Sermon Baptism of the Lord 2025

When I was in Japan there was a baptism at the church I attended.  The church had a full immersion pool, chest deep so you would get well and thoroughly dunked while the priest laid hands on and blessed you.  I took lots of picture and showed them to my non Christian coworkers on Monday.  They were very interested, but also looked uneasy…when I enquired what was bothering them one picked up the picture of the moment of baptism and asked… “how long does he hold them under the water?”

Today, is the day we remember the baptism of Jesus in the Jorden by John, his cousin.   A baptism we likely would have found equally concerning as heavens opened and the Holy Spirit descended and a voice form heaven said…”You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”  An awe inspiring moment. But the words spoken here by God in the gospel are not the first time these words have been heard.

In Isaiah the prophet speaks of the Messiah to come, the servant who will be a light to the nations; saying  “Here is my servant, my chosen, in whom my soul delights”

The declarations God makes the Gospel, over and to Jesus at his baptism, are significant and important, but not new… God has been speaking these words for a long time.  In fact, as we go through our readings for today it seems like God doesn’t stop speaking.

In Isaiah the reading begins ‘thus says the Lord’ and continues with a strong affirmation of how cherished are the people of Israel.  The Psalm talks at length about the voice of the Lord and in the Gospel, God speaks aloud.

One of the purposes of scripture is to affirm to God’s people, especially in times of spiritual distance or doubt that the voice of the Lord is active, involved and continual throughout our history.  Especially when it feels like the voice of God leading us is…less obvious than it is in the gospels, we can remind our self through scripture that salvation history is replete God’s voice speaking with and through and to his people.

When this portion of Isaiah was written, the people of Israel had been overrun by Babylon, and Jerusalem the holy city, had been destroyed and many of it’s people taken.  For Israel,  Jerusalem was more then just a capital city, it was religious center of the Jewish nation.

The Temple of God, the spiritual heart of Judaism had been razed to the ground and with it the Holies of Holies where God was understood to dwell.  The place where the priests went to speak with God and offered their sacrifices to God.  Without their temple, captured and exiled, the people of Israel found it difficult to believe that they were still God’s chosen people.  They found it challenging to understand how to talk to God and how God would speak to them without the temple and the priesthood that that had been so central in their faith and the way that they communicated with God.

Yet, in the midst of that tragic circumstance the prophet Isaiah speaks God’s words to the people in their exile.  Thus says the Lord…God speaks.  Not face to face, but through the prophet who God has chosen…and the words God speaks are those of comfort, support and love.

“Do not fear; I have called you by name, you are mine.  I will be with you when you pass through the waters.  I will gather you from the north, and the south and the ends of the earth.“ 

 

God speaks to all those who will hear… you are my beloved.

Words of comfort for a distant people and with a voice that goes beyond the words of prophets and the sacrifice of the priest.  The voice of the Lord breaks past all boundaries, all distances and times and speaks to the depth of the relationship that God has with the people of God and nothing can stop God from speaking.

The psalm we read today makes that abundantly clear…

“The voice of the Lord is over the waters; The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars, The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; The voice of the Lord causes the oaks to whirl, and strips the forest bare; and in his temple all say, "Glory!"

You get the distinct impression that there is no barrier to God’s ability to speak to us, that there is nothing on heaven or on earth that can separate us from the love of God proclaimed in his own voice for our own ears.

This is one of the key features of baptism.  That voice of God speaking to us, via the church, and saying to each of us.  You are beloved, as Christ was beloved.  Regardless of circumstances, just as Israel was beloved in the midst of even the darkness of exile and feelings of distance from God.  You are beloved.

Just as Isaiah speaks God’s words to Israel, the same applies to us ‘I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.’   Or in the words of the Anglican baptismal service …you are marked as Christ’s own forever.

We are all called by name, by God’s own voice.  Through scripture, through the prophets, through the church and through each other. We are marked as Christ’s own and beloved by God…and God is not afraid to tell us this…by whatever means necessary.

However, we don’t seem to hear it as often as we would like or as clearly as we would like.  At times it seems like we are in the same room trying to talk to a person on a phone who won’t look us in the eye.  We know that God is there, we know that God has a voice, but there is something missing.

Not unlike today’s plethora of styles and types of communication God doesn’t speak in just one way.  It isn’t only through priest and sacrifice… or even one on one with his beloved chosen.  But God speaks to us in many and various ways.

The key is learning to listen.  Being able to hear God’s voice whether the voice of the Lord is breaking the cedars of Lebanon with all it’s power or whispering in that still small voice;  Whether the heavens open and the Holy Spirit descends in bodily form, or a friend speaks God’s voice to you to remind you not to be afraid…or the deep sense of peace that envelopes you in prayer….assuring you that you are not alone.

Regardless of how we communicate the key is that we do.   Many of us feel the frustration of not having face to face communication with God.  but it is days like today, when we remember Christ’s baptism, the example he set for us and the ways that he embraced his incarnation that we see clearly how desperately God wants to meet with us face to face.  To the extreme of becoming human so that God and humanity could literally be face to face with God.  God is constantly reaching out to us, and we, reaching out to him.

In Luke we see the importance of prayer as a means of listening to God and building relationship with God.  After Jesus was baptized he took time to pray, just as he does throughout the gospel.  Jesus, through divine, was a man of prayer and just as in his baptism he set us an example to follow.  A way of remaining in constant communication with God; not unlike these technological gadgets many of us carry.    With my cell phone people can reach me anytime, day or night, anywhere I am.  As long as I don’t turn it off, or leave it behind. 

 

The same goes for our communication with God, God’s voice is always speaking to us, perpetually reminding us of our relationship with God…Father, Son and Spirit.  And we carry with us the means through prayer and action to speak right back, so long as we don’t turn away or leave God behind.

God’s voice named us beloved and God’s own in our baptisms, just as God did with Jesus in his baptism and just as Jesus heard God in prayer, so too can we.

As we go through our week ahead, as we reflect of Christmas season we’ve just had, I pray that we will remember the lengths to which God goes to speak with each of us, and I prayer we all remember to ‘check our phones’ and ensure we didn’t miss a call.

Let us pray…

Lord, yours is the still small voice we strain to hear

Lord, yours is the voice that breaks the mountains of our disbelief

Lord, yours is the warm comforting voice that speaks in times of hardship

Lord, yours is the loving and firm voice that calls us back to you

Speak to us that we may hear

Your call to be Christ in our world

Your faithfulness that we may trust in you

Your blessings in our lives

Open our hearts and minds that we may hear and believe the words you spoke through Isaiah… you are mine…and I love you.  Amen.