00:00:13.440 - 00:00:29.660

Mhm. I don't think I saw it as much as I heard it Standing at the head of a long sweeping bend in the Conejos River in southern Colorado . I heard a splash off to my left about

00:00:29.670 - 00:00:45.750

15 yards downstream, just below a big rock. I want a big trout rises to take a fly from the water's surface. It rockets up from its holding place in the deep water like a missile aimed

00:00:45.760 - 00:01:00.620

at a target. As the trout reaches the surface , its mouth opens and it gulps in water and air, and the fly in a single swallow, and then with a massive thrust, it arches its

00:01:00.620 - 00:01:15.240

spine and reverses its course and heads again for the safety of the deeps, expelling as it goes water and air. But not if you are lucky your fly. All this happens in an instant in a

00:01:15.240 - 00:01:30.480

millisecond in quicker than a heartbeat. And even if you're looking straight at it, you're not absolutely sure you saw what you think. You saw a flash of golden sunlight, a splash on the surface of

00:01:30.480 - 00:01:49.260

the fast moving current, and it's gone. By the time I could process what I'd seen, or heard the trout had of course vanished. Ah but this was not my first fish. I've stood long

00:01:49.260 - 00:02:05.110

enough in waters to know that big fish like to hold in the pocket waters behind large midstream rocks, the rock creates a kind of hole in the current where the water curls around back on itself, and

00:02:05.110 - 00:02:21.810

the fish can hold its position in the stream and exert almost no effort at all. I knew that if I could land my fly and Adam's parachute, as I recall just above the rock and leave just

00:02:21.810 - 00:02:38.560

enough slack in the line, the current would carry it downstream around the rock and down into that pocket water where the trout was waiting. And the trout would see dinner served up with all the propriety of

00:02:38.560 - 00:02:58.680

a white gloved Butler uncovering a chafing dish on the table of the Earl of Grantham. Mhm. And for once in my miserable, clumsy fly fishing life , I did with my fly rod exactly what I

00:02:58.680 - 00:03:16.030

saw in my mind's eye. A single perfect slack line cast delicate insect like landing of the fly on the surface of the water, a drag free drift as it slipped around the rock and into the pocket

00:03:16.030 - 00:03:34.680

water. And even so, I was unprepared for the explosion of the trout's attack erupting from beneath the surface. All spray and lightning, the golden flash of a big brown trout burst into the air and

00:03:34.680 - 00:03:47.320

then vanished. And a half instant later my fly line tightened like a piano wire and started to move in ways that were not within my control. I recovered, set the hook not too hard, I

00:03:47.320 - 00:04:03.190

thought, don't want to break him off. And the fight was on, I say, fight as though we struggled. It was really more like some sort of strange inter special dance. The trout took

00:04:03.200 - 00:04:15.300

in slack line and went racing off downstream. I gave him all the slack I had, and some from off of the real to then he doubled back and darted across the current, and I reeled in

00:04:15.300 - 00:04:32.060

as fast as I could go back and forth in and out, giving line and taking it. We pirouetted and played his fury against my fly reel, until at last I could begin to feel him tiring

00:04:32.540 - 00:04:48.880

succumbing to the insistent tug of my line. Finally I was able to bring him near, and I got my landing net underneath them, and even then he lurched away twice more, I guess, not

00:04:48.880 - 00:05:12.580

quite ready to abandon the protest, but finally I raised the net dripping from the water, and beheld there a magnificent 14" brown trout. His russet gold sides were speckled with bright red spots that looked for

00:05:12.590 - 00:05:28.740

all the world like droplets of blood. His mouth opened and closed rhythmically as he struggled to breathe in this strange new world, as though he were singing some kind of song for which I had not the

00:05:28.740 - 00:05:46.000

ears to hear. I reached into the net to disengage the fly, and was suddenly aware of his power, a handful of sheer muscle losing and tensing , pulsing with a kind of sinewy electricity. He

00:05:46.000 - 00:06:06.260

was regal, beautiful, strong, an underwater god , and I held him in my hand for a moment, and was overwhelmed with a sense of pure delight. Oh, not at the mastery of the

