Sermon Notes mix of Baptism of Jesus and Epiphany

January 8 Epiphany and Baptism of Jesus

The readings are constructed for these early days of January we have the beginning of the life of Jesus and the beginning of his public life joined.God's inbreaking presence in Jesus Christ  re-orients the internal landscapes of our lives. During Epiphany, we claim once again that we have a living God, incarnate among us,  We proclaim a God present in the flesh and bone of Jesus christ who is  concerned and involved in our lives..

The Baptized God enters the fullness of life , seeking to heal and save. This God offers a life deep and wide as the river , where light shines into every nook and cranny, It is a way of life that demands much  and promises more. It is life abundant,Luke uses the literary device of the bodily form - Spirit had in fact filled Jesus. Bystanders saw the Holy Spirit enter Jesus. They could have confidence, then, that Jesus embodied the life of the Spirit by manifesting the qualities of the realm. ."fulfill all righteousness." is to be in alignment with the will of God.Duty and destiny come together when Jesus stands on the side of the river with sinners and submits to baptism and John, uncomfortable, submerges the divine in the waters of the Jordan... Jesus is explicitly revealed. "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased." The very Beloved Son of God, sinless though He is, submits to the waters of baptism. Matthew Myer Boulton puts it like this in his book, "God Against Religion":  And now comes God the Son, Jesus of Nazareth, the only one among them all who might truly claim to be clean and pure, and he proceeds to get in line with the sinners ... he crosses the Jordan, so to speak, in the opposite direction: from 'clean' to 'sinner,' from insider to outsider...he confirms his solidarity with sinners by submitting to baptism ... ."(Pres. Outlook)

From a more important level, according to Luke, those who repent, are baptized and realize they are empowered by the Spirit to help shape new world , to work the signs of the realm, and to embody the qualities of the realm in their common life.What does baptism reveal about Jesus We were baptized the same as Jesus

To what degree did the Magi get what they were seeing?look at who they tried to deal with

Baptism and enlightenment-initiation But there is more than meets the eye in the identification of these magi as from the “East”. The word used for the “East” in the story, /anatole  really means “the rising,” that is, the rising of the sun (our word “orient” comes from a Latin word with the same meaning: oriens).  Isaiah’s vision of salvation includes a pilgrimage of the nations, who will come to Israel’s light, to worship the God of Israel. The Gentile magi are to be understood as enacting the fulfillment of this prophecy., and it is easy to see how a star could become a symbol for the Messiah.(Num.24) . (Springsteen’s ending)

perfect at the start of the New Year with the beginning of the public work  of Jesus

Gold frankincense and myrrh compared to gifts of the spirit accidental propriety-the gifts of the Magi all fit the elements surrounding the creation of the tabernacle, the locus of
God’s presence when the people were in the wilderness and then entered the Promised Land.

Reality of magi v. those with the baptist