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Mettle maker #492: Silence on the Waters
"The great object of his life is defeated by continually resolving to do, yet doing nothing but resolve." — Samuel Taylor Coleridge (on Shakespeare’s Hamlet)
I wrote a long post for today that I have put on hold for revision and possible sharing in the future. I looked at it yesterday, and had a couple of friends look at it for me, and there was no consensus as to its value or lack thereof. This morning I looked at it again. And as I looked at it , the thought popped into my head, “Don’t you see that Jesus is standing right beside you and hears everything you think and say? You are not called to voice your thoughts and feelings. You are called to say what Jesus wants you to say.”
The more I say, the more I expose myself to the possibility of error. Less is more.
Facta non verba (again). Speaking of facts…
FACT: Over the last two years, 60 people have signed up for the Heritage Rough ‘n’ Tumble Distance Learning Program. Only 3 have sent in training logs. That’s exactly 5%. Yes, you read that right: 95% of people who register are unable to follow through on their resolutions to learn and train.
In homage to Coleridge, my message for today is a simple antimetabole:
Doing something is almost always better than doing nothing; and saying nothing is almost always better than saying something.
Do stuff.
If you are one of the 5% who wish to do things of a martial nature, the video below demonstrates something for you to do that I hope you will find worthwhile.
Want to train and fight like an old-timer? Click here to sign up today for our distance learning program! In other news, the new t-shirts are in. If you want to make a donation to the charity, we can definitely get you one! Just click here.
Holy Eucharist is LIVE on YouTube every Sunday at 10 am EASTERn. Click HERE to watch live. To view and print a copy of the program for holy Eucharist, CLICK HERE.
Homily for the Baptism of the Lord, Sunday 1/11/26 – Father Mitch
Readings: Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7, Psalm 29:1-2, 3-4, 3, 9-10, Acts 10:34-38, Matthew 3:13-17
Matthew 3:13-17 World English Bible
Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan‡ to John, to be baptized by him. 14 But John would have hindered him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?”
15 But Jesus, answering, said to him, “Allow it now, for this is the fitting way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed him.
16 Jesus, when he was baptized, went up directly from the water: and behold, the heavens were opened to him. He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming on him. 17 Behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Brothers and sisters, in the book of Genesis, when the floods have calmed and the waters have receded, Noah’s dove returns to his hand (Gen 8:6-12). This dove signals that God’s love – his Holy Ghost – rests upon a world purified by the baptismal waters of the great flood. As we sing today in Psalm 29, “ The LORD’s voice is on the waters. The God of glory thunders, even the LORD on many waters. 10 The LORD sat enthroned at the Flood. Yes, the LORD sits as King forever. 11 The LORD will give strength to his people. The LORD will bless his people with peace.” It is a great foreshadowing that the dove returns to Noah with an olive branch in its mouth – the symbol of peace – to signal the good news that the waters have receded.
In a similar way, the Holy Ghost descends on Jesus in the form of a dove after his baptism. Jesus needs no purification. But humanity does. Can we cleanse ourselves? Certainly not. Therefore Jesus, the unification of God and humanity, our Savior, takes up our sins for us. He carries our sins down into the baptismal waters to be washed away.
This complicated idea makes sense to us because we know the whole story, from Genesis to Revelation. But John the Baptist, seeing only the tip of the iceberg, at first objects to this purification. Jesus explains it to him by saying, “Allow it now, for this is the fitting way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” In that moment, we can imagine that John’s mind turned to Genesis 8:20-22 and recalled the promise of God.
Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal, and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 The LORD smelled the pleasant aroma. The LORD said in his heart, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake because the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. I will never again strike every living thing, as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.” (Gen 8:20-22)
Brothers and sisters, the momentous significance of the baptismal rite of Jesus is clear. We celebrate today “the fulfillment of all righteousness.” Through Jesus’ baptism, God fulfills the promise he made to humanity after the flood. Not only fulfills the promise, but raises it to an even higher pitch, taking it to an even higher level. Not only will God never again visit destruction upon us because of if our inherited sin, he has also sent his only begotten son into our midst to wash us free from all sin and show us the way to eternal life.
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‡ 3:13 i.e., the Jordan River