I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and a good start to the new year. It’s always a strange season when we look forward to the coming year with hopefulness and resolutions about what we are going to do better while also thinking back about the year, or years, that now lie behind us. And even though we believe in a God who holds out for us a future full of hope, many of us still tend to focus more on the past: our disappointments, failures, and losses. It is so easy to get stuck back there, unable to leave the events and feelings of our past behind. 

This Sunday, January 11, we are looking at the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. Remember, John’s baptism was about repentance, about the people getting their act together and changing directions. Of course, submitting for baptism meant they recognized that they were going in the wrong direction, that their past was not what it should have been. After all, we are all sinners who have wandered from our heavenly Father’s house in an attempt to construct the life we think we want for ourselves. And yet, Jesus had no past from which he needed to repent. He was the faithful, obedient, loving Son of his Father. So why did he need to get baptized? 

I think Jesus was baptized not only so he could open up a new possibility for our future, a life of blessing lived in relationship with God in this life and the next, but also so that he could redeem our past so that it no longer had to define us or hold us captive. For in Christian baptism, we are made new again as we are joined to Christ and share in his righteousness. As Paul writes, “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). 

Don’t forget that Sunday school classes start up again on Sunday, January 11. You can find a list of adult classes here. One new class is called Presbyterian 101, which will meet in room 308. It’s a great way to start the new year by learning more about our faith.