Last week we canceled worship service because of nasty weather and difficult driving conditions. Today we'll celebrate the Baptism of Jesus, and next week, we'll get back in sync with the Revised Common Lectionary.
January 19, 2025 (Baptism of Jesus postponed)
By Kristin Berkey-Abbott
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
We usually celebrate the baptism of Jesus much closer to the end of the Christmas season. But because of last week’s weather delay, we have an opportunity to think of the baptism of Jesus in a slightly different context, as we prepare to celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr. with a federal holiday tomorrow. Because the 20th Amendment to the Constitution mandates that the Inauguration will take place on January 20, we will also have an inauguration tomorrow.
We might think about baptism as the opposite of a political inauguration, a private event, something primarily for friends and family and churches to observe, but John the Baptist was doing a new thing. And if we read the omitted passages, we’d be reminded that he attracted the attention of not just Temple officials, but also Herod and other political leaders. John inspires such hope that people come out to the wilderness to be part of what he offers—harsh language included.
As I read the text for this Sunday, I was struck by the yearning that the people must have felt. Look again at the first sentence of today’s Gospel: “the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah.” I know that many of us approach presidential elections and inaugurations and new years with the same emotions: expectations, questions, hopes and fears about what will be different, what will be the same.
Many of us approach presidential elections as if we’re looking for the Messiah, but it’s rare to find a politician who echoes the words of John, a politician who says, “I am not the Messiah.” I find those words a soothing mantra, especially as I think about the problems that plague society, the problems that we can’t seem to fix: “I am not the Messiah.” But it’s not a response that’s likely to win elections. We want our leaders to fix what is wrong, to lead us to a promised land, to save us.
Think about the restraint of John the Baptist, who could have seized power, but does not. He understands his role in a way that so few people do. And yet, we know the end of his story. Even as he has stepped away from power, he cannot save himself. We know the ending of John’s story: another victim of King Herod.
Throughout history, prophets, politicians, and messiahs often share a similar fate; even those who can avoid death are likely to find themselves silenced in other ways. This week-end, I’m thinking of Martin Luther King, Jr., a modern prophet who continues to inspire with his vision of the future, a future when people wouldn’t be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. In some ways, his vision doesn’t seem so radical. We could look at the words of some of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the U.S. and see similar language. But King’s vision of the future was so threatening to so many that he was killed—just like John the Baptist and just like Jesus.
And yet, the threat of death did not deter them. We see all three men willing to undergo great difficulties to speak the truth about the world as they saw it. We see three men willing to call attention to the problems of the world and offering a compelling vision of something different. We see people respond and for a moment, the arc of the moral universe does bend towards justice.
However inspiring, let us admit there is still so much work to do. The rest of that Martin Luther King quote does tell us that the timeline is long: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” It’s easy to forget how long that arc might be. As with the inbreaking kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed, we live in the tension of both the now and the not yet. I think of the speech that Dr. King gave the night before he was assassinated, when he invoked Moses, saying “ I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. So I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.[252]”
When we look at the life of Jesus, the life of Martin Luther King, we might be tempted to see them as people apart from us, people able to do great things that we cannot. We might feel despair. The words of John the Baptist might not comfort us after all, when we think about all the ways we’ve fallen short. We may not be the messiah, but we might now hear that phrase as criticism of all we have not done to bend that arc of the moral universe to justice.
But hear again the good news, both in the reading from Acts and in the Gospel. We are not the Messiah—but we are not alone. In baptism, the Holy Spirit comes and clothes us with power from on high (as Jesus will describe the process at the end of the book of Luke). The coming of the Holy Spirit equips us to do what we might not have dreamed would be possible.
The baptism of Jesus is one of the events that each Gospel writer includes—but each Gospel writer presents it in a slightly different way. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is one of many who come to John to be baptized. In Matthew and Mark, the heavens open and the Spirit descends as Jesus comes up out of the water. In the gospel of John, John the Baptist reports what happened when he baptized Jesus. In all of the Gospels, baptism happens, but in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is baptized with all the other people, and then later, as he prays, the Holy Spirit comes. In fact, the Gospel of Luke will show Jesus in prayer more than any other Gospel does. The mission of Jesus begins with baptism, but Jesus lives that mission in a position of prayer. Similarly, Martin Luther King had an abundant prayer life, a prayer life that fortified him to go out and change the world.
Jesus is at prayer when he gets that message that so many of us long to hear, the message of God’s boundless love. Jesus is not out healing the sick or including the outcast at the dinner table when God speaks this message of love. Jesus prays and hears this message.
We live in a noisy world, full of people determined to fill our ears with a different message, most of them not containing much good news. The beauty of a spiritual practice like prayer is that it silences all the other voices and allows us to hear God’s voice, calling us to a life that will let us bloom and flourish.
This message is not one reserved for Jesus alone. Hear again the word of God, delivered through a prophet who lived centuries before John. Hear again the message from God that Isaiah gives us in our first lesson for today:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
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