MORRIS-ROSENFELD ECUMENICAL SHARED MINISTRY
ORDER OF SERVICE FOR SUNDAY, JANUARY 12, 2025
FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT
Due to copyright limitations, we are unable to print the words to many of the songs. However, our musicians have chosen music to fit the scriptures. We invite you to look up the words in your worship book and ponder them. If you do not have a worship book, ponder the words of one of your favourite hymns and listen for God’s voice. Those who have the internet may find the songs on YouTube.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Baptism is an outward expression of an inward faith.
– Watchman Nee
Before we worship, we reflect…
Are you longing to hear God’s voice? What would it be like to hear God call you by name? For many it seems that God spoke to people long ago and far away, but now in this time and place God’s voice is much less clear and less audible. Perhaps we cannot hear the voice of God because our world is full of noise? Perhaps we are not open to the particular frequency in which God chooses to call us? Perhaps we continually tune out this heavenly summons with our daily rush, not taking the time to quiet ourselves, our minds, our inner voices. We can use this time after Epiphany to clear out a corner of our lives for quiet prayer, meditation, or centering. Maybe then we will be able to hear . . . to sense . . . to listen.
Listen! God’s voice comes from heaven to call us by name, speak to the earth, shake the wilderness, and to anoint “the Beloved.” Listen! God’s people speak words of covenant, commitment, and community in the liturgy of baptism. Listen! God’s word surrounds this day with power and majesty and “in the temple of the Lord all are crying, ‘Glory!’” (Ps. 29:9). In this season of epiphanies, today’s miraculous encounter with the living God immerses us in the sound of God’s voice and bathes us in God’s baptismal promise. All who are splashed by this water gasp, cry, exclaim, sigh, and sing. Let all who have breath, praise the Lord!
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT & PRAYER
We acknowledge we gather and worship on Treaty 1 Territory, the original lands of Anishinaabeg, Cree, Anishininew, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Red River Métis Nation.
Source of all life, you have created all lands and all peoples. You have given abundantly, yet we have not been so generous to our sisters and brothers who share this earth. We have been harsh to the earth itself, and suffer the consequences of our choices, our need for more. Great Spirit, fill our hearts with the contentment of being alive, having enough, while celebrating friends and family. Teach us to be kind to the earth, and all the lives it supports. Teach us to be a people of generosity and peace. Amen.
Thanksgiving for Baptism
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
O Lord our God, we give you thanks for the faith, hope, and love you give to us through the blessing of our baptism—claiming us as your beloved children, calling us to the path of discipleship, revealing to us the light of your glory. By the power of your Holy Spirit, poured out upon us in baptism, help us to follow you with faith, to trust in you with hope, and to serve you with love; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Confession and Forgiveness
Ever ready with cleansing love, God invites our confession, offering mercy and strength so that we may start anew.
In the waters of baptism, O God, you have cleansed us and claimed us. Forgive us for refusing your grace and rejecting your name. We have followed our own paths, and they have led us far from you. Help us to live into our baptisms, to trust that all we need is in you, for you have marked us as your own, loving us without limit. Wash us with your love again, that with clean hearts we may go in the way of Jesus.
The love of God flows ceaselessly. The mercy of God never ends. This is good news!
In Jesus Christ we are forgiven!
GATHERING SONG: With One Voice 731 Precious Lord, Take My Hand
CENTERING PRAYER
God of baptism, you emptied yourself of privilege to free us from supremacy. You were submerged in the depths so that we would not be alone in them. You were lifted from the waters so that all might be lifted up. Keep all who are born of water and the Spirit faithful in your service, that we may rejoice to be called children of God. Amen.
MISSION AND SERVICE – Faith in Action: Empowering Global Peace
Project Ploughshares is a Canadian peace research institute with a focus on disarmament efforts and international security. It is also one of our dedicated Mission and Service partners. Project Ploughshares’ important efforts come with many barriers, including discouragement, pushback, and regular exposure to mentally draining work.
Duncan Etches started his journey with Project Ploughshares as a supporter. When he saw an opportunity to be The United Church of Canada representative on the management committee, he felt it was time to step into the key role. He comments on how wise and inspirational the whole team is, sharing that “they keep hope in impossible situations.”
Project Ploughshares includes people from diverse backgrounds who are all deeply committed to making the world a better place. Rooted in the ethics of Christianity—peace, reconciliation, and justice—their work connects with people inside and outside faith communities. Members are respected and invited to be part of important conversations.
Your support through Mission and Service provides encouragement and hope to leaders of Project Ploughshares, a vital connection point for those passionate about global peace and security. Thank you.
A NEW CREED
We are not alone; we live in God’s world.
