Original Sin versus Original Blessing. On this Feast of the Baptism of our Lord we come to the end of the Christmas liturgical Season as we celebrate Jesus revealed to us in the Trinity. But do not miss the key part of the baptism story – for they are words that should echo in your hearts each day. What are those words? And what does your baptism call you to do? And how does the wisdom of Pope Francis and the concept of a mirror neuron network help explain that? Check it out!

1. 10 January 2016 The Baptism of the Lord Princeton, NJ
Perhaps as you entered the Church today you may have dipped your hands in the water fonts and blessed yourself.
During the Easter Season, as we did this morning, we begin our liturgies with the sprinkling rite, when the priest and
deacon walk around the congregation and sprinkling everyone with holy water. And during the funeral liturgies, the
casket pauses by the baptismal font to be showered with holy water. All those uses of water are designed to remind
us of our Feast Day – the day we were baptized – the day we were initiated into the discipleship of Jesus. The day
when our parents and godparents and family brought us to Church so that, through the waters of baptism, we died
to our old selves and were reborn and grafted to Christ. It is the one event that gave each of us our identification,
our mark, our branding – of whom we belong to and what we are called to do.
Many of us grew up in our faith learning that main reason for Baptism was the fix to get rid of that ‘mark’, that ‘stain’
of original sin and thus we may have missed the whole point that Baptism is not just the negative erasing of original
sin but more importantly the positive call and commitment to discipleship. That is why we use water so often in our
faith – so that we are reminded of our own baptisms, and our own initiations, and our own commissioning to do the
work of Jesus…to be Christ for each other.
On this Feast of the Baptism of our Lord we come to the end of the Christmas liturgical Season as we celebrate for
a third time an epiphany of Christ. The first was on Christmas Day when Jesus was revealed to Israel: “For today in
the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ the Lord. Then last Sunday on the Epiphany of the
Lord Jesus was revealed to the Gentiles: “On entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother and they
paid him homage.” And now, this morning, we celebrate Jesus being revealed in the Trinity “The heavens opened
up and the Holy Spirit descending like a dove upon him and a voice came down from heaven that said, “You are my
beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.””
And where in the Bible do we first hear of the Spirit descending and hovering? – In Genesis – during creation. So
in this story Luke makes the baptism of Jesus to be a reflection of the Genesis story. Jesus is about to enter into
the chaos of the world and to begin a new creation – he is going to make something new.
But do not miss the key part of the baptism story – for they are words that should echo in your hearts each day. For
when Jesus comes out of the water – what does the Divine say? – This is my boy, who I love, with whom I am well
pleased. But wait – at this point in time Jesus hasn’t done anything! No sermons, no healing, no miracles, no
crowds, no Facebook page and yet the first thing Jesus hears is Divine blessings and affirmation. But all too often
we grow up and we get this message backwards – we focus on Original Sin versus Original Blessing.
We spend our lives doing as many impressive things as we can because we think we can earn Divine affirmation
and we miss the model given to us of God’s abiding love for us. For God’s love is never a quid pro quo. God does
not dole out God’s love and mercy in a Monte Hall, ‘Let’s Make a Deal’ fashion. For no matter what we do or don’t
do, God can’t love us anymore or any less. God does not love us because we are good, God loves us because
God is good!
Thus, in our errant ways of trying to earn what we already have, we miss God’s unconditional gift of mercy,
forgiveness and love. We miss hearing the words: “Your are my son, my daughter. You I am well pleased, it is you
that I love.” The one thing people want to know is that they matter. But in the eyes of Christ, in our common union
through baptism – the fact is that we all matter…and we matter very much.
I think this is one of the core reasons Jesus was baptized – of why we see and hear for one of the first times, this
awareness of the Trinity – of Father, Son and Spirit coming together. Because before Christ would face any desert
temptations, before he started going out to teach and bless and forgive, his mission began with steadfast love from
1 Deacon Jim Knipper

2. the Father – of knowing that he matters. And this is the same core meaning and message of baptism that all of us
need to carry with us as we begin a new year of being a disciple.
We throw the term discipleship around a great deal – and I think it connotes different things to different people. I
often refer to Matthew 25 where we are called to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and care for the sick. But
recently I came across an article that connects science and religion and may give us an even easier way to begin to
live out our daily discipleship. Recent research is being done to show how, it would seem, that we are all
connected to each other on some kind of wireless network – what they are calling a “mirror neuron network.” The
best example I can give is what happens when one person in a room yawns and that yawn spreads.
Well the Ritz Carton took that research and trained all of their Staff. For anyone who came within 10 feet they were
to simply make eye contact. If someone came within 5 feet they were to offer a greeting. In either case you are
talking about a 2 second interaction. Six months later the results were overwhelming. Customer satisfaction shot
up driving higher sales and employees felt better about their job – but more importantly they felt better about
themselves. It would seem clear that what you say and what you do really does impact others – it really does
matter. We influence each other all the time.
So imagine what could happen if instead of a yawn, or a Ritz Carlton welcome we were to spread God’s presence?
What would happen if we built our individual discipleship on this type of platform – of being conscious to recognize
and greet and welcome others? Doing this is not so much a stretch – after all - don’t we already have that model to
follow here in Church, among our community?
Every mass you hear the words: ”Let us offer each other a sign of peace.” It is already being modeled for us – but
maybe over the years it has lost some of its importance. But it seems science and our faith are telling us how
important it is to remind each other of the manifestation, the presence of Christ within each of us. We make up the
body of Christ. Thus Christ is manifested through each of our actions – by what we say and what we do – even
including simple eye contact or a quick greeting. After all, who better to begin your daily discipleship with, than the
person right next to you?
For that is what our Baptism calls us to – that is why we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord – that is why
we celebrate our Baptism – because we are called forth to make something new - or in the words of Pope Francis
to go out into the world and make noise. We need to play an active role of living and behaving in a different way by
what we say and do!
That is why we gather as a community…that is why we share our joy, our eye contact, and our greeting with each
other…that is why we need to dip our hands in the holy water fonts…and that is why we need to be showered with
baptismal waters and renew our baptismal promises. All so we never forget that we are indeed sons and daughters
of our God – the same God whose voice calls out to you every day – “you are my beloved son and daughter – with
you I am well pleased.”
2 Deacon Jim Knipper