Baptism of the Lord - January 10, 2010 – Deacon Bob Ikelman - Today we celebrate the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the end of the Christmas season and the beginning of Ordinary time until Lent, beginning on February 17 Ash Wednesday.

The dried up trees are out at the curb or gone, the Seasonal trimmings are back in boxes or tubs, the house is vacuumed.  Christmas is over for another year. RIGHT!!  How many of you still have your Christmas lights up or your Christmas tree Up ? We do!!!!!!

The Christmas season on our calendar doesn’t end until today, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord with evening prayer. We celebrate this feast as the end of the Christmas season, but we also celebrate the beginning of ordinary time.

But Christmas doesn’t really end. Our first reading sounds much like the beginning of Advent, “Make straight in the desert a highway for our Lord.” We are called to continue to live a Christian life.

Every verse of Ps 104 points to the greatness of God, creator of the universe. He wants us all to be His children. The letter from Titus proclaims the essentialtruth, “The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all.” Jesus the savior has come in human form.

And then the crowning glory---Christ speaks to us in the gospel, and we hear what He heard at the Jordan River, “You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.”

He is baptized as we are because He is not only the Son of God but also totally human. He shows us as humans we all need baptism. Christmas shows us that Jesus came to guide us to the fulfillment of our destiny as human beings. We are to become one with Him, to be the beloved of the Father. Through our  baptism we become members of the body of Christ, children of God.

Also in the gospel John the Baptist tells us Jesus is something else. He will baptize us with Holy Spirit and fire. We are now called to follow the path Jesus trod. We are called to repentance, forgiveness, and new life through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will strengthen and guide us to follow in Jesus’ footsteps. 

Thus we lead Christmas lives every day. In all the ordinary and extraordinary things we do, we give witness and we give thanks, proclaiming that God intends the greatest gift for all people in the universe and that Christ became one of us to guide us every step of the way.

As we gather at the Eucharist, we are celebrating the actions of Jesus that make it possible for us to be and remain beloved sons and daughters of God. We represent his loving sacrifice for us.

Let us ask each day for a more abundant outpouring of the Holy Spirit so that we might be on fire with the love of God. So that we can go out and proclaim the gospel of the Lord, but if all else fails use words…