For the week of January 12 – The Baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Morning Prayer: Eternal Father, at the baptism of Jesus You revealed Him to be Your Son and anointed Him with the Holy Spirit. Keep all who are born of water and the Spirit faithful to their calling as Your people; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Posted on the Church of Scotland’s Starters for Sunday website.
Opening Hymn: #546 The Church’s One Foundation (Adapted Lyrics)
- The church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ our Lord;
We are His new creation by water and the Word.
From heaven He came and sought us that we might ever be
His living servant people, by His own death set free.
- Called forth from every nation, yet one o’er all the earth;
Our charter of salvation: one Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy name professing and at one table fed,
To one hope always pressing, by Christ’s own Spirit led.
- Though with a scornful wonder the world sees us oppressed,
By schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed,
Yet saints their watch are keeping; their cry goes up, “How long?”
But soon the night of weeping shall be the morn of song.
- Mid toil and tribulation, and tumult of our war,
We wait the consummation of peace forevermore;
Till with the vision glorious our longing eyes are blest,
And the great church victorious shall be the church at rest.
- We now on earth have union with God the Three in One,
And share through faith communion with those whose rest is won.
Oh, happy ones, and holy! Lord, give us grace that we
Like them, the meek and lowly, on high may dwell with Thee.
Isaiah 43:1-7 (CEB)
43 But now, says the Lord—
the one who created you, Jacob,
the one who formed you, Israel:
Don’t fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name; you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
when through the rivers, they won’t sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire, you won’t be scorched
and flame won’t burn you.
3 I am the Lord your God,
the holy one of Israel, your savior.
I have given Egypt as your ransom,
Cush and Seba in your place.
4 Because you are precious in my eyes,
you are honored, and I love you.
I give people in your place,
and nations in exchange for your life.
5 Don’t fear,
I am with you.
From the east I’ll bring your children;
from the west I’ll gather you.
6 I’ll say to the north, “Give them back!”
and to the south, “Don’t detain them.”
Bring My sons from far away,
and My daughters from the end of the earth,
7 everyone who is called by My name
and whom I created for My glory,
whom I have formed and made.
Prayers of Intercession: Thank You, Lord, for hearing our prayers for those dear to our hearts. We now pray as You have taught us: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us, not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Offering spotlight: UMCOR (The United Methodist Committee on Relief) is preparing to assist those displaced and affected by the wildfires in southern California. Please pray – and give as the Lord directs. The situations continue to unfold. Private homes and public buildings have been lost in the fire. Entire communities have been displaced. Others have lost power or are hosting those who are evacuated. UMCOR will surround communities with support, protect first responders, and see to immediate and long-term needs.
Offering prayer: Loving God, who guides us with Your everlasting presence, we offer these gifts with grateful hearts. As Jesus stood with us in the waters of baptism, may these offerings stand as a testament to Your love and grace. Use them to bring hope, healing, and transformation to our world. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen. (Discipleship Ministries)
Hymn of Preparation: #420 Breathe on Me, Breath of God
- Breathe on me, Breath of God, fill me with life anew,
that I may love what Thou dost love, and do what Thou wouldst do. - Breathe on me, Breath of God, until my heart is pure,
until with Thee I will one will, to do and to endure. - Breathe on me, Breath of God, till I am wholly Thine,
till all this earthly part of me glows with Thy fire divine. - Breathe on me, Breath of God, so shall I never die,
but live with Thee the perfect life of Thine eternity.
Scripture: Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 (CEB)
15 The people were filled with expectation, and everyone wondered whether John might be the Christ. 16 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. 17 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.”
21 When everyone was being baptized, Jesus also was baptized. While He was praying, heaven was opened 22 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.”
Message: Pastor Becky
As the people were filled with expectation…. We’ve experienced expectation, the waiting for someone or something. We know what that feels like to wait. We all have different ways we handle the waiting. Some people count the number of “sleeps” before the big event, others will make paper chains to count down the days. There are many events throughout our lives that we look forward to with expectation.
