtle.

The symbol for the bat-kol, in Jewish tradition, is the dove. The bat-kol was said to have been heard by the Rabbinic Sages when they had very important decisions to make. And the rabbis taught that when it was ignored, disaster soon followed. Our scripture account doesn’t tell us directly that Jesus had a very important decision to make, but indirectly it does because what we know is that he went to the Jordan River to be baptized. Jesus heard a heavenly voice, experiencing God’s spirit like a dove at the Jordan River. Remember it was at the Jordan River that Moses interpreted the Law – the Torah. Remember it was at the Jordan River that Israel entered the promised land. Remember it was at the Jordan River that Elijah’s spirit was received by Elisha. In other words, this is a very big deal! Remember that Jesus went to the Jordan River and heard the bat-kol and it was after that that he began to proclaim that God was very near – not remote or distant, but very near. And right after that he began recruiting helpers and then things really began to roll! So we can imagine that Jesus, at his baptism, had a very important decision to make. And he heard the bat-kol – the still small voice – saying, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am delighted.” It was a little surge of self-understanding and confidence – a little surge of the knowledge that he was the apple of God’s eye.

We are really missing something if we think that the bat-kol only speaks to rabbinic sages, or to only to people like Elijah and to Jesus, or only to people who have been baptized, for that matter. The bat-kol speaks to and longs to be heard by you, telling the message that is most important about God’s gladness in you. Pay attention. Listen. Remember. Take time every day to be still enough to remember the bat-kol – the little voice telling you that you are God’s beloved sons and daughters – that God is so delighted in you. I urge you to get quiet enough at least once every day to remember to listen for that voice. I urge you to put the pieces together that you are beloved before you make any important decisions. Remember that voice whenever you reflect on baptismal vows. Remember God Who calls to each one of us with the voice of a little girl.

It’s worth noting that this declaration of Jesus’ belovedness is not some kind of report card or an evaluation [1] at the end of his life’s work – it’s the starting point. The whole record of Jesus’ ministry begins after he remembers the deep love of God – in response to the remembering. When Christian community is at its best, we help each other to do that remembering. We help each other put the pieces back together. We remind each other of God’s love. We remind each other of God’s gladness in us not so that we can bask in self-satisfaction. It’s not so that we can marvel at our own accomplishments. It’s certainly not so that we can polish up our own piety, but so that we can become more deeply and joyfully committed to fulfilling our obligation of justice-making and peace-making. In fact, if ever we think we are hearing the voice of the Holy One but we are not moved to respond with deeper compassion and greater connectedness with others, I believe we are mistaken. If we ever imagine that we hear the bat-kol, the voice of God, but we are not stirred to respond with greater creativity and inspiration to get into all kinds of mischief to benefit folks who are least and lost and left out, I believe we have misheard. We have misunderstood if we dream that we are paying attention to the bat-kol but we are not compelled [2]) needed to repair the world.

If, in Christian community, what we say or do comes from hearing and remembering that still small voice, the bat-kol, then we must understand that we have what it takes – indeed, we have what we need — to nourish others who are hungry and provide refreshment to those who are thirsty, to offer sanctuary and shelter to our neighbors, to bring healing to those who are suffering, to respect the dignity of every other, because we have God’s help and we must take advantage of it and spread it around. Remembering the bat-kol increases our connectedness and shows us that we have all we need to move through life’s most difficult or challenging times as long as we stick together and share what we have.

The sound of the voice may be small but we are not to play small – the small voice calls us to big action. We are called again and again to put the pieces together about who and Whose we are, and to join with others (other pieces) to be the hands and heart of God in the world. I am convinced that whenever what we say or do comes from remembering that still small voice, God’s heaven comes on earth and God knows we need that.

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