{"id":294631,"date":"2019-01-12T20:34:41","date_gmt":"2019-01-13T01:34:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?p=294631"},"modified":"2019-01-14T11:12:21","modified_gmt":"2019-01-14T16:12:21","slug":"in-the-deep-water-homily-for-january-13-2019-the-baptism-of-the-lord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2019\/01\/in-the-deep-water-homily-for-january-13-2019-the-baptism-of-the-lord\/","title":{"rendered":"In the deep water: Homily for January 13, 2019, The Baptism of the Lord"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
Pxhere<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Why did he do it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a question that often pops up when we hear these readings and observe this Sunday, marking the Baptism of the Lord.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy did Jesus get baptized?\u201d He obviously was free of sin. Unlike all the others, he had nothing to repent. Why did he go through this ritual?<\/p>\n

Why did he do it?<\/p>\n

Theologians have been writing about this for centuries. They often talk about its symbolic importance. St. Gregory of Nyssa compared the baptism in the Jordan to Joshua entering the promised land through the Jordan. St. Ephrem wrote a hymn comparing the River Jordan to the womb of Mary.<\/p>\n

But I think the reality is much simpler \u2014 and can lead us today to a deeper appreciation of Christmas and the Incarnation.<\/p>\n

In short: this moment shows just how much God wanted to enter our world \u2014 to be one of us, to live as one of us, to share in all we are, even to the point of being baptized with all the others.<\/p>\n

To use a water metaphor, he took a deep dive.<\/p>\n

He went all in.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Looking over these readings last week, I remembered the story of Satoko Kitahara.<\/p>\n

Satoko was a wealthy young woman who lived in Tokyo in the years after World War II.\u00a0 She was well-educated, spoke several languages, played the piano and was trained as a pharmacologist.<\/p>\n

But she lived in a city in ruins.\u00a0 Some of the poorest people Tokyo, mostly widows and orphans, lived near the river in a place that came to be called \u201cAnt Town,\u201d because the people were considered as insignificant as insects.<\/p>\n

In 1949, while walking through the city, Satoko decided, out of curiosity, to follow a group of nuns into a Catholic church \u2013 and was transfixed by what she saw.\u00a0\u00a0 Something touched her very deeply, and spoke to her heart.\u00a0 She was especially moved by a statue of the Blessed Mother, and asked one of the nuns who she was.\u00a0 She kept going back to the church and, several months later, at the age of 20, Satoko \u2014 a Shinto Buddhist<\/a> \u2014 asked to be baptized.<\/p>\n

After that, everything changed.\u00a0<\/strong> A life of wealth and comfort became less important.<\/p>\n

One day, a missionary took her to Ant Town \u2014 and Satoko was stunned.\u00a0 She lived less than a mile away, but had never seen that kind of poverty.\u00a0 She began spending more time with the people, even helping them pick out rags and junk to sell.<\/p>\n

Eventually, she decided that she had to leave her family\u2019s comfortable home and live among the poor.\u00a0 She said: \u201cTo save us, God sent his only Son to be one of us.\u00a0 He became one of us.\u00a0 It hit me,\u201d she explained, \u201cthat there was only one way to help these rag-picker children.\u00a0 And it was to become a rag picker like them.\u201d<\/p>\n

And so she did. She worked tirelessly for Japan\u2019s suffering children \u2013 and eventually began to suffer herself.\u00a0 She died of tuberculosis, at the age of 28.<\/p>\n

Many today are praying she will one day be named a saint.<\/p>\n

I think what she understood about Christ, what she grasped about the Incarnation, sheds light on the event we remember today. She got why Jesus went to the Jordan and waded into those waters.<\/p>\n

As she put it: \u201cGod sent his only son to be one of us.\u201d He came into our world of poor ragpickers and saw something beautiful. And nothing was beneath him.<\/p>\n

Christ stepped into the river to experience baptism, and then carried that experience with him\u2014walking with others who had been baptized and who had committed their lives to repentance.<\/p>\n

What he did was an act of solidarity and love. It said, \u201cI\u2019m with you.\u201d He wanted to walk with them.<\/p>\n

Just as he wants to walk with us.<\/p>\n

And he does. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Christ knows what it is like. He walks with those who have been hurt, betrayed, imprisoned, mocked.<\/p>\n

He walks with those who seek refuge.<\/p>\n

He walks with migrants and laborers, widows and orphans.<\/p>\n

He walks with desperate people running for their lives, seeking a new start in a new place.<\/p>\n

He walks with anyone who wants to walk with him, and who seeks a way to the Father.<\/p>\n

And he wants us to know: We are not alone. In times of struggle and sorrow. In times of joy ad thanksgiving. He is beside us.<\/p>\n

The name we heard again and again during Advent, the name we sang about and celebrated, is the name we need to recall when we hunger for mercy, and consolation, and hope:<\/p>\n

Emmanuel.<\/em> \u201cGod with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The baptism in the Jordan reminds us that through Jesus, God is with us \u2014 in the deep water, drenched in our humanity.<\/p>\n

He became one of us, and went all in. He took the plunge.<\/p>\n

Look what we have in return.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The gates of heaven have been opened. Our hearts know mercy. We live in hope.<\/p>\n

On the calendar, this feast closes the Christmas season. But don\u2019t think of it as an ending. Today marks a beginning\u2014it recalls the beginning of Christ\u2019s public ministry, and the start of an incredible journey.<\/p>\n

It is one that still goes on.<\/p>\n

As we prepare to walk forward this day and approach the table of the Lord to receive the Eucharist, remember this:<\/p>\n

We walk through the world as different people today because Jesus walked into the Jordan\u2026and then rose from the water\u2026to walk with us.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why did he do it? It\u2019s a question that often pops up when we hear these readings and observe this Sunday, marking the Baptism of the Lord. \u201cWhy did Jesus get baptized?\u201d He obviously was free of sin. Unlike all the others, he had nothing to repent. Why did he go through this ritual? Why […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":294637,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-294631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homilies"],"yoast_head":"\nIn the deep water: Homily for January 13, 2019, The Baptism of the Lord<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Why did he do it? 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