jan-8-epiphany-1.md 

                Sun, Jan 8, 2017

Lectionary

lectionary

  • “who at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan proclaimed him your beloved Son and anointed him with the Holy Spirit” from collect – also connecting to baptism of all of us
  • Suffering Servant – bold language and vision
  • Peter sermon overview of message
  • Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth

A light to the nations – from Isaiah

Once again I am drawn to the power, the laser-like precision that the prophet Isaiah speaks to our own time as well as the time of the Messiah and his own time as well. His words seem to speak to all eternity – every-present, always relevant.

“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.”

1st Sunday after Epiphany

We hear these lessons on this, the first Sunday after the day of Epiphany – the 12 days of Christmas. The lessons during this season were fashioned over the past century to bring light and focus to this season of Epiphany, drawing on the model of the most ancient church – especially the Orthodox tradition.

(from Orth Church in America) The services of Epiphany are set up exactly as those of Christmas, although historically it was most certainly Christmas which was made to imitate Epiphany since it was established later.

  • Epiphany means shining forth or manifestation. The feast is often called, as it is in the Orthodox service books, Theophany, which means the shining forth and manifestation of God. The emphasis in the present day celebration is on the appearance of Jesus as the human Messiah of Israel and the divine Son of God, One of the Holy Trinity with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

  • This observance commemorates Christ’s baptism by John the Forerunner in the River Jordan, and the beginning of Christ’s earthly ministry. The Feast of Theophany is the culmination of the Christmas Season, which starts on December 25 and ends on January 6. In mystic commemoration of this event, the Great Blessing of Water is performed on this day, and the holy water so blessed is used by the local priest to bless the homes of the faithful.

The season – what in the Catholic church is called ordinary time – is not just, “Oh, back to wearing Green”. It links the power we have celebrated over the past weeks, the power of incarnation together with the responsibility each of us has as followers of the Incarnate one. The significance of who this child of God named Jesus is made manifest to us who choose to follow him and proclaim it principally through Baptism. This season links Incarnation and Manifestation.

Baptism

Christmas as we know all too well can be trivialized. Each of us in this room, I believe, try in our own way to move beyond a sentimental appreciation of the innocence, tenderness, and vulnerability of an infant – to an appreciation and affirmation of the tremendous possibility and responsibility of being a grown up person – the one that infant is intended to be.

So also Epiphany has been kept tidy in a box for centuries as being the celebration of the 3 wisemen to the baby Jesus. It fills out the creché and makes it complete for the photos we post on Pinterest.

Historically the feast may well have predated the celebration of Christmas by more than a century. Epiphany and Christmas together mark a most momentous truth for any Christian to proclaim.

Jesus was born a human being, humble as that is, and he became known, he was manifest to the world, as the Messiah and Son of God.

The season is marked above all by the account of Jesus’ baptism by John. The way had been prepared by the prophets – John being the latest example. And it was at that moment that God Himself announced to the world the relationship between Jesus and God.

This is my beloved son!

And so it is that we can see Jesus’ baptism as the beginning of his ministry, the beginning of his living out who he truly was.

The church has always intended us to see our own lives as a reflection of Jesus’ life. The church has always intended us to live our lives into the fullness of what Christ did in the first place for us. The church has always called us to recognize that we are children of God through adoption by the power of the Holy Spirit in Jesus.

We are meant to see the meaning of our own lives through the lens of Jesus’ baptism. Our own lives are given meaning as we recognize more and more and identification with Jesus’ baptism.

The beginnings of my own journey as an adult Christian is wrapped up with trying to make sense out of baptism. That is because it is caught up in the birth and (shortly after that) the baptism of my first born child.

I thought that he had to be baptized – well I had grown up in the church and I had a smattering and a hodge-podge of understanding that loosely translated into:

I needed to get my son baptized so that he wouldn’t go to hell. That somehow his “salvation” was wrapped up in being baptized.

It would take years before I appreciated how narrow and small that understanding of baptism was.

Understanding my baptism, or my son’s, it turns out was inextricably bound up with understanding Jesus’ baptism.

We will follow Jesus throughout his life this coming year – not because we don’t know the story, but because we need to so mold our lives that we reflect more and more fully the truth of his life and ministry.

And it begins with His baptism. “You are my beloved Son.”

During this season of Epiphany we will encounter the Confession of St Peter and the Conversion of St. Paul. It is a way of reminding us that it is all about how we are doing as followers of this one, risen, and shown to be the Messiah, Son of God.

The church intends us to see a parallel between Jesus life and work and our own. The church intends that we recognize that we are children of God – through adoption in the power of the Holy Spirit given to us in Jesus.

My own experience with baptism has been a journey of discovery of the power, the breadth, and the awesome responsibility of being a disciple of this Jesus.

Conclusion

Actually all about grown up Christian faith

“Ordinary Time”

I began to understand my own baptism because I was face to face with my own life as a Christian because of my son’s baptism.

I am still working it out – my son, too, – it starts with the promises we make in our baptism.

Jesus has his whole ministry to go, culminating in his death and ultimate victory over death. So it is that we have the life God has given us ahead of us. Our challenge is to make it witness and reflect the death and Resurrection of the one we follow.

The church year is like an overview of Jesus’ life – so that we can measure our lives by that yard stick.

Philippians 2:12 - Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,

It starts here. The year is young. It will take all we’ve got to make it to the end.

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