Blessed as Jesus was blessed (the baptism of Jesus)

 Luke 3: 15-17, 21-22

Isaiah 43: 1-4

 

Happy New Year.

I hope that you had some joy this Christmas and haven’t been too cast down by putting away all the cards and greenery and colourful decorations and restoring the house to normal.

The third Monday in January, which is a week tomorrow, is apparently ‘Blue Monday’, when all the excitement of Christmas and New Year has worn off and the reality of cold, dark, January sinks in.

 

We had a small surprise as we tidied up after Christmas.

Our grandson, Jonah, had evidently had a card or present into which someone had scattered a handful of small gold stars. I didn’t notice them during the present-opening, but a few days later, after the family had gone, I was puzzled to keep finding a star, sparkling on the stairs, another in the bathroom, one on the landing, and finally quite a constellation in the room Jonah had been sleeping in.

 

 

At first, I admit, I was a bit cross ‘another of those blinking stars – where are they coming from?’; but once I realised they had come because of Jonah’s visit I decided to treat them as a blessing – a small, sparkling reminder of our Christmas celebrations and the joy of seeing family.

 

But we might need more than the occasional memory of Christmas to see us into this new year.

The news doesn’t stop over the Christmas holidays, and some of the political upheavals are as dark as ever.

Here in the pastorate, we have John Evans’ funeral tomorrow, and we also had the death of Olive Watts just after Christmas, and Peter Williams just last week.

What can help us face this year with hope?

 

We can turn to the story of Jesus – not endlessly re-living the birth stories, but moving forward into the stories of Jesus’ life.

 

And so today we have heard the story of Jesus’ baptism. We tend to always hear the story at this time of the year, it appears in Matthew, Mark and Luke. But I think this version in Luke is my favourite.

 

Luke, alone, has Jesus come for baptism as part of the crowd.

“Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized ..”

All this is in the past tense – the people and Jesus had been baptised - it is just the background for what Luke sees as the focus of the story:

 

“And when Jesus was praying, the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove, and a voice came from heaven”

 

The voice, not the baptism itself, is what Luke wants us to focus on.

 

A whole group of people are baptised, Jesus is just one among them, but only Jesus hears the voice from heaven.

“You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."

 

I wonder whether, if the others who had been baptised had, like Jesus, prayed and listened, they too would have heard the voice of blessing for them. Was God the Father ready to bless anyone who listened for the voice of God that day? Then the words of blessing for Jesus are also words of blessing for all of us.

“You are the beloved. With you I am well pleased”

 

That idea is not too far-fetched if you remember the words of Isaiah to the people of God in exile in Babylon.

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”

 

These words are spoken by the prophet to all of God’s people.

Every one is precious in God’s sight – there is nothing that God the Father would not give to show his care for all his children.

 

At the start of Jesus’ ministry, the Spirit rests upon him and God the Father’s voice speaks a blessing over him.

At the start of this year, God offers the same to us. If we will stop and pray and listen, we might catch God’s voice speaking to us – “you are mine, I am pleased with you, I will be with you when the waters feel like they will overwhelm you”.

 

How can we remember this blessing and give ourselves a chance to hear it new this year?

 

I did wonder about giving you all a packet of small stars to scatter round your house, so that you could keep being reminded and blessed by them – but perhaps a more effective (and less messy) reminder is the sign of water, which was the sign for Jesus.

The water of baptism offers people a fresh start, a recognition of God’s blessing, a chance to be made clean, and a sharing with Jesus in baptism.

But all water can remind us of the water of baptism.

 

So when we fill the kettle for a cup of tea with a friend in need,

Or each morning as we step into the shower,

Or when we wash our hands after finishing a messy task,

I pray we will be reminded of God’s care for us and his blessing of us.

 

God says to us – the waters need not overwhelm you – because I am with you to bless you.

You are mine.

 

In the power of the Holy Spirt and the name of Jesus.

Amen.