January 12, 2025 – Second Sunday after the Epiphany
Kahu Gary Percesepe
| “Epiphany: Jesus Enters Our Waters” The season of Epiphany may be the least appreciated of the church seasons, which is a shame, because it has great theological depth and beauty. We know Advent because it comes just before Christmas. We know that Lent means the cross, and Easter means the empty tomb. Pentecost means the descent of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church. But what does Epiphany mean, exactly? The word epiphany means to make manifest. Epiphany in the church is that season where the identity of Jesus the Christ is made manifest to the world, where Christ’s glory is made known, the glory as of the only begotten son of God, full of grace and truth. But what is grace? Well, think of grace this way: mercy, not merit. Grace is the opposite of karma. Karma means getting what you deserve but are we sure that’s what we want? Ponder all the ways you’ve failed to live into your highest ideals, the ways you have fallen short of being your best self, the ways you’ve hurt others. Think of all the things you have done and left undone: is it really karma that you want? If you believe that good deeds should be rewarded and evil deeds punished, do you really want you’ve got coming? I don’t. Grace means getting what you don’t deserve and not getting what you do deserve. What we deserve is judgment and death. What we get is forgiveness, new life, and Easter. What we get is forgiveness of our sin by the grace of God, and that is good news for us all. In today’s reading from John, Jesus is revealed as embodying God’s grace. Jesus made God’s grace manifest to all by dwelling among us, and by being baptized in the River Jordan. John is embarrassed that Jesus presented himself for baptism, because the baptism John offered was a baptism of water for repentance. Jesus, who as the Christ is the full manifestation of God made flesh, has nothing to repent of, yet stands in line with notorious sinners–in other words with us– to enter our waters. Like us, he has entered the waters of baptism. The thing that most intrigues me in Luke’s account of Jesus’ baptism is that Jesus had been standing back there in the crowd. No details are provided. Then, whoosh—Jesus suddenly has been baptized too. I love the fact that Jesus enters the same water that had hosted countless baptisms of countless poor sinners before him. He doesn’t go first, he goes last. He enters John’s baptism even though he had no need for cleansing from sin. Jesus participates in the act of mass baptism as one among the people, not as one above them, because Jesus has not come to judge the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He comes not for his own sake to be exalted or glorified above others. Jesus comes to make grace visible. Jesus enters our waters. Often, our waters are troubled. Jesus meets us in the storm of our lives. Jesus speaks peace to our troubled waters, breathes our air and offers us a whole new life. Some of us came as adults to our baptism or as older children; many of us were carried to our baptism as babies by the faith of our parents and ancestors, and some in this room may never have come at all. To those who came as adults I say to you, renew your baptismal vows today. Vows you have made, to follow the risen Christ wherever he leads, even through the valley of the shadow of death: fulfill your vows by being obedient in God’s call in your life to serve the world with deep gladness. To those who were carried as babes in arms, I say: give thanks for the faith of the kupunawho carried you and keep faith with them by fulfilling your vows. And to you who have yet to be baptized I say: Are you ready to follow Jesus into the waters, to die to self and be raised to new life in Christ? I know a story about a young woman who gave birth to a baby who had severe health problems. The child was not expected to live more than a few years. The strain was too much for the father, so he abandoned his wife and child. The next Sunday, the mother took her child to the church where the child had been baptized, where she stood up and reminded the congregation of their vows and requested their help. The church rose up and created a day care center, not only for the child they had vowed to love, but for other critically and terminally ill children in the community. They asked themselves as church folk the most important question of all: what does our community need from us? When the answer was given, they acted in obedience to that call. What is our community asking of us, Keawala’i? Because that is what our baptism means: the continual call of God to follow Jesus, offering light in dark places. Epiphanies of grace. So be it. Amene. |