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Connections...
January 12, 2003 Baptism of the Lord
† Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan. On coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."
Mark 1: 7-11
Welcome to the sandbox
Mikey was having a bad day--as bad day a six-year-old can have. There was the paint he knocked over running in kindergarten, the punch he threw at his little sister who kept bugging him while he was playing on the computer, and the meatloaf sandwich he wanted no part of at lunch. And now, on this particular afternoon, there was nobody to play with. So Mikey found himself exiled to the sandbox, mindlessly pushing his prized toy dump truck through the dirt.
After a while, he saw his dad come around the corner. Mom must have told him about the day's adventures. Mikey didn't look up, he didn't say a word. He just kept pushing his truck through the sand--and steeled himself for the worst.
When Dad got to the edge of the sandbox, he bent down sat next to Mikey. He took a pail, filled it with sand, and carefully turned it on one end of the rut Mikey had cut through the sand. Dad then made another perfect mound of sand, and then another. Mikey smiled for the first time all day. For the next hour or two, Mikey and his dad transformed the sandbox into an elaborate network of roads and bridges.
"It's been a bad all around," Dad said as he scooped up sand.
"Yup," Mikey agreed as he made a new road with his truck.
CONNECTION: In today's Gospel, Jesus begins his public ministry by getting in line with the others and waiting his turn to be baptized by John. Like Mikey's dad, he gets into the "sandbox" with us. In him, God-being-with-us included God being in the river with us, in the flesh with us, in the sorrow of repentance and the joy of new life with us. The miracle of the baptism of the Lord is not what he gives up but rather what he takes on: us. He shows that we are not just the subject of his work, we are his work; that we will be not just the witnesses of his glory, we are his glory. In Christ, we are all in the river and the sandbox together; with Christ, we can transform our lives from darkness to light, we can re-create our world from sinful selfishness to hope-filled community. ¦
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