00:06:06.260 - 00:06:23.110

fly rod I had managed to exercise. That's far too fleeting a thing. No, at the sheer wonder of this alien beauty, this visitor from another world. It was as though some hidden doorway in

00:06:23.110 - 00:06:45.410

the basement of time had opened and I could peer into the workshop of God. No sooner had I removed the hook than he shuddered violently, left free and was gone. Howell Raines, Editorial Page editor

00:06:45.410 - 00:07:00.030

for the New York Times back in the 1990s, until he was disgraced in a plagiarism scandal. And himself, a dedicated fly fisherman once wrote these words about the experience of catching a trout. We have

00:07:00.030 - 00:07:16.400

reached into a realm over which we have no explainable mastery and by supernatural craft or mere trickery, created a moment that is as phenomenal on the 100th performance as it is, on the first. To get

00:07:16.410 - 00:07:33.950

fish, to bite something connected to a line and pull them into our world, is managing a birth that brings these creatures from the realm of mystery into the world of reality. It's a kind of creation

00:07:39.540 - 00:07:57.440

, the Prophet says. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. I think there is a kind of boundary that marks the line

00:07:57.440 - 00:08:13.560

between the mundane and the mysterious between the world of our reality and the universe of delight all around us . We rarely if ever managed to see from me . That boundary is easiest to spot on the surface

00:08:13.570 - 00:08:31.740

of waters, because looking at the water reminds me that beneath them courses something completely beyond me. Something that does not answer to my needs or service my desires is of a wholly separate order of being from

00:08:31.740 - 00:08:48.680

me. Beneath the waters is the realm of wonder and to stand before waters and to cast a line upon them is to pray for admission into that realm . It is to approach creations holy of holies with

00:08:48.680 - 00:09:05.130

supplication and reverence and care. And in those rare moments when the boundary or the barrier is parted, when the boundary is crossed, I at least experienced the sheer delight of knowing that I have reached over

00:09:05.130 - 00:09:20.160

into a reality not mine, to maintain that their flows around and beneath and beyond me, a river that has flowed since the birth of Creation, and whose ebb and flood is none of my affair.

00:09:22.440 - 00:09:45.090

I treasure that delight, even though I know that in an instant it will flex, its muscles leap free of my grasp and be gone. Luke says that when all the people were baptized, and when

00:09:45.090 - 00:10:03.710

jesus had also been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form, like a dove. Every time I read that sentence, I am struck by looks

00:10:03.810 - 00:10:18.680

, language about baptism, or more precisely, his absence of language about baptism, all the verbs are in passive voice. Did you notice had also been baptized, heavens were opened, and we see jesus

00:10:18.680 - 00:10:33.640

not in the hands of john being dunked beneath the surface of the waters, but rather already having risen , climbed the bank dripping wet and now praying. It is as though luke elects to stand at some

00:10:33.640 - 00:10:48.480

respectful distance from the action, as though he knows that jesus baptism is one of those liminal moments where the barrier between divine and human is suddenly permeable, where extraordinary things are, in the offing things we

00:10:48.480 - 00:11:09.740

do not control, but perhaps too luke restrains his theological imagination, because he knows that jesus baptism is only the beginning of this boundary breaking moment, and he's right. Of course, the best is yet

00:11:09.750 - 00:11:31.070

to come. A voice came from heaven in the first active voice in the sentence. You are my son, my beloved with you, I am well pleased endured as we are to this story. It

00:11:31.070 - 00:11:48.480

might be well for a moment just to reflect on its strangeness. Even in luke's world, voices do not ring out from heaven. Even in luke's world , the Holy Spirit makes rare appearances, whether in

00:11:48.480 - 00:12:09.460

avian form or any other. Even in luke's world , to say nothing of our own. The proclamation of divine favor seems rarely to ring in anyone's ears drowned as it regularly is by the rhetoric of fear

00:12:11.050 - 00:12:28.600

. Luke's story of jesus baptism is a tale from beyond our experience to read. It Is to borrow Howell Raines words to reach over into a realm over which we have no explainable mastery and to witness as

00:12:28.600 - 00:12:46.620

phenomenal this occurrence, which is as striking on the 100th reading as it is on the first. Did the air tremble When God spoke, did the ground shift beneath the feet of those who stood at the

00:12:46.620 - 00:13:05.630

water's edge? Did the waters part to allow this one to cross to the other side? Who knows , luke seems determined to press past all of these questions until we arrive at the boundary between the ordinary

00:13:05.630 - 00:13:20.630

and the earth shattering, until we hear the benediction from beneath the vaults of time and here we come to. The strangest word of all. The blessing pronounced on jesus is pronounced, threw him on all

00:13:20.630 - 00:13:41.920

of the rest of God's creation, including thanks be to God on the likes of us. With you ! I am well pleased. Imagine that God pleased with us! What a rare and holy moment!

