“New Life” Colchester Federated Church, January 11, 2026, Baptism of Christ Sunday (Matthew 3:13-17)

Today is the First Sunday after Epiphany and Baptism of Christ Sunday.  We remember Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist in the waters of the Jordan River.  In the familiar story the power of the Holy Spirit is present to Jesus from the very beginning of his public ministry.  It’s a highly visual and symbolic story with Jesus coming up out of the water and suddenly the heavens opening up.  God’s Spirit descends like a dove and alights on Jesus.  We hear a voice from heaven proclaim, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”[1]

Historian Diana Butler Bass emphasizes that although Christians often consider the miraculous events of Jesus’ baptism to be a public experience, there is not an indication that others saw what occurred.  Perhaps it makes more sense to understand this story as a personal religious experience that proved to be life-changing for Jesus.  After all, the Gospel story reads, “When Jesus was baptized, he immediately came up out of the water.  Heaven was opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God coming down like a dove and resting on him.”[2]  It would seem that Jesus has this vision of the Spirit coming down upon him, alighting on him—landing on him and illuminating him.  Though John the Baptist is not mentioned again and neither are the folks who were gathered at the Jordan River that day.  Just as the Spirit of God swept over the face of the waters at creation in Genesis so too the Spirit is present at Jesus’ baptism.  As Butler Bass explains, “At the baptism, Jesus awakened to his deepest identity as the beloved Child of God.  It is a revelation of Abba-God, the Spirit, and Jesus, a mystical retelling of divine relationship at the center of the cosmos.”[3]

Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist marks the beginning of his public ministry.  Though it was a deeply personal experience for Jesus.  It marks a moment where Jesus shows his full commitment to God and to the ministry before him, his allegiance to God’s righteousness.  This story shows Jesus’ willingness to preach and teach and heal and be with those on the margins, embodying the love of God for all people.  In some ways, all of what’s to come in Jesus’ ministry begins in the waters of baptism. 

In our Protestant tradition we have two sacraments—baptism and communion.  And what we see in the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ baptism is partly why we hold baptism to be so sacred in our Christian tradition.  Because we know that baptism is something Jesus himself experienced.  We see him go down in the Jordan River to pray.  From the beginning of the faith, it’s been an important symbolic action to usher in new life for the one baptized.  That’s why on Baptism of Christ Sunday we consider Jesus’ baptism and recall our own baptisms (or look forward to the day when we will be baptized).

Here at Colchester Federated Church, we have different understandings of baptism.  In fact, baptismal beliefs are probably the biggest difference between our two denominations.  Because there are different beliefs over when this act should happen in a person’s life and how the act should be performed.  In the United Church of Christ, people are baptized as either children or adults—typically inside a sanctuary using water from a baptismal font that’s sprinkled on a person’s forehead.  In the American Baptist Church, people are baptized as youth or adults (believer’s baptism) and must be fully immersed in water—whether the church has a baptistery in the sanctuary or travels to a body of water like we do here with the Salmon River.  We have varied understandings of when baptism should occur and how to perform baptisms and even basic language we use to describe this holy act.  For UCCers it’s a sacrament.  For ABCers it’s an ordinance. 

Somehow our congregation has managed to navigate these baptismal differences considering we have been a federated church for 77 years by now.  Our congregation has been federated longer than some churches have existed.  Though the commonality is the belief that baptism is the act that fully incorporates a person into the Church, the body of Christ.  The water, the words, and the actions of the act of baptism are visible signs of an invisible grace.  Baptism is both God’s gift and our human response to that gift.  Baptism is the sign and seal of being disciples of Jesus Christ.  This is the moment that is a sign and seal of God’s grace, the moment that we hear and fully experience that we are beloved children of God.  Just as Jesus heard that he was God’s Beloved Son the moment that John baptized him and he came up out of the waters. 

The moment we are named and claimed by God is not usually quite so dramatic.  Though just like Jesus, we are baptized and beloved by God.  There is power in this action and deep symbolism.  Hence we have been baptizing people in our Christian tradition for close to two thousand years by now.

In some ways, the question on Baptism of Christ Sunday becomes how do we respond to this gift?  As our opening hymn “Gather Us In” proclaimed, “Here we receive new life in the waters; here we receive the bread of new birth; here you shall call your sons and your daughters, call us anew to be salt for the earth.”[4]  We receive new life in the waters of baptism, and that can have an impact on how we live and move and have our being in this blessed and broken world.  Because faith without faithful actions is dead. 

When we are baptized into the faith and family of Jesus Christ we have baptismal vows that we promise (or vows that our loved ones promise on our behalf if we are infants).  Those vows can help shape our lives.  It reminds me of the great parable shared in one of my favorite TV shows of all time—The West Wing. 

“This guy’s walking down the street when he falls in a hole. 
The walls are so steep he can’t get out. 
A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up, ‘Hey you. Can you help me out?’  The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on. 
Then a priest comes along and the guy shouts up, ‘Father, I’m down in this hole can you help me out?’  The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on. 
Then a friend walks by, ‘Hey, Joe, it’s me can you help me out?’ 
And the friend jumps in the hole. 
Our guy says, ‘Are you stupid? Now we’re both down here.’ 
The friend says, ‘Yeah, but I’ve been down here before, and I know the way out.’”[5]

Thoughts and prayers are great.  But sometimes we need people who are going to be the light!  We need people who are going to help us actually get out of the hole.  This is why one of the baptismal questions that is asked in our tradition is, “Do you promise, by the grace of God, to be Christ’s disciples, to follow in the way of our Savior, to resist oppression and evil, to show love and justice, and to witness to the work and word of Jesus Christ as well as you are able?”[6] 

These are not passive promises—being Christ’s disciples, following in the way of our Savior, resisting oppression and evil, showing love and justice, witnessing to the work and word of Jesus.  These are action-oriented baptismal vows!  These are the kinds of promises that can change the whole world if we are able to live them out.  Thanks be to God for the new life that we receive in the waters.  Amen.

[1] Matthew 3:17, NRSVUE.
[2] Matthew 3:16, CEB.
[3] Diana Butler Bass, A Beautiful Year: 52 Meditations on Faith, Wisdom, and Perseverance, pg. 103.
[4] Verse 3 of “Gather Us In,” Worship & Rejoice, #649.
[5] A Leo story from The West Wing, http://westwing.bewarne.com/queries/story.html
[6] Order for Baptism as found in the United Church of Christ Book of Worship, 2012 reprinted edition, pg. 139.

Photo taken by Rev. Lauren Ostrout at The Cathedral Church of St. George the Martyr in Jerusalem.