January 7, 2024 Baptism of the Lord Mark 1:4-11 Jesus enters the water of the Jordan River, and as his head breaks through the surface of the water, the heavens open up, and a voice calls out, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you, I am well pleased,” and the Holy Spirit descends like a dove. Emmanuel, God with us, entered the same water where many had left their sins behind so they could turn back toward God. The Son of God entered the murky waters of creation, taking upon himself the sins of the world so that what we have mucked up is made clean. The unclean becoming clean. The unrighteous made righteous. The mucked up unmucked. Jesus did not need to repent. Jesus did not need to be baptized. But Jesus, in his first act of ministry, getting into the waters of John’s baptism, is just one example of how God is not reigning from a golden chair high above creation. Through what happened in Bethlehem, through the Wise Men traveling from outside the covenant God made with Israel, and through Jesus getting down and dirty in the Jordan River, God is showing us time and time again how God is not willing to allow us to be in the muddiness of life on our own. When we are baptized, because Jesus entered John’s baptism, we are buried with Christ, exiting the waters clothed in new life in Christ. Baptism is not limited to our yes or parents’ yes on behalf of their child to Jesus. Our baptism is God’s yes to us. Your baptism is God’s yes to you. With Jesus’s baptism located on the coattails of Christmas on the church calendar, it is easy to take for granted what happened in the murky waters of the Jordan River. What Jesus did in the Jordan River was an invitation to all people. When Jesus invites us to the waters of our baptism, it is an invitation to all people. The invitation of baptism is to be made new in the light of God’s grace. All are invited to the waters of baptism because, as we will see in the weeks ahead, Jesus is unwilling to allow anything to stand between you and the love of God. Get full access to Brewing Theology at teerhardy.substack.com/subscribe