00:13:41.920 - 00:14:01.500

This is what a gorgeous glimpse into the shape of God's delight! The Prophet says. Do not fear , for I am with you. I will bring your offering from the east and from the west.

00:14:01.510 - 00:14:11.690

I will gather you, I will say, To the north, give them up, and to the south. Bring them forth. Do not withhold bring my sons from far away and my daughters from the

00:14:11.700 - 00:14:33.500

ends of the earth. Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made. I don't know about you, but I experience an insistent tugging in those

00:14:33.500 - 00:14:46.840

words, as though somehow the Prophet has profits. God has got his hooks in us and is drawing us towards the realms of God's delight. However much we may want to race downstream and make for the

00:14:46.840 - 00:15:03.460

Heidi holes deep in our psyches. It is an awesome thing! This ephemeral tether, a thing over which we have no mastery, a thing that draws us insistently toward regions of wonder and awe, and

00:15:03.840 - 00:15:20.220

even of terror at the unknown power that is reeling us in. We would rather, I suspect watch from a safe and respectful distance would if we could duck bound down to the safety of our familiar fears

00:15:20.230 - 00:15:39.310

. But the profit is unrelenting, and he gathers us from north and south from east and west, called by God's own name. We are drawn toward the boundary of God's new creation beyond which their lives

00:15:39.310 - 00:15:56.920

of future. We can barely imagine. And this is where, at least for me, the story of jesus baptism matters the most. I suspect that on our own we could not and certainly would not

00:15:56.930 - 00:16:12.570

approach this border between the shelters of our safe assumptions and the glistening realm of grace. There is between here and there, between our starting and his arrival , a surfeit of struggle and change. And once

00:16:12.570 - 00:16:29.660

we get there, we may very well find ourselves in a place where we do not know how to breathe. No wonder we dart away. But if I'm right about luke's intent, we have the assurance

00:16:29.660 - 00:16:45.820

that we are not the first to be drawn into these realms of God's delight. Jesus passes through the water ahead of us and marks the way he crosses to the other side and pauses at the water's edge

00:16:45.830 - 00:17:07.900

, as if to say, do not fear, for I am with you, breathe in the spirit and follow in the sanctuary of University Presbyterian Church here in Austin, as is true in many, many

00:17:07.900 - 00:17:26.860

other places. The great baptismal font sits on the floor of the sanctuary, at the intersection of the nave and transept aisles. I sing in the choir and every sunday as we process in, we wind

00:17:26.860 - 00:17:41.450

our way around the great font and as I do so, I reach in and dip my fingers beneath the water and make the sign of the cross. I'm not the only one who does that. Many

00:17:41.450 - 00:17:56.200

of you have done it this morning. As you entered this place in the parlance of our liturgy, we are remembering our baptism, we are remembering that we are among those whom God has created for God's

00:17:56.200 - 00:18:15.710

glory. We are recalling that we are called by God's name. I think that to dip beneath the surface of the baptismal water is to break some kind of barrier, a border between the canyons of heartache

00:18:15.920 - 00:18:37.080

and the mountains of God's delight. It is to be born into a strange new creation whose contours are as yet unclear, but each week I dip and try to breathe. Here's the marvel. It is

00:18:37.080 - 00:18:53.060

not we who break the barrier or cross the boundary of our own accord. Rather, we are tethered to a blessing that summons us as insistently as a taut fly line, summons a trout to the net

00:18:53.540 - 00:19:11.550

. We could not pass through the waters, were it not that another has passed already, and having reached the other side assures us that we need not be afraid simply because we are called by his name

00:19:14.640 - 00:19:19.090

. We pass through waters into realm into realms of