In the beginning…
On this first Sunday after the Epiphany, when we remember the Baptism of our Lord, we focus on beginnings.
The sacrament of Baptism is itself a beginning, where new members of the Church are born again. Certain days in the church year—the Easter Vigil, Pentecost, All Saints’ Day and this First Sunday after Epiphany—are especially appropriate days for baptisms. This day has particular meaning for me, as it was 21 years ago on the First Sunday after Epiphany that my wife and I stood before the members of St. Andrew’s Church in San Antonio as our son was baptized.
In our liturgy, baptism is expected to take place in front of the whole congregation as a part of the chief service on a Sunday or other feast day. This is because the entire church is involved; while there are sponsors or godparents, everyone attending promises to “do all in [our] power to support these persons in their life in Christ.” In a few minutes, we will renew our baptismal vows and make a new set of promises to God.
We will state again our renunciation of evil and renew our commitment to Jesus Christ and promise, with God’s help
- to continue in the Church’s teaching, community, sacraments, and prayers
- to never give in to evil, and, when we inevitably stray, to change our paths and return to God’s path
- to proclaim the Gospel not just with our lips but with our lives
- to look for Christ in every person, following his commandment to love all of our neighbors as ourselves
- to work for the justice and peace of the Kingdom of God throughout the world, and to remember that every human being has been created in God’s image
There is a common thread in our readings today: each of them refers to beginnings and in each of them the Holy Spirit is seen to act.
We have the beautiful Priestly creation story from Genesis—the ultimate beginning. Before there was Light, there was a “wind from God” sweeping over the waters. The Hebrew word here is ruach which can be translated alternatively as “wind,” “breath”, or “spirit”. The Holy Spirit—the “wind from God”—was present and acting in the Creation.
In our reading from Acts, we hear of some problems in the infant Church in the town of Ephesus. Paul learns that the people there who had been baptized were baptized after the manner of John the Baptist, not in the name of Jesus. The problem with this is that the Holy Spirit was missing from the process, indeed they had not even heard of a Holy Spirit. Paul baptized them again in the name of Jesus and this time, the Holy Spirit came upon them. The Holy Spirit is a part of every Christian baptism. And so, as Jesus commanded the disciples at the end of Matthew’s Gospel to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” the Church has done and this Trinitarian formula is still honored, even in Churches who don’t have a strong liturgical tradition.
We have Mark’s description of Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. As Acts notes, John’s baptism is a baptism of repentance of sin. “Repentance” is more than feeling bad at having sinned; it is a turning from the path that led to that sin so that it will not be repeated.
Jesus joined in the crowds of humanity being baptized, not because he had sinned, but both to show our common human nature and so that God may be revealed.
The details vary a bit between the Gospel about what, if anything, John and Jesus said and who heard the voice from heaven. But clearly the Holy Spirit appeared in this baptism and here in Mark, the heavens are torn apart, the boundary between heaven and earth is breached. Jesus’ baptism is thus connected with the two other times when the boundaries are “torn apart”—in the Transfiguration and at Jesus’ death, when the veil of the Temple, the boundary of the Holy of Holies, was torn from top to bottom.
Karl Barth wrote that God’s claiming of Jesus as his son in this reading summarizes the essence of the Gospel: God does not remain hidden in the heights of heaven but descends to the depths of earthly life so that we might see and hear him.
This naming of Jesus as the Son of God will be repeated at the Transfiguration; it is that title which convicts Jesus of blasphemy at his trial; and it is that title which the soldier repeats at the foot of the cross. Golgotha confirmed the title Jesus received at the River Jordan. God’s hailing of Jesus as “Son” was Jesus’ entrance onto the path that led inevitably to the Cross. And, just as with Jesus, our baptism starts us on a road where we bear our own cross and saving our own life only by losing it.
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