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On the wings of a dove
Undelivered sermon due to weather cancellation, Jan. 12, 2025
Luke 3:15–17, 21–22 (CEB)
The people were filled with expectation, and everyone wondered whether John might be the Christ. John replied to them all, “I baptize you with water, but the one who is more powerful than me is coming. I’m not worthy to loosen the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. The shovel he uses to sift the wheat from the husks is in his hands. He will clean out his threshing area and bring the wheat into his barn. But he will burn the husks with a fire that can’t be put out.”
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When everyone was being baptized, Jesus also was baptized. While he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit came down on him in bodily form like a dove. And there was a voice from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I dearly love; in you I find happiness.”
This is the story of Jesus’ baptism. Most of us refer to Jesus’ cousin John as “John the Baptist,” although — since the word “Baptist” is now associated with one particular Christian tradition — some modern scholars call him “John the Baptizer,” which pretty much means the same thing, someone who baptizes people.
John had what we would today call “personal branding.” He didn’t look like just…