Husband. Father. Anglican Priest.
The point is not that Israel has been rejected. The Gentiles find Christ precisely through Israel’s Scriptures and come to Israel’s Messiah. But knowledge of the text without faith and worship is not enough.
We are baptized into Christ, not merely into the memory of what happened at the Jordan. We are joined to the one who entered those waters, went to the Cross, bore our sins, and rose again. The same Holy Spirit who rested upon Christ is given to his people.
The Collect moves directly from Christ to the Church without confusing the two. At the Jordan, Jesus is revealed as the Father’s Son and the Spirit descends upon him. In Christian Baptism, those united to Christ are born again by water and the Spirit and received as adopted children.
The season is therefore a genuine bridge between Christmas and Lent, but it is not merely an interval between more important things. It has its own work to do. The Church must learn to recognize the Son before she can understand the Cross as the saving work of that Son.
The Child born in Bethlehem is Israel’s Messiah, and precisely because God is faithful to his promises to Israel, he is also the one through whom the ancient promise of blessing to the nations is fulfilled.
We are not strangers trying to earn our way into the household. God has chosen us in Christ, redeemed us through his blood, forgiven our sins according to the riches of his grace, and sealed us with his Spirit. The longing of Psalm 84 is fulfilled beyond imagination.