Sermon Archive
Readings for 14 January 2007
The First Sunday After Epiphany
The Baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Year C
Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my spirit upon him;
he will bring forth justice to the nations.
He will not cry or lift up his voice,
or make it heard in the street;
a bruised reed he will not break,
and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
He will not grow faint or be crushed
until he has established justice in the earth;
and the coastlands wait for his teaching.
Thus says God, the Lord,
who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people upon it
and spirit to those who walk in it:
I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness,
I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
I have given you as a covenant to the people,
a light to the nations,
to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
from the prison those who sit in darkness.
I am the Lord, that is my name;
my glory I give to no other,
nor my praise to idols.
See, the former things have come to pass,
and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth,
I tell you of them.
Then Peter began to speak to them: ‘I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 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.
Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, 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 Rev. Jack Zamboni
The Holy Spirit descended on Jesus in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, the beloved, in you I am well pleased.”
Today we keep the Feast of the Baptism of Christ. This is the day the Church celebrates Jesus’ naming as God’s beloved Child. This is the day we recall that Jesus was empowered by the Holy Spirit for the ministry he lived. This is the day he was chosen and sent by God to be a light to the nations and bring forth justice, to proclaim release to the captives and open eyes that are blind, to bring good news to the poor and let the oppressed go free, to proclaim that the time of the Lord’s favor is at hand.
This Feast of the Baptism of Christ is also the day when we claim Baptism as the foundational Sacrament of our life in Christ and of Christian ministry. For Baptism is not just a religious to name a baby; it is not just the traditional membership ceremony for joining the church; it is not just the ritual washing away of the sin we’ve accumulated in life, short or long. To be sure, Baptism is all these things, but it is much more: Baptism is God naming us as beloved daughters and sons; Baptism is God empowering us with the Holy Spirit for the ministry we are to live. Baptism is how we are chosen and sent by God to be a light to the nations and bring forth justice, to proclaim release to the captives and open eyes that are blind, to bring good news to the poor and let the oppressed go free, to proclaim that the time of the Lord’s favor is at hand. It is our call to and empowerment for this ministry which was Jesus’ and is also ours that we will enact when we renew the Baptismal Covenant together shortly.
It happens also that this particular Feast of the Baptism of Christ in this parish is also the day we celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Mother Susan’s ordination to the priesthood --and we are delighted that many of her family and friends are here to share that celebration with us. Susy will be relieved, I suspect, to know that I’m not going to say anything about her particular exercise of priesthood now – that will come later!
But I do want to take the confluence of this Feast of the Baptism of Christ and the anniversary of her ordination to the priesthood to say few things about priesthood and what it has to do with the Christ whose Baptism we celebrate today and with our Baptisms which we renew today.
Though we are making a big deal of Susy’s ordination anniversary today, it is important to remember that Baptism, not Ordiantion is the foundational Sacrament of life in Christ and Christian ministry. This is true in a chronological way: John and others were baptizing people before the idea that some of the baptized might be chosen and ordained for particular ministries showed up in the life of the early Church.
More deeply, Baptism is what connects all Christians to the priesthood of Jesus. Jesus’ priesthood is his work of reconciling the world to God; bringing God’s peace and justice to a violent world; making God’s gracious, forgiving love present in human lives; pouring God’s healing and blessing on those in need. To say that Jesus is a priest – The Priest – is to say that he is the connector; the One who, stretched out on the Cross, bridged the immense chasm which we humans have put between ourselves and God to restore all people to unity with our Creator.
We who are baptized into Christ are to make that healing, blessing, forgiving, justice-building, reconciling, loving priesthood of Christ real in the world here and now. If you pay attention to what we will say in the Baptismal Covenant, you will see that you are promising, with God’s help, to make this priesthood of Christ present in your lives -- and you will understand why, at every Baptism, we invite the newly baptized to “join with us in [Christ’s] eternal priesthood.”
But if all this is so, why does the Church bother to choose and ordain some of its members to be priests in some distinct way? If all of you are priests by Baptism – and you are – what is the point of having ordained priests like Susy and me around? Perhaps the most basic answer is that we are here to lead and enable you to be the priests of Christ that God calls you to be in the world. That happens in at least two ways.
First, ordained priests are here to be priests to and for you, so that you may know in your own experience what it is to have the priesthood of Christ show up in your lives. In preaching God’s Word, in presiding at the Eucharist and feeding you with the Sacrament; in hearing confessions and pronouncing absolution, in praying for healing and speaking God’s blessing, in being present at times of joy and sorrow, birth and death, we are to be signs and agents of the Christ who connects and reconnects broken and sinful humanity with God.
That means that whether we like it or not – and sometimes we don’t – we find ourselves being walking God-symbols: called to manifest the presence of Christ to the people to whom we minister so that you may know that the God who became an incarnate priest in Christ is present and real today. Needless to say, all of us ordained as priests live this calling in ways that can most charitably be called inadequate. That is one of the many reasons that we, too, need others to be priests to us.
However, if the ministry of Christ’s priesthood that we seek to offer to you stops here in the Church, then there is a more serious problem than ordinary human inadequacy. For in being priests to you, we are meant to remind you that you, the Baptized, are called to be Christ’s priests out there, to carry on Christ’s work of reconciliation in the world.
You are to be priest to people that Susy and I will never meet, but who are as hungry for God as you are; who need you to tell them the Good News of God’s love in Christ; who want you to share the healing love of God with them when their hearts, bodies or lives are broken; and to shower God’s blessing and offer God’s forgiving love to them in all the places that you work, learn, live and play. You are to live Christ’s priesthood in the world.
It is sometimes said that a priest is to be an alter Christus – Latin for “another Christ.” If that is so, it is as true of you, the baptized priestly people of God, as it us of those ordained as priests. If on this anniversary day we celebrate Susy’s call to be alter Christus in her ordination as a priest, on this Baptismal Feast of, we also celebrate that you are all alter Christi in Baptism.
To be alter Christi is rather heady stuff. For any of us to represent Christ in the Church or the world is rather a lot – we can be overwhelmed by the responsibility or, perhaps, get an inflated sense of how important we are. So in closing today, I want to tweak that image slightly by recalling the other major character in today’s Gospel story, John the Baptist.
Luke tells us that everyone was wondering whether John himself might be the hoped for Messiah, the Christ. John answered, “I baptize you with water. But after me is coming One much more powerful than I.” John knows his role, and it is an important one. But here, and always in the Gospels, he points away from himself, and towards Jesus.
So, too, must we. We are all called, in different ways, to represent Christ as priests, at times to be Christ for others. But like John, we need still always to point away from ourselves towards Jesus, the real priest and the source of any priesthood any of has. Today on this Feast we celebrate our common calling to share Christ’s priesthood in Baptism and Susy’s particular calling to share Christ’s priesthood in Ordination. But in the end, it is not about her and it is not about us – it is about Christ. The priesthood we celebrate today in Baptism and Ordination is Christ’s priesthood, the priesthood of the Beloved Son who gave himself to reconcile the world to God. In nomine
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