Readings
Isaiah 42: 1-9
In our reading from Isaiah we get a fair amount of the scripture that outlines Jesus’ mission beginning in verse one where the divine voice declares ‘I have put my spirit upon him,’ which of course we will read about shortly in Matthew’s account of Jesus’ baptism.
This Isaiah passage could easily be read as Jesus’ mission plan and I am sure it would be acceptable to both the Synod and the Presbytery. However we must always keep in mind Dr. Andrews’ caution, mentioned regularly in The Old Testament in Aotearoa New Zealand, that Hebrew Scripture was written for its own particular time and place. Nevertheless that doesn’t stop the Gospel writers using texts like this to frame their story of the life and meaning of Jesus. Indeed, as other scripture indicates that was the tradition of the genre in which they wrote.
Matthew 3: 13-17
Chapter 3 of Matthew’s Gospel introduces John the Baptist using much of Mark’s original text. John is cast as a returning Elijah with his description alluding to 2nd Kings verse 8 where Elijah is described as ‘A hairy man, with a leather belt around his waist.’ According to scripture Elijah did not die but was carried up to heaven in a whirlwind, and, as the expectation of a messiah grew so did the idea that Elijah would return to announce the arrival of God’s Messiah. Therefore Mark, with the other Gospel writers copying, has the Elijah figure of John the Baptist arriving on stage, by the Jordon, where Elijah had left.
We begin our reading where Jesus arrives to be baptised. Warren Carter, in his commentary, notes that the heavens opening to reveal divine knowledge is a traditional motive in both Jewish and Roman literature and he draws attention to the importance of liberation through water in the exodus account.[1] Bill Loader makes the point that ‘In all the gospels the baptism has a mythical quality as portraying a point where the heavenly world and earthly reality meet’.[2] But unlike Mark, where only Jesus hears the divine voice, that heavenly proclamation is addressed to everyone in Matthew.
In framing the Gospel within traditional motives the gospel writers want us to understand is that everything that happens in Jesus’ ministry is part of their religious tradition where new things grow from past tradition.
Sermon
The last verse of Shirley Murray’s hymn links our two readings together and maps out our calling for this year.
Prophets are our travel agents,
gospel-makers lay this road:
to the place of peace and promise
faith will take us to our God.
So far the new lectionary year has led us through Advent and Christmas. It now begins again the mission journey of Jesus. In line with the concluding verse of Shirley Murray’s hymn the travel agent prophet who books the beginning of our faith journey this morning is Isaiah.
But, with the exception of a few diversions to view significant events it will be Matthew that lays the road this year for our retracing of the discipleship journey.
Advent led us to Jesus’ birth at Christmas so in biographical terms we know who Jesus was and where he was placed in history and geography.
Now begins the real journey of re-examining who Jesus was and more importantly what his life means for us. The Jesus journey begins, where all Christian mission journeys begin, at baptism.
Matthew’s Gospel tells us that John did not feel he was able to baptize Jesus and that is a hierarchical assumption. John the Baptist had just finished telling his audience that one more powerful than he is coming and he is not even worthy to carry his sandals. (Matthew 3:11). So logically he can’t commission Jesus for mission if he can’t even carry his sandals. Investitures, commissioning, ordinations, baptisms or whatever are all carried out by someone with greater authority who bestows an honour or subservient authority on someone further down the chain of command.
John baptising Jesus may have created confusion among the community that Matthew originally wrote for. Therefore Matthew addresses that by Jesus requesting baptism and rebutting John’s objection.
In doing so Matthew begins to make the point that Jesus’ view of a divine way of ordering human society is non-hierarchical and he makes that even clearer in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12).
What is even more significant is that the baptism episode opens the point where we all join Jesus on the mission journey. In the non-hierarchical community of Christ we are all baptised as Jesus was baptised and therefore all commissioned for the mission of Christ as Jesus was.
That far and above the requirement of any subsequent church hierarchy or superstition about salvation is the reason we are baptised. Our baptism affirms for us our place within, and our commitment to, the mission of Christ. Of course it also affirms our acceptance in, and by, the Christian community that is prepared to baptise us.
In less gentle times baptism affirmed the protection of the church and of the Christian monarch. So Christian thieves and pirates would leave the baptised alone and ply their trade on non-baptised communities.
In the understanding of the church Baptism is a sacrament that, like communion, is a ritual that convinces the individual of the spiritual reality that they are part of the body of Christ and involved in the mission of Christ. We can be involved in Christian mission without the sacrament but we all have testing times when we wonder if we truly are competent or accepted.
