This is a word of comfort, because it assures us that even when our words fail, our heart can rest secure, and even when our heart doubts, we can still speak the simplest three-word creed: Jesus is Lord.
Each member finds their value, worth, and identity from the same inexhaustible source: The grace-drenched water of baptism which splashes every living body just the same.
The most counter-cultural action any Christian church can take right now would be to foster healthy and constructive conversations among its members and neighbors across their variety of opinions and perspectives.
Jesus’ baptism ushers in more than only His own life of ministry, the reign of God come near. It opens the power of the baptism He received from God, the power of the Spirit with fire, to all the baptized.
As we continue to celebrate the mystery of the incarnation, this is a perfect moment to meditate on how the work of God “in Christ,” even as it is centered in His death and resurrection, unfolds in every moment of the life of Jesus of Nazareth.
The reign of God in Christ compels us to pray for all in authority, while at the same time our praying for them calls into the question all the idolatries that arise from the exercise of this authority.
This is why Paul is still an “example” for us. If this is what God in Christ can do with “a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence," imagine what God in Christ can do with you and me.