Sermons

Baptism of Christ

Sunday 13th January at 8am and 6.30pm

Maureen Williams
Readings: Isaiah 42.1-9; Matthew 3.13-end

When George Bush visited to Israel this week, officials in Jerusalem deployed more than ten thousand police officers to protect him. Walls were washed clean of graffiti, road markings were repainted and every conceivable kind of preparation put in hand. The red carpet was rolled out because this was considered to be a special occasion and Israel was unsparing in its preparation.

Preparation was in hand many years before when John the Baptist came to prepare Israel for the arrival of someone of far greater importance, the coming of the Lord, the coming of Jesus. Centuries earlier, Isaiah had prophesied (Isaiah 40:3-6) that someone from the desert would 'prepare the way for the Lord'. John was to be that person, the forerunner, prefacing all that was to come; underlining the message of repentance that Jesus came to preach.

John came from the same tradition as the Old Testament prophets. He spoke God's message urgently and eloquently, stirring the crowds to repent and follow God's ways. Matthew writes of his austere lifestyle; his clothing of camel's hair tied with a leather belt and food of locusts and wild honey, bearing more than a passing resemblance to Elijah and reinforcing the Jewish tradition that Elijah would return before the Messiah came.

Linked to the past and heralding the future John was also concerned with the present, to prepare Israel to look to themselves, to their own individual behaviour and attitudes. He urged them to recognise the ways they were failing God, to confess their sinfulness and show a genuine desire for forgiveness. It was a stark message, a strong message, a continuing message for us.

The Jews would be familiar with the idea that washing made pure. 'Cleanse me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be white as snow', says the psalmist in Psalm 51:7. Yet one commentator describes the baptism John administered as something 'shockingly new'. The Jews knew about baptism but it was something for outsiders, for Gentile proselytes wanting to turn to Judaism, involving them through its symbolism with Israel's passage to safety through the waters of the Red Sea. The surprise in John's ministry is that he calls on the Jews themselves to be baptised. To be ready for the Messiah, they need to make a new start, to repent,…..turn back, return to God with renewed commitment to doing his will and living as his people.

And many responded. Years had passed since the voice of prophesy had been heard. The rule of Rome was painful and humiliating. The people were waiting, yearning for some authentic word from God…..and in John, they heard it; they recognised in him the voice of God's authority.

One writer suggests that John's message was so effective because 'he told people what in the depths of their hearts they already knew, and in the depths of their souls they were waiting for'. In calling for repentance John was confronting them with what they knew they needed to do. In responding to his call, they were fulfilling John's task of preparing Israel for Christ.

If we are conscious this new year, of the need for our faith to grow and our spiritual perceptions to deepen…..we might begin, like John, with repentance - with a new resolution to turn to God, to give time to listening to him more closely for understanding and for his guidance in our lives and in the life of our church.

A Christian writer, Francis Dewar has written that 'There is an old Christian tradition, that God sends each person into this world with a special message to deliver, with a special song to sing for others, with a special act of love to bestow. No one can speak my message or sing my song or offer my act of love. These are entrusted only to me.'

As Saviour of the world, Jesus was entrusted with the task of redeeming God's people, of bringing the whole world back to the Father in a relationship of forgiveness and love. His baptism revealed him as the Messiah, anointed by God's Spirit and affirmed as God's 'own dear Son, in whom I am well pleased'. Jesus had no need for baptism, but by being baptised he identified with John and his message, with the people of Israel in their need for repentance….. and now with us, in our continuing need to turn to God.

In Israel, preparations for George Bush have lasted for the duration of his visit.
In John the Baptist, God was preparing through Jesus for the coming of his kingdom to the world, which will last to the end of time.

Christ meets us now, wherever we find ourselves and whatever stage of our lives we are in - to call us to repentance, to a new urgency in our desire to follow him and to renewed faithfulness to the part in God's plan for his kingdom that he has entrusted to us - in the fervent hope that, one day, God may say of us, 'This is my child in whom I am well pleased'.

© St Edmund's Church, Roundhay