Baptism an Epiphany of God's Grace

Yesterday, Jan 10th, we celebrated the Baptism of Jesus in our church, and as we are also in the season of Epiphany I started thinking about these two together and how in Jesus baptism there is an Epiphany of who God is that gives much meaning to our own.


Jesus came to John to be baptized, and in Luke's gospel it says "when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descend upon him in form like a dove.  And the voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased." (Luke 3:21-22) Jesus was baptized in the same water as all others who came to John, and while that is significant in that Jesus although he was without sin, identifies with us as one who walked in the flesh with us.  What happened in and after Jesus baptism was quite significant in that it tells us much about Jesus but also about the father.  In Mark's gospel he doesn't just say that the heavens were opened but that they were torn apart (Mark 1:10),  telling us that something pretty dramatic happened there.  It is very likely that something very dramatic did indeed happen because it is not just spoken about in this way in one gospel, but in all three. The heavens were opened, the Spirit defended in bodily form of the dove, and the Father spoke saying, 'You are my Son, the beloved, in whom I am will please."   Revealing all three persons of the Trinity, active and present in Jesus baptism. In the tradition of our faith believing God to be present in all three forms in our own baptisms and continues to be so throughout our lives, we baptize too with water as the cleansing sign of God's presence, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

The heavens being torn apart signify what God was doing in giving his Son for the sins of the world, no longer kept at a distance by our sin, but free to come and be with us in Jesus who was without sin.  Now in that there is an Epiphany, I know.  God came into this sinful world to reclaim  us as his own.  "You are my Son, the beloved in whom I am well pleased."  The Father didn't just claim Jesus as his Son, but affirmed him to be His Son.  Jesus was the Son of God, fully in flesh but also fully divine.  Jesus after his baptism was driven by the Spirit into the desert, the wilderness, for forty days where he was tempted by the devil.  Jesus claiming his identity as God's Son didn't fall for the temptations Satan threw at him, but walked out of the desert ready and able to begin his ministry in the world, teaching, preaching, and healing, proclaiming the kingdom of God in the world. If we were ever so faithful to God's teaching, to the promises we make in our own baptism might we too be ever more able to resist the temptations of this world. Temptations that destroy the creatures of God.

Baptism is not so much about what happens in the ritual practice we perform at our baptisms, the pouring of water, the blessing, the giving of light, or being marked with the cross.  Even though all that has great significance for us in what it all stands for and the meaning it brings to our own baptism, in that it signifies for us that God is present in our baptisms as he was in Jesus baptism.  Baptism however is more about all that comes after, being a baptized persons means we intend to live and grow in the faith traditions of our church, keeping the promises we make and were made for us in our baptism. Believing and trusting that God is with us in the world as he was and is with us in baptism.  If we believe and trust in that promise for our lives, as baptized persons we can become confident individuals knowing and experiencing God's presence in and throughout our lives.

Will we see the skies open, the spirit descending in bodily form or God's voice speaking audibly to us as he did in Jesus baptism, perhaps not, but if we are open to his revealing we can live in and through his grace and find God in places and things and become persons and do things perhaps we never thought possible, if we trust in God's Grace and Mercy to help us.

All you have to do is ask someone who have overcome a tremendous battle with Cancer, or someone who has fought the demons of some addiction and overcome it, and the Majority of people will say that  "without God I would never have made it." In that we know there are mountains that can be moved, because God has been a vivid and powerful reality in it.

God comes to us in powerful and profound ways,  perhaps we won't literally move mountains as Jesus seems to say we will do in scripture.  Although we know he is speaking metaphorically,  we know also that it is being open to God's revealing, that you will indeed come to know and recognize his presence in and for your own lives and in the lives of others, because you will know God, and God's ways.

Remembering our baptism, holding onto the promise we are given in it, that united with Christ in our baptism, we are never away from him, we may go our own way in the world, but God doesn't leave us. Our baptisms are indissoluble, binding, in that being united with Christ and his Church, we are joined to him forever. We are never alone in the world.  In that there is an Epiphany too, that God will never leave us but also we have been baptized into the same family of the church as all others who were baptized before us and since Christ. Now that is a real Epiphany, that we are a part of something that has been around for almost 2000 years, and that is something worth celebrating and giving thanks for.

In that there is real gift and promise in that God is always with us.  Holding onto that promise and carrying it throughout our lives,  we will come to depend on him in the difficult times for the strength we need, rely on him in the desperate times knowing we can do nothing without him, and in the times of joy and abundance we will come to know him too in our rejoicing. In and through it all, we know, that God is.

Baptism for us is an Epiphany, an Epiphany of God's revealing. As Jesus walked into the dirty waters of the Jordan with all the others who were being baptized, he signified the significance of what he was doing, in becoming the cleansing body for the forgiveness of our sin in the world. Now in that there is an Epiphany for sure, that God cared enough to give his only Son for the sake of us all. God's Grace revealed!

Amen, God Bless.