Baptism Of The Lord (C)

There are no texts within the Older Testament that point specifically to the “Baptism of the Lord.” It is difficult, therefore, for those who construct lectionaries to identify Older Testament texts that can be related to the baptism of Jesus. It is also difficult for us who prepare and present homilies and sermons based on the lectionaries to ground our presentations on the Older Testament texts selected to be read on this day in which we focus attention on the baptism of Jesus.

Psalm 29

The specific life setting of Psalm 29 is obviously a thunderstorm hitting the entire west coast of Canaan and moving inland along a broad front that extends from Lebanon in the north to the wilderness of Kadesh in the south. The awesome sounds of the storm are attributed anthropomorphically to Adonai, whose voice is acclaimed as full of power and majesty. It is only in regard to this voice of Adonai that there is any notable connection with the specifics of the Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 account of Jesus’ baptism.

Isaiah 43:1-7

This text is a poetic celebration of the redemption of the people of Israel announced by the Lord God who has created, formed, and bought back from slavery God’s people Israel. God is said to love the people of Israel, who are honored and precious in the eyes of God. God is presented as promising to be with the people to lead and guide them safely through every danger that they might encounter, as well as to give the people of Egypt and the lands to the south of Egypt as a ransom price to buy back the people of Israel.

We can best connect this account to the baptism of Jesus texts by noting how God is said to love God’s people Israel in this Isaiah 43:1-7 text and to be pleased with Jesus, adopted through his baptism to become God’s chosen Son in the Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 text. By our baptism in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, we too are adopted into God’s chosen family of people. Through the use of this Isaiah 43:1-7 text as we celebrate the baptism of Jesus and our own baptism, we are symbolically united with the Israelites and Jews, not separated from them, but joined together with them. The Older Covenant and the Newer Covenant become one Covenant with one God.

Acts 8:14-17

Acts 8:14-17 is a small segment of the Lukan writer’s story about a man named Simon who wishes to purchase the power to bestow the Holy Spirit of God by placing his hands on people. In this text baptism in the name of Jesus was followed sometime later by the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the Lukan writer there apparently was some sort of progression from the baptism of Jesus to baptism in the name of Jesus to the gift of the Holy Spirit before, during, or after baptism in Jesus’ name. Possibly it was to illustrate a growing perception of the Trinity concept of God, i.e., God the Father bestows the gift of baptism on Jesus the Son of God and together they provide the gift of the Holy Spirit of God. We can compare this to the Trinitarian formula for Baptism in Matthew 28:19, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all kinds of people, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (my translation). Various Christians since the first century have interpreted the gift of the Holy Spirit in many different ways. The concept should be a unifying factor within Christianity, not a cause for boasting or division. Each of us has a share in the responsibility of making it and keeping it a unifying factor.

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

The Lukan writer linked the baptism of Jesus more closely to the baptism of “the people who had come to John” than did the Markan and Matthean writers. Also, the Lukan writer depicts the Holy Spirit of God as coming down in “bodily form,” as a dove coming down and landing upon his head.

For the writers and people of the Synoptic traditions, the baptism of the Jesus of history, his life, teachings, and everything that he did were pleasing to God and to them. Just as they perceived Jesus as in many ways recapitulating the life and experiences of all of the chosen ones of God who had preceded him (the Israelites and the Jews); so also should we. We should live so that everything that we do will recapitulate the life and teachings of the Jesus of history in his Jewish context, the Jesus of history who, after God raised him from the dead, is perceived by us to be the Christ of faith. Therefore, we shall want to learn as much as we possibly can about the specifics of the life of the Jesus of history. Then we shall live with him, die with him, and we believe that we shall also be raised from the dead with him, to the glory of God! This is essentially the message that we are called to share during the Epiphany season, the bridge between Christmas and Lent and Easter.

The Greek word epiphaneia, transliterated into English as “Epiphany,” is widely used in biblical and in non-biblical literature in the technical religious sense of “the visible appearance or manifestation of deity.” In this literature the presence of deity is manifested in a great variety of ways. Anthropomorphisms are commonly employed. Past events are interpreted as evidence that deity has entered into the human sphere. Extraordinary phenomena in nature are said to be revelations of divine power. These visible manifestations of deity are said to have occurred during the past, in some instances they are claimed for the present, and frequently they are anticipated for the future.

