Feast of the Baptism of Christ 2026

At the Baptism of Christ, James returns to the theme of repentance — exploring how Jesus's own baptism inaugurates a ministry of transformation, and what it means to follow him into the waters of new life and new identity.

Transcript

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Heavenly Father, as we come now to open your word, would you reveal to us by your spirit the image of your son that we may be transformed into his likeness? Amen. I wonder, are you one for New Year's resolutions? I remember growing up, I always thought this time of year had some sort of special power to help me change all the bits of me that I didn't like and encourage some new behaviors. I remember growing up taking such stock in New Year's resolutions to uh get a gym membership or buy a new pair of running shoes or eat slightly less sugar. You can imagine, I'm sure, the sorts of things that I was particularly focused on at this time of year, having just indulged over Christmas. These days, though, I don't hear much about New Year's resolutions, and it could be a function of my age or my cynicism that I'm starting to care less and less about them as an idea. I mean, maybe it's because, quite frankly, we're all just a bit tired. All the difficulties that have faced this cathedral and the world at this time leave us not really with the level of energy that we need, uh, feeling a bit fatigued every time we turn on the news and experience the latest in the omni crisis that comes out of the White House, but just think, I don't know that I've got the energy for New Year's resolutions this year. I know personally I found it hard to muster any sort of enthusiasm for them. So that's what I found myself noticing as I returned to this passage in Matthew's Gospel this morning. Because you might think at first blush that what John the Baptist is doing is a sort of new year, new me project. That he's telling people, come on, guys, buck your ideas up. Time to start afresh. Let's all go to the Jordan and have a bath, shall we? Maybe that will help fix things. Well, of course, you can hear from my tone of voice, I don't think that's what John the Baptist was doing, but I'd like to use the idea of New Year's resolutions as a counter to what John the Baptist is actually doing as he leads this renewal movement in the wilderness. So, what are the differences? John the Baptist is not particularly, I think, interested in some sort of private religious cleanse for individuals. What he is offering is a public and prophetic action aimed at calling Israel back to be Israel again. It's a summons to national repentance because the story that Israel finds itself in has reached a crisis point. And as John the Baptist does this, he's joining himself to a very storied tradition of Israel's prophets who do not merely say things but do things. They enact the parables that they bring before Israel. So Ezekiel was known for this kind of strange street theatre that he would do as he told Israel to become again the people of God. Or Hosea went as far as in his marriages and in the naming of his children to tell Israel to be a certain type of people. And for John the Baptist, baptism functions like that. It's a visible and communal sign that something has gone wrong in Israel and decisive action is required. So what is the story that John the Baptist is retelling? There were two times when Israel were, if you like, baptized. Firstly, as they came out of Egypt, went through the Red Sea into the wilderness. Just a quick uh reminder that the word baptism simply means to be immersed. And so John the Baptist is activating the times in Israel's history when they were immersed, when God brought them out of slavery in Egypt and immersed them through the Red Sea into the wilderness. And then a second time, as they were immersed from the wilderness through the Jordan into the promised land. And so John calls the people out into the wilderness and baptizes them in the Jordan. He is saying symbolically, return again, people of Israel, to your beginning. Have a fresh exodus and a fresh re-entry into the promised land. John is saying, in effect, to Israel, you must pass again through the waters and become again God's renewed people. This is a radical renewal movement calling people to be the true covenant of God. And in this process, there was a third and final uh immersing that took place, and that was in the exile, as the people of Israel were pulled out of their homeland and into Babylon. Now you could look at that moment of exile in purely political terms. The Emperor of Babylon had grown his empire and he wanted to take over Israel, and so he goes and reaches into his nearest neighbor, pulls out the greatest of the best at all the resources and pulls them into his hometown. But the Old Testament prophets didn't do that. They saw exile as God's judgment on his people. They have not been who they were called to be, and so God judges them through his servant, the king of Babylon. Foreign and as they came back after exile, there was still this sense in which God has not finished with us. We are still a broken people. We are still being dominated by foreign powers like the Romans. The nations still rule over us, and the full promised restoration has not taken place. This is the next part in the story that John the Baptist is activating as he brings people back to the Jordan and says, We must start again. All of that is in the background of the original readers' ears as they're listening to this story, and it begs the question that Jesus asks in our gospel reading. Well, excuse me, that John the Baptist asks of Jesus, why do you need to be baptized? And Jesus responds like this Let it be so for now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness. What I think Jesus is doing is identifying himself with the people of Israel in their story. He doesn't watch from the sidelines or stand on the riverbank and observe something taking place. As he steps into the waters, he steps into the place of a people under judgment and he shares in their plight and their need for renewal. In this act, he is saying, I will