Baptism of Our Lord

Me

Baptism of our Lord Sunday

We often share “remember your baptism and be thankful”

I have often thought that is strange because

I don’t remember my baptism

When we say this to a congregation not everyone there was baptized

I remember instead all of the memories and stories about baptism that fly into my head when I hear those words, but more than anything I remember a particular moment in my undergraduate year.

being involved in a non-umc ministry in college and many of my friends getting re-baptised

I had all of these questions about the institution of baptism

I grew up knowing that I was baptised hearing almost every year on the Baptism of Our Lord Sunday in mid-January the words remember your baptism and be thankful, and although I had thought about that I had never really remembered within my spirit that I was baptised

- How does my relationship with God change?

- Does God see me any different?

- What if I get to the pearly gates and St. Peter if he’s there tells me that on a technicality my baptism didn’t quite make the cut. It came from the wrong church, or the signature on the certificate wasn’t quite legible enough.

At the core of these questions of baptism were really questions of calling. And they are questions that if we are all honest we have probably asked at one point or another:

Do I belong?

Am I enough?

Am I doing this faith thing right?

I realized that there were ways to find answers to those questions that didn’t involve getting baptized a second time. But those yearnings and those questions were still with me. Maybe they’re with you?

We

We’ve all had moments where we’ve looked for something or someone to give us hope, to affirm that we’re doing the right thing, that we belong.

In fact this is a prime time of year when we are setting intentions about our hopes for the year ahead to be thinking through where it is that we find our identity. We seek identity and validation in various ways—through achievements, relationships, or even through spiritual experiences. Like the people in the passage, we often find ourselves waiting and wondering if the answer we seek is in something in the future, or if it is in the remembering.

God

The first thing that needs to be said about Baptism broadly but also this passage in particular is that.....

Baptism is about what God is doing not what we are doing

The passage begins with the words...

Luke 3:15 (NRSV)

15 As the people were filled with expectation......

They wonder if John is the one that they have been longing for and waiting for. John points to the Messiah, Jesus comes and surely they think yes this is the person....but Jesus identifies with God. With the God who was, and is, and is yet to come.

For centuries the question that has plagued theologians about this passage is why is it that Jesus needs to be baptized.

John led a baptism of repentance, and the traditional belief is that Jesus is without sin, therefore giving him no reason to need repentance, therefore not really necessitating baptism.

If Luke had any clue of theological debate that would erupt later on out of this passage, I think he would have provided some more details. We aren’t told if Jesus was dunked or sprinkled. We aren’t told of the qualifications of John to be able to do this baptism. We are told that there are people present but to call them a congregation might be a bit of a stretch. We aren’t told of what the pre-baptism meeting looked like or who wrote the certificate.

I think if Luke cared much for any of these details he would have included them in the text. What we get in

in fact....Luke....skips over Jesus' baptism

Luke 3:21 NRSV

21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened,

it doesn’t even mention the moment that Jesus was baptized.

Which says something to us, that perhaps it was not the specific moment of baptism that mattered most here, but what God was doing and continues to do with Jesus’ Baptism.

And in the moment’s after Jesus’ baptism there is a big reveal.

The revelation here is something that we have to stop and reimagine ourselves seeing for the first time

It is like hearing the word’s “Luke I am your Father for the first time.” An incredible significant theological plotline that gets washed out if we happen to read this story one too many times.

The second thing that we learn about Baptism from this story is that....

Baptism is about Identity

God proclaims two things in Jesus’ baptism

This is my beloved son - psalm 2:7 - the coming messiah

Psalm 2:7 NRSV

7 I will tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to me, “You are my son; today I have begotten you.

Beloved Agapetos is used only two other times in Luke both refer to Jesus - Transfiguration and parable of wicked tenants.

With Whom I am well pleased - Isaiah 42:1 - the suffering servant

Isaiah 42:1 NRSV

1 Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.

Jesus has an identity as a king, and Jesus has an identity as a servant

The voice of God confirms a message that is already true of Jesus

You are my son the beloved with whom I am well pleased. Mark and Luke, and Matthew - That is pretty significant

It was not in the speaking of those magic words that Jesus became the messiah it was at that moment that God confirms a message that is already true of Jesus, and a message of Beloveds that is already true for us as well.

One of the more significant theological convictions of the Weslayan movement of which the United Methodist Church is situated is the idea of God’s prevenient Grace.

Prevenient Grace is the belief that...

There is no place that God is not already at

Prevenient Grace

That we were and are God’s beloved and that there is no place that we could go to outrun that

There is no action we could take that could separate us from that.

In baptism as a community we proudly declare and create outward signs through water of the love that God already has for you.

If you have not been baptised, God still speaks these words, and they are still true, that you are God’s beloved.

You

Maybe a turn to your neighbor and say you are a child of God, you are God's beloved

Us

So what do we DO with that information?

So What does it mean to be God’s beloved people. What out we to DO with that. Well we heard an answer in our reading from the psalms:

Psalm 29:1–2 NRSV

1 Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. 2 Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name; worship the Lord in holy splendor.

Know that the message really is this simple:

That you are a child of God

The you are God’s beloved

and the only thing left to do is live a life that responds to that identity that God has given you.

May it be so....

Prayer

Gracious and loving God,

We gather in your presence, mindful of the ways in which your Word calls us to proclaim beloveds to one another and to our world.

We also come together to confess of the many pains and griefs that we see in our global world and in our own personal worlds.

In that spirit, we lift up in prayer the people of Southern California, who are facing the devastation caused by raging fires. We pray for those who have lost their lives, for the thousands who have been forced to evacuate, and for the many who have lost homes, businesses, and are without power.

Comfort those who are grieving the loss of loved ones and homes, and be with the first responders risking their lives to fight the fires. We pray, O God, for your protection, strength, and grace to surround all those impacted by these fires.

In the same spirit of care, we turn our hearts to the memory of Jimmy Carter. We mourn his loss, remembering his legacy of service, faith, and compassion. Comfort those who mourn his passing, and inspire us to continue the work of justice, peace, and humility through our lives and through this church.

Loving God we know that you care about not just the creation, but about us. A God of the both/and not the either or. We know that we are always able to come before you and in this moment specifically we bring before you our joys, frustrations, griefs, celebrations, and everything in between in this moment of silent worship.

(5 seconds of complete silence)

Teach us to be steadfast in prayer, watchful in our care for one another, and hopeful in your abiding presence. We pray all of these things in your name and in the name of the one who has taught us to pray saying....

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.

Amen.

There are many ways that we offer to God our prayers, pressence, gifts, service and witness and we have one opportunity in particular arising in this next week that I will invite Annabelle Drake to share a bit more about......

Benediction

You are a child of God. You are God’s beloved. Go out in the strength and power of that conviction to love and serve. May it be so.