The texts selected for Epiphany 2, Series C, in our lectionary are excellent choices for our celebration of God’s self-manifestation in our lives. They depict divine-human encounters. They tell us in many ways that God cares about us and that God comes to us. We have the call and privilege of sharing this good news next Sunday.

Psalm 36:5-10

This portion of Psalm 36 focuses on characteristics and manifestations of Adonai Elohim (the Lord God) as perceived by many Israelites. The illustrations and analogies are beautiful, vivid, and descriptive. The human response to the manifestation of the divine is a mixture of praise and supplication. The best of human poetic expressions are offered in service to God. The Lord (Adonai) is said to save not only people, but animals as well. The steadfast love of God is depicted as the most precious gift that we can ever receive.

“Salvation” is the overall theme of the text. For our message this coming weekend, we are called to provide explicit examples of how God has provided salvation among us. We are also expected to permit and to encourage the people of the congregation to define “salvation” as each person perceives it.

Isaiah 62:1-5

At the time of the writing of this text, Jerusalem was still a “desolate widow.” The time was near, however, when the desolate widow Jerusalem will be given a new name within a new marriage, with the Lord rejoicing over “her” just as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride. Then Jerusalem and Zion will be a crown of beauty in the hand of Adonai. Her salvation will go forth as does a burning torch carried by the lead runner in a group bearing good news that cannot wait until the morning.

Each of us is that torch-bearing runner rushing out into the night where we are during this Epiphany season. We add our message of salvation to the messages of these texts. We proclaim what God (in every way that we perceive God) has done and is doing for us. As Christians, what God has done and is doing through Jesus our Lord will be central in our proclamation next Sunday. The 1 Corinthians 12 and John 2 texts will provide our basic themes.

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

One God, one Lord, one Spirit provides for us a great variety of charismata (spiritual gifts). In God there is unity in the midst of all of this God-given diversity. Paul calls for mutual recognition and fellowship within the diversity of spiritual gifts with which the Spirit of God has endowed us. Why, we must ask, have so many people of the Church consistently ignored this call of Paul and this Word of God and refused mutual recognition and fellowship? Can our divided state of the Church, our exclusive enclaves, our superior attitudes and claims, be in any way pleasing to God? Why do we not use this 1 Corinthians text written by Paul to call the hand of the sectarians, those who will withhold their presence, refuse to share their offerings, threaten to separate themselves and their congregations from us if they cannot force their opinions on everyone else with regard to interpretation of the Word of God, participation by persons who have minority sexual orientations who are called to serve in the Church, or any other issue that they may choose? In their arrogance, they blunt the Epiphany message. They dim the Epiphany torch.

John 2:1-11

The “good wine” in this smallest of the miracles among the Fourth Gospel stories, this first “sign” by which the Johannine Jesus manifested his glory, is often considered to have Eucharistic significance. Perhaps it would be more precise to say that the “good wine” here is Johannine rather than to say that it is Eucharistic. It is an indication of something that was important to the people of the Johannine community. Within the context of the Fourth Gospel, this account may be saying that Jesus, not merely by a word of command but by his life and death, produced in bountiful quantities the “good wine” that is far better than all other wine, a symbol not of overindulgence or of alcoholism but of never-ending celebration of life. As a result, his disciples believed in him.

Today we are Jesus’ disciples. We have this “good wine” from Jesus, given through his life, his death, and his resurrection. What shall we do with it? What did Jesus do with it in this text? Did he keep it? Did he sell it? Or, did he give it away?

Perhaps not merely for this text, but for all of the texts selected for next Sunday we might use a theme such as “The Best Product on the Market!” We might begin by saying that according to these texts we have the best product on the market, and that we agree with these texts that we do have this “best product” as a gift from God. We might involve the members of the congregation by asking, “What shall we do with it, with this best product on the market?”

Shall We Keep It for Ourselves?
Shall We Sell It to Those Who Can Afford to Buy It? or
Shall We Give It to All Who Need It and Want to Receive It?

The emphasis in Psalm 19 is on the Torah and in Nehemiah 8 on the reading and validation of the Torah. In the Luke 4 text we are taken to a story about Jesus reading from an Israelite/Jewish sacred text, not from the Torah but from the Isaiah traditions.

