For Such a Time as This

Baptism of our Lord-A26

Immanuel Lutheran, Chicago

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America…” I remember standing to face the flag in kindergarten, hand over my heart, to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Years earlier, like many of you, I was baptized as an infant at Elim Lutheran Church in Fargo North Dakota. The minister traced the cross on my forehead and said, “Child of God, you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.” (ELW p. 231) I have pledged allegiance to both the font and to the flag. Which holds higher place?

I think we all know the right answer. Allegiance to God comes before fidelity to nation. Yet, somehow, many Christians today have reversed this order. With a straight face they claim God favors America above all other nations, or that God values white men above other people. Or worse, they proclaim an anti-gospel of power for power’s sake, which Senior White House aide Stephen Miller this week called, ‘…the iron law of the world since the beginning of time,’ (CNN interview with Jack Tapper, 1/5/26).

As Lutheran pastor and theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, made clear, ‘Those who are baptized no longer belong to the world, no longer serve the world, and are no longer subject to it. They belong to Christ alone and relate to the world only through Christ.’ (Bonhoeffer, Introduction to the Cost of Discipleship, 1937).

At his baptism, Jesus experienced a moment of divine revelation, called an epiphany, as he came up out of the water. The word “epiphany” comes from the Greek meaning “insight,” or “appearing,” or “revealing,” or “a shining forth.” We cannot create epiphanies, but we can respond to them. The Sacrament of baptism is an outward, visible sign of an inward, invisible grace. In other words, it is an epiphany. (Debi Thomas, “Stepping In,” Journey with Jesus, 1/05/20)

“To embrace Christ’s baptism story is to embrace the core truth that we are united, interdependent, connected, one.  It is to sit with the staggering reality that we are deeply, loved. We belong to a created universe that whispers, laughs, and shouts God’s name from every nook and corner. Christians are called into radical solidarity, not radical separateness.” The One who holds history, holds time, holds earth and sun and wind and sky, and holds me and you. (Thomas).

The epiphany of Christ reveals a golden rule emanating from the heart of creation that is older than the iron rule of rulers. Dictators may love gold, but they hate the golden rule. Christ the logos, is the golden law which operates in all things pulling us toward life and the abundance of life. This sense of epiphany, rooted in the incarnation, widens our vision so that everything can be a sacrament, meaning every person, creature, plant, and object can be an opportunity to encounter something of the Divine Presence in the world.  (Richard Rohr, “Recognizing Grace,” Daily Meditations, 11/10/25)

‘Which means I must choose Epiphany.  Choose it and then practice it.  The challenge is always before us: look again. Look harder. See freshly.  Stand in the place that looks utterly ordinary, and regardless of how scared or jaded you feel, cling to the possibility of a surprise that is God. Listen to the ordinary and know that it is infused with divine mystery.  Epiphany is deep water. You must take a deep breath and plunge in.’  God does not dominate us with an iron rule. Instead, God calls us into relationship ruled by the law of love. Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.

That is why everything that comes into the world brings novelty into the world; starting with the first great novelty—14 billion years ago when the universe exploded into existence. For the first 2 billion years, all there was, as Genesis tells us, was light; all there was, was energy. We are the product of that light.

And then, as if that illumination were not miraculous enough, some of these stars collapsed and exploded again, sending out more material that had never existed which ultimately makes me and you possible. We would not exist without carbon; we would not exist without iron.

Fast forward another four billion years and on one very lucky planet, the third rock from the sun, there is pervasive thunder and lightning. But not lightning like we see today. The lightning of ten billion years ago is a lightning that is constant and everywhere! Life emerged in the frothy mix of lightning and water on planet earth. Do you know what powers your consciousness? We are packets of lightning. Our nervous systems are electrical systems. The flash of lightning that burst into life, continues to burst inside of you at this moment. I am speaking words and you are hearing me thanks to bottled lightning.

And then, as if that were not miracle enough, these little packets of lightning—learned to eat. Life learned to digest life. Life learned to grow by building more life, and the miracles continued as cells learned how to convey information. We got some backbone in ourselves, and then did something astonishing, unprecedented: We left our mother, the ocean.

“I told you before that you are portable lightning, but that is not the whole story. You are also portable bags of ocean; the saline solution of your blood is closer to the content of ocean water than you realize. We are living, walking puddles of ocean, powered by lightning. In our bodies, in our self, is the entire story of the universe continuing to unfold. You yourselves contain the energy of the Big Bang, the primordial lightning out of which life emerged, the salty life-giving mix of the sea, the sociability of primates—all of that ancient history is in you, in each of us.” As the poet Walt Whitman once said, ‘You contain multitudes.’ (Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson, “CLAY in the Potter’s Hands: Human Evolution in a Self-Creating World,” Creative Transformation magazine).

“Christ is the communion of divine personal love expressed in every created form of reality — every star, leaf, bird, fish, tree, rabbit, and human person” (Ilia Delio). The French poet and philosopher, Paul Valéry, said, “The universe is built on a plan, the profound symmetry of which is somehow present in the inner structure of our own intellect.” I could not be me without ‘we.’ In fact, I could not exist without us. A shift takes place when we see life in this way. Our minds, our bodies, our emotions, our way of being in the world, are the universe itself organized into consciousness. Or the universe organizing itself and erupting into consciousness.” (Artson). ‘If that’s not an epiphany I don’t know what is.

“This extraordinary season [of Epiphany] induces awe. Epiphany reveals that there is more to the world than what we accept as “ordinary.” And there are powers and principalities that will press against Epiphany with fear and great violence….” as King Herod did at the birth of Jesus (Diana Butler Bass, A Beautiful Year, p. 78).

There will always be those who attempt to deny or to destroy the rule of love, but love is undeniable and indestructible because love is life itself.  Epiphany is made for such a time as this. Perhaps Epiphany is the season we most need now. “We need its clarity, its sharp starkness. Maybe this moment in history is an epiphany — the ordinary is being pulled back to reveal that which has been hidden from view—both the ugly and the sublime. “It is as if the universe has cracked open with truth and terror. We live in awful and awe-filled times.” Some of what we know as ordinary has become the gateway to glory; and some of what we, and people like Stephen Miller have accepted as ordinary, has shown itself to be just another hiding place of vanity and self-delusion. It takes an epiphany to reveal which is which — to know the deepest love in the world and live in the tailings of the star.” (Butler-Bass).

“Yes, baptism promises new life, but it always drowns before it resurrects.”  (Thomas). ‘You are fearfully and wonderfully made’ (Psalm 139:14). You are descended from generations of stars. You are born of lightning, born of ocean, formed of Spirit and of earth. You are friends of Christ Jesus. You are children of God. “We are to be light bearers. You are to choose the light” (Madeline L’Engle, Ring of Endless Light).  So, arise. Shine. Be light.