First Sunday after Epiphany

Alison Williams – First Sunday after Epiphany – January 9th 2011 – Messiah Ln Church

Christmas is over. Jesus arrived on schedule. The wise men, too. They showed up last Thursday, dropped off their gifts, and ducked on home, avoiding Herod just like Mary and Joseph who high tailed it to Nazareth. Then we fast forwarded to the start of Jesus ministry and have arrived at Jesus’ baptism.

As for us, well we’re back to our regularly scheduled lives. Taking the Christmas decorations down  if they aren’t already put away. Writing our thank you cards. Filling our calendars with events, meetings, and meals.  Watching the stores put up decorations for Valentine’s day. It seems that if you blinked, you missed Christmas altogether. Our lives are on fast forward, too.

So though a two full weeks have gone by since Christmas, we’ve still missed the fact that God is with us. We’re still fumbling over what to do with this Jesus figure who has arrived in our midst. Who IS that guy?

And then we get this weird scene where Jesus is getting baptized and there’s this dove and some voice from heaven that seems more like Darth Vadar than a heavenly Father. Can you picture Jesus chilling in the Jordan and the Vadar like voice declaring: “Jesus, I am your father.” Or more accurately, “Jesus, you are my Son.” Seems a bit sci-fi, right? At the very least, it seems removed from our everyday lives.

After all, we know the story. We know all about the trinity. Yes, Jesus again. That’s the Holy Spirit. And oh, there’s God speaking up again. Just the old gang. The normal crew.  It seems so familiar and ordinary. Spirit like a dove and voice from the heavens? We’re no longer surprised. We’re no longer impressed.

But that old familiar trio that could easily be from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away is, in fact, our trio. Our God. Very much present in our everyday lives.

It is because our very identity is wrapped up in the trinity. Wrapped tightly in that almighty three-in-one. But just what it is we are claiming here? What or who is this Jesus and this dove and this voice from heaven?

Well we’ve spent some time preparing for Jesus and we’re going to be learning more and more about him as we learn more about these other two figures who show up at his baptism.

First up, we’ve got some kind of bird. And this isn’t like the birds that have been falling from the sky, freaking everyone out, especially those who suspect the end times. This bird is only an analogy, a way to try to describe the indescribable holy spirit. The heavens opened up and this holy spirit comes down and is like a dove. Can you imagine that? Some kind of hypnotically beautiful thing coming down from heaven. And it’s coming because of Christ.

And if we remember Isaiah describing God’s servant, we know that the spirit rests on God’s chosen one, in whom God’s soul delights. So with that arrival and descent of the holy spirit, we know this marks Jesus as God’s servant. As someone special to God.

And then there’s that voice. Not the Darth Vadar voice, but the voice from heaven. To describe the voice of the LORD, the psalmist uses more metaphors and a handful of adjectives like “thunder,” “powerful,” “splendor,” “breaks,” “bursts forth in lighting flashes,” “shakes the wilderness,” and “strips the forests bare.” This is no amplified deep voice, this is divine power. And this divine power proclaims Jesus as God’s Son, God’s Beloved.

And that’s the lineup. Can you imagine sitting on that shoreline? That Jesus guy who causes a ruckus when he was born, was announced to lowly shepherds and great foreign wise men, who’s coming was announced by angels. And here he goes to the local celebrity who’s been babbling forever about some guy who is coming after him. And then John dunks Jesus in the water and just as John is pulling a soaking wet Jesus up from the water, all at once the world changes. The Holy Spirit arrives from a heaven that has been opened up wide. A voice booms and shakes the land and declares Jesus as the Son of God. (I can imagine John’s jaw dropping here, can’t you?)

When Jesus stepped into the water, he was a rumor. Just the human son of a carpenter. When he came out of the water, he was blessed with the Holy Spirit and blessed as God’s Beloved Son. This is more than enough to grab our attention.

What does this mean for us, mere mortals, Christians who are claimed as children of God?

What happens when we mere mortals step into a church building, splash ourselves with baptismal waters, make the sign of the cross on our bodies, take the body and blood of Christ, hear the gospel, sing praises, pass peace?

In the seemingly mundane tasks of our lives, our washing, eating, greeting, welcoming, loving, reading, singing, and the million ways we live out our lives, we are proclaiming God. We are proclaiming that we are in fact children of an almighty God.

We are given that same Holy Spirit, claimed by that same powerful voice of God, and joined by Christ in our every day mundane human stuff.

As Christians, we are spirit filled and powerful. Spiritual and full of power. Filled with power and spirit. Say it how you want to say it, but it’s true. We were baptized, too. Baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That’s the trinity showing up for us at our baptisms.

It’s that same trinity that shows up in the every day mundane human stuff. In our weakest moments, we are incredibly strong. And that’s Christ. That’s Jesus who showed up on Christmas and the spirit and the Father who showed up at Jesus’ baptism. This is us, filled to bursting with the power of the holy spirit.

Not something we want to fast forward through or fail to understand. We can live fully to the extent of our very beings. You are God’s child, blessed with the power and life and light… and spirit.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 9th, 2011 at 12:27 pm and is filed under Sermons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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