Sermon Tone Analysis

Baptism of our Lord

Matthew 3:13-17

January 13, 2008

*“The Lamb of God that Takes Away the Sins of the World”*

            Introduction: There is a story of a seven-year-old son of a Baptist minister who decided to baptize his two cats.

He chose the bathtub for this rite.

One of the cats was a tiny kitten.

It was dunked before it realized what had happened.

But the older tom cat wanted no part of this strange ceremony.

As the boy brought the cat down toward the water, it hissed and clawed his arms furiously until finally the boy let go.

The liberated cat scampered across the bathroom with only the part of its head getting a little wet.

As the cat ran from the room, the boy called after it in disgust, “Fine, be a Lutheran if you want to!”

So much for washing cats!

There is the story of a preacher who was writing an advice column, sort of like Dear Abby.

One letter said, “Dear Preacher: Do you worry about pond scum in the baptismal font?

Signed, Wondering.”

The pastor wrote this reply: “Dear Wondering, No, I’ll baptize anybody.”

These are cute sayings.

But we know that Baptism is a serious business.

Christian Baptism was instituted by our Lord when He commanded us to go into the world and baptizes and teach all people what HE has taught us.

As such the church in all times has considered Baptism to be a serious undertaking.

In the medieval church, when a priest stood before the altar of God and raised the bread of holy communion above his head, he said in Latin, hoc est corpus, "This is the body."

That was the supreme moment of mystery; that was the moment of miracle; that was the moment of change.

At that moment the medieval Christian believed that ordinary bread became the body of Christ.

Hoc est corpus, "This is the body."

What the ordinary person way back in the corner of the cathedral thought he heard was not hoc est corpus, but "hocus-pocus."

That word soon came to mean magic, mystery, seeing the unbelievable happen before your very eyes.

The medieval priest felt that mystery very deeply when he spoke those words.

It was a solemn and scary moment.

Martin Luther was so frightened the first time he spoke those words as a novice priest that he nearly fainted right there at the altar.

Today, five hundred years later, the consecration of the elements is still a moment of high anticipation and mystery - and even fear as we hold God's body in our hands and say, "This is the body ..." Ask any of our elders that have served you this holy meal and they will express these thoughts of reverence, mystery and yes even fear.

How is it that the Lord of Heaven and earth should allow sinful humans to hand His very substance?

It is so because He has ordained it.

It is possible because we have been made holy through the waters of Baptism and being washed in the blood of the Lamb that was slain so that all sins are forgiven.

The Lord's Supper uses bread and wine.

The Sacrament of Baptism uses water.

Somehow water doesn't hold the same kind of mystery because no one expects water to become anything different.

The water doesn’t become body or blood, it remains water.

Even our catechism says so.

The bread of communion is both bread and is the body of Christ.

The water of baptism, however, is simply water.

It is merely the agent of washing.

But God, connecting His word to such simple water makes it into the most powerful cleansing agent there is.

Simple drops of water become a flood of God’s grace and mercy for the sake of His Son’s suffering and death on the cross.

Jesus death on the cross gives the forgiveness of sins.

Baptism, Water and the Word applies it to our lives and makes this forgiveness our own.

Water is great for washing.

There is something very satisfying about washing.

Sometimes, though, we wash and we still don't feel clean.

Maybe that's the difference between dirty and filthy.

Consider a day at the park or beach.

On a hot day, you are sitting at a park picnic table, you have played a few games in the grass, then it’s time to eat.

We’ll you clean up the best you can.

Then you eat your lunch and think nothing of it.

It's not so bad to eat with hands that are sort of clean, hands that you might consider dirty when you are home.

It's different, though, when you're filthy.

Years ago the bathroom facilities of this church and school were located out back yonder.

Do any of you remember those days or that place?

Now, imagine, and it is easy for me, that some of you were playful and mischievous.

One day, let’s say, several of the boys get together and decide to play a prank.

They get together and decide to push over the outhouse.

In the process, one of them looses his footing, makes a miss step, trips and falls in hole.

OOOH Yuck!

That's the difference between dirty and filthy.

You don't climb out of a hole like that and go directly to recess or lunch.

An experience like that gives you a filthy feeling, a defiled feeling.

Only a lot of scrubbing can wash off that feeling.

You can eat lunch with dirty hands, but not with filthy hands.

Problems arise, however, when the dirt or the filth or the stain is somehow connected with wrong or evil, or sin.

Dirt and even filth wash off; sin is something else, with it comes guilt.

Guilt isn't on the outside; you can't really scrub it off.

Plain water, ordinary water, can't touch guilt.

Shakespeare wrote a play called Macbeth.

In Macbeth, Shakespeare talks about guilt.

Macbeth has two memorable scenes that involve washing and guilt.

In the beginning of the play, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth conspire to kill the good king, Duncan.

Macbeth murders the king.

After which Lady Macbeth says to her husband: "Go and get some water, And wash this filthy witness from your hand."

At that Macbeth notices his hands are covered with innocent blood.

He is stained with the business of cold blooded murder.

Macbeth stares at his hands and says: "What hands are here?

Ha!

They pluck out mine eyes.

Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?" (II, I, 58-61)

Lady Macbeth pooh-poohs all his worries.

"A little water clears us of this deed," she says.

But much later, as the play ends, we see her under a nurse's care, going mad.

The doctor whispers:  "Look, how she rubs her hands."

Her nurse answers: "It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus washing her hands.

It is apparent that, in her trance, Lady Macbeth sees spots of blood.

She lifts her fingers to her face and says: "Here's the smell of blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand."

(V, iii, 56, 67).

Guilt.

The incredibly indelible stain of guilt.

Guilt drove Macbeth and his lady to madness and to death; it can and will drive us to insanity and death.

Sin is insanity and ete5rnal death is the result.

There is nothing so real, so haunting, and so crippling as a feeling of guilt.

Ordinary water can wash away dirt; ordinary water can even wash away filth.

But the stains and spots of guilt require extraordinary water.

There is good news.