11 January - First Sunday after Epiphany (Baptism of the Lord)– Year A

The Faith Action Programme would like to thank Rev Dr Jock Stein, retired minister, for his thoughts on the first Sunday after Epiphany.

Introduction

‘The Baptism of the Lord' is a very specific theme – nevertheless I'll do what I always do, read through the passages and notice any phrase that sticks out. I'll make a note of these: even if they seem unconnected, they may find their way in some place in the end, we'll see. So . . . for the Isaiah passage, it's ‘I have taken you by the hand' . . . for the Psalm it has to be ‘the voice of the Lord' . . . the Acts passage is wonderful but nothing has hit me yet . . . and in the Gospel reading I think ‘do you come to me?' may be fruitful.

This is not ‘a plan'; it's simply a process of giving me a way in to Scripture, and Scripture a way in to my mind and spirit. Epiphany is about outsiders getting the light of the Gospel. We're all outsiders who have been brought inside God's love and purpose.

It's wise to take a day or two to let this settle. I have to confess that when I'm busy, and with long practice at this, I just bash on and ask for God, in wonderful grace, to do a quick job with me. I remember an old minister saying, "The manna will always fall!" Not everyone finds it like that, though I do; but let me add that we need to practise ‘noticing' (as Jesus did) – noticing things in the Bible and in the news, noticing things in people and in the world around us; and if your memory is as poor as mine, making notes. Then praying that God will round up the bits and pieces, give them some shape, and use you to offer them as ‘something old and something new'.

Isaiah 42:1-9

This is one of four ‘servant songs' in Isaiah. The servant is Israel, but we also take them as prophecies of our Lord Jesus, for three reasons. First, because at key points they have an individual flavour (‘a bruised reed he will not break'), second because the New Testament does (e.g. Luke 4:18), and third, we see Jesus as the one truly faithful Israelite – the pattern of the Old Testament shows Israel called to be a faithful nation, but also how Israel failed, was sent into exile, returned cured of idolatry (cf. v.8), then had to learn to wait for Messiah. Would the Messiah be the strong military leader to restore the glory of David and Solomon's empire? Well, according to this passage, the servant will bring forth justice, but in a quiet way; and the servant song of Isaiah 53 describes the humiliation God's servant will have to endure.

Jews are not wrong to say these things describe the desolation of Israel (think of the book of Lamentations), but this passage tells us more, about a servant upon whom God will put His spirit (v.1), a servant who will be kept in God's right way (v.6a), a servant who will bless the nations and give them light (v.6b). This universal note is remarkable. God is the creator of all (v.5), and the servant is for all peoples. The Hebrew word translated ‘coastlands' in v.4 NRSV is ‘coasts and islands' in the Revised English Bible, and ‘isles' in the King James Version, so earlier generations saw this as a prophecy specially for the British Isles.

George Knight in the International Theological Commentary says that the word ‘uphold' (v.1) has the connotation of God as Shepherd cuddling Israel in His arms – an interesting phrase when we think of a minister taking a child in their arms. God delights in His servant – something echoed by the voice from heaven at our Lord's baptism.

Psalm 29

This psalm reminds us that when we craft sermons (or poetry) we make use of local idioms too (as Jesus did). The Greek version of the OT adds ‘On leaving the tent' to the title, which could be a link to the autumn Feast of Tabernacles, or simply reference how we view creation after a service of worship.

The name of God occurs 18 times in just 11 verses (matching the ‘18 Benedictions' of Jewish practice) and reminding us that worship is about God rather than about us. One early Christian commentator links the ‘voice over the waters' in v.3 with the voice of the Father at Jesus' baptism, which is perhaps why this psalm is in today's lectionary.

Here is a poem I wrote on the psalm, called Mind Map, with v.11 as an epigraph, ‘May the Lord bless his people with peace.' The shape reflects the stepped (chiastic) structure of the psalm's content (Middle East poetry often does this sort of thing, with the climax in the middle, not at the end as in our way of story-telling):

‘May the Lord bless his people with peace' v.11

Five steps to meeting fire with fire
of love, five lasting steps to bury Baal,
that chancy god, for good and all.

First up, reconnaissance, go over
ground, with Caleb's can-do attitude;
live in their skin, think as they would
up to a point, step number two,'
for human thought is never watertight,
not Israelite, nor Canaanite.

