10th. January. 2021. Service.
January 10th, 2021
First Sunday after Epiphany, The Baptism of Jesus
Prelude: “Thou who wast rich, beyond all splendour”
Let us Worship God
Hymn: “Hymn “Christ be our light”
https://youtu.be/kt3Qc04ulOM
The Collect for today
Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Hymn: “Thou whose almighty word chaos and darkness heard”
https://youtu.be/aJuqdIVH8VY
Call to Prayer
The voice of the Lord, Strong and Mighty,
powerful and full of majesty.
It calls to us, from across the water.
The voice of the Lord breaks forth.
It gives us strength and blessing, causing us to shout
“Glory to the name of the Lord!”.
Prayer of Adoration and Confession
God of tenderness and strength,
of possibility and power,
on this first day of the week, you began your creating,
bringing light out of darkness and order out of chaos.
On this first day of the week, you began your new creation,
raising Christ out of the darkness of death
and breathing new life into your world and your people.
On this first day of the week,
you call us to waken from our sleep and meet in your holy name.
We are here to listen and wonder, sing, pray, and be fed.
You call us to be your instruments of hope in a hurting world,
and we meet in response to your call bringing you our prayer and praise.
Trusting in God’s steadfast love, we bring our prayers of confession:
God of majesty and mercy,
forgive our wrongdoing:
things we have done knowingly…
things we have left undone…
hurts we have inflicted unintentionally…
and hurts we have tried to disguise.
Forgive our acts of selfishness,
harmful things we have done to please others,
and those done to please ourselves.
In the week ahead and the year ahead, help us choose a better way.
Assurance of Pardon
Hear the good news! Who can condemn?
Only Christ, and Christ died for us,
Christ rose for us,
Christ reigns in power for us,
Christ prays for us.
Believe the good news of the Gospel!
In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven and set free to make a new start.
Prayer for Understanding
As we come to the scriptures, O God,
to hear your Word for us,
we pray that your Spirit will stir our imaginations,
add to our insight,
and challenge our assumptions,
for the sake of Jesus Christ, your Living Word.
Amen.
The Lords Prayer (in the words familiar to you)
Hymn “O where are you going?”
https://youtu.be/N8IeSwzc9g8 courtesy of Dalgety Bay Church
Invitation to the Offering
In the season of Epiphany, God’s gift to us in Christ is revealed to the world. Our gifts to God in Christ’s name reveal our commitment to the love and mercy, the forgiveness and hope we have received. May our generosity mirror our trust in him.
Prayer of Dedication
God our Maker, we bring our gifts to you in thanksgiving for your gifts to us in Christ and in creation. Bless what we bring and who we are, so that our gifts will bless the world you love in Christ’s name. Amen.
The Readings
Genesis 1:1-5
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
3 And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light ‘day’, and the darkness he called ‘night’. And there was evening, and there was morning – the first day. Amen.
Mark 1:4-11
4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptised by him in the River Jordan. 6 John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt round his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And this was his message: ‘After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptise you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.’
9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptised by John in the Jordan. 10 Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’ Amen.
Acts 19:1-7
19 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples 2 and asked them, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?’
They answered, ‘No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.’3 So Paul asked, ‘Then what baptism did you receive?’ ‘John’s baptism,’ they replied.
4 Paul said, ‘John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.’ 5 On hearing this, they were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all.
Amen. This is the Word of the Lord, to Him be all praise and glory.
O morning star
https://youtu.be/G6HBgMXkWyw
Sermon
Mark 1:1 The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
In an honest assessment of human life, the preacher in the book of Ecclesiastes, the writer, Kohelet, (whom Rabbinic tradition identifies as King Solomon, the son of David, though it may have been Hezekiah another son of David’s, ten generations later), utters the words, “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.” Ecclesiastes 1:2 – literally a puff vapour, everything is only a puff of vapour”.
In Michael Stanwick’s novel “Jack Faust” one Jew named Nathan, who had suffered much, asks the question that millions have asked, “WHY?”
Jack Faust’s answer is gloomy:
“To ask why implies that things happen for a purpose, and they do not. There is no purpose, no direction, no guidance to events. Nothing means anything. The world is a howling desert of meaninglessness, and reason is useless before it. There is only blind event.”
How do you react to that? “Nothing means anything. The world is a great desert of meaninglessness.”
The Gospel of Mark has a different message for us, based on a joyful creed. His message was not bleak but exhilaratingly optimistic.
The gospels are not biographies. Rather, each evangelist composed his work for a specific purpose based on his understanding of the meaning of the ministry of Jesus Christ. Their aim was not to provide a comprehensive biography of Jesus of Nazareth, but to announce to the world the good news of the Son of God as they had witnessed and experienced Him.
Mark was primarily an evangelist. He is like a town crier standing in the busy marketplace and announcing an extraordinary event of great joy, or like a king’s herald arriving in town with an excited proclamation of wonderful news.
Mark’s Gospel does not answer every “why” question that occurs to us. It does, however, build on the Old testament theme that both the universe and human history have a purpose, and that the Creator is personally involved it from beginning to end.
