Luke 3: 15-16, 21-22
Jesus gets baptized today. He identifies with us sinners by taking on the baptism of repentance. He foreshadows his crucifixion, dying for our sins. The wood of the manger foretells the wood of the cross. In getting baptized, the one without sin makes the waters holy. He makes the first ‘holy water.’ And another epiphany! Another revelation. Last week, an infant is manifested to the nations. This week, an adult. Everyone sees and everyone hears. It appears, Luke says, “in bodily form like a dove,” and a voice: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” This is the experience of Spirit and fire of which John has spoken to the people. Jesus feels it – as if on fire – the overwhelming love of his Father. It is this experience that Jesus the Christ will give to us. John points to this when he says: “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
This experience of being loved will lead him into the desert to ponder what the Father expects him to do and then, to begin his public life, of healing, teaching, that will lead to the cross. Christmas leads to Good Friday and Easter.
We receive the Holy Spirit in baptism. It is this we celebrate today, Jesus’ baptism and our own. I heard the story years ago [in 1981] of a man in hospital. He is lying on his bed of pain – from hemorrhoids! In a moment of great pain, he cries out to God desperately and hands his life over to God. Suddenly, this experience of warmth floods him. It is the Spirit and fire of which John speaks today. It’s God’s love. “With you I am well pleased.” He knows he is loved. Remember, too, the British Olympic runner from the early 20th century who would not run on Sunday. You recall the film Chariots of Fire when he said: “I feel God’s pleasure when I run.” Can you remember a time when you felt God’s pleasure? Hopefully you feel it now when you do an activity that is life expanding and fulfilling for you. It could be your profession, your avocation, your hobby, your service or volunteer work. If it expands your life and results in benefit for others, there is God’s pleasure in you, with whom he is well pleased.
We are all loved, just like Jesus in today’s gospel, like that man in hospital, like the Olympic runner. As we bring Christmas to its close with this liturgy, we, like Jesus, go on in our public lives, knowing we are loved. For this we go forth, as we say at liturgy’s end: glorifying God by our life. Christ is born again, this time as an adult, indeed, in us. A new epiphany, indeed. A new manifestation to the world. In deed. In our deeds.