Psalm 19

Poetically, this psalm emphasizes the value to be gained by living in accordance with the Torah. The value system derived from Torah observance is to be desired far more than precious materials such as gold and the sweetest food such as honey. Those who are wise will understand, respond appropriately, and be blameless. These words and actions have been and continue to be celebrated by Jews throughout the ages. They are vitally important also to us.

Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10

This text reports a highly significant reading of the Torah by Ezra with commentary upon the text provided by the Levites. The deliberate, public reading of the Torah, the assembly of the religious leadership as witnesses, the explanations provided by the Levites, and the joyous acceptance of the authority of the Torah are indications that this text is meant to describe the process by which the Torah was formally validated as inspired, revealed, and authoritative sacred Scripture, “Word of God” for the Israelites. From this point on, the lives of the Israelites and Jews were to be guided by this written Word.

Ezra’s opening the document in the sight of all of the people and reading from it (Nehemiah 8:5) may have been one of the many ideas that the writer of the Gospel According to Luke with inspired creativity used and adapted from the Septuagint. Like Ezra the scribe opening the Torah and reading from it in the Nehemiah 8:5 text, Jesus was depicted by the Lukan writer in Luke 4:14-21 as opening the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and reading from it in the synagogue in Nazareth.

Luke 4:14-21

Comparison of Luke 4:14-30 with its antecedent in Mark 6:1-6a reveals how freely the inspired Lukan writer reshaped the Markan tradition in order to produce, as the Lukan writer in the Luke 1:1-4 preface puts it, “a more excellent account of the things that have happened among us.”

The most important written resources used by the Lukan writer here were obviously Mark 6:1-6a, Isaiah 61:1-2, and Isaiah 58:6. The Lukan writer moved Jesus’ return to his own region in Mark 6:1-6a to the earliest period of Jesus’ public activity, and left the disciples of Jesus out of the picture. The Lukan writer added that it was Jesus’ custom to go to the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth on the Sabbath day. The Lukan writer also provided the text for the Lukan Jesus to read, a combination of two portions of the Isaiah tradition, Isaiah 61:1-2 and 58:6.

The dramatic scene developed by the Lukan writer of pride by the people of Nazareth in this “hometown boy” that turned into vicious hatred and attempted lynching of Jesus supplies “in a nutshell” a look at the entirety of the Luke-Acts composition. Certainly Luke 4:14-30 is more vivid and consequently more memorable than Mark 6:1-6a and has been much more significant within the Church, just as the Gospel According to Luke as a whole has been more significant than the Gospel According to Mark. Unfortunately, however, in this instance the anti-Jewish polemic was also increased greatly in the Lukan writer’s reshaping of the Markan tradition, as it was increased elsewhere by the Lukan writer.

As we apply these texts to our own specific life situations, it will be appropriate to concentrate on the Luke 4:14-21 portion that has been selected in our lectionary and on the mission of the Church today. According to these texts, we too should feel that the Spirit of the Lord is upon us, as the Spirit of the Lord was upon the prophet of the Isaiah 61 and 58 traditions and as the Spirit of the Lord was upon Jesus. We too in our times are anointed “to proclaim freedom to the oppressed,” “to announce that those who have been in bondage shall be released and those who have been blinded shall see, to send out from captivity those whose spirits have been broken,” and “to announce the time of the favorable action of the Lord.”

These scriptures are fulfilled in our time when we as people of God in the name of Jesus Christ put these words of Isaiah 61:1-2, Isaiah 58:6, and Luke 4:18-19 into action. This is our responsibility as parts of the Body of Christ in the world. We are called to be players and player-coaches, not spectators and bystanders in this process.

1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

The somewhat continuous reading of 1 Corinthians texts during most of the Epiphany season continues here with little direct connection with the other readings for next Sunday. Through Baptism and the Eucharist it is said that all who are members of the Body of Christ have valid and very important functions. How much more grievous then is our current situation in the Church in which in so many instances sectarian Baptists are hurting other Baptists, sectarian Lutherans are hurting other Lutherans, sectarian Episcopalians are hurting other Episcopalians, and sectarian Roman Catholics are hurting other Roman Catholics! How foreign are the actions of these to the Word of God that the sectarians like to use as a weapon rather than as a means of God’s grace.

