With Jesus’ baptism, God has involved himself in our sin, in our mess, and in our baptism we’ve gotten involved, been recruited into God’s work of cleaning that mess up. We’re in it together, God with us and us with God, as we work with God to bring about God’s plan to bring the world to right.

Stanley Hauerwas of Duke University once observed that the greatest enemy of the Gospel is not atheism, but sentimentality. Perhaps there's no time when we're more susceptible to this danger than at Christmas with the stories about the birth of Jesus. What parent hasn't gushed with pride watching their child play a shepherd in a bathrobe or an angel with a coat hanger halo? It's difficult to read words like "they wrapped him in swaddling clothes" and not melt into a puddle of