Episcopal Church of the
Incarnation
The First Sunday after the Epiphany (B)
Genesis
1.1-5 Psalm 29
Acts 19.1-7 Mark 1.4-11
Genesis
1.1-5
1) The description of the first day of creation.
a) The Genesis account is an “etiologic myth”. This does not mean that it is not true; rather, that it is “myth” in the sense of a story which tries to explain something, and “etiologic” in the sense that it seeks to explain origins.
b) The Genesis account of creation is not incompatible with a scientific understanding of creation and evolution.
i) A ‘day” in the Genesis account is a period of time which need not be understood to be a twenty-four hour period as now measured on earth!
2) Each time God creates, He looks upon His creation and sees that it is “good”.
a) The worldview of the Bible is that all creation is good. This is distinct from the Gnostic or dualist view that matter is evil and “spirit” is good.
3) Our translation (NRSV) describes that “a wind from God swept over the face of the waters” (v. 2).
a) This is a most unhelpful translation (and doubly troubling when all the other lessons for this day refer to the Spirit).
i) The word used is rûach, Hebrew for wind, breath or spirit.
ii) The word in Hebrew takes a conjunction that implies the definite article (“the” rather than the indefinite “a”).
(1) For this reason, scholars have traditionally translated the word as “the spirit”.
(a) The rendering thus becomes “the Spirit of God swept over the face of the waters” (“of” and “from” are interchangeable prepositions in Hebrew).
b) The pronoun construction of this phrase takes the feminine form.
i) Some, therefore, interpret the reference as implying a feminine gender of the Holy Spirit.
(1) Conflating gender and God is most unhelpful (recognizing Jesus to have been a man and to have taught us to refer to God as Father), but the use of the feminine form here is salutary: It allows us to think of God not just in “male” terms. It allows us to recognize the mothering aspects of God as creator.
4) The state before creation is described as chaos: formless and darkness.
a) However, when God creates light, he does not destroy the darkness, but relegates it to the night as a part of the order of creation deemed “good”.
b) Chaos itself is subject to redemption, just as we are subject to redemption in baptism.
Psalm
29
1) A hymn of praise to God, thought to have originated from an earlier hymn of praise to the Canaanite god Baal.
a) As in other psalms (e.g., Pss. 8.6; 58.2; 82.1, 6), “gods” are referred to. This seems to include some concept of a heavenly council, and it is made clear that there is one God, the Lord, to whom a powers in heaven are subservient.
i) These “gods” are to “ascribe to the Lord glory and strength,” i.e., to acknowledge His supremacy.
b) The term here translated as “gods” is, literally, “sons of El,” i.e., derivative creatures of the one God.
2) The phenomena described relating to God’s appearance are proper to Canaanite myth of a storm god.
a) “The voice of the Lord” is repeated seven times, in a rhythm suggesting peals of thunder, reiterating the supremacy and majesty of God over all creation.
Acts
19.1-7
1)
This lesson comes from the section in Acts
(18.24-19.40) which describe the mission in
a)
The course of the narrative implies that Apollos was
active in mission in
2) The activity of Apollos makes sense of this episode, which is otherwise incomprehensible as describing disciples of John the Baptist who do not appear to know Jesus, despite John’s insistence that he (John) was not the messiah.
a) Luke is therefore describing an “immature” Christianity (as found in Apollos), in which the believer has not yet experienced the Holy Spirit.
b)
John the Baptist may have been an Essene associated with
Qumran (the community that kept the
i) This sect practiced baptism of repentance.
ii)
The Essenes had withdrawn from the world, but it is
possible that those associated with them may have had “disciples” in Asia Minor
(in
3) The disciples whom Paul encountered were, therefore, one who had experienced the baptism of repentance, but had not experienced the baptism of Jesus, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
a) This episode reminds us that in baptism we receive the Spirit.
b) Just as John’s followers stood ready to receive Jesus, there are many in the world around us today who are ready to receive Jesus, who perceive that God but have yet to receive His Good News.
Mark
1.4-11
1) The accounts of Jesus’ baptism differ in subtle details. Important details include:
a) Matthew and Mark refer to Jesus coming to John to be baptized. Luke only refers to baptisms taking place, and Jesus being baptized along with the people present. John’s reference is less clear; he refers to the baptism as an accomplished fact.
i) Jesus submits to baptism to show His solidarity with John's proclamation of God’s plan of salvation.
b) Each evangelist refers to the descent of the Spirit “as a dove”:
i) Mark uses, originally, a Hebrew simile: “dovelike descent”
(1) This is followed by Matthew.
(2) Luke adds “in bodily form like a dove”. This phrase is found only in Luke, and is a Hellenism meaning “really”.
(3) John’s reference is more metaphorical.
c) In Mark and Luke, the voice of the Father (“You are my Son ...”) is heard by Jesus, not by the crowd.
d) In Matthew, the crowd hears the Father say “This is my beloved Son ...”
e) In John, only John hears the Father name Jesus as His Son. John testifies to this to the crowd.
2) “[T]he heaven was opened.” This is a prophetic and eschatological symbol indicating divine revelation being made (cf. Ezek. 1.1; Isa. 64.1).
3) “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
a) This pronouncement combines Ps. 2.7 and Isa. 42.1.
i) Jesus is called to assume the power which was His since His conception.