Note: This homily was prepared for January 4 and also January 11, 2026, but was never delivered because of my illness and lack of voice.

Homily 670 – 30 APE
Holy Transfiguration, Ames, Iowa
January 4, 2026
Epistle:  (298) 2 Timothy 4:5-8
Gospel:  (1) Mark 1:1-8

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, One God.

When we hear the account of the baptism of our Lord, I think sometimes we wonder – why does Jesus need baptism?  What purpose does the baptism serve?

There are some that would call that a silly question, but it is actually a very good question.  It is a question that St. John the Baptist asked.  He said, “He who comes after me is more powerful than I, and I am not worthy to kneel down and untie the strap of his sandals. I baptized you in water, but he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit.”

Peumati Hagio:  the Spirit which is Holy.  The Spirit which is God.

In the Doxasticon, the so-called “glory verse” at the Aposticha last evening at vespers, we hear the Forerunner, the Baptizer of Christ, tell us:  “It is I who need to be baptized by You; / why do You come to me?

Some in our generation would say that Christ is providing an example for us to follow.  That nothing actually happens.  But John’s cry to the Lord doesn’t really fit that description.  The forerunner speaks of that which is somehow powerful, transcendent.  Not of this world.

In the verses of the Lord, I call … also at vespers last night – by the way, you miss a lot of knowledge when you skip vespers!  But in the verses, we hear John say:  “I am grass and ashes, and You are the Unapproachable Fire. / Before You the hosts of heaven tremble. / Then why do You bow Your holy head before me, O my Christ? / Great is Your life-giving condescension!”

The next stichera gives us this:  Here is our Light, our Redemption, / and our Salvation, / coming to the Jordan to reveal Himself. / By clothing Himself in the waters / He clothes Himself with the nakedness of all / and lays bare the counsel of the demons.

Finally, this:  This is indeed the Unbearable Fire, / Who comes to the Jordan / to cleanse me from the destruction of my evil transgressions. / Let me partake of the earthly rain / and in the midst of the waters wash the filth of my many sins, / for You are bountiful and you grant many mercies!

What we are encountering is the restoration of the water to its unfallen state.  Before the fall, water gave life.  After the fall, it could only wash away dirt.  What Christ does is sanctify the water.  Washing away sin.

We do need to understand that sin isn’t something that we do.  Sin is much simpler, and much deeper, than that.  Sin is separation from God.  We are born into sin, still an innocent child, having done nothing wrong – or right, for that matter.  But we are still “in sin” and separated from God.

What the water did was clean our physical bodies.  After the baptism of Christ, the Theophany or revelation of Christ, the water washes away our sin; which is to say, it re-establishes our connection with God.

At the fall of humanity, described in Genesis 3, the nous, the eye of our soul by which we connect to God, became clouded – overshadowed – by our ego.  It was darkened, not by God, but by Adam and Eve, when they determined to decide for themselves about what is good and bad, what was desirable and what was to be rejected.

That is the ego in action – it is the idea of self-determination.  The ego didn’t allow anything to pass through it – not even God.  Our nous became clouded.  We could no longer see God, no longer experience the presence of God.

Genesis 3 puts it this way:  we were naked, and we tried to hide from God.  Instead of being enlightened by God, clothed by His Glory, we were blinded, naked, and afraid.

What Christ does in His baptism is re-establish that the water can give life, and wash away our dirt – but also wash our “nous”, and cleanse us, that we might again be connected to God.

We are thus called the “newly illumined” immediately after baptism.  In today’s Church, that phrase applies about the sacrament of Chrismation, the seal or deposit or downpayment of the Holy Spirit for us.

Christ, in His humanity, leads the way, demonstrates for us, to be restored to God.  In His baptism, His humanity – our humanity – is reconnected to God, as Christ’s divinity was from the eternity before the creation.

This introduces for us a new struggle, which we haven’t experienced before.  Our ego tries and tries to reclaim the place overshadowing our nous, and blinding us again.  Our pride, the same as the ego, wants us to be in charge, and not Christ.

That, brothers and sisters, is our struggle.  That is our life-long spiritual battle.  We have met the enemy, and the enemy is us.  Now for certain the evil one and his minions are cheering on and supporting the ego, trying to get us to believe ourselves and disconnect from God.

They want us to overshadow God, through our ego, or through fear, or through some other diabolical means.  Whatever they can do to encourage us, they will do.  But we cannot and should not fight against them.

We must instead fight against ourselves.  Only our ego, our “self”, can cover our nous.  The evil one cannot blind us, he can only urge us and cajole us to blind ourselves.  We fight against ourselves.

And the way we fight, the way we remained illumined, is to refocus our attention on Christ.  We allow Him to fill our vision, to fill our windshield, so to speak.  When we do this, our ego, our will, our pride, is set aside.  We keep ourselves clean, by filling ourselves with God.

It does no good for us to simply push the evil one to the side.  We can do that, but doing so only focuses our attention on him, and away from Christ.  We become the man who had the demon that possessed him banished, but then, being clean but empty, allowed the demons an opportunity to come again.

So, my brothers and sisters in Christ, drink deeply of the blessed waters of Christ’s baptism.  Fill yourselves with Christ, His light, His love.  Don’t let anything get in the way of Christ.

Refocus your attention and effort on Christ, and on others, every moment of every day.  In doing this, which is called repentance, you will remained illumined, and you will continue to receive the Light, the Life, of Christ.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, One God.  Glory to Jesus Christ!