Today, we are combining the opening words of Genesis the first book of the Torah or Law of God and Mark’s gospel, the oldest and most primitive of the four gospels.
For Mark, the accounts of the Creation and the coming of the Christ are inextricably combined.
Genesis announces the beginning of the whole universe, the creation. “In the beginning God created heaven and earth”. In the beginning God. Not blind chance. But a personal, purposeful Being.
The same word “beginning” is repeated in Mark’s opening verse. The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Mark would have us hear that echo from Genesis. What God did at the beginning was astounding beyond our understanding. What he did in Jesus, was just as astounding, maybe even more so, awesome beyond expectation. We are the recipients of the blessing of each event, the creation event and the new creation event.
Mark does not use the word “genesis” but he implies it in his opening words. The book of Genesis declares the first momentous miracle: The birth of the universe and all the subsequent events up until Mark’s day. There is a purpose, a meaning; and it is a divine and glorious one.
The Book of Mark then proclaims the second genesis miracle: The birth of the new era in Jesus, the brave new world of the kingdom of God. Mark was in a profound sense a new age man. His was not a new age harking back to old ideas of pyramids and astrology. The modern New Age which seems to be fading in people’s consciousness nowadays is actually a harking back to old ideas Instead, Mark believed a new age had been launched by Jesus; it was like a recreation; a new genesis, a regeneration.
After that opening sentence, “The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,” what follows in Mark is a précis of the story of John the Baptist; Jesus’ austere cousin who preached in the wilderness and baptised people who repented their sins in the waters of the Jordan River. John’ ministry readies us for the really big news: The announcement of the arrival of Jesus on centre stage, to fulfil the faith and hope of the prophet Isaiah.
What was the baptism of Jesus actually about? “In those days Jesus arrived from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptised by John in the Jordan.” Why did Jesus submit himself to what was a baptism of repentance and renewal?
Unlike us, Mark the evangelist is not concerned with the question (asked by our contemporary world with its fascination with the psyche) as to why a choice soul like Jesus wanted to share in “the baptism of repentance, for the forgiveness of sins.”
He is focused on proclaiming the best possible news this world could hear about. One has come among us, whose sandals even the great prophets are not worthy to untie, who has brought a new age into being. There is something appropriate about eh human Jesus identifying with his own people in the birth of the new age.
In Genesis, the creation comes about as the Spirit of God hovers over the primeval waters of chaos. This is a symbolic image of life emerging from water, as it does on this planet. The Spirit, which in Jewish thinking was feminine, broods over the waters, incubating, life initiating the processes of generation. This is secondary to the creation of the universe and the world itself. There is a confusion in the text about the creation of light which of course predates the creation of earth. Here it may be read as an ancient explanation for the cycle of day and night on the planet.’
Moving on a little, we again have the work of the Spirit. “When Jesus came out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove Again there is an interplay between Mark and the opening words the Book of Genesis. It is the Spirit of God who generates the life of the new age. The Holy Spirit is the active agent in all creation. Jesus is the first-born of the new creation; he is the new humanity. Thus, his baptism has greater significance. His was not a baptism of repentance, but the rising from the waters of new life, a life that includes and incorporates all who are in Him by faith.
“When Jesus came out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove; and a voice came from heaven: “This is my beloved Son, with you I am very pleased.”
Here the purposeful hand of God is displayed. History is being reshaped. An event as mighty as the first creation was taking place. Here is a sign of that divine purpose that threads through history. Jesus was filled with the same Spirit that brooded over the first creation. The second creation, the radically new era, was beginning This is the new age of the kingdom of God.
In these few opening verses, we have the Gospel foreshadowed in a few words. Mark, the first evangelist, begins his proclamation with the key to all that will follow.
It would take the contemporaries of Jesus much longer to recognise the profound meaning of this powerful event. This truth is so extraordinary that it will prove hard to recognise and to grasp. Men and women in the Gospel story will come to the truth slowly; flickers of light penetrating their dull minds and nascent faith.
Mark will go on to repeatedly tease his hearers about the Mystery of this man Jesus. He will tell of Jesus in action, teaching, healing, and driving out devils. This Jesus will astonish people. He will shock others and even offend some people. But there are those whose loyalty he will win for all eternity. In the evangelist’s good news, the question will persistently arise: “Who is this person Jesus? What is his secret? What is the source of his authority?
Because of our dullness of heart, it will take a long while to get it. It is likely the listener will only look back later and understands the significance of Mark’s opening verse -The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We will need to follow the message through to its shocking yet wonderful end. The climax of the message will be in the story of Jesus’ betrayal, suffering and death. Mark devotes one third of his Gospel to that last, fateful week.
Only at the crucifixion will the awesome significance of this new genesis will be fully revealed the good news knows no limit; human folly and arrogance, human sins and corporate evil, cannot suppress this new genesis.
From the most unexpected place, a hill where criminals were executed, Mark proclaims a salvation event which surpasses all others.
In a curious irony, it would be a non-Jew, a despised Roman Gentile centurion, the actual man in charge of the execution squad, who in Mark’s message will become the first herald of the full message, proclaiming when Jesus died: ‘This really was the Son of God.”
