It's been a while since I've shared anything on my old blog, but my sermon from this past week was too important not to share. TCU was never about football (well, JUST about football) for me and I am so thankful to share this place I love so much with the world tonight. Win or lose, I am just overwhelmed that people will finally know about this place that has meant so much to me. 

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Do What I Do – Matthew 3:13-17
Rev. Erin Dickey – January 8th, 2023
 
Okay, you have to trust me on this – I really tried to avoid talking about TCU football during my sermon today… But even as I wrote out my meticulous color coded notes, my fingers couldn't help but curl in a certain direction... it was as if my heartbeat was saying, "Ribbit Ribbit. Ribbit Ribbit. Ribbit Ribbit." .... and when it’s been 85 years since you’ve played for a national title, you’ve just got to acknowledge the horned frog in the room. 
 
And yes, I know the saying is actually “elephant in the room”, 
but Alabama wasn’t even invited to the room 
so there aren’t any elephants. 
 
I will also say that I do really love Georgia and it is an honor to play against such a great team that I respect. 
 
 
That being said, this isn’t REALLY about football, 
and if you are attune to the lectionary calendar, 
this isn’t even the Epiphany scripture as that was slated for Friday. 
 
No, today, we are talking about Jesus’ baptism 
but in hearing the story of Jesus’ baptism, 
we will also hear a word of Epiphany 
and how, in my life, that comes in various shades of purple. 
 
I’ll also thank you in advance for your grace, as
this is probably the most I will ever talk about myself and my journey 
in one sermon, but it seems like we may only get this chance once every 85 years so thanks for sticking with me!
 
Our scripture this morning comes from the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 3, verses 13 through 17:
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 
 
16 And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw God’s Spirit descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from the heavens said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
 
The Word of God for the People of God.
 
Thanks be to God.
 
Will you please pray with me?
 
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of each of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, our Rock and our Redeemer. In these ancient words, may we find a living word. Amen. 
 
 
Our passage begins with Jesus leaving Galilee and coming to the Jordan River so that he can be baptized by John. Though this passage isn’t very long, it’s incredibly deep and offers so much in these short verses. 
 
The Jordan River carries great significance in scripture 
and for the people of Israel. 
 
It was the Jordan River that the Israelites cross 
to make it to the Promised Land. 
Crossing the Jordan River meant safe passage to the place 
where you will be sustained and shown mercy 
and so Jesus coming to the Jordan River, 
asking to be baptized by John, 
creates a space for God to work 
and to open the doors 
to a beloved community, 
offering the deliverance 
they’ve been seeking.
 
As he approached John, John questions him, 
saying that he isn’t worthy of baptizing Jesus. 
There are a few reasons that John may have reacted this way. 
 
First, John’s understanding of baptism is rooted in Hebrew scripture. 
 
For John, baptism presents more like the Jewish ritual of Mikveh, 
a ritual cleaning that prepares one to be in presence of God. 
 
It’s a type of purification, and unlike the Christian understanding of baptism being the one time reception of the Holy Spirit, 
this type of ritual cleaning could be done as many times as needed 
to prepare one for worship. 
 
Though this is how is presents historically, 
John is preparing for a new understanding, 
a new way of the Holy being revealed 
and instead 
places a call for his followers, 
who are in turn being prepared to follow Jesus, 
to repent of their sins in preparation 
of following Jesus. 
This changes this historical understanding of baptism, 
as the mikveh was more geared towards internal preparation, 
and this takes on the additional meaning 
of being an outward expression of one’s desire 
to enter into relationship with the Holy. 
 
Within this new understanding, there is also a raised concern 
as to how this could impact one’s social standing. 
 
For someone to come forward, particularly for a man to come forward, and publicly confess their wrongdoings, could be seen as shameful. 
 
When John places the call to be baptized, 
he does so knowing that to follow Jesus, 
he’s asking his followers, 
his beloved community, 
to give up their power and social standing, 
jeopardizing their role in society.
 
Second, John understands Jesus to be one without sin. 
 
In his call for repentance, he doesn’t think that Jesus has anything to repent from. And because of Jesus’ place as the son of God 
without a sin to his name, 
John sees himself as inferior, 
unworthy of baptizing Jesus 
and assuming an authoritative role over him. 
 
Third, there’s a possibility that this is the author of Matthew’s Gospel projecting, knowing that the readers in years to come 
would raise these questions 
and by having it present as a dialogue between Jesus and John, 
it addresses the concerns of future generations 
who may question why Jesus needs to be baptized 
or why John is worthy 
of doing so.
 
