Baptism of our Lord C
January 10, 2016
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
Grace
to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
“What
happens in baptism?”
This is the
question I usually ask parents preparing to have their child baptized. Before
we go through with this major event – and I do understand baptism as a major,
life-changing event – I always take the opportunity to talk about it with
parents, and make sure they understand what all they and their child are getting
into. The answers I get vary, usually including something about washing away of
sins, or becoming a child of God – both true. But I have to wonder… does any of
that mean anything to them once they walk out the door of the church?
So with that
in mind, what I really want to ask you today is: why does baptism matter to
you? My guess is that day-to-day, you probably don’t think much about your
baptism, right? So, why does it matter… or does it? What role does the fact
that you are baptized play in your daily life?
We can find
some clues to how to answer this question by looking at today’s Gospel lesson. The
first thing to notice is who the actor is here. In Luke’s version of Jesus’
baptism, who baptizes him? … [assume people will say John the Baptist…] Ah, but
Luke never says John the Baptist did it.
In fact, those few verses that are
missing say that Herod had thrown John in prison! No, it is no human who
baptizes Jesus – it is God. It is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit descended
upon him in bodily form like a dove. The very same Spirit that baptizes us! And
who does the talking? … The Father! A voice came from heaven, “You are my Son,
the beloved. With you I am well pleased.”
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| By Ranosonar (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons |
And
so it is in our own baptism. God does the work. Not the pastor. Not the water. God does the work. This is the response
to why we in the Lutheran church typically baptize babies. While Christians who
are of the Baptist, fundamentalist, or evangelical persuasion insist upon an
adult baptism, in which the one being baptized has the opportunity to state his
or her own faith, we baptize these helpless, vulnerable beings who have not
done much of anything for or against God. They are mostly passive participants
in the reception of God’s grace in the sacrament.
But isn’t
that a wonderful image for us for how we come before God? Passive as they are in the face of God’s
grace, infants remind us of how we are to receive God’s love: with humble
gratitude, knowing that we don’t do anything to deserve this, but God gives it
to us anyway. God acts on us and in
us. God forgives us. God claims us as sons and daughters. And
there’s nothing we can do to mess up that relationship that God establishes
with us. Nothing!
The second thing we can learn from our
text today about what happens in baptism is from that voice that comes from
heaven. “You are my Son, the Beloved. With you I am well pleased.” In baptism,
see, we are given an identity: we become God’s child, God’s son or daughter.
Identity is not always easy to come by these days. All the things to which we
have traditionally looked to constitute an identity – job, hometown, family –
look different now. People change careers, they move away from home, they have
complex, blended families. But in all the changes that life brings there is one
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| Found on etsy.com (BehindTheHiddenDoor) |
There
are many things to know about baptism, but these points are good ones to hold
close: that God has given us this amazing gift of love, forgiveness, belonging,
identity, and grace, all of this completely, as Luther says, “out of fatherly
and divine goodness, though we do not deserve it.” And there is nothing we can
do to mess it up. I find this gift to be both humbling and liberating. I am
amazed that God would bestow such goodness on little old insignificant me, bestowing
it not because I’m something
extraordinary, but because God is.
And to think, that God will never take this gift from me – not when I feel
worthless, or when I do something that hurts or upsets someone else, or when I
doubt my abilities, or when I make a huge mistake, or when I don’t live up to someone’s
expectations… All of these things, which have happened and will continue to
happen in my life because I, like all of you, am human – they all make me want
to doubt that God made the right call in bestowing on me all the wondrous gifts
of baptism. If I were God, I might take it back. “Never mind, Johanna, you
weren’t worthy of these gifts after all.” But God doesn’t. God does not renege
on this offer. God offers anyway.
And that is
liberating. What I mean is that suddenly, I start to believe that if God views
me as worthy to receive God’s gifts, maybe I shouldn’t doubt myself. And if I
don’t doubt myself, then just think what I could do in and for this world! And
this is where we start to answer my earlier question to you: what does baptism
have to do with your daily life, and why does it matter? It matters because it
is a profound statement of God’s unconditional love for you. It matters because
it promises us every day that we are forgiven, and in showing us that it also
urges us to “forgive those who trespass against us,” and with forgiveness comes
healing, and with healing comes transformation. It matters because it assures
us that even when we fall short, we still carry with us, everywhere we go, the
gift of the Holy Spirit – the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of
counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of Lord.
What
does that Spirit, the Spirit you received in your baptism, move you to do in
this world? What does the assurance of God’s love, grace, and belonging, give
you courage to pursue? For me, that promise emboldens and enables me to love
people that I find difficult to love. That includes people I encounter in my
daily life, and family members who are more difficult to get along with than
others, and even people whom I don’t know except that I know they look and
believe and act differently from me. Loving these different people doesn’t look
the same for each person, so the Spirit pushes me to figure out how to love all
these different people, what it looks like with each. The Spirit urges me not
to sit still and be quiet in the face of injustice, but rather to use what
gifts I have to make sure all of God’s children have what they need. The Spirit
encourages me to do things I’m scared of, to get out of my comfort zone, to go
out on a limb for the sake of the gospel, because I can trust that if and when
I fail in my efforts to live a life guided by Christ, God will still not renege
on the gifts of my baptism. And to me, all of that matters a great deal.
How
about you? Why does baptism matter to you? What does it have to do with your
daily life? I gave you my answer. I’d love to hear yours.
Let us pray… Spirit of God, in our baptism, you have promised us forgiveness, grace,
belonging, identity, and unconditional love, and we can trust that you will not
renege on these gifts. As we celebrate the baptism of our Lord, help us to
remember our own baptism, and help us also to discern what you would have us do
with this abundant gift to love and serve your world. In the name of the
Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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