Sunday, January 16, 2019
SERVICE CANCELLED DUE TO WINTER WEATHER.
Bundle up, enjoy these readings, and have a wonderful week!
First Sunday after Epiphany
Gospel Reading: The Baptism of Jesus
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove.
And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
For Meditation and Reflection:
“Though it’s a familiar story to modern-day Christians, in many ways it might have made little sense to the early church. Why would Jesus need to be baptized? If anything, shouldn’t the Son of God be doing the baptizing?
For the early church, eager to proclaim Jesus’s divinity to the world, the story would obviously have proved problematic. Reading backward, then, we can see that the evangelists seemed to be stuck with an event that would have been hard to explain to newcomers. There is little chance that they would have consciously made up something like this. In addition, the story is included in all three Synoptic Gospels and referred to in John, so it needs to be taken seriously.”
~ James Martin, SJ, Jesus, A Pilgrimage
Thoughts for the day:
Jesus was probably baptized near a site about eight miles north of the Dead Sea on the east bank of the Jordan. Today it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but the river there is diminished, polluted and “shrunk to a miserable stream barely 3 m. wide”
~ Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, The Holy Land
A very touristy site is maintained far to the north of the original baptismal site, in one of the few places on the Jordan where water still flows. Those willing to pay a fee, and queue up with others, can be baptized there.
Thankfully, the holy mystery of baptism is a spiritual matter uncontrolled by location, volume of water, influence or profit.
~ Rev. Michael Lyle
Statement of Faith: We gather as an open and affirming community to worship God, however known. We welcome everyone, no exceptions. Together we seek spiritual comfort and challenge, learn from ancient and modern texts, and seek new dimensions of truth. We practice following the way of Jesus. We dare to demonstrate God’s love by working for justice and peace among all people.