Identity is important to all of us but in a world of advertising and television it is difficult to assess our true identity. Our world today is dominated by logos. We are shaped by means of trade marks. Designer clothes and expensive sportswear with their exclusive logos make a statement about who we are. Television advertising urges us to upgrade our image, to sharpen our identity. Image is everything and our projection of that image is defined by the place where we live, the car we drive ,the clothes we wear, the sport we follow and the music we listen to. It's all about image. Or is it

Today is the Feast Day of the Baptism of The Lord and this feast lays to rest all the sham and superficiality by reminding us loud and clear that we receive our identity as children of God through our baptism. May I remind you of these words from Holy Baptism - 'As children of God, we have a new dignity and God calls us to fullness of life/

Baptism by water was not new in the time of John the Baptist. Ceremonial washings in rivers were commonplace and expressed a desire of the Israelites to turn their backs on a murky past - the clean slate syndromeand make fresh beginnings in their dealings with God. The ceremonial washing marked out a return to the Lord as a day to remember. However this ceremonial washing could occur several times in a lifetime. John's for~n of baptism was different in that it was a baptism of repentance and once administered could not be repeated. This was John's way of bracing the resolve of those who heard him preach and were anxious to reform their lives. However, John was at pains to point out that his baptism of repentance was only a pale prelude to what someone greater than himself would institute. 'I have baptised you with water but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit'. The first glimpse we have of Jesus in Mark's gospel is as one of the crowd at the river Jordan. His previous thirty years or so had been a preparation for that moment. Until that time, while living a private and obscure life as a carpenter in Nazareth, manufacturing farm implements, he must also have been deepening his relationship with God. Baptism was a significant turning point in the life of Jesus for it marked a change of direction - the end of his time of waiting and the start of his public ministry of service to God's people. Sinless as he was, there was obviously no need for him to beg his Father for forgiveness. So why was he standing ~n a queue with al1 sorts of people to wade into the waters of the Jordan to be baptised by John? Perhaps it's the same situation as his birth, among the animals, born in a manger, amidst the dirt and dung of a stable identifying himself to shepherds. This gesture of standing with all types of people may emphasise his desire to associate with sinful people and to exercise his ministry in the midst of human brokeness and failure. AS the heavens opened and the Spirit descended on him, he came to experience his true identity as God's beloved servant. He realised what his ministry was all about and became aware of the responsibilities that lay ahead. At his crucifixion on the Hill of Calvary he would take upon himself the full consequences of that decision and the heavens would again open and the temple curtain to be ripped in two from top to bottom, causing the centurion to stand in awe and declare, 'surely this man was the Son of God, echoing the voice from heaven at the baptism.

The baptism of the Lord marks God's new way of relating to humanity, through his Son. This feast which puts baptism to the forefront should encourage us to reflect upon the sacrament of our own Christian initiation and what it means to us. Few of us can remember the moment when, as infants in our parent's arms, we were brought to the font to be immersed in or sprinkled with water, cleansed and purified.

However, baptism is not a magic charm becausewhat started out as a Christian proclamation as sons and daughters of God made on our behalf by our parents, needs to be validated in our adult lives by our personal decision. The reality is that we can take our spiritual rebirth for granted and lead lives with no reference to gospel values and to the fact that as God's adopted family we are loved and cared for by our heavenly Father. Baptism not only brings us into a unique relationship with God but also binds us together as a community of faith. It marked the start of our journey of faith, which involves turning away from the darkness of self-centredness, turning towards Christ and becoming a member of the local and worldwide Christian family. The sacrament of baptism is a visible sign of God's love and in baptism we are thanking God for his giD of life and publicly acknowledging his love.

Through our baptism we are invited to continue the mission of Jesus. Our calling is to be Christ like, to journey with Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem, to assume his values, his attitudes and to adopt his manner of dealing with people

This is a day to give thanks to God for the people who have shared their faith with us and have brought us up with the knowledge that we are precious in the eyes of God. At the same time we have to ask ourselves, isit obvious from the kind of lives we lead and the type of people we are, that we are baptised members of Christ's church and that God's favour rests on us.