The connection is rather tenuous. Nevertheless, there is a point of contact in all four of these texts in the concept of prophetic powers. In Psalm 71 an old man in distress relies on the Lord to continue the prophetic powers of inspiration that the Lord has given to him since the time of his birth. In the call story in Jeremiah 1:4-10 prophetic powers are said to have been virtually forced upon the reluctant young man Jeremiah. He is said to have been known, consecrated, and appointed to be a prophet even before he had been born. For the Apostle Paul, prophetic powers, important as they are, are of no avail unless they are accompanied by God’s kind of self-giving love. In the Lukan writer’s story about Jesus in his hometown, prophetic powers are said to have gone unrecognized not only at the time of Elijah and Elisha, but also in Jesus himself. As we read and use these texts, we are called to consider the concept of prophetic powers in our own lives and in our own ministries.

Psalm 71:1-6

This psalm is the lament of an old man who asks the Lord for deliverance from personal enemies. Although there is no specific reference to the expression of prophetic powers in the old man, his need for deliverance from personal enemies is characteristic of any person who is given and demonstrates prophetic powers. There is an important connection with the Jeremiah 1:4-10 call story in the psalmist’s claim to have been taken from his mother’s womb by the Lord. The psalm is noteworthy for its vivid images and for its emphasis on proclamation of the mighty deeds of the Lord. These are exactly what is typically associated with the exercise of prophetic powers.

Jeremiah 1:4-10

The two principal purposes of a prophetic call story are to establish the credentials of the prophet and to indicate the major themes of the prophet’s life and message. Particularly significant in this Jeremiah call story is its emphasis on the power of the prophetic word over the nations. We should perhaps tie this to the concern for the nations implied in the Luke 4:21-30 account. In Jeremiah 1:17-19 it is said that Jeremiah will be given prophetic powers to stand up against the powers and people of his own land. Jeremiah is given no choice; he is impelled by the Lord into his life situation. Nevertheless, there is a promise that ultimately the Lord will deliver him.

Perhaps as we ponder our own God-given call and responsibilities as we prepare for the worship service next Sunday, we should think more about our own personal call story in relation to the principal motifs of our particular ministry. To what themes are we driven by the Lord? Into what areas of ministry are we impelled? How does the Lord validate our credentials in these areas of ministry? When our credentials are challenged in these areas, what is our defense? What can we say about our call from the Lord? How can our sharing of our call from the Lord help other people to recognize and to accept their call from the Lord?

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

The individual members of the “Body of Christ” have various and diverse charismata (spiritual gifts). None of the members are able to perform the functions of all of the others. All are urged, however, to desire the higher gifts and to follow the way that Paul will show, the way of agape-type love, God’s kind of love, revealed by God through Jesus the Christ and through Paul. While Jesus and Paul are our most important role models for Christian ministry, we also as inspired individuals within the Church are called to be reflective role models to demonstrate and to proclaim the same kind of self-giving love that Jesus and Paul exemplified. This call to reflect God’s kind of self-giving love is experienced not merely to those who are clergy. It comes to all of us.

Luke 4:21-30

This is the rejection portion of the acclaim and rejection drama composed by the Lukan writer to present the principal motifs of the Third Gospel and of Acts. The violent reaction of the men of the synagogue in Jesus’ hometown is almost certainly somewhat of an exaggeration and of an anachronism. This story about the vicious wrath of all of the men of the synagogue and their abortive attempts to lynch and to kill Jesus (and on the Sabbath!) is much more likely a Lukan composition late in the first century CE than it is the reporting of an historical occurrence from the time of the Jesus of history. After the atrocities committed by Christians against Jews during the Christian Crusades, after the abuse and execution of Jews ordered by the Christian Inquisition courts, after the horrendous pogroms in Eastern Europe during which over a period of several centuries more than six million Jews were killed, and after the death of an additional more than six million Jews in lands dominated by Christians during the Holocaust, as inspired people within the Church today it is unconscionable for us to include Luke 4:28-30 in our lectionaries and to read these three verses during our worship services.

