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| 6 January 2021 Tyler Merbler CC 2021 Storming of the Capitol building. |
On Wednesday, my Sailors had the tv in our waiting room tuned into C-Span.
As I finished up a counseling session, it was eerily quiet in the building where I work.
It is usually pretty lively and busy, but something was off.
Everything looked normal, until I realized that the picture of the Senator speaking had a note at the bottom of the screen which read “recorded earlier.”
What I came to discover was that some type of forceful entry had occurred at the capital building.
I didn’t even realize how bad it had gotten, until the Chaplain I work with, and I both turned on the tv’s in our offices
-Something we rarely have the time or desire to do at work-
Between the three televisions, we were all tuned into a different news networks,
Looking onward in horror and shock.
I became enraged, and one Sailor asked aloud how many of those protesting even knew how to wear the flack jackets and equipment they had clumsily draped over themselves.
“They’re all a bunch of posers” came the reply of another.
As the eerie quiet seemed to seep into the corners of the entire base, we too quietly left the building.
It was odd how quiet my corner of our nation was in that moment, as I called an old friend I had served with as a Marine.
He was standing by at the capital, preparing to repel the assault that had driven into the halls, and the chambers of our government.
My friend has worn the cloth of this nation all his life, and as I was peacefully driving home, begging him to be safe and telling him how dearly I loved him, I felt as fake as those on the steps of the capital; helplessly and uselessly doing nothing.
As helpless as I felt, when I got home, I watched in horror, with clenched fists, shouting at the television that those who were sacking the seat of our government had no right to do such a thing, because they have no skin in the game.
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| Domenico Ghirlando, Baptism of Christ 1486-1490 PD |
Today is the Baptism of our Lord, even in the midst of all that is going on, ESPECIALLY in the midst of all that is going on.
Today is the day that we not only recognize and celebrate the baptism of our Lord; Christ Jesus,
But it is also the day that we hear Mark’s account of the incarnation.
No baby, cattle, shepherds, or creche in this scene.
It is only a muddy filthy little creek.
I’ve been there, and I will tell you, it is not only about the color of chocolate milk, but it’s just about as thick as chocolate milk too.
Mark’s gospel begins with the baptism, which many refer to as the “baptismal incarnation.”
It has led some to claim that Christ truly becomes the embodiment of the Divine, not in the nativity scene, but in those waters and in that moment.
That is a debate best left for another day, but today there is one thing for certain; in that moment, God -in and through Christ Jesus- shows that God indeed has skin in the game.
We are baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus, but one of the most asked questions in the church is why is it so necessary for Jesus to be baptized?
This again is another question, to which many debates and answers are offered up, but I think the answer to that question can be found in that incredibly disgusting water.
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| Photo by author; Jordan River 2014 |
During my trip to the Jordan River on the celebration of the Baptism of our Lord, the tour bus parked on the Israeli side of the river as I guzzled down a Dasani bottle of water.
I chugged it down like a frat boy with a beer at a Friday night party, as we exited the bus.
When we got to the river, I was filling up the bottle with Jordan river water as many other seminarians looked on and laughed a little bit.
We had all grown exhausted of the trinkets and souvenirs pushed on us at each location we visited.
Dirt, rocks, pottery shards, necklaces, trinkets of all sorts, are sold all over the place.
Each of those sacred sites are like a religious Disneyland, so everyone becomes a little jaded and cynical about what others seem to find worth taking home.
So, it was no surprise that my retrieval of that disgusting water seemed silly to some.
After spending time at the Jordan, we got back on board the bus, and one of the friends I had made asked directly “Are you really going to take that home with you? It’s kind of silly isn’t it?”
“Maybe…” I told him, “but it’s kind of a cool reminder that Christ was baptized in a river so full of filth of every kind, to include our own sin.”
You see? We are baptized into something holy, while Christ is baptized into something vile.
The Christ is baptized into our filth, our sin, our shame.
In fact it is such a vulgar and filthy commitment, that the very heavens and universe itself are driven apart, into a schism, divided by the injection of something fully holy, into something fully and completely vulgar.
Jesus Christ shows us that yes, truly, God has some skin in the game here.
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| The Baptism of Christ, Master of the St. Bartholomew Altar 1500 PD |
I’m still not okay with what happened this week.
And each time I watch the videos and pictures from what transpired, I become angered and I find myself accusing others of having no skin in the game.
But I can’t control what they invest of themselves, into this nation, or into this mission we are called to share in by God, to love others as Christ loved us.
I can’t demand that they invest more into what we hold sacred; the hallowed halls of our institutions, the history of this nation, the rule of law and constitution that serve as the framework and guiding light for how we live and are held accountable.
I can, however, be more diligent in ensuring that I hold myself to those standards.
I can display my pride for my nation and my allegiance to it, by honoring the colors of my nation in the face of such actions, or carrying that constitution in the pocket of my uniform, ensuring I am aware everyday, to that with which I pledged and continue to pledge my loyalty to daily.
I can look for opportunities to serve, not only my nation but also my community, investing of myself in those places most uncomfortable and unclean.
Likewise, I should most certainly and most importantly do the same with my baptism, remembering daily the promise made to me when I wash my face, just as Luther prescribed.
But also remembering it is not just a reminder of the skin God put into the game, but the skin God calls me to put into the game as well.
I need to live out my baptism daily, which is as much, and so much more of a challenge than honoring my nation,
Because one day, this nation will fall, and this past Wednesday we were reminded of how vulnerable we are to such a thing.
I do not celebrate that fact, nor do I ever want that to be a sight my eyes or the eyes of my children ever behold.
But when that day comes, God will still have skin in the game,
Just as God always has;
When Adam desecrated the sanctity of the garden,
When Cane desecrated the sanctity of human life,
When the sanctity of the very seat of God -the Temple- was sacked and destroyed.
Throughout God’s story and human history, things that we hold sacred and holy have been desecrated,
It doesn’t make it right, and it most certainly doesn’t make it acceptable,
But we need to do more than ask ourselves what others are doing about it,
And we need to ensure, that whatever we do about it, it is through the lens of the highest allegiance we hold in our Christian lives together;
The promise God makes, and calls us to in our baptisms,
A banner colored into our own skin, with the dye of Christ’s blood +.
I pray we all can still see something sacred and beautiful in this nation, as we clean up the mess that has been made and sweep up the carnage from those halls that were sacked,
but we must never see that cross through the lens of any flag, that cross is meant to be the lens that colors all other things we love,
Because God was the One who first taught us how to love, loving each and every one of us, above the colors of any nation.
Amen
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| Image of the stained glass window, showing George Washington at prayer, located in the Capitol Prayer Room US Government PD |
These views are mine, and do not represent the DoD, DoN, or Chaplain Corps.
