Sun. Jan. 9, 2011 (Gareth Brandt)

Gareth Brandt (Columbia Bible College professor of practical theology) spoke on "The Baptism of our Lord" (Matthew 3.13-17). We have only one story telling us anything of the life of Jesus between his infancy and baptism--the story of his lingering in the Temple at age 12. Consequently, Jesus suddenly emerges in this narrative as having been baptized, and in 3.16 we are given a rare allusion to what later has been thought of as the Trinity: the voice of God, the Spirit appearing "like" a dove, and the man Jesus. God's voice proclaimed Jesus as a "Beloved son" even before he had done anything of significance in the gospel narratives. But in a sense, this is typical of the gospel accounts, for they often describe unconditional love being given. Gareth asked whether we have experienced being beloved, suggesting that only by our experiencing being loved can we, in turn, truly and deeply love others. The next chapter in Matthew concerns the temptations in the wilderness; what was Jesus, God's "beloved son", now supposed to do with this unconditional love? The gospels proceed, each in their own way, to record stories of how Jesus proclaimed the primacy of God's love and how it can be expressed in our lives. [JEK] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday, January 9th, 2011 using your browser's preferred media player.