FIRST SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY
(The Baptism of the Lord)
Readings:
Key Verses (using the World English Bible):
Rom. 3:21, 22: “Now apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed… even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe.”
Matt. 3:15, 16: [John said to Jesus], “‘I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?’ But Jesus, answering, said to him, ‘Allow it now, for this is the fitting way for us to fulfill all righteousness.’”
Reflection
There’s a point in each of our lives when we realize that the world as we know it is not okay. Some of us learned it the hard way through personal tragedy or despair. But for those of us fortunate enough not to have such an intimate realization, we need look no further than the news. Just this past week alone, terrorism struck the heart of France, as gunmen brutally killed journalists and police officers. Terror, murder, injustice, greed, oppression, exploitation are still very much alive among us—and history has shown us that they always have been.
The Church has traditionally sets aside the first Sunday after the Epiphany to recall the baptism of Jesus. We all know the story. Jesus lets himself be baptized by John in the Jordan river, despite the Baptist’s objection, “for this is the fitting way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Now I always thought that this obscure and semi-cryptic response was just Jesus’ way of exemplifying humility, and in part this is true. But the word “righteousness” especially caught my attention because it forms the main point of today’s first reading from Paul’s Letter to the Romans.
You see, Paul also came to the realization that the world as he knew it was not okay. And he also saw why. Quoting a mishmash of psalms, Paul concludes that this is because people don’t seek or fear God, they don’t do good, they say empty and deceitful things, they murder, they destroy—despite being told to do the very opposite. In fact, because of our imperfect nature, we need rules and laws to teach and constantly remind us of how to act (or not to act) in order to be good people and do what’s right. But what do we do when even those don’t work, or aren’t enough?
That’s when Paul had an “epiphany” of his own. He discerned a different kind of “righteousness”, one that comes not from following rules and regulations, but “a righteousness from God” directly—through faith. It had worked before: God declared Abraham “righteous”, not because he obeyed God and set off to a strange land, but because he first “believed” in God. Paul realized that this same declaration of righteousness, of being considered “right-acting”, was now open to everyone through faith in God’s Son.
But faith in God’s Son isn’t just a passive belief in his existence. It’s also a trust that leads to action, transforming us both inside and out in order to follow his footsteps, to live out his existence in our own. For Jesus, unlike Abraham, acted based on faith in God even when he didn’t have to. The Son of God didn’t need to be baptized by a son of Adam. And yet Jesus’ and John’s mutual exchange of selflessness and humility, without the distinction of status or power, is exactly the kind of exchange that God wants us to have with one another. It’s the kind of exchange that “fulfills all righteousness”, that is, fills righteousness full with a whole new meaning; one that sets us on the “right” path to change the world, even if we don’t know where to start; and one that, with God’s grace, will make things finally okay.
Prayer of the Day
Father in heaven,
at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan,
you proclaimed him your beloved Son
and anointed him with the Holy Spirit.
Grant that all who are baptized into his Name
may keep the covenant they have made,
and boldly confess him as Lord and Savior,
who with you and the Holy Spirit
lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting.
Amen.
—Adapted from the Collect for the First Sunday after the Epiphany in the Book of Common Prayer, p. 214
Or,
O God,
your only-begotten Son
appeared in the substance of our flesh.
We pray you,
grant that we may be counted worthy
to be inwardly renewed by him
whom we confess to have been like us
in outward appearance,
the same Jesus Christ our Lord,
who with you and the Holy Spirit,
lives and reigns, one God, forever and ever.
Amen.
—Adapted from the Collect for the “Octave of the Epiphany” (January 13th) in the Sarum Missal.
Hymn: “The sinless One to Jordan came”
(Words: George B. Timms, born 1910
Tune: ‘Solemnis haec festivitas’, melody from Graduale, 1685)
The sinless One to Jordan came,
And in the river shared our stain.
God’s righteousness he thus fulfilled,
And chose the path his Father willed.
Up rising from the waters there,
The Father’s voice did then declare
That Christ, the Son of God, had come
To lead his scattered people home.
Above him see the heav’nly Dove,
The sign of God the Father’s love,
Now by the Holy Spirit shed
Upon the Son’s anointed head.
How blest that mission then begun
To heal and save a race undone!
Straight to the wilderness he goes
To wrestle with his people’s foes.
O Christ, may we baptized from sin,
Go forth with you, a world to win.
Grant us the Holy Spirit’s power
To shield us in temptation’s hour.
On you may all your people feed,
And know you are the Bread indeed,
Who gives eternal life to those
That with you died, and with you rose.
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