The third is battle for the mind:
because the pen is mightier than the sword
they sang the great voice of the Lord

who (fourth) stormed through the Middle East
and mocking, cut foes down to size
with shafts of truth instead of lies

which leaves a fifth much later step –
non-violence – take it, later Joshua's way,
and leave to God the power play.

This psalm was probably composed to counter the claims of Baal, the Canaanite god of sex and chance. With the modern conflict in the Middle East, the poem refers to the ‘battle for the mind', hints at the incarnation and commends the way of non-violence taught by Jesus, the ‘second Joshua'.

Acts 10:34-43

This sermon is Peter's response to his life-changing discovery that the gospel really was for everyone. God does not show favouritism to Jews (or Christians). Peter rehearses the key facts of Jesus' ministry, starting with His baptism and ending with Peter's own call to bear witness to ‘the people', who now include Gentiles, the outsiders.

One key fact which has never found its way into any official creed, is Peter's emphasis that after Jesus rose from the dead, they ate and drank with Him. Our Lord remained (and remains) a real human being, and ‘common humanity' is a feature of Peter's new understanding.

Notice how the Good News covers the acts of our Lord's life as well as His death and resurrection. God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and power (the sequence means that the Spirit is a Spirit of power, not that power is something else), and after Peter's sermon will come the ‘Gentile Pentecost', which in turn leads to the baptism of the centurion Cornelius, his household and friends.

The Holy Spirit is associated with baptism, but not locked into it – sometimes the Spirit is ‘poured out' before baptism, sometimes after – and sometimes, as with our Lord's own baptism, at the same moment.

Matthew 3:13-17

Here is the climax of John the Baptist's mission. After this, he will continue baptizing and teaching, until he lands up in Herod's prison and is eventually executed, but John is clear, in the words of another Gospel, that ‘[Jesus] must increase, and I must decrease'.

Why was Jesus baptized? We can understand His cousin's reluctance. In The Message version, the reason for it was that God's work over the centuries was now ‘coming together'. It was the visible start to a gospel life which would save humankind, and as the Son is baptized, the Father affirms Him and the Spirit empowers Him – the Spirit alighted on Jesus like a bird, and indeed stayed with Jesus throughout His ministry.

How was Jesus baptized? Baptists see Jesus coming up from full immersion, others think John was pouring water over Jesus as He stood in the river Jordan. It really doesn't matter, what matters is that Jesus was baptized for people like us, to clean us up – marking His solidarity with the human race in all its mess and guilt.

‘The heavens were opened'. Was that a vision for Jesus, was it something that John and others saw, was it something that an unbeliever would have seen? On other occasions when the Gospels speak about ‘a voice from heaven', some just hear thunder (John 12:29). In our Acts reading, Jesus appears not to everyone but only to His friends. Perhaps it is only at the last day that ‘every eye will see Him'. The Gospels bear witness both to our Lord's divinity and humanity, but also tell us that some recognized who Jesus was, others did not. But His heavenly Father recognized Him – ‘my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased'.

Sermon ideas

Here are three possible directions:

1 ‘The Voice of the Lord'. What does God say? HGod speaks in creation (Psalm 29), but leaves us either just with a sense of God's power, or saying that now we know better how creation works, and we don't immediately think of God when the thunder rolls. It is what he says about us, and particularly about Jesus, that really matters:

• God speaks about Jesus as God's servant (Isaiah passage)
• God speaks a message of peace through Jesus (Acts passage)
• God speaks directly about Jesus as God's Son (Matthew passage)

2 ‘The Baptism of Jesus':

• What do we know about it? (Matthew and Acts passages)
• What did it mean for Jesus' cousin John and for (say) His friend Peter? (Matthew and Acts); this is where ‘do you come to me?' might have a place.
• What does it mean for us today?

3 ‘The extraordinary Spirit of God':

• Coming on the servant who will sort out the nations (Isaiah)
• Coming on the Son who is being baptized for sinners (Matthew)
• Coming on Jesus to empower His life for doing good and healing (Acts)

and then coming on outsiders (Acts 10:44f) . . .

Other approaches

You could ask people what their own baptism means, and how it connects to the baptism of Jesus.

You could ask people what their image of God is: is God ever ‘well pleased' with us as well as the Son? Acts 10:35 suggests that God might well be!

You could give people ‘justice' as a theme (it is strong in Isaiah and Acts, and present in Matthew as ‘righteousness, ‘what is right'), first to discuss how they understand it, and then (more of a challenge) to connect it with the Lord's baptism and their own.

