We’re going to play a quick game. Close your eyes and listen. {Rip fabric, wrapping paper}. What did you hear?
The sound of fabric ripping might bring with it feelings of embarrassment and exposure - if only it were just on TV that pants ripped in such a garish, noticeable way! I hope none of you have ever had the experience of bending in just the wrong way and hearing your pants rip right along the seam (or, if you have, that you were home alone!). The sound of paper being torn apart might transport you back just a few weeks to Christmas morning, where the sound of tearing wrapping paper may have been accompanied by oohs and ahhs and squeals of joy.
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| Photo by Eli Pluma on Unsplash |
Of course, other things can be torn apart, too. Relationships can be torn apart by misunderstanding. Lives can be torn apart by sudden, unanticipated events: acts of violence, natural disaster, accidents, a lost job, a diagnosis, a death. Expectations can be torn apart by reality, for better or for worse. A room might be torn apart in order to look for what was lost. The ground is torn apart when seeds are planted for a garden.
“In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus’ baptism is the opening scene. There is no genealogy, no birth story, no Herod or Magi. Coming from nowhere of note, just tiny Nazareth of Galilee, Jesus follows the crowds into the wilderness to John at the Jordan, joining the people receiving John’s baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. But then, everything changes. As he comes up out of the water, drenched and perhaps a little disoriented, the heavens are not just opened, as they are in Matthew and Luke, but rather “torn apart” as the Holy Spirit descends and the voice of God speaks.
In many ways, the story of our Christian faith can be described by those few words – “the heavens torn apart.”
“The heavens torn apart” recalls the prophet Isaiah’s plea for God’s power to be made known in physical, felt ways - Oh, that you would tear open the heavens and come down.
It is what we celebrate at Christmas, that the heavens were torn apart as God became human, became like us, in the person of Jesus.
It is what we celebrate in this story of Jesus’ baptism, that the torn-apart heavens are accompanied by the nearness of the Holy Spirit, descending on Jesus and on each of us in our own baptism, empowering us for the work of ministry.
“The heavens torn apart” is what we see and hear, again and again, in Jesus’ preaching, teaching, and healing – that the kingdom of God has come near.
It is what we hear at Jesus’ crucifixion at the end of Mark’s Gospel, that as Jesus cried out and breathed his last, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, another sign of God’s presence beyond that sacred space and those few mediators.
“The heavens torn apart” calls to mind the promise of Revelation 21, of the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, as a loud voice declares, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.”
Throughout the story of our faith, the heavens are torn apart and the glory, and power, and love of God are made known in surprising, ordinary, amazing ways as God comes near to us.
This tearing apart of the heavens may feel at times like ripped pants - exposed, and uncomfortable. God comes among us in a way that reveals our sinfulness and all the ways we fall short and all the ways the world is not as God intends. We can no longer go about our business under the pretense that God is far off, unconcerned with our actions and relationships.
At other times, this tearing apart of the heavens is more like the hopeful and joyful tearing open of a gift that is for you. What a joy, that God comes near to us! What a gift, that the Holy Spirit sustains us, empowers us, and intercedes for us. What a promise, that God’s presence does not depend on us, but that instead, in baptism, we are called children of God, sealed by the Holy Spirit, and marked with the cross of Christ forever.
In Jesus, fully divine and fully human, God has torn apart the barrier between heaven and earth. In the living Word, through the flowing waters of baptism, and in the meal that is a foretaste of the great heavenly feast to come, God comes near to us. God comes near to us in times of heartache and grief, when our lives are torn apart and we aren’t sure what comes next. God comes near to us with forgiveness and grace, comfort and belonging. God tears open the heavens so that we might know, again and again, that there is nothing in heaven or on earth that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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