Baptism Is Just the Beginning: A Sermon for 1 Epiphany Year A

The First Sunday After Epiphany is often the Sunday when we get to celebrate a baptism. And, for the second year in a row, the baptism we celebrated at St. Barnabas was that of Jesus... but not a baby or child or an adult in our congregation. Such is the reality of the church in the 21st century. I look forward to the day when I can baptize someone in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and then mark and seal that one as Christ's own forever. 

Our baptismal font was running a little low on water, so I did have the congregation participate in the thanksgiving and blessing of the water. We also recited the Baptismal Covenant in place of the Nicene Creed. 

Some day, I hope I will have a person who wants to be baptized so that we can have the experience. In the meantime, I am hoping that this sermon gave some hope and direction to those who were present to hear it.

Texts: Is.42:1-9; Ps.29; Acts 10:34-43;Matt 3:13-17

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I love baptisms!

It’s one of my favorites of the special services we do here in the church.

I don’t care if it’s a 2-month-old or a 22 year-old being baptized, I love the ritual, the celebration, and the reminder that we are all in this life together as One Body and One Spirit…with One Hope and One Faith in One God.

Deacon Karyl and I were talking last Sunday about the significance of names.

The wonderful thing about baptism is that no matter what name we’ve been given or take later in life…our baptism gives us a new identity that sticks with us no matter what name we are called.

Once we are baptized with water…and sealed and marked as Christ’s own forever…we are now and always will be “a child of God.”

In this scene from our Gospel…we become witnesses to the identity of Jesus being revealed when a voice from heaven announces, “This is my Son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

This statement echoes the words from the Isaiah reading we heard earlier…one of the many “servant songs” in Isaiah…which opens with a declaration that this servant is “the chosen in whom my soul delights.”

The servant in Isaiah is given as “a light to the nations”… as one who will “bring forth justice”…even it seems against all odds.

There’s so much happening in this short passage from Matthew that if we read it too quickly… we might miss some things.

So before we leap into looking at what’s in this part of the Gospel…we need to remember the scene right before it.

We’re at the Jordan River with John the Baptist.

The Pharisees and the Sadducees show up and John starts screaming at them and calling them brood of vipers.

He’s telling them to get lost because they’re only seeking the ritual of purifying their bodies…but not their souls.

That was the common practice in Judaism...to wash the body with the understanding that this was purifying it and making it holy by washing away various bodily fluids.

But John and his community of the Essenes were reinterpreting the meaning of the water in this ritual.

John demanded that anyone seeking baptism from him better get their inner life in line as well.

And…since he saw the dominant religious groups of his time as lacking any real change of their hearts…he wasn’t about to baptize them.

The Biblical scholar Isaac Oliver writes that John saw in these waters of baptism a renewal of Israel in anticipation of a new thing coming.

Much in the same way the Israelites escaped Egypt through the parting of the Red Sea to seek freedom from oppression….these baptismal waters serve the purpose of giving new life and liberty to the baptized.

In the midst of his ranting and railing against the Sadducees and the Pharisees…John is also proclaiming that there is someone else coming…one greater than himself.

One so great that John isn’t worthy enough to carry this powerful person’s sandals.

And this one is coming with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

John paints a picture of some fierce warrior about to stampede onto the scene. Almost like some Mad Max of the First Century.

And now we pick up the today’s Gospel story:

Jesus…coming from Galilee…and seeking John’s baptism.

After all that shouting and fury…here comes Jesus.

And Matthew’s description makes it sound as if Jesus simply shows up…having walked the miles from Galilee to the Jordan River.

John is confused.

Where’s the fire?

Where’s the strong man with a winnowing fork?

Why is Jesus so…well…normal?

What I think Matthew wants us to see here is that Jesus is normal.

As Eugene Boring notes this is Jesus the fully human being…coming to John for baptism because that’s God’s will for both of their sakes. As much as John tries to back off…and pull the “I’m not worthy” card with Jesus…Jesus is like…

“No. We need to do this together… you and me… you baptizing me just as you baptize others…because this is how God wants this to happen.”

This isn’t about Jesus needing to repent of any sins.

This is Jesus needing to go through these waters of baptismal transformation to bring his humanity into line with the divine will.

And the Holy Spirit does show up… not going into Jesus but hovering over him …in the form of a dove.

Once more… this recalls two images of the Spirit from the Jewish tradition:

The Spirit which moved over the waters of chaos at the beginning of time in Genesis.

And later in that same book…the dove that carried the olive branch back to Noah…a sign that the flood waters had receded and it was now safe to leave the ark.

This Spirit alighting on Jesus signals that something new is coming.

But unlike the loud and proud warrior John was predicting…the symbolism of the dove indicates that Jesus was ushering in a revolution of love not war. He was about finding strength in the service of breaking down the barriers people had erected between each other and God.

This is a new way… a different countercultural and counter intuitive approach to handling conflict and division.

And as if this isn’t enough… there is that opening of the heavens and the voice declaring Jesus as the Son of God… the new servant.

And so in this moment… we have the Holy Trinity present…God the Father… God the Son… God the Holy Spirit… merging together in this moment of baptism.

The baptism of Jesus is really the start of his mission and ministry.

The man…Jesus…has been called to do what is in the Isaiah reading of bringing about justice and releasing the prisoners out of the darkness and dungeons of their lives.

And just as his baptism marks the beginning of his ministry… our baptisms do the same.

Even as infants… this ritual… with the symbols of water and light and the marking of a cross on our foreheads with oil… is the beginning of our mission…which is also to bring about a more just and equitable world.

To be a friend and advocate for those who are living in whatever life-limiting circumstances in their lives.

To be an adopted child of God… living into a new life where we have concern for our neighbors as well as ourselves.

Baptism is a beginning… a first step in a journey that if we follow it faithfully…can lead to a life built on the power of Love.

Will we fall down along the way?

Yes! Absolutely. Multiple times.

We might even find ourselves locked up in some windowless cell of our own or society’s making.

But what our baptism guarantees is that we are never alone.

We are never really lost.

And no matter what we’ve done or what’s been done to us…there is plenty of grace… mercy and compassion flowing to us and ready to carry us back toward that Love of God.

All we have to do is ask.

In the name of God… F/S/HS.