The Baptism of Jesus, Jan. 8, 2017

What is an epiphany? We have the image of a floating light bulb over someone's head. It is kind of idea or an insight. There's more to it than thinking. It is also a kind of discovery. We use the language of revelation. It some sort of supernatural message. We get an insight outside of ourselves. We understand something larger than the evidence before us. It is something that was once a mystery and now it is revealed for all to see. The feast of epiphany celebrates three stories. We hear about the arrival of the magi to the infant Jesus. Sometimes we remember Jesus’ first miracle - changing water into wine at a wedding banquet. We also remember the baptism of Jesus. All of these are public proclamations of who Jesus is. The significance is that the message is for everyone.

We often think of epiphanies as private messages. We even carry this into our faith. We act as if we are privileged to know the truth and everyone else is out of luck. I think about this with my leisure time reading. I read a lot of classic murder mysteries. The usual plot begins with some crime or act that is the mystery. The detective (professional or otherwise) comes upon the scene and observes the details and the people involved in the case. Often for the reader it is still a mystery. By the end of the book, the detective explains the mystery, using observations that were available all along, but were missed by everyone else. Holmes often tells Watson, "You see everything but you fail to infer its meaning."

Still, God doesn't mean to hide anything from us. We see the truth all around us, and we often fail to see the significance. We look for simple and direct meanings when God would show us depths and complexity. We look for easy rewards when God would show us the first steps of an unknown path.

As I have reminded us in previous sermons, Isaiah is writing to a people in exile. The prophet captures a longing for a messiah, for a deliverer. There is great hope in God's restoration. We can share that hope in the person of Jesus. We can acknowledge that we have been saved. We might rush past the depth of that salvation. Those who are saved are part of God's work of salvation. The second half of Isaiah's words can be to a people and not merely one single messiah. "I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness." We are invited to be the blessing proclaimed by God to others as well as receive it.

Peter's sermon in acts is his own epiphany. He has a dream of unclean animals that God commands him to eat. God tells him, "Stop declaring unclean what I have named clean!" Peter immediately sees that he is to share the gospel to non-Jews. This is obvious to us, but a completely new idea to Peter.

Now Jesus arrives at the river Jordan to be baptized by John. "Why?" John asks. "You should be baptizing me." "Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness." Jesus doesn't need to make himself right or to repair his soul. He is fulfilling righteousness by setting things right, or setting things in place to make us right. He is setting us up a new way. We are made new in baptism. We are also participating with Jesus in creating something new. The Spirit descends upon Jesus and God declares, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased. In the same way God's Spirit has descended upon us. We are God's beloved daughters and sons.

We share the new life of the messiah. We also share the work of the messiah. We are not saviors of the world - and we can drop our hyper-responsible and controlling habits that put ourselves in the place of God. We participate in living the new life we have been given. Our very lives are to shine with the truth of God's love.

We often use our religion for all the wrong reasons. We feel shame. We feel judgmental. We talk about God's love and then we build a wall of rules and expectations. We believe and then live as if we don't believe. We are like the characters in a classic murder mystery, who can't believe the truth even when confronted with evidence. We are like the dull police sergeant who can only believe the obvious explanation. Or we are like the relative or friend who cannot believe the evil work of another. The detective finds the truth because she or he sees what is essential and sets aside all the diversions and non-essential information. Which is what we have to do.

We live in a world that values wealth and appearances. We have to see the value that God sees. We were all brought to the waters of baptism long before we had any wealth or power. We were made children of God long before we had beauty or strength or wisdom. Therefore we need none of those things to participate in God's new life. The gifts we have should be used to point to God who has always loved us first. In this way we are an epiphany to others, as we shine the light to the one who is our light. We grow new life by shining new life. We grow in love by living in love.

What do we see in the baptism of Jesus? What have we discovered? Do we see merely a ritual that keeps us safe and saves our soul? Do we see something more? God is always beginning a new work of creation. We are invited to share in the promise that we are beloved children of God – sons and daughters invited to begin a life of declaring the plain mystery of God’s love.