The Rev. Joseph Farnes
All Saints, Boise
Baptism of Christ, Year B
January 7, 2024
The first Sunday after the Epiphany (which is January 6 – a date that now has some other connotations in the United States), the first Sunday after the Epiphany is always a commemoration of the Baptism of Christ. Every year we get Gospel readings that tell us about Jesus’ baptism.
In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist. Now, why would he need to do that? In all three of those Gospels, John the Baptist says that someone greater than he is coming after him. Scholars ask the question: why would Jesus need to be baptized by John, when the logic here is that John really should be baptized by Jesus?
Theologically, we answer that question with: Sure, but Jesus is setting himself up as one of us. He doesn’t come in and shove everything aside. He shares in our baptism, he shares in our work of repenting and turning. Jesus walks our walk, so that we can follow in his footsteps.
And so when we are baptized, we are baptized into Christ himself. We get baptized into this new way of life, this life animated by the Holy Spirit. We are baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection. We are baptized our way into Jesus. In this way, baptism isn’t just about us – it’s not a ritual done to us, but a sacrament we do together with Christ. It’s a sacrament that we do together as a community, and it’s a sacrament that we do together with Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit to the glory of God the Father.
But there’s more. Keep with the story: Jesus goes down to the water, he is baptized, and a voice proclaims: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
Who hears it? Is it only Jesus who hears it? Does the crowd hear it, too? And at the same time, why does Jesus need to hear this? You’d think he already knows.
First, this is our first glimpse at Trinitarian theology in the New Testament. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, all working together. A few years back I brought up one way how St Augustine of Hippo explained the Trinity: God who loves, God who is beloved, God who is love. God Who Loves proclaims to Jesus that he is the Beloved, and the Holy Spirit who is Love rests upon the Beloved.
And just as Jesus is baptized and we are baptized, so is Jesus the Beloved and we become God’s beloved. The action is not ours – we are baptized into Jesus, and we are baptized into a divine belovedness.
Baptism inaugurates our mission in life: to live into that belovedness. So we use our baptismal covenant as a guide: we proclaim a faith in the Trinity, proclaim our understanding of our creation, redemption, and sanctification, and we proclaim how we will try to live out that belovedness in our everyday lives: prayer, fellowship, getting up and trying again when we fail, seeking and serving Christ in all persons, respecting the dignity of every human being.
And it’s not easy.
Our baptismal covenant calls us to live with, put up with, connect with real flesh-and-blood human beings, to love them, to practice those virtues of patience and wisdom and self-reflection.
Our baptismal covenant calls us to a much messier, harder spiritual journey.
Notice that I’m talking about the spiritual journey? It’s not even Lent yet.
But the baptismal life is challenging. Human relationships and communities are hard. And so, so worth it. We grow, we deepen our lives in Christ. And it’s worth it because we can do such good work together.
Later this month, we get to begin our work with RenewalWorks, a program for congregational spiritual renewal. We each take a survey about our spiritual life – it’s a great way to be honest about where we are spiritually. A great way to get ready for Lent!
And then a small group of laypeople from the parish get together to help us discern what the results mean. The group doesn’t have to add up the surveys – RenewalWorks does it for us. The group gets together to ask, where we’ve been, where we are, where we’re called to go, and how we’ll get there.
The surveys start with us as individuals, but the work we do together. Where are we spiritually as a community, and where are we called to go? What is Christ calling us to do to live out our baptismal covenant as a community here in Boise?
I’ve heard and seen some of those things Christ calls us to do:
To feed the hungry, no questions asked. And with good food.
To care for the sick, to welcome the refugee.
To be a spiritual refuge in painful, confusing times (Don’t forget, the legislature reconvenes soon).
To proclaim God’s wondrous love to all people here in the Treasure Valley.
To pray and sing as best we can, to bring the riches of our Episcopal tradition to Idaho that draws people deeper into Christ.
To study and reflect on the Bible and theology in ways that bring the Good News to life, using our God-given minds and hearts to understand God’s truth.
Those are just some things – I’m sure there are more! So I want you to reflect on where you are in your belovedness, in your baptismal life. Where are you called individually, and where are we called to go together? Chew on the words of the Baptismal Covenant that we will proclaim together shortly. Where are you now in your baptismal life, and where are we called to go together in our baptism? Amen.