1/13/2019
For today, you've already heard a preview of so we have our Old Testament reading is from Isaiah chapter 43 verses 1 through 7, and I would invite you to follow along if you've brought a Bible or oh look at that. It's up there. Okay. It's on the screen. I forget how you do it. So let's listen for the word of the Lord from Isaiah 43. But now this is what the Lord says he who created you Jacob he who formed you Israel do not fear for I have redeemed you I have summoned You by name you are mine when you pass through the waters. I will be with you and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you when you walk through the fire. You will not be burned. The Flames will not set you Ablaze for I am the Lord your God the Holy One of Israel your savior. I give Egypt for your Ransom cush and seba in your stead since you are precious and honored in my sight and because I love you. I will give people in exchange for you nation in exchange for your life. Do not be afraid for I am with you. I will bring your children from the East and gather you from the West. I will say to the north give them up and to the South do not hold them back bring my son's from afar and my daughters from the ends of the Earth everyone who is called by my name. Who am I created for my glory whom I formed and made.
And then Our Gospel lesson from the Gospel of Luke Luke, 3:15 through 17 and 21 through 22. The people were waiting expectantly and we're all wondering in their hearts. If John might possibly be the Messiah John answered them all I baptize you with water but one who is more powerful than I will come the straps of whose sandals. I am not worthy to untie he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire his winnowing Fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor in to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. When all the people were being baptized Jesus was baptized to and as he was praying heaven was open in the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove and a voice Came From Heaven. You are my son whom I love with you. I am well pleased. This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. so Carol asked me if I was sure I'd wanted to come today and I don't know I kind of like church stuff. So so I showed up and I'm glad to be here with you all. I think the last time I was here it was Christ the King Sunday. Okay. So so I'm excited that Rob keeps needing me on some like lesser-known. Holy days that you probably haven't really observe that much in your life last Sunday. Did you do if if any okay good. Alright, so let's end. It was a piffany people generally know that the Sunday after Epiphany. If you follow the church year is called baptism of the Lord Sunday, and I have to admit growing up. I don't ever remember anything about it, but I guess while I was in seminary cuz things change when you go to Seminary, but I started to learn more about the church calendar and this particular Sunday, and it's really exciting for me. So I'm glad to be here with you today and it some of you just To Brave the weather in come out and so that we could celebrate baptism of the Lord Sunday today. You were coming for a really big holyday, right? Okay, so it may seem kind of day to have and I don't know if you all have done this in the past, but every year that I've had a church in my own we always do a baptismal reaffirmation on this particular Sunday. And so that seems maybe like just a ritual or something but it's really more than that. And so I want to talk with you about that some today and I want to talk with you in the question then that he mentioned earlier. I think that today is a day that we get an answer to that question. Do you know who you are? Now if any of you and some of you do have young children, does that question ring a bell in a movie that you may have watched a million times recently anyone anyone? Okay, so it's from the movie Moana and I have a 2 1/2 year old and he really likes Moana or Onana as he sometimes called watch that movie. I want to talk about it some and I promise it will all fit together, but that's where that question comes from. And I think it's a question that today on baptism of the Lord Sunday. We get a really good answer to It's a first I'm going to talk a little bit about Jesus's baptism. That's what the Sunday means right baptism of the Lord the baptism of Jesus and we read about that. It's in all four gospels. It's a little bit different in each of the gospels. And today is Luke's version. We hear John the Baptist preaching and John the Baptist saying here's who's coming. Right and he has a kind of one of them but he's like no this guy that's coming is a lot greater than me. And then when Jesus does show up and get baptized in the midst of all the other people being baptized then we see that it means something different. Right? And so this it's important to know Jesus's baptism is when he kind of goes public. This is the beginning of his public Ministry and he's how old 30. Okay. So Jesus is 30 he gets baptized here by John now everybody else is coming for a baptism that symbolizes the Forgiveness of sins. Right will Jesus's baptism doesn't need to be that Jesus doesn't need that what he shows up to get baptized like the rest of them and also because in this moment who he is is confirmed and upper right? He's there he's being baptized and there's a voice from others add of and that's why we picture the Holy Spirit a lot of time the heavens are torn open. It says that is a really big sign of its almost in a pop-up apocalyptic sign that the world is changing in that moment. The heavens are torn open the spirit descend as a dove. And then there's a voice from heaven. And it says you are my beloved right? You are my son the Beloved with you. I am greatly pleased and so it tells us as we read the story who Jesus is it affirms for Jesus. This is who you are. Write this is who he's always been but here now in the midst of this public ceremony. Who he is is made known. And it's a really important moment because it's the beginning of all these other stories that we get him all the things that he does in his public Ministry. It's also a time where we see God showing up in a surprising way. Right? The people were all wondering is John the Baptist the Messiah and John's like no no. No, I'm not but here this moment we see. Oh no. No, no. No. But Jesus is in God shows up in the Holy Spirit. We hear the voice of the father. This is where one place where we say. This is the first really big sighting of the Trinity God the Father Son and Holy Spirit and that's a sermon for another day as well. But this is a big moment.
