Sunday, 7 January, 2018 The Baptism of our Lord

                   —Last night’s Epiphany Blessing—

Grant 

you 

to be 

stren-

gthen-

ed 

with 

might 

by God‘s Holy Spirit, that, Christ

  dwelling in your hearts, you may 

    be filled with all the fullness of God

                                          *

                                         Jesus 

                                              came to 

                                      lead us through 

                                  the waters of life &

                                death into life eternal. 

                            It has never been his style

                        to shout directions to us from

                     some saf place of his own. He 

                has  always led us from within our

            midst…  He who is without sin was bap-

         tized in the river Jordan to avoid the sin of

  standing apart from us.  -Barbara Brown Taylor,

                                in Give Us This Day 1/6/18

He was baptized to avoid the sin of standing apart from us.