In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
A little boy was upset with his parents' financial situation, so he decided to write God a letter.
Dear God,
My mommy and daddy need $500 for bills and I don't know who else to ask. Could You please help?
Johnny
The letter was received by the local post office and put in the 'dead' letters pile. The clerk, being curious of the letter addressed to God, opened to see what it said. As you can imagine, he was touched by the letter and decided to help. He asked all his fellow workers to 'chip-in' a few dollars to help a family in need. When all the money was collected, it came to $300. The clerk sent a money order in an official Post Office envelope with the return address simply, God.
Several weeks later the same clerk found another letter addressed to God in the same writing.
The letter said,
Dear God,
Thank you for the $300, but next time don't use the Post Office, they have a $200 service charge.
Johnny
Lucky for us, Baptism is a free gift from God and does not involve the post office. Baptism for us is very different from the baptism that Jesus experienced. Mark’s version of the baptism of Jesus is very urgent feeling. It fits in with Mark’s theme of urgency through out the Gospel. Mark wants to move readers through his Gospel to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ.
When Jesus appears in the wilderness, the River Jordan where John was baptizing, Jesus and the people around him experience this amazing revelation. It says “And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.” The word “torn apart” in Greek only appears twice in the Gospel; here in this story and at the Crucifixion of Jesus. This is a major event in Mark’s Gospel. Using this form of the word, it shows that God is with the people, his people.
And then this voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” You are MY Son. This phrase echoes the Father/Son relationship found in the Old Testament. One example is found in Genesis involving Abraham and his son Isaac. “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.” The author of Psalm 2 is another example. “I will tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to me, “You are my son; today I have begotten you.” This small phrase emphasis a major point of Jesus’ relationship to the Father and Father’s relationship to Jesus: God and Messianc King, God and Servant of the Lord.
I know what some of are you are thinking. This is all well and good but why did Jesus need to be baptized? Jesus was sinless and he didn’t need a baptism for the forgiveness of sin. Why was he baptized? To answer this question we need to know that to be Baptized means to die. I know is hard to grasp this understand that to be baptized means to die especially when we baptize little babies but it more of a rebirth that we all experience when we are baptized. That is why we say we are reborn when we are baptized. For Jesus, his acceptance of his baptism meant two things: One, he was accepting the death on the Cross—a death he freely accepted—and Two, he was accepting his own humanity—he was accepting that he was just like you and me.
Our Baptism is much different from the one Jesus experienced. Jesus was sinless but we are not. We are all born with this original sin—the sin that separated Adam and Eve from God. It is by our baptism that we find forgiveness of this sin and in this Baptism God claims us as his own. Yes we will still sin but we will always find forgiveness in the loving arms of Christ because of our Baptism. Jesus is our mediator and when we sin it is Jesus proclaiming that “I died for that man” or “I died for that woman.” Christ still promises that he will bear our sins all because of our baptism. Our baptism is not done by us but it something that is done by God.
So today, as many of you have noticed, we have placed the baptismal font down in the center of the church. There has been a huge revival in the Lutheran Church over the years dealing with the Remembrance of our Baptism. Martin Luther wrote that “every time you wash your face, remember your baptism.” I feel that over the years, the act of baptism has been down played when in reality it is a life changing, life altering experienced that we go through. It is when we were claimed by God as one of his own and there was a promised made that God would never leave us when we needed him.
So today, as you leave, I encourage you all to remember your baptism by dipping your hand into the water, making a sign of the cross, or even just saying a prayer while touching the font thanking God for the Gift of baptism. Remember your baptism every time you go fishing or hunting, go for a walk, take a shower, wash your hands. For it was by your baptism God has said in the words of Isaiah , “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon them; they will bring forth justice to the nations.” In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Sermons, Sermons, Sermons....
Here is my sermon from Sunday, January 4th. I preached at the National Lutheran Home in Rockville, MD. I thought you all might enjoy reading it.
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I think it is fitting that we are reading John 1 a few days after we rang in 2009. 2008 has been full of many ups and down. The economy ceiling has caved in causing millions of Americans to loose their jobs, their housing, and their very welling being. At the beginning of 2008, as we do every January, we dream, wish, and hope that this New Year, this new beginning, will bring about great and new things that will make our lives easier but all to often things do not change right away and sometimes will get worst before they get better.
Think about it, how many of us have made a New Year’s Resolution to lose weight, to spend less money, to spend more time with family and by the end of the year have forgotten the resolution or broken the resolution only after a few weeks. I believe as soon as we see what we have to give up for our resolution, we are scared and go back to our old, bad habits.
This year many of us have made promises. In this past election, all of our politicians who ran for office promised to deliver a better life, a better country, a better world. Sometimes this better life has taken years to come into affect. 50 years ago, nobody would have thought that our country would have elected a minority or a woman to the office of President. But as we have seen, this is no longer a dream but reality. Barack Obama has become the first African American President. In the beginning of the election, nobody thought that a black man or a woman would be the top two choices for the democratic party nomination or a woman be chosen as the vice president candidate for the republican party but it happened and we as a country should be proud.
