Pleasing God

A woman who had no religion, decided to read the New Testament and investigate the claims of Christianity. A few months later, having been favorably impressed, she decided to join the Church and was baptized. Following the baptismal ceremony, she said enthusiastically, “I could feel the Holy Spirit descending on me, and I immediately began to see things differently than before. I thought about my cousin Myrtle whom I always hated with a passion. I vowed once that if she died I wouldn’t even go to her funeral. But now I’ll be happy to go to her funeral, anytime.”

Today’s Gospel Lesson is the story of Jesus’ baptism. At this point, Jesus is about thirty years old and we know very little about Him. At age twelve He appeared for a brief moment in the Temple for what today would be a Bar Mitzvah. It is eighteen years later when he again appears: at the River Jordan where John is baptizing, and preaching about…