The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
January 9, 2000
Vol. 3 no. 2

Everything But...
      I never thought much about when Jesus was baptized in the River Jordan, but here is this tradition that it happened right at the beginning of Epiphany. Of course, it comes logically at the very beginning of Jesus' ministry, which except for 30-odd years is right after the Nativity.
      But then you start to think about being baptized in the River on January 9 and you just hope it didn't happen in Saskatchewan. I can only shiver at the thought.
      What the baptism is essentially about is how the Holy Spirit came down and took over Jesus' mind and spirit. A dove descending was the visual image of the Third Person of the Trinity who needs to be with us at each step of our pilgrimages if our faith is to be a living one, not just a memory of the good ol' days when God and Jesus helped us out.
      We don't usually feel comfortable talking about the Holy Spirit. That's for the Pentecostals and other "spirit-filled" churches, which to our perception allow themselves to get too much out of control under the influence of the Spirit.
      Sometimes we're like those guys Paul ran into - followers of John the Baptist who thought John had said all there was to say. "We didn't know there was a Holy Spirit!" Lots of people know generally who Jesus is; many don't believe in the institution of the Church, but know there is a God. Yet the idea of the Holy Spirit is only a "ghost story" to them, something mythological and unreal.
      Yet, is there anyone who doesn't know that to reach the heights in any art, profession, sport, or relationship you have to be inspired? We're never sure where inspiration comes from, but no matter how good technically you are at your task, you need inspiration to be really alive. "In-spire"...the spirit in...you. God is still at work in us, mysteriously. It starts with water and baptism.