Baptism of Christ Carol Manass

  Baptism of Christ Novolewski 

The Collect

Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan proclaimed him your beloved Son and anointed him with the Holy Spirit: Grant that all who are baptized into his Name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly confess him as Lord and Savior; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

Old Testament

Isaiah 43:1-7

Thus says the Lord,

he who created you, O Jacob,

he who formed you, O Israel:

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by name, you are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;

when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,

and the flame shall not consume you.

For I am the Lord your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

I give Egypt as your ransom,

Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you.

Because you are precious in my sight,

and honored, and I love you,

I give people in return for you,

nations in exchange for your life.

Do not fear, for I am with you;

I will bring your offspring from the east, 

and from the west I will gather you;

I will say to the north, "Give them up,"

and to the south, "Do not withhold;

bring my sons from far away

and my daughters from the end of the earth--

everyone who is called by my name,

whom I created for my glory, 

whom I formed and made."

The Psalm

Psalm 29

Afferte Domino

1 Ascribe to the Lord, you gods, *

ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

2 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his Name; *

worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

3 The voice of the Lord is upon the waters;

the God of glory thunders; *

the Lord is upon the mighty waters.

4 The voice of the Lord is a powerful voice; *

the voice of the Lord is a voice of splendor.

5 The voice of the Lord breaks the cedar trees; *

the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon;

6 He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, *

and Mount Hermon like a young wild ox.

7 The voice of the Lord splits the flames of fire;

the voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; *

the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

8 The voice of the Lord makes the oak trees writhe *

and strips the forests bare.

9 And in the temple of the Lord *

all are crying, "Glory!"

10 The Lord sits enthroned above the flood; *

the Lord sits enthroned as King for evermore.

11 The Lord shall give strength to his people; *

the Lord shall give his people the blessing of peace.

The New Testament

Acts 8:14-17

When the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. The two went down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit (for as yet the Spirit had not come upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus). Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

The Baptism James Reid

Gospel Discussion at Revd up for Sunday

Fr Plant's Gospel Study

The Gospel

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. " 

 The Baptism Solomon Raj

Some Reflections

In Praise of John

Hair of the camel furnished a coarse raiment

To your blessed members; leather your girdle;

You drink the cold spring, food for you wild honey

Mingled with locusts.

All other prophets, in their hearts divining,

Sang of the light coming to the people;

Your finger touched the Lamb of God who takes

Sin from the world.

None has arisen in the mighty spaces

Of round earth’s borders holier than John was:

Great was his grace who poured the mystic waters

O’er the Redeemer.

-Paul, deacon of Apulia, c720-799

An Advent Sourcebook, Liturgy Training Publications

WATER SYMBOLISM

(exerpt referencing the teachings of the early Church theologians)

(Water) possessed of itself a cleansing property and for this further reason was regarded as holy: hence its use in ritual ablution, where its properties washed away all offences and all stain of guilt. The waters of baptism alone wash away sin, and baptism is only conferred once because it opens the way to a new state, that of the new person. … The cleansing properties possessed by water gave it the additional force of the power of redemption. Immersion was regenerative, it effected a rebirth in the sense of its being simultaneously alive and dead. Water wipes out what has gone before, since it restores the individual to a fresh condition. Immersion is like Christ’s entombment. He came to life again after descending into the bowels of the Earth. Water is the symbol of regeneration and the waters of baptism lead explicitly to being 'born again' (John 3:3-7). They are the means of initiation. The Shepherd of Hermes speaks of those 'who go down into the waters dead and come up again alive.'

- The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols, Chevalier & Gheerbrant p.1084

I Felt The Current Take Me

What was in that candle’s light

that opened and consumed me so quickly?

Come back, my Friend! The form of our love

is not a created form.

Nothing can help me but the Beauty.

There was a dawn I remember

when my soul heard something

from Your soul. I drank water

from Your Spring and felt

the current take me.

-Rumi 1207-1273

'Like This', 43 Odes

trans. Coleman Barks

Humility and Potential

On both sides there is great humility … "Suffer it to be so now," says the Lord, "For thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness." John acquiesced and obeyed; he baptized the Lamb of God, and washed the waters. It was we who were cleansed, not He; for we know that the waters were cleansed in order that we might be washed by them.

- Bernard of Clairveaux 1090-1153

In Epiphania Domini I.6-7

If there is anything I have learned about men and women, it is that there is a deeper spirit of altruism than is ever evident. Just as the rivers we see are minor compared to the underground streams, so, too, the idealism that is visible is minor compared to what people carry in their hearts unreleased or scarcely released.

-Albert Schweitzer 1875-1965

Today the Lord comes to be baptized, so that humankind may be lifted up; today the one who never has to bow inclines himself before his servant so that he may release our chains; Today we have acquired the kingdom of heaven: indeed, the kingdom of heaven that has no end.

-excerpt, Orthodox Liturgy, Feast of the Theophany

The Father is the Spring,

the Son is called the stream

and we are said to drink the Spirit.

- Athanasius c.293-373 Ad Serapionem 1:9

  The Baptism Orslavsky