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Today, we remember the Baptism of our Lord by John in the River Jordan.
Jesus, as John the Baptist reminds us, is the one more powerful than John, whose sandal John is unworthy to tie.
John's baptism, as we saw back in Advent, is about repentance. It's about realizing our unworthiness and turning back. So why does Jesus get baptized? He doesn't have anything to repent of.
Jesus is baptized to be in solidarity with us as sinners. Jesus gets baptized so that we will know that He is with us always, even in the very worst of it all.
If Jesus is in solidarity with us, He wants us to be in solidarity with each other. Jesus wants us to follow Him and be in the thick of it all with one another.
Today is the Annual Parish Meeting for St. Paul's. This is the time where we hear about what happened in the past so that we can reflect on the future.
There are many ways we can be in solidarity with our fellow human beings, as Jesus was with us. Our support for programs like Sawyerville and Project Horseshoe Farm is one to do that. But as Christians, we are constantly called to strive forward, do more, and be better. This is the perfect time for us to ask what more can we do to be in solidarity with our brothers and sisters? What more can we do to be Christ-like in this world?