Today in our liturgical journey we leap forward from the stories about the birth of Jesus, to his baptism in the River Jordan as a thirty-year-old adult. Significantly, this story is present in all four gospels and marks the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. Each evangelist tells the story in a particular way.  

Matthew’s Gospel presents Jesus as the fulfillment of Scripture: he is the Messiah of Israel, the king who would rule and save the world, the teacher who is even greater than Moses, and as the Son of Man giving his life for all. The writer of Matthew places the Baptism of Jesus at the very beginning of his ministry, a preparation for what will follow. 

The baptism of the Lord is traditionally a time to reflect on both Jesus’ baptism and our own. What does it mean that God became incarnate? Became a human being like us? To understand baptism, we must understand the reality, the physicality of being human, and what it means for us to say that God saved us by becoming like us. 

Building on Scripture, the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds make it clear that to be human is to be physical and sensate. We are not wispy souls trapped temporarily in a body that is foreign to who we really are. We live out our existence within the possibilities and limitations of our bodies. When we look forward to the coming Kingdom of God, we look forward to our bodies being resurrected and made new. Our hope is not to become a disembodied soul for that would mean hoping to become something less than what we are, something other than what God intended us to be. Instead, we hope for the renewal of all creation, including the renewal of our bodies. Our hope is to become fully and completely human. 

 Jesus understood that his primary purpose was to bring us humans into right relationship with God. That was the whole reason he came into the world, not to condemn the world but to save it. To accomplish that, he had to become one of us.  

Jesus is not only immersed in water: he is immersed in the light of God’s presence, and the breath of the Holy Spirit. His baptism is not only for the forgiveness of sins, like all those other people coming to be baptized by John. Jesus is baptized into his mission, the mission the Creator has given him: to redeem the world, to restore us to the image of God. This feast invites us to reflect on our own baptism and the call to live as beloved children of God, sharing his love and light.  

Theologian Stanley Hauerwas writes that Christians are called to be a community “capable of forming people who will be witnesses to God’s truth in the world”. Harper Lee’s book To Kill a Mockingbird offers a strong example of a community that has the potential to form its members in one of two ways: as people of tolerance, love, and bravery, or into people of fear, bigotry and greed. Scout Finch and her brother Jem are formed by their father and others in the community in the first set of virtues, what we might call Christian virtues. 

We too as a Christian community are formed, week by week, by the Scriptures, the prayers, and especially by our communal celebration of the Holy Eucharist. 

Baptism is an occasion of great joy because it is above all, the sacrament of belonging: belonging to God and to one another. It is the sacrament that both embraces us and sends us to be God’s love and light in the world. In the Anglican tradition, it is one of the two primary sacraments, the other being the Eucharist.  

Baptism sets us on a journey of faith, belonging and mission. Our marriages and relationships, our parenting, our friendships are all baptismal waters. Our work and vocation are baptismal waters. Our passions, dreams, and creativity are waters of baptism. Our concerns and work for justice and human dignity are baptismal waters. Our pain, brokenness, sorrows, and losses are also baptismal waters.   

We are always going through the waters of baptism, even, and maybe especially when we face challenges. Baptism is ultimately the process growing and becoming more fully and authentically ourselves. It happens through our connection to Jesus whom John describes as “the one who is more powerful.”  

Almighty and loving Father, we want to dive in, but we aren’t sure how deep the water is. We want to submerge ourselves in your life-giving floods, but we are afraid of drowning, Lord. Help us to know the peace that comes with trusting in you. Give us the courage to dive into your promises and help us submit our wills to your will. Remind us that we are your own. Fill us with the life-giving breath of your Holy Spirit. Let your fire burn in our hearts, we pray in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.  

It is my great joy now to sprinkle you with water to remind you of your baptism and as I do this, remember that you belong to the family of God and that you are sent into the world to participate in the mission of Jesus. In the words of the writer Brennan Manning: “Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is an illusion.”  

 

 

 

 

 

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