Sermon preached at St. Alban's, Spirit Lake, on January 7, 2007
(Year C, First Sunday after the Epiphany, BCP Lectionary)
by the Rev. Carl D. Mann

Texts:   Isaiah 42:1-9
Acts 10:34-38
Luke 3:15-16,21-22
Psalm 89:1-29 or 89:20-29

Remember last week when I told you about our annual camping trip to the Mississippi River? I don’t remember which year it was but on one occasion, the kids and I had just arrived in Harper’s Ferry and were giving everybody hugs and hello’s on the front lawn and then most everyone began gravitating into the house to find some of Mrs. Steven’s famous cookies. My friend and his brother and I were gathered by the vehicles taking inventory of the camping gear as we were talking and getting caught up on the individual stories of our lives since the last excursion. I was standing by the open door of the van facing the road and was in the middle of telling a story to Mark and Pat, when I heard someone calling my name in the distance, presumably from inside the house. CARL! CAARRRL! I momentarily paused, listening, heard nothing more, and continued my tale. CAARRL! CAAAARRL! I paused again, turning my head slightly, thinking that maybe one of the many kids which weren’t mine was hiding in the bushes and goofing on me. Catching a wondering look from Mark, I continued once more with my story which was rapidly loosing its momentum. CARL! I stopped talking, and turned suddenly toward the house, and yelled, “WHAT DO YOU WANT? CAN’T YOU SEE I’M IN THE MIDDLE OF A CONVERSATION?!” Well, had it been in the middle of the night you could’ve heard the crickets chirping or the cicadas doing whatever it is they do. It was so quiet that you could’ve heard a pin drop even though we were standing on grass three inches deep. I turned around to find both Mark and Pat standing there with their jaws hanging open and their eyes bugging out. “Didn’t you hear someone calling my name?” “Uh…no Carl, we didn’t a thing. Maybe we ought to get you down to the sandbar. We think you really need this vacation.”

Now I don’t want to worry you or have you think that you have called a mentally disturbed priest into your midst nor am I making light of those of you that may hear voices. I assure you that I passed the psychological exams as a part of the process in becoming a priest. I am just trying to illustrate a point. I’m not sure what I heard. It could have been a trick with the wind or a ringing in my ears or maybe I actually blew a chance to have a two-way conversation with God, which knowing me could have happened on a regular basis all through my life. The only thing I know for sure is that Mark and Pat nor anyone else heard anyone calling my name.

Today is the first Sunday after the Epiphany, which was yesterday. Yesterday, God manifested Himself to the Magi from the East as the infant King Jesus. The purpose of this manifestation was to present the Savior of the world to the outside world. God’s plan for salvation was reserved just for the Chosen People but for Jew and Gentile alike. And these Magi were wise enough to recognize that this little child was God in human form. Having fulfilled their mission of finding Jesus, they returned to their country by a different way, which I suggested symbolized that they had been transformed in the presence of the Christ Child and now followed the way of the Cross as opposed to their previous form of religious worship.

Suddenly, today, Jesus is all grown up and we are completing the story of John the Baptist that we started on the Second Sunday in Advent. Why is that? Why do we jump from the birth of our Lord to the baptism of our Lord?

As you recall, John has already exhorted the people to prepare the way of the Lord in their hearts. He has done such a great job of getting their attention and teaching them what they need to do that they wonder if maybe he is the Messiah of which he prophesying. But John corrects them by saying that he only baptizes with water, which is a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins but the One who is coming will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Those who are baptized by him will not just be washed clean but will be purged like a refiner’s fire. He that is coming is so great that John is not even worthy to untie his sandal.

Think about a desert culture where the only type of foot covering was a sandal if you had a foot covering at all. One’s feet would constantly be filthy, sweaty, calloused, and rubbed raw. Dr. Scholl would have had a field day! Face it, feet are a personal thing and no one really likes to show off their toes. Back then it was considered such a disgusting job to take off one’s sandals that maybe, just maybe one might have a servant do it, and John said he wasn’t even worthy to do that. He was less than a common servant! John is letting the crowd know that however powerful they think he is by his ability to hold a crowd; the One who is coming is far greater.

So apparently everyone jumped in line for John’s baptism and when all were properly washed, Jesus brought up the rear and was baptized as well. And when it was over and Jesus was praying, the heavens opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in a bodily form, so light and peaceful, almost as if a dove had landed on him. Now this was such a marvelous thing to behold, and by the description of the scripture, no one was quite sure what they had seen. So to clarify the moment, a voice from heaven belonging to God the Father, echoing the Prophet Isaiah, said, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

This was an epiphany; a manifestation from God. Just as God presented Himself to the Gentiles in the form of an infant thirty some year before, now He was manifesting Himself as the Son of God filled with His Holy Spirit. This is why we have this Gospel lesson on this the first Sunday after the Epiphany. The first Epiphany was to manifest our Lord’s Incarnation, and the Baptism of our Lord, a second Epiphany if you will, was to manifest the beginning of His human ministry.

A secondary message of this Gospel passage is that in order to hear the voice of God, one must set time aside and pray. Before Jesus’ ministry was affirmed by the very voice of God the Father, he took time out to pray. By his example, in this passage and countless others, we must take time to pray in order to discover or to hear or to have revealed the will of God for us in our lives. I pray that just as we used the time of Advent to prepare the way for the Lord in our hearts that we use this time of Epiphany to listen for God’s voice. He does speak if only we will stop and listen.

Gloria Patri