The First Sunday after Epiphany,
The Baptism of Our Lord, Year C
In the name of God.
Amen.
In our staff meeting last week, we began our work, like we
always do, with a short Bible study of the Gospel lesson for today, followed by
a short time of prayer. I said in the
Bible study portion, only half jokingly, that I found myself almost salivating
over the prospect of preaching today.
Most Sundays, it’s almost all I can do to keep from preaching about
baptism. So much of who we claim to be
and who we try to be as Christians in the Episcopal Church can be summarized in
the words of that liturgy. If a preacher
were of a mind, it would be very easy to relate almost every Sunday’s sermon to
the Baptismal Covenant.
That would probably become a bit stale for everyone, so for
the sake of all of us, I usually try to hold back. It’ll slip through now and then, but usually…
But today, on the other hand… Today I can let lose!
But in all seriousness, we often get lost in our thinking
about baptism. With the sweet innocence
of little babies, and with glowing parents and grandparents, and aunts and
uncles, and with the excitement of the crowds that tend to accompany it all -
with all of that we can sometimes miss the point.
Baptism is one of the two, so-called “great sacraments” -
along with the Holy Eucharist. They are
the two sacraments that bookend the formal ministry during the life of
Jesus. His ministry began by joining the
crowds of people and participating in their ritual of cleansing, but then
making it his own - a baptism less about washing away impurity and more about
taking on the blessings of God.
And his ministry ended with the Eucharist - the Great
Thanksgiving. In it, he and his friends
joined in the solemn ritual of the people, celebrating and giving thanks for
their freedom, but even in that, he made it his own - a meal less about
remembering God’s deeds of the past, but more about celebrating God’s deeds among
us even now.
In both of these great sacraments, Jesus met the people
where they were, but then pushed them farther.
This is the real heritage of our faith: that we keep pushing
the limits of all that we find, until it leads to something more - something
deeper and truer.
Frankly, it can be pretty tough. Have you ever been in that position? When you’ve passed the goal, but still have
to keep pushing?
Parents talk about that sort of thing all the time. Like, when you’re just trying to get through
the “terrible twos”, only to realize there’s more work in the years to
come… Or, when you’ve been pushing
through for so long to get them off to college, but you remember that even then
they still need a parent, just in new ways.
And it’s true in most of our relationships with each
other. It’s been said that real love is
defined less by passion or affection, or even proximity, and more by
determination - the decision to keep loving, every day - even when it seems
most foreign to try.
It’s that same way in our relationship with God and with our
experiences of faith. The call is
intense. It’s hard. At times it may even seem impossible. But even so, it is our calling to push
through the challenges until we find something more - something deeper and
truer.
While Christianity takes a great deal of tenacity, tenacity
alone will never be enough. As was true
for Jesus, community and prayer must undergird us. We hear in Luke’s account of Jesus’ baptism
that he falls in line with the people to receive the baptism of John. Luke doesn’t tell us anything about the act
of baptism, other than it happened. The
real power of the moment, however, came afterwards - when Jesus was
praying. It was then that the heaven was
opened, and the Holy Spirit descended, and the voice from heaven came
proclaiming, “You are my Son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
It’s the same way with us.
Most of us, if we were baptized as infants, wouldn’t remember the actual
event. The ritual and the liturgy are
significant, because they put us on this road.
They bring us into this community where we covenant to live our lives in
such a way that the community and the prayer will undergird us. But the ritual and the liturgy, alone, are
not the whole story.
The real focus of baptism isn’t the water, or the
celebration, or the sweet babies - it’s about everything that follows. It’s about being God’s people.
For Jesus, the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit descended
upon him like a dove, and a voice proclaimed, “You are my Son, the Beloved;
with you I am well pleased.”
For us, we hear the words of Isaiah: “Do not fear, for I
have redeemed you; I have called you by name and you are mine. When you pass through the waters I will be
with you… When you walk through fire you
will not be burned… Because you are
precious in my sight… And I love you.”
That’s what it means to be God’s people. It’s not about the moment, no matter how powerful
the moment may be. It’s about the
sustenance.
God promises to sustain us.
When we feel vulnerable, we will never be alone. When we feel in danger, we are protected;
because we are precious in the sight of God, and we are loved.
There are certainly times in all of our lives when we feel a
little removed from that promise of sustenance.
There are times when God’s love and protection feels out of reach. Those are the times when we most need to
return to the fruits of our baptism - to this community and to nurturing our
relationships with God through prayer.
When Jesus opened himself through prayer, God’s presence was
made known. And when we open ourselves
with prayer, God’s presence is made known again. God is always there beside us, and always giving
us that sustenance, but we have to listen.
In the season of epiphanies, take some time to listen. Listen for those epiphanies of Christ. Listen for God’s ongoing sustenance. Listen for the fruits of baptism.
We can do anything with God’s help. And that help is as close as your next
breath. Amen.
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