We believe in God: who has created and is creating,
who has come in Jesus, the Word made flesh,
to reconcile and make new, who works in us and others by the Spirit.
We trust in God. We are called to be the Church:
to celebrate God’s presence, to live with respect in Creation,
to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil,
to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen, our judge and our hope.
In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us.
We are not alone. Thanks be to God.
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
Saving God, source of our calling, your Word is full of power and glory. Pour out your Holy Spirit upon us so that we may receive your grace and live as your beloved children; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
READINGS AND PSALM
First Reading: Isaiah 43:1-7
Near the end of Israel’s exile in Babylon, God promises to bring the people home. They need no longer be afraid, because the one who formed, created, and called them by name now redeems them from all their enemies. God declares them precious and honored, and God loves them.
1 But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not 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; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.
3 For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you.
4 Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you, I give people in return for you, nations in exchange for your life.
5 Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you; 6 I will say to the north, “Give them up,” and to the south, “Do not withhold; bring my sons from far away and my daughters from the end of the earth—7 everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”
Psalm 29
1 Ascribe to the Lord, you gods, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
2 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due God’s name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
3 The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of glory thunders; the Lord is upon the mighty waters.
4 The voice of the Lord is a powerful voice; the voice of the Lord is a voice of splendor.
5 The voice of the Lord breaks the cedar trees; the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon;
6 the Lord makes Lebanon skip like a calf, and Mount Hermon like a young wild ox.
7 The voice of the Lord bursts forth in lightning flashes.
8 The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
9 The voice of the Lord makes the oak trees writhe and strips the forests bare. And in the temple of the Lord all are crying, “Glory!”
10 The Lord sits enthroned above the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as king forevermore.
11 O Lord, give strength to your people; give them, O Lord, the blessings of peace.
Second Reading: Acts 8:14-17
Peter and John are sent to support the new Christians in Samaria, a group that was recently baptized after hearing the good news of Christ through the preaching of Philip. Here the Samaritans receive the gift of the Holy Spirit in the laying on of hands.
14 Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. 15 The two went down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit 16 (for as yet the Spirit had not come upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus). 17 Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
Gospel: Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
The reading opens with questions about the identity of the Messiah. John the Baptist insists that he is not the Messiah; instead, he points ahead to one who is coming. And whether the voice of God was heard by all or only by Jesus, God settles the matter: Jesus is God’s beloved Son.
15 As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 16 John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
SERMON
Jesus’ baptism was actually quite scandalous. You can appreciate the logic. If baptism is for the forgiveness of sin… and we confess Jesus was sinless… then why was Jesus baptized? Or, worse, are we contradicting ourselves: is baptism not about forgiveness, or was Jesus not sinless?
That uncertainty, combined with a similar uncertainty about the character of John the Baptist, leads to some interesting variations in the baptismal stories. John also had disciples and was a revered teacher, but he won’t be seen as having authority over Jesus even though he’s the one doing the baptizing. All the Gospels report John declaring Jesus’ superiority and make clear that John is more or less the facilitator of the baptism while the Holy Spirit is the true agent. The writer of John’s gospel goes even further and doesn’t even record John (the Baptist) as baptizing Jesus (or even acknowledging directly that Jesus was baptized) but rather as only having witnessed the Spirit descending upon Jesus. Luke, in today’s passage, takes a middle road. John is baptizing and Jesus is baptized, but it all feels rather passive: “Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying,….” Yet here, Luke has interspersed John’s active baptizing and Jesus’ more passive baptism with the report of John’s future imprisonment by Herod, distancing John from the scene further.
One gets the sense that the early church, including the Evangelists, weren’t quite sure what to make of baptism and found what we call “the Baptism of our Lord” at the very least uncomfortable, perhaps confusing, and possibly quite scandalous.
But I wonder if they – and by extension we – have it all a bit backwards. What strikes is that rather than be shocked that Jesus is baptized like we are, maybe we should be surprised, shocked, scandalized, and even stunned by the fact that we are baptized like Jesus is!
A lot of the issue, for many, revolves around forgiveness and its connection to baptism. Baptism is about forgiveness. Forgiveness is something we need. So, we need Baptism. This much seems clear. However, if Jesus doesn’t need forgiveness, then he doesn’t need to be baptized. So, why is Jesus baptized?
Maybe we’ve misunderstood forgiveness a bit… and therefore the relationship between forgiveness and baptism… and therefore baptism itself.
Yes, baptism is about forgiveness. AND, it’s also about relationship, about being named and claimed as children of God. I wonder if there isn’t a tendency to think of forgiveness as a procedure rather than a result, a gift. That is, we can easily slip into thinking that God forgives us in order that we can be named, claimed, and called God’s children. But I don’t believe that’s accurate at all. God forgives us not to make us God’s children because we already are God’s children. Forgiveness is a result of God’s love for us, not a condition of that love. Forgiveness is the gift of a loving God and a result of that love, not a procedure by which to achieve it.
