God Cannot Be Rushed (1st Epiphany A)
- Guillermo Arboleda
- Jan 11
- 4 min read
A sermon by the Rev. Guillermo A. Arboleda, written for and delivered at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Rincon, GA, on Sunday, January 11, 2026, the 1st Sunday after the Epiphany (Year A).
Primary Bible Reading(s)
Matthew 3:13-17 (NRSV)
Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 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. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
God Canot Be Rushed
By the Rev. Guillermo A. Arboleda, Program Manager for New Starts, ELCA
Sometimes, I feel impatient. I’m sure I’m alone in that. But it’s hard not to get impatient when you’re so used to getting things quickly. I always have a supercomputer in my pocket with easy access to the internet and a growing number of AI bots. I can look something up any time I have a passing thought or curiosity. And if I want to buy something, I don’t even have to get in a car and drive 60 miles per hour on a highway to the nearest store. I can just order it online and have it with free two-day, one-day, or even same-day delivery. Things are fast. Things are in my control. So why should I have to wait for anything?
I’m exaggerating a bit, but you get the idea. There is a temptation in our culture to believe that we can control everything because we seemingly can control so much through technology. We get things faster and faster to the point where ordinary waiting seems unusual or even frustrating. And even in church it sometimes seems like things move at hyperspeed.
Two weeks ago, Jesus was a newborn. Last week, we were showering him with gifts from the Magi. But today, he is a full grown man, 30 years of age, and he is being baptized by John in the Jordan River. In today’s Gospel reading, we watch Jesus launch his public ministry as God’s Beloved Son: fully human, fully divine, fully developed as a charismatic traveling preacher and rabbi. We jump right into stories about the Jesus we know and love.
In a way, the liturgical year serves to trick us a bit. This quick turnaround between the birth of Jesus and the adult ministry of Jesus makes it harder to remember that there were thirty years between these events. Even in the most important life in the history of the universe, the work of God is slow. God is not fast. God cannot be rushed. God does not move on our timeline.
From our church calendar perspective, Jesus jumps right from the cradle to preaching all over Galilee. But in reality, Mary and Joseph experienced their visits from angels, then months of radio silence. Then, they experienced the glorious night of Jesus’ birth, then two or three years of radio silence. Then the magi visited them with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and then decades of radio silence.
Then, in Matthew 3, Jesus came up out of the water, the Spirit descended on his head, and the Father’s voice boomed from heaven proclaiming to all the witnesses along the Jordan River, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). As far as we know, that’s the first time anyone in Jesus’ life has heard a clear message from God in about 30 years.
We often think of saints from the Bible as these unattainable icons of virtue. But they were actually much more relatable. When Mary was changing Jesus’ diapers or making his dinner, don’t you think she would doubt that God was really going to save the world through this child Jesus? When Joseph was showing him how to measure and cut the wood for the 25th time, don’t you think he doubted that this was Immanuel, God with us? I’m sure I would have run out of faith about my divine mission if I were in their shoes. In between the amazing miracles, life was ordinary and boring, and maybe it seemed like God wasn’t really there. It’s easy to get distracted by day-to-day tasks and worries, and lose sight of God’s persistent presence and faithfulness.
Baptism is a sacrament. It is a time when we can be sure and certain that God meets us and gives us grace. But your baptism might not feel like a moment of transformational divine encounter. Most of us were baptized when we were babies, so we cannot even remember that day. Even if God did open up the skies and speak to us during our baptisms, none of us would even recall.
But just because we don’t see visions of God or hear the voice of God thundering from the clouds, does not mean that God is not present and active in our lives everyday, all the time. For Mary, Joseph, and even Jesus, there were long gaps between God’s miraculous points of intervention. But God was always there.
And in our lives, there might not be groundshaking divine dreams or visions. We might crave greater clarity, or more profound experiences of God. But God is not absent. God is always here with us. God’s grace is always real for us, regardless of our emotions. We may feel impatient or anxious, but God meets us even in those emotions.
Waiting might not be fun, but it’s totally normal. The work of God is slow. God cannot be rushed. God does not work on our timeline. And maybe that’s good for us. Getting everything we want as quickly as we want it is not always healthy. Because so much in life actually is outside of our control. And we need patience and resilience and faith in God to persevere when we face those real difficulties. And God is right there with us whenever we do. Amen.
Comments