Word to the Wise
Sunday, January 13, 2013 - The Baptism of the Lord - C (optional; new)
[opt: Isa 40:1-5, 9-11; opt: Titus 2:11-14; 3:4-7; Luke 3:15-16, 21-22]After all the peoople had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was oopened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You aare my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased." [Luke]
All the Christmas decorations are gone. The Wise Men have come and gone. Jesus has been to Jerusalem and back with his parents. The story in Luke leaves us with him and his parents (perplexed by the incident) to "advance in wisdom and knowledge before God and man." The curtain falls on a twelve year old precocious boy and now rises on a thirty year old unassuming carpenter from Nazareth ("Can anything good come from there?") in a crowd listening to John the Baptist and coming forward for John's form of baptism! Then there is the theological equivalent of a drum roll announcement [a "theophany"] in the form of a voice and a dove that says: "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased." And the curtain comes down again! A narrator comes out in front to recite a long genealogy. Then the curtain rises again on the synagogue in Nazareth and Jesus' startling announcement that he is the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy!
I see this all as a long re-introduction. The precocious twelve year old boy is now the mature thirty year old man! He gets an impressive introduction but he will still have to make his way in this world. We humans are a tough audience! The voice and dove have spoken. History has spoken. Jesus himself has spoken. If we have heard all three and are "well pleased," then it is time (ordinary time) for us to begin listening and speaking the message. AMEN
config
view
logs
3840.0 KB
77 ms
4
