ALL SAINTS MARGARET STREET

THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST, 2010
Sermon preached by the Vicar at High Mass

Readings: Isaiah 43.1-7; Acts 8.14-17; Luke 3.15-17,21-22

The Church celebrates not one Epiphany, one revelation of the identity of Jesus, but three. On Wednesday night: the coming of the Magi, the Wise Men from the East who had followed their star to find the newborn king of the Jews and fell down and worshipped him and presented their precious and symbolic gifts. Next Sunday, we will be at Cana of Galilee for a wedding feast and the first of Jesus' "signs" in John's Gospel: the water made wine. On this Sunday after the Epiphany, we are at the River Jordan to celebrate the second of the epiphanies: the Baptism of Christ. All three are seen as epiphanies; as manifestations of the glory of Christ. They are different facets of the one jewel.

This year at the Sunday Eucharist the Church hears mostly from the Gospel according to St. Luke. Each Evangelist has his particular way of telling the story of Jesus; his own understanding to communicate; his own community to address in its particular situation.

What does Luke see? What is special to his account? In his first two chapters, Luke has given us a parallel account of the conception and birth of John and Jesus; with a clear indication that Jesus is the superior. Now, in the first part of our passage today, when people are asking of John is the hoped-for Messiah, John speaks of the one who is powerful than he; one who will baptise "with the Holy Spirit and with fire"; with the wind and fire of Pentecost. The same Hebrew word means both wind and spirit. Luke sees the baptism of Jesus, which he does not describe, as the transition point. John, we are told in verses which divide the two sections of our Gospel and which are omitted, is already in prison. His ministry is over. That of Jesus is about to begin.

Now when all the people were baptised, and when Jesus also had been baptised". Luke's first chapters point us to the incarnation: the birth of Mary's son who is also the Son of God; both human and divine. Now Jesus joins the queue of people waiting at the riverside to receive baptism. Jesus presents himself for baptism as an act of solidarity with a nation and a world of sinners; he identifies with the damaged and broken people who need God.

Jesus was born from as well as into a world of systemic sin, and his baptism is a signal that he understands the full implication of the incarnation. He was not merely identifying with or showing solidarity with the human world; he was fully acknowledging its tragic structure. There was no innocent, no perfect, no unambiguous, indeed no sinless choices in the world. All of our choices must be made within the context of a system that precedes and impinges upon them.

Luke does not have Jesus say a word at his baptism, but after he is baptised, Jesus prays. Jesus is not only coming to us sinners; he is coming to God in prayer. He will not undertake his public ministry of teaching and healing in his own power and abilities. The source of his strength is beyond himself. The Holy Spirit will encourage him all the way, even when the way becomes difficult. Here we have no accidental detail. Again and again in the gospel, Luke emphasises prayer. The announcement of John's birth takes place at the hour of prayer. Jesus himself prays at significant junctures in his ministry: before calling the disciples, before the Transfiguration, on the eve his death, and on the cross. So, it is not surprising then that Luke should emphasize that Jesus was praying at the time when the Spirit came upon him. He sees this as fundamental to his relationship with the Father. Nor does Luke tell us this simply as a piece of interesting information about Jesus. At the beginning of Acts, we are told that the apostles, Mary and the women and Jesus' brothers were together in prayer in the upper room as they waited for the promised gift of the Spirit. Prayer, prayer for the Spirit is integral to the life of the Church for all time, not just in the life of Jesus.

The disciples will learn this attitude of prayer from Jesus, as the Spirit will give them the stamina and patience to love and love again in faithful ministry.

While he is at prayer, "the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove".

The opening of heaven in the Old Testament and other Jewish writings signified revelation. The opening of heaven at the baptism of Jesus signals that he is the Messiah and that the fulfilment of Israel's ultimate hopes is at hand. If the closing of heaven brought drought; its opening would bring God's blessings. God's power and mercy is about to be unleashed.

Identifying with sinners in the water of baptism and holding onto God in prayer, Jesus will now be claimed as God's own Son. At his baptism, Jesus is ordained as Messiah by a God who loves him and tells him so. This powerful affirmation, this calling from God, will sustain Jesus through temptations in the desert and then through the joys and trials of his ministry. At our baptism we too are claimed as the children of God. At his baptism Jesus is consecrated for his ministry. At our baptism we too are consecrated for our part in his mission. We are not being enrolled in some elite and privileged body; we are being called and set apart for the service of the others, the outsiders represented by those Samaritans evangelised by Philip in Acts.

Bishop Graham Kings who was our preacher at Epiphany last year sent me an email the other day to tell me that after a year he had finally managed to write up his sermon and send us a copy. I could also find it on the website of an organisation called Fulcrum. I had a look at the website and found not only the sermon but also a piece in which a distinguished former clergyman of this deanery of St. Marylebone was cited as saying that the Church is challenged to recognise that people today are looking for three qualities of life.

I should tell you at this point that the clergyman being quoted was not one of the Vicar's of All Saints but Dr. John Stott who was for many years the Rector of All Souls, Langham Place around the corner; who exercised a worldwide influence in the evangelical movement.

We might see All Saints with its emphasis on worship and prayer representing that element of transcendence and All Souls with its stress on teaching as responding to that yearning for significance. But neither worship nor verbal proclamation of the gospel is of much value unless it springs from a community of love which shares in the divine life revealed in Jesus Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit.