The Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan

Happy New Year! If you’re like me, each January feels like a new beginning. We make resolutions for the new year, and we experience the change in the calendar as somewhat of a fresh start. Well this Sunday, as we gather for the first time in 2024, we will be considering another type of new beginning, which is the Sacrament of Baptism. We will be reading about Jesus’s baptism by John in the Jordan River and considering there not only his baptism but also our own. Some of us were baptized as infants and some of us when we were older. What I would like to explore with you this Sunday is what happened within each of us there? What does our baptism mean for you and me?

In the mean time, as we think about our new year’s resolutions, I want to remind you of the resolutions which you made, or which were made for you, those many years ago. In the old Catechism, the candidate is asked, with regards to baptism, “What did your Sponsors then for you?” And here is the answer:

“[My Sponsors] did promise and vow three things in my name: First, that I should renounce the devil and all his works, the pomps and vanity of this wicked world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh; Secondly, that I should believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith; and Thirdly, that I should keep God’s holy will and commandments, and walk in the same all the days of my life… I heartily thank our heavenly Father, that he hath called me to this state of salvation, through Jesus Christ our Saviour. And I pray unto God to give me his grace, that I may continue in the same unto my life’s end.”

I think these are probably the best new year’s resolutions we could make, and I pray that this Sunday, as we consider our baptism, our commitment to them would be renewed by God’s grace.