{"id":941917,"date":"2025-12-22T17:14:27","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T22:14:27","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2026-06-23T17:04:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T21:04:07","slug":"bible-study-epiphany-1-a-january-11-2026-2","status":"publish","type":"bible_study","link":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/bible_study\/bible-study-epiphany-1-a-january-11-2026-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Bible Study: Epiphany 1 (A) \u2013 January 11, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

RCL:<\/strong>\u00a0Isaiah 42:1-9; Psalm 29;\u00a0Acts 10:34\u201343;\u00a0<\/strong>Matthew 3:13-17<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Opening Prayer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan proclaimed him your beloved Son and anointed him with the Holy Spirit: Grant that all who are baptized into his Name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly confess him as Lord and Savior; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Context<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The First Sunday after the Epiphany holds two themes together: revelation and baptism. Epiphany proclaims that God\u2019s glory is not hidden or reserved but revealed\u2014made visible in Jesus Christ for the life of the world. The Baptism of Our Lord continues that revelation by showing what kind of Messiah Jesus is: the beloved Son, Spirit-anointed and sent not for a select few, but for all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acts 10:34-43 marks a decisive moment in the unfolding of this revelation. The apostle Peter has arrived in Caesarea at the home of Cornelius, a Roman centurion. Cornelius is not part of Peter\u2019s community by birth, culture, or custom. Yet God has been moving ahead of both men\u2014through visions, messengers, and unexpected providence\u2014such that Peter and Cornelius end up in the same room, facing the same question: What is God revealing now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter\u2019s speech is one of the clearest summaries of the early Christian proclamation. It begins with God\u2019s impartiality, moves through the life and ministry of Jesus, names his death, announces his resurrection, and ends with the promise of forgiveness. This speech is not simply a history lesson; it is an Epiphany declaration. The glory of God is revealed not as private spiritual insight but as public good news: peace through Jesus Christ, the anointed one who \u201cwent about doing good,\u201d whose life was given, whose death was real, and whose risen life continues to remake what human beings assume about who belongs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The baptism narrative we find in the text from Matthew appointed for today can serve as a companion to the Acts passage because it echoes the same revelation in a different key. The Spirit descends, and Jesus is named as beloved. In Peter\u2019s speech in Acts, we see how that belovedness\u2014true of Jesus and us all\u2014becomes mission, witness, and widening mercy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Theological Reflection<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Epiphany is the season of God\u2019s glory being revealed\u2014not as an abstract brightness, but as God making God\u2019s own life and love known in Jesus Christ for the sake of the world. Acts 10:34-43 offers a particularly grounded Epiphany moment. The \u201crevelation\u201d here is not a private spiritual insight or a dramatic display in the sky; it is a public unveiling of God\u2019s heart and God\u2019s scope. In a household where Peter would not have assumed God\u2019s presence was waiting, the Spirit leads him to speak a sentence that clarifies everything: \u201cGod shows no partiality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the flow of the story, those words are not some general principle offered from a safe distance. They are a confession shaped by encounter. Peter is learning\u2014through God\u2019s initiative\u2014that divine mercy is not distributed according to familiar boundaries or inherited expectations. God\u2019s glory is revealed in the wideness of God\u2019s welcome: \u201cin every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.\u201d The passage\u2019s first theological claim, then, is not about human achievement. It is about divine generosity. God is already at work, already drawing near, already widening the circle in ways that surprise even faithful people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From there, Peter\u2019s testimony unfolds the content of this revelation: \u201cthe message of peace\u2026through Jesus Christ\u2014he is Lord of all.\u201d Peace in Acts is not merely inner calm. It is God\u2019s reconciling action that restores what is fractured. This peace is proclaimed through Christ and grounded in the confession that Jesus is \u201cLord of all.\u201d That short phrase refuses a small gospel. It signals that Jesus is not simply a local teacher or a private spiritual option. The One revealed at the Jordan and proclaimed in Acts is the One through whom God intends wholeness for the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter\u2019s summary centers on Jesus\u2019 Spirit-anointed life: \u201cGod anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power\u2026he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed.\u201d The glory being revealed in Epiphany takes a particular shape here in Peter\u2019s words. It is not described as spectacle or domination; it is revealed in compassion, liberation, and restoring mercy. The Spirit\u2019s anointing leads Jesus toward the hurting and those held down. Epiphany light, in this passage, is healing light\u2014brightness that draws near, rather than blinding from a distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The passage also refuses to soften the gospel by skipping over the cross. Peter speaks plainly: \u201cthey put him to death by hanging him on a tree.\u201d Christian faith does not deny the world\u2019s capacity for violence or injustice; it confesses that God enters the world as it is and takes all wounds seriously. Yet the story does not end in death: \u201cGod raised him on the third day.\u201d Resurrection is presented as God\u2019s decisive reversal of death\u2019s claim. And the risen Christ is not described as a rumor or an idea, but as someone encountered: seen by witnesses, known in real time, sharing meals. God\u2019s glory is revealed as life stronger than death and communion stronger than fear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, Peter names the church\u2019s role within this revelation: \u201che commanded us to preach\u2026and to testify.\u201d Testimony is not triumphalism. It is not control. It is faithful speech and faithful living, shaped by what has been seen and received. In Acts 10, the Spirit is already expanding Peter\u2019s sense of where testimony belongs and how it operates. Witness must not remain in familiar rooms; it is spoken in unexpected households, among people previously imagined as \u201coutside.\u201d This expansion is part of the Epiphany gift: God\u2019s glory is revealed precisely where human beings assumed it would not be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The speech ends with a promise: \u201ceveryone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.\u201d Forgiveness here means release into new life and restored relationship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the feast of the Baptism of Our Lord, this promise can be heard as the church\u2019s steady invitation: The beloved Son is revealed for the many, the Spirit is given for the healing of the world, and the gospel\u2019s reach is shown to be as wide as God\u2019s mercy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflection Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n