(Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “Atmospheric River”, originally shared on January 4, 2023. It was the 246th video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)
Rain has come to
Southern California. How? The answer gives us insight into the reason for the
Baptism of Jesus as well as for the gift of our own. Today, we’re going to see
how.
Southern California is getting some much-needed rain after years of
drought and the water rationing that resulted.
It’s a welcome change.
Our lawn became a field of my
garden’s most successful edible crop: dandelions. We put water pails in our
shower to collect the side streams for use outside. We have every available
container turned towards the skies to collect their liquid bounty.
But not everything about the
rain is positive.
I saw a short video once that
began in an airy office space bustling-full of busy people. A monitor hung high
on a wall streaming with the daily news. Suddenly the screen went red. The
words “Storm Watch” appeared! A new announcer came on air and breathlessly
warned that a half-inch of rain was coming to Southern California!
Workers began to panic, running
around aimlessly, hoarding food from the office snack cupboard, screaming and
cowering in fear. Soon, however, the announcer held his hand to his ear and
said, “Wait! No. It’s going to miss us. The storm is going to miss us!”
Everyone sighed and nervously
went back to their desks, looking around relieved and getting back to work when
a violent earthquake shook the building. Stuff went flying and people typed
with one hand and held their computers down with the other. But they went on
working. Then the shaking stopped, and people looked around at each other,
shrugged, laughed, and turned their faces back to their computers.
That’s life in Southern
California.
It also tells us something about
Baptism.
This coming Sunday is the first
Sunday after the day of the Epiphany. The Day of the Epiphany of our Lord is
fixed at January 6thevery year. In some places around the world, it
is just as big a holiday as Christmas. In some places it is Christmas. It marks
the event when the wisemen from the East came to worship Jesus. It is the first
manifestation of Jesus to the gentiles, the non-Jews.
Epiphany means “manifestation”.
The season of Epiphany is a season of reflection on what the birth of Jesus
means, and the first Sunday after the day of the Epiphany of Our Lord marks the
day at the beginning of Jesus manifestation to the world, at the start of his
public ministry when Jesus was baptized. It is the Sunday of the Baptism of Our
Lord.
Here’s how Matthew describes it
in Matthew 3:13-17,
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to
John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be
baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 But
Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for
us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up
from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit
of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the
Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
Have you ever watched or read a
cartoon where a character is facing some dilemma? They think about it. Hard.
Then what happens? A burning light bulb appears over their head! What was not
clear is now seen clearly. Light has shined in the darkness. They have had an
epiphany!
Something longed-for has become
real, it has become manifest. How does that manifestation happen here?
The answer to that question can
come from the “atmospheric river.”
The recent rain we have had,
the rain we are having now, and the rain we are expected to receive over the
next week, at least, is unexpected.
We were supposed to have a
third year of a La Nina weather system based on rotating ocean temperatures,
bringing another year of drought. But, though we’re not out of the woods yet
(we had a ton of rain in December of 2021 and then nothing), we have been
experiencing an atmospheric river.
An atmospheric river is where
piles of clouds move up from the tropics and bring rain. In our case it has
been a blessing.
The people of God had been
waiting for the promised Messiah (the anointed one, the chosen) for 1,000 years
and received nothing but some encouragement from the prophets for the first 700
years. Then, there was no word from God to the prophets for the final 300
years.
Then John the Baptist shows up
with a word from the Lord. The Messiah was close by!
And then, the Messiah shows up
where John was baptizing people in the river Jordan and requests
baptism.
What? Why does Jesus need to be
baptized? What is he doing there? John says that he is the one who should be
seeking baptism, from Jesus!
Jesus says that John should baptize
him, “for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.”
John immediately consents.
What is Jesus talking about? He
is the Messiah, the Son of God, fully God and fully human being? He lived a
sinless life. Why does he need to be baptized?
The answer is, “He doesn’t.” At
all.
Jesus seeks to be baptized as
an example, as a great unnecessary. Like dying on the cross, it is a gift of
grace.
Jesus is baptized to show us who He is. He is doing something physical
to show us the lengths he will go to make a way for us to be reconciled to God.
And then God is present in all
three persons, One God, in the atmosphere of heavenly glory.
Jesus is being baptized, the
Holy Spirit is “descending like a dove and alighting on him,” and the Father
speaks from heaven, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
It’s the atmospheric river at
Jesus’ baptism, coming unexpectedly and bringing the blessing of the
manifestation of God. God with us.
What is this baptism that Jesus
extravagantly models for us?
Martin Luther, the 16th
century Church reformer, describes it in his short manual with the basics of
the Christian faith, “The Small Catechism”, from which come these FAQ’s
(Frequently Asked Questions):
What gifts or benefits does Baptism
grant?
It brings about forgiveness of sins, redeems from
death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe it, as the
Word and promise of God declare.
What is this Word and promise of God?
Where our Lord Jesus Christ says in Mark 16:16, “The
one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not
believe will be condemned.”
How can water do such great things?
Clearly the water does not do it, but the Word of
God, which is with, in, and alongside the water, and faith, which trusts this
Word of God in the water.
What then is the significance of such a
baptism with water?
It signifies that the old person in us with all sins
and evil desires is to be drowned through daily sorrow for sin and repentance,
and that daily a new person is to come forth and rise up to live before God in
righteousness and purity forever.
Where is this written?
St. Paul says in Romans 6:3-4, “Do you not know that
all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his
death? Therefore we have been buried
with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the
dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”
I read a little book once on
the psychology of swimming called, You Only Feel Wet When You’re Out of the
Water. The most memorable part of it, for me, was the title.
It’s true, isn’t it? You don’t
feel wet when you’re in the water. It’s your environment, it’s everything, it’s
your atmosphere. You only feel wet when you are out of the water.
In the same way, we receive
everything important in life, forgiveness of sins, redemption from death and the
devil, and eternal salvation given to all who believe it through our baptism. It isn’t the most important thing, it’s the only
thing that makes a real life real. It is a gift from God. It’s the atmosphere
in which we live!
God was manifest in the baptism
of Jesus Christ in the river.
Seek your baptism if you
haven’t yet received this sacred event.
You can’t earn it, you will
never fully understand it, you don’t deserve it. It’s a one-time, non-repeatable
action of God. It can happen at any age.
Walk wet if you have been
baptized. Live in its atmosphere every day.
Your baptism makes you whose
you are, in an atmospheric river of the one true living God.
Live in response to its
blessing.
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