The Baptism of the Lord
Sunday, January 11, 2026
St. James Cathedral

        With all the rain we’ve had this past week, we could probably do without the sprinkling with baptismal water that will accompany our renewal of baptismal promises after the homily. It’s been “water, water everywhere,” hasn’t it - enough water from the heavens without needing more of it in church! It seems there’s no escaping water – not in nature and not even in church, where water is and will always be not just a phenomenon of nature but a sacrament: a sign of death and a sign of life – the death of Jesus and the life of Jesus that in our baptism became our life.

        The feast of the Baptism of the Lord is a perfect time to reflect not only on the baptism of Jesus but on our own. Baptism. Often, when I give a tour of the cathedral, I tell people that it is difficult to escape baptism in St, James Cathedral. Like the water in Seattle, it’s everywhere. All around us. You meet baptism first if you approach the great west doors out there where the baptism of Christ is powerfully captured in bronze. And then you meet baptism again once you enter the cathedral. The saving waters are right there in your path - in our beautiful baptistery and, now, quite prominently, in our new Portico. The saving waters are right there like they were for the chosen people of old who entered the Promised Land only after going through the waters of the Red Sea. The holy water with which we bless ourselves is there to remind, to refresh, and to challenge. It is difficult to escape baptism in this cathedral!
But baptism doesn’t stop at the front doors or in the center aisle!  Once you have crossed through the waters, so to speak, if you look up and beyond, you meet baptism yet again. That beautiful central stained-glass window in the east apse is the baptism window. (Look at it if you can.) It’s today’s gospel story in glass and glorious color. Jesus stands in the waters of the Jordan, John the Baptist on one side, an angel on the other, and over his head and down his body flow the waters of baptism. Above him, the heavens stand open and the Spirit of God hovers, the same creative spirit who hovered over dark waters at the very dawn of creation when God said “Let there be light!”

        And there is even more of baptism in that window: There are two Old Testament foreshadowings of baptism. If you look carefully you will see that the waters of the Jordan don’t stop at Jesus: they flow downward as if by some mystical gravity, becoming, first, the waters of the Red Sea through which Moses led the chosen people to the Promised Land, and then, at the bottom of the window, they become the waters of the great flood over which Noah and his family and friends floated to freedom in the safety of the Ark. “Water, water everywhere!” It is difficult to escape baptism in this cathedral.

       My friends, the church is wise in knowing that we need reminders of our baptism, and the church is wise in giving us each year this feast of the Baptism of Christ. What happened to Jesus that day in the waters of the Jordan is not all that different from what happened to you and to me the day we were baptized. Thanks to the mysterious power of sacrament, the heavens opened, the Spirit of God descended upon us, and God’s voice proclaimed each of us beloved.

        Dear friends, our baptism was more than just a moment in time or an event recorded in the pages of a sacramental register of a church. Our baptism is our birthright – our passport, our inheritance. Thanks to our baptism, we are God’s beloved daughters and sons, part of the Body of Christ, the Church, and the same Spirit who descended upon Jesus at his baptism took up residence within us. Permanent residence! And with our baptism came an incalculable grace and privilege – a sharing in Divinity (I’ll say it again: a sharing in Divinity!). And with our baptism also came a call and a mission. A call to discipleship, a call to follow Christ wherever he leads us and a call to embrace his gospel with all its glories and all its challenges.

        Dear friends, as we celebrate the Feast of the baptism of Christ today, let us rejoice in our own baptism, let us embrace our baptism, and let us be renewed in its meaning, its calling – and, yes, let us be glad that it is very difficult in St. James Cathedral to escape baptism! Considering what baptism is all about, why would we ever want to?!
 

Father Michael G. Ryan