Jesus takes time to listen to John, 
to hear his concerns, 
and addresses them saying that this needs to happen 
to fulfill God’s law of righteousness, 
which in their context, 
meant relational. 
 
In Hebrew scriptures, we read that to be righteous 
meant to be in relationship with God. 
 
 
It was a relational covenant, 
trusting in God 
and turning 
to God. 
 
To be righteous didn’t mean to be perfect or have superb morality; 
it meant to lean on God, 
the greatest commandment,
to love our God with all of our hearts, 
mind, 
and soul.
 
Jesus needs John to baptize him to fulfil the relational covenant, 
not just between the person of Jesus and God, 
but between Jesus and those he came to deliver into righteousness, 
bringing them into relationship with God. 
Once John understands it in this way, he consents. 
 
And it isn’t until consent is received that Jesus is baptized. 
 
Jesus needs to model this type of relationship, 
of mutual trust and devotion, 
so that those who come after him, 
those who enter those same baptismal waters, 
will know that following Christ 
isn’t about perfection – 
it’s about relationship. 
 
Just as God’s covenant and relationship with Israel 
is fostered and nurtured, this
new understanding of being in relationship with  
God is made known in the Jordan. 
The same waters that carried the Israelites to the promised land, 
now take on a different understanding 
of life-giving and sustaining waters, a 
bridge to receiving 
the Covenant of grace.
 
The story of Jesus’ baptism is in all of the synoptic gospels, 
but it varies in Matthew 
from how it is told in Mark and Luke. 
 
In Mark and Luke, God addresses Jesus directly saying, 
“You are my son, the beloved. With you I am well pleased.” 
 
In Matthew, God addresses those who are witnessing Jesus’ baptism, saying, “This is my Son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” 
 
In Mark and Luke, God commissions Jesus to begin his ministry. 
 
In Matthew, God introduces Jesus to the nation of Israel.
God is sharing something exciting, 
God’s very own beloved son, 
with the world. 
 
With pride and excitement, 
God says, 
“Let me introduce you to what I love!”
 
Epiphany is the revelation of God’s work in the world, 
of God’s incarnate word, 
the love of God made tangible. 
 
Epiphany is God saying, “Let me introduce you to what I love!” 
And in response to God introducing Creation 
to that which God loves, 
we are called to share in that righteousness – 
to enter into relationship with God, 
not to be perfect, 
but to be present. 
 
To witness 
how God 
is revealed 
in this world. 
 
Baptism is also about entering into the beloved community, 
striving together to be in relationship with God, 
trekking through deserts and valleys, 
 
entering the Jordan River, 
and seeking the Covenant 
of God’s peace 
in the promised land. 
 
Each of us are called to be a part of that community 
and to nurture it, 
saying to one another, 
“Let me introduce you to what I love! 
Let me tell you about how God has sustained me in the desert 
and across the Jordan, 
how I have trusted in God 
to fulfill the purpose 
for which I’ve been called!”
 
 
Within that community, 
we are called to enter those life giving waters together, 
seeking a deeper relationship with Christ 
and wanting to share it with the world,
introducing what we love
to the world.
 
TCU was never all about football for me. 
 
I had wanted to go to TCU from such an early age 
that I can’t even remember why or how it started, 
but it was in the mid-90s 
and when it came to TCU football in the mid-90s, 
it was not good. 
 
 
I think part of it is because I heard about TCU in church 
and I associated TCU as an extended version 
of the church that I loved so much. 
 
My cousin Robbie had gone to TCU and of course Megan – 
the human, not the bear – and knew several others 
who were closer to my brother’s age that went to TCU, 
but even so, it felt like MY promised land.
 
Not many people in my hometown, outside of our church, 
knew about TCU, but after they met me, they did. 
 
When we had college days in middle school and high school, 
everyone wore LSU colors and I proudly wore TCU. 
I did reports in school about TCU and my career projectory. 
 
I can even remember driving past my Advanced Chemistry teacher one day and he honked his horn and through up the horned from symbol to me. 
 
He didn’t realize it was me, just saw the sticker on the back of my parent’s car. The next day in class when I asked him about it, 
he said his daughter went there and then looked me in the eye and said, “Don’t you have to be pretty smart to go there? 
Is that really where you want to go?” 
 
So naturally, the following year I made him a copy of my acceptance letter and was sure to throw my horned frog back at him on our senior wards night when my scholarship total was announced.
 
