Obedient faith

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Jesus descends into the baptismal waters as an opening act of messianic obedience. Obedience may not be the most glamorous of the Christian virtues, but it’s the one that I’d like to highlight in this Sunday’s account of Jesus’ baptism by John in the Jordan.

Long ago, when I was in college, I went one night to hear a famous writer talk about her work. After her description of her life as a writer, we had the usual question-and-answer period. A fellow student asked, “How do you get in the mood to write?”