Baptism of Our Lord
The Reverend Shearon Sykes Williams
Saint George’s Episcopal Church, Arlington, Virginia
The Baptism of Our Lord
January 7th, 2024
“You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” Mark 1: 4-11
Yesterday something both ancient and new, something wonderful and extraordinary happened. The Reverend Paddy Cavanaugh, along with six others, was ordained a priest in “Christ’s one, holy, and apostolic Church.” We are all so happy for you and very proud of you, Paddy. It has been such a blessing for all of us to be with you, Paddy, first as our seminarian for two years, then as deacon for the last 6 months, and now a priest. We are so grateful for your ministry to and with us and I am very thankful for the ministry that you and I share. You are a wonderful colleague for me and all of us are blessed to have such a faithful, loving and exceptionally capable Associate Rector in you. Thanks Paddy.
Now that Father Paddy is a priest, he can do all of the things he has been doing as a deacon, plus some additional ones. First and foremost, he can celebrate the Eucharist, as he is doing for the first time today. He can administer Holy Baptism and the other sacraments, declare God’s forgiveness, pronounce God’s blessing and “perform other ministrations entrusted” to him. That’s fancy Book of Common Prayer language for “other duties as assigned.” So continued blessings are in store for Father Paddy and for all of us as he deepens his ministry with us and for us from this day forward. Because, you see, Paddy’s ordination is about him, but it is about all of us too, all of us who are baptized into service to Christ, to the Church, and to the world. Each of us has a calling.
At the end of the Prayer of Consecration yesterday, all of the priests present joined Bishop Stevenson in laying hands on Paddy’s head as the bishop said, “Therefore, Father, through Jesus Christ your Son, give your Holy Spirit to Paddy; fill him with your grace and power, and make him a priest in your Church.”
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is baptized by John in the Jordan River, “and just as he was coming out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” Yesterday’s ordination and Jesus’ baptism have a lot in common. They are both about vocation, living out God’s call on our life. Jesus’ baptism was an expression and a confirmation of his identity. It manifested who he already was and it reaffirmed it. Jesus was one with God since the very beginning of time and then as we celebrated just two weeks ago, Jesus came into the world as a human being. We celebrate his baptism today, on this first Sunday of the Epiphany season, because Jesus’ baptism was the first way that his vocation as the Son of God was disclosed to the world. Mark puts Jesus’ baptism at the very beginning of his Gospel to establish right away who Jesus is, God’s Beloved Son, with a mission to unite God’s self so completely with a sinful world, that he was baptized into John’s baptism for the forgiveness of sins even though he was without sin. Jesus was baptized as an expression of humility and solidarity with us. And it affirmed in him what had been true all along, his solidarity with God. His baptism also inaugurated his public ministry.
Today all of us will reaffirm our baptismal covenant and be reminded of God’s call on our lives. And two weeks from today, we will have our Bishop’s Visitation and 14 new Saint Georgians will be confirmed and received. Confirmation is directly linked to baptism. It is an adult profession of faith and affirms the promises that were made at baptism. During confirmation, the bishop lays hands on each person and prays this prayer. “Strengthen, O Lord, your servant,_______, with your Holy Spirit; empower them for service and sustain them all the days of their life. “ Through baptism and confirmation, something both ancient and new, something wonderful and extraordinary happens. The Holy Spirit is given to us. We are given grace upon grace, and the power to continue Jesus’ ministry in this world. We are called to be faithful in worship, to seek forgiveness of our sins, to love and serve others, and to recognize Christ’s image in everyone we meet.
And most importantly, far more importantly than anything else, we are called through our baptism, to remember God’s fathomless, unconditional love for us. God wants us each to hear the same words that Jesus heard as he was coming out of the water. “You are my Child, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” You are precious. You are the apple of God’s eye. If each of us could really take that in and experience it, we would be transformed and the world would be a different place. Knowing that we are loved so completely that nothing can separate us from that love. Each of us is the apple of God’s eye and everyone else is too. If we could really get in touch with that, divisions and wars would cease, and there would be no need to work for justice and peace. My prayer for you today, my prayer for each of us, is that we will hear God’s voice singing in our hearts today. “You are my Child, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
“And just as (Jesus) was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”