🐮 Baptism of Our Lord (Epiphany)
Reflection:
Good morning and welcome to Epiphany Sunday. Also known as the baptism of our Lord. The baptism of our Lord and epiphany Sunday fall on the first Sunday after January 6th. Which is a fixed feast in most Western liturgical calendars. Because we have 12 days of Christmas. Individual days. That's why I didn't do a Sunday after Christmas, even though I probably could have and should have. Christmas is 12 days beginning on December 25th. January 6th before it was insurrection day, it was a Annie. And before we get into the readings for this morning, I think it's important to point out. That Epiphany in the ancient Greek world in Greek is the earliest form of the Hebrew scriptures that we have called this up to again. Tiffany and Greek was the appearance of a God on the battlefield.Um, this, you'll see this in the Trojan war and Homer's Odyssey and other places. This word. That we get it from is. Very often used. For when your own side or the narrator side or the protagonist side. Is on their heels and they're being beat back. The God or the spirit or the divine being appears and helps turn the tide in their favor in your favor, the protagonists favor. And that's important. Because the people are waiting a military savior in the first century. E. The Messiah, the Christ, the. It's if you've ever read any like Joan of arc literature. People were really spun up because there was a prophecy about a young maiden. From, the marshy lands and all these different interpretations were involved in. Joan was a kind of Messiah for France. And I bring that up because the way that, there's a way humanity is the way people and anthropology works. We talk about these things. We begin to build these stories that become self fulfilling prophecies. And that is not to say that prophecy is, should be diminished in any way. But people were hoping and waiting and praying for someone to deliver them. From what they saw as, an intractable. And irreversible corruption of their tradition. Herod. Had recently cleared out Joshua's temple, the second temple all the way down to its foundation stones. So the temple was gone before that had the has-been eons had corrupted the high priesthood. Is that a kite dynasty was tp, even before that, you could say the tabernacle, which is where the dwelling place of God was in Shiloh. Was, co-opted and made a temple. So if you're a poor. Judean, relatively observant in the Judy and faith. All is lost. The only hope you have is calling upon God. To deliver you. And then the ancient times, according to the oldest hip break, imaginative literature. It's on the Deborah, the song of the sea and the song of Miriam. They pray for a savior. And that savior comes in the form of a charismatic figure, who was said to be anointed or smeared by God to deliver the people from their sins, from the Philistines, from fill in the blank. This is the role that Joshua, the son of Mary will fulfill and does pand baptism are aligned quite frequently. Because the epiphany of the magic, the sages from the east. Which is to say east of the Jordan off where they. bthey had entered the promised land outside the promised land, they come in to give these gifts because they've seen some celestial event and they're not Hebrews, they're not, Jews are not. Is your lights, but they come and they give honor to this child. Who's going to be. The king of the Jews. And they have this vision. They have an epiphany. Some celestial event where the tide is going to turn. And that's paralleled with the baptism of Jesus in Luke three. And mark. Five. I can't remember. Is mirrored because the epiphany of the Majaila. The vision of the match, I, and the entrance of God in human history. Also appears as a says, personified in the Greek, but like you think of anthropomorph more, phising not human figure, but personified reduced to. Or distilled from its spiritual form into corporeal material appearance. They could see it. They could see God. Enter human history just as the Greek gods. Entered human history, usually on the battlefield. Because Jesus is appearance. Is it call to spiritual warfare. Not against flesh and blood. Saul teaches us this. And I think he's right. But to do spiritual battle character battle, who is stronger. Which faith will prevail and the longest one, the Abraham's God. Sorry. He is still winning. And this is when Christians believe the God of Abraham entered human tuage of the waters and Isaiah passing through the rivers, crossing the river. Jordan, not only the sages, the match I did. From across the river that across the river. So did the Israelites, when they were entering the promised land, when they were escaping. Egypt to cross the sea of reeds. Like the imagery of water and cleansing is one that's returned to frequently. Of course the baptism of the Lord is paralleled with. Crossing the