Those who included Luke 4:28-30 in the Roman Catholic three year lectionary commissioned by Vatican II and used within the Lutheran and Common lectionaries derived from the Roman Catholic lectionary, and those who continued to include verses 28-30 in The Revised Common Lectionary were inexcusably insensitive. Those during the first few centuries of the early Church who through usage and decree accepted Luke 4:28-30 and similar materials into the New Testament canon were callous. The Lukan writer who composed Luke 4:28-30 was guided by that writer’s own anti-Jewish bias and prejudice and as a result perpetrated much greater violence against the Jesus of history than did the fictitious people of the synagogue in Nazareth created to be characters in this story. As inspired people in the Church today, we must not perpetuate the destructive polemic of texts such as Luke 4:28-30 by continuing to include them in our lectionary. We are well aware that when we speak out against the reading of texts such as Luke 4:28-30 within our congregations we will be attacked and condemned by well-meaning traditionalists within the Church who will say that we must not object to these verses, because what is written in Luke 4:28-30 “is what those Jews did to our Jesus.” We are fully aware that we are speaking against material that has been perceived as a part of the “Word of God” within our Christian tradition for many centuries.

Nevertheless, we speak because, like Jeremiah, we are called and compelled by God to do so; we cannot be silent. We speak for the sake of our children and for the sake of the children of others. We cannot continue to be silent bystanders and spectators. We, along with the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, consider the Word of God to be living and active, sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing to the every essence of our being. The Word of God is an excellent sword, but we are aware that there are serious “nicks” in that sword. We must, therefore, appeal beyond canonical scripture and tradition directly to God. We must appeal because we believe in God, not in the Bible as if it were God, and not in the Church as if it were God, and because we perceive that God is “a consuming fire” to whom we are ultimately accountable.

As inspired people, we have no power of our own. We are captive to the unwanted gift of prophetic powers, the “red thread” that runs through the four texts chosen for this day. May these prophetic powers be accompanied by what the Apostle Paul called “God’s kind of self-giving love!” (For a much more extensive rationale for the necessity of our repudiation of the content of Luke 4:28-30 and similar texts, see my Mature Christianity: The Recognition and Repudiation of the Anti-Jewish Polemic of the New Testament (Susquehanna University Press, 1985), or my Mature Christianity in the 21st Century: The Recognition and Repudiation of the Anti-Jewish Polemic of the New Testament (New York: Crossroad, 1994). (For an extensive article in which The Revised Common Lectionary: The Consultation on Common Texts and other lectionaries are analyzed regarding anti-Jewish polemic in their selections, see my “Removing Anti-Jewish Polemic from our Christian Lectionaries: A Proposal” at http://jcrelations.net. Select “English,” “Articles,” and “Beck, Norman A.”).

A consideration of these texts is included in the notes on Proper 4, Ordinary Time 9, Second Sunday after Pentecost below.

LAST SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY

(TRANSFIGURATION SUNDAY)

Transfiguration accounts, whether in the Hebrew Scriptures (Exodus 34:29-35) or in the Newer Testament (Mark 9:2-8; Matthew 17:1-8; Luke 9:28-36) or in the sacred writings of other religious traditions, are primarily validation texts. They are similar in some respects to call stories. Call stories are used to authenticate the messages and ministries of persons, especially of prophetic figures whose authority is being questioned. Transfiguration accounts, on the other hand, are used to validate not persons but writings.

Call stories and transfiguration accounts are far more than merely historical records of events that have occurred at a certain time and place. They serve to establish the authority of a person or of a written document within a religious community. The dominant texts selected for this coming Transfiguration Sunday are designed to validate very important documents. The Exodus 34:29-35 text is a validation of the Torah and the Luke 9:28-36 (37-43) Transfiguration account is a validation of the Gospel According to Luke, a continuation of the validation of the Gospel According to Mark in the Transfiguration account in Mark 9:2-8 and of the validation of the Gospel According to Matthew in Matthew 17:1-8.

Psalm 99

For use with the Transfiguration texts, it is obvious that Psalm 99 was chosen by the theologians who selected the texts for our lectionary because of verse 7, in which we read that “From within the cloud formation the Lord spoke to them; they kept the precepts and the statutes that the Lord gave to them.” This is the portion of Psalm 99 that provides a link to the Exodus 34:29-35 and the Luke 9:28-36 (37-43) accounts.

