8.1.17 Isaiah 42:1-9; Acts 10:34-43; Matthew 3:3-17

8.1.17 Isaiah 42:1-9; Acts 10:34-43; Matthew 3:3-17 Ric Barrett-Lennard

On Friday 20th January Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States of America. This event will herald an era of change. Of course that is always true when a new President assumes Office – particularly if they are of a different political persuasion than their predecessor.

However this time the change is likely to be more radical than usual and – if his tweets and press statements are anything to go by – some of the change will be unsettling and even disturbing. Already he seems to be nailing his colours to the mast in relation to how he views Russia and China. And clearly now the latest U.S. intelligence report on alleged Russian hacking in the Presidential election is going to elicit a great deal of partisan debate in the States.

But we will have to wait and see whether Donald Trump, aided by the team of people he has pulled together, can develop an effective set of policies that will really enhance the life of all Americans and contribute something positive to the global community. In my mind there remains a significant question mark about that. It may prove to be the case that what Donald Trump understands by a 'great America' is a very different vision from the one that many Americans and others around the world have. Time will tell.

But change there will be and life, of course, is constantly bringing change. Already we are into a new year that will, no doubt, bring change for us in lots of ways.

And today we are thinking in part about one of the changes that happened in Jesus life: his baptism.

I must say in terms of chronology of the liturgical year – we have reached this point very quickly because just a fortnight ago we were commemorating the birth of Jesus and then last Sunday we were observing Epiphany and the visit of the magi to baby Jesus. And the baptism of Jesus didn't happen at six or twelve or eighteen months. It happened when he was about thirty years old. So liturgical time can be fast!

St Matthew's account of Jesus' baptism is very brief. But it raises a few issues. One is why Jesus was baptized at all if John's baptism was about repentance and a fresh beginning in the light of what God was about to do. Another is the linkage of the coming of the Holy Spirit at the point of his baptism. And the third one is the heavenly voice affirming Jesus' special status and relationship to God.

The question of why Jesus would be baptized is one that has been debated by theologians and laity alike for centuries. Probably even in the time of St Matthew it was being debated because Matthew gives specific attention to the question. He tells us that Jesus made the journey from Galilee all the way down to where John was exercising his ministry – which we know was Bethany Beyond the Jordan - and that when he presented himself for baptism John was pretty uneasy about doing it. 2

John felt that perhaps he, John, should be baptized by Jesus. That raises the interesting but unanswerable question as to whether John the Baptist was ever baptized himself. It is hard to know exactly what Jesus' response to John's uneasiness meant. There was something right and proper felt by Jesus about participating in it.

Perhaps at that point Jesus knew that one day he would call everyone who chose to follow him to be baptized and it was therefore an act of identification with those who would become his followers. He himself would do what he asked others to do.

And so the baptism of this little child that we carry out today – stands in this long tradition going back to our Lord himself. There is an important sense in which Jesus stand with us in all of our humanity.

The second issue I noted was the linkage of the Holy Spirit with Jesus' baptism. I spoke earlier about change being a part of life and Jesus was changed by his baptism. Whether he anticipated this change or not we cannot be sure. St Mark in his account also refers to the coming of the Spirit upon Jesus at his baptism – as does St Luke.

Jesus' baptism was followed immediately by a time of testing in the wilderness. But by then Jesus had been changed by the Spirit of God coming upon him in a powerful way. The Gospel writers don’t spell this out anywhere – but they seem to imply that Jesus had lived a fairly normal life for a Jewish boy and young man – until this moment – until his baptism. He was both empowered by the Spirit of God and also commissioned for his public ministry that would begin very soon.

And the fact that Jesus' baptism seems to have been a highly significant moment in his life appears to be confirmed by the fact that it is followed by what Matthew reports as a 'voice from heaven'. And the words that are heard affirm Jesus' special divine status as God's Son and the fact that he is, agapetos – beloved - by his heavenly Father.

Last Tuesday we saw Hilton Cartwright get his baggy green cap and be inducted into the Australian Test Cricket Team. It was clearly a very significant moment and no doubt in some respects he was changed by his participation in this important cricketing ritual.

And the evidence seems to suggest that Jesus was changed by participating in his baptism by John. Life was never the same again for him. And it was a step that for Jesus would lead to an incredibly productive three years of ministry which would end in a physical sense with his death on a cross. It is incredible that in the space of just three years - Jesus left a legacy that would change the world and inaugurate a religious framework that would, two thousand years later, still be changing people's lives.

And I want to come on now to say a little about baptism and change.

Today we are baptizing a young child in each of our Services. And baptism is a lovely event in a parish community. It is a happy and joyful time in the life of a family and hopefully the child too.

Baptism in its origins had fundamentally to do with washing in water – as an outward symbol of an inner change that the act of cleansing symbolized. The Jewish community 3 at Qumran who produced the Dead Sea Scrolls practiced frequent ritual washings and John the Baptist may well have been influenced by them.

When an adult is baptized – and the very earliest baptisms were all only adult ones – it symbolized an inner spiritual change that had gone in the person's life such that they had now desired to be identified closely with Christ and to follow him. And that it still true today when we baptize an adult. An adult would not choose that step unless some spiritual changes in their beliefs and ideas had occurred which now made that something that they wanted to do.

Babies of course don’t get much choice about their baptism – unless perhaps they try and use their lungs to persuade the priest they don’t want anything to do with that water. Banjo Patterson had a story about that in his poem, The Bush Christening. There are no personal choices made by a child but the Church believes that when a child is baptized they are brought into the sphere of Jesus' redeeming work on the cross with its promise of forgiveness and relationship with God. And with a commitment by one or both parents to nurture an awareness of relationship with Christ – baptism may well contribute to later spiritual changes that impact deeply upon that person's life.

For both adults and children – one of the other very significant changes that happens in baptism is that because it is the rite of entry into the Church – one is immediately brought fully into the Christian family. This family includes all those Christians who have gone before us and are now, we believe, in the nearer presence of God.

And so there is a change in status that is special and significant. Despite the failings of the Church - and they have been serious – it is a very special thing to belong to it and we need one another in the Church to become the women and men God intends us to be and to become.

And so as we baptize this young child this morning – I invite you if you are baptized - to reflect upon what meaning that has for you personally – and to consider whether your baptism is calling forth some positive change in your life to take place in 2017.