river, Jordan, the magic crossing the river Jordan. Escaping oppression the transition period from oppression and despair into hope and life and renewal. Are both manifest in the epiphany of the match. I, as well as the vision and the revelation. That people see. The dev. The divine presence enter fleshly form. And descend upon. The Messiah who is called the child, the son of this divine entity, this force. And so if you haven't picked up that. That kind of language. That's why it's not because they're trying to smush two things together, but because those two things distinct as they are by about, 30 years or so. Are supposed to communicate the same thing. Look. Here comes God entering the battlefield. We know as daily life. Have hope because I'm going to give you the tools to defeat the forces of evil, or if not to defeat them. Put them back on their heels. The gates of hell will not prevail against you. And of course I have to, if there's a lot of military language in here, that's because Luke makes very clear, Luke three 14, which we, it comes right before the passage we hear today. We find that Jesus was in fact baptized beside soldiers. On't listen to any theologian or historian who tells you that the first quote, unquote Christian soldiers didn't appear in the church until the second century, they haven't read their Bible. It's right there in black and white. The three 14. An onward, if you don't think he was baptized, Luke even says it in 3 21, he says it again and 7 29, if you. If. Military service bothers you. If the imagery. That it conjures bothers you. Good. The Bible should bother you and it should bother you for precisely that reason. Joshua his name. Is also the name of this military commander. Who leads for just five chapters out of 22. Leads them in battle a mythological historically, certainly did not happen the way they describe it, but this is how they're making sense of their own colonialism as Israelites. We, we occupied this land that wasn't always ours. And we try to be good people. What does that mean? First of all don't forget that you were once a colonizer. You were once a slave. You were once all these things. Just as Joshua, the son of nun enters the promised land by crossing the river. Just as the magic guy. rnt the Gentiles, giving homage to the Israelite, the Hebraic. Abraham and God. So two will marry son Joshua lead the faithful in spiritual battle. Specifically spiritual battle because physical battle and the physical effects of battle belong to the Lord and the Lord alone. He effects of. Of. Yeah, the effects of spiritual battle. May have physical ramifications. But we are called to fight, not against flesh and blood, but against the forces of evil and the powers and principalities that command. Those alienating forces. So there's a lot this week, and there's a reason for that. I'm this is the last episode I will release. On time for free or ahead of time to everyone for free. As the epiphany of the Lord is the feast of the epiphany I've promised on my sub stack. Everybody would get it. Ahead of time for free. Starting next week. You'll only get them ahead of time. If you're a subscriber to the podcast, if there is some. If you have difficulty paying. If you don't think it's worth it. Direct message me. I'm at blue sky. I am Logan M i.blue sky.app. Same as my email and all the rest of my things come find me. And if you can't pay it, but you really want ahead of time. I will hook you up. But after this week, I'm going to be putting a lot of my content behind a paywall. If you want to learn more, go to pew dot substation. Dot com subscribe there for the written stuff. My writings, et cetera. But this is the kind of stuff that you'll get on the podcast. In advance of the Sundays that they are. Relating to and then I'm going to be writing a lot on my sub stack, not just about the typical GI justice and judge justice and civilly, honest stuff, like what is. What is stolen? Valor is one of the posts, but you'll like it personal stuff from me about what I'm learning with my martial hermaneutic in my own life and my own contact with Mt. Family and community. I am not going to put that out into the world. If you want to be a part of that. You can subscribe and you can pay me to. Receive that kind of vulnerability from me. If you want to call me prostitute, I absolutely accept that because I'm selling the appearance of intimacy. I'm telling intimacy, if you would like it. That is my boundary and there is no intimacy without boundaries. And so that's just an addendum to this week. Maybe in the future. I'll. I'll delete this out. So I have a nice clean version of baptism and Epiphany and one, but I really appreciate everybody. Who's been listening. I hope I'll continue to Occupy your airwaves for years to come. As I continue to make my way through the Sunday lectionary. In the liturgical cycle.
