A sermon preached at St. David of Wales Episcopal Church, Denton, TX on the commemoration of the Baptism of Christ.
Let me begin by saying what an honour it is to be with you this morning. I bring you greetings from the Diocese of The Arctic, your brothers and sisters in Christ spread out over 1.5 million square miles, 49 isolated communities mostly along the coast and among the islands of the Arctic ocean.
To give you a little bit of context – 2 years ago, my wife and our kids went south to Alaska for our vacation. That’s right, we’re the diocese of the Anglican Communion that is north of Alaska.
And as you might imagine, it is a beautiful and challenging and exciting and breathtaking place to be sent on mission for the Lord.
Jesus said to go to the ends of the earth, bringing that Gospel message – bringing that message that we heard this morning from the prophet Isaiah, of our merciful Lord who won’t quench a dimly burning wick; instead, as eyes are open and light goes forth, the Gospel message is one that sees dimly burning wicks fanned into flame; the Word of God going forth giving life and bringing growth – whether that’s thousands of miles away in the newly re-opened church in Resolute, an Inuit village just 500 miles south of the North Pole, or right here in Denton, as people grow as disciples week by week and the church grows, to God’s glory.
As I said, that work is beautiful – and challenging.
Our diocese brings together many cultures – the Inuit in the East, with 3 distinct dialects of their Inuktitut language; the Inuvialuit who speak Innuinnaqtun, and in the west, Gwich’in, Slavey, and Cree.
Very different worship styles, very different traditions and customs – and much to learn and explore together: after all, the Inuktitut Bible was only completed in 2012, so we are still in the first generation of folks who have God’s Word in their hand to study and read, and not have to rely on just the oral versions; still today the Inuinnaqtun language only has the Psalms and Gospels published, though the rest of the New Testament and now several Old Testament books have been made available online for those with access.
But that’s the Christian vision of eternity, isn’t it: every language, people, tribe, and nation, united around the throne of the Lamb, united in wonder, love, and praise for what God has done.
And, as I like to remind people, that vision is not just something to look forward to in the age to come.
No, if we have eyes to see it, if we – by grace – can open our spiritual eyes to see that this table is no ordinary table, but that it unites all the faithful in the same words of Christ, in the same sacrament of His body and blood received across time and space, then perhaps our eyes and hearts can be opened to realize that we don’t just gather as the faithful at St. David’s, or with fellow Episcopalians; but when we gather, I challenge you as I challenge everyone to remember that you are gathering with all of the faithful, in every age but also in every place, in every language, in every culture, whether that’s around a simple table under a mango tree in the heat of Madagascar, or whether it’s a dozen of the faithful in parkas and mukluks receiving from the reserved sacrament in a small wooden church in Grise Fiord.
It’s an incredible vision, isn’t it?
Every language, people, tribe, and nation, joined together in Christ – incredible!
But what makes it all possible?
How does it work?
Well, perhaps not surprisingly on this Baptism of Christ Sunday, this unity that we work towards in this life and will experience in the age to come is all rooted in Christian baptism, the entrance rite to the family of God, the act by which we – whoever we are – are adopted as younger brothers and sisters of Christ, as those who have been given the invitation and the right to call God “Our Father” and mean it, as those learning to take up that identity as those with responsibilities in the Kingdom of God.
And all of that, of course, is rooted in the Baptism of Christ himself, as we read and remember today.
And if there are 2 things you’re going to remember about the baptism of Christ and the baptism that we share across time and as people united from east to west and south to north, it’s these 2 words: identity, and revelation.
Identity and revelation.
That’s what Christ’s baptism – and that’s what our baptism – is all about.
You know, some people find it strange that Jesus, the eternal Son of God, the sinless one, the Messiah, had to be baptized. He wasn’t baptized as a sign of his own repentance, and certainly He didn’t need to be adopted as God’s Son – after all, He’s the Word of God from the beginning, the one through whom all things were made, the Incarnate Son of God, born as a baby in Bethlehem and growing in wisdom and stature and in favour with man.
So, why was Jesus baptized?
That’s why we must remember those two key words about baptism: identity, and revelation.
In His baptism, in that moment of the sinless one undergoing an act of repentance at the beginning of his public ministry, at the beginning of that 3-year journey to the Cross, that is where Jesus identifies with us.
In submitting to the waters of rebirth, in humbling himself to receive the baptism of John – who knows his own need for a saviour and wasn’t in favour of this plan, you’ll remember – it’s in that action, that moment, that Christ takes on that identity as one of us; no longer just sharing our flesh, but entering into our human need for repentance, joining with us in the waters of baptism but from the other side of the equation, as the Lamb of God who will bear all of the sins that those waters wash away.
In His baptism, Jesus identifies with us; and in turn, as we go out to earth’s remotest ends to bring that message of hope and healing and purpose and new life, likewise, it’s in the waters of baptism that we – each of us – receive our own identity. Not one of our own making, not one that erases culture or heritage or those other God-given things that make us who we are, but a new identity that transcends all of that, uniting us as those who have been adopted into the family of God.
It’s identity… and it’s revelation.
You see, Church, baptism is never an end in itself. As we see in the life of Christ, baptism is just the beginning – at His baptism, Jesus is revealed as the beloved Son of God, as the one who is well-pleasing to the Father, and who will bring us to share as that family around the throne.
But just as Christ’s identification with us brought about a revelation, so too, the identity that unites us as baptized followers of Jesus is also meant to bring about a revelation.
Baptism is not an end in itself – no, baptism leads us to take up our place in the Great Commission, that unending work of knowing Christ and making Him known.
And that’s something that we are all called to share in; whether that’s acts of service to neighbours in need; whether it’s simply and in your own words sharing the hope you’ve found in Christ with a friend who is at the end of their rope; whether that’s going south or north on a mission trip to teach that faith to children and help maintain mission church buildings; whether that’s offering faithfully of your abundance to support missionaries in the remote places; or whether it’s simply being aware and informed, staying up-to-date with those of your brothers and sisters doing ministry around the world, so that you can more fully join with us in our prayers; knowing, really knowing that each of us baptized Christians who share that identity in Christ, also share in that work of bringing light to the nations, bringing freedom to those in bondage, and opening the eyes of those whose eyes are clouded by the darkness they see in the world.
May Almighty God give us his grace, as all the baptized, to grow into that identity as brothers and sisters, united in the purpose of revelation: knowing Christ, and making Him known, even to the ends of the earth.
To God be the Glory, now and forevermore. Amen.
Bishop Alexander Pryor 