Baptism of Christ

Isaiah 43:1-7 – PSALM 29 – Acts 8:14-17 – Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

The Very Rev’d Bertrand Oliver, Dean and Rector

‘When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; When you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God’.

Our news media are full of them, contrasting images of wild fires – such as those currently devastating Los Angeles – with flooding waters resulting from heavier than normal rains in other parts of the world. It feels like there is no end of it, that the world is out of control.

We heard from Nasa scientists this past week that 2024 was the hottest year on record for our planet, with a global rise in temperature of 1.28c, the fifteenth monthly temperature record rise – and so it may not be a great surprise that climate change predictions continue to be fulfilled, not only in continents or countries far away, but very close to home now too.

Many of us are concerned and anxious. Yet, in many places, politicians are continuing to win votes through promising the rollback of prevention measures designed to help reduce our human carbon footprint.

These measures may indeed be an inconvenience and a cost to us, while affecting profit for Big Oil. At the same time, the consequences of going back are potential further disasters in ever greater numbers, with ever more loss of land and loss of lives. Not a palatable apocalyptic prospect.

And so, how do we live out the tension between our personal desires and their impact on the world? On our communities? On ourselves?

In the Roman extractive economy of the times of Jesus, the situation may not have been quite so dire, but there were already consequences of the deforestation of Palestine by the Roman occupier as well as the building of the roads that accompanied it, fracturing the environment and impacting the local ecosystems.

There was deep unsatisfaction at the collusion of religious authorities with the occupying power, and the ensuing oppression, and the people are eagerly awaiting the promised Messiah – God’s anointed one – to bring change and give them renewed dignity and hope.

And so John the Baptist attracts many who are stirred by his call to repentance – in Greek, meta-noia: a change of mind – a radical change of life, change of ways, turning away from what causes harm to self, to others and to the world and set forth on a better path.

And to symbolise this change, John uses a rite of purification with water – a rite used to mark the conversion of gentiles to Judaism. Now marking a new conversion.

In the short account from the evangelist Luke this morning, we hear John defending himself from being the one they await, announcing that another more powerful will come – one who baptises with Holy Spirit and fire.

The image of the winnowing fork sounds rather frightening until we realise that the process is about removing the chaff – the now unnecessary outer layers – in order to unearth the kernel – the pearl of great price. Seen in that way, an encounter with this person of formidable power sounds a lot more of a positive and inclusive encounter, looking to uncover the good at the heart of all of us if only we will allow it.

St Luke fast-forwards the scene to the point when all the people have been baptized – and ‘Jesus also’ – to tell us about an unexpected sign.

A dove descending, a symbol of the Holy Spirit – and the voice of God identifying Jesus as his son with whom he is well pleased.

This is the second Epiphany – manifestation of the Divinity of Jesus – after the visit of the Magi to Bethlehem to meet him as a newborn, and before the third Epiphany – the wedding at Cana, his first miracle, which we will hear next week.

What is particularly significant in this second epiphany is that it highlights God’s incarnation in Jesus, not as an avatar with full divine power walking among us. Instead he is a human being entering fully into our experience, and who despite his Godly pedigree also joins the rest of us to consider his life and turn it around.

This is a reminder of the humility of God in taking our human form in Jesus – as a baby, and now a grown adult – not second guessing our experience, but instead fully entering into considering change from what he has learnt and done so far in order to move the world on to be what God had created it to be in the first place.

All of us who are baptised will in a moment have an opportunity to consider our baptism, and the promises that we made for ourselves, or that were made on our behalf.

These were not lightweight promises, they were promises that propelled us in a particular direction, and for which we were sealed by the Holy Spirit to help.

Today they continue to be life-changing promises, if we will truly live by them, encouraging us forward to contribute to nurturing God’s creation.

And so before renewing our baptismal promises together, take a moment to consider your life in the light of your baptism.

Where are the areas where you need God’s help to continue to change in order to become who you are?
What are the things that hold you back which you need to let go?

When are you still tempted by the forces of evil that surround us and how can you hold on to your baptismal promises to resist them?

And how well do you work to safeguard God’s creation, especially at a time when it is visibly straining?
There are forces rising around the world that are visibly working against God’s desire for a world in which the whole creation would thrive in peace, love and joy.

And we may feel afraid and powerless at what might be around the corner.

When the prophet Isaiah prophesied deliverance to the people of Israel in captivity in Babylon, God’s words that he spoke to them were words of comfort and reassurance, prefaced by the words: Do not fear! God promised to be with them, to be their Saviour, as God is present with us today, keeping alight the flame of Christian hope.

Not a naïve hope that we will not have to experience what we wish we might never have to experience – but a hope that we will not be alone at the time because God will be with us, as Jesus was with the crowds on the River Jordan.

I would like to finish by inviting you to stand. Shake your body a little, and then stand tall – like those who had just been baptized in the Jordan. Awed at the magnitude of what had happened to them, trying to feel what is different in you.

And then close your eyes – sense the air moving in this place like the Holy Spirit, caressing your face.

And hear these words from God:
‘I have called you by name and you are mine’.
‘You are my child, the Beloved. With you I am well pleased’.

Amen