Therefore, it is significant that Matthew follows this episode with Jesus being tested in the wilderness because we all have testing times. It is when we are wallowing in our own wilderness that our baptism reminds us that we are commissioned for the mission of Christ. We are not alone, we are members of the community of Christ, people of the way, commissioned by baptism as Christ was baptised.
As we journey though this year we will be reminded each month of our baptism and what it means by the sacrament of communion. Through a ritualised meal we will be reminded that we are part of the Risen Christ and Christ is part of us. These are not rituals that God needs. The sacraments are rituals that we need to confirm our own doubting selves that we are indeed loved by God and accepted, in the mission journey of the Risen Christ.
Our mission plan is the Gospel journey that we travel each year making and remaking Jesus’ journey our journey. This year we make that journey though Matthew’s Gospel by taking each incident, and the emphasis Matthew puts on it, and relate the gospel episode to our experience and our time and place.
Matthew’s Gospel opens our mind to assess the events the news media put before us. Considering Mathews Gospel, we open our minds and imagination to our day-to-day experiences. So, in this particular year Mathew’s Gospel becomes the road map for our mission journey through 2026.
Shirley Murray also tells us that prophets are our travel agents and Isaiah gives us a very good itinerary in this morning’s reading.
There is good evidence that these first verses of Isaiah 42, along with other Hebrew text, influenced the gospel writers in the way they strung the sayings and stories of Jesus together.
Certainly, in the jargon of the secular society we could call Isaiah forty-two, verses one to nine a mission plan.
Of course, we would have to separate out into small groups and rearrange Isaiah’s poetry into a list of bullet points. But this morning’s reading from Isaiah has all the ingredients of a strategic plan for Jesus’ mission.
But what is most important is that each of us who are united in the baptism of Christ should adopt it as our mission plan. Then as we move into 2026 we do so as those whom the Spirit rests upon and those open to the Spirits inspiration and guidance.
Such a challenge may seem beyond most of us. Nevertheless, we each have a part to play in establishing the justice Isaiah calls for and we must each respond to the challenge, as the Spirit calls us, and in our own way. ‘To open the eyes that are blind’ (Isaiah 42:7a) might well seem impossible but we all have the opportunity of alerting people to what they refuse to see.
Certainly, to restore sight literally is a very specialised calling but not only did the eye surgeon replace the lenses in my eyes when one artificial lens fogged up he zapped is clean with a Lazer. With the support of people’s donations the Fred Hollows Foundation does that for poor people around the world, .
Likewise ‘to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon’ (Isaiah 42:7b) is a complex issue that ranges from abolishing oppressive regimes to reform and rehabilitation of those who show little empathy or concern for others. But in a democracy we all have the opportunity to share ideas, learn from others and be part of the collective wisdom that regularly, not only dreams the impossible dream, but makes that dream a reality.
But most important of all as we take the first tentative steps into 2026 our baptism not only reminds us that we share the mission of Christ but calls us to make that mission journey, as Jesus did, with others.
We are all part of this parish of St Ninians and as such we have a collective strength, wisdom and resources we do not have individually. We have a particular mission of care for each other and for our community. We also have a calling to carry our faith and tradition into the future. All that is a balancing act of the stewardship of resources and enthusiasm for mission along with the humility to recognise each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
It is far too easy in showing care for someone to limit their involvement in a life giving opportunity or stifle one’s own opportunity by timidity or self-sacrifice. As a mission community we must recognise that life is not always easy but also be open to the moving of the spirit and ready to acknowledge the spirit’s leading in others.
Each new year that I was minister at St Albans United I got up early and went out to make photograph of the beginning of that year. On one particular year I had spent New Years Eve with friends and certainly did not feel like getting up in time to photograph the sun rise on New Year’s Day. But when that bright orb slid up over the horizon and the clouds above took on a bright warm glow making shimmering reflections in the wet sand left by a receding wave, I knew it was indeed a new year, a new year of glowing possibilities.
In the warmth of that moment still sits on my computer and reminds me each day of the voice from scripture calling us all to be the people we are born to be. It’s a photograph that reminds me of the prophet’s voice speaking as the divine mystery and creator of all things that opens the future to us:
See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare. (Isaiah 42:9a)
[1] Warren Carter, Matthew and the Margins: A Socio-Political and Religious Reading (London: T&T Clark International 2000), p.103
[2] http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/MtChristmas.htm