The Baptism of Our Lord: Epiphany 1A (Isaiah 42:1-9)

During the time of sharing our insight and wisdom on the Eve of Christmas at the Zoom Christmas vigil service, G said something essential and fundamental to the Christian doctrine called Christology. When asked, “How is your Christmas going?” he answered, “Trying to make sense of Jesus, the God-man.” This is expressed in St. John’s gospel as “the Word became flesh.” The process of making sense of Jesus is to see God in him. While we can intellectualize this process as how Jesus is God or how he became God, I would like us to rechannel that focus to something more practical with this question: As much as we try to see God in Jesus, how are we seeing God in ourselves and others? This question doesn’t attempt to claim we share the same divine nature as our doctrines confess about Jesus but to remind us of his good news to us that God dwells in us. His life, death, and resurrection are committed to showing the indwelling presence of God in all human beings in the name of love.

So, Jesus’ good news is that God is within us, Emmanuel because God loves. The better news he manifests through the crucifixion and resurrection is that the availability of God’s presence in us doesn’t depend on who we are or what kind of person we are. God is always available and present to us no matter who we are, yet our lack of awareness of God’s living presence in us may confuse us that God conditionally loves us, that God is conditionally available to us. If this conditional availability of God really is the case, then that god is too small and even petty. Love seeks a genuine relationship, a complete union with unlimited goodwill and good intentions for the other. God’s perpetual presence in us entails this deep union since God is in us and fills us with God’s goodwill which we may call “vocations” in religious terms or “purposes in life” as we become heedful of this divine presence in our human body. 

This good news and better news cannot be conveyed and experienced through mere words but only through our personal experience. Mere words are like books or this reflection. Some encounter the Emmanuel experience dramatically as told in radical conversion stories of St. Augustine or St. Paul. Others do it rather subtly in quiet places. What about our practice of the opening acclamation before we pray? The officiant who says “The Lord be with you” reminds others that God is with them. In turn, others remind the officiant that God is also with that person, “Also with you.” There are, of course, those who experience it in both or more diverse ways through music, arts, sports, leisure, etc. One of the communal and personal ways to experience the indwelling presence of God that I suggest is contemplation as you already know. 

The baptism of Jesus which we celebrate today invites us to look again at God dwelling in us. As Jesus is baptized, God declares to the world that he is God’s beloved. Now, let’s move further from being a passive observer or reader of this event to being an active participant in this event. Imagine your own baptismal experiences. It doesn’t matter whether you actually remember the day of your actual baptism. What matters is that you remember that you’re baptized. Our act of receiving the Eucharist is a reminder of your baptism. Overlap yourself in the image of Jesus at the River Jordan. Unite yourself with Jesus. His baptism becomes yours. (It IS the same as your own baptism as the Church teaches.) We see ourselves in his baptism and we are once again reminded of us becoming God’s beloved. As we see God in Jesus, we place ourselves in Jesus’ position that we see God in us. 

Please note that the lesson this morning is not from St. Matthew’s gospel 3:13-17 which depicts the scene of Jesus’ baptism. I intentionally selected the Isaiah reading so that we can apply it to ourselves and embody this baptism of Jesus as we meditate on it. Here’s a simple instruction: reread the Isaiah reading as if you’re that “servant”, “my chosen” that it is not only Jesus of Nazareth but you also who now is united through that same baptism.