Baptism

So this Sunday is the Baptism of the Lord Sunday in the liturgical / lectionary year. This can be a problematic Sunday because it forces us to address one of those odd things in the Bible, namely, Jesus’ baptism. This is odd for at least a couple of reasons, first of all, we have John the Baptist to deal with and he was one odd duck all by himself. Second, we have to deal with Jesus getting baptized at all. Why did he do that? John’s baptism was very much a baptism of repentance . . . and Jesus didn’t have anything to repent. Then to add to all this we have John saying that Jesus is going to have another baptism; it can all be confusing.

This week’s sermons try to bring some order out of the confusion by having us look at Jesus’ baptism from at least two different perspectives. First, we look at it as an occurrence that is simultaneously extraordinary and completely ordinary. Second, we look at it from the perspective of not the baptism Jesus underwent but the baptism that Jesus provides, namely the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Knox Presbyterian’s sermon download link Jesus’ baptism

St. Mark’s Presbyterian’s sermon download link Jesus’ baptism

Give one or both of them a listen and let me know if you think I reduced or increased the confusion 🙂

Blessings,