Today, we commemorate the baptism of Jesus by his cousin John in the River Jordan. Now, John\u2019s that guy we\u2019ve been hearing a lot about lately (since the beginning of Advent), and after today, he will drop into the background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You see, we no longer need that voice crying in the wilderness, \u201cPrepare the way of the Lord.\u201d For the Lord is here, born on earth to save us. And we no longer have any confusion about who is the Messiah, for the one more powerful than John has come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now that babe is born. Incarnate and among us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
John\u2019s role as prophet, foretelling the great story of salvation as known in the person of Jesus Christ: well, that role is fulfilled with Jesus\u2019 baptism today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
John is sometimes seen as the last of the old order: the last prophet in the line of Isaiah and Jeremiah, the last to baptize with water only and not also the Holy Spirit, and the last to demand repentance before the immanent coming of the kingdom of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Jesus proclaims over and over again that the kingdom of God has drawn near us; it is here<\/em>, and now<\/em>. No longer coming, or far off, or even just the other side of a thin divide\u2014but here<\/em>, very near us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Among the very first documented acts of his earthly ministry, the twelve-year-old Jesus picks up a scroll and reads from an earlier prophecy of Isaiah: that the spirit of the Lord has anointed him, and that he has been sent to announce good news to the poor\u2014and that this prophecy has been fulfilled. \u201cToday, in your very hearing this text has come true,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, too, of this baptism of Jesus: it seems to have effected a radical transformation in him. Luke\u2019s gospel tells us of his birth, and then nary a word until now\u2014thirty years later. And from this moment\u2014the moment of a simple ritual of living water\u2014Jesus is changed. No longer just the carpenter\u2019s son, no longer a refugee in Egypt, no longer just another human being to walk the face of the earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He moves on from here to teach in synagogues and have all people sing his praises. He will heal the sick, and make the dead live again. He will preach, and manifest miracles. He will astound people with his teaching, and confound us even today by submitting to a shameful death on a cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And he will appear again over forty days until he ascends into heaven, prophesying of his return in glory to judge the earth\u2014a second coming we still anticipate, two millennia later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One day people know him as that clever boy, Joseph\u2019s son. And the next he\u2019s revealed as the Christ, the Messiah, the chosen one\u2014God\u2019s son, the beloved, with whom God is well pleased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his baptism, Jesus seems to have become an entirely different person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s as if the waters of his baptism have washed away what was hiding the true Jesus. The running water of a river has somehow changed him, made him manifest as who he truly is, and given him the power and inspiration to begin a mission and ministry that will forever change the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, too, with our baptism:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now filled with the Holy Spirit, we\u2014like Jesus\u2014are commissioned and sent forth to proclaim the good news of God\u2019s favor, to proclaim release for prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the broken victims go free, to proclaim that the time of God\u2019s favor is here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s our job: to live baptismally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And, living baptismally: what is that all about?<\/p>\n\n\n\n We are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ\u2019s own for ever.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Baptism is an amazing gift. By the waters of baptism, we are lead from death to life, from the bondage of sin into everlasting life. In it, we are buried with Christ in his death. By it, we share in his resurrection. Through it, we are reborn by the Holy Spirit.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n And baptism is also an awesome responsibility. We are also no longer simply to live as ordinary people in the world:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those of us who profess and call ourselves Christians are called to live a different kind of life, a life set apart from the world around us and yet somehow also very much in its midst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A life of grateful thanksgiving in the face of victory\u2014and defeat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A life of difficult forgiveness\u2014in the face of bitter betrayal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A life of ongoing repentance\u2014in the face of our chronic mistakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A life forever changed\u2014and forever changing\u2014proceeding from strength to strength, from goodness to perfection, from death to life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This wet, earthly act, involving people in relation to one another, bodies acting and touching one another, hands, clothing, oil, and light: This emotion-filled rite we call \u201cbaptism\u201d is the means by which we declare:<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is now for us\u2014the baptized, those grafted into the life of Christ, those sealed and set apart\u2014to share in an eternal priesthood, to rejoice at our adoption as children of God, and to give thanks for the ineffable mystery of our salvation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Through baptism, we are forgiven, loved, and free to become more fully who God has created us to be: living members of Christ\u2019s body, incarnate examples of divine love, manifestations of God\u2019s glory here on earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By baptism, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled\u2014in Jesus, and in each one of us. God looks at us\u2014the beloved, with whom God is well pleased\u2014and says, \u201cArise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of God has risen upon you.\u201d Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This sermon was written by the Rev. J. Barrington Bates<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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