Exodus 34:29-35

In the narrow sense, this account validates the Decalogue only, since it was the two tables of the covenant, the ten words (sentences) rather than the entire Torah that Moses is said to have carried with him as he came down from Mount Sinai. Nevertheless, since verse 34 indicates that Moses went in before the Lord many times after that, to speak with the Lord and later to relate to the people of Israel whatever the Lord had commanded Moses to relate, Exodus 34:29-35 serves to validate the entire Torah and not merely the ten words on the two tables of the covenant.

It is of interest to note how the Qur’an speaks about the many times that Muhammad went to the cave near Mecca to receive the words of the Qur’an in small installments so that he could remember them and write them in excellent Arabic even though it is believed that he was not otherwise able to read or to write. Those accounts serve the same function within the Qur’an that Exodus 34:29-35 serves for the Torah and the Transfiguration accounts serve within the Synoptic Gospels, to validate those writings that became canonical and normative for communities of faith and not merely considered to have been the opinions of religious leaders.

2 Corinthians 3:12–4:2

It is unfortunate that this text speaks disparagingly about the Exodus 34:29-35 account and about the “old” covenant in its effort to hold up the “new” covenant as superior. It would have been possible and certainly preferable simply to have added the new revelations to the earlier ones without denigration of the former. We may even wonder whether the interpretation given in this text to the veiling of Moses’ face in Exodus 34:29-35 is not in some respects a form of “tampering with God’s word” in the very “disgraceful and underhanded ways” that are condemned in the final verse of this 2 Corinthians 3:12–4:2 reading. At any rate, the Exodus 34:29-35 and the Luke 9:28-36 (37-43) texts are so significant that in our proclamation next Sunday we have no need to base a portion of our message on this 2 Corinthians 3:12–4:2 segment.

Luke 9:28-36 (37-43)

The Lukan writer, like the Matthean redactors, retained a Markan text here and kept it in the same context that it has in Mark. The changes made by the Lukan writer may be noted briefly as follows: Mark’s “after six days” became “about eight days after,” perhaps to place the Transfiguration on the first day of the week, the “Lord’s day.” The Lukan writer characteristically inserted “to pray” (v. 9:28d) and “during the time that he was praying” (v. 9:29a), drawing lines more closely to the Lukan account of Jesus being baptized. Luke provided substance in 9:31-32 to the conversation between Moses and Elijah in glory and Jesus. The conversation centers around Jesus’ departure in Jerusalem. The reference to the sleepiness of Peter, of James, and of John suggests a connection to the text about Jesus in Gethsemane and to the darkness of night. Only the Lukan writer has the disciples and Jesus coming down from the mountain on the next day rather than on the same day. In Luke the voice from the cloud calls Jesus “my Chosen Son” rather than “my Beloved Son.” Finally, Luke has Peter speak only as Moses and Elijah were leaving.

As in Mark and in Matthew, the principal purpose of Luke’s Transfiguration account appears to be to validate the words of Jesus as the Christ. Like the others, Luke’s account shows that Jesus is indeed in the same league as Moses (a symbol of the Torah) and as Elijah (a symbol of the Prophetic traditions). More than that, Jesus is shown to be not equal but greater in importance than the representatives of the Israelite/Jewish Scriptures, for when the cloud and darkness pass away only Jesus is there. At the sound of the voice of God from the cloud proclaiming Jesus to be God’s Son, God’s Chosen Son, the representatives of the Israelite/Jewish Scriptures have vanished into the darkness. They are presented as having been summoned from the past only that they might disappear in the light of this new Chosen Son of God. Jesus and the Word of God through Jesus replace the chosenness of Israel as God speaks to the three disciples the words about Jesus, “Listen to him!”

The miracle of the Transfiguration of Jesus and of the summoning up of Moses and Elijah all serve the validation theme. The account indicates that Jesus and Jesus’ message are valid for us. It makes relatively little difference, therefore, whether we consider this to be a “Resurrection appearance” text or not. It functions here to point ahead to the cross, to the resurrection, and to the ascension glory of Jesus. The use of this text is appropriate here at the end of the Epiphany Season and just prior to Lent.

The “miracle” today lies in our acceptance of Jesus as Christ for us. Jesus, too, comes now out of our past to speak to us and through us in our particular life situations. What does Jesus as the Christ say to us this year where we are, and how shall we respond to what he says? This will be our agenda next Sunday and during the Lenten season.