View Video Grace Episcopal Church Sheboygan, Wisconsin The First Sunday after the Epiphany [The Baptism of our Lord](C) Isaiah 43.1-7 Psalm 29 Acts 8.14-17 Luke 3.15-16, 21-22 May the Lord be in my mind, on my lips, and in my heart, that I may rightly and truly proclaim His holy Word. Amen. Recently, I was stopped by a man at a gas station, who said he wanted to ask me question. I was wearing my collar, and he followed me to my car. He wanted to know how it is possible for one to be baptized by the Holy Spirit. The man appeared a little rough and inebriated, but it was obvious in our conversation that he knew his Bible. We each argued from Scripture, and I also threw in some theology. He argued that the Holy Spirit had clearly come upon the disciples at Pentecost, and when Jesus breathed on them in the upper room. But, he argued, from the time the last disciple died, the Holy Spirit no longer came upon any person. The focus of his argument was that the “apostolic succession,” the laying-on of hands in ordination, is not valid. I guess my collar triggered a need to make a point. This encounter brings into focus what we believe and teach about the Holy Spirit. We do believe in the apostolic succession, and promise in our baptismal covenant to continue in the apostles’ teaching. But, I don’t want to talk today about apostolic succession. The man at the gas station asked a question which focuses, really, on how the Holy Spirit acts in our lives. And this is a question we consider particularly today, for on this day we remember the baptism of our. We listen, again, to the account of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus in the river Jordan, calling us to focus on who the Holy Spirit is, and what the Spirit does in our lives. The Catechism teaches that “We recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit when we confess Jesus Christ as Lord and are brought into love and harmony with God, with ourselves, with our neighbors, and with all creation.” In other words, we recognize the Holy Spirit, and allow the Spirit to work within us, when we trust in God’s plan of salvation, His plan of Creation, and in how He guides us to give our lives over to His rule. I want to come back to how we receive the Spirit and recognize God’s presence in our lives—how we live into the identity we assume in Baptism—but first I want to examine the question of why Jesus was Himself baptized. John is in the wilderness “preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Lk. 3.3). He is (shall we say) direct with the people, calling them a “brood of vipers” fleeing from the wrath to come, who are called to bear “fruits that befit repentance” (3.7-8). The people ask John what they are to ...
