A blessed beginning: Baptism of our Lord, 2026

Today we remember our Baptisms, by remembering that Christ too, was baptized, and that Christ’s baptism is a source for how we understand and practice baptism. Baptism is one of the central moments in the Christian life when we contemplate how purely and originally our lives are built on the unquenchable love of God. 

This remembrance of God’s love is always welcome, but how much more so today, in the aftermath of a week of troubling brutality, wanton cruelty, and the violent death of a young wife and mother. Though the sadness and anger may have ebbed a bit - the operative word there is a bit. We are indeed moved today, to seek comfort.

So I invite you to receive this meditation on God’s love like a rain soaking into dry ground. Find space to unwind. Meditate on the faithfulness and immediacy of God’s presence and God’s delight. So often we consider how we may respond to God’s love. Today we spend time simply soaking in the reality of God’s initiative toward us. 

——

A friend and fellow pastor was hoping to take the day off this past Monday. It was her first day off in three weeks. Granted, she had a list of projects in hand – the piles of laundry that had accumulated, the Christmas decorations still up. It wasn’t shaping up to be a restful day off, but she was hoping to feel a little more caught up. On Monday morning, her son called and said, “Mom, the baby is sick, my wife and I both have to go to work today - can you come over?”

She did. She went over, and she held her grandbaby all day. For six hours, he would not let her put him down. He slept in her arms, he wanted to be fed while in her arms, he wanted to be rocked. She held him and she rocked, and she walked and he snuggled into her arms. In being called to love and nurture a little baby, she got the day off she had been so deeply needing. A long, slow day, holding this most precious of beings in her capable, tender arms.

And she also, in telling this story, brought to life the words that conclude our passage today - “This is my Son, my beloved, with whom I am well-pleased.”

Often, when we remember baptism, we can readily recall the sweet and sacred moments of witnessing children and grandchildren at the fount, marking their belonging to God, picturing their presence in loving community. These events stand out in their sweetness and wonder. 

Thankfully, the love we witness and experience so tangibly in the copious waters of baptism is not limited to a one time symbol or faded sign. 

For we are held in the tender and capable arms of God all our lives. Whether we are cognitively aware of those arms or not, all the time, we are held.

We are held, and we are forgiven because of the grace of God.

We are raised to life in Christ - here and in the world that is to come, because of the grace of God.

We are freed from the power and logic of sin, because of the grace of God.

This grace is the sheer affection and glory of God, who is always looking to be made manifest, to become tangible, in and around us. 

The love of God is extending to us whether we are aware of it or not, and yet awareness is quite a gift, too. Perhaps Jesus, of all people, did not really need to be baptized with John’s baptism of repentance. Afterall, he was the son of God, born of Mary and the Holy Spirit, sinless, even though human. And yet, he was immersed, and as he came up out of the waters, he was reminded, in new glory, that he was beloved of God, that God was pleased with him, that the Holy Spirit was present with him. Even Jesus experienced baptism at the onset of his earthly ministry.

How much more are we in need of the renewal that comes from this reminder of belonging?

This is the immersive tenderness of baptism - that we are loved by God and there is nothing we can do to change that love or make those arms loosen in boredom, distraction, or disgust.

Plunged into the waters of baptism, we, because of Christ, are born to new life. We become part of the life of the beloved community on earth. And, we are reborn into an even greater promises: Christ died, and so will we, but just as Christ was raised, we also will be resurrected.

And as the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus, suffusing him with the love of God and enabling him to undertake his ministry of reconciliation and wholeness, so our lives are sourced from this same Spirit. 

From this love, this faithful, devoted love, righteousness flows. Not a righteousness like a starched collar, nose-holding perfectionism, nor a righteousness flowing from fear of judgment, or punishment, or rejection. No, this is righteousness fulfilled - filled with the knowledge of our own safety because we trust God’s delight over us, we may in turn extend affection, generosity, and forbearance toward others. Baptism promises the renunciation of sin – baptism revokes the death and misery and alienation that sin produces. Baptism reorients us, again and again, to the life of God’s favor toward and through us.

You know, my friend’s grandson did not immediately become healed when she was holding him. He still needed time and rest and medicine in order to recover. But through his discomfort, despite his fussiness and his cries, grandma’s presence brought him comfort and security.

This blessing of comfort and security is our beginning too, once and continuously. We contend with sin and death, and yet baptism is our victory, and therefore our strength and perseverence. We set out into the world in ministry - seeking to live in community, in generosity - and it can be confusing, uncomfortable, and exhausting – and yet Spirit of God dwells with us, too, and the delighted voice of God keeps assuring us that God is well pleased. Whatever it is that we are going through, our beginning was once, and is every day, found at the fount of God’s great blessing.

The waters of baptism are, in ritual, copious, and yet brief. Imagine Jesus immersed in the Jordan. Imagine yourself immersed in your favorite type of water. Maybe it’s a lake, or a sea, so much larger than you, a space where you are fully held in a great magnitude. Maybe you can imagine the pleasing tug of a gentle river or stream, no dangerous currents, but a journey to wade into. Maybe you are quick to envision a pool, or hot tub, a place to safely relax with a sigh of relief. These imaginations of water are fulsome pictures of what the baptism waters signify - a love that fully meets us. Fully satiates us.

Come when you are bone dry and thirsty, here in the waters you will find sustenance for the weary days, and true satiation for your soul. 

Come fussy, God longs to quiet you.

Come lost, the Spirit is your guide.

Come tired, you will be held.