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.
January 1 is also the beginning of the civil new year, a day commonly associated with resolutions, fresh starts, and the mixture of hope and uncertainty that accompanies an unknown year. The Church does not need to reject those ordinary human instincts in order to say something deeper.
From ancient times the Church has honored the children of Bethlehem as martyrs. Their martyrdom is unique because they did not consciously confess Christ, understand why they were being killed, or knowingly choose suffering for his sake. They were infants and very young children.
The Gospel grounds its proclamation in eyewitness testimony rather than detached religious speculation. John does not merely contemplate Christ from a distance. He bears witness to the Lord whom he knew, heard, followed, saw crucified, and encountered risen from the dead.