Mark 1: 1-12 Elements, Movement and Voice
Three of the readings in the lectionary this week deals with beginnings. The first one is from Genesis 1. It tells us about God creating heaven and earth. There is a reading from the book of Acts and the book of Acts tells the story of the beginning of the church after Jesus’s ascension. The passage we read today tells us about the beginning of Jesus’s public ministry.
In all these stories of origin four elements that our ancestors described as the four core elements of nature comes into play. Earth, wind or Spirit or breath (which are all described by the same Hebrew word), water and fire. God forms Adam from the soil. He blows a living breath or Spirit into him. We know our bodies are filled with fluids and has the capacity to burn food into energy that could be absorbed by our bodies. So, in creation earth, water, wind and fire are explicitly and subtly present to varying degrees. In this story of Mark, we read about a man who lived simply and shared an intimate bond with nature and the soil, having lived and preached in a desert. Jesus gets baptized in water and the Spirit descend like a dove. Fire is again not that prominently involved or explicitly mentioned but one should remember that fire is often associated with revelation and passion. Think of Moses, and God revealing Himself to him in a burning bush (which by the way is the current emblem of the Presbyterian church). In the heaven opening and in God expressing his approval the elements of revelation and passion are present. Also, in Acts you will often read about flames, winds, baptismal water and geographies.
It is like God intentionally tied up his revelation and the new things He does to these basic elements of nature. That is probably because every person, throughout time, knows them and are in contact with them daily even when they are not aware of it. Think about it. Your body is formed from stardust soil, it is filled with fluids, it breathes air and burns energy. There isn’t a single household here this morning that doesn’t have water, air, fire and soil as an integral part of their household. You have water in your taps. Fire on your stove, air around you and either a garden or vegetables from soil somewhere in your fridge. They sustain life. On the outside and on the inside, they sustain us. We are able to apply them to and mingle them for many different things. We play with them and we live by them.
Maybe in linking who He is so intimately with these elements, God wanted to show Himself as a God that sustains us, is ever present and that plays as well as can get serious with us.
But all these elements also have a dark side. They do not always sustain us. They can also destroy us at bad times and in wrong quantities. Or when they aren’t properly channeled. The earth gives us plants to eat but it also gives us dangerous landslides and earthquakes. Water hydrate us but it can also flood and overwhelm us. Fire cooks our food, but it can also kill our livestock. Wind can generate electricity and power a sailboat but it can also destroy homes in a tornado form.
If these elements are either ignored or opposed violently or distorted or channeled wrongly, they can become the very opposite of life giving. They then become destructive. It simply serves us well to do two things when it comes to these elements: Pay attention to them and respond well to them. If you light a candle in your house, it is only common sense to keep an eye on it and if it topples, to respond to it readily. Humankind does in fact goes to great lengths to channel water in helpful ways, utilize and protect good soil, contain fires, and build in such a way that buildings can withstands strong winds. Any lives will be wasted if we do not do that.
If it is true that God reveals Himself as having similar traits than earth, water, fire and wind and uses them consistently not only in a literal but also a metaphorical sense, it begs the question how we could respond well to God and his ways this year. I think the passage we read this morning alongside the other readings I have mentioned can guide as greatly when it comes to these questions.
Earth: Live simply and rooted
John the Baptist was weird. Jesus liked him and rated him. I don’t think that means we should start eating locusts and wild honey (even if both of those things are pretty healthy). I think what would serve us well to emulate would be the close connection he seems to have had with nature. There are psalms that sing the beauty of nature. Jesus used images from nature in his parables and life lessons. “Look at the birds…” He once said.
The project of modernity was to discover ever greater levels of complexity. We seem to have lost ourselves in the complexity we have discovered. We now have enough complexity. We need simplicity. Complexity might still impress people but what speaks to them is simplicity. God loves ordinary simple people, that is why he made so many of us!
What can you do to declutter your life? What makes it difficult for people to see Jesus in you? What makes it difficult for you to see and stay focused on Jesus? What lie makes you think you must cover yourself with kinds of layers to do what God has called you to do? What can you do to get your hands into the soil? Gardening? Hikes? Good food? Less expensive and complicated food? Maybe those who knows God best, leads the simplest kind of lives. Maybe simplifying one’s life makes you get to know God better.
Water: Repentance
John’s baptism had an emphasis on repentance. The Greek word for that is metanoia which literally means an about turn. To repent is to turn away from a thing that took your focus off God. Jesus was actually the only One that didn’t need this baptism but by insisting that John baptize him, he underlined the importance of repentance. We should think of sin as unnecessary baggage that weighs us down. Repentance is getting rid of that. Repentance, come to think of it, is one of the most effective ways to simplify your life. If I am into cheating, there are a hundred ways and persons to choose from. But if I am into fidelity, there is only my wife and children to think off. If I am into vanity, there are a hundred ways in which to be vain, but if I am into humility, there is always a simple way to be humble and serve others.
