Today we remember our baptism. The remembering of that moment is an opportunity for us to reclaim, to reaffirm who we are, especially when that narrative in our heads sometimes tells us that we are not enough, especially because we live in a world that tells us we need to strive for more, to be more, to be perfect, to never admit that things may be falling apart.
January 11, 2026
“Baptism”
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
Rev. Dr. Heather W. McColl
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
The people were filled with expectation, and everyone wondered whether John might be the Christ. John replied to them all, “I baptize you with water, but the one who is more powerful than me is coming. I’m not worthy to loosen the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. The shovel he uses to sift the wheat from the husks is in his hands. He will clean out his threshing area and bring the wheat into his barn. But he will burn the husks with a fire that can’t be put out.” When everyone was being baptized, Jesus also was baptized. While he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit came down on him in bodily form like a dove. And there was a voice from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I dearly love; in you I find happiness.”
Baptism Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
“The people were filled with expectations, wondering….” This is how Luke begins our reading from Chapter 3. This phrase resonates with us in this moment as we move beyond the Christmas season into the New Year. Many of us may be wondering what this new year will bring, embracing the expectation that anything is possible in this moment of new beginnings…Well that is until “real life” starts back and we seem to slip back into our usual routine.
I think that is what’s so frustrating about this whole New Year thing. It starts out bright and full of hope. We’ve got so much we want to try. There is so much we want to do…that is until we start listening to the voices which fill our airwaves and social media. It seems like just when we begin to make resolutions to grow and become healthier versions of ourselves, the universe interjects and says… “Oh, don’t bother! You’re only going to fail anyway.” Just when we are filled with expectation and wonder, the universe tells us Oh you just need to give up.
But our faith story doesn’t go this way. It doesn’t happen this way. It certainly isn’t told to us this way. Just look at the birth stories found in the Gospels. We move from the shepherds and the angels, move from the magi and the manger, not back to life as usual but rather instead we move from the manger, the place where we encountered God dwelling among us to the banks of a river where God dwells within us. As people of faith, we move towards a river where we hear God’s voice telling us, “You are my Beloved. In whom I am well pleased. In you, I find happiness.” We come to the banks of the river where we soon discover, or rediscover that our expectations and wonder, our hopes and dreams of God’s Peaceable Beloved Community are not dismissed or diminished. Now, through Love’s pure light, they have now become words of encouragement. Our expectation and wonder, our hopes and our dreams have now been transformed into words of empowerment, giving us the strength to become the people God has created us to be.
And it is all because we made the move from the manger to the river. For by doing so, in that river, we are reminded who we are and whose we are. And for us as people of faith that is what makes all the difference.
Or let me say it this way… All week, I have debated on whether or not we needed a baptism sermon for today, you know a why we do what we do sort of deals, a what we believe kind of thing but as the week moved on…I realized that was not what I needed to hear.
As I watched the world go back to business as usual, politics as usual, I needed to know that the coming of Christ made and continues to make a difference for this world. I needed to hear once again that these stories that tell us the Word became flesh and dwelled among us changed and continues to change how we interact with each other. Today a baptism sermon on why we do what we do is not what I needed to hear. Instead, today, I needed to know that somehow, some way the world could not and would not go back to life before the Light of Christ came into the World.
Today, my spirit is running dry and I find that I have a need to be renewed. I have a need to be refreshed before going back into the world as a follower of Jesus. I have a need to be restored in my faith, in my hope, and most certainly in my vision for God’s peaceable Kingdom to come here on earth. Because right now, everything feels so uncertain.
In these moments of uncertainty, I find strength from the words which ground my faith. I find hope in the words that refresh my spirit. I find this renewal in just 10 words: You are My Beloved in whom I am well pleased. These words change everything for me. These 10 words change everything for us as people of faith. They change the way we look at life and other people. These 10 words change how we interact with each other. They change how we see ourselves and how we perceive others as well.
No longer are we just individuals, disconnected and disjointed. We are God’s Beloved, seen as ones made in the image of God, as ones called to embody God’s love. We are God’s Beloved and yes so is everyone else that we interact with on a daily basis, everyone else that lives and breathes on this planet we call Earth. Everyone is God’s Beloved, made in the image of God, called to embody God’s love.
Now this is about the part of the story in which we all get a little overwhelmed. We assume that God’s Beloved means God’s Messiah. We tend to think that if we embrace these 10 words then it will be up to us to save the world. It will all be up to us to bring world peace to this crazy hurting broken world.
Let me ease all our minds just a bit…It is not up to us to save the world. Remember again, and hear these words. We are God’s Beloveds. We are not God. As people of faith, as God’s Beloveds, we are not called to redeem creation. We are not called to be God’s Messiahs. That’s God’s job. Not ours.
All we are called to do is make a difference in our small part of our communities by sharing God’s love and grace with others. We can do this one step at a time in small and ordinary ways. It is done by sitting and listening to someone who is hurting. It is done by sitting and being with someone who just needs a shoulder to cry on. It is done by feeding a meal to someone who is in need. It is done by sending a card or giving a smile to someone who just needs to know someone cares.
On their own, these things don’t seem like they are doing much good but…but we need to realize they have a bigger impact than we anticipate. They can and do make all the difference when it comes to the work of the Kingdom of God, when it comes to sharing the love and grace of God with others.
I’m also going to let you in on something else. We need to remember God wasn’t a one and done. God didn’t enter into the story, enter into our lives just once. God didn’t enter into our world, look around and say, I think I’m finished here. Time and time again, God enters our lives. Time and time again, God enters into our world, creating and writing a different story. God didn’t come once and leave. God stayed. God is still here constantly working to bring healing and wholeness to all of God’s creation, including us as people of faith.
God is not finished yet. God is still creating. God is still speaking. Instead of telling us to give up and move on, God is inviting us to the waters once more. God is inviting us to hear the words that will bring us back to life. God is telling us, “You are my Beloved in whom I am well pleased.” God is still speaking the words which will transform us, which call us, which empower us to be the people God created us and calls us to be.
You see that’s why we come to the water before we return to the world. This act of remembering, remembering the moment the first time we heard these 10 precious words which changed our lives, this act of seeing ourselves as God’s own Beloved, this image of God’s light as it is reflected back to us through the waters, this act expands our view of the One who made us. This act of seeing ourselves as God’s Own Beloved expands our understanding of the One who is still at work in our world, bringing healing and wholeness to our lives and to our world as well.
The act of remembering who we are and whose we are before we return to the world is to help us see that we have already been empowered and equipped to make a tangible difference in our communities and in our world. We have already been transformed into beacons of light, shining bright in the darkness. WE have already been pointing to God’s peaceable Kingdom here on earth.
This act of remembering, of reminding ourselves to see ourselves, to see others as God’s Own Beloved, as ones made in the image of God frees us and empowers us to move beyond our fears and doubts, to move beyond our worries to now becoming and being the people of faith God needs us to be.
In just a few moments, you will be invited to come forward and see yourself-see yourself reflected back in the water as one made in the image of God. In seeing your beautiful and beloved reflection, remember your call as one of God’s servants to support those around you on their journey. Remember that you are empowered through the Holy Spirit to renew, to refresh, to inspire those around you. Remember you are God’s Beloved. Thanks be to God. Amen.
See also: Theology Tuesday for Sunday, January 11, 2026 – Baptism Luke 3:15-17, 21-22.
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