The Baptism of Our Lord
The Baptism of Our Lord
Baptism is central to Christian faith, and for Anglicans a Gospel Sacrament—an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual reality. Every Christian, regardless of how or when, ought to be baptized. This should come as no surprise.
What may come as a surprise, however, is that Jesus himself was baptized. It wasn’t just something Jesus commanded his followers to do, but an experience he underwent as well. As familiar as we may be with the Gospel accounts, the fact that Jesus submitted himself to baptism may still strike us as odd.
The plot thickens even more when we consider that the baptism Jesus submitted himself to was John’s baptism, which is described as accompanying “repentance”, in conjunction with people “confessing their sins”, and as the means by which to “flee from the coming wrath”.
It doesn’t take much pondering to realize that this doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of what the New Testament says about Jesus—that he was God’s virgin-born, sinless, perfectly obedient Son, fully pleasing to the Father, who pre-existed as divine but laid aside his glory to take on flesh.
Yet at the very beginning of Jesus’s public ministry, he walked into the Jordan River to be baptized by John.
So, why did Jesus need to be baptized? That’s a question we’ll explore Sunday.
Steve+
NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
Home Groups—Lenten Home Groups begin the week of February 1. Be sure to email your availability for Monday, Wednesday, or Thursday evening to Kaarin Engstrom.
Youth Formation—We are so grateful to kick-off our youth formation ministry this Sunday. After several years of prayer and exploration, we've got a great group of kids and parents committed to moving ahead together.
Something we've emphasized since the first time we discussed this as a church family is that formation is multi-generational. We're all in this together. Our entire formation approach will take between 2 and 3 years to complete and along the way we'll integrate weekly Sunday morning learning sessions with periodic opportunities to hear from all of you—your testimonies of faith, your wisdom, your experience, your mentoring and leadership.
We want our youth to experience Redeemer as a family where they are seen, known, and loved. That will have more impact on their spiritual formation than anything. And so as we begin our journey together on Sunday morning, we do it together.
We're beginning with ages approximately 10–13 and we'll grow together with that group. If you want your kid to be involved or if you want to be involved in some way, please let me know. We'll evolve over time as demographics change.
Please keep us in prayer and reach out to me if you have any questions about participation, content, how this relates to confirmation, or anything else.
With gratitude,
Steve E+
Second Sunday Sandwiches—this Sunday following worship.
January Vestry Meeting—this Sunday, 12:15pm–2:15pm.
Photo: David Bumgardner on Unsplash