Where Jesus can say I know who I am and we can say we know who Jesus is because we have the story of his baptism. It's so it's important for us to remember it together every year but also because in doing so we think about our own baptism.
No, I mentioned the movie Moana and
I hope you don't mind. I'm probably going to spoil some of it for you if you haven't seen it yet. But so mowana. It's a Disney movie. So Moana is a Princess right so she's a princess. She's the daughter of a chief. She claims not to be a princess. So I should definitely say that she claims not to be a princess and she's the daughter of the chief and she sort of on a mission throughout the movie. I love this movie because so much of it is about being called the ocean calls her to be someone different than who her dad the chief is telling her she is and so a lot of sort of a coming-of-age, you know, a lot of Disney movies are and trying to find out who she is but she feels a sense of calling and that's one reason. I really love that movie because we all should be feeling called and we all should struggle with it. That's what I believe. We all should be struggling with how God is calling us to be the person God wants us to be because I don't know about you, but in my life, I spent plenty of time saying no God, let me not do that Soma want it feels call to be Something different than the people that she's supposed to leave have been in recent history and we come toward the end of the movie. She goes out she disobeys her father's orders. She goes out on the sea and we come to the end of the movie and she feels like she has lost the purpose of her Mission. She lost the reason for her journey. I'm not going to go into all of it. But she comes to this moment where her grandmother's Spirit visits her in her grandmother at to me is one of my favorite characters in the movie, but her grandmother Spirit visits her and says, do you know who you are and her grandmother reminds her who she is as the daughter of the chief as the one who will lead the people at the one who right now is trying to save the people from the harm it being cost of them and then Moana herself. Says I know who I am and she sings about who she is and the people that she's a part of and so at this wonderful moment if she knew she was called. She always knew that there was something about the ocean that was calling her now. She knows what it is and she's been through so much but now she knows who she is. Are we going to little bit further on in the movie and there's another wonderful scene where she can she have to confront a monster, but she realizes that the monster is because of what other people have done to it. And she asked the monster the very same question. Do you know who you are who you really are? Because she says what people have done to you does not define you. And so do you know who you are? I don't maybe it's cuz I'm a church nerd but that movie just to me has so much depth to it that you can really like theologically discuss. Do you know who you are? Do you know who you're called to be? Do you know that who you are doesn't have anything to do with the things that people have done to you that have broken you.
And this is where we come to Isaiah. Isaiah is speaking to the people of Israel who have been in Exile and they've been through a lot already anyway. But now they're going to return. And it's going to be great. But in order to get their they're going to have to go through a whole lot and so here and Isaiah 43. God is saying to them you're going to have to go through Rivers. You're going to have to go through the desert Through Fire through all of this to get back home, but I will be with you because I made you and I called you by Nate. Do you know who you are if that's says you are mine and you've been mined the people of Israel did a lot of things that were not what God wanted them to do. They were really good at thank God. It's okay. We're going to just go over here and do this. But God always said you are mine. I have called you by name and I'm going to bring you back home and I'm going to be with you. No matter what you're going through.
How does that fit in with baptism? Well, maybe we have some different understandings of what baptism is and we do have better than means a lot of things to us. But to me, maybe the most exciting thing is that when someone is baptized and when we know we've been baptized that is a moment where we affirm that God has called that person and Us by Nae this promised to the Israelites to be with them no matter what is a promise that we receive as well. And when we reaffirm our baptism, what do we remember that were baptized? We are remembering that God created us and God has called us God's Own. Who we are is what God says we are. Now what anybody else has done to us not the failures that we have in our lives, but that God has made us his beloved. Never takes a lifetime to live into that and it's really hard to believe that a lot of the time when the rest of the world tells us were not successful because we don't have enough money or we don't have the right car. We don't have the right job or when the world tells us that were not successful because we don't have the right kids are we didn't raise them the right way or we don't have any at all.
But God is always saying you are mine. And I love you and God loves us more than any parent we ever had or ever would be in that love that is so deep between a parent and a child but God loves us even more than that. And when we come and remember our baptism together, we remember that it's not just but it is it's not just a reminder of our sins being washed away. It's not just a reminder of our being reborn because we believe that Jesus brings us new life, but it's a reminder that from the start before we ever knew it God called us his That's why in the United Methodist Church. We baptize babies. Because God already knows those children whether they know who they are not God's grace is for those children where they know anything about it or not, and we celebrate that and we together promised to raise them so they will understand that. Baptism isn't just about the person being baptized but all of us together promising to sit again. Oh, yeah. God called us his own we're working together on living into what that mean. So we promise to raise this child this youth or even is adult in the face and what it means to grow together in that. And God will be with us.
