Baptism of Christ-Reflection by Canon Leslie

Today the Church is celebrating the Baptism of Christ. The Gospel reading is Luke’s account of the baptism of Jesus.  More than the other evangelists, Luke emphasises the role of the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ baptism.  In Luke’s account, the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in bodily form like a dove.  The words spoken by the voice from heaven, ‘You are my Son’ echo Psalm 2, a psalm used to celebrate the anointing of kings. 


For those of you who wanted to do some thinking and preparation for today’s service during the preceding week, I invited reflection on the image of dove. In today’s picture from his book, Water, Teddy Horsley looks at the stained glass window, where he sees the dove descending at Jesus’ baptism. 


Lord Jesus Christ, 
the holy dove came down at your baptism. 
Let that same dove 
bring the Spirit of peace to our lives; 
now and always. 
Amen. 


Next Sunday, the Second Sunday of Epiphany, takes us to John’s account of the Wedding at Cana, where the wine ran out. The image to help us prepare for next week’s theme is wedding reception. You can find out more about that theme here https://www.prayerforliverpool.org/prayer-resources.html. We would really appreciate you letting us know how you are using these materials.