Parallel Universe and the Portal of God
One of the joys of the past thirty years has been the advances in film technology and special effects in movies that have allowed us to imagine possibilities in the universe beyond our knowledge at the present time. There is, perhaps, nothing that captures our imagination more than the thought of intelligent life in other places… on other worlds… in other galaxies… or even in parallel universes. Television shows and movies that have tried to present new concepts to us include Startrek… Stargate… and the Star Wars series of six movies. How our adrenalin begins to pump each time we heard the words: “Space, the final frontier…” or see the words scrolling by: “A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away…”
One of the concepts presented in all of these adventures was the existence of a parallel universe… or several parallel universes… that could only be accessed through special portals that were only open for a limited time. If a person stepped through one of these portals into a parallel universe, there was a significant question as to whether that person would ever be able to return to his or her own universe… or whether a warp in the space-time continuum would cause them to emerge in another time… or another place. These portals were so unstable and unpredictable that anything could happen… to people… to spaceships… or even to entire worlds that might pass through them.
It is interesting that, while stories of the birth of Jesus only appear in two of the gospels… Matthew and Luke… the story of Jesus’ baptism appears in all four gospels and in the Acts of the Apostles and the epistle to the church in Rome. This event that marks the beginning of Jesus’ ministry on earth was much more important to the early church than his humble, but also eventful birth. This event took place in the wilderness by the River Jordan and had fewer witnesses to the involvement of the Divine, but it was noted by all those who commented on Jesus’ early life and ministry. It was as if all of them said, “The real story begins here.” And no one tells it as succinctly… or with such distinction… as Mark. He alone brings an element of violence to the narrative that makes what God is doing clear to the rest of us.
To fully understand it, we must go back to Genesis. “In the beginning, God…” In the beginning, there was only God… God and the void… the void from which God created all that is… everything we know… and much that we have not yet discovered… and may never know. In these stories… for, as our youth know, there are two stories of creation in the book of Genesis… God is an active and vibrant player… not a distant clockmaker God. It is God who positions the stars… the sun… the moon. It is God who takes ordinary dust… clay… and makes a human being. It is God who creates the infinite variety of life… plant and animal… and brings each creature to the human being that God created to be named. It is God who walks in the Garden of Eden in the cool of the evening with his creature. Each act that is described is a wonderful example of a God who longs for an intimate relationship with this creature… who genuinely desires… and has… a true partnership, even though it is a partnership of unequal partners.
What happens? Evil enters the world and, perhaps, no one explains the result better than C.S. Lewis in his book, “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” Eternal winter descends upon this lush green paradise… and Aslan, the benevolent lion… the king of the jungle… disappears. Life is hard… punitive… and there is no laughter. She-Who-Is-To-Be-Obeyed rules with an iron fist… killing all who oppose her or turning them into stone… statuary that looks real, but is only an illusion… an approximation… of life. Separated from his creatures because they have turned away from him… alienated by sin… God becomes a more distant… but still ever-present reality… longing for the intimacy and relationship that existed in the beginning. Just as the door to the wardrobe closes and Narnia is forgotten in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” so the intimacy that humankind once had with its Creator also disappears behind the crush of everyday life and the carelessness of God’s creatures. Winter envelopes our hearts… minds… and souls… and we become as one who is dead… spiritually comatose.
Into this thoughtless and uncaring world comes God’s gift… slipping into this world in the night through an unknown portal between the universe of the holy and this world... a portal large enough to allow us a glimpse of a gigantic star and a whole choir of angels for a blink of eternity. Then, the portal closes again. For thirty years… an entire generation… there is no activity… no event that indicates that there is anyone… anything… out there in that “final frontier”… that distant universe… that mysterious void. Then, Jesus reappears in history… this time to be baptized by the one who claimed he was not worthy to be his servant.
