Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
Original Manuscript:
The name Epiphany fits this season very well because it's about the revealing of God's glory in the world.
How appropriate, then, that on the first Sunday of this season we celebrate Jesus' baptism in the River Jordan, where we have the image of the Spirit descending like a dove on Jesus. It is in this image that we see the full presence of the Holy Trinity. The Father in the voice, The Son in Jesus, and The Spirit in the form of the dove.
But Jesus did not get baptized just to reveal this glory in the world. There were other ways in which The Holy Trinity could have revealed itself in fullness in the world.
There is much more going on in Jesus' baptism. For Jesus, the baptism He received was John's baptism. It's a baptism of repentance. It's a baptism of the forgiveness of sins.
Jesus, as we will hear in the comfortable words from 1 John, is "the perfect offering for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world." That is because He is the only one of us to have ever lived without sin. The baptism of repentance wasn't something Jesus needed.
So why did Jesus chose to be baptized by John the Baptist? What does it mean?
Jesus came down to be one of us. He came to be in relationship with us. He came to be one with us.
So even though Jesus didn't need to repent, even though He had nothing to turn back from, He chose to be baptized to be part of the entirety of human experience with us. And for each and everyone of us, repenting and turning back to God is part of the experience we are called to take part in.
Jesus is taking part in the human experience in solidarity with us, to be one of us and one with us. He's not doing this because He has to, because quite frankly He doesn't need to do this. He's doing it to be closer to us. And the presence of The Holy Trinity in entirety shows just how close God wants to be with us. It shows that God in His entirety wants to be in relationship with us and wants to be one with us.
And Jesus' actions reveal a great deal to us about Baptism. It shows that Jesus' understanding is that we will all be baptized. It shows that baptism is more than a celebration of our rebirth in Christ Jesus, but that it is a necessary life step for us as we turn back to God and become more fully His.
Jesus' baptism also makes clearer to us what happens in our baptism. In Baptism, we speak of being bound with Jesus Christ in His death as well as His resurrection. Symbolically we show this through going into the water, similar to drowning, and rising again as we will rise to new life in Jesus Christ when this life is over.
And Jesus, by being baptized and by being in solidarity with us, shows that our baptism makes us one with Christ Jesus. It shows that we are bound to Jesus through that act. It shows us that our baptism goes beyond mere symbolism. It shows us that Jesus is really, truly there with us as we are baptized.
Baptism is a key part of our faith, of our identity, of who we are. It is what binds us to Jesus Christ. It is what makes us His own.we now reveal His glory in the world, and for that reason, we commemorate this moment in Jesus' life as the first Sunday of the season after Epiphany.
Now many of you, like me, were baptized in infancy. We don't remember the moment we were made Christ's own, nor did we choose it for ourselves. This is a reminder to us that Grace and Forgiveness are gifts from God. They are not things we earned or worked for. And just as Christ Jesus died for our sins, doing the work for us, so too our parents and God parents took on oaths and agreements to raise us to know Jesus Christ fully. They took vows to make sure that we would know Jesus and be fully His. Those of us with children baptized in infancy are called to do the same. In fact, we all as Christians are called to make sure that each and everyone of us in this community knows Jesus Christ to the fullest. We are each called to help build up one another in our faith.
This also isn't to say the work of binding us to Jesus Christ is made full and perfect yet in this life. We often need reminders of our baptism, whether we remember that event or not. That is why we gather here each Sunday for the Eucharist. Baptism begins our life in Christ Jesus, Eucharist enacts it. Every Sunday we are reminded that we are Christ Jesus', that we have been baptized in Him.
Today we will make that reminder more pronounced in reciting the Renewal of Baptism. We will be more fully reminded of what it means to be a baptized people. We will be more fully reminded that we belong to Jesus Christ.
And most of all, remember that after His baptism, Jesus went on to reflect on His call by retreating into the wilderness. Remember that Jesus did not just do His Father's work on an appointed day, but did so on all days of the week. We come here not because Sunday is the only day we are Christ Jesus' own, but because it is a reminder to us throughout the week. We are not Jesus' on one day of the year, the month, or the week. We are Jesus' everyday and always. This is just the day we remember that fact. So go forth. Remember whose you are. Remember who you belong to, who you are bound to. And go forth and do your work in the world remembering that.