Baptism 2014
Surprise! It’s still the Christmas Season. I assume you have put away your shining stars and sparkling light and the child Jesus is no longer “away” in a manger but really “away”, packed up and stored away until another
Christmas rolls around. But here in this place, Christmas lights are still sparkling and fiery red poinsettias are still blazing with color and the manger is a way of reminding us that Christmas is much more than just the celebration of the birth of Jesus.
Throughout this Christmas season the Glory of God has been showing itself, sparkling, glittering, glowing in the wonderful proclamation that God is with us, God dwells with God’s people in Jesus Christ. The wonderful mystery of the incarnation is that God’s glory, God’s grace, God’s goodness, shines forth out of the ordinary of human existence. In a single precious life, the life of Jesus, born of Mary, the good news that God is completely and unreservedly with humankind becomes a reality. This is what the Angels announce and the shepherds see, this is what the star shows forth and the
Magi see. God’s glory is in this world as one who is born and lives in time and in space, one who is not only open to the mystery of Life but IS the mystery of Life. I am who am.
And the baptism of Jesus? The third announcement of the Christmas Season.
This past autumn parishioners read together Anne Rice’s book, Christ the
Lord, The Road to Cana . In it she has a beautifully imaginative telling of the baptism. I’d like to read a section. First, it’s important to know that Jesus comes to the water of the Jordan not only with his disciples but with his whole family. The whole town of Nazareth comes to the waters of the
Jordan. She lets us enter into the experience through the consciousness of
Jesus. To see what he sees and hear what he hears. The following is an excerpt from the scene:
“It's you!" John whispered. "You . . . baptize me!" He held up the conch, dripping with water.

The disciples to the right and left stopped in the very midst of what they did.
Those coming up out of the water remained standing, attentive. Something had changed in the holy man. What had changed?
I felt the throng itself like a great connected and living thing breathing with us.
I held up my hands.
"We're made in His image, you and I," I said. "This is flesh, is it not? Am I not a man? Baptize me as you've done everyone else; do this, in the name of righteousness."
I went down into the water. I felt his hand on my left shoulder. I felt his fingers close on my neck. I saw nothing and felt nothing and heard nothing but the cool flooding water, and then slowly I came up out of it, and stood, shocked by the flood of sunlight.
The clouds above had shifted. The sound of beating wings filled my ears. I stared forward and saw across John's face the shadow of a dove moving upwards - and then I saw the bird itself rising into a great opening of deep blue sky, and I heard a whisper against my ears, a whisper that penetrated the sound of the wings, as though a pair of lips had touched both ears at the same time, and faint as it was, soft and secretive as it was, it seemed the edge of an immense echo.
This is my Son, this is my beloved.
All the riverbank had gone quiet.
Then noise. The old familiar noise. Shouts and cries, and exclamations, those sounds so mingled in my mind and soul with the stoning of Yitra and the mob around Avigail - the noise of triumphant young men, the endless broken crying of pilgrims - I heard them all around me, the excited beat and

cry of voices intermingling with one another, answering one another, growing louder and louder as they vied with one another.
I stared upward at the great endless stretch of blue and I saw the dove flying higher and higher. It became a tiny thing, a speck in the shimmer of the drenching sunlight.
I staggered backwards. I almost lost my balance. I stared at Joseph. I saw his gray eyes fixed on me, saw the faint smile on his lips, and saw in the same instant my mother's face, impassive and still faintly sad, lovingly sad, as she stood beside him.
"It is You!" said John bar Zechariah again.
On Christmas, it is the shepherds who are the witnesses, who have their eyes opened. On Epiphany the gentiles, the magi are the witnesses, the ones who have their eyes opened. In the baptism, the disciples of Jesus are the witnesses. They get to see and hear the spirit descending on Jesus and a voice from the heavens affirming Jesus identity: “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased”.
But here’s the difference. Where the Christmas story and the Epiphany story remember, recall, retell events in the past, the Baptism is meant to be for us now. We move from remembering to re-membering. We move from recalling to re-calling. We move from re-telling the story to being the Story that is told. It’s simply not enough to light the lights, sing the songs, dance the dances, tell the tales of Christmas as if this is something that can be stored away. There is a way in the manger that is a sign of what’s in store for us. We get to live the life of Jesus. We get to be witnesses of his life and death and rising in our flesh and blood. God in Jesus is incarnate, made flesh in our lives, our struggles, our hopes and dreams. And it all begins with the baptism. His and ours. Those words that Jesus hears are meant for us as well.
In our baptism, we are meant to hear those words. This is my beloved son, my beloved daughter in whom I am well pleased.

It is not enough to know that we are made in the image of Jesus through our baptism. We need to live the mission. Yesterday, parishioners gathered for a day of reflection asking ourselves how we can better communicate our mission to our parishioners. How can we break open our mission statement in a way that energizes and excites our people so like Jesus we walk the walk and not just talk the talk.
Acknowledging our baptismal rights and responsibilities, inspired by the rich tradition of the church and enlivened by the Second Vatican Council, we strive with the help of the Holy Spirit to:
 ground our lives in the sacraments and in the gospel of Jesus Christ;
 place the vibrant worship of God in the Eucharist at the center of our
 parish life; invite all people from diverse walks of life to make community with
 us; offer comfort to the alienated and marginalized in their faith journey;
 provide opportunities to enrich the prayer and spiritual lives of our community members;
 foster each parishioner's lifelong search to experience and understand

Christ and His Church; and become active disciples in God's work in this world through our commitment to serve one another within and outside the parish.
All our efforts are dependent on the commitment of laity and clergy to continually collaborate for the greater glory of God.
In the coming weeks and months, we hope to find ways in which each of us can reflect more deeply on our call, the mission we share with Jesus Christ.
And by the way, before you leave, check out the manger. You’re in for a surprise.