Yet, I have found that as I have gotten older, my excitement sometimes turns into bouts of anxiety and nervousness. All sorts of questions begin forming in my mind, like will the wait be worth it? What if I have waited all this time and it isn’t what I wanted. It is easier for us to set ourselves up for disappointment than joy. We tend to identify better with condemnation than glorification. We hold onto the worthlessness rather than step into the worthiness. If you hear nothing else I say, hear this: you are worthy. God made this pronouncement in the birth of Jesus. You are worthy of a relationship with God. Humanity, each and every one of us, is worthy of a savior.
Unfortunately, we still operate in the unworthiness and because of this mindset, we don’t live or look forward to anything with complete abandon, overflowing with joy, or ready to have our expectations exceeded. This is why, for the most part, we hear John’s reply to the crowd as a dire warning or an indictment, instead of a blessing.
I know it is hard to hear unquenchable fire and think blessing, yet hear me out. First obstacle we have to overcome is realizing Luke's characterization of John is not Matthew’s picture of John. Matthew’s John has harsh words for the religious leaders, calling them a brood of vipers and asking them how they knew how to be saved. Luke’s John this morning is talking to the people. He is trying to give them a picture of their worth. He is a prophet of hope as he speaks to the people, who have been waiting for the savior.
Let’s hear his words again recorded in verse 16-17: “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.” Luke’s John is humble, lifting up Jesus’s supremacy over him. John tells them what Jesus brings for them; Jesus brings the Holy Spirit and fire.
The fire is to refine us. Malachi prophesied about this fire and it is recorded in Malachi 3:2b-3. “He is like the refiner’s fire or the cleaner’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver. He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. They will belong to the Lord, presenting a righteous offering.” The goal of the refiner is to extract the precious metal from its impurities. The bad stuff gets burned away, leaving only the precious silver or gold. This can’t be done by a disinterested party; it is a carefully managed process. The refiner is seeking to see their reflection in metal. This is the fire that Jesus is bringing with Him, the fire that burns up the bad stuff in the metal.
This is the same fire Jesus will burn up the husks, but know, we are not husks. We are seeds of wheat. Jesus’s fire isn’t coming to separate two different kinds of people, but to burn the useless coverings of the wheat seeds. Wheat and husks aren’t two different separate things, unrelated to each other. They are parts of the same plant and Jesus is getting to the seed, the part that will grow, nourish others, and multiply. We are the wheat seeds. While we are maturing, we are covered with husks of protection, but sometimes the husks that we cover ourselves with limit our ability to grow. These husks can look like our bad habits, insecurities, or walls we have built and Jesus is looking to separate us from the things binding us. Jesus is removing those husks to transform us into His image, to free us from what is holding us captive.
And here is the best part, Jesus will continue to burn those husks. He will never leave us unattended in our transformation, encouraging us to live into all that God has ordained for us. We know this because not only is the fire unquenchable, lasting for as long as is needed for us to have our liberation, this fire is paired with the Holy Spirit.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we will see our lives become animated toward God’s will for us. We will never be without instruction. We will always be guided. We will be constantly reminded of all that Jesus has told us. We will always have the ability to do whatever God has called us to do, because the Holy Spirit and the fire will remain with us until the end of the age.
Because you are each God’s beloved daughter or son, you have this pairing. You are each beloved in God’s sight not for anything you have done or could do. You are beloved simply because God has said that you belong to Him. You are worthy, worthy of all God has given you, worthy of the redemptive work of Jesus. You are worthy of every fruit of the Spirit. Embrace your worth, live into it. Your expectation has been met and exceeded.
Closing Hymn: #393 Spirit of the Living God
Spirit of the living God, fall a-fresh on me. Spirit of the living God, fall a-fresh on me.
Melt me. Mold me. Fill me. Use me. Spirit of the living God, fall a-fresh on me.
The blessing: May the Lord bless you and keep you and make His face shine upon you this week.