become the true Israelite, the one who went with you through the Exodus and goes with you into the wilderness and goes through with you the river Jordan into the promised land. And in so doing, Jesus is taking Israel's vocation upon his own shoulders. I am the true Israelite, Jesus says, and I will carry this calling. I will be Israel and I will embody what it means to be the people of God. Jesus says to John, it is proper and fitting in God's plan, and so we must reenact what God requires in this moment in Israel's history. So what would John the Baptist say to us this morning if he was here in Blackburn at the start of our centenary year in 2026? What would John the Baptist be calling us to repent of? It's a big question and one that I'm nervous to answer. I wonder if he would remind us the church is not about the performance, but it's about prayer. It's not about maintaining an institution, but it's about getting on our knees and loving God and loving our neighbor. Perhaps he would remind us that we should not be complicit in an institution that time and again puts the needs of the organization ahead of the people and the relationships involved. And maybe John the Baptist would call us at this centenary year to go back to the basics of our faith, to be again the people of God in Blackburn, to be a place where the fruit of the Spirit flourish and blossoms love and joy, peace and patience, kindness and goodness and gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. Perhaps John the Baptist would say something like this: You are being called again to become who you are supposed to be, like Byrne Cathedral. A place of holiness and prayer, a place of love and Christian virtue, a community of faith, a community of love and gentleness, a place of joy and peace and kindness and faithfulness. Remember at the start of this year your baptismal vows. Do you reject rebellion against God? Do you renounce the corruption of evil? Do you repent of the sins that separate us from God and neighbor? Let us at the start of this year turn again to Christ as Savior, submit to Christ again as Lord, come to Christ, the way, the truth, and the life. That was John the Baptist's ministry, and he was calling the people of God in the first century, and I hope he is calling us again today. But you see now why John the Baptist's ministry of repentance is so different to this New Year, New Me attitude. It's because New Year's resolutions are a parody, a shallow parody of repentance. And that is why every gym is full in January and empty by February. Because a new date cannot give you a new heart. And so this year I'm not interested in New Year's resolutions. I want us to be called again to repent. Like Martin Luther the Great Reformer said, when our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said repent, he intended for the entire life of the believer to be one of repentance. Resolutions are not bad, but they are a thin parody of what we're describing here. They promise renewal without confession, they promise transformation without God's intervention. They are skin deep and they don't challenge the problem of our hearts. We do not need this year a self-chosen project aimed at personal improvement, better habits, a nicer body, more productivity. What we need is repentance because God is at work in our midst. The goal should not be self-enhancement, but better readiness for God's divine intervention. That we might belong to the renewed people of God as the kingdom of God draws near and is in our midst. So let's have less, I'll do this, I'll try better, my plans are this, my goals are that. And instead, as a people of God, come together in a public and communal act that reconstitutes our identity in the middle of Blackburn at the start of our centenary to be the people God has called us to be. New Year's resolutions imagine self-renewal as a kind of self-improvement. But there's no ultimate change on the horizon. It's the same self, it's the same moment, it's the same world just tweaking the edges with slightly better management. John's baptism imagines a renewal of a covenant, a change of a people, a moment of divine intervention because of crisis in our midst. Israel must pass through the waters again because God is about to act. Would we pass through the waters of baptism afresh this year? And so Jesus gets into the water and he becomes the true Israelite, journeying with them on their journey and in their story from Exodus to exile and through into the Jordan in the Promised Land. He joins us in the water, in our humanity, born as a ver born of a virgin, experiencing the human condition completely. And so as he goes under into the water, he points to his own burial just a few years later, laid in a tomb after his crucifixion, having been crushed by the weight of our sin. And as he comes back out of the water, he likewise points to his new life, his resurrection, sin and death could not hold him down. And so he bursts free from the tomb, just as he bursts out of the water in his baptism. But notice, as he was with us, as we were with him in his death as he went under the water, so we are with him in his new life as he bursts free again. We get to, as it were, hold on to Christ's tailcoat as he comes through the death and into new life. Just as he goes down and we go down with him, so he comes up and we join him in his new life. We hold on to Jesus and we hear the same words that God spoke to him. This is my child, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased. God says that to you and to me at the start of this year. You are God's child, you are his beloved, he is pleased with you. Hearing those words, only by hearing those words will we have within us the spiritual power required to live the life of repentance that John calls us to. And if he felt earlier like I was being particularly harsh with you or with us, as we reflected together on the ministry of John the Baptist calling us to repent, you must hear these words louder than those words. God loves you, and He's washed away your sin, and He invites you to live resurrection life. That is good news for us at the start of this year. Amen.