Year A

Matthew 3:13-17

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

Anointed For Holy Work

The season of Epiphany starts. This is the season when we celebrate the reach of the Gospel, the good news, to the ends of the earth with its universal message that touches all of humanity. It started with the arrival of the gentile wise men to the baby Jesus of which took place on the church calendar this past Friday, January 6 on the Feast of Epiphany, and includes moments in the gospels where God is trying to get through to us to make God’s self-known to us, to help us experience the reality of God in our lives and to help us discover what life can be like if we allow our lives to be shaped by our relationship with God. We really do need to let God get through to us. Since the beginning of time, God has tried to help us answer the million dollar questions that most of us have asked at some point in our lives, “What is life really about” and “What is my purpose in this life”?

We all seek an answer to these questions and for good or for not so good the answers we come up with shape our lives. Yet, God wants to be the one who shapes our lives and help us answer these questions. The answers are not always easy to put into words. Sometimes the answers have to be shown to us so that we can experience them. But if the answers could be put into words, it might go like this; “There is a great someone who is God who is not only out there but also in our hearts, who is behind all of the things that surround us in life. If we learn to love and trust this great someone and try to get to know God and what God wants for our lives, we allow God to shape our lives in a good and righteous way. 

We might think of these moments of shaping as turning points or epiphanies in our lives. One of these turning points for Jesus was his baptism as it is in all of our lives. Jesus’ baptism by John is a rather unique event in the history of the world. It is the only recorded event in the scriptures when all the persons of Trinity were made visible; the Son, Jesus, in the flesh, the Spirit in the form of a dove, and the Father’s voice that could be heard. Matthew begins his record of this event by placing Jesus in Galilee at the Jordan River. This is the moment when Jesus is anointed by the Spirit and his ministry begins. He moves into the spotlight and this spotlight follows him from this point forward.

With Jesus standing on the banks of the Jordon are a group of bystanders, people like you and me who witness this remarkable turning point or revelation of Jesus’ identity as the Son of God. This remarkable event marks for the people of that day and for us today, Jesus, as one with God and this kinship sends him out to obey the call to love. This call will take him along dusty roads, touching and healing the sick and the weak. It will take him into the political arena, where he will be beaten, stripped of his dignity and crucified. It takes him to the grave, where he conquers death and rises to new life with God.

In obeying God’s call to love, Jesus opens up the way for us, extending the boundaries of God to include us as part of God’s family; a kinship that anoints us, saves us to life eternally with God and gives us our true identity. His baptism draws our lives into the great journey of his life and the purpose of his work. Through Christ and through our own baptism we are reshaped into the family of God. And if we are family that means we are to look out for each other and for all the other children of God as our texts today point out. Today’s texts point to God’s actions in anointing God’s servants and God’s work that will be done through these anointed servants, who are marked with the seal of the Holy Trinity in anointing.

The Isaiah passage reminds us that God anoints God’s servants as lights to the nations with the spirit to do justice. In the first of the Servant Songs that shine out of Isaiah today, the prophet offers a portrait of the kind of leadership we should expect from one called and anointed by God: patient, nonviolent, and merciful. Matthew identifies Jesus’ ministry as fulfillment of this particular passage. Therefore, we are encouraged to read this passage and think of Jesus as the one Isaiah portrays; the one with tender care who cares for those who are vulnerable. “A bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he will not quench,” Isaiah says.

True servant leadership protects what is weak. This kind of leadership gives us a startling contrast to contemporary models of leadership where power reigns. Yet, we must not confuse gentleness with weakness. That Jesus deals tenderly does not mean he is powerless. Quite the contrary, for this promised servant will “bring forth justice to the nations”, and he will not be stopped “until he has established justice in the earth.” Anointing then is a sign that God commits God’s holy work by placing it in the hands of fragile flesh. Only faith and transformation follow as in Jesus’ life and work which is a sign of God’s own life. This sign helps us to understand holy baptism and what it means for our lives. 

Baptism says, “A servant is here; Come, Holy Spirit. Take this life and form it into an instrument of righteousness. Anoint my life to meet the real needs in the world with powerful gifts to challenge those systems that tear down the least of these. In baptism, we are given a power within us that the world did not give and the world cannot take away. I mean, just look at the difference God’s anointing made in Peter’s life. This pivotal encounter of Peter with Cornelius today is crucial in Luke’s attempt, as Luke wrote the book of Acts, to explain how the good news is for all nations and peoples. Peter’s brief confession of faith does not in itself tell us what to do and not to do.

Rather, it points to the larger purpose and ends that should govern our lives. Life in Christ is a new life marked by the forgiveness of sins, by doing good, providing justice to those who are oppressed, by proclaiming to others that God has done mighty acts in Christ and that Jesus is Lord of all. To enter into the baptized anointed life of Christ is to be at peace, to be made whole in entering into the work of God in Christ. Like Peter, we are now the witnesses to God’s love and hope. Our baptism is not just for us, but for others. This understanding answers all our questions about identity and purpose. This understanding of who we are and what we are to do, open’s our eyes to see the Spirit of God descend anointing us as God’s beloved children and sending us out to obey the call to love. God is really trying to get through to us with an important message and mission. It really would be good for us to tune in.