St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD
January 7, 2024
Year B: The First Sunday after the Epiphany – The Baptism of Our Lord
Genesis 1:1-5
Psalm 29
Acts 19:1-7
Mark 1:4-11
“Faith is Always Personal, But Never Private”
Well, the Christmas Season came to an end yesterday.
It was the Feast of the Epiphany – the day when we remember the Magi, who, led by a star but at great risk, traveled so far, bearing their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh for the newborn King.
Here at St. Thomas’, we celebrated the Epiphany in a rather unusual way: we had a wedding!
It was a joy to celebrate the marriage of Jessica Nyce (who grew up here) and Brian Parker in our church still so beautifully decorated for Christmas.
It was a joy to celebrate love, the greatest of God’s good gifts.
And now today we jump ahead a couple of decades after the Epiphany, skipping over the years of Jesus’s childhood and young adulthood, the years of his life that we know almost nothing about.
Today we jump ahead to a grown up Jesus beginning his mission – a mission that begins in the water of baptism.
Just like beautiful little Aitana here last week, just like most, if not all, of us, Jesus was baptized.
Isn’t that extraordinary?
All four of the gospels include something about the baptism of Jesus, in somewhat different ways, but I love how Mark – the earliest and most succinct of the four, the one I just read for us – I love how Mark tells the story.
In Mark’s account, Jesus is on the move, making the journey from his hometown of Nazareth in Galilee all the way to where John is baptizing in the River Jordan, a trip that was maybe about 150 miles.
So, this isn’t a case of Jesus just happened to be walking by, heard John’s preaching, and made a snap decision to get in line and get dunked with everybody else.
This wasn’t an “impulse baptism.”
No, Jesus is purposeful – he’s ready to begin his mission – presumably he has said goodbye for now to his family, including his mother Mary who must have always known, and perhaps dreaded, that this day would come.
And somehow Jesus knows that his mission must begin by being baptized by John – the messenger who has prepared the way.
It’s time to get started.
The kingdom of God is drawing near.
And the way Mark tells the story, Jesus’ baptism is a personal encounter between God the Father and Jesus the Son.
As Jesus comes up out of the water, he sees the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descends on him like a dove.
The kingdom of God is drawing near, very near.
And the voice from heaven says to Jesus – not to John and not to the others who were being baptized – but only to Jesus, directly:
“You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
And then, soaked with the baptismal water, and with the voice from heaven still ringing in his ears, Jesus begins his mission – first, driven by the Spirit to endure forty days and nights in the wilderness, and then traveling from village to village, teaching and healing, gathering followers and casting out demons, and finally giving away his life in loving service to God the Father and to all of us.
And it all began with baptism.
I’m sure I must have mentioned to you how much I love baptizing people.
But I’m not sure I’ve told you why, exactly.
Well, Baptism is such a beautiful celebration of new life and hope.
And I love that we baptize people right in the middle of our Sunday service, reminding us all that, once upon a time, that was us, and giving us the opportunity to renew our baptismal promises, pledging once again to pray, repent, share, and love.
With God’s help, of course.
So, I love Baptism for all of that.
But, I confess, that my love of Baptism is partly selfish.
At every Baptism, I always have the best view.
And, while every Baptism is certainly a personal encounter between God and the person being baptized, it’s not private.
Every time, I can sense God’s grace.
In that holy moment, I can feel the indissoluble bond that God makes in Baptism – the bond God makes with the person just baptized – the bond God has made with with all of us – the bond that can never be broken, no matter what.
I mean, really, what could be better, right?
One of my all-time favorite quotes comes from Jim Wallis. He’s a writer, theologian, and activist. Maybe some of you have heard of him. He was the founder of the Christian organization Sojourners, and the longtime editor of its magazine.
Wallis wrote that for us Christians, “Faith is always personal, but never private.”
“Faith is always personal, but never private.”
I recalled those words when I reflected on Jesus’ baptism, on our baptism, and on our life together as the church, especially these days.
At his baptism, Jesus the Son had a personal encounter with God the Father.
And that personal, one-on-one encounter must have changed Jesus.
We can’t be sure how exactly, but after being bathed in that water and seeing the descending Spirit and hearing the voice from heaven, how could Jesus have been the same as before?
And after that personal experience, Jesus doesn’t just head back home to Nazareth, warmly greeted by a relieved Mary and the others.
Jesus doesn’t just keep his baptismal experience in his heart, treasuring his own personal encounter with God.
No.
Knowing for sure that he is beloved, Jesus immediately begins his ministry, out in a world where some will welcome and embrace him and where others will reject him and some will even seek to be rid of him.
“Faith is always personal, but never private.”
In last week’s sermon, I suggested that we are meant to be like the lights on our Christmas tree, shining the light of Christ, all year long.
But I was talking about our Christmas tree out there in the circle, not the Christmas tree in our home.
We have to shine our lights out there, into our often shadowy and cold and inhospitable world.
We have to shine our lights to lead people to Jesus, just like the star led the Magi.
Part of that shining is doing good works – the good works that St. Thomas’ has long done so faithfully and generously.
But part of that shining is also telling our story, sharing with others why our faith is important and meaningful to us, why we come here week after week, how God has been so good to us - explaining why we’ve decided to follow the way of Jesus, despite the very real costs.
I suspect that this kind of shining – the telling of our story – is much harder for most of us than doing good works.
Yet, especially these days, when fear and hate are on the loose, we have such an important – such a vital story – to tell.
In so many different and personal ways, God has brought all of us together here at St. Thomas’ – to be a sign for our community and beyond that it’s possible for people of different backgrounds and with various ideas to pray and serve together, to love one another.
In our beautiful diversity, we know that we are all beloved by God.
And our mission, which begins in the water of baptism, is to share that Good News, in what we do – and by what we say.
“Faith is always personal, but never private.”
Amen.
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