The Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, by definition, tell the story of Jesus' baptism similarly.  It goes like this: John the Baptist is at the River Jordan baptizing the Jews in prepara­tion for the coming Kingdom of God.  He is getting everybody cleaned up and ready, as we did during Advent, "preparing the way." This is the purpose of baptism: washing up for the Messianic banquet.

Behold, here comes Jesus, the main meal of the Messianic banquet, down to the Jordan.  He's a grown man now.   Nobody recognizes him. Except John.  Who should.  They'­re cousins.

Where has Jesus been since the Wise Men left him thirty years ago?  What has he been up to?   Has he been a good boy? From what seminary (yeshiva) has he gradu­ated?  Of this, we know next to nothing.

But Jesus is on the scene again, in line to be baptized by John. His turn, down he goes, splash, into the water. Or perhaps John sprinkles him, this part is not really clear, and has led to some sacramental differences ever since.

What is clear according to each gospel is upon his baptism,  heaven opens up and the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus like a dove (point to our baptismal tapestry), with a voice to be heard from heaven saying, "You are my Son,  the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased­."

That's about it.  They all say this.  But there are differences.

The obvious difference in Luke is the story is longer.  You can see that right away.  Luke includes the lineage of Jesus. "Jesus...being the son of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi..." (3:23-24) etc., etc.,   for 73 generations.  Let's leave Luke for another Sunday. We've got to get home for the Giants-Eagles game.

In Matthew there is this distinguishing detail: John, according to Matthew, tries to get out of baptizing Jesus.  John says to Jesus, "I ought to be baptized by you, and yet you come to me." 

Like when I look out into this congregation and see some of you, and know your faithfulness in the face of tribula­tion, I say, "You should be up here telling the story, not me."  Only Matthew mentions this interesting reversal.

In Mark, oh, it's subtle here, but Mark, briefest of the gospels, has a slight variation in his telling of Jesus' baptism. It has to do with Mark's description of the heavens opening and the Spirit descending like a dove. You probably haven't noticed. I probably should leave it alone, but I've got to prea­ch on something this Baptism of the Lord Epiphany Sunday.

In Matthew and Luke it reads, "The heavens were opened..­."  But in Mark it says, "He (Jesus) saw the heavens open..."  Pretty subtle, eh?  Let me explain.

In Matthew and in Luke this seminal event, this epiphany, the baptism of Jesus, is a public event.  "The heavens opened," meaning presumably everybody standing there saw it.  You couldn't miss it.  Even the sinners would have noticed. Though there is no reference they did.

But according to Mark, only Jesus saw it. "He (Jesus) saw the heavens open." "He saw," Jesus alone.  Not "the heavens opened," a general scene, where everybody saw it.  How could you miss it? But only Jesus saw the heavens open.

So, you see, in Mark the baptism is a personal experience, a private epiphany, a subjective spiritual moment. Nobody else noticed.

It reads, "And just as he (Jesus) was coming out of the water, he saw the heavens open."    This is what it says in Mark.

Which is even more surprising when you notice in Mark the whole nation is at the River Jordan for baptism.  This is no small scene, no intimate occasion.  Mark says, "the whole country of Judea, and all the people of Jerusalem," in other words, all the country folk and all the city folk, which I take to mean just about everybody,  were gathered at the river, to confess their sins and be baptized by John.  Mark draws a picture big here. 

Of course, their being at the Jordan River has added significance. The Jordan was no ordinary river to the Hebrew people.  It was across the Jordan twelve hundred years before they entered the Promised Land.

The Jordan is to the Jews what Plymouth Rock is to us Pilgrims.  It's the starting place.  It's where it all begins. So it's as if the tape is being rewound. The whole nation is going back to where it began.  All are being baptized, which means all are being renewed, refreshed, rededicated, and made ready. They are waiting for God to lead them once again into the Promised Land. 

So the baptism scene is a new beginning.  It all started at the Jordan River.  Here they are again.  Getting ready to start over. The whole nation is there, lined up.  John the Baptist is there, dunking them one at a time.  Finally, he is finished, everybody cleaned up and ready for the Messiah.

Then Mark writes, "In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.  And just as he (Jesus) was coming out of the water, he saw the heavens open up, and the Spirit descend upon him like a dove, and a voice from heaven saying, ?You are my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.'"

That's it.  Only Jesus saw it.  Only Jesus heard it.  And then the next verse, "At once the Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness."  It's over.  He's gone.  Which is a sermon for another day.

I'm trying to tell you, the whole nation was ready and waiting.  But they see nothing.  Perhaps they saw the baptism itself.  Perhaps they saw Jesus come up out of the water, wipe his brow, pull the hair back from his eyes, and head off into the deser­t.  But that's all they I saw. 

