Sermon preached on The Baptism of Christ Sunday on St John's Mission Action Plan

I speak in the name of the living loving Lord Jesus Christ.

Today I will be working in partnership with Daniel. I will deliver a short sermon and then hand over to Daniel to take you through the initial thinking on the Mission Action Plan.

You may remember that less than 2 months ago we started our Mission Action Planning with a meeting over in Church House involving most of the congregation.

We shared with each other some of our hopes, desires, dreams and even a few frustrations about St. John's and the challenges we face going forward.

For those not familiar with the "Mission Action Plan" – it is simply the process of developing a plan for what we intend to do and achieve at St. John's church going forward over the next 3 years.

Our Gospel readings this morning are about the baptism of Christ.

And although it is Just 2 weeks since we celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ, in fact 30 years have gone past in His life, leading up to the point where he is to baptised by John the Baptist.

The baptism of Jesus is a key milestone and turning point in His life, from a time of growing up and serving the needs of His immediate family, to the start of growing out and His public ministry.

And this milestone is relevant to us as a church as we consider our own ministry and what we are all here for – perhaps too it can be a turning point for us as we consider fully what it means to serve the needs of our broader community and we also move from growing up to growing out too.

John knew that someone far greater was to follow him and John was in effect the warm up artist for the main event. John baptised in water, but Jesus baptises with the Holy Spirit.

John pointed the way to someone much more powerful than himself.

So it is a bit surprising that Jesus should come to John to be baptised – because Jesus was without sin and did not need to have his sins washed away.

Jesus turns things upside down. Although He is fully God, He comes in humility to serve God the Father and to serve and save us by dying for our sins and proclaiming the good news of Gods Kingdom.

Jesus shows that servanthood is at the heart of Christianity.

Most of our culture is built on the satisfaction of ourselves. It is more about me first than others.

As people coming to church it is perfectly possible that we may start by thinking – how can the church help me to get more out of life and how can the church serve my needs.

But at some stage we may stop and ask ourselves – how can we become more Christ-like?

And what would being more Christ-like actually look like or involve?

And these are very big questions for us as individuals and for us as a church – but questions that should be at the heart of our Mission action Planning process.

Becoming more Christ-like is practically impossible without some help.

And that is where the Holy Spirit comes in.

The Holy Spirit is at the core of our 2 readings today.

The heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus as a dove.

The Holy Spirit is sent to help, prepare and enable Jesus to accomplish what he needed to do.

And the truth is that if we are going to live up to our potential we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit too – so that we can truly accomplish all that we were made for – not through our own strength but through the power of God.

Our challenge going forward as a church and as individual members of the church is to live as servants of God in the power of the Holy Spirit, according to the example of Jesus Christ.

We all have unique talents and enormous potential to be what God has created us to be.

But we need God's Holy Spirit inside us, to live up to the potential that is inherent within us.

When we receive the Holy Spirit, Jesus comes to live inside us and helps enable us to do things in his strength and not just our own. You can only be who you were created to be, when you have the Holy Spirit living and working inside you.

Jesus chose to give Himself – becoming a servant and submitting himself firstly to God and then to other people like you and me. Jesus responded to human need by loving service.

Jesus turns our world and our values upside down.

If we are to grow into mature Christ – like people then we must experience progress in giving of ourselves in ministry to and for others.

So, we think of Alison as our Minister but do we also think of ourselves as ministers to Christ and to other people in this church, in this community and in our lives?

This church is totally dependent on the willingness of individuals to serve.

This church is blessed with many people who do serve and are generous with their time and talents.

On 29th January we will hear from some of these people who will say a bit about what they do and also the huge rewards they get by giving of themselves.

The challenge going forward for St. Johns is not just deciding what to do – but in finding the willing helpers to bring all that we want to do to life.

So this New Year we are all invited to take on the role of servants – like Christ, to serve each other and those people in our community that need our help, but are not here today and may not even know Christ.

Our Mission Action Plan is all about reaching out in faith in the love of Jesus Christ.

And your church needs You, and you and you and you to make it happen.

If we ask Jesus to give us His Holy Spirit, it will be something we will really seek to do and with Christ living in our hearts it will become our absolute joy.

2012 - the year of joyous servanthood. Growing up and growing out.

Amen.