But it is not the baptism, per se, that is the main event. (Puase) The main event is the destruction of the barrier between God and his creatures… an event initiated by a God who has waited for eons for his people to return. Enough with the prophets and their countless messages! Enough with the miracles of food and water in the dessert… pillars of fire… burning bushes… the winning of wars… and the anointing of shepherd kings! Enough even with little babies and worshipping shepherds and wisemen! This time, God tears the heavens apart and descends to earth.
Can you not see? Do you not get it? This one… the one who comes out of the water… the one upon whom the Spirit descends… the one who dies and rises again… this is God… and the permanent portal of God… the way back to the Garden… the way to eternal life… the way to paradise. This is the Way… the Truth… and the Life! The other portals were unknown… unseen… temporary. But, in this one, God has torn a hole in the barrier between the human and the Divine… the Holy and the profane. The Greek word is schizomai, which means to split… to tear… to divide. It is not the same word that Matthew and Luke use. That word is anoigo, which simply means to open. No, in Mark, God has torn a hole in the barrier so that the barrier is forever different… forever broken… forever damaged… and the opening between the two universes is permanent. Mark uses the same verb when he talks about the curtain in the Temple being torn at the death of Jesus. The curtain in the Temple always separated the inner sanctum… the “Holy of Holies”… the part of the Temple that only the high priest could enter… from the part of the Temple that ordinary men could enter. The “Holy of Holies” is where God resided… where God was present. But God’s holiness was such that it could not tolerate the sinfulness of humanity… so no one was allowed into the “Holy of Holies” except the one who served as the intercessor... and that was the High Priest. But, with the coming of Jesus, God has torn that barrier apart… destroyed it completely. Jesus is the intercessor, but Jesus is also God. In this one who came to earth, we have our Savior… our Redeemer… our Sustainer… and our God. God is with us… Emmanuel. The portal is always present… always open… always there for us. And, through it, God has come to us.
In this story of Jesus’ baptism, the Spirit of God descends upon him as a dove. With the tearing of the barrier and the presence of the Spirit, God’s Spirit is loosed into the world… no longer confined in another parallel universe… it is here… with us. By tearing the heavens apart and coming down, God enters into the world he created… a world that is now alien territory because of the presence of sin. Tired of calling to us… tired of waiting for us to turn to him, God has come to us. In the waters of our own baptism, he claims us as his own.
What does this mean to us? It means that life will not be the same. The change that this event brought is a permanent change in the fabric of life… the march of history. Can we be the same if God has so radically changed the way in which we relate to him? The God of the Old Testament is a God of justice… of the Law. Nothing was more important that the Torah… the five books that Moses wrote which outlined God’s holiness and man’s prescribed response to that holiness. In the New Testament, God tears the old barriers apart and comes to be with us… to live among us… to share our pain and our sorrow… our joy and our world. Jesus establishes a new covenant, sealed by the waters of baptism… washing away the stain of our sin and raising us to new life in him. Through baptism, we all have access to the portal… access to the universe of the holy… the universe of the Divine… that has always been there, but has always been separate from us. In this act, God makes a place at the Table for us and no one can ever take it away. God’s covenant with humankind is sealed… first in the act of Jesus’ baptism and then in our own baptism. In that action, we are adopted into the family of God and we are called God’s beloved… even as Jesus was called God’s Beloved in our text today. God’s grace is bestowed on us… not because we are worthy, but because God desires it to be so. And even death cannot change this. Death will not… cannot… close the portal again. We belong to God... and nothing will ever… nothing can ever… be the same.
In the turbulent times of Martin Luther’s life, he never said, “I am a Christian.” Instead, he said, “I am baptized.” In saying that, he was confessing the reality of God in the world and in his life. He knew that God had come to him… stepping through the barrier to touch his life… and that, while there were mysteries that he would never understand… and, I believe, mysteries beyond the ability of film technology or special effects to demonstrate… he had a peace in knowing that he had been claimed by God and given a gift that no one could ever take away from him. What you desire, God also desires… an intimate relationship. God has torn the heavens apart to come to you. God’s gift is here. The portal is open. Rise from the water. It is a new year… a new life. Go forth and be God’s forever. Amen.
Mark 1:4-11