2201AFC010722 – In the Beginning
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Genesis 1:2 – 2 The earth was barren,
with no form of life;
it was under a roaring ocean
covered with darkness.
But the Spirit of God
was moving over the water.
Isaiah 40:11 – 11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd; (↔ Music Link)
he will gather the lambs in his arms,
and carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead the mother sheep.
Isaiah 42:1 – 1 Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my spirit upon him;
he will bring forth justice to the nations.
Luke 3:21-22 – 21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, 22 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 grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. Here we are already, composing the first post of 2022! It is the 840th post in the first 1,000. Here, at the beginning of another year we celebrate on this coming Sunday the Baptism of the Lord. For many of us, our baptism occurred around the beginning of our lives – baptized as infants. Jesus was an adult – perhaps around 30 years old – when he convinced John the Baptist to baptize him. It is for this reason that I have chosen so many verses from the readings for this celebration. The first verse up there – the one from Genesis – isn’t among those proclaimed on this Sunday in this cycle, C; but it serves as a good lead in to today’s discussion. Let’s begin with the meaning of baptism.
Just as a quick refresher, this word is from baptizó in Greek. It means to submerge or immerse, to dip under, and is usually used in the context of ceremonial washing or cleansing as a sign of repentance and the promise of absolution. This use of the word is based on a derivative of bapto – to dip, to make fully wet. As with the Earth from which we are made, our life begins in water – in the womb – and continues outside the womb in the dipping into or sprinkling with water. Not only is the outside of the body refreshed and cleansed, but also the spirit within us is refreshed and cleansed. Our baptism causes us to be thoroughly soaked inside and out. We are saturated with the water of Life and the water of the Holy Spirit. We are shaped and formed by the moving of the wind of God – the Ruach Elohim, the Spirit of the Living God (↔ Music Link) – and our life in God begins in much the same way as Life began In The Beginning (↔ Music Link).
The Baptism of the Lord signified a beginning for him as well. Immediately afterward he underwent his own period for intense formation with forty days of prayer and fasting in the desert. One of our Key Verses for today is Isaiah 42:1 – 1 Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. This prophecy brings to mind some of the events in the
Baptism of the Lord. First, God has called Jesus as his servant,, and Jesus uses that idea to convince John that it is proper for John to baptize him even though John knows Jesus is the Messiah. (See Matthew 3:15). God tells us through Isaiah that he upholds him – holds him closely and firmly – because he is The Chosen. In this chosen Servant, God finds delightful satisfaction, and therefore he will place his Spirit upon him (immerse and saturate him with the Spirit of God). Thus prepared to do the will of El Shaddai-Olam, he will bring justice – judgment and rectitude in righteousness – to the nations. All Peoples in all Places will benefit from the work this Servant does in the Name of the Lord. He will be the Good Shepherd.
In Jesus’ own words he told us in John 10:11 – 11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” God is rather fond of shepherds. Have you ever wondered why? It began – as all things do – in The Beginning. You’ll find Abel, a man who tended flocks, giving an offering to God. God accepted Abel’s offering but rejected Cain’s – who was his older brother – offering. Cain got very angry and ultimately committed the first recorded murder – he killed his little brother. (See Genesis 4:1-9) Take our first Key Verse for example. What tenderness there is in the shepherd who carries the lamb in his arms and leads the ewes with care! Little lambs have a lot of energy, but they also tire easily. When they are moving with the flock as they graze, the little guys sometimes get tuckered out and just can’t go any farther, so they can’t keep up with their mamas. The good shepherd will pick up that little one and carry it for a while
The Good Shepherd
so it can rest without being left behind. As for the ewes, especially those still carrying their progeny, they must be led with care – slowly, with an eye toward safe paths, gentle slopes, adequate water, and gradually move the flock so as not to endanger their lives. There is more about shepherds at 1718AFC050517 – Seeds and Sheep. Sometimes a ewe will reject her lamb (as Israel rejected the Lamb of God and, even worse these days, so do innumerable people – Christian and non-Christian), so the shepherd forms a special bond with that rejected lamb (Video Link!) and cares for it himself.