Prayers

Opening Prayer

I often stick to ‘Let us Worship God' (after a greeting) because of its historic resonance – but an alternative for this Sunday could be ‘Today is the First Sunday of Epiphany, the season when we celebrate how the light of Christ is there for all nations and all people. So let us worship God.'

Confession
I usually include confession within prayers of approach and praise, but others make them a special feature. Here is a prayer for today:

God of universal light, we worship You as our creator,
one whose unseen light blesses believer and unbeliever alike.
Today we bless You for our Saviour Jesus,
who was seen and heard and handled by human hands,
whose witness is so clear in our Bibles,
and whose Spirit joins with our spirits as we call You Father,
the Father of Jesus and our Father.

Today we shall remember how Jesus joined us in His baptism, as faithful servant,
fully Your Son in His identification with our fallen human race.
And today we give thanks that our sins have been dealt with,
as we offer ourselves afresh to you in worship,
conscious of our sin and weakness,
but embracing afresh the love and forgiveness which light up our lives,
through this same Jesus Christ our Lord,
Amen.

Prayer of thanksgiving

[Some struggle with the word ‘father' – my own approach is to use it unreservedly, as Scripture does, but occasionally to point out that God has no gender, that ‘parent' can be used, and – most particularly – that we don't ‘think upwards' to understand God through our experience of fathers, but ‘think downwards' to understand fatherhood as it should be through our knowledge of God, and how Jesus knew God as father.]

Gracious God, we thank You for every gift which keeps us alive and well,
for everyone who has helped us this past week,
for good work and restoring leisure,
and for any special blessing received.

We are grateful for all who have passed on good thought and practice to us,
and for the light of literature and screen.

Today we give thanks for prophets who spoke and sang the revelation You gave them;
for disciples and writers who kept safe the stories of Jesus for future generations;
and for those who shared this gospel light with us.

May it shine in our lives, and in the life of this congregation,
blessing others with the light of Jesus,
the light which was there at the very beginning,
the light of Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
Amen.

Prayer of intercession

God of the nations, we bring You our prayers for a world in turmoil, and for leaders:
may they walk in the light, and give hope and good counsel.

We pray for those whose homes and loved ones have been destroyed,
for refugees,
for those looking after children and the aged,
for the sick and distressed,
and for those on our hearts whom we name in a moment of silence . . .

Lord hear our prayers

Hear us as we remember those for whom this season is a challenge,
for public servants who work to keep roads, drains, laws and finances clear and serviceable,
for artists, writers and film-makers going through a winter season,
for Charities and other bodies seeking to survive.

Bless the Church of Christ in its living and sharing the gospel,
guide the leaders of this and other congregations

Help us all to understand the times we live in,
to discern the presence of your kingdom,
and to walk in light.

All this and all we pray in the name of Jesus,
in whose words we say together,
Our Father . . .

[While it's good to include world events, which will be on worshippers' minds, there is the double danger of (a) giving issues a particular slant, and (b) picking up one thing and missing another. More general prayers allow people to include their own thoughts more easily. But if you can, do check the news just before the service in case there is something really dramatic.]

May your light shine before others this week,
that they see the good things you do
and give honour to your Father in heaven.
May the Blessing of God go with you,
and those you love,
Amen.

Musical suggestions

God Welcomes All (GWA) is the new supplement to Church Hymnary Fourth Edition. This exciting new collection features over 200 hymns and songs in a wide range of styles by writers from Scotland and around the world.

The full music and words-only versions are now available; and digital resources, including the expansion of the existing Church of Scotland music website, will be published in due course, with streaming functions and further information on each song; backing tracks; and lyric videos. God Welcomes All is available to order from https://chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9781786225573/god-welcomes-all

Our online music resource is on the Church of Scotland website; you can listen to samples of every song in the Church Hymnary 4th edition (CH4) and download a selection of recordings for use in worship. You will also find playlists for this week and liturgical seasons and themes on the Weekly Worship and Inspire Me tabs.

You can find further musical suggestions for this week in a range of styles on the Songs for Sunday blog from Trinity College Glasgow.

