Baptism of Our Lord
Sermon for Epiphany 1A — The Baptism of Our Lord
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
The Rev. Andrew McLarty
I am deeply saddened by the arson that took place yesterday at Beth Israel Synagogue in Jackson, yesterday. It is a beautiful house of worship that I have had the honor to visit several times when I lived there. It is a highly respected part of that community, and its members are some of the most active in the larger population.
I am sad because, as the Covenant People of God, our Jewish brothers and sisters hold a special place in the Kingdom of God...
Today is the first Sunday after Epiphany, the Feast of the Baptism of our Lord. In today’s Gospel, Jesus comes to the Jordan, not receiving our baptism. He is receiving John’s baptism—a baptism of repentance, a washing away of sin. And yet Jesus is sinless. He has nothing to confess, nothing to wash away.
Jesus is demonstrating solidarity. He stands where we stand. He joins himself to humanity in its mess and desire for more. He wades into the same river as everyone else, with people saddled by shame, by sin, living unfinished lives. And in that moment, the heavens open, the Spirit descends, and God declares, “You are my beloved.”
Baptism, from the very beginning, is about relationship.
Peter says in Acts, “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism, but accepts from every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right.” God shows him that what he once called unclean is now called holy. It leads him to the house of Cornelius, an outsider and gentile, someone Peter never imagined would belong.
And all of this has me thinking about the risk and the gift of baptism. About relationship. About the ways God calls us together. About the ways God surprises us—through people we did not expect, through neighbors we did not choose.
We discover that we must learn from the neighbors set in front of us. Baptism expands our community. It expands what is possible.
It gives us a more expansive view of God, and a more expansive view of our neighbor—and of our need for our neighbors.
It is easy to think of baptism as an individual moment: one person choosing Christ. But in truth, it is a communal event.
Every baptism is built upon vows. Promises made not just by the one recieving the water, but by all of us. We pledge to walk together into an unknown future. We consent to be responsible for one another.
Baptism is a shout of solidarity, one neighbor to another, bringing us all into the circle.
It is a shout that dares to say: Open the heavens again. Send your Spirit again. Bind us together again.
Just as Jesus entered into the water for us, we enter into the water for one another. And in that shared river, God keeps making us a people. So that all may realize that we are all God's, and in whose Spirit we bound together by love.
Amen.
