Today in the Spirit: Epiphany 1C
The terminology may be crass, but I will use it anyway. Epiphany might be understood as the celebration of God the Father’s excellence in marketing the presence of his Son in the world. Jesus of Nazareth was born in the humblest of circumstances. However, the reason he would not be lost in history at that point was the extraordinary appearance of, first, angels to the shepherds on the night of his birth and then magi from the Far East a short time later.
As for his adult ministry, the baptism of Jesus is marked by a visible apparition of the Holy Spirit descending on him, a voice from heaven. So from the assigned Gospel reading on Epiphany 1C from Luke 3:15-22, we will hear in our worship that Jesus was baptized, “and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”’ (22). So begins for the worshiper the Epiphany feast on the Father’s display of the shining light of Jesus in Israel and the world.
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The OT reading from Isaiah 42:1-9, assigned for Epiphany 1 in all three years, is the first so-called Servant Song in the Book of Isaiah. The direct connection to the Baptism of Jesus and the voice from heaven is in the first two couplets of the poem, “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations” (1). What follows is a pronouncement of the ministry of the Messiah once empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Psalm 89:1-29 or 89:20-29, also appointed every year at Epiphany 1, is a song with messianic overtones possibly composed for the coronation of King David or another national celebration. Especially meaningful on the feast celebrating Jesus’ baptism are the touching words, like those of the Father given to Jesus when he rises from the water, of the Father God to his beloved Son: “He (“David”) shall say to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation” (26, New Coverdale Psalter).
The assigned NT reading every year on Epiphany 1 (and Easter Day for different reasons) is from Acts 10:34-38. In Peter’s speech to the household of Cornelius, the direct connection to Jesus’ Baptism is found in these words: “…how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power” (38a).” But we must not miss Peter’s echoing of images from the day’s OT passages as well: “[Jesus] went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him” (38b).
The Collect makes the connection between Jesus’ Baptism and our own with a petition “that we, who are born again by water and the Spirit, may be faithful as your adopted children; through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
The Collect
Eternal Father, at the baptism of Jesus, you revealed him to be your Son, and your Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove: Grant that we, who are born again by water and the Spirit, may be faithful as your adopted children; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
I Have Called You in Righteousness (Isaiah 42:1-9)
1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
Isaiah 42:1-9
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my Spirit upon him;
he will bring forth justice to the nations.
2 He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,
or make it heard in the street;
3 a bruised reed he will not break,
and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
4 He will not grow faint or be discouraged
till he has established justice in the earth;
and the coastlands wait for his law.
5 Thus says God, the Lord,
who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people on it
and spirit to those who walk in it:
6 “I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness;
I will take you by the hand and keep you;
I will give you as a covenant for the people,
a light for the nations,
7 to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
from the prison those who sit in darkness.
8 I am the Lord; that is my name;
my glory I give to no other,
nor my praise to carved idols.
9 Behold, the former things have come to pass,
and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth
I tell you of them.”
See in this song how absolutely everything the Messiah undertakes in his ministry is an outworking of the power of YHWH put into him. What he will accomplish and how he will accomplish it is ordained ahead of time: “…he will bring forth justice to the nations…He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth” (1,4). And then YHWH declares what he will do through his servant instrument:
I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations.”
Such a connection with and dependence on the Father is often clearly articulated by Jesus himself: “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me” (Jn.6:38, see also Jn. 5:19ff, 14:24).
What is true for the Servant Jesus is now equally true for all those who are incorporated into his body by grace through faith. In the manner we continue the work of Jesus in the world, we find that the truths declared about the identity of the Servant in Isaiah and the promises given to him also apply to us. Our work, both singly and corporately, will end well. By abiding in Jesus, we will be made to persevere and to accomplish that part of the larger ministry of Jesus assigned to us. Though, unlike Jesus, we may sometimes falter and faint, the Father will bring us back to the path of his “justice” being established in the world.
See how this prayer from John Wesley’s covenant service prayer makes the point so poignantly:
I am no longer my own, but thine. Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee, exalted for thee or brought low for thee. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, thou art mine, and I am thine. Through Christ our Lord, Amen.
Today, in the Spirit poured out over Jesus at his baptism and by extension to us as part of his body, I say, away with discouragement and despair in my service to the Father, and that my hope is on the promises made to all God’s servants in this wonderful passage.
You Are My Father (Psalm 89:1-29 or 89:20-29)
26 [David my servant] He shall say to me, “You are my Father, *
Psalm 89:26-29, New Coverdale Psalter (BCP 2019)
my God, and the rock of my salvation.”
27 And I will make him my firstborn, *
higher than the kings of the earth.
28 My mercy will I keep for him for ever, *
and my covenant shall stand fast with him.
