St. Paul’s Episcopal Chapel, Wesley Chapel, FL
Preacher: The Rev. Adrienne R. Hymes
First Sunday after the Epiphany: The Baptism of Our Lord
Year C: January 12, 2025
Gospel: Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer—Amen.
Holy Baptism is one of the two great sacraments of the Gospel given by Christ to his Church—the other being Holy Eucharist. Perhaps you have heard me say that I intentionally put on sacramental lenses to make sense of my human experience. Most often, I put on my baptismal lenses and view the situation in which I find myself, or the circumstance through which I must guide another, with the backdrop of Romans Six, entitled, “Dying and Rising with Christ.”
In the midst of death, sickness, loss, grief, trauma, and all realities that are a part of the universal human condition of suffering, I cling to the hopeful message of baptism found in verse five, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will surely be united with him in a resurrection like his.” Dying and rising.
In the sacrament of baptism, we are forever changed. While we each live our earthly journeys, we are constantly being changed and formed into the full stature of Christ by what I call, baptismal moments. The myriad sufferings and iterations of dying to self and stuff that trigger baptismal moments, also come with our belief that resurrection will follow. Baptismal moments, should we choose to view life through sacramental lenses, are the rich soil from which the testimony of the risen Christ springs forth. And sharing our personal testimonies of death and resurrection is inextricably tied to our identity and purpose as followers of Christ.
In the lead up to Jesus’ baptism, at the top of this third chapter in Luke today, was John’s prophetic proclamation about the coming of the Lord. John, whose very identity, as the Baptizer, was inextricably tied to his purpose and function, had his own disciples. People came to him to be baptized with water for the forgiveness of sins.
John had power. And yet, he did not exploit his power. John answered the questioning people with truth. “I baptize you with water,” said John, “but the one who is more powerful than I is coming.” Imagine the people who had come to be baptized, whom we are told were filled with expectation and questioning in their hearts whether John might be the Messiah. The opportunity for John to soak in the glory of the peoples’ expectation of his identity, and to even take advantage of their growing hopefulness, was present. However, God’s prophet and servant, John, remained focused in knowing his identity and his purpose. John was the one to prepare the way of the Lord, not the one who would become an obstacle and distraction for those filled with expectation for the promised Messiah.
Just before Jesus was baptized, alongside many others, John’s message to the people moved their focus from him, and turned it back toward the crowd, using the pronoun, “you.” The one to come, said John, “…Will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” John’s prophesy was about the Lord’s judgment. And John’s position was this, “I know who I am and I know my purpose. Heed my warning because all of you must know your purpose also.”
Jesus met John where John was in order to be baptized. After his baptism, Jesus’ prayer opened heaven and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in an earthly form, like a dove. In this uniting of the cosmic and the earthly, Jesus’ identity was affirmed by God, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased” (v.22).
When we are baptized into the body of Christ, our identity as children of God is affirmed, and we are given power by the Holy Spirit to do the work that God calls His beloved children to do; to be God incarnate in this world—the heart, the hands and feet of Jesus; the bearers of Christ’s light in this dark world, and the wayfinders of life in the midst of sickness and death. With such great power, we must show up in the world with courage and humility. Only by embracing courage and humility will we be able to risk showing up in this world as creatures who are clear that we are not the creator, and by using our lives to glorify God and not ourselves.
Shortly, we will renew our baptismal vows. Throughout this renewal of the vows, we are reminded as individuals, and corporately as the Church, that we are empowered by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to go forth in our shared purpose of building up the kingdom of God within ourselves and in the world. When we affirm the vows with, “I will with God’s help,” remember that you are agreeing to partner with God in His mission already-at-work in the world, with the blueprint of the Baptismal Covenant1 . This partnership with God reminds us that there is more holy work to be done.
The holy work of invitation and fellowship which call people to engage the deeply intimate, and deeply communal, activity of the Trinitarian God. The holy work of prayer and spiritual practices that make space for the Holy Spirit to alight on us and indwell us. And, the holy work of publicly proclaiming the life-saving Gospel message so that those who do not yet know Christ may come to believe that, through Him, they, like us, are worthy, uniquely equipped with gifts, and are God’s beloved.
As we go about this incarnational work as evangelists, healers of the broken and feeders of the hungry, Christ’s divinity shines forth, and is revealed to all, just as it was revealed to the wisemen.
On this feast of the Baptism of our Lord, let us give thanks to God for His empowerment and equipping of us, by the Holy Spirit, in baptism, to do the powerful kingdom-building work that God has called us to do.
Let us not become well pleased with the distorted images of our powerful selves. Let us be clear that our power comes from God—and that that power is our identity and purpose bestowed upon us through our baptism into Jesus’ death and resurrection. May we, with clarity of identity and purpose, show up in this dark world as God’s instruments of grace and healing, remembering always, that it is only through Christ, and not ourselves, that we—that you—are God’s beloved.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will surely be united with him in a death like his.
Amen.
1-Baptismal Covenant. BCP, pp. 304-305.
