God is on the Loose!
a sermon based on Mark 1:4-11
by Rev. Rick Thompson

Imagine you lived in a small village, somewhere in Europe, during World War II. In your village, the report has been circulating for days, “The enemy army is advancing, and will be here by the end of the week.”

The news is terrifying. Your village is defenseless. Supply roads and fortifications have already been bombed to a shambles. There is little food and water. There are few weapons in your village, and no one trained to use them. All the able-bodied men in the village are already off fighting the war. The village has no hope it will be able to resist the enemy.

The powerful enemy is on the march, about to invade, and the people are defenseless and terrified.

Centuries ago, John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, at the Jordan River, proclaiming that a power One was coming. In plain language, the Lord God was coming!

“The Lord is coming!” John thunders. “God is coming, and we are defenseless. God is coming to judge us, and there is nothing we can do! God is coming, and we had better repent, and be baptized, and get ready to watch raw, sheer power in action!”

“God is coming!” John roared, “and all you can do is hope God will honor your repentance and your baptism.”

That brought people flocking to the wilderness, to see and hear John. Terrified, and hopeful that they will escape God’s wrath, many are baptized.

Among them is Jesus of Nazareth.

Now, John knows something that no one else—except Jesus—knows. John knows the real identity of Jesus. John knows that Jesus is the One, the powerful One, whose coming he has been announcing. John knows that he ought to raise his arms in surrender and, defenseless, throw himself at the mercy of Jesus.

But then something surprising happens. Jesus approaches John the Baptist, and asks John to baptize Jesus. Trembling, John honors the unexpected request.

Jesus is baptized, and the power of God is let loose!

Jesus sees the Holy Spirit, dove-like, descending upon him from heaven. And he hears a heavenly voice, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased!”

Just as John had promised, the Powerful One has come!

In the person of Jesus, God has come to earth, to dwell among people. As the One who uniquely bears divinity in his flesh, Jesus is introduced to us as “Son of God”. He will clearly show us God. He embodies God’s awesome power.

It’s as if God has invaded the earth.

In his gospel, Mark describes the coming of Jesus in unique and violent language. Jesus “saw the heavens torn apart”, we read. A huge hole has been ripped in the invisible barrier dividing heaven and earth, and God cannot be held back. There is no defense against the coming of God! God has burst into this world! God is on the loose! Jesus is God on the loose!

Do you remember the first scripture reading just six weeks ago, on the First Sunday in Advent? We read from Isaiah. We prayed with the ancient people of God their prayer: “O God, tear open the heavens and come down!”

And that’s what God has finally done. In sending Jesus, in marking Jesus, through baptism, for his unique mission, God has torn apart the heavens. God has come to be among us!

What a wonderful thing God has done!

Or is it?

When God tears apart the heavens, when God pours all the power God has into the life of Jesus, doesn’t that leave us a little bit like that European village? Aren’t we left defenseless, vulnerable, waiting for an invasion we have no power to stop?

After all, if we’re honest, God’s power is frightening to us! God, at least at first glance, seems to be the enemy. If GOD is on the loose, WE could be in deep, deep trouble!

So, unless we happen to want our whole world turned upside-down, knowing that God is on the loose may not be such a good thing at all!

Are we at all sure we’d like having God on the loose? Don’t we like our world neat and tidy and predictable? Honestly, wouldn’t we prefer to keep God in a box, on the other side of the vault dividing heaven and earth, and only let God out when we think it’s convenient? We don’t want God to get too close, too often, do we! We don’t want God to interrupt our lives, to turn our world upside-down, do we! We want God to have a little bit of power, especially when it’s to our advantage, but most of the time to just leave us alone.

God on the loose with absolute power?—well, that’s absolutely frightening!

Because a God like that could change things radically and drastically—even you and me!

That’s what happened when God came to earth, fully embodied, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. The Baptism of Jesus makes it clear that God is powerful, and on the loose! The heavens have been ripped open, and God comes, and that can make humanity uncomfortable.

That’s certainly what happened while Jesus walked the dusty paths and roads of Palestine. He made people uncomfortable!

God meets resistance. Even in our small, virtually defenseless, World War II village, someone would be likely to pick up a rifle and start shooting at an invading solder, as fruitless as that effort would be!

And God—the all-powerful God—is going to meet much more resistance than that.

God is going to meet so much resistance that SOMEONE will have to die!

And this is where the story gets surprising: the one who dies is NOT the one who resists God’s power and rule; it’s not you and it’s not me—IT’S GOD’S OWN BELOVED SON!

And Mark, in describing the death of Jesus, reminds us once more that God is on the loose. Even on a cross, God can’t be nailed down or boxed up! At that dark hour, the hour of Jesus’ death, Mark reports that the curtain in the holiest place in the Temple in Jerusalem is torn in two. Mark uses the same Greek word twice—to describe the ripping open of the heavens when Jesus was baptized, and to describe what happens to the curtain in the Temple at the time of his death. At the beginning and again at the end of the earthly story of Jesus, Mark wants us to know that, in Christ, God is on the loose! Access to God is free and unrestricted, open to all. This God may be powerful, threatening, and dangerous, but this God is good—good enough to die, undeservedly, the death we ought to die. Good enough to die the horrible, painful death that is meant for sinners like you and me!

That’s the God who’s on the loose in Jesus—terribly powerful, and eternally good!

We know that the baptism of this One put him on a collision course with danger and death—but also on a course that led to abundant and eternal life!

And this is the one into whom we are baptized. And do you know what I think that means?

If Baptism was good—but also dangerous—for Jesus, then Baptism must be good—but also dangerous—for us!

It has been dangerous for the countless martyrs whose blood poured out planted the seeds of the Church. It has been dangerous for the likes of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer in our century. And if it has been dangerous for them, it just could be dangerous for us—because God claim on us and God’s power at work in us can make the world nervous. Dangerous because God will change us, God’s baptized children! Dangerous—but good!—that’s the reality of our Baptism!

Baptism is dangerous, because it changes us. Our lives will be different, because we have been joined to Jesus Christ.

Yes, Baptism is dangerous.

But, finally, Baptism is good! God, because Jesus has claimed us as God’s own. Jesus has claimed us in Baptism—and now, he’s on the loose again—on the loose in this world—in your life and in mine!

God is on the loose, and the world had better be ready.

Yes, the world had better get ready for an outpouring of God’s love, and God’s power, and God’s forgiveness, and the life God gives in Christ—all because God claims and God empowers the likes of you and me!

And that is good. That’s good indeed!

Amen.