January 11, 2026
John was surprised when Jesus showed up for baptism at the River Jordan. John was baptizing people so that they would amend their lives to prepare for the coming of Jesus. Why would Jesus himself be baptized? With great exasperation John said to Jesus, “I should be baptized by you, not you by me.” Nonetheless, Jesus was baptized by John and it is at Jesus’ baptism where we see how Jesus’ baptism was different from the rest.
When Jesus came up from the waters the sky broke open. God’s Spirit descended like a dove and fell upon Jesus and God the Father spoke: “This is my Son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
The baptism of Jesus was a theophany or an epiphany, a God appearance. For there at the Jordan, Jesus was anointed with God’s very own Spirit and there God gave his stamp of approval claiming Jesus to be his beloved Son. There at Jesus’ baptism at the River Jordan a new age of grace began.
This wasn’t the first time God did his saving work at the Jordan. The prophet Elisha sent someone to instruct Namaan to go into the river seven times to be cured of leprosy. The Jordan served as a sacred place for God’s people as they crossed over it without harm into the land God promised them.
Beyond the Jordan there were many other instances where God used water to save.
God’s Spirit hovered over the waters at the creation. God saved Noah and his family from the waters of the flood. God used water again to save his people when they were held captive in Egypt. The waters of the Red Sea were parted and the people of God escaped to safety on dry land while the army drowned and the tide washed over them. In their forty year trek in the wilderness, God provided for his people. Once during that journey God quenched the thirst of the people when he instructed Moses to tap a rock and water came gushing out of the rock.
In his first miracle, Jesus turned water into wine. Jesus promised living water to the woman at Jacob’s well and he directed a man born blind to wash in the waters of Siloam to regain his sight. In one of the passion accounts it is reported that water flowed from Jesus’ pierced side, life-giving water coming from death.
In the great story of salvation God used water time and again to create, cleanse, heal, rescue, restore, renew, and give life. Sometimes the sea was turbulent. Sometimes the water was still. God used water to save.
Through saving waters God brought people into relationship, brought people closer to him, made covenant with God’s people and renewed his covenant of fidelity and trust with the people he dearly loved.
Today we witness the baptism of Emily and like every baptism it is a time for all of us to be renewed in the gift of baptism which is God’s covenant with us. Today, God draws yet another person into relationship with him through the mystery of Jesus’ death and resurrection and as we stand ready to welcome her, we ourselves renew our commitment and are brought into fresh awareness of God’s commitment to us.
Martin Luther was good at reminding us that it’s not the water alone that brings us into the life of the church and into relationship with Christ and his church, but water coupled with God’s Word and God’s promise of fidelity to us. And just as the Father named Jesus his beloved one at the Jordan, God names us beloved at the waters of rebirth and anoints us with the very same Spirit that alighted upon Jesus.
Remembering your baptism. This sort of remembering is more than a mental recall. After all, those of us baptized as infants to remember our baptism in that sense. So, instead of using our memories we use our bodies to remember our baptism.
In one of the congregations I served there was a man named Charles, a member of the congregation who arrived at worship each Sunday and he remembered his baptism in a most vigorous way. He would pause at the font, place both hands in the water and then bring his wet hands up to his face. He washed his face and then he would cry out in great satisfaction, “Ahhhh!”
Now, you don’t have to copy Charles but you do and you can remember your baptism by placing your hands in the water when entering and when leaving worship and make the sign of the cross. You remember your baptism when, with the rest of this assembly, you see and listen to the water poured at the beginning of the liturgy each Sunday. You will remember your baptism again as the water will be poured during the prayer of thanksgiving over the water and God’s saving acts are recited,
God uses this tremendous gift, a sign of his creation, to reach out to us and touch us, bathe us, cleanse us, receive us, forgive us, heal us, and bring us into relationship with him and his people. So, we return again and again to these waters to drink deeply from the well of salvation.
Remember your baptism and know that God continues to use water to save us. Amen.