Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Theologians are often accused of being tedious. Perhaps we deserve it, but one needs to realize that words matter. I have become more interested in the smallest things in texts that in my younger days I would have overlooked or perhaps noticed, but did not attend to what was before me.

So it is in the reading today from the Gospel of Mark. One little thing, a couple of letters, and suddenly we are plunged into a new world that we had not anticipated. Mark tells us that in verse 5 the people came from the entire countryside of Judah and also from Jerusalem to be baptized by John “in” the river Jordan. In the Greek text this preposition simply tells us where this event is taking place.

But in verse 9 we read that John baptized Jesus “into” the river Jordan. Mark wants us to know not only where Jesus was baptized, but how. Jesus not only stands in the waters of the Jordan. He is put under the waters. He is submerged under the waters.

As most of you know, I was raised in the Baptist tradition. Baptism in this tradition means to be immersed in the water. I still remember my baptism. I was just a kid, but I loved Jesus. I loved his church, and I wanted to be baptized so that I could participate in the Lord’s Supper with all the other church members. Still with all the promise that baptism offered, I felt very vulnerable as the pastor guided me into the baptismal pool. There I was plunged into the water three times in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. As I went under in faith, my body went into survival mode to make sure that I did not drown. I tried to calm myself, but my hands wanted to reach out.

Likewise, there is a sense of threat in the story of Jesus’ baptism, for to go into the waters is to risk drowning. This threat is reinforced by the whole context of events in the first chapter of Mark. After Jesus is baptized, the Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness where death threatens, not from water, but from lack thereof. The wild beasts are there. Then we are told of John the Baptizer’s own fate. He is arrested by King Herod. Yes, there is threat in this plunge into the waters.

Jesus will share in the fate of John. The baptism of Jesus sets the stage for the arrest, trial, crucifixion, and yes, the resurrection of Jesus. What is happening in the baptism of Jesus? Unlike the people who are simply in the Jordan, Jesus goes through the radical plunge---death---in the waters. Jesus is not being baptized as an act of repentance. He is being baptized as a declaration that he is free from the obligations of society represented by the religious and political leaders presented in the story of Jesus. He declares his freedom from both the Jewish and the Roman social construction of reality. Jesus thereby places himself in harm’s way as Jerusalem and Rome sniff the snub which Jesus expresses by going to John in the wilderness.

Jesus declares the kingdom of God with its alternative reality. His baptism declares the new creation over which the Spirit descends just like the beginning of creation. He rejects the violence of humanity just as Noah was a righteous and innocent person and was, thus, saved from the flood. Jesus declares his freedom by participating in the Exodus which resulted in the death of Pharaoh and his military machine.

We declare in our baptism to whom we belong and to whom we do not belong. We know the signs in our own society. We know it from the rank consumerism that tempts us to become something different than Jesus who came to serve and not to be served. The false promise of consumerism tells us that the goal of accumulating things will fill the hollow space in our hearts, but we know it is a lie. Every acquisition that we make only fuels the fire of wanting to acquire more and more. There is nothing more depressing than realizing that our acquisitions do not satisfy.

Perhaps you saw Eric Lewis’ cartoon in The New Yorker. An old man lies on his death bed, his faithful wife comforting him. He says to her, “I should have bought more crap.”

So it is that we consume things and experiences and never fill that which we are truly meant to seek:  God whose glory transcends all that is, including death.

Dear brothers and sisters, it all turns on a little preposition. “In” or “into?”  We are continuing to grow in our understanding of baptism. The movement is from simply being baptized in a church or down at the river to being baptized into Christ Jesus.

When we baptize our children and adults we often pray the prayer of Martin Luther. It is a brilliant expression of the meaning of baptism which connects the assembly with the flood waters of creation, the primeval flood and Noah’s ark, and with the watery rescue of Israel in the Red Sea. The prayer then symbolically ties these together with the death and resurrection of Jesus.

By the baptism of Jesus’ death and resurrection you set us free from the power of sin and death and raise us up to live in you. (ELW p. 230)

Let us continue to live in our baptism into Christ Jesus. As we live by faith, we shall learn that we need not fear the watery deep. We may trust in the same God, in whom Noah, Moses, and Jesus put their faith. The threat of death and violence will always be with us.  John Bunyan expressed it this way in his classic, A Pilgrim’s Progress.  The hero of the story, Christian, has concluded his pilgrimage and must cross the river to the heavenly city. The river means death, but it also means life.  Hopeful then comes to Christian and strengthens him with these words.

These troubles and distresses that you go through in these Waters are no sign that God hath forsaken you, but are sent to try you, whether you will call to mind that which heretofore you have received of his goodness, and live upon him in your distresses.

Then I saw in my Dream that Christian was as in a muse a while.  To whom also Hopeful added this word, Be of good cheer, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole:  and with that Christian brake out with a loud voice, Oh, I see him again, and he tells me, When thou passest through the Waters, I will be with thee; and through the Rivers, they shall not overflow thee.  Then they both took courage, and the Enemy was after that as still as a stone, until they were gone over.  Christian, therefore, presently found ground to stand upon, and so it followed that the rest of the River was but shallow. 

Thus they got over.                              (The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan)

Amen.