"Dove Power”
- Dr. Todd R. Wright
- Jan 11
- 5 min read
How will we live out our baptism in this new year?
Matthew 3:13-17
January 11, 2026
Dr. Todd R. Wright
Every year we gather at the river to retell the story of Jesus’ baptism and remember our own.
Can you picture the scene?
Matthew Myer Boulton can. He writes …
“Imagine the Jordan River, a line of unwashed sinners on one side, waiting anxiously for baptism, and a line of those newly washed clean on the other. And now comes Jesus of Nazareth, God the Son, the only one among them all who might truly claim to be clean and pure, and he proceeds to get in line with the sinners … he crosses the Jordan, so to speak, in the opposite direction: from ‘clean’ to ‘sinner,’ from insider to outsider … he confirms his solidarity with sinners by submitting to baptism …”[ii]
It is a captivating moment, for it’s the distillation of Jesus’ soon-to-be-launched ministry.
But it could not have been what John the Baptist was expecting.
He had shouted about repentance in the wilderness until it drew a crowd!
He had harshly welcomed religious leaders as a brood of vipers fleeing God’s wrath!
He had threatened those who did not bear good fruit with the ax and fire!
And he promised that the one who was coming after him would bring unquenchable fire!
So it is strange that when Jesus shows up, he is accompanied by … a dove.
Chelsey Harmon reminds us that “some have pointed out that it was a dove used to mark the end of judgement after the flood. When the dove returned to the ark with an olive branch, and then when the dove did not return at all, the earth was dry and God told Noah to bring all living things back to land,” [iii] so they could start building a new world.
Dale Bruner goes further. He writes that at Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit “does not come in a form that might have been suggested by John [the Baptist’s preferred tools] (fire, axe, [winnowing fork]). It does not come like an eagle, lion, or [bull] – [powerful, violent, frightening].” Instead, he says, The Spirit [shows up] to nuance strength, to modulate power, and to deliver what is deeply needed in common and public life — the way of gentleness.”[iv]
For Bruner, the symbol and method of the anointing matches the character of the task that Jesus takes on and calls his followers to embody.
He says, “Christians are given power by the gift of the Spirit in baptism. But it is dove power.”
That’s quite an image, isn’t it?
Scott Hoezee is on the same wavelength. He memorably puts it this way:
“Poor John. It’s like [he] had been predicting Sylvester Stallone, but Mister Rogers showed up.”[v]
Hoezee elaborates,
“Baptism is a watery sacrament. It is literally watery, of course, but [many] people today would regard it as watery in the more metaphorical sense of being insubstantial, thin, colorless. In a world so full of problems and tragedies, evil and dread, how could baptism make a dent?”
Margaret Atwood refuses any talk that dismisses the ultimate power of water. She writes:
“Water does not resist. Water flows.
When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress.
Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you.
But water always goes where it wants to go,
and nothing in the end can stand against it.
Water is patient.
Dripping water wears away a stone.
Remember that. Remember you are half water.
If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.”[vi]
Why would God choose to act in this way?
Why would the creator of the universe, with power over life and death, choose …
to show up and stand with sinners;
to come in humbleness and vulnerability;
to align himself with dove power, with gentleness and mercy?
Debie Thomas thinks she knows. She writes of how God refuses to overpower us:
“No matter how many times God shows up in my life, I'm free to ignore [my Creator].
No matter how often [God] calls me Beloved, I can choose self-loathing instead.
No matter how many times I remember my baptism, I'm free to dredge out of the water the very sludge I first threw in.
No matter how often I reaffirm my vow to seek and serve Christ in all persons, I'm at liberty to [turn my back] and walk away.”[vii]
And yet, God does not give up. Love makes our savior persistent –
like water dripping in the sink; like a dove waiting to be fed stale popcorn.
This scene by the Jordan river is proof of that.
Thomas asserts, “Jesus himself is our thin place. He's the one who opens the barrier and shows us the God we long for. He's the one who stands in line with us at the water's edge, willing to immerse himself in shame, scandal, repentance, and pain — all so that we might hear the only Voice that can tell us who we are and whose we are in this sacred season.”
So on this day when we wrestle with the incongruities of Jesus’ baptism and recall ours;
in this world where power is more often exercised like a bull in a china shop than a dove;
what will we take away from Jesus’ witness?
How will we live out our baptism in this new year?
(I say “we” because baptism is always a communal act, dripping with promises and hopes.)
Ponder that as you come forward to touch the water in the font,
or the next time you are washing dishes or handing a bottle of water to someone who is thirsty.
Dove power – it is God’s gift to us and our gift to the world! Am
[i] “Baptism of Jesus” by Castera Bazile, in Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral, Port au Prince Haiti - mostly destroyed by an earthquake on Jan. 12, 2010, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN.
[ii] From God Against Religion
[iii] From her reflections on the text for cepreaching.org, 1/8/23
[iv] Here and following, from The Christbook: Matthew 1-12
[v] Here and following, from his reflections on the text for cepreaching.org, 1/12/20
[vi] From her novella The Penelopiad (a retelling of The Odyssey from the perspective of Penelope and her twelve maids), laid out here as a poem.
[vii] Here and following, from “Thin Place, Deep Water”, 1/1/17
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