Epiphany I

Sermon for Hope Episcopal Church
Houston, TX
By The Rev. Martha Frances+
Year C Epiphany I
7 January 2007 8:00 only

Text: Luke 3: 15-17, 21-22
Other Readings: Isaiah 43: 1-7; Ps 29; Acts 8: 14-17

Today we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany as well as one of the emphases during the Epiphany season: the baptism of Jesus by John in the River Jordan. Just as we celebrated during the 10:30 service last Sunday, John the Baptist’s baptism was a public one. We have a lovely baptismal font in the midst of our nave rather than the River Jordan which would undoubtedly be cold today. The crowd in John’s time asked questions of each other standing on the banks of the Jordan. Their questions centered around whether John the Baptist was the Messiah for whom the Jewish community had long waited, & St. Luke handles that question in a very curious way. John tells us himself that he baptizes with water but one more powerful than he—here he means Jesus the Messiah—will follow him & baptize with the Holy Spirit & with fire. John humbly states that he is not even worthy to untie the sandals of the one who is to come.

Then, notice that John practically disappears. The next bit of information we have is that Jesus has been baptized & is praying. Luke is forever emphasizing Jesus at prayer, especially at these special times in his life. We aren’t even told that it is John who does the baptizing; we’re left to assume that. John is important but only as the forerunner of Jesus; he disappears before Jesus ever begins his public ministry.

Luke focuses our attention on Jesus to whom the heavens are opened & the Holy Spirit descends in bodily form like a dove. All of these images are familiar ones from the Old Testament, but Luke’s linking them with Jesus’ baptism & public presentation helps us realize that this man is a very special one.

We do know that the Holy Spirit descends to Jesus, not to the whole community, & it is unclear whether the crowd either sees the dove or hears the voice from heaven which declares, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” The heavenly voice tells us a lot, however, as we read the account so many years after, we might be reminded of God’s voice to Abraham who tells him that he must take his son Isaac, his only son whom he loves, & sacrifice him.

The reading from Isaiah urges us to remember all the way back to the creation story in Genesis when God created Jacob & formed Israel by speaking each day of creation into being & then declaring that each day was good. Jesus’ baptismal story connects with the creation story all the more if we realize that another translation of the last verse says, “This day I have begotten you.” Indeed, just as God thought the creation of humans was very, very good on the 6^th day of the week, here God is well pleased with God’s new creation, Jesus. The more we study the Bible, the more we realize how much the stories intertwine & enhance each other.

I’ve always thought of the Epiphany season as the season emphasizing sight with images such as Jesus as light of the world, but as I prepared for today, I realized that each scripture today hinges on the gift of hearing & the power of the spoken word. Just as Isaiah reminds us that God spoke the creation into being, so the psalmist speaks of the voice of God actively providing for the people & finally, giving God’s people the blessing of peace.

During Epiphany, we have stories of God manifest in the world, to all people, even the Gentiles, such as the Samaritans’ acceptance of Jesus as the Word of God in the epistle for today. God’s launches a new age for all people, declaring through the Spirit that this is God’s own son. We learn that Jesus is indeed the Messiah & that this Messiah, unlike the Ruler the Jews were looking forward to who would take over by force, this Messiah has come as a servant who does the Father’s will.

Jesus’ baptism story isn’t just a nice story about how Jesus began his public ministry although it certainly includes that. In the opening collect today, we prayed to the God in heaven who proclaimed Jesus God’s son at Jesus’ baptism & even anointed him with the Holy Spirit. What did we ask God to give us? First, for those of us who are baptized, we ask for strength to keep the covenant which he has made with us, & secondly, we are to confess him boldly as Lord & Savior. Hey, that sounds pretty up-to-date 21^st Century to me. What about you?

Last Sunday we baptized Bob in the name of the Father, Son, & Holy Spirit. Bob made some vows by which he intends to live & chose to enter into Christ’s one, holy, catholic, & apostolic Church—not just the Episcopal Church but the Church Universal. His baptism symbolizes or shows forth his desire to die to his old life & be born anew in Christ, to continue to grow as a disciple as part of a Christian community.

Bob didn’t take the vows he made alone, though. Members of his family sponsored him & presented him for baptism. Furthermore, we each stood & affirmed our faith with him, responding to my questions in the words of the ancient Apostle’s Creed.

We renewed our vows with Bob, remembering that this gives us an opportunity to strengthen our own resolve to continue in the Christian journey but also we promise to encourage & support Bob—& all others who receive baptism—as they begin to lead a new life in Christ. We’re all in this together, my friends; that’s why we call ourselves a Christian community. We need always to encourage & support each other, not to tear each other down by gossip or criticism. You see, this baptismal thing is a life-long commitment, & we share together through other sacraments & life in community our receiving of God’s grace more & more into our lives.

Each time there is a baptism, we promise to turn to Jesus Christ & live a new life. That’s what “conversion” is: turning our lives around & heading in a new direction, walking the way the Jesus walked. Of course, you can’t turn around & then walk away from the steering wheel. We have to continue to steer the boat, allowing for storms & miscalculations & unexpected hazards in the middle of the sea. We promise we will promptly admit when we are wrong & will go about correcting our faults. We promise that we’ll all respect the dignity of every human being & watch for Christ in our neighbors. We’ll even work to make the structures of society more just, caring, & peaceful, one day at a time, with the support of the community around us.

My goodness, we promise a lot when we are baptized, don’t we? No wonder we need to reaffirm our baptismal promises from time to time. We need to remember what we vowed to do & that we’re all in this together.

Each Sunday we come to the altar to receive the body & blood of Christ in another sacrament which we call the Eucharist. We need bread for the journey & drink for our souls, & we join other Christians in eating & drinking in Christ’s name. Come to Jesus today & come to Jesus every day as you, too, commit to the ongoing conversion available through Jesus Christ. Come, respond to Jesus’ invitation to new life!