This confusion isn’t linked only to forgiveness and baptism. We often make the same mistake when it comes to God’s law. God gives Israel (and by extension us) the Commandments in order that all can improve their behavior and, ultimately, their relationships, and therefore, become God’s people. Nope. Read the story carefully. God makes the promise of covenant and Israel enthusiastically accepts this promise in chapter 19 of Exodus. The Commandments are given in chapter 20. God doesn’t give Israel/us the law in order for us to become God’s children, rather, we already are God’s children! The Commandments are gift, not procedure.
It doesn’t end here. The most blatant instance of this confusion of gift and procedure occurs with how we regard and interpret the cross. The dominant understanding of the cross in the Western church for nearly the last millennium is often referred to as the “substitutionary” (or penal) theory of atonement. The logic, again, is unmistakable: We are sinners. Sinners deserve punishment. Jesus, who is sinless and therefore doesn’t deserve punishment, suffers in our place on the cross. Jesus is our substitute. Therefore, Jesus’ death on the cross is necessary for God to forgive us. Crystal clear, right?
Yet there are so many contradictions in this crystal-clear explanation that it’s downright painful. If the cross is a necessary condition of forgiveness, then why does Jesus – and by extension God – forgive people throughout his ministry and before he dies on the cross? More to the point, is forgiveness really forgiveness if someone else suffers in your place? If someone defaulted on their mortgage and you pay it for that person, the bank hasn’t forgiven the home owner, it just found someone else to pay. Do we really believe that God, as creator and sustainer of the universe, can’t forgive absent violence and bloodshed and punishment?
The cross isn’t what makes it possible for God to love and forgive us, but rather that the cross is what happens because God already loves and forgives us. God in Jesus comes to offer us forgiveness out of love and we’d rather kill him than admit that we need forgiveness and love.
Okay, back to the Baptism of Jesus. Yes, Baptism is about forgiveness. And, forgiveness is not a procedure. It is a gift. We aren’t forgiven in Baptism in order that God can call us God’s children. Rather we are forgiven because we already are God’s children. So, yes, baptism is about forgiveness. It’s also about so much more! It’s about love, identify, affirmation, commitment, promise, and still more. In Baptism God proclaims God’s great love for us; calls, names, and claims us as God’s beloved children; gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit; and then, because of God’s love for us, God also promises to forgive, renew, and restore us at all times.
Which is why I think that what ought to surprise us is not that Jesus is baptized like we are, but rather that we get to be baptized – and therefore named as beloved children – just like Jesus is.
At his Baptism, Jesus hears God say these unbelievably important words of love, affirmation and identity: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” The incredible, shocking, unexpected, and even scandalous thing is that in our Baptism, we hear the same thing: “You are my child, my beloved, and with you I am well pleased.”
Those words – “you are my beloved child” – still have the power to change lives. To change our lives. Amen.
HYMN OF THE MONTH: Voices United 93 When Heaven’s Bright With Mystery
PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION
With the Spirit of Christ shining upon us, let us boldly pray for the church, the world, and all of creation.
You call us by name and form us. We give thanks for the gift of baptism. Nurture the baptized and equip people sent to proclaim the good news, especially Young Adults in Global Mission and international congregations. God of grace,
hear our prayer.
Your voice sounds over the waters. Speak words of healing over the rivers and lakes, seas and oceans. Heeding your voice, lead us to care for water, and the land and creatures it nourishes. God of grace,
hear our prayer.
You give strength to your people. Uphold all who serve the common good. Guide federal and provincial legislators, city and county officials, judges and juries. Strengthen our resolve to serve all in need. God of grace,
hear our prayer.
You are with us in challenging times. Draw near to all who are ill, undergoing treatment, or recovering from surgery (especially). Accompany individuals and families affected by addiction or mental health challenges. Uphold each person as your beloved. God of grace,
hear our prayer.
You draw us into community. Embolden ministries of racial reconciliation, nurture work on behalf of immigrants and refugees, and equip each to use their gifts for the sake of neighbors near and far. God of grace,
hear our prayer.
You grant us peace. Comfort all who grieve. Dwell with us in this life and, at the last, join us with the saints whom you have created, formed, and named. God of grace,
hear our prayer.
We entrust our prayers to you, O God, in the sure and certain hope that your promise is revealed among the people.
Amen.
THE LORD’S PRAYER
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 trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against
us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.
SENDING SONG: Wade In The Water
BENEDICTION
The Spirit of the triune God ☩ bless you with joy, anoint you with compassion, and send you in love. Amen.