29 His seed will I make to endure for ever *
and his throne as the days of heaven.
In Epiphany 1, we focus on the baptism of Jesus. There is something of a dialogue going on in the appointed psalm and Gospel reading between the Messiah crying out to God, “You are my Father” in the second part of Psalm 89, and the Father calling to Jesus, “You are my beloved Son,” in Mark 1. See how often in the Gospels Jesus cries out “my Father” in the course of His ministry—to praise (Matthew 11:25, Luke 10:21-22), to give thanks (John 11:41), and to ask for consolation (Matthew 26:39).
Even more astounding, Jesus also teaches us to call God our Father (Mt. 5:43-48, 6:9). There is, then, a jump in our spiritual understanding, which we are intended to take as followers of Jesus Christ in this season (and always): Just as the Father God calls Jesus my Son and Jesus calls God my Father, we are meant to hear the Father calling us his sons and daughters and to cry out ourselves to him Abba Father. Making that jump is the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in us. Today, in the Spirit, pray to hear in every oncoming circumstance the voice of God saying to you affectionately, “My daughter” or “My son,” that you may respond to my Father, just as Jesus does.
I Now Realize How True It Is (Acts 10:34-38)
34 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), 37 you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
Acts 10:34-38
This passage demonstrates the continuing development of Peter as a follower and apostle of Jesus, which Luke has carefully traced in his Gospel and Acts. Peter’s words, “Truly I understand” (or I now realize how true it is, NIV), reveal something critically important about that development. It’s not that Peter suddenly has new information on God’s concern for the Gentiles, but that he now realizes God is true to his word about wanting to bless the nations (see Genesis 12:3), a teaching he would have heard from childhood.
For Peter, it will take his own experience of Gentiles miraculously seeking Jesus Christ to bring him to the point of sharing the gospel with them. Having seen his own vision before ever meeting with Cornelius and then encountering Cornelius (see earlier in Acts 10), Peter will go forward, enter a Gentile home, and understand more fully the mind of God.
Are we not all astonished to realize how active God is in shaping our minds and hearts over time? Job asks: “Where then does wisdom come from? Where does understanding dwell?… God understands the way to it, and he alone knows where it dwells” (Job 28:20,22).
Today, Lord, by your Spirit, we thank you for increasing our knowledge and kindling new desires in our hearts, as you did with Peter, so that we, too, may be equipped to accomplish your purposes in the world.
John in Prison…[Jesus] My Beloved Son (Luke 3:15-22)
15 As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, 16 John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” 18 So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people. 19 But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother’s wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, 20 added this to them all, that he locked up John in prison. 21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
Luke 3:15-22
You will remember that we recently heard the first two-thirds of this reading on Sunday Advent 3C. What is added, of course, this week is Luke’s account of the Baptism of Jesus. In Luke, we only have the account of John’s arrest by Herod, the tetrarch between the reporting of what John preaches and the Lord’s Baptism. There is here in Luke, more so than in the other Gospels, an abrupt cessation of John’s ministry before the initiation of Jesus’ ministry, a falling away of the one followed by the ascent of the other. Perhaps to add to this purposeful transition, Luke alone chooses not to specify that it was John who baptized Jesus, though it is implied.
Devotionally, what can we glean from Luke’s telling of the story of the transition between John the Baptist and Jesus in this manner? One idea is that Luke would have us see in his narrative of events the transformation of the gospel from the face of John to the face of Jesus–not only that the one decreases and the other increases (see Jn. 3:30), but that the decrease of the one transforms into the increase of the other. The seed (John) dies, and the shoot that rises is not a new and improved version of John but a great new plant altogether (Jesus). We die to ourselves, and, Lord willing, what people witness as a result is the rising of the Son of God.
I think Paul’s discourse in the early chapters of 2 Corinthians provides compelling teaching to explain the point Luke seeks to make in his narrative. In this section of the letter, Paul is defending his apostolic ministry to a church (or at least a group in the church) who have come to doubt the legitimacy of his authority. At one point, he writes: “And we all (here referring to all Christians) with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (3:18).
Whose image is that “same image” we are all being transformed into? It is Jesus’ image. Though we maintain an identity even through death, we all die and rise not as images of just ourselves but as images of Christ. We are just what the name “Christian” says we are–little Christs. And every small transformation we make from dying to rising in this mortal life brings the Christ image out of us into sharper focus. (See also 2 Cor. 5:6 for similar teaching about God giving us “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ).
Today, Holy Spirit, make my life evermore a decreasing, a dying, like John the Baptist in Luke, so that in ever-increasing measure, the contours of my own face fade, and a clear image of Jesus Christ comes into focus.
Today in the Spirit
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