Welcome
Invite various persons to bring a designated item and use this liturgy as a way to begin your time of learning together.
One: The season of Advent is past and the celebration of Christmas is given way to a New Year, but the story of God’s faithful love continues in
All: Jesus the Christ
One: The Magi followed the star to discover the light that overcomes darkness
(Place a candle on a table but don’t light it yet)
All: Jesus the Christ
One: The light of the world is God’s own Son
(Light the candle)
All: Jesus the Christ
One: Baptized by water and the Spirit he was anointed by God as
(Place the bowl of water on the table)
All: Jesus the Christ
One: We give thanks and remember, we too are baptized and made siblings with
(Each person touches the water)
All: Jesus the Christ
One: We are here, Holy Spirit, ready for your leading.
God sightings and prayer offerings
Invite each person to share where they saw or experienced God this week. Invite each person to share something — a person, community, experience, event, etc. – for which they want to offer prayer.
Good and gracious God, we thank you for all the ways you were and are present in our lives and in the world. [Invite each person to say aloud the sighting they named earlier.] We bring our prayers to you, prayers for… [invite each person to say aloud the prayer need they named earlier]. In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.
Connecting with Scripture: Mark 1:4-11
Read the Scripture aloud the first time using the New Revised Standard Version or the Common English Bible.
As you listen to the Scripture read a second time, sketch how you see this biblical scene unfold.
Connecting through story
Watch this clip from the movie “Toy Story.”
- To whom do Woody and Buzz belong?
- How do Woody and Buzz know they belong to Andy?
- How does that make a difference in their lives?
Connecting with our lives
Engage in dialogue:
- Why was John baptizing people?
- Why was he excited about Jesus coming to baptize people?
- How do we know who Jesus is and how God feels about him?
- Why was Jesus baptized?
- Why are we baptized?
- How does this story of Jesus’ baptism connect with our own baptism?
- What does it mean to be “God’s beloved”?
- In what ways are you God’s beloved?
- What difference does it make in your life does knowing you are God’s beloved?
Teaching points that can be incorporated into your discussion:
- Baptism is one of only two sacraments for Presbyterians and those who claim Reformed as their faith tradition. (The other is the Lord’s Supper.)
- Baptism is the outward sign of God’s invisible grace to us in the gift and person of Jesus the Christ.
- For Presbyterian and Reformed believers, we do not believe that salvation happens in the act of baptism, but that baptism is a sign and a seal of what God has already done in Christ and through the Holy Spirit.
- We believe that baptism only happens once because baptism is God’s work in the Spirit and not the work of humans.
- In baptism, God calls us by name and we are marked as Christ’s own.
- Scripture teaches us that just as we are baptized like Christ, so too, we share in his life, death and resurrection.
- In baptism, we can be assured that we belong to God and that bond can and will never be broken.
- In baptism, we are engrafted into the Body of Christ and made members of God’s own family.
- Martin Luther, the great Reformer whose writings and actions played a significant role in the start of the Protestant Reformation, often looked to his baptism in difficult – and in good – times. As the story goes, he would put his hand in water and touch his head and say, “I am baptized,” as a way of remember who he was and to whom he belonged.
Invite each person to put their hand in the water than the touch their head or forehead, and say, “I am baptized.” What are the ways in which you can remember you are baptized throughout the week?
Prayer
Close your time together by praying for one another, your neighbor, community and the world.
REBECCA DAVIS is the associate professor of Christian education at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina. A teaching elder and certified educator, she served congregations for over 20 years before moving into academic teaching. In addition to teaching and mentoring students, her passion is child advocacy and ministry.