That takes us back to chapter 1, verse 1. The opening words of Genesis, and the opening words of Mark: “The beginning.” The old beginning was good news, the new is marvellous news! News of our God, God in creation and salvation.
That is what Mark the evangelist wants us to hear; to hear and comprehend. He wants us to be able to recognise and trust this Jesus of new beginnings, this new creation that we may worship and adore the Divine Mystery-and Love at the heart of all things. Meaning. Purpose. A story of liberation and healing.
In the novel by Michael Swanwick, Nathan, the long-suffering Jew asked “WHY?”
and Jack Faust answered: “To ask why implies that things happen for a purpose, and they do not. There is no purpose, no direction, no guidance to events. Nothing means anything. The world is a howling desert of meaninglessness, and reason is useless before it. There is only blind event.”
Similarly, in Ecclesiastes the preacher of vanity had one piece of advice for the people of the Old Dispensation, it was the best he could muster in the face of his understanding:
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil” Ecclesiastes 12:13-14. It was one step ahead of Jack Faust, as it called for faith in God, but,
Mark, our insightful evangelist, knows better. He declares: There is meaning, and that meaning is not something invented by us. It exists before the beginning and after the end. Its flows from the activity of God, our awesome Creator and Redeemer, in whose name we come to the baptismal waters, where all things become new. Amen.
Prayers of Thanksgiving and Intercession
God of Grace, you call us to pray with open and hopeful hearts.
Trusting in you, we join in prayer for ourselves and our world.
We thank you for the work of your church
and for all we can do to bring your love, healing and justice into the world.
We pray for churches that are struggling financially,
for churches enmeshed in conflict,
for those that are tired and in need of renewal,
and for congregations that have found a new sense of purpose.
Give them all wisdom and strength.
We thank you for the healing we have known in our lives:
for the experience of being forgiven,
for reconciliation and mended relationships,
for comfort in times of grief,
for pain eased and recovery from illness.
As the pandemic still haunts lives and nations,
we pray for those struggling with COVID-19 and its lingering effects,
for those whose emotions are raw from fear or isolation,
and for those exhausted by caring for others and serving the public day by day.
Give each one the hope and courage they need to face this new year.
We pray for our brothers and sisters across the world
who are striving for unity in places of division,
for justice in the face of oppression,
for peace where violence has broken out,
and for daily bread during times of poverty and famine.
Give them hope and courage to face this new year.
Strengthen us to serve you not only with our words, but with our actions.
Help us to see others with your eyes,
and reach out with your compassion, especially where differences divide.
Teach us how to work together and show what it means to follow you. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, hear our prayer. Amen.
Hymn: “O for a thousand tongues to sing”
https://youtu.be/2e475ww32Jg
Benediction
Now go in peace; may this day, this year, unfold as it should; may you find solace in scripture and spirit; and may your journey into this new year be filled with the hope and promise of God for the sake and the peace of the world. Amen
May God’s blessing surround you each day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_3O_N49GiU
Postlude:
O laughing light, O firstborn of creation
https://youtu.be/tSMIG5vn0Sw
Hymns
Here are some hymn suggestions to check on YouTube if you wish to sing along. Some may not be as familiar as their titles suggest and the ones marked “listen” do not have the lyrics on the screen:
Thou who wast rich, beyond all splendour
https://youtu.be/xVYqizG676M
“Christ be our light”
https://youtu.be/kt3Qc04ulOM
“Thou whose almighty word darkness and chaos heard
https://youtu.be/aJuqdIVH8VY
“O where are you going?”
https://youtu.be/N8IeSwzc9g8
“The Lily of the valley”
https://youtu.be/QS6KMx_0NDQ
“O morning star”
https://youtu.be/G6HBgMXkWyw
“O for a thousand tongues to sing”
https://youtu.be/2e475ww32Jg
“O laughing light, O firstborn of creation”
https://youtu.be/tSMIG5vn0Sw
For Children
Sometimes, when we meet a friend we may say, “What’s new?” It’s only been a couple weeks since Christmas, so if I were to ask you, “What’s New?” you would probably have a lot to tell me about I’m sure you get excited about getting new things, like games or toys! (You’ve probably spent hours playing with the gifts you received for Christmas.
One thing I really enjoy is a new beginning. We are at the beginning of a new year. What an exciting time! It’s a chance to start over. It’s a time to try to do things better than we did last year.
Can you think about something that you would like to have a new beginning with this year?
Today, we’ll talk about another new beginning. It’s better than the beginning of a new year. It’s the beginning of a new life; a new life in Jesus.
In the Bible, we read about a man called John the Baptist. John went all around the countryside in Judea telling people about a new beginning they could have. He said to repent. That means to ask God to forgive your sins, turn away from those sins, and try again. John baptized people who repented. He did it in the river Jordan. They were baptized to show the world that God had forgiven their sins. This was a new beginning for them. Even Jesus himself went to John the Baptist and was baptized by him.
We still baptize people today. Now, that’s what we call a new beginning!
Dear God, we thank You that Jesus who was without sin washes away our sins and gives us a new life. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Here is a video about the Baptism of Jesus
https://youtu.be/oGMCA_aUY4c
Intimations