Sermon for Epiphany Sunday – 7th January 2024

Fr Terry Hemming – St Paul’s Athens

 

Did you see the pictures from the James
Webb telescope at the start of the year? 30
years in building at a cost of $10bn – it is
certainly colossal but the hope and so far the
results are that it will change our view of the
universe and our experience of it. On a more
mundane note I think in my lifetime of the use
of Velcro patented in 1955 and marketed in
the late 50’s– wonderful invention – so
obvious but never occurred to people before –
discoveries and inventions are like that. To go
back to the Webb telescope- it is possible
because of a thought in the mind of Albert
Einstein in the first part of the C20th – did not
change what is, but changed our relationship
to what is. Our knowledge changed and our
abilities to inhabit the universe changed. True
also of our knowledge of God. – God shows
himself – to Abraham, one God for all the
world, Moses as I Am Jehovah/Yahweh, to the
prophets as a God of moral values and not
just religious ritual. In the NT as we have been
thinking about at Christmas in the baby at
Bethlehem. Shock –no one had expected the
Messiah to come as a baby in Bethlehem.
Now a new thing. New understanding is the
theme of today.

This was the message in Acts we have just
heard. Something new which was to change

all their understanding and so their behaviour.
Up till now Jesus was as remote to them as
Mars was to their pre-telescopic society. Now
their lives were being transformed . Why
because behind it all is the life, ministry and
death of Jesus of Nazareth and today we
celebrate his baptism.
At the Baptism of Jesus of Nazareth in the
River Jordan we have three figures
God the Father Speaking
God the Son being baptized
God the Holy Spirit descending. This is a new
point in
revelation which is why in our creed we speak
of God as
Trinity –
The baptism of Jesus shows us God in a new
way.
The baptism of Jesus was important for Jesus
for his
knowledge of himself. It was the start of his
public ministry.
He is anointed by the Spirit of God.
The baptism was important for the Jewish
people for their
knowledge of who Jesus was.The baptism of
Jesus was
important for us:

i) he is baptised in solidarity with us. He is
righteous and yet is baptised along with
sinners. Answer to those who said the Christ
did not have a body – he is fully human.
ii)he is baptised as an example to us.
Our baptism is always in the Name of Father,
Son and Holy
Spirit also for as Christians we see God in this
new light.
God is not an ogre – seeking our downfall and
looking for
revenge.
God is not remote and unconcerned with us.
God is love – the communion of the blessed
Trinity – and is what we should be made in
God’s image. Jesus’s prayer – That they
should be one as we are one. Unity and love
within the church is part of our showing God to
the World. Maybe the most important part of
evangelism. Look how they love one another.
The anointing is the start of the work. Christ’s
baptism by John is a mark of his start of his
ministry. The declaration of God’s approval of
him is affirming his ministry. This is something
new. True for you. We are all priests and
ministers of God in the church. It is our
baptism which has anointed us and given us
this mission. You do not have to ordained to
be a minister but you do have to be a minister

if you have been baptized. It affirms the
ministry of all.

New – are we worshipping and following this
new understanding of God – or are we flat-
earthers, not up to Newton let alone Einstein
or the James Webb telescope and believing
by uttering imprecations on those who
disagree with us we are mirroring God? We do
not worship a tribal God but an all-embracing
God who welcomes all to him. We must be
like him. The doctrine of the Trinity is not for
theological warfare but for contemplation,
worship and then emulation. The doctrine of
the Trinity shows us God’s eternal love. The
love between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
was/is perfect. You are my son, the beloved in
whom I am well pleased. This love needed no
other. His love in creating all that is was an
expression of that love. Our end is to reflect
that love in our lives. The church gives us the
place where we may begin to do that. Look
how they love one another should not be said
in cynicism but as a statement of marvel and
from there to go out to all human beings and
to all created things. How do we love those
who hate us? How do we serve those who
despise us? How do we keep Jesus’s prayer
in John 17 that they may be one as we are. It
seems an impossible prayer and yet it is what we long for and work for. 1Peter 4.8 Theophan
the Recluse, “Love covers a multitude of sins,”
(I Pet. 4:8). That is, for love towards one’s
neighbour God forgives the sins of the one
who loves.