 
 
When I finally got my acceptance into TCU, 
which actually came in the form of a voicemail from Dr. Jim Atwood, 
who at the time was the dean of church relations – 
disciples take care of their own – 
my dad left the room 
and came back with a TCU snow globe, 
saying he’d bought it the day I sent in my application 
and had been waiting until this moment 
to give it to me.
 
I knew that if I could just get to TCU 
then I could finally become a minister 
and all of my dreams would come true.
 
 
 
Yes, this is literally my dream, 
to be standing here in a room with each of you, 
and has been 
for longer than I can remember.
 
During a particularly challenging time in high school, 
I wrote a note to myself and said, “You can do it. It will be worth it.” 
 
And at the bottom of that note was a TCU sticker. 
 
I looked at that note almost every single day 
of my senior year of high school,
sometimes twice a day,
praying that God would sustain me long enough to get there, 
in a room, with all of you.
 
I am not exaggerating when I say TCU saved my life that year 
and when I finally stepped on campus in the fall of 2007, 
it felt like I was stepping into the Jordan. 
 
TCU was my Jordan River and ministry was my Canaan. 
 
I just had to get there and then I knew, 
I knew with every fiber of my being, 
that I would be sustained and shown mercy, 
welcomed into the beloved community. 
 
It didn’t mean things would be easy, 
but it did mean I wouldn’t face them alone.
 
 
 
And you know that to be true because over the past 6 years, 
you have met many of those who carried me through those 8 years 
or have heard their stories. 
 
TCU gave me a community where I could explore my faith 
with like-minded and un-like-minded people, 
making spaces to ask the hard questions, 
to hear one another’s stories, 
and to celebrate 
one another’s 
moments 
of 
Epiphany. 
 
 
 
It was those same connections made at my purple promised land 
that later carried me here, calling on people like Nathan and Alexis 
to say, “So tell me what you know about Jacksonville…” 
and then making it feel like home
when we took the leap to move a thousand miles away.
 
TCU playing in 
the national championship game 
isn’t just 
about football 
for me. 
 
No, TCU playing 
in the national championship
is my Epiphany. 
 
It’s my chance to share something I love 
so incredibly much 
with the world, 
to say, 
“Let me introduce you to what I love!” 
hoping that maybe they’ll feel 
the same grace, 
the same strength, 
the same welcome 
that I did. 
 
Sharing TCU with the world looks a lot like being able to share 
how I’ve seen God sustain me in the desert 
and across the Jordan, 
trusting that God would fulfill the purpose 
for which I had been called. 
And even in seasons of draught, 
there has been life giving water. 
 
For some, it’s purple reign, 
for me, it felt a lot more like the holy waters of baptism, 
giving me life 
over and over again.
 
We have entered a season of Epiphany, 
of revealing how God works in this world 
and how God is made known 
to the beloved community. 
 
And in this season of Epiphany, 
we have an opportunity to share how God is revealed 
to each of us. 
We have an opportunity to share 
what those life giving waters look like 
and how we live into the Covenant 
created by God 
and sealed in Christ. 
 
We have an opportunity to say, 
“Let me introduce you to what I love!”
 
Jesus emerging from the baptismal waters 
wasn’t the end of his journey, 
but the very beginning, 
beckoning us to do the same, 
to emerge from the waters, 
excited to share how God 
is being revealed again and again. 
Somewhere between Epiphany, baptisms, and horned frogs, 
God said to Jesus, 
“Let me introduce you to what I love! 
These are our people! 
Can you lead them out of the waters? 
Can you lead them through the desert, 
into a place of grace 
and mercy? 
A place of beloved community?
Son, can you lead them? 
Can you love them?”
 
And in turn, Jesus taught his followers what it meant 
to live into a covenantal community, 
to pour out life giving water 
when desert is all we can see.
For me, the cup of water that Jesus poured out, 
the oasis in the desert, looked a little bit 
like dreaming of a small private school in Texas, 
the largest Disciples of Christ college or university, 
the first university to educate men and women equally 
in the state of Texas in 1873 
and initially called AddRan Male and Female College, 
named for its founders Addison and Randolph Clark, 
two Disciples of Christ ministers,
paving the way for kids like me 
to see how the dreams God placed on their hearts 
could be reality,
that drew me from the desert 
and into life giving waters,
 
 
that commissioned me 
and sent me out 
to live 
into God’s call 
for my life.
 
What does it look like for you? 
What is your epiphany moment? 
And how can you share it with the world?
 
Amen. 
 

Me at 17 (2006) on my official prospective student tour.

Me at 26 (2015) on the day I graduated with my 3rd and 4th degrees from TCU.