According to the church calendar, we have come to the end of the season of Christmas. Today is the first Sunday in the season of Epiphany. The Season of Epiphany follows the beginning of Jesus’ work of spreading the Good News. In today’s reading, we focus on Jesus’ baptism – for us, baptism is the beginning of acceptance of life as a Christian – for Jesus, baptism was the beginning of his work at the messiah – Jesus’ debut as the Messiah.
Listen to how the Apostle Mark describes Jesus baptism as we read from Mark chapter 1:
Scripture: Mark 1: 4-11
And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.
And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.
I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.
And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
Here ends the reading of the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, Our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Message Defining Moments
Monday was the first day of 2024. Many of us slept in after staying up until at least midnight the night before to welcome the New Year in and kiss 2023 good-bye.
When we start a New Year, many of us make lists of our resolutions for the coming year. We list things we want to change – often we strive to adopt new habits and pledge to take better care of our bodies – we vow to drink less soda, go to the gym, purge our clutter, eat healthy. Most of the time, our resolutions are personal – they are about fixing things in our lives that only we have control over.
In the New Year, we also have the opportunity to reflect about how things went for us in the past year and make plans for improvement. This is the season when people are brushing off their resumes, contacting travel agents, and starting their searches for new homes. We feel the impetus to get things better in the New Year – to have a fresh start.
We know very little about Jesus’ younger years. He was born in Bethlehem, was a refugee in Egypt, and returned to the village of Nazareth after the death of King Herod when he was 5 or 6 years old. His family made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem when he was about 12. And, then, crickets…crickets….until Jesus was about thirty years old.
John the Baptist is in the same boat. We hear about his parents and their miraculous pregnancy. While Elizabeth was still pregnant with John, Mary visited her. And then we don’t hear anything about John’s childhood or youth. Many years later, he appears in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins.
Both John and Jesus was led by God. John was led to go out into the wilderness, wear simple and uncomfortable clothing, and eat the food that was available in the wild: Locusts and sweet wild honey.
God lead John to preach and to call people to repent of their sins and be baptized. The baptism symbolically washed away their sins so they could be released from their pasts and move into their futures as forgiven people.
God led Jesus to be baptized. Jesus’ baptism was a restart—he was released from his past and able to move into his work to preach, teach, and heal. God determined the time was right for John to do his baptizing and for Jesus to begin his work. We don’t know about their lives as young adults, we don’t know if they ever behaved in ways that were not perfect….we can assume that even John, and possibly even Jesus, had things they needed to repent for and ask God to forgive. And, God led them to come to the wilderness, repent, and start over free to do the work God was calling them to do.
As we make our plans for the New Year, and all of the positive changes we want to make, it is important that we also listen to how God is directing us. We also may have things from our pasts that we need to repent for — things we wish we had done differently, mistakes we made. God may be leading us to ask God to forgive us so that in the midst of the changes and challenges of the new year, we can turn over a fresh leaf and start anew.
John and Jesus didn’t wander out into the wilderness alone – they were led by God. God is also leading and directing us in our lives. We are not alone. God wants us to remember that there is nothing we can do that is so horrible that God will not love and forgive us. So, we can confess all of our sins, all of our blemishes, to God, and ask God to forgive us. As forgiven believers, the weight of our pasts is lifted from our shoulders. We can look towards the new year and know that we will do better, we will be better, as we are directed by God to face the challenges and opportunities ahead with clean slates.
Every day, we have the opportunity to ask God to forgive our pasts failings and embrace new opportunities. God wants us to remember we are loved, freed, and encouraged to become the kind of people God wants us to be.
Let us do so with love in our hearts today and all days. Amen.