Today, the First Sunday of Epiphany, celebrates the baptism of Christ. Matthew’s account of the baptism by John differs in two important ways from the account in Mark’s Gospel. First, Matthew introduces the conversation between John and Jesus that confronts the problem as to why Jesus needed to be baptised. The baptism that John offered to the crowds was an outward sign of repentance and cleansing. However, in Mark’s Gospel the baptism that John offered to Jesus was the outward sign of God’s anointing. Second, while in Mark the divine voice was addressed to Jesus (you are), in Matthew it is addressed to the crowd (this is).

For those of you who wanted to do some thinking and preparation for today’s service during the preceding week, I invited reflection on the image of water. In today’s picture from Teddy Horsley’s book, Water, we see John the Baptist baptising Jesus in the river Jordon and the Spirit descending like a dove.

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Lord Jesus Christ,

you were baptised by John in water.

Wash us in the pure water of your love,

so we may serve you with clean hearts;

now and always.

Amen.

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Next Sunday, the Second Sunday of Epiphany, the Gospel reading takes us to John’s account of the call of the first disciples. The image to help us prepare for next week’s theme is names. You can find out more about that theme by looking at the Educational Resources and the Preparation Resources.

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