Loving God, you pour out your love upon us in baptism and claim us as your own – a gift that is ours through Jesus.  Teach us to know you in such a way that we can rest in you in any situation, and continue to strengthen us with your Holy Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    James and John are full of ambition.  They want to be Jesus’ “right hand men.”  They want to be right up there with the head honcho in the kingdom that Jesus is going to usher in.  That much, they have caught.  They have heard Jesus talking about the kingdom of God, so they know that there will be a kingdom of some sort.  However, as soon as they heard the word “kingdom,” their minds drifted off to dreams of thrones and gold and power.  They missed the rest of what Jesus said.

    In fact, right before the conversation that we hear in today’s gospel, Jesus was just telling his disciples about how he’s going to be condemned to death and mocked and spit upon and flogged and killed.  He was telling them this and then threw in there that after three days he would rise again.  Now, as shocking as this might have been for the disciples, this is not the first time that Jesus has told them.  Three times, Jesus tells them what awaits him: suffering and death and resurrection.

    And James and John, who once again were day-dreaming about thrones and power and Jesus shining on the mountain top, come to Jesus and ask for the places of honour in his kingdom.  What follows is a conversation about drinking the cup and being baptized that is probably quite jarring, or perhaps even confusing to us, as we think about celebrating baptism and drinking from the cup today.  You need to know, though, that both the cup and baptism have several meanings.

    In the Scriptures, the cup can be either a cup of suffering or a cup of blessing.  James and John will actually share in both of those things.  There is also, of course, the literal cup that Jesus will share with his disciples at the last supper.  It is the cup of wine that becomes a sign of the new covenant and a source of life and salvation.

    As for baptism, perhaps I should warn you up front that, as it is used in today’s gospel, it means “to be overwhelmed with calamities.”  I’m sure that’s what you were hoping for in baptism, right? – to be overwhelmed with calamities and afflictions?  Yet, this is the baptism that James and John are told that they will need to share in.  It is similar to the phrase “baptism by fire” that sometimes gets used.

    However, as I mentioned, baptism has several different meanings.  In Greek, the verb is baptizo (just in case you wanted to learn another language today).  It can mean to dip repeatedly, to submerge, to cleanse, to wash or to make clean with water, among other things.  As in the baptism that we have celebrated today, the water together with God’s Word becomes both cleansing and life-giving.  In Holy Baptism we are cleansed by water and the Spirit and given new life.

    It is quite likely that James and John were also baptized by water and the Spirit – at least, we know that they later received the gift of the Holy Spirit.  They would receive new life too, yet they would also be overwhelmed by calamities and afflictions!

    I can’t help but wonder if perhaps our own baptism into Christ overwhelms us in a good way.  There is this whole sense of being submerged or overwhelmed in the verb itself.  Could it be that in baptism God pours out his love upon us and the Holy Spirit and totally overwhelms us or immerses us in God’s grace and mercy?  Can you imagine yourself in the shower, with the water representing God’s grace and love, just pouring over you and cleansing you and renewing you?  It may be an image that is helpful to contemplate every so often.

    Today’s gospel, however, hints that in the midst of God’s great love for us, we will still experience in this world trials and calamities and perhaps even suffering.  You see, when we are baptized children of God and inheritors of eternal life, we share in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  He is our leader and example.  He is our brother and our friend.  He is the one who gave himself in humble and loving service, enduring suffering and even death for our sake.

    As such, those who belong to Christ can expect at least some of the same.  Yet, our lives will not be nearly as dull and unappealing as this might sound to some.  You see, even as Jesus lived in loving service to God and to others, he was full of the power of God, the Holy Spirit and abundant life.  He showed us what it is to live in perfect relationship with God.  He showed us what wonders can be accomplished simply by allowing the power of God to work within us and through us.  He showed us what it is to be fully alive and at peace.

    Trials most certainly will come, but they do not need to get the better of us as children of God.  You see, as people who believe in Jesus Christ and who belong to God, we have resources that go far beyond ourselves.  We have a strength that is far greater than our own, and the key to accessing this strength and these resources is to grow in our relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

    Picture this: You are facing an extremely difficult time in your life, but you are able to deal with it because you rest in God’s love.  You know that God loves you and will always act with your best interest at heart.  You know that God allows both yourself and others to make your choices, and that sometimes you will be hurt by the choices that others make (or even the choices that you make).  Yet, even then, God can work in the situation to bring good out of it.  You trust in God’s inherent goodness, and you know that no matter what you are facing, God will provide you with the resources to get through it.  Because of your faith and trust in God, you no longer live in fear.  You claim God’s promises, you are thankful for God’s blessings, and you know that in life or in death, you are in God’s care.

    This is what it is to have a living relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  These are the resources that go far beyond ourselves.  This is a big part of what it means to live in the covenant of our baptism.

    The other part, of course, is that we also live in relationship with others in the family of God – the body of Christ – the Church.  Sometimes our strength comes from one another.  Sometimes our wisdom and knowledge increase as we learn together and study together and pray together.  Sometimes our impact on the world around us increases because we work together in order to do far more of God’s work than we could ever manage to do on our own.

    All of this is what it means to be baptized and to believe in Jesus Christ, who came that we might have life and have it abundantly (Jn. 10:10).  Let us then follow Jesus’ example of loving service, opening ourselves up to the power of God and to the abundant life of the Spirit.  And as we gather together today, may we be overwhelmed by the depth of God’s love for us in Jesus Christ and by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, who heals us from within and then empowers us for service.  Amen.

Lectionary 29(B)                                Mark 10:35-45
October 18, 2009
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2009 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved