Looking Ahead to January 11, 2026 -- Baptism of Christ Sunday

 

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Isaiah 42:1-9
• Matthew 3:13-17

The Sermon title is Beloved Servant

Early Thoughts: What does it mean to remember that you are baptised? 

It could be an act of blessing and affirmation. It also could remind us of a deep calling. Both at the same time.

From the earliest days baptism as been the rite of initiation for the Christian church. From the beginning it has been a rite where the newly baptized is joined with Christ -- "dying and rising with Christ" is the traditional language. In baptism, as our baptism liturgy puts it,

we are called, claimed, and commissioned:
we are named as God’s children,
claimed by Christ,
and united with the whole Christian community
of every time and place.
Strengthened by the Holy Spirit,
we live out our commission;
to spread the love we have been given throughout the world.

So what does it meant to remember that you are baptized?

Our readings this week talk about Jesus. One tells of Jesus being baptized by John -- and indeed on of the reasons Christians hold Baptism as a sacrament is because while we have no record of him baptizing anybody Jesus himself was baptized. The other is one of the passages from Isaiah that talks about the Suffering Servant. There is some disagreement about who Isaiah had in mind as the Suffering Servant but Christians have long read these passages as being about Jesus. SO taking the two together we have Jesus as Beloved Servant.

In Baptism we share in the death and resurrection of Christ. In Baptism we are named as God's children, we are claimed by Christ, and we are commissioned to take part in God's action of remaking the world. Maybe in Baptism we too are named as God's Beloved Servant?

This is both blessing and challenge, to me at least.  It is a great blessing to be reminded that we are Beloved by God, tat we are a Beloved child of God. We tend to like that. But there is the commissioning side to it as well. We are to be servants, to serve. 

Called to serve means we advocate for the Reign of God (remembering that Jesus was all about proclaiming the present/coming Kingdom of God). It means that we speak out against those things/persons/policies that work against the Reign of God. It may mean we have to run counter to some powerful or influential voices in the world around us. This can be difficult.

Still we are able to do this, to the best we can, because of the first part. We are able to play a part in God's ongoing mission to repair and remake the world because we are God's Beloved children. Remembering this moves us past our guilt and shame and regret. Remembering that we are Beloved helps us to turn (or to repent) and go a different direction, to go home by another way.

We need to remind ourselves of the blessing and the burden of being Baptized on a regular basis -- maybe even daily. We need to remind ourselves what it means to be baptized and reflect on how that gets lived out. Sometimes we do this to push ourselves (and each other) to live into God's mission. Sometimes we do it to lift ourselves out of depression or shame or guilt. Sometimes we do it to give us hope for the future.

In Baptism we are reborn (or "born again" to use a different turn of phrase). When we remember what it means to be baptized we can be reborn again and again and again. When we remember and recommit ourselves to our identity as Baptized. life wins and we are reborn.  Thanks be to God.
--Gord