A sermon preached by Adedayo Olomodosi on Sunday January 11, 2026, The Baptism of the Lord - HD [Proper 1] (White). Year A. Propers 348; Is 42:1-9; Ps 29; Acts 10:34-43; Mt 3:13-17.
Thank God for the waters.
With water being the most abundant resource on Earth, it makes sense that it has come to take on a multitude of symbolic meanings across every culture. These traditions and symbols are emblematic of humanity's deep relationship to water. At the most base level of this relationship is the simple fact that without water, we would die. I think that this reality is what has shaped the economic, political, environmental, personal, and spiritual connections that we have with water.
Thank God for the waters.
Water is life giving. From the cooling relief it gives us on the most sweltering of days to the spring rains that feed the earth and nourish the fields and orchards that provide our food, water sustains us.
Water is disruptive. Millions of years ago powerful rivers like the St. Lawrence, the Nile, the Amazon, and the Niger carved their way through rocky landscapes forever leaving their mark on Earth’s face. Natural disasters such as tsunamis or flash floods in local neighbourhoods, water serves as a reminder for us that all the great things we have built and all that we have is ultimately fragile and impermanent.
Yet, in the wake of its disruptive force, water is also transformative. These same great rivers became cradles for civilization, sources of economic mobility for countless communities, and thriving ecosystems for all sorts of creatures. Out of the destruction of natural disasters, communities find hope and unity through acts of generosity as they seek to make new life out of what was lost.
Water is sacred and mystical. It is a universal symbol of life and purity. Like ours, many faiths have cleansing & purification rituals that use water to symbolically purify one's body and soul. Some people find a deep sense of healing and restoration through being in or around bodies of water.
Life giving. Disruptive. Transformative. Sacred and mystical.
Thank God for the waters.
With our universal connection to water, it makes sense that the holy mystery of baptism is made tangible through water. Baptism itself is about us being brought into fellowship with God and one another as we embark on a shared journey of being followers and disciples of Jesus. As the holy waters passed over our bodies, we were saturated with the Holy Spirit who affirms us as God’s beloved children and empowers us to live purposeful, holy, and sacred lives. Through baptism, we are given a new identity and a new purpose. Baptism marks a beginning. Jesus' baptism announces to the world that he is God’s beloved son, his chosen one who Isaiah says, “will bring forth justice to the nations.” Baptism is the sacred event that kicked off Jesus' ministry. It is the sacred event that kicks off our own. Our baptism brings us into the ongoing mission of Christ, the mission of proclaiming and inaugurating the kingdom of heaven, God's new society for the world.
Following Christ is a journey that is life giving, disruptive, transformative, sacred and mystical. In addition to imitating Christ’s own baptism in water, I think that this is part of why the church uses water to convey the holy mysteries in the sacrament of baptism. The waters of baptism carry with them the deep mystery and sacredness of the Christian life.
You may be wondering how can living a Christ centered life be disruptive? The way of Christ, asks of us to live differently as to how the world works. In his writing on social ethics, theologian Stanley Hauerwas describes the role of the church as, “serving the world by giving the world the means to see itself truthfully.”[1] As the church, as followers of Christ, our lives and our stories, present to the world a way of existing that challenges how the world exists. Through our lives transformed through the imitation of Christ, we offer the world a witness of God’s new society, a more life giving way of being, proclaiming the former things have come to pass, and that new things are springing forth. The way of Christ is transformative to our very being. We are people who seek to know God and carry the presence of God into the world that he has created. As we do so, we will undoubtedly be shaped by the ways we encounter God in his world. This is what the waters of baptism bring us into and what they remind us of.
The waters reveal to us that our walk with Christ is simultaneously about who we are now and who we are becoming.
We are a people who are moved by injustice and inequity and respond to it with compassion through cooking and distributing 13,000 meals to those in need in our community and raising thousands of dollars to address food insecurity in our region. We are a people who search for God and seek to know him through prayer, scripture and community through group bible studies and with spirits sustained by a robust life of worship and praise. We are people earnest about sharing the gospel truth with our neighbours by telling them that we are loved by a gracious God whose love and mercy has touched our own lives, and inviting them to come and journey with us as we do our best to live our lives in the way of Christ.
We are becoming a people who walk hand in hand with our neighbours and ask, “What is wrong, and how can we uplift you?” We are becoming a people who look out at a world in turmoil not with despair but with a critical yet compassionate heart that seeks to understand the evil in the world, and responding to it with simple kindness and a hopeful assurance that God is working through this mess. We are becoming a people more sensitive to the movement of the Holy Spirit in the lives and hearts of all people. Each day, we are people whose encounters with God make us new and bring us closer to union with God, the source of all things.
So today, as we joyfully witness the baptism of Sienna and as we exit this holy place and gathering of disciples, I encourage all of us to remember our baptism and the transformative commitments we have made to live our lives in the way of Christ. Let us all dip our fingers in the font and mark ourselves with the sign of the cross. Let the cool and sacred waters that touch our skin remind us that we are a holy people committed to a sacred, disruptive, transformative, and life giving God who shapes our lives and calls us to be witnesses who challenge the world to a better existence. Let the waters remind us of who we are and who we are becoming.
Thank God for the waters. Amen.
[1] Stanley Hauerwas, “The Servant Community: Christian Social Ethics (1983),” in The Hauerwas Reader (Duke University Press, 2001), 377, https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/2235/chapter/280815/The-Servant-CommunityChristian-Social-Ethics-1983.
