Enlightenment Through the Waters
Sermon preached by the Rev. John Elliott Lein at St. Thomas à Becket Episcopal Church on Jan 12, 2020 (The First Sunday After Epiphany, Year A) on the following texts: Isaiah 42:1-9, Psalm 29, Acts 10:34-43, and Matthew 3:13-17.
If you grew up in the 90’s like myself, or if your children did, you might be familiar with one of the great classics of cinema—Spielberg’s “Hook”. Featuring the talents of Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts, and Maggie Smith; scored by John Williams; and sets including a full-size pirate ship, this re-telling of the Peter Pan story with a grown-up Pan and his kids has earned an impressive...26% positive film critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Ok, so maybe it’s not the world’s best film, but it’s one that I still love and there’s a pivotal scene that always comes to mind when I hear the word “epiphany.” Anyone here remember it?
The setting is Captain Hook’s cabin, and he’s depressed now that he went to all the work of kidnapping Pan’s kids to lure him back and Peter has forgotten everything which has ruined his grand plans of revenge. His henchman Smee is bustling around, trying to lift the Captain’s spirits, when a little bell rings and Smee turns around with a wondering look on his face: “I’ve just had an apostrophe.”
Hook replies: “I think you mean an epiphany.”
Smee forks his fingers at his head: “Lightnin’...has just stuck mah brain.”
Hook mutters: “Well that must hurt.”
But once Smee relays the devious plot that has struck him so forcefully, Hook is so enraptured that he claims it for his own inspiration and the story picks back up again.
As Smee experiences, and Hook more accurately names, an epiphany is “a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something; an intuitive grasp of reality through something (such as an event) usually simple and striking; an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure; or a revealing scene or moment.”
Another word for epiphany in religious circles is “enlightenment”—the moment when, often after years of laying groundwork through regular practice and study, a seemingly-unbridgeable gap of understanding is crossed in the blink of an eye.
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Today in the season of Epiphany we celebrate the Baptism of Our Lord. We’re often so used to seeing and experiencing the motions of baptism as a rite of initiation into the Church, whether for infants or adults, that we miss the deeper meanings of this practice.
In the gospel we heard today, both John and Jesus also seem to be thinking of baptism as a mere formality at first. Unlike the other three gospel writers, Matthew tells us that John is reluctant to perform the baptism since this would imply that Jesus is under John’s teaching and guidance. But Jesus responds by saying that it’s “right to fulfill every requirement.” Neither seem to expect what happens next.
As Jesus rose out of the muddy waters of the Jordan, the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove. She nestled onto him, and a voice spoke from above: “This is my son, the beloved, in whom I have delighted.”
This pivotal scene is included in all four of our gospel accounts, but in none of them do we learn whether or not this voice is audible to anyone else besides Jesus. In the Gospel of John the Baptizer relays the story and describes the dove, but not a voice. It seems to be Jesus’ private epiphany—not something the people grasp, not yet. In all four gospel accounts it is at this moment that Jesus’ work begins, with the epiphany of sonship.
* * *
This is not the only account of an epiphany connected to baptism in our Scriptures. I’m reminded of two others in particular today.
First, there is the realization of Peter as described in the passage from the Acts of the Apostles we read today. The backstory is that Peter, as a faithful law-abiding Jewish follower of Jesus, has been growing into his role as leader of those left behind at the Ascension but he has not grasped certain key understandings yet. One day he is hungry and goes up on a rooftop to wait for food to be prepared. While he is there, he falls into a trance in which he sees a vision of a sheet filled with ritually-unclean animals lowered down to him and a voice says “eat.” Peter’s pious response is “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean.” The voice responds, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” This happens three times before Peter awakens to a messenger knocking at the door, sent to fetch him by a Gentile, a Roman centurian named Cornelius. Fresh off the vision, Peter follows, sees the sincerity of Cornelius’ faith, and gives the speech we just read. Then the Spirit descends in visible sign onto these Gentiles, and Peter exclaims “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” Peter’s understanding of the scope of the Gospel takes an instantaneous leap forward; he has an epiphany.
The second story comes shortly before Peter’s epiphany in the book of Acts, with a different apostle named Phillip. Phillip falls in with a high-ranking Ethiopian government official on his way back from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. This man has been reading the Prophet Isaiah on his return, agonizing over the words. His deep faith and devotion to the God of Israel is at odds with the Law that keeps him separate from the worshipping community at the temple—for not only is he a foreigner which can be overcome, but he is also a eunuch, a sexual minority who is banned from temple practice. This Ethiopian eunuch begs Phillip to help him understand the passages he’s reading, describing a man who is led away like a sheep to be cut by the knife and has no descendants. As Phillip relates this passage to Jesus, the eunuch exclaims, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” Without a word, Phillip immediately leads the Ethiopian to the water. Against his natural prejudices, and against the religious training he knows, Phillip has had an epiphany and he suddenly intuites that all are welcome with God.
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Our baptisms today may not always be so tightly connected to an experience of epiphany, but they are symbols of the enlightenment that is possible. Your baptism, and mine, is a promise that revelation is not done and complete in the past but lies in our future if we follow through on the commitments that we promise in our baptismal vows.
This understanding goes back to the earliest church teachings, as Saint Justin Martyr said in 155 CE:
“….baptism is called ‘illumination’ because of the mental enlightenment that is experienced by those who learn these things.”
In this season of Epiphany 2020 our adult formation sessions at 9:15 are exploring the concept of wisdom and how it is connected to this flash of insight that we call the Spirit descending. We will be looking at practices that can lay the groundwork for this event, and examining more closely how enlightenment works and what it can do in our lives.
Jesus’ epiphany at his baptism occured at age thirty, most likely after years of spiritual formation and intentional practice. We now celebrate this baptism as part of our season of Epiphany because it points to the epiphany that followed in the lives of his followers and the church about Jesus, and it promises epiphanies of our own as we follow his example. So as we go through this season, let us be aware of this promise through the Holy Spirit and renew our commitment to practices and fellowship that will lead us to epiphanies of greater love, inclusion, and welcome in the family of God.
AMEN.
