2025 Sun Jan 12

“Go forth and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit….and remember I am with you always.” – Matthew 28:19-20

Baptism is…..welcoming into the community of faith & the Body of Christ.

Baptism is…..belonging to God as “Christ’s own forever.”

Baptism is….washing of our sins and renewing our life in faith.

Baptism is…..a holy sacrament, an outward sign of God’s inward grace.

Baptism is…..a gift of God’s grace through the Holy Spirit.

“Why baptize? God has no need of our baptism. But we do. We need to hear; we need to know. Whether emerging from the waters of the womb or the waters of a river, we need to hear again that we are beloved.” – JoAnn A. Post in the Christian Century

Michael Curry – From Crazy Christians A Call to Follow Jesus

“We come to the mountain, then, and experience a deepened and revived relationship with God and with each other.”

“You will notice this three-fold pattern in how Jesus forms his disciples and sends them out. First he invites his disciples to come. “Come and see,” he says, “Follow me” (John 1:39; Mark 1:17). Jesus beckons his disciples to him in order to enter into a deepened relationship, through him, with God and each other in community. That is what baptism is about, a deepened relationship with God and each other in Christ.”

“If you look at the words of the Great Commission, you’ll see this is precisely how Jesus forms his disciples. After the resurrection, Jesus takes the disciples to a mountain. He tells them: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19–20). We form disciples through baptism and teaching so they might come into a deepened, transforming relationship with God and each other, as we learn and live the gospel of Jesus.”

The Setting for Sunday

We have just celebrated the birth of Christ and will experience his death and resurrection on Easter. However, one key event we should put in the same category is Jesus’ baptism.  We have various  weeks set aside for baptisms – first Sunday after Epiphany (Baptism of Jesus), Easter, Pentecost,Feast of the Transfiguration (Sunday nearest Aug. 6), All Saints Sunday, whenever the Bishop visits) .  Whether we have a baptism or now, we usually include the section in the prayer book for the renewal of the Baptismal Covenant in the service. In the past we have also “sprinkled” people.

From the SALT Project – “Jesus’ baptism is Mark’s Christmas story, so to speak, the moment when Jesus is reborn through the waters of baptism as God’s Child, God’s Beloved. In that sense, Mark and his community likely thought of Jesus as miraculously adopted, as opposed to miraculously conceived (as in Matthew and Luke) or miraculously present as God’s only begotten since “the beginning” of creation (as in John).”

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The Season after the Epiphany – Epiphany is all about establishing the identity of Jesus. Now that he has been born who is he ?   Epiphany continues to define who Jesus is – healer, preacher and the Messiah, the last one comes early in Epiphany and continues.

Epiphany refers to the appearance of Jesus Christ as the savior of the world—of Israel and the Gentiles.  For this reason, Epiphany is commonly associated with the visitation of the Magi (or “wise men”), who were almost certainly Gentiles, in Matthew 2:1–12.

We focus on the mission of the church to reach all the peoples of the earth with the great gift of God’s grace in revealing healing truth and light to the world.”

It is very much present oriented. The main idea of Epiphany is that Christ is the light of the world that came at Christmas and now beckons us to travel with Him ths year. The story of the Epiphany is about discovery—following a star to the source of salvation.Epiphany is filled with unexpected revelations that change our minds and ways – we have to be willing to experience them.

Epiphany is our jumping off spot. From the Eucharistic Prayer – “With each new day, you call us to feed the hungry, bring recovery of sight to the blind, liberate the oppressed, heal the broken hearted and bind up their wounds, and keep watch for the dawn of your reign on this earth. ”

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I. Theme – Participating in Jesus’ Baptism and receiving the Holy Spirit

Baptism of Christ – Fra Angelico (1400-1455)

The lectionary readings are here  or individually:

Old Testament – Isaiah 43:1-7 Psalm – Psalm 29 Epistle – Acts 8:14-17 Gospel – Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

The first Sunday in Epiphany is traditionally about Jesus’ baptism. However, this year, the focus is less on Jesus, and more on how God’s people are invited to participate in the baptism and to receive God’s Spirit.

Isaiah suggests that God chooses and gathers us to bring compassion and justice to a suffering world In the Psalm, God’s voice is celebrated, which shakes the earth, but which also – by implication in the Psalm – strengthens and brings peace to God’s people, even as God’s voice affirmed Jesus. In Acts, we witness Peter and John spreading the good news of Jesus Christ beyond their comfortable social and ethnic borders. In today’s gospel, Jesus is baptized, and we are invited to acknowledge him as God’s “Son, the Beloved.” It is significant that Jesus begins his public life with baptism. Not only is he baptized, he also hears the assurance of the Holy Spirit. A voice proclaims him God’s beloved, empowering him and sending him to the blind, the lame and the prisoners awaiting his good news.

We read about baptism year after year because God is still at work in the world, and still invites us to participate in God’s saving and liberating work. But, to do this, we, like Jesus, will need to be strengthened and empowered. We will need to be baptised in the Holy Spirit. We surrender our usual sense of control, because we must sacrifice what we are for what we might become.

This Sunday provides an opportunity for people not only to reflect on their own experiences of baptism (as participants and/or observers), but to wonder together about Jesus’ baptism.

Rev. Mindi Welton-Mitchell writes of the symbolism of the waters in the passages

” The waters were a symbol of trial and tribulation, a boundary to be crossed, perhaps the Red Sea or the Jordan River in ancient times. For the people who had been exiled, the waters may have symbolized the entire time of exile—a turbulent time in which all they knew had been taken from them. For Christians, we seem the waters of baptism as a symbol of those trials and troubles, a symbol of death itself, and we come out on the other side, with the gift of new life, the hope of resurrection, everlasting life in Christ. We commemorate the baptism of Jesus today, reminded that we all have the gift of new life, of starting again with God, of renewing our commitments and reorienting our lives to God. The same God whose voice called out over the waters, who called down from above over the waters of Jesus’ baptism, is the same voice that calls us Beloved, and calls us into the promise of new life”

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