God showed up when Jesus was baptized in a pretty surprising way. But got it always been promising to be with the people of Israel. And God is still promising to be with us today. Do you know who you are? You are God's beloved child. And so you will be invited today to come to the front and I want to say if you haven't been baptized you are still invited, but I want you to come anticipating when you will be when they will be that time for you that you will celebrate with the church that God has called you by name. So come in anticipation if you haven't been baptized and if you have been baptized, even if you don't remember when it happened cuz I was baptized when I was I what I don't even know when I was a baby. But I remembered that I've been baptized even though I don't remember the moment that it happened that God has called me by name and it. Is called me beloved even when I didn't understand that. I still don't understand. So the day we come together and we celebrate that God is washing away our sins. We celebrate that God is calling us together to be the church and we celebrate that God is loving us more than we can understand because we belong to God. And so I left my bulletin up here. But I'm going to get it.
so you are called and you are loved and you are invited so I would invite you to turn in your Hymnal or will it be up there? Oh look it up. There. You all are so good. Can you tell I served churches? That didn't ask? Alright, so this is baptismal Covenant 5. I don't know if you take any time to look through the beginning of the hymnal but there's a whole bunch of different baptismal covenants because we can do it all different kinds of ways different kinds of anyway. So this is our reaffirmation of baptism. When we remember together that we've been baptized and we celebrate that we celebrate that someday if we haven't we can be in will be and if you haven't been I would invite you to talk with Pastor Rob about that and discuss them but here is your invitation Brothers and Sisters in Christ through the sacrament of baptism. We are initiated into Christ. Holy church. We are incorporated into God's Mighty acts of Salvation and given New Birth through water and the spirit all this is God's Gift offered to us without price. Do the reaffirmation of our faith? We renew the Covenant declared at our baptism acknowledge what God is doing for us and affirm our commitment to Christ. Holy church. And so I'm hoping that these questions will sound familiar because these are the questions that we ask when someone is baptized and the promises that we make in the midst of baptism. So I'm going to ask you these questions. Hopefully again on behalf of the whole church. I asked you do you renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness reject the evil powers of this world and repent of your sin. Do you accept the freedom and power God gives you to resist evil Injustice and oppression and whatever forms they present themselves.
Do you confess Jesus Christ as your savior? Put your whole trust in his grace and promised to serve him as your lord? In Universal Church, which crisis opened up people of all ages Nations and races. Right, according to the grace given to you. Will you remain faithful members of Christ? Holy church and serve as Christ representatives in the world. Okay. So let us join together and professing the Christian faith is contained in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Do you believe in God the Father?
Do you believe in Jesus Christ?
Steve by the Holy Spirit born of the Virgin Mary
was crucified died and was you just send it to the dead on the third day. He rose again. He ascended into heaven is seated at the right hand of the father and I will come again to judge the living and do you believe in the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints the Forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body Everlasting. All right. I'm going to pour water. So you're going to hear that and I hope you went to the bathroom before church. Alright, the Lord be with you. Let us pray Eternal Father when nothing existed but chaos you swept across the dark Waters and brought forth light in the days of Noah, you save those on the ark through water after the flood. You said in the Clouds of rainbow when you saw your people as slaves in Egypt, you let them to Freedom through the see their children you brought through the Jordan to the land, which you promised. Sing to the Lord all the Earth tell God's mercy each day. In the fullness of time you sent Jesus nurtured in the water of the womb. He was baptized by John and anointed by your spirit. He called his disciples to share in the baptism of his death and resurrection and to make disciples of all Nations. Declare his Works to the nation's his glory among all people pour out your Holy Spirit and by this Gift of Water call to our remembrance the grace declare to us in our baptism for you have washed away our sin and you close us with righteousness throughout our lives that dying and Rising with Christ. We may share in his final victory. All praise to you Eternal Father through your son Jesus Christ who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns forever men. All right, so now
There different ways to do this, but the way that were to do this today, you are welcome if my iPod works, right? There's going to be a song that will play for several minutes and you're welcome to come forward Touch the Water you can splash in a little bit if you want to there are also some
rocks Rock looking things in here. You're welcome to take one with you as a reminder and put it in your pocket or in your purse or somewhere where you'll see it as a reminder that you are baptized and you are called God's beloved and then at the end of the song will continue with her.
Free Chapel
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she said if you come see sometime
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Can you do?
when you been
Let us rejoice in the faithfulness of our covenant God. I don't know if this prayer is going to go you are never mind. I am jumping the gun here, and I apologize.
You all have done this before? A lot more relish than some groups do us of our covenant God we give thanks for all that. God has already given as members of the body of Christ. And in this Congregation of the United Methodist Church, we will face if we participate in the ministries of the church by your prayers. Do you all know? This prayers are presents or gifts are service. We're going to add one more and I already know what it is witness. All right, then everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in me the God of all Grace who is called us to eternal glory in Christ established and strengthen you by the power of the holy spirit that you may live in Grace and peace. Would you stand in joining our closing song number? 529 How firm a foundation?