[Propertalk] 1 Epiphany a 2017 - Part 1

[Robert P Morrison]

Somehow, Part 1 was sent to eternal darkness for moderator approval.
Let me try again. It should have gone there as it wasn't that big a
file...
Bob

	THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY   THE FIRST SUNDAY AFTER
THE EPIPHANY (a) 

	ISAIAH 42:1-9   THE BAPTISM OF OUR LORD 

	ACTS 10:34-43    8th JANUARY, 2017 

	MATTHEW 3:13-17     PSALM 29 

	 One of the funnier captioned pictures I saw last week was one of
Jesus standing in the river with John the Baptist. John says to Jesus,
“And the Godparents are… ?” 1 

	 Episcopalians can sometimes get hung up on some of the details of
the moment. We DO want to know who the Godparents are. We expect there
to be at least one person, preferably two or three people to follow
through after the Baptism and to assist the newly baptised on her or
his journey. 

	 But wait! In the Baptismal Liturgy, don’t we ALL respond
affirmatively to the question, “Will you who witness these vows do
all in your power to support this person in her or his life in
Christ?” Don’t we ALL then join with the baptismal candidate
“and renew our own baptismal covenant”? 

	 Who stood with Jesus, then? 

	 It’s an interesting question and, actually, one of greater
significance that the number of disco angels on the head of a pin. 

	 Who stands with Jesus? 

	 It puts me in mind of the question He asked right at the end of His
life when He’d quieted down the unruly disciples who’d been so
angry that James and John got the opportunity to ask first for the
best suites in heaven. 

	 Can you be baptised with the same baptism with which I am baptised? 

	 This here is the beginning of Jesus 

	 Public ministry. He’s spent twenty-five plus years doing
we-know-not-what, but He was preparing for this moment with, I
presume, a mixture of confidence and apprehension; a mixture of
elation and concern. What would happen? Would He feel anything at all?
Would it make a difference? Would His life be changed and, if so,
would it be for the better? All sorts of questions as Jesus walked
down the river bank and into the water. All sorts of questions for
which He wasn’t sure there would be any answers. Yet He kept
walking. 

	 He must have been walking for some time. Yes, it was a pretty small
country, but people there and then only made lengthy journeys for the
important religious festivals. 

	 This MUST have been something of great significance, then, something
into which He must have put a lot of thought. This wasn’t something
to do on a day when there weren’t any more bowl games in TV. 

	 So Jesus stood there beside His cousin, waiting, with all the others
around, for that moment when He’d begin this new stage of His
life’s journey. It was a personal act. He made a conscious decision
to be there – in the same way that God made a conscious decision to
take human flesh; in the same way that Mary made a conscious decision
to accept God’s request. 

	 Jesus made this conscious decision and joined hundreds, if not
thousands, to make a commitment to God, to dedicate His life, along
with all those others, to taking on and making visible the dreams of
the prophets. 

	 Yes, it was a uniquely personal act, yet it was also an
intentionally communal act. Together, all those people came as one to
listen to John, to respond to him, to offer their lives for service.. 

	 This was God walking among us. This Jesus, standing in the river,
was God, yet it was God submitting to interaction with and for human
beings. 

	 The humourous illustration I mentioned aside, another picture that
made a great impression on me was the one in which a human hand is
shown at Jesus’ baptism.  

	I don’t think we can hear or see often enough that God doesn’t
push any magic buttons to make something happen, or coerce people into
compliance. Throughout the history of the interaction between God the
Creator and humans, there has always been the element of choice. We
believe that we are here, even in 2017, because of the life-giving of
God. But we believe also that we have the ability, the right, the
responsibility, to choose as to how we interact and fo-operate with
God. 

	 Of course, we pray, constantly, I hope, for God’s guidance. We can
listen; we can intuit; we can ponder everything we’ve heard and seen
about the ways in which God seeks to engage us. Yet, at every step
along that route, we may decide not to participate, not to go any
further, that it[‘s more than we can bear or do. And God doesn’t
clip us up the side of the head and say, “Rethink that, won’t
you!” 

	 No! God asks, from the visit to Mary, then to Joseph, down to the
moment when Jesus considered going to see John, and walked into the
river – God asks for our voluntary cooperation. 

	 Thus it seems important for us to see that human hand participating
in the recognition of what Jesus’ name means and what His earthly
mission is all about. 

	 At every step in life, God has issued an invitation. God has said,
“Will you participate with Me? Will you work with Me? Will you help
yourself and others to discover what it means to be one of My
children?” 

	 And being a child of means being an actor on the human stage wi5th
God. It means standing in rivers; it means walking in malls; it means
driving in traffic; it means phoning, or writing, or visiting. ALL of
life, says God, is active, not passive. Everything is done WITH us,
not to us. 

	 WITH US. Hear that again: WITH US. It reminds us of what we’ve
been trying to digest into our lives for the past couple of weeks.
Remember the words of the prophet?” “… the young woman is with
child and will give birth to a son whom she will call Immanuel … a
name which means ‘God-is-with-us”.” 2


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