Baptism of Christ

May I speak in the name of the Father and of the Son and of The Holy Spirit.

A voice came from heaven, you are my Son, the beloved. Words from our gospel this morning, but what do they mean? 

The voice from heaven is presumably that of God, declaring that Jesus is his son, his beloved. A statement is clearly being made about Jesus’s identity. He is the son of God, no ifs, no buts. 

Some people have claimed that Jesus was just a good man, a wise teacher whose teaching we should follow, even a prophet, but he was just a man. Our gospel this morning makes it clear that they are wrong. Jesus is both man, the son of Mary and divine, the son of God. 

Theologians have wrestled for centuries over how this works. This year is the 1,700 anniversary of the council of Nicaea, which led to the formulation of the Nicaean creed which we proclaim each week.  The issue of the relationship between the divine and human natures in Jesus, and how they work was a key point in the debates. 

Were the divine and the human natures separate but in one body, a bit like a split personality? Or were they somehow mingled together? Is Jesus two natures in one body or something else?I was struggling to find a way to articulate these ideas that is easy to underunderstand then I came across a column in the church times by Angela Tilby, in which she discusses the nature of Christ and gives the following analogy. 

“two nature, one person Christians understood Christ as we might experience a drink of whiskey and water: 

a combination in which the distinctiveness of the two components remains apparent to the taste.

 One nature Christians on the other hand, thought the person of Christ to be more like gin and tonic: 

the ingredients once mixed, can no longer be distinguished.”

I did think about doing a practical experiment as part of my sermon but decided it might not be a good idea. So, which is it? The church decided that Jesus was more whiskey and water than gin and tonic. Even with a helpful drink, I still struggle sometimes to really understand how Jesus can be both God and man.  

How does it work? Does Jesus the man know that he is also God? How does that impact on how he thinks and acts? Maybe for the time he is human he doesn't know that he is also God? But there are times in the gospel narratives where he does seem to know. The more I try and think about this, the more I seem to tie myself in knots and the more my brain seems to turn to fluff like Winnie the Poohs. 

However, maybe the answer is that we can’t understand it by just our own thinking. Having faith in something is not the same as knowing something. Speaking about the words of the creed Cardinal Basil Hume wrote

 “these words are but a formula – abstract, cold and unreal- unless our minds and hearts are touched, 

that is unless out hearts are involved in our prayer and our prayer involves our hearts.  

It is only gradually that the words of scripture and the creeds reveal something of their inner meaning. 

It is like the viewing of a landscape. 

The more we look the more we see. 

The eye cannot, at first glance, convey to the mind all the beauty that lies before it, 

nor study every detail that is part of the whole. 

It needs time, patience, persistence before the eye becomes one with the reality it is contemplating , and it with the eye.”

For some matters of faith, trying to understand them in a logical, practical way is the wrong approach. Our human language can at times be limited, God can be and act in ways that go beyond what we can describe with our limited language. It may be at times that we can only come closer to understanding God, through prayer and meditation on what He is saying to us through scripture and the creeds. 

For now, I maybe just need to accept that Jesus is God’s beloved son. But what about us? Whilst Jesus is in a special way God’s beloved son, through our baptism we are all also children of God. 

In our Isaiah reading we are told we are precious in God’s sight, we are honoured and He loves us. 

Sometimes, though, it might not feel like that. We are starting to settle back into normal life after the bright lights and celebrations of Christmas. Although I know the days are starting to get longer, it still feels very dark and cold. Post Christmas the pounds on the scale have gone up, whilst the pounds in my bank have gone down. The news seems to be all doom and gloom, yet here we have this wonderful passage. It tells us not to fear, for God has redeemed us. Yes, we may face problems but God will be with us and can help us not be overwhelmed. 

Note, it doesn't say you won’t face difficulties and hardships, but that God will be with you and protect you through them.  He cares about us so much that he is prepared to give up nations in exchange for you or me. The passage ends with this glorious description of God gathering up his children from north and south, from far away, even from the ends of the earth. 

In our baptism we become part of God’s family, a family that he will protect and care for. Jesus was Son of God and Son of Man and because of that we can try to stop being afraid of the world or of God, we can face the things we are afraid of knowing we are beloved children of God. 

So as we struggle through the dark days of January, we can know in our hearts, even if we don’t understand it with our brains, that we are all children of God, loved and protected by God. 

Amen