The Joy of Dropping Everything: The 3rd Sunday of OT

The Readings for this Sunday focus in part on the theme of joy, the joy that comes from recognizing Jesus Christ as the light of the world, the ray of sunshine from God who shows us a different way to live, a way that will lead to an eternal friendship with a God who loves us as our Father.  Jesus is the joy and light that first was promised to the people of Israel long ago, but is now available to the whole world, from Sweden to Swaziland.

1.  Our First Reading is Isaiah 8:23-9:3:

Why Was Jesus Baptized? The Feast of the Baptism

This Sunday we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which will close the liturgical season of Christmas.

But why do we celebrate this event at all?  The primary meaning of baptism appears to be the washing away of sin.  Since Jesus had no sin, why be baptized?  That’s one of the more obvious questions raised by the theme of this feast and by the readings.  At the same time, the readings for this Sunday point us in the direction of an answer. 

1.  The First Reading is Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7:

Gupta ranks our book "Four Views on the Role of Works" one of the best of 2013

Special thanks to New Testament scholar Nijay Gupta, who offers his list of the best books of 2013. Among them is the book I co-wrote with James D.G. Dunn, Thomas Schreiner, and Robert Wilkin, "Four Views on the Role of Works at the Final Judgment", edited by Alan Stanley (Zondervan, 2013).

Gupta writes:

Best Multi-View Work 

There have been several multi-view books out this year (e.g., inerrancy, historical Adam), but pride of place must go to Four Views on the Role of Works at Final Judgment. I found the conversations between Barber, Dunn, and Schreiner especially rewarding. This would make a very nice companion textbook to any New Testament theology course. 

Last year, Gupta wrote a series of thoughtful posts on the book.

• Part 1: Stanley's introduction 
• Part 2: Wilkin 
• Part 3: Schreiner
• Part 4: Dunn
• Part 5: Barber

I was especially gratified by this comment (from Part 5):

This is a very insightful book – it was especially helpful for me to see how Catholic theology approaches this issue.

I really hope to write a series of blog posts on the responses to my chapter. (I'm still stunned that James D.G. Dunn has written a response to something I have written!) I've been unable to focus on that task since the book was published but hopefully I'll get to it in the new year.

By the way, I should return the favor by mentioning that Gupta has a very important book that deserves serious attention, entitled, Worship that Makes Sense to Paul: A New Approach to the Theology and Ethics of Paul's Cultic Metaphors (Walter de Gruyter, 2010).