Sunday, January 8, 2023

The First Sunday after the Epiphany: The Baptism of our Lord (Year A)

Isaiah 42:1-9; Psalm 29; Acts 10:34-43; Matthew 3:13-17

The Rev. Clint Brown

In preparing for today’s sermon, I was intrigued to learn that for most of our history – that is, the prayer book tradition in English – these were not the readings you would have heard today on the First Sunday after the Epiphany. Instead of the baptism of Jesus, for over 400 years people heard the charming story from Luke about the boy Jesus in the Temple, when his parents left him behind and then found him, three days later, among the experts of the Law astonishing them with his precociousness. The Collect of the Day, too, was different.

Lord we beseech thee mercifully to receive the prayers of thy people which call upon thee; and grant that they may both perceive and know what things they ought to do, and also have grace and power faithfully to fulfill the same.[1]

Here again, a conspicuous lack of any reference to baptism. Instead, what we do have is the word “prayer,” vota, as in “votive offerings” or “gifts” – “receive the vota of thy people” – and this is what makes the link to the Wise Men and the season of Epiphany. Like the Wise Men, the emphasis on this day was on “gift,” specifically, the making of spiritual sacrifices to God (Romans 12:1) as an expression of gratitude and devotion. That sounded really nice to me. Why did we give it up? What, I wondered, is the connection between Epiphany and Baptism that caused this shift in our focus from gift-giving to baptism?

The word “epiphany” means “manifestation” or “appearance.” We use it these days mainly in the sense of “realization,” as in “I just had an epiphany.” A hidden meaning or unseen connection suddenly becomes apparent to you. Our image is that of a light bulb for it seems to us that a light has gone off dispelling the darkness and making everything all at once clear. The truth is, of course, that although you feel as if you have discovered something really fresh and original, what is actually the case is that it was there all along. And this is the great epiphany of the Epiphany. The visit of the magi signifies the “appearance” of Jesus, that is, the extension of his ministry, to those beyond the Jewish fold which, according to Genesis 12, had been God’s intention all along (Genesis 12:1-3). Epiphany, both the feast and the season, proclaims that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the whole world and that what had been promised to Israel could now be claimed by all people everywhere and for all time.

So what does that have to do with baptism? The answer is that baptism is how all this is accomplished. Through the centuries, the Church has discerned an abundance of theological understandings for its meaning and significance: dying and rising with Christ; cleansing from sin; initiation into the church; and rebirth, to name a few. But, for our purposes today, it is primarily about enrollment as a subject of a new Kingdom, claiming the invitation extended by the manifestation of the Christ. It was not a sudden wild hair on the part of the framers of our prayer book to throw off 400 years of tradition, but actually a recovery of this ancient insight of the church. God’s manifestation of Godself in Jesus Christ is the call and baptism is the response.

We have, all of us, in our baptism made the choice to choose the way of love and side with God in the great cosmic struggle against evil. Those who present Adelaide today will make it on her behalf and we who bear witness will reaffirm it. As Christians we vow to deny ourselves, to take up our cross, and follow Jesus. And so, as it turns it, alongside those of the Wise Men, we do have a gift to bring today after all. The gift that we bring this day and every day is the gift of ourselves.

[1] The Collect has not been altogether lost to us. It is today Proper 10, the Sunday closest to July 13.