What does it mean to you that the waters of baptism were put on your head? Do you allow it to mark who you are at the very core of your being? In Acts the element of forgiveness is added to baptism. Have you embraced the fact that by the righteousness of Jesus, you have been washed clean, you have been turned away from sin?
Wind: To be moved by the Spirit of God
We read that the Spirit of God descended on Jesus at his baptism like a dove. In Cats 19 the fact that there were followers of Jesus that have been baptised by John but did not know about the Holy Spirit, was enough reason to rebaptize them. I came across this beautiful definition of what church is all about. It says:
“…what the church most truly is: It is a space in which the Spirit works to form Christlike people, and it is the space in which human beings, formed in Christ-like love, co-operate with the Spirit and one another to express that love in word and deed, art and action. Where that happens, I believe church is happening, whatever the forms and structures, whatever the history or pedigree”
We cannot control the Spirit as little as we can control wind. But we can pay attention to how the wind blows and position ourselves to be pushed forward by it. When we pay attention to God-and we tend to do that better in a team effort than just individually- we create a space where the Spirit can direct our actions and bless our efforts.
Fire: To have a burning passion that you express
When God the father opens the heaven upon Jesus submitting to his mission, what do we hear when He says: “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased”? We hear passion expressed in words. I don’t want to make it sound mundane, but it is almost like a proud father in the stands that when his son hits a home run, stands up and tell everybody: “that’s my boy!”. That is not pride that is lovingly being proud.
When you hear amateur, what comes to mind? Probably someone that is not a professional. But an amateur is more than just negatively not a professional. The word amateur comes from the Latin word amor which means love. An amateur then is someone that does something for the love of it, not for the money and fame. We think a sport is carried by professionals but let me tell you there will be no professionals if there weren’t many more amateurs. A sport, yes even Hockey is carried by it’s amateurs, not its professionals.
None of us are pro’s at life. We all fail, and we all make mistakes and this side of the grave God isn’t going to make any one of us perfect professionals. But what He wants to do is make us amateurs. People of passion that love life. Our own and the life in others. The life of the church and the life of Jesus in us. That love of life is the fuel that drives the world forward.
But wait there is more…
So, we have God as the soil in which we can get rooted and grow from. He is our living water that cleanses us and nourishes us. His Spirit is the wind that moves us, and he is the fire of our passion because He is in essence love. If God’s earth, water, wind and fire becomes a reality in our lives through faith what effect does it have. Two things: Movement and voice.
In the Genesis account God speaks creation into being and things moves into its place. In Mark’s baptism account an audible voice from God is heard as Jesus gets baptized and we then see Jesus is moved into the wilderness. God couldn’t keep still when this happened! In Acts when the wind of the Spirit blows, when the fire of passion grows in the disciples hearts, what happens? People spread to other places and the gospel with them. A fisherman who denied Jesus finds his voice and addresses crowds just as Mary found her voice and Moses the stutterer found his when God revealed Himself to them. Movement and voice.
I’m not a fan of New Years resolutions. If you want to have a good laugh, go read the resolutions people had for 2019. But how about two commitments instead of hundred resolutions? A commitment to move in faith this year and not stagnate and a commitment to make your voice heard.
See, if you walk outside and see somebody lying still, you get worried and you check for a pulse. We don’t say something lies dead still for nothing. Stagnation means death. A tree that is not growing, has died. God moves us. How dare we stay put if he does? Moving does not mean hurried frantic chasing. It means allowing God’s Spirit to take you to new places, people, and insights. It means going forward and not looking back. My sisters used to go to a girl’s school. Their emblem had three ducks on it. I used to tease them because of it because I thought it was the silliest thing to ever put on an emblem. That was until I heard why. A duck cannot walk backwards. They always move forward…as we should.
And God urges us in his Word to say something. To join in the conversation between mankind and God. To express even our deepest emotions in prayer like the psalmist did. To speak the truth to power. To speak for the vulnerable and those who are denied an opportunity to speak. There is a difference between making noise and having a voice. There is plenty, too much noise. A voice is when you somehow echo the truth of God by what you say. There is way too little of that in our world.
Close
By God’s grace you and I are no strangers to earth, water, wind and fire. Not in the physical sense but also not in the spiritual-revelational sense of the word. Let’s move together. Let’s partake in the conversation about Jesus and his wonderful ways. Sometimes it requires a gentle whisper or nudge. Other times it’s a joyous shout and sometimes it is even the kind of shout that brought down the walls of Jericho but because it voices what God puts in us, it is something that echoes throughout all eternity and change the world for the better.
Earth, Water, Wind, Fire…movement and voice. Isn’t it great to have that as we move into 2021?
Amen