Choosing a Side: A Sermon By Jim Naughton

In his sermon this morning on the Baptism of Jesus, Jim Naughton, a partner at Canticle Communications, said, “I don’t need to tell you that John the Baptist was a controversial figure. Herod saw him as a threat, and it cost John his life. He was a strident, anti-establishment, ‘I am calling you to be faithful to a larger truth,’ kind of guy, and it was through baptism that you said yes to his critique. Yeah, that guy is onto something. Yes, I want to join him. This man is pointing the right way. “So, not to put too fine a point of it, but in choosing to be baptized by John, Jesus was taking a side.”