A Sermon for 1 Epiphany - The Baptism of our Lord
The Rev’d Richard Gillespie Proctor
CtK Episcopal Church
1 Epiphany: Baptism of Our Lord
1/13/19
“Do not fear,
For I have redeemed you.
I have called you by name
You are mine.”
God spoke these words to a people who had given up all hope…a people whose identity was grounded in despair. As a people living in captivity in Babylon, fear and anguish was all that the Israelites knew. Yet through the deafening silence, God’s voice finally appeared. And God wasn’t speaking words of wrath…he wasn’t reminding them of all the reasons that their ancestors had landed in exile. He wasn’t saying “I told you so” or “you got yourself in this mess, don’t expect me to get you out of it.”
Out of the silence came words of hope from a God who, in this particular poem, wasn’t addressing Israel as a nation. He was addressing each Israelite who had the ears to hear. In this passage, when God says “I have redeemed you…I have called you by name… You are mine” he uses the 2nd person singular, not plural. Much of the time, when God speaks to Israel, it is to the nation as a whole. In other words, he speaks to y’all. But in this case, he isn’t speaking to y’all Israelites. He is speaking to you… to each Israelite who had given up hope; each Israelite who was living in fear, anguish, and despair.
Oftentimes we hear people delineate between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament. Many believe that the God of the Old Testament wields power and rules from far away. He is a wrathful disciplinarian type of God who expects his followers to obey strict laws. And he is not an intimate, personal, relational God like the God of the New Testament. Yet in this passage from Isaiah, this delineation proves to be false. We see an “Old Testament” God who is deeply intimate, personal, and gracious. It is a one-on-one conversation between God and the listener. God is speaking to the Israelite, and God is speaking to you and me, and God is saying,
“Do not fear, For I have redeemed you. I have called you by name, You are mine…Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, I love you. Do not fear, for I am with you.”
We hear this very same voice in our Gospel lesson today when Jesus is baptized. And just as it was when it was spoken to the Israelites in exile, it is a voice of intimacy and affection…a voice of relational love: “You are my Son, the beloved. With you I am well pleased.”
Much like the Israelites in exile generations before, Jesus needed to know that he was not alone and that he would not been forgotten. His baptism was the moment when he would begin his public ministry of reconciliation between God and God’s people. His Father in heaven knew that this ministry would be terribly difficult, and that he would oftentimes feel alone, hopeless, and afraid.
In both of these passages, God is making a promise. And this promise has to do with identity. The exiled Israelites had forgotten - rightfully so perhaps - Who they truly belonged to. They had lost their identity. They had gotten to the point where they believed that they belonged to their Babylonian captors. Their previous identity was gone and their current situation was one of fear, anguish, and despair. In the midst of that, God called out to them and said, “Do not fear, For I have redeemed you. I have called you by name, You are mine…”
Within the Jewish context, to be redeemed literally meant to be bought out of slavery or bondage by one’s own kin. This understanding goes back to the book of Leviticus. In those days, one could be put in bondage for an unpaid debt or for some other transgression. And the only way out would be to have your freedom purchased by your kinfolk. So when God uses this redemption language, it is indicating not just the action of freeing them from bondage, but it is also claiming a deeply intimate relationship. God is claiming kinship to the exiles. The distant God who had gone silent was now speaking, and he was speaking to them as a relative – even as a parent speaks to a child.
These words from Isaiah prophesying the Israelites’ release from exile and reclaiming identity as God’s very own children are echoed when John baptizes Jesus. Just as his ancestors had done before, Jesus passed through the waters and entered into new life…a new creation…a new identity. This time, Jesus is being baptized to ransom the captives from bondage. And this time, the bondage was imposed by the Israelites upon themselves. They had become captive to their own sinful ways.
And such is the case with us today. When we are baptized, we pass through the waters where we die to our old selves and are born anew. When we rise up out of the waters of baptism, we have a new identity. We are claimed by God as his beloved…as his children…with whom he is well-pleased. This new identity isn’t momentary – as we are sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever. That being the case, one might ask why we need to renew or reaffirm our Baptismal Covenant, which we will do in a few moments. Our baptism isn’t like a Driver’s License or an automobile registration – it doesn’t expire. And we aren’t required to submit continuing education units to keep our baptism status current – although that might not be a bad idea! So why do we renew or reaffirm our baptismal covenant on days like today?
I think the main reason is that we are a forgetful people. It is like we are saying to God, “It’s not you, it’s me…I am the one who needs the reminder. I am the one who has forgotten my part of the covenant. But there’s one thing that I wish was included in the Baptismal Covenant. I wish that after all of the questions about what we believe and what we will do, I wish that there was another section based on today’s lessons from Isaiah and Luke. And that section of the baptismal covenant would go something like this, and I’d like you to participate in this part of the sermon with me. Just like in the baptismal covenant, when I ask the following questions, your reply is “I will with God’s help.”
· Will you remember that God formed you, that God redeemed you, that God calls you by your name and that you are His? I will with God’s help.
· When you pass through difficult, dangerous waters of life, will you remember that God will be with you, and that you will not be overwhelmed? I will with God’s help.
· Will you remember that when you walk through the fires of illness, conflict, hopelessness, or despair, you will not be burned and that the flames will not consume you? I will with God’s help.
· Will you remember that you are precious in God’s sight, and that God honors you and that God loves you? I will with God’s help.
· “Will you remember that you are God’s beloved…God’s child, with whom God is well pleased? I will with God’s help.
My friends, as we continue through this season of Epiphany – the season when we celebrate the many ways that God reveals himself to God’s people - let us be mindful that the primary Epiphany – the primary revelation – is that God formed us, God redeemed us, and we are God’s beloved. And if we are able to live in to and embrace this Good News, we have no reason to be afraid.