January 8, 2023  The Baptism of Jesus

Lighting the Christ Candle

Welcome and Announcements

• We at St. Andrew's welcome you to this worship service. As we reflect on the baptism of Christ may you be filled with the hope, love, joy, and peace of the promised Messiah.
• Thank you Rev. Ena for leading us in worship today.
• January's Loonie Offering is going to the Shuswap Volunteer Search and Rescue Society. To find out more check the "Recent Posts" to the right of your screen.

Called to Worship:

The heavens open. The Spirit descends.
Jesus emerges from the water.
And a voice echoes through the blue expanse.
"This is my child, the Beloved, with whom I am well-pleased."
Jesus is named. Claimed.
We come to the water. We remember we are named. Claimed.
Can it be so? What a thing to be named. Claimed.
Let us worship the one who names and claims us still.

 

Hymn:  414 God reveal your presence

Prayer of Adoration

We come to you O God, with our hearts filled with faith.  We have come to be kindled in the fire of Your Divine Love.  We have come to declare our faithfulness to work with you, to renew the face of the earth.

O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit instructed the hearts of the faithful. Grant, that by the same Spirit we may be truly wise
and ever rejoice in His consolation.  You have called Jesus to be your child and  your servant, and we thank you that you call us to be your children and your servants as well.  Hear our confession that we may truly walk in the bounty of your blessing:

 

Unison Prayer of Confession:
We have entered the season in which Your Light has been given to the world, your blessings have been poured out on the world, and yet all we can think about is our own problems, needs, and  desires. Help us to desire you, Lord. Help us to yearn for your presence. Pour your baptismal waters over us again, cleansing us from our self-pity and arrogance. Nourish and heal us so that we may joyfully serve you. Wash away our jealousy, greed, and all negative thoughts and behaviors that stand in the way of our truly being the people you have called us to be. Let us receive the blessings offered in creation, in the birth and baptism of Jesus, and in the ministry of the saints of light. We ask this in Jesus’ Name. AMEN.

Assurance of Pardon

Believe that those who are baptised into Christ shall share his Spirit, his mission and his ultimate victory over sin and death.

Believe that this calling  is a gift from God, to be used for the building up of the church and for humble service the world

With the help of God, and by his grace, dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

In Jesus we have been forgiven.

Amen!

 

The Peace

Hymn:  183 Christ when for us you were baptized

Scripture Lessons:

Isaiah 42: 1-19
Matthew 3: 13-17

Sermon:  Called in baptism

The Reading from Isaiah points out that the calling to be a servant is the essence of our faith.  When we remember whose we are—to whom we belong,  then we live our gratitude in our daily lives.  We are a servant;  not to gain favor, but because of what God has done and is continually doing in us.

That distinction is important says Isaiah, because essentially the servant belongs to God, is called by God, and is supported by God.

This prophecy points out that the servant is always the one in whom God delights.

The servant is the one who seeks justice for the downtrodden of the world.

The servant is motivated by grace to labour with gentle perseverance.

The servant is God’s representative on earth.

Last week we looked at the new name God has given to us; and this description of our calling seems like an extension of that naming process.  Here our name is:  LOVED, GRACIOUS, JUSTICE SEEKER.

On this day as we celebrate the baptism of Jesus, it is important to remember that Isaiah points to Jesus as the ultimate loved, gracious, justice seeker—the one in whom God delights.

We certainly see that played out in the baptism of Jesus, who as he enters the waters for the forgiveness of sins, becomes the embodiment of the Kingdom of God, and the living blessing of God in that Kingdom.

Through Jesus, God is providing for our salvation and our blessing.  Jesus comes up out of the water of baptism and the voice from Heaven declares, “this is my son, in whom I am well pleased”.

Are we paying attention here?

Jesus has not yet actually done anything yet.  He was baptized by John and that alone made him the beloved of God.

What follows is how he lived out  being the loved, gracious, justice seeker.

Following his baptism he will enter the wilderness to be tempted.

Afterward, he will preach and teach.  He will bring justice to the poor and the outcast.  He will love the sinner.

He will gather followers to keep his legacy of servanthood going.

And he will go to the cross to finish the job of his baptism as he carries your sin and my sin into death.

And yet….