• GWA 101 – "There is no child so small" – a hymn for Epiphany

• GWA 105 – "Christe, lux mundi" – a chant focusing on Christ, the light of life

• GWA 209 – "We are called to welcome strangers"

• CH4 132 - "Immortal, invisible, God only wise" is a traditional starter and congruent with the opening prayer suggested above.
• Either CH4 335 – "Out of the flowing river" or

CH4 336 – "Christ is our light! The bright and morning star" two great all-age hymns on our Lord's baptism by Leith Fisher. With 336, the tune set is just the chorus of ‘Highland Cathedral', so if you wanted, you (or someone else) could write a couple of verses for the main melody to insert between v.1 and 2, and v.2 and 3. If you are not reading this at the last minute, why not make a point of encouraging poets and hymn-writers in your congregation by commissioning things like this?

• CH4 283 – "‘The voice of God goes out to all the world" follows the psalm and the OT lesson closely (and there are plenty of 10 10 10 10 tunes to choose from, though the one set, Morestead, is excellent).

• CH4 694 – "Brother, sister, let me serve you" also develops the ‘servant' theme.
• CH4 629 – "Mark how the Lamb of God, self-offering" is another apt modern hymn meditation on the baptism of Jesus. If you find the tune too ambitious, it could be said by the congregation, with v.1 and v.2 said by individuals, and the congregation together saying v.3. The tune set is probably by Louis Bourgeois, which takes us back to the time of Calvin, even though Bourgeois actually resigned as he couldn't accept Calvin insisting that church music should be simple, since too much harmony would distract people from the sermon!

• CH4 719 ‘The one who longs to make us whole' has a healing theme (and again there are plenty of DCM tunes to choose from). In worship it's good to have a balance of ‘corporate' and ‘individual' hymns.
• CH4 183 – "Fill now our life, O Lord our God" is a good hymn of response, and its mention of the common things of life, and ‘praise in every part' fits the Biblical themes.

• CH4 235 – "God is working his purpose out, as year succeeds to year" is a hymn which has gone out of fashion, but picks up the OT reading well. It makes a good closing hymn.

• A suggested playlist of songs from CH4 throughout Epiphany can be found on the Church of Scotland website

Reflecting on our worship practice

Since the start of the pandemic in 2020, the way we worship has changed and we need to reflect on the changing or newly established patterns that emerged and continue to emerge as a result of the disruption.

We can facilitate worship for all by exploring imaginative approaches to inclusion, participation and our use of technologies in ways that suit our contexts. This is not an exhaustive list, but some things we could consider are:

• Framing various parts of the worship service in accessible language to help worshippers understand the character and purpose of each part. This is essential for creating worship for all (intergenerational worship) that reflects your community of faith.
• Holding spaces for reflection and encouraging prayer to be articulated in verbal and non-verbal ways, individually and in online breakout rooms.
• In online formats the effective use of the chat function and microphone settings encourages active participation in prayer, e.g. saying the Lord's Prayer together unmuted, in a moment of ‘holy chaos'.
• While singing in our congregations is still restricted, we can worship corporately by using antiphonal psalm readings, creeds and participative prayers.
• Using music and the arts as part of the worship encourages the use of imagination in place of sung or spoken words.
• Use of silence, sensory and kinaesthetic practices allow for experience and expression beyond regular audio and visual mediums.

The following questions might help you develop a habit of reflecting on how we create and deliver content and its effectiveness and impact, and then applying what we learn to develop our practice.

• How inclusive was the worship?
  Could the worship delivery and content be described as worship for all/ intergenerational?
  Was it sensitive to different "Spiritual Styles"?
• How was the balance between passive and active participation?
• How were people empowered to connect with or encounter God?
  What helped this?
  What hindered this?
• How cohesive was the worship?
  Did it function well as a whole?
  How effective was each of the individual elements in fulfilling its purpose?
• How balanced was the worship?
  What themes/topics/doctrines/areas of Christian life were included?
• How did the worship connect with your context/contemporary issues?
  Was it relevant in the everyday lives of those attending and in the wider parish/ community?
  How well did the worship connect with local and national issues?
  How well did the worship connect with world events/issues?
• What have I learned that can help me next time I plan and deliver worship?

Useful links

You can listen to samples of every song in the Church Hymnary 4th edition (CH4) and download a selection of recordings for use in worship in our online hymnary.

You are free to download, project, print and circulate multiple copies of any of this material for use in worship services, bible studies, parish magazines, etc., but reproduction for commercial purposes is not permitted.

Please note that the views expressed in these materials are those of the individual writer and not necessarily the official view of the Church of Scotland, which can be laid down only by the General Assembly.