January 11, 2026 | Baptism of Our Lord @ Holy Trinity Lutheran Church – Buffalo, NY
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Last Sunday, we celebrated Epiphany Sunday which we also know as “all y’all Sunday.” Epiphany Sunday is all y’all Sunday because God’s grace is for all y’all, which means that there’s no one who is outside of God’s grace. No one! Isn’t everyone included in all y’all? Since we are in the season of Epiphany, doesn’t that make this all y’all season? This is a time for us to focus on letting Christ be known. This is a time to emphasized that the light of Jesus has come into the world for all y’all!
John 1 says, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.”
Luke 2 may sound familiar also. You may know this as Simeon’s Song or the Nunc Dimitis: “Lord, now you let your servant go in peace; your word has been fulfilled: my own eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared in the sight of every people: a light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel.”
Then, we hear Jesus say, “You are the light of the world …. Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14-16).
You see … this is our heritage. Jesus is the light and now he says to us, “You are the light.” As people of the light, we pay attention to what’s going on around us. Where there is darkness, we share light. Where there is deceit or falsehoods, we seek truth and clarity. As I talk to and pay attention to people, I hear them needing light in their lives. I hear people who are exhausted, frustrated, worried, overwhelmed, anxious, and even have a feeling of helplessness.
All of us have challenges in our lives – sicknesses, disappointments, loss, and death touch us. We bring all of this into our current experience. Many of us are still adjusting after Christmas and New Years. As luck would have it, these are the times when we hear songs like “What a Wonderful World.” You may hear those words and wonder, “Is this really such a wonderful world?”
News from Iran is frightening, especially as we also hear about the possibility of military incursions into Cuba, Columbia, and Greenland, on top of the actual military action in Venezuela. People have very different perspectives on these events. Some people feel and believe that the United States is simply exercising the rule of law to protect our citizens. Other people can’t believe that we’re actually living in a time where the United States of America has invaded a sovereign nation and has taken their president and his wife along with millions of barrels of crude oil.
We hear the news from Minneapolis as that community is embroiled in conflict around the I.C.E. immigration enforcement actions. Some believe that these I.C.E. actions are similar to the federal government’s role in Venezuela – that we are simply exercising the rule of law. Some believe that the people who are protesting against I.C.E. or seeking to prevent them from doing what they were sent to Minneapolis to do are standing up for immigrant right and standing up for people who don’t have a voice.
The killing of Rachel Nicole Good has been shared all over the news and social media. The perspective from the federal government is that she used her car as a weapon of “domestic terrorism.” Others of us who saw the videos see a woman not using her car as a weapon, but as a person trying to flee a dangerous situation.
What’s right? What’s true? What’s shady or in the darkness?
Some people say we need to leave politics out of religion … leave politics out of the church. But, my friends, we have known from the time that we were children that the church is not a building, the church is not a steeple … open the doors and see all the people. We know that we are the church! Whether issues of politics or other difficult topics that affect our lives are addressed here in this building or in some other place, we live in the quagmire. The things that affect us can be messy, painful, and extremely volatile. Especially right now, we are reminded that, in the midst of the quagmire is the light of Christ. We are reminded that, in the messiness, in the pain, in the points of disagreement and harm, Emmanuel … God is with us. We are reminded that Jesus is the light of the world and the darkness cannot overcome it. You and I are inheritors of that light. So, my question now is, “Are we missing something?” Are we missing something because, on the one hand, we’re saying Jesus is the light of the world the light no darkness can overcome, and yet we’re seeing pervasive darkness around us. What are we missing? Could it be that people are so focused on who is “right” and who is “wrong”?
Do you know about the Doppler Effect? The Doppler effect explains, for example, the change in the sound we hear from a train horn. If you were to stand far away from the train when it honks its horn, you’re going to hear and experience one thing. If you stood next to the railroad tracks and the train came by you honking its horn, you’re going to experience the Doppler Effect. But if were to be on the train, you would not experience the Doppler Effect but would hear a steady horn noise. All three of these experiences are different. Is any one of them right or righter than the others? Are any wrong? When we’re less concerned about who is right and who is wrong, our souls open up … our spirit opens up … our minds open up to Jesus, the light no darkness can overcome. We open up to see Jesus as Emmanuel. God is with us and has come to us through the baby lying in the manger to experience life as we do. Jesus went to be baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. Jesus entered into the waters of baptism just like we do and, through that baptism, Jesus experienced his identity as the voice from the cloud said “This is my son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
We open up to see that Jesus’ priority is love. We open up to see that Jesus knew the law, but he also knew people. The law said that work could not be done on the Sabbath day, including healing people. But did Jesus heed that law? How did Jesus make the decision to act in a way that was contrary to the law in that situation? Was the decision Jesus made to heal people on the Sabbath a decision of light or a decision of darkness? A decision of love or a decision of restricting love? We open up to see that Jesus is, in fact, a light that has come into the world that no darkness can overcome. In the light of Jesus, we can more clearly see our own identity. We are citizens of the United States, but, more importantly, we are citizens of the Kingdom of God. We are connected with one another even though we view the world differently. We’re called to be one. Of course, there are people among us who view things differently. Is a requirement of unity having to see and understand things the same as others? Can we still be one together … can we still be the light together … if we differ?
This morning, I asked Alexa to play worship music. What she played was profound. Sarah LcLachlan’s version of the Prayer of St. Francis: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love.” How can we be people of peace and people of justice?
Our baptisms means something. Our baptism does something. Our baptism calls us to be something. Our baptism calls us to be one even with our differences. Our baptism calls us to be the light of Christ and carry on the work of the epiphany. Our baptism calls us to worry so much less about “political winning” and less about being right, and more about God’s people. How are we called to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8) together.
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Epicurious Lutheran 