01 Epiphany C 10
Baptism of Our Lord
January 10, 2010
Isaiah 43:1-7
1 But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
2 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.
3 For I am the LORD your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
I give Egypt as your ransom,
Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you.
4 Because you are precious in my sight,
and honored, and I love you,
I give people in return for you,
nations in exchange for your life.
5 Do not fear, for I am with you;
I will bring your offspring from the east,
and from the west I will gather you;
6 I will say to the north, "Give them up,"
and to the south, "Do not withhold;
bring my sons from far away
and my daughters from the end of the earth--
7 everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made."

Psalm 29
1 Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings,
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
2 Ascribe to the LORD the glory of his name;
worship the LORD in holy splendor.
3 The voice of the LORD is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders,
the LORD, over mighty waters.
4 The voice of the LORD is powerful;
the voice of the LORD is full of majesty.
5 The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars;
the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes Lebanon skip like a calf,
and Sirion like a young wild ox.
7 The voice of the LORD flashes forth flames of fire.
8 The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness;
the LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
9 The voice of the LORD causes the oaks to whirl,
and strips the forest bare;
and in his temple all say, "Glory!"
10 The LORD sits enthroned over the flood;
the LORD sits enthroned as king forever.
11 May the LORD give strength to his people!
May the LORD bless his people with peace!

Acts 8:14-17
14 Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. 15 The two went down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit 16 (for as yet the Spirit had not come upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus). 17 Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
15 As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 16 John answered all of them by saying, "I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."
21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."

The Light of the Spirit

We got a new kitten. A little calico thing. We’re enjoying all that new kitten joy. The leaps and the sideways crab-walks and the sudden turns and the knocking things over and the scratched-up hands.

And of course we have a problem. The all-important problem of the name.

Now we try to make an art out of naming pets. We named the noble border collie-collie mix Sheba. We named the obstreperous little Pomeranian Booger. We named the haughty orange cat we found in the trash bin at Little Sue Mary, Queen of the Dumpster. We named our mischievous black cat Rumpus O’Hooligan.

Now when it comes to our cats, Rumpus and Mary, the names have ended up being truly effective. Yes, it’s true, we have perhaps the only two cats in the world that actually come when you call them. We’re not sure how that happened. It seemed magical. Cats, as we all know, are rarely obedient.

Finally, just yesterday, Liz reported that the kitten responded to the name “Abby.” And so I guess our new family member has received her name. Whether she will come when it is called is another story.

God says, “I have called you by name, you are mine,” and “the voice of the Lord,” the psalmist says, “is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.” The apostles Peter and John went up to Samaria, to people Jews in that day called second-class citizens and heretics, because the deacon Philip had preached to them and many had been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, but, Luke says, “as yet, the Spirit had not come upon any of them.”

And in our gospel today, we find that Luke barely mentions Jesus’ baptism. He seems to skip right by it. The obvious point of this particular story is that the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus in bodily form like a dove, accompanied by a voice, the voice of the LORD, who then gives Jesus his identity.

“You are my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

Luke’s story of Jesus’ birth and childhood are really a prelude to the real beginning of the story of Jesus. Both Mark and John begin not with any stories of childhood, but with this story. If I was going to give it a title, it would be “The Commissioning of the Messiah.”

Angels may have spoken to Mary and to Zechariah, but no angel is here, no intermediary is needed. God gives Jesus a name, and that name lays out his mission. The point of our naming our kitten is in the hope that she will answer to it. The point of Jesus naming Jesus “my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased,” is to give him the mission he is about to carry out.

God might as well have said, “This is the Savior of the World.”

Now Luke also seems to suggest that all the baptized people gathered around both saw the dove descend and heard the voice. Paul says in 1 Corinthians that no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus says to Peter when Peter makes his confession, “You are the Christ,” that “flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.”

I know that when I began to sense the presence of the Holy Spirit at work in the my life, and this was only about six years ago, I realized that this was a very big deal. Yes, it certainly meant that I had been given direction and purpose, that my decisions seemed to show better judgment, and that things just started to work out better, but there was something much greater than all of this that had been given to me.

John says, “I baptize you with water, but there is one coming after me who will baptize you with fire and the Holy Spirit.” And as soon as they are all baptized with water, sure enough, here he comes.

I’m not sure how I can put this other than to say that while baptism set things right between me and God, the Holy Spirit revealed to me the living Jesus Christ hidden behind the prophet and teacher who died two thousand years ago, showed me his righteousness and truth, showed me how terribly important it was to know him and follow him and learn from him and live in him. My life became not about me but about Jesus. My name no longer mattered. His name matters.

We’re studying the book of Luke on Wednesday evenings, and one of the things I’ve been saying there, as I’ve been saying here for some time, is that this book, this wonderful book, is not in itself God. This book is not to be worshiped. It is not an idol. It is nevertheless the most wonderful book, because it points to the Holy Spirit of God, who in turn points to Jesus the Christ, who in turn points to our Father in heaven. It is a wonderful book, but it has no value to me beyond this, that it has led me to receive the Spirit, to know Christ and through Christ to know God.

Through this gift of the Holy Spirit, we can meet this living Jesus, and we can truly know God and God’s will for each and every one of us, for us all as a family of faith and for all the world, for the Holy Spirit is the very voice of God.

This was and continues to be the mission of Jesus, to give us and everyone whom he chooses, the Holy Spirit. It’s this gift that makes equals of us all, that brings those of us who are mighty down from our thrones and lifts up those of us who are lowly, that gives the hungry good things and sends the rich away empty, that carries those of us who must cross the river or enter the fire, and most importantly, the Holy Spirit is the power that puts the one right person in power forever, this person Jesus.

Amen.