The prophet Isaiah contains much that can lift the soul, and this morning’s first reading is no exception: ‘Fear not for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.’ (Isa 43:1ESV) It is a verse which naturally speaks to us of baptism, as does the one which follows it: ‘When you pass through the waters I will be with you’ (Isa 43:2 ESV) God says not to be afraid, a perennial human problem, which we overcome by trusting Him. In our baptism God has redeemed us, because in it we share in Christ’s Death and Resurrection. It is how we are known to God, and named. It’s a wonderful thing, Baptism. And in Luke’s Gospel we see that people were keen on it. They’ve come out into the wilderness to be baptised by him. John has been preaching a baptism of repentance (Lk 3:3) turning away from sin, being washed, cleansed, and able to live new lives.
We then have to ask ourselves the question, why is Jesus there? Jesus is not a sinner, he has no sins from which to repent, and yet he is there. Something is clearly going on. An explanation is that in His Baptism Jesus is in solidarity with sinful humanity: he does not wish us to undergo anything that he would not himself. He is an example of how to come to God and have new life. As a sign of divine approval after the Baptism, as Jesus is praying, the heavens open, the Holy Spirit descends upon Him in the form of a dove, and God says, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’ (Lk 3:22 ESV) Here, at this moment, we see the fullness of the Godhead, a manifestation of glory and divine presence. Just as in Noah’s Ark God makes his love manifest in the form of a dove so now He brings us peace and love. The Divine Trinity makes itself manifest in recognition of the Son’s obedience to the Father, and looks forward to the Cross, where God’s love is poured out upon the world, and through which we are saved, as by our own baptism, a sharing in Christ’s Death and Resurrection. In His Baptism as in His Death, Christ shows us the way to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit. Ans so all of our life as Christians is Trinitarian. We are baptised in the name of the Holy and Life-giving Trinity. Our worship this morning began by invoking their name, through them we are sanctified and restored, so that we can be gathered as wheat into the barn, rather than the chaff which will be burned with unquenchable fire. It is a matter of life and death, of being with God, loved by Him, and redeemed by Him, or rejecting that love. It is not for nothing that God speaks through the pophet Isaiah, saying, ‘Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.’ (Isa 43:7 ESV) This is what the church is fo: to fulfil the will of God, to do His work, to bring people everywhere to salvation in and through Him. Through this we know that God loves us, ‘because you are precious in my eyes, and honoured and I love you’. (Isa 43: 4 ESV) This is Good News. God loves us, he tells us in Scripture, and shows us in His Son. It is why we are here today, so that we might be reminded of how much God loves us, and how He loves us in His Son Jesus Christ, who shows us the way to the Father, who dies for us, and sends His Holy Spirit upon us, that we might live in Him.
It is the will of God that humanity come to share in the Divine Life, that we might have the hope of heaven, and as a sign of that on the night before Christ died he took bread and wine and said, ‘This is my Body …. This is my Blood …. Do this.’ And we do. For nearly two thousand years the Church has baptised and nourished people with the Eucharist so that they might know that they are loved by God, and saved by Him. Baptism and Eucharist — how we are saved and given eternal life by God.
At the beginning of his public ministry, Jesus shows humanity the way to the Father, through himself. The world sees the generous love of God, which heals and restores us, from the darkness of the dungeon of sin and evil, to the light and life of the Kingdom of God. As our baptism is a sharing in the death and resurrection of Jesus, so His Baptism points to the Cross, where streams of blood and water flow to cleanse and heal the world. We see the love of the Father, the power of the Spirit, and the obedience of Son, and all for us, who are so weak and foolish, and who need God’s love and healing, and forgiveness.
We need this, the whole world needs it, but is too proud to turn to a God of love, for fear of judgement, knowing that they deserve to be cut off forever, and yet it is exactly such people, such lost sheep that Our Lord comes to seek, whom he enfolds in his loving arms on the Cross, whom he washes in the waters of baptism, so that all may be a part of him, regardless of whom they are, and what they have done. Salvation is the free gift of God and open to all who turn to him.
Ours is a faith which can transform the world, so that all humanity can share in God’s life and love, each and every one of us can become part of something radical and revolutionary, which can and will transform the world one soul at a time, it may sound strange, crazy even, but that is the point. Rather than human violence, cruelty, and murder, the only way to transform the world is through the love of God. This is what the church is for, what it’s all about; it is why we are gathered here, to be strengthened and nourished, through prayer, the Word of God, and the Sacraments of the Church, strengthened and nourished to live out our faith in our lives to transform the world. Nothing more, nothing less, just a revolution of love, of forgiveness, and healing, which the world both wants and needs, so let us live it so that the world may be transformed and believe and give glory to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, to whom be ascribed as is most right and just, all might, majesty, glory, dominion, and power, now and forever.
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