In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory forever.

We hear the beginnings of gospels at turning points in our life of faith, in the whole rhythm of the church year. And each one marks its own place in a new beginning that we can understand. We hear from the Gospel of John at Pascha: "In the beginning was the Word"—the beginning of all things. Matthew we hear at the Lord's Nativity. We hear first his lineage, the lineage of Jesus according to the flesh, and then of course of his birth.

And today we hear from the Gospel according to St. Mark: "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." And we hear that this gospel proclamation, this good news of the Kingdom of God, is first that a messenger is sent before his face to prepare his way. And this is exactly what we need to hear as we prepare for the Lord's appearing, his Theophany, when he goes to be baptized by John in the River Jordan. And there is manifest as the Son of God, whose Father we hear saying, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased," and the Spirit descends upon him in the form of the dove.

So we begin with this messenger, John the Baptist, a voice of one crying in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." Having just celebrated the birth of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, we can understand the importance of this prophecy of Isaiah being fulfilled. We know that the Lord has come. God is with his people. And now we see this manifest to all the world.

People, we hear, recognized the power of God in this John who comes to baptize, preaching this word of repentance—the need for all these people of Judea, of Jerusalem, that their lives as they are are not right. Keep trying harder, doing the same thing, only makes things worse. That they need to turn from the ways they've been following that are leading to destruction. Turn and be washed in the waters of Jordan, to be baptized and seek the Lord.

And so these people flocked to hear his preaching and to receive the forgiveness of sins, so much so that he was this amazing figure. They wondered if he was perhaps the Christ that had been promised to them. And John could have made himself into some kind of cult figure. He was a rock star. He was amazing. Even King Herod himself was a fan and feared him.

So John could have just continued in this way, building this following around him, you know, like some televangelist that we see with just an amazing lifestyle. Instead, he remains in the wilderness eating wild locusts and honey, and always pointing away from himself toward the one that is to come after, who is so much greater than himself. He says, "I indeed baptize you with water, but the one who comes after me will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

This is what we're waiting for. It is one thing to diagnose an illness, to bring to our conscious acknowledgment our need for transformation, for radical healing and restoration. It is another thing altogether to bring the cure.

What all these people who come to the River Jordan need is beyond what any human being can offer. No matter how holy and charismatic and amazing as John the Baptist might be, they need the cure. And the one who is bringing it is Jesus Christ himself, who does not merely bring it with him but in fact is exactly the medicine of immortality, the healing of soul and body.

And this Jesus is indeed fully God and now fully man, fully grown, come into the fullness of his ministry that he can take up now, coming to the waters of Jordan. This is where it begins. Begins by being baptized. Not like all the rest as one who needs forgiveness of sins, but rather going into those waters heavy with sin and sorrow from all the people who came to be washed.

And he who needs no cleansing, no purification, no forgiveness, goes into those dark waters to fill them up with himself, to take that burden upon himself and make them now into something new—waters of baptism into eternal life through his death, that which he has come to accomplish.

And now they are made full of the Spirit of life, of mercy, of restoration, of renewal and forgiveness. This is the promise that John has been pointing to as he prepares the way of the Lord. It is fulfilled in Jesus himself and in his baptism that we may receive in full. It is set out for us to rejoice and to partake of.

And it is time for us now in this season that we are entering in, as we prepare for the Lord's appearing, to enter into this way that has been made straight for us, to in our own lives prepare the way of the Lord, to make his path straight into the heart of our own lives.

It is for us to come and partake of the coming feast of the Lord's baptism, of this great blessing of water that we receive. Water that is a blessing not just in itself but for all our life. Every last part of it is touched by the life of Jesus himself, that we may receive this fulfillment of baptism, of our own baptism, and be washed clean, made new, stripped and emptied of everything false—all the vain imaginations, the broken and messed up ideas of what we imagine it means for us to live, for us to be ourselves—to be emptied of all of that that separates us from God, so that we may be filled up entirely with Christ and Christ alone, who is our life.

Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory forever.