January 11, 2026 "What are we to say?"

Baptism of Our Lord

Isaiah 42:1-9

Psalm 29

Acts 10:34-43

Matthew 3:13-17

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,

 grace and peace to you

 from the one who comes alongside us

to fulfill all righteousness, Amen.

“What then are we to say about these things?”

This question from Paul in Romans chapter 8(v31-39)

 echoed in my heart this week,

not only was I spending time with the passage

 in preparation for Denny’s funeral

 but also I was,

 to paraphrase Karl Barth,

sitting with my Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other

 reading about Venezuela, and Minnesota

and everything going on in the world.

“What then are we to say about these things?”

Paul was using this and the following questions

 as a rhetorical device

but they are all the more effective in his argument

because we have all asked these questions

 in the course of our own lives,

possibly more than once,

 “who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?”

 and these questions come to mind

 because it seems like all these things are doing their best

 to separate us from all that we believe is good and peaceable

 that these things are so divorced from the love of Christ

as to separate us from it.

Of course Paul answers his questions with a resounding ‘No’

“No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Why is he so convinced?

Because Jesus chose to join himself to us

and his commitment is witnessed in his life, death and resurrection,

 and the commitment began publicly at his baptism.

Last month in advent

we heard how John the Baptist

 began preparing the way for Jesus

 “proclaiming Repent for the Kingdom of heaven has come near.

And how the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him…

 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.’

 all in preparation

for the one more powerful who is coming

 who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

So when Jesus shows up asking to be baptized,

John is understandably confused

this is not supposed to be how it works

 the more powerful one is to be over the less powerful

 but at commentator Matthew Meyer Boulton comments

“and yet Jesus, the one whom God is about to call “Beloved,”

gets in line with the rest of us.

 It’s an expression of the astonishing humility and solidarity of the Incarnation:

in Jesus, God is with us,

 even to the point of joining us in a rite of repentance, confession, and renewal.

 Following a teacher like this

 would mean setting out with him on that path of humility and solidarity,

 truthfulness and grace,

the way of love with which God is “well pleased.”

The way of companionship.

The way of accompaniment. I

n a word, the way of “with”:

 God with us, and us with God and neighbor.

 This perspective also helps fill out

 why John the Baptizer isn’t just reluctant,

but also downright perplexed and disoriented

 when Jesus approaches him to be baptized.

 He protests, Wait a minute, shouldn’t this be the other way around? 

 But that’s just it:

Jesus has come to turn conventional religious ideas on their head.

The one with whom God is “well pleased”

doesn’t so much come “from on high”

 as “from below” or “from alongside,”

standing with us in solidarity — so that in the end,

 our baptism isn’t only by Jesus,

 it’s also with Jesus and in Jesus.

 And in turn, this standing-with-us in humility, solidarity, and love

 fills out what Jesus means by “proper” and “all righteousness” in his response to John (Matthew 3:15). The Way of Jesus is a way of coming alongside our neighbors for the sake of our common life together. Genuine “righteousness” means setting aside “self-righteousness” once and for all!” https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2020/1/8/the-way-of-love-salts-lectionary-commentary-on-jesus-baptism 

We talk about being baptized into Jesus’ death and resurrection,

but first he is baptized into the fullness of the human experience

 which includes death,

 in this way Jesus’ baptism is the beginning of the end

- there’s only one way his story could end-

 death

and Jesus chose it willingly

 for the sake of the other

not thinking about himself,

 this is righteousness,

 this is the one with whom God is well pleased.

And it turns out there was another ending for the story

when God raised Christ from the dead,

 the humility, solidarity and love of Christ defeating death. 

So when we look around

and wonder what then are we to say about these things?

We look for Christ,

 and where do we find him?

In the midst of suffering,

with the persecuted and dying,

because Christ refuses to be separate from us,

 he made that very clear at the beginning,

and so if we wish to be with Christ,

 to join Christ,

 that is where we go,

 to be with the persecuted, the suffering, the dying.

This is the righteous path that Jesus followed,

that he fulfilled, for us.

“What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ who died, or rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written,

 “For your sake we are being killed all day long;

  we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Amen