Baptism of Our Lord

1 plus 1 equals 1.

Theologians don't usually have good reputations as mathematicians.

Theologians tend to follow the rules of logic only so far as it helps them out

and then when things become a little messy,

say in the case of trying to figure out

how Jesus can be both fully human and fully divine at the same time,

they ignore logic altogether

and theologically

add 1 and 1 and get 1.

It is in such cases,

that the rest of us get lost

and wonder at the sanity of theologians.

However, there is a real tension throughout the Gospel stories when it comes to Jesus.

Not only is he supposed to be the long awaited Messiah

and he doesn't do what anyone thought he would do...

but he is also human AND divine, 

and we don't really know how that works.

Over the centuries, different groups have had different ideas about how that works,

some have put more emphasis on the idea that Jesus is human 

while other groups have emphasized Jesus' divinity.

As the centuries have weathered on,

the orthodox - the most widely accepted and proclaimed view,

is that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine,

one person.

1 plus 1 equals 1.

I bring up this question about Jesus' human and divine natures

because Epiphany tends to be the time of year

when we hear and see the most human growth from Jesus.

He grows and learns and changes - and some times that can be hard to understand

since we tend to think of Jesus as all knowing and all powerful, omnipresent and omniscient.

We go from Jesus the baby in the manger, two and a half weeks ago,

to Jesus in the temple as a twelve year old, questioning the world as all good pre-teens and teens do, last week,

to Jesus the grown Jewish thirty year old man being baptized this morning.

Two and a half weeks and he has grown thirty years from our perspective.

That's a lot of change and growth!

And in that time he has grown in wisdom and learning.

Even in the Gospel passage today,

we see him have an experience which would change anyone, 

including Jesus.

He is baptized 

and God

both in Spirit and in voice,

claims him, in front of the whole world.

"This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."

Jesus' baptism is an experience for everyone 

who experiences it,

from the people who were there that day,

to us today, hearing the story.

While John the Baptist and Jesus

are the focal points, and they are the ones having the most intense experiences,

John in baptizing his Messiah,

Jesus in being baptized and having the spirit of God descend on him and having the voice of God speak to him from heaven,

all the innocent bystanders are having an experience too... 

This is the only account of someone 

having the visible spirit of God and the voice of God present at their baptism, 

so no matter how many baptisms those around had seen, 

this was different.

Certainly, I have never experienced the voice of God during a baptism.

For everyone this is a new moment,

something which will change and grow 

all the people who experience it.

"This is my son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."

The season of Epiphany is supposed to be a season 

where we have understandings of who Jesus really is.

We celebrate his birth in the season of Christmas, 

and then we learn about who he was, 

before we move into Lent when we learn about what he did for us.

Epiphany is supposed to teach us the true nature of Jesus as a revelation, 

as an Ah-ha! moment,

an epiphany.

Theologically,

No matter what, 

your journey through your baptism 

is an Epiphany,

Being baptized is a change in who you are, 

well, a recognition of the change in who you are

sacraments are the visible signs of the invisible graces of God.

Humanity needs concrete images and movements and being able to feel things, touch them,

so baptism is made up of water and oil and the human touch of one person to another.

But the invisible grace of God, which is going on inside of us, 

in our hearts and minds,

which changes how we think of ourselves and who we claim to be and washes our souls,

that is the real sacrament, the real movement in baptism.

We just can't see it.

Seeing is believing, oh wait, no, believing is seeing...

oh I'm not sure which.

In the church, it is most definitely 

lex orandi lex credendi

lex credendi, lex orandi.

The Latin for

praying is believing and believing is praying.

Worship and belief go together, we cannot have one without the other.

In our act of baptism,

we proclaim what is already true, and we make happen what we wish to proclaim,

our prayer is our belief and our belief is our prayer.

As we baptize Emilee and Molly Jane 

this morning,

they become a part of the body of Christ, 

part of the community of saints,

no matter how the rest of their lives go, 

they always has a home here, a home with God.

God promise of forgiveness and love are theirs,

as it was for all of us 

when we were baptized.

Thankfully,

this is not the end of the story.

Just as Jesus will continue to grow 

into his fully human, fully divine life

into his role as the Messiah

into his ministry,

we continue throughout our lives to grow into our life in God.

Jesus is our prime example of growing in God

in our lives,

someone, who over time, 

becomes more and more the person God has intended

and more and more in deep relationship with God.

This is something we all do throughout our lives, 

we grow in our relationship with God.

Sometimes we don't always see it.

Molly Jane really has no idea why we are going to get her head all wet this morning

and it will be a few years before she is told the story and what it means.

Quite a few years before she can understand 

what we will do for her today.

Emilee and I talked about what baptism means,

but she has yet to experience it 

and fully understand the richness of what we are about to do.

Baptism is a cleaning, 

a tomb, 

and a womb. 

In baptism we are cleansed from our sins,

we are buried with Christ in his death,

we are reborn in Christ's resurrection

and given the hope of eternal life with God.

It can be difficult to think about burying a child, 

but in some ways that is what we do in baptism, 

give up our lives in order to be reborn in God's kingdom, 

as a child of God. 

Once we become a child of God,

we spend our lives growing in relationship with God.

Every step of the way, 

God helps us grow,

helps us along the journey.

God is there with us.

Through all the growing pains,

and there are ALWAYS growing pains,

even when you're 97 years old and learning an old lesson again

there are growing pains

but those should not stop us from growing.

Baptism and our growth in God

is not only a personal journey,

but it is also a communal journey.

We are here together

growing, at different paces,

but together we help each other along the way.

Today we welcome two to the journey,

we are happy to have you with us.

All of us can rest assured

that we are all still growing in relationship with God,

still trying to sort out the theological knots in our lives,

still trying to rest in God's peace,

even Jesus.

Come, let us journey together.

Amen.