ISAIAH 42:1-9

PSALM 89:20-29

ACTS 10:34-38

MATTHEW 3:13-17

Sermon – January 9, 2005

Emmanuel: God with us.

That is what the prophet Isaiah promised would happen in the person of the Messiah: God would be with us. We recalled the joyful expectancy for a Savior during Advent and celebrated Christ’s birthday at Christmas. And now, the cycle of our Church year brings us the very first story of Christ’s activity as an adult.

Not walking on water. Not stilling the storm. Not healing the sick, confounding the arrogant or raising the dead. Not dazzling the multitudes with pithy saying, apt parables or radical teachings. No. Instead, we see Jesus, the Savior of the World, lining up behind other devout Jews from all walks of life by the muddy Jordan River before the original wild-eyed revival preacher, John the Baptist.

John alone recognized him. Whatever extraordinary events had accompanied Jesus’ birth and childhood, no crowd of reporters or groupies had followed him in the years since, waiting for him to “make his move.” To the others in line, he was just another person like them.

John knew better. “’I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’” he said in perhaps a shocked and awe-struck voice. “But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.’”

So the first recorded act of Emmanuel as an adult was an act of solidarity with the most devout of his fellow Jews, who (unlike him) sought baptism for the forgiveness of sins by John. Jesus was here not because he needed forgiveness but to be with those who were most ready to receive him into their hearts and into their lives.

Even after getting up out of the water, seeing the Spirit descend upon him like a dove and hearing the Voice from heaven announce “’This is my Son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased,’” Jesus did not then turn around and take command of the multitudes who had come in response to John’s call.

No, the next step for Emmanuel to be truly with us was to experience fasting temptation, not triumph; the Gospels all locate Jesus’ 40 days in the desert being tempted by Satan immediately after his baptism. Only then would Christ be ready to recruit, to preach, to hear, to teach, to do miracles, to face the powers of evil, to die for us, and to rise again, breaking the power of sin and death.

We remember Christ’s baptism every year on the first Sunday after the Epiphany and we always renew our own baptismal vows at the same time, and sometimes (like today) we welcome a new member of the Christian family by baptism. In all this we remember that in Christ, God is with us – not only today but all through the week and through the year, not only at the time of our baptisms but throughout our lives.

In Christ, God is with us – at our spiritual high points, during our “desert times” when God may seem distant to us, at times of commitment and at times of temptation, at times when we offer forgiveness to others and times we need to receive it, at times we can be healers and at times we need healing, at times we can teach and times we need to learn, at the times of our deaths and at the times when, by God’s grace, we may see the door open for us into everlasting life.

Renewing our own baptismal vows helps us remember Christ being with us and the ways we can live our lives in service to him and become our best selves. We “continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in the prayers” as we worship together. We “persevere in resisting evil” as best we can, but since no one is perfect but God “whenever we fall into sin, we repent and return to the Lord.” We know that getting a second chance, guidance, strength, forgiveness and encouragement from God all add up to Good News, so we “proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ.”

And because all people all over the world are made in God’s image and are all our neighbors, we “seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves.” And finally, because Christianity is not just about the salvation of individuals while communities and the world are ignored, we “strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being.”

It’s quite a job description, which is what this is: the job description for being a Christian. There is enough there to invite our best efforts for our entire lives. But if we ever think it’s too much of a challenge, let us always remember that God is with us each day where we strive to be his servants, even as he was there in the muddy waters of the Jordan River.

(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church