And if he's the Messiah, he's headed the wrong way.   He's supposed to lead them back into the Promised Land.  He's going east.  The Promised Land is west.  No wonder nobody followed him.  The children of Israel must have gone home disap­pointed.

Again, the baptism of Jesus in Mark was a personal experience, a private epiphany, a subjective spiritual moment.  This is a recurrent theme in the Gospel of Mark.  It is called the "Messianic secret," as those of you know who spent this past fall studying Mark with me.  In Mark, most don't get it, including the disciples. It's a secret. Though it is interesting who does get it in Mark, but that is a sermon for another day. Relax; we are going to get you out on time. The point is, the experience of God is usually not a loud, public, cloud-busting event.  No, God's epiphanies are more likely to be subtle tugs, quiet happenings, small stirrings, personal moments.  More "a still, small voice," than a Super Bowl.  There may be no media coverage, no public applause, no ground swell of confirmation. There wasn't when Jesus was baptized.   Do we think we should get more than Jesus got?

So when God comes to us, God will probably come the same way God came to Jesu­s.  Without public approval or notice, but more mysteriously, wondrously and personally.  Like Christmas.

Frederick Buechner, the deep thinker and theologian, when asked in an interview what moved him to write his autobiography, answered that when he reach­ed fifty years old, he took acco­unt of his life and came to the conclusion that the place where God speaks, if God speaks anywhere, is in what happens to us.  So he began to write it down.

Which he advises us to do.  The way he puts it is, "listen to your life."  Which is what he was doing as he wrote his autobiogra­phy.  He was "listening to his life," which took two volumes before he was through.

This is the advice Mark is giving us in his "messianic secret." "Listen to your life," for God acts personally, quietly, softly, in the sense that nobody else knows about it, nobody else necessarily sees what you see, nobody else necessarily hears what you hear, well, until they see it revealed in your life, acted out in your life, the way you live it.

The point is: don't discount your personal experiences.   Listen to them.  Write them down, Buechner advises, for so much of life, he says, goes unnoticed, and some of what goes unnoticed is the presence of God in our lives.

Keep a spiritual journal, is his advice, which might be a good new year's resolution, to keep a spiritual journal as a way of magnifying God's subtl­e epiphanies, so in times of  tribulation, when our memories tend to fail us, we might remember God's presence.

This is why the Hebrew people wrote the Old Testament.  So they might remember God in their history.  This is why the gospel authors wrote their stories of Jesus.  So we might remember who Jesus is.  This is what religion is about, and worship.  Gathering together to remind us God is, and we are, and God is with us, like a dove at our baptism.

Clare Booth Luce, the noted magazine editor, playwright and journalist of the last century, writes about her spiritual experience, "I find it difficult to explain what did happen.   I expect that the easiest thing is to say that suddenly some­thing was.  My whole soul was cleft clean by it, as a silk veil split by a shining sword.  And I knew I did not know now what I knew.  I remember I didn't know even then, that is I didn't know with any ?faculty.'  But whatever it was, I knew it was something that made enormous sense.  And then joy abounded in all of me, or rather I abounded in joy."

Clare Booth Luce, a gifted, articulate writer, trying with difficulty to put into words her epiphany.  It was a fleeting reality, a hint perhaps, something subtle, "Suddenly something was...I knew, though I didn't know.. on­ly it made enormous sense.  And then joy..­."

Later she attempts to describe her joy, in a wonderful image.  She says she felt "as if she were a flake of dust dancing in a shaft of sunlight."  This is how she describes her moment of epiphany when God blessed her, or we might say baptized he­r.

Do you know how Mark describes this personal experience when it happened to Jesus? Mark writes at the beginning of his  gospel, "It was as if Jesus saw the heavens open up and the Spirit descend upon him like a dove, and a voice from heaven saying, ?You are my Son, the Beloved,  with whom I am well pleased.'"

Mark shares this "good news" of Jesus' baptism right at the beginning of his Gospel.  He does not really intend it to be a secret.  Mark wants you to know, so you might believe, with awe and wonder, with mystery and might, that God baptizes you, too, through the Spirit of Christ.   Which is a good thing to remember at the top of a new year. We even hand out baptismal doves to remind you, that God blesses each one of us, as well.  It will happen in the same way, only different.  For God's epiphanies are personal.  Others may not even notice.  Which is O.K.  So long as you "listen to your life" and live responsively to the Spirit within you.

So let your "flake of dust dance in the shaft of sunlight".

Happy New Year