In the beginning of God\u2019s creation, Scripture records that \u201cdarkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.\u201d The word translated wind here is the Hebrew word ruach, which can ambiguously refer to wind, breath, or Spirit. Swept is from the Hebrew rahaf, meaning \u201cto hover,\u201d like a bird brooding or hovering over her young. God\u2019s breath hovers, and God\u2019s word speaks light and matter into being. In the beginning, the Father, the Spirit, and the Word cooperate to create the world in wisdom, and it was good! The Church would later come to recognize an epiphany\u2014a revelation\u2014of God the Holy Trinity in this passage. As God speaks light and matter into being from formlessness and void, we catch a glimpse both of who God is in himself and what his plan is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the beginning of Psalm 29, God\u2019s people are called to acknowledge God\u2019s glory and strength\u2014the weighty significance of his presence and the all-encompassing domain of his power. This God is powerful, beautiful, creative, and frankly, dangerous! \u201cThe voice of the Lord breaks the cedar trees; the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon,\u201d and \u201cthe Lord makes the oak trees writhe.\u201d The Lord \u201csits enthroned above the flood,\u201d that is, he is the eternal King who reigns from heaven, enthroned above the \u201cupper waters\u201d over the dome of the sky. This same God has given to his people his own personal Name (which the Psalmist here uses liberally), and has placed his personal address in their geographical midst. The God who has done all this will surely also give his people strength and peace. These are amazing privileges! The only proper response to this unasked-for favor from the Almighty Creator God is to rush to his temple, confess him for who he truly is in the presence of his people, and \u201cworship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.\u201d In so doing, we as the Church become the sign of his beautiful and sanctifying presence to the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
John\u2019s vocation was to prepare the people for Christ, and in so doing, he summarizes and fulfills the whole old covenant, a purpose of which was to point forward to Jesus. John\u2019s preaching and baptizing \u201cprepare the way of the Lord\u201d and \u201cgives knowledge of salvation to [God\u2019s] people by the forgiveness of their sins.\u201d John was not that light of which he preached, but he was testifying to that light, the \u201cdawn from on high [that] shall break upon us.\u201d Still, John\u2019s baptism prepared the people by calling them to repentance\u2014a full change of life in light of the coming one, \u201cwhose sandal strap [John was] not worthy to untie,\u201d who would come to judge the whole world and deliver his people from the hands of their enemies. But it is baptism in the name of Jesus that delivers what John only anticipated: God\u2019s promises (Jeremiah 31:30-34, Ezekiel 36:25-27, Joel 2:28) to make a new covenant where the people will be given a new heart with which to love and obey him, and where he would pour out his prophetic Spirit upon all flesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This scene of Jesus\u2019 baptism in the Jordan by John draws our attention back to the very beginning of Holy Scripture, where God, his Spirit, and his Word were present upon the face of the primordial deep, and creation began. As Jesus arises from the waters, the heavens are \u201ctorn open\u201d so that we might see for a moment what lies beyond the veil. We see the Spirit descending like a dove upon him, and the voice of the Father approving Jesus as his beloved son. Here again is an epiphany, mysteriously suggesting the divine identity of Jesus the man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even as Jesus humbly and fully identified with the people of Israel who were baptized (so to speak) in the Red Sea, who were once captive in Egypt and presently captive to sin, he is revealed as Israel\u2019s mighty God. When we are baptized into the name of the Trinity, we fully identify with Jesus, even as he fully identified with us and our human condition, and everything the voice of the Father declared about Jesus becomes true of us as his adopted sons and daughters. We receive his holy and life-giving Spirit and become part of Jesus\u2019 glorified Body and are freed from our former captivity to sin and death. In this scene is revealed the fulfillment of the purpose of God\u2019s work of creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Genesis 1:1-5 In the beginning of God\u2019s creation, Scripture records that \u201cdarkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.\u201d The word translated wind here is the Hebrew word ruach, which can ambiguously refer to wind, breath, or Spirit. Swept is from the Hebrew rahaf,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":201221,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[23,32,52,3],"tags":[248],"class_list":["post-766956","bible_study","type-bible_study","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible-studies","category-epiphany","category-sermons-that-work","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-epiphany-1b"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":23,"label":"Bible Studies"},{"value":32,"label":"Epiphany"},{"value":52,"label":"Sermons That Work"},{"value":3,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":248,"label":"Epiphany 1B"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bible_study\/766956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bible_study"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bible_study"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bible_study\/766956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":951844,"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bible_study\/766956\/revisions\/951844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}