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

Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory forever.

The word "condescend," the word "deign"—these are not pleasant words, not an attractive idea to us, that someone would condescend towards us, would deign to do something for us. You know, one of the things that really drives human well-being, our sense of ourselves, is our status and not feeling like we have too little status. And so, if there's someone who's condescending towards us, we feel small. We feel like we're being talked down to, not being treated with proper respect.

But it's one thing to talk about a human being condescending to another human being. It's something else to speak of God deigning, condescending to look down on us, to visit his people, to give us what it is that we need.

This plays out in a dramatic way. You may remember at the Last Supper how Jesus strips off all his outer garments and wraps a towel around his waist, and taking the worst role of a slave, the least of the slaves, goes to wash his disciples' feet. And they're all dismayed and distressed to see their master condescending, literally descending so low to kneel at their dirty feet, their disgustingly dirty feet, to wash them. And Peter especially is outraged. He says, "Master, you shall not wash my feet."

Because he's concerned about status, and he knows the status he wants to claim for himself and how he's going to be treated properly by those that are equal to him and how he's meant to treat those who are below him. But Jesus is above him and he can't go below. "What's going on here? You're turning things upside down, Lord." And Jesus says to him, "Right, exactly. Unless you allow me to wash your feet, you have no part in me."

This is essential to the mystery of participating in the life of Christ, in the communion that he was preparing for Peter and all the disciples at that very meal—in his body, in his blood.

And now today as we are celebrating the Sunday after the Theophany of the Lord, his baptism, we recall once again how John the Baptist confronts Jesus with fear, with dismay, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and are you coming to me to be baptized? How can this be?" And Jesus again corrects John and says, "Permit it to be so now, because this is what is fitting for the salvation of the world." This is how it is that God condescends to visit his people and to give them what they need.

St. Paul in the epistle today is speaking of this reality to us, and he speaks of how our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ quite literally descends. He's not merely condescending in the sense of what we've been speaking of, this allowing, not standing by his status, but allowing himself to be lowered—but in a real way, a very physical way, descending, coming down to our level. First by stripping off the majesty of his divinity and coming naked into this world, being wrapped with swaddling clothes, taking upon himself our humanity. And now once again at the baptism, stripped naked, going into the depths of the water by the hand of his servant John, plunging down into the depths, taking all of human nature upon himself, the weight of our sorrows, our grief, our suffering, even claiming for himself sin—him who knew no sin—and taking it as his possession to the end, to the cross, where he descends even into death itself, the uttermost parts of the earth, to the grave where he is wrapped not with swaddling clothes but with winding cloths.

This is what our God condescends to do for us. This is what he is working for our salvation. And he does this. He descends this far to meet us that he might lift us up. As St. Paul says, he descends so that he might ascend on high, taking captivity captive and giving gifts to men.

And these gifts, brothers and sisters, such gifts! He is sharing all things with us. As he has first given himself to all of us, sharing our human nature, now he invites us to participate in his divine life. And so we are given not merely this status of being saved but life in him. Life in him, each in our own way.

These gifts that St. Paul speaks about for the edification of his church, the building up of his church, our life together in Christ—he speaks about how Christ gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some pastors, and some teachers. Nowhere in there does he say, "And some are just mere bystanders. Some are wallflowers. It's fine if you don't do anything in particular."

No, everyone in the Kingdom of God is given gifts. Your life, the whole of it, is a gift. A gift from Christ. You want status? You want a place in the world? You've already received it in Christ Jesus. What more could you possibly want than the gift that Christ has given you? Identity in him, purpose, meaning, reality. We've been given the name Christian, brothers and sisters. We've been called members of his body, of his church. This is where we belong. And this is something that now is a weight of responsibility, a high calling for us to live up to. Because you see, we are part of Christ's work for the salvation of the world.

We are called upon to follow him, to live out this life, this gift, this light that we have received, and share it with the people who are sitting in darkness or in the valley in the shadow of death.

Brothers and sisters, what we are given in our life is there for the building up of others, for sharing that light and life that we've received with others. If we find that life around us is not quite right, it's askew, it's messed up and mixed up and lacking in some way, then we begin first with ourselves to ask God's help to set things right.

And we measure ourselves by the life of Christ and by no other human measure. As we hear, we are being built up together that we might come to the knowledge of the Son of God, which is this true human being, the one who has revealed himself to us, that we might grow up into the measure of the fullness of the stature of Jesus Christ. The measure of the fullness of the stature of Jesus Christ. It's a process of correction, of being turned around, of being straightened up, of being fed with what we need, that we might grow up and become who we are truly meant to be according to the life of Jesus Christ and the gifts he has given us.

That's what we are here on this earth to do. This is our part in the work that Christ is still continuing for the salvation of the world. And brothers and sisters, if we are not aspiring to that measure, then we are not of his work. And if we are not recognizing how far short we are falling from that measurement, then we are not living up to the truth of our baptism. And if we are not reaching out, bearing one another up in the struggle of daily life to grow up into the measure of the fullness of the stature of Jesus Christ, then we are not of his body.

So we need to take seriously the status that we've been given, the reality of who we are, our identity in Christ. We have work to do. We have a life to live.

Today we hear the Gospel that we have heard this day. We hear Jesus preaching that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. It is time for us to repent, to turn from those ways that fill us only with darkness, that lead us back to the shadow of death. We are to repent of that, turn all the way around and turn to God, and recognize that his Kingdom is right here, right now. It is at hand. It is there for us to enter into, to receive our inheritance.

God has come down to us, all the way down to meet you today. And so today is the time to stand up, to reach out, to meet the Lord, to allow him to work through us in our lives so that he can raise us up—all of us gathered here and all those who we carry in our hearts—that he would raise us up on high. And he works all things through all of us in all of our gifts, in all of our lives, that he might fill all the world with his light and with his life, the glory of God the Father.

Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory forever.