When we celebrate the baptism of Jesus, we are remembering why this, rather than birth, is the beginning of his, and our, story.
The First Sunday after the Epiphany
Collect
Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan proclaimed him your beloved Son and anointed him with the Holy Spirit: Grant that all who are baptized into his Name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly confess him as Lord and Savior; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting.
Amen.
Reading
From Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
“And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.””
Reflection
The Gospel of Mark begins with the story of Jesus’s baptism. Matthew and Luke offer the birth stories and give us a glimpse of the world that Jesus was born into. But other than his infancy (and a strange moment when Jesus turns twelve), the story of Jesus really begins here.
The ancient church made sure the people understood this as the beginning. They made baptism central to the life of faith: a moment of turning from old ways and toward this new way with Christ at the center.
It seems that over time, our priorities have shifted. We’ve made Christmas and Holy Week the tentpoles of our faith tradition.
Sometimes it seems like this has come at a cost.
A cost of missing the Epiphany and the baptism as the real start to the story because it serves as the start of our story.
This is not to say that our lives before baptism are irrelevant. Much the opposite, in fact. The sense of call, especially among adults to receive baptism is a genuine and certain encounter with God. This does not discount that.
What it does point to, however, is the beginning of a new life of faith. It is death. And it is rebirth. It is an end to one life and a beginning to a new one. And this is something we always celebrate.
Pleased
When the voice of God speaks to Jesus and says
“You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased”
we can’t help but wonder what is so pleasing! What has he done to deserve God’s pleasure? Was it something before, which invalidates this as a beginning? Is it pleasure in his being baptized by John? What is so pleasing?
We can’t know for sure, but I suspect that this isn’t a merited affirmation but a generous one. God looks upon this child of God and says you, in your youness, please me.
This is not the same as saying we are to remain in the prelude to our story; this life of faith. Remaining unchanged by the grace of God in the blessing of our createdness. No, we are called to live into a changed life by the one who changes.
And this calling, into change, is because we are blessed, loved, and wonderfully made. So we can start again, with a clean slate, to love the world. Because nothing pleases God more than new beginnings and opportunities to create something fresh, vibrant, and abundantly new.