What We're Doing When We're Doing What We're Doing - Ryan Pryor
Scripture:
Matthew 3:13-17 (NRSV)
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" 15 But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness." Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."
Notes and Quotes
“Jesus submits to John the Baptist. Your life’s purpose is given to you. It’s the task within the task. You undergo it. You submit to it. You allow it. You surrender to it. You fall into it. You don’t really steer your ship in that direction. It very often comes in a moment of humiliation, failure, and falling apart.”
- Richard Rohr
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.”
- Henry David Thoreau
Baptism is the moment you get it. It is the first thing after epiphany. But this often comes only when we’re ready to submit ourselves to others rather than the building of our own empires and ego, but give ourselves to the experience of letting go. Jesus demonstrates that letting go leads to life’s deeper purpose and our task within the task. Not going through the motions, but embracing a deeper service and awareness of what we’re doing when we’re doing what we're doing. Baptism, of course, isn’t about the water or mechanics, but relenting to the experience of God’s deep love. And in our receiving the acceptance we are accepted, what we do when we’re doing what we’re doing is baptizing the world into the same unyielding love.
