Sermon Notes: Christian worship- indeed, perhaps theology, resides at the intersection of the "horizontal" (community) and the "vertical" (directed toward God)
Yes, yes, it is a bit of an oversimplification, but I think its a model that broadly works. The church gathers (especially on Sunday morning) at the intersection of God and humanity, of community and devotion. Although we all come into it more attuned in one direction than another, we have moments of awe and wonder, of connection and love, community building and piety.
We see this too in our reading, about the baptism of Jesus. John the Baptist is a prophetic preacher, warning the people of God of the cosmic consequences of a skewed out of sync relationship with God, with imagery involving threshing and reaping and an unquenchable fire. Yet when the people of God ask John how and what they could and should do to make themselves right with God, his answer did not involve magic, ritual or prayer. Indeed, his answer was simple human kindness: if you see someone in trouble, help them; if you have power over others, don't be corrupt or bully them.
That was it! Our "vertical" relationship with God was resolved by the basics of human community and the expanding "horizontal" nature of love directed toward others. This all seems so simple to us, but apparently to his contemporaries, this was revolutionary. The people murmur and wonder if John is the messiah.
Then Jesus appears. He prays, and the heavens open. He prays in the midst of a community, at the intersection of community and devotion, community and divinity. May our own worship do the same.