Belovéd, shall we not long to be like that lamb and be held in the arms of the Good Shepherd? When we are lost in the desert cliffs, injured, alone, frightened, how consoling it is to know the Good Shepherd is reaching out to us to rescue us, take us home, dress our wounds, and wash us clean! What a Friend We Have in Jesus! (↔ Music Link)
I don’t know if you’ve ever had an opportunity to watch baby goats and lambs play (Video Link!), but they can certainly be spirited! It’s the beginning of Life for them, and they are full of the newness of energy and motion. That’s the feeling we can get inside (and outside!) of us when we repent and confess our sins (See 1 John 1:9 – that’s one of my favorite memory verses!) the One who is faithful and just (who will bring forth justice to the nations) FORGIVES us and cleanses us from all unrighteousness (inside and out so we are immersed and saturated with him!). that leads us to a little story for our closing from 1615AFC040616 – An Ocean of Grace – #9: Series on Virtue and Sin:
The love of God is like the ocean, you can see its beginnings but not its end. The Grace of God is the ocean of His Love. He is the source of the Ocean of Grace. When you acknowledge Him, it is as if you are submersed in a vast ocean being fed by a fountain of purest water. You are standing in that fountain in the center of the center of the Crystal Sea drinking from a crystal cup of the Endless Grace and Love, and this is available to every human soul alive today in Heaven and on Earth who chooses to stand in the Grace of God . This is “so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.” And that’s the TRUTH! I am indebted for the following story to Steve Brown founder of Key Life Broadcasts (↔ Click Link) – Stave gave me permission to share this.
Once there was a fish who lived in the great ocean and, because the water was transparent and always conveniently got out of the way of his nose when moved along, he didn’t know he was in the ocean. Well, one day the fish did a very dangerous thing. He began to think: “Surely I am a most remarkable being since I can move around like this in the middle of empty space.” Then the fish became confused because of thinking about moving and swimming, and he suddenly had an anxiety attack and thought he had forgotten how to move about.
At that moment he looked down and saw the yawning chasm of the ocean depths, and he was terrified that he would drop. Then he thought: “If I could catch hold of my tail in my mouth, I could hold myself up.” And so he curled himself up and snapped at his tail. Unfortunately, his spine was not quite supple enough so he missed. As he went on trying to catch hold of his tail, the yawning black abyss below became ever more terrible, and he was brought to the edge of a total nervous breakdown. The fish was about to give up when the ocean, which had been watching with mixed feelings of pity and amusement, said, “What are you doing?”
“Oh,” said the fish, “I’m terrified of falling into the deep dark abyss, and I’m trying to catch hold of my tail in my mouth to hold myself up.”
So the ocean said, “Well, you’ve been trying that for a long time now, and still you have not fallen down. How come?”
“Oh, of course, I haven’t fallen down yet,” said the fish, “because … Well, because I’m swimming!”
“Well,” came the reply, “I am the Great Ocean where you swim, and I have given all of myself to you in which to swim, and I support you all the time you swim, but here you are, instead of exploring the length, breath, depth and height of my expanse, you have been wasting your time pursuing you own end.”
From then on, the fish put his own end behind him where it belonged … And set out to explore the ocean.
Belovéd, let’s get down on our knees and get soaked in the Ocean of Living Water! We 
will be “swimming in” the ocean of God’s Good Graces! Every time we do that we get A New Beginning (↔ Music Link) and we can offer God a morning sacrifice of Adoration, Thanksgiving, and Praise. If we are attentive, we shall hear, “You are my child, my Beloved; with you I am well pleased. And he will carry us in his bosom while carefully leading the unborn and their mothers to safety and rest. And now, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. (See Galatians 1:3-5)
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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