WE have also been baptized.  WE have the same baptismal calling to be the loved, gracious, justice seeker.  For many of us that has been a life-time calling when as infants we were called into the family of servants through baptism.  As unaware as we were at the time, we shared that calling of Jesus and were pronounced to be beloved of God.

That is why when we read the Scripture about the baptism of Jesus, we are reminded to consider our own baptism.

We are the beloved children of God.  Co-heirs with Christ.  Co-servants with Christ.

We may not have heard the words from heaven at our baptism, but surely they were spoken.

Let us stop, and say the words out loud.  State your name, and then say, “God’s beloved child with whom he is well pleased.”

I am Ena, God’s beloved child with whom he is well pleased.

How does that feel?  Strange?  Uncomfortable?  Comforting?  Challenging?  Frightening?

This is our calling.

Right then, right there, before we did anything, our status as the beloved of God had been affirmed.  Our calling as servants in the Kingdom, had been affirmed.  Loved, gracious, justice seeker became our identity.

The commentator Frank Mansell writes, “Through our baptism, we are made members of the Body of Christ.  As members of this body, we are strengthened, supported, encouraged, and empowered to live out our baptismal calllling.”

Joy Moore expands our view of  this thinking, writing:  “this encounter between John and Jesus sets a disruptive reminder for what Christian baptism could be. Rather than an individual person’s act of repentance and confession, baptism signals the kingdom of God”

She goes on to say, Baptism signals a journey that begins at a fork in the road where one path is chosen and another is rejected. It is our surrender to God’s righteousness that is not merely individual moral conduct but a [life that] focuses on relationships restored.

WE are righteous not because we live perfectly; but rather because we live to honour our relationship with God and to bring others into that relationship with us.  WE have been baptized, as our brother Jesus was baptized, and in him we see the living lesson of what Isaiah means when he says that the servant belongs to God.   In all that he does, Jesus demonstrates what humble service truly is.

In the preface to the Baptism Service we are reminded that by the waters of baptism and the power of the Holy Spirit God claims us and calls each one by name.  God unites us to Christ in his death and resurrection and grafts us into the body of Christ as members of the church.

God washes us clean by forgiving our sin; commissions us to be a royal priesthood with Christ in his ministry to the world; and empowers us to live in newness of life as people of the Word.

As the Baptism Liturgy continues we vow to uphold God’s rule of justice and love.  We also vow to be living demonstrations of the love of God and to engage in his mission in the world.

Is it any wonder that our name is LOVED, GRACIOUS, JUSTICE SEEKER.

Let us go forth to claim our place as servants bringing about God’s Kingdom.    Amen

 

 

Hymn:  371 Love divine all loves excelling

Offering
Doxology

Offertory Prayer

Your love, O God, is an active love:  engaged, involved, immersed, renewing your Kingdom day by day.

Your love, O God, is seen in what you do, not just in what you say:  in the blessing of children, in the meals with outcasts, in the touching of the untouchable, in your presence, and your self-giving, in your opening of the way to life to all who will come.

 

And your love, O God, is expressed through people like us:  as we share our wealth in simplicity and generosity; and as we share our living as a full expression of your love.

Bless all that we bring this day, that your Kingdom may be revealed.  Amen

 

 

Gathering Prayer Requests
Prayers of the People and the Lord’s Prayer

God of light and darkness, through water and Word you shine your light into the darkness of our lives.  We give thanks for this incredible gift.

God of love you bring reconciliation to those who are divided.  Strengthen us to be peacemakers.

 

God of hope you walk with us through the challenges which surround us.  You are the God of church and world, in baptism you unify yourself with our world, and bring your reign into being. Motivate us to infuse the world with your justice.

In justice we pray for your world.

 

God of health and illness, we pray for those who are ill and recovering:

 

 

 

 

Inspire us to bring your health to the sick, your encouragement to the discouraged, your promise to the dying,

 

God who shines in the darkness, hear our prayers for your world. 

 

 

 

receive these prayers and the prayers of our hearts, in the name of the one who is your light, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Hear us now as we pray as he has taught us saying, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Amen.

 

Hymn:  585 Christ you call us all to service

Charge and Benediction

Go forth joyfully. God is with you. Bring peace and hope to all you meet. And may God’s eternal love shine through you always. AMEN.

Sung Blessing
Go now in peace…