Imagination
Pastor David Hansen
Baptism of Our Lord (January 7), 2007
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
Grace & Peace to you in the Name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.
Today is the Baptism of our Lord, the day on which we remember Jesus’ baptism by John in the waters of the River Jordan.
I’ve always found this Sunday to be a little jarring. We have been celebrating Christmas for the last two weeks, and all of a sudden we come to Jesus Baptism – an event that takes place 30 years after the scene in the stable in Bethany.
It certainly takes some adjustment. After all of the decorations, all of the celebrations, and all of the presents, we are now back to life as normal. The young people are back in school, the rest of us are back at work, the decorations are coming down – there is no doubt about it, Christmas is over, and its time to return to our ordinary lives.
I don’t know about you, but I’m not quite ready.
I’ve never been a person who is ready to be done with Christmas. I want more celebrations. More big meals and family gatherings. More presents under the tree and decorations on the houses. After all – ordinary life is so … well … ordinary.
Yet here we are, standing on the banks of the River Jordan, the baptism of Jesus reminding us that it is time to get back to our ordinary lives.
The thing is, we know that exciting things are going to happen at Christmas. We know that we will be surprised, amazed, and astonished by the wonderful and unexpected things that happen during the holiday season.
More than that, we know that during Christmas we will find a connection to God, we know that we will be moved by the celebrations of the birth of the Christ-child. The fact is, we have very high expectations for the season of Christmas, and we often have very low expectations for the rest of the year – for our ordinary lives.
In that way, we aren’t so different from those people who were standing on the bank of the River Jordan all those years ago. They expected a Messiah … and they expected him to be like John the Baptist. They expected the Messiah to teach them how to live a good life and to tell them what they were doing wrong.
But John tells them that their expectations were too low. When the people ask if John is the Messiah, he tells them that they aren’t even close. They hadn’t imagined a Messiah who raised the dead and healed the blind, a Messiah who would himself die and rise again.
I remember watching the 1986 NCAA basketball tournament. The team from the University of Arkansas – virtual unknowns – came out of nowhere to beat the number one seeded team from the University of Notre Dame. After the game, there was an interview with the Arkansas coach, with everyone in the audience trying to figure out how his team of nobodies beat out the great Notre Dame.
When asked to explain his teams unexpected success, Coach Newell said simply: “In this life, your only limit is your imagination.”
Those gathered around John, expecting him to be the Messiah, hadn’t imagined a Messiah who raised the dead and healed the blind, and they certainly hadn’t imagined a Messiah who would go to the cross and be raised again.
As a Messiah, Jesus was beyond everyone’s expectations – he was more than they had ever imagined.
They expected someone to tell them how they were living wrong. Instead, Jesus showed them how to live right. They expected someone to heal the sick. Jesus did that, but he also raised the dead. They expected someone who would be god-like. Instead, Jesus was God.
And because they didn’t expect a Messiah like Jesus, many of them did not recognize Jesus as the Messiah.
Because that’s how these things work. Again and again in life, we get what we expect. They didn’t believe the stories about what Jesus said and did, because they couldn’t imagine a Messiah like that. They had God right there in front of them, and many of them couldn’t see it – because they expected too little from a Messiah, and too little of God.
Unlike those people, we know about Jesus: how he lived, what he taught, his miracles, and his death and resurrection. We grew up on the stories of Jesus’ life and teachings – we can’t claim that our expectations are too low. We know what a Messiah looks like.
And yet, we still have very small expectations for how that Messiah will act in our lives. Again and again, we shut Christ out of our lives because we do not expect him there, because we cannot imagine him there.
We expect to encounter Christ in the season of Christmas. We expect Christ on Sunday morning … well … sometimes we expect Christ on Sunday morning.
The rest of the time, we don’t really expect Christ at all. We can’t imagine how Christ could have an impact on our daily lives. And that’s a pity, because we are likely to get what we expect.
By not expecting Christ anywhere but Sunday morning, we shut God out of so many aspects of our lives. By being unable to imagine a God who is involved in our daily lives, we make God too small.
You see, Christ is not just a messiah for Christmas and Easter, and our God is not just a God for Sunday morning.
Start imagining for a moment:
What your life could be like with Christ involved everyday,
What this congregation could become if lit on fire by the fire of Christ.
You know! You know what Christ can do!
We know how he raised the little girl and Lazarus from the dead. We know how he healed the sick and blind. Most importantly, we know how he conquered sin and death through the cross.
Knowing that … Imagine what he could do in your life.
Not the little things … not the things that only have to do with Sunday morning… Imagine the big things.
Yes, Christmas is over, and its time to get back to our ordinary lives. But during our ordinary lives are exactly when we should expect Christ to change our lives.
As we enter into this new year, I want you to imagine what Christ can do in your life. Imagine the ways your life can be blessed, imagine experiencing God like we do at Christmas, but all year long.
I don’t know what the big things are in your life … but I know that you can imagine them. But I can imagine the big things for this congregation.
The work of Christ can set the world on fire, starting from this congregation …
if we can only imagine it.
