Did you notice something “different” about the Church today? The Christmas crèche is in storage, the poinsettias are gone. The color of the chasuble is green. We are now in what we call “Ordinary Time,” numbered Sundays. This is the second Sunday in Ordinary Time.
Over the holidays I reopened a book I read a while ago titled “Disorder in the American Courts.” It quotes things people actually said in court. For example, an attorney asked: “How was your first marriage terminated?” The witness replied, “By death.” The attorney continued, “By whose death?” The witness said, “Take a guess.”
In another case, the lawyer said, “Describe the individual.” The witness replied, “He was about medium height and had a beard.” The attorney: “Was it a male or a female?” The witness, “Unless the circus was in town, I’m going with male.”
And finally this: “Do you recall the time that you examined the body?” Reply: “The autopsy started around 8 p.m.” Attorney: “And was he dead at the time?” Witness: “If not, he was by the time I finished the autopsy.” Court stenographers actually recorded these statements. Humorous reading.
The word of God takes us back to the 11th century before Jesus (the 1000s), to a young man by the name of Samuel who is asleep close to the Ark of the Covenant at a shrine in Israel.
Samuel hears a voice which he eventually recognizes as the voice of God. And he responds: Speak, Lord, for I am listening.
And because he listened, Samuel went on to become one of the great prophets of Israel, anointer of kings and mouthpiece of God.
God also speaks to us in many different ways as he spoke to Samuel. The question is: are we listening?
But we don’t always hear God’s voice because we’re not always on the same wavelength; we’re not on the right frequency.
Let me give you a classic illustration. During the depression in the 1930s, a young man was desperately seeking employment. He saw a “Help Wanted” ad for a telegraph operator. This fellow had no experience, but he did learn the Morse code on his own, and he went to the telegraph office for an interview.
When he saw many other applicants, he became disheartened. But he sat down to wait his turn. After only a few minutes, his face suddenly lit up. He stood up and went directly into the manager’s office.
Within a few minutes, the manager appeared at the door with the young fellow and announced that he was hiring him for the telegraph job.
Now, one of the other applicants who had been waiting asked with astonishment, “What did this young fellow say that landed him the job and not me?”
The manager answered: “All morning I have been tapping out a message on my office window in Morse code. It was loud enough for all of you to hear. The message was this: ‘If you can understand this message, come on in. You’re hired.’
“All of you heard the tapping. But this young fellow was the only one who listened to the tapping.”
Yes, God speaks to us in many different ways as he spoke to Samuel. But are we listening? Are we on the same wavelength? The right frequency? Prayer -- tuning into the presence of God -- puts us on the right frequency.
Paul in his letter to the Christian community at Corinth speaks about our ultimate purpose: eternal life with God. Yes, Paul says, we are living temples of God; God dwells within us, initially by virtue of the life-giving waters of baptism. But do we reflect the presence of God in our everyday attitudes and behaviors? Do we see in our fellow human beings the image and likeness of God, no matter how unattractive their appearances.
In the Gospel, John points out Jesus as the Lamb of God, an allusion to the Lamb in the Hebrew Passover meal, the so-called seder service Jews celebrate today.
So what was John's vocation or calling? He pointed to Jesus as the messiah. And as we reflect upon John’s vocation, we might ask ourselves whether we, by virtue of who we are and what we do, point to Jesus as our way, our truth and our life.
Now what was John doing in the Jordan river? He was baptizing, inviting people to repent, to orient their lives to God and the things of God. Isn’t this what baptism does?
To begin with, baptism is a gift from God and a rite of initiation into a world-wide community of disciples of Jesus, the Church universal.
But why be baptized? We first have to understand who we are in relationship to God. At birth, we lack God’s life within us. That really is what original sin means, a lack of something – a lack of a particular relationship with God. The Book of Genesis captures this very graphically. In the beginning, Genesis says, man and woman walked with God; they had friendship with God and friendship with one another. But somehow they lost that friendship. Genesis describes very simply yet powerfully their fall from grace. They hid from God; they played the blame game. Even the earthly elements worked against them.
Ever since, the human family cried out for God’s friendship. St. Augustine put it well: “God, you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
That is why God became flesh in Jesus of Nazareth. God through the dying/rising of Jesus by the power of the Spirit re-established that relationship or friendship we had with God. Yes, God became one of us so that we might become like God.
That’s a incredible gift from God. That's why Paul today urges us to live a holy life worthy of our status. Wouldn't we like God to say about us: “This is my beloved son/my beloved daughter, with whom I am well pleased.”
Yes, baptism initiates us into a global community of Jesus disciples, a fellowship of grace.
In early Christianity, candidates were often immersed in water. Water symbolizes life and death. A hurricane can demonstrate how life-threatening water can be; and cool water on a 100-degree-plus day can easily show how life-giving it can be.
The early Christian candidate stepped down into a pool of water and then came up out of that pool, symbolizing a dying to a self-centered life in their immersion and a rising to a God-centered or other-centered life in their stepping out of the pool. By the eleventh century, a millennium after John the Baptist, pouring water on the head became the common baptismal practice.
Today I invite us to renew our own baptismal promises, to re-consecrate ourselves to Jesus Christ, to participate more fully in the three-fold office of Jesus as prophet (trying to do the right thing), as priest (seeking reconciliation in all our relationships) and as king (working for a more just world). And then, to paraphrase the prayer in the musical Godspell, we will: see God more clearly; love him more dearly; and follow God more nearly, day by day.
