Today’s collect reminds us that at Jesus’ baptism, God anointed him with the Holy Spirit, and “with power” the writer of the second lesson adds. Then the gospel gives us the glorious image of the heavens being opened as the Spirit of God descends like a dove on Jesus, capped off with the voice of God echoing in his ears. What an epiphany of the Divine Presence!

We tend to think that was just for the Son of God. Yet we too are anointed with the Holy Spirit at baptism. We are daughters and sons of God as well. Those of us who were baptized as infants have no memory of that holy sacrament that we can call to mind, but I suspect that memory remains deeply imprinted in the core of our being in the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Suppose for a moment that those babies who scream at baptism are not, as is often said, scaring away the devil, but are awed by the sight of the heavens opened above them and the Spirit descending on them. Just imagine! An epiphany of which we may have been unaware, but it is no less powerful in the world around us. God’s indwelling, enfolding Presence is here and now, the Source and Essence of all.

Oh, that we could realize and accept our call to incarnate divine Love this day, with joy and delight to pass on to each and all that which we have received from the Holy One, to respond daily to the invitation to join the divine circle dance of the three-personed Trinity. Perhaps that would be a good New Year’s Resolution.