I recently heard a statistic that Americans spend 450 billion dollars every year on Christmas. This includes not only gifts but the trees, lights, wrapping paper, anything involving the holiday. 450 billion dollars is a lot of money. We all claim it is a necessity for getting us into the holiday spirit and I have to agree with this ideology to a point. I love the symbolism involved in the Christmas Tree or ripping through wrapping paper to get to a new gadget. But I also learned that it would only cost 10 billion dollars to supply clean drinking water to people in third world countries. For many living in these countries, they spend half of the day walking to the nearest water source only to have to walk back to their village. Their life is consumed with walking to get a necessity of life. Children have to participate in retrieving water and cannot attend school. What if these children were to get an education? What if one of these children would be the one would find the cure for cancer or aids? What if this one of these children would be the next Einstein or Martin Luther King? What if? For just 10 billion dollars, who knows what the world could be like.
There are all kinds of statistics like this one. Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson point out once in a lecture that more people die every year from hunger related illnesses than from terrorism but yet never hear about this. Every day, 16,000 children die of hunger-related diseases. That’s one child every 5.4 seconds and this does not include adults. Terrorism is by no means a good thing but world hunger is also a great concern that we all need to remember not only in our prayers but in our actions.
Who knows what will happen in 2009. There are many uncertainties but we as Christians know that God is with us in our beginnings and in our endings. Through life and death, God is with us. It was God who promised his people that he was “going to bring [the Israelites] from the land of the north, and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here… I will let them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble; for I have become a father to Israel. Life can be scary at times. So many Americans are living in fear that their jobs will be cut and all they have worked for will be lost. Hospitals and Nursing homes just like this one have patients and residents who are close to death. But we know that even in the midst of our greatest fears and worries Christ, the Word that became flesh is among us. John 1 proclaims that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…The Word became flesh and lived among us.”
We will find a way to work through the challenges that our nation, our world, and each of us face. We will prevail but we need to trust and act on God’s word. Jesus promises to always be with us in our beginnings and when we end our life on earth and move onto our eternal life in heaven. We have seen God’s glory. God glory has been revealed through Jesus will continue to reveal his glory through his church and people carrying out the Gospel. God’s word is powerful and changes lives. I cannot stress it enough that through our beginnings and our ends, Jesus will always be with us. That is our faith and that will carry us through even our worst times in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I think it is fitting that we are reading John 1 a few days after we rang in 2009. 2008 has been full of many ups and down. The economy ceiling has caved in causing millions of Americans to loose their jobs, their housing, and their very welling being. At the beginning of 2008, as we do every January, we dream, wish, and hope that this New Year, this new beginning, will bring about great and new things that will make our lives easier but all to often things do not change right away and sometimes will get worst before they get better.
Think about it, how many of us have made a New Year’s Resolution to lose weight, to spend less money, to spend more time with family and by the end of the year have forgotten the resolution or broken the resolution only after a few weeks. I believe as soon as we see what we have to give up for our resolution, we are scared and go back to our old, bad habits.
This year many of us have made promises. In this past election, all of our politicians who ran for office promised to deliver a better life, a better country, a better world. Sometimes this better life has taken years to come into affect. 50 years ago, nobody would have thought that our country would have elected a minority or a woman to the office of President. But as we have seen, this is no longer a dream but reality. Barack Obama has become the first African American President. In the beginning of the election, nobody thought that a black man or a woman would be the top two choices for the democratic party nomination or a woman be chosen as the vice president candidate for the republican party but it happened and we as a country should be proud.
I recently heard a statistic that Americans spend 450 billion dollars every year on Christmas. This includes not only gifts but the trees, lights, wrapping paper, anything involving the holiday. 450 billion dollars is a lot of money. We all claim it is a necessity for getting us into the holiday spirit and I have to agree with this ideology to a point. I love the symbolism involved in the Christmas Tree or ripping through wrapping paper to get to a new gadget. But I also learned that it would only cost 10 billion dollars to supply clean drinking water to people in third world countries. For many living in these countries, they spend half of the day walking to the nearest water source only to have to walk back to their village. Their life is consumed with walking to get a necessity of life. Children have to participate in retrieving water and cannot attend school. What if these children were to get an education? What if one of these children would be the one would find the cure for cancer or aids? What if this one of these children would be the next Einstein or Martin Luther King? What if? For just 10 billion dollars, who knows what the world could be like.
There are all kinds of statistics like this one. Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson point out once in a lecture that more people die every year from hunger related illnesses than from terrorism but yet never hear about this. Every day, 16,000 children die of hunger-related diseases. That’s one child every 5.4 seconds and this does not include adults. Terrorism is by no means a good thing but world hunger is also a great concern that we all need to remember not only in our prayers but in our actions.
Who knows what will happen in 2009. There are many uncertainties but we as Christians know that God is with us in our beginnings and in our endings. Through life and death, God is with us. It was God who promised his people that he was “going to bring [the Israelites] from the land of the north, and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here… I will let them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble; for I have become a father to Israel. Life can be scary at times. So many Americans are living in fear that their jobs will be cut and all they have worked for will be lost. Hospitals and Nursing homes just like this one have patients and residents who are close to death. But we know that even in the midst of our greatest fears and worries Christ, the Word that became flesh is among us. John 1 proclaims that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…The Word became flesh and lived among us.”
We will find a way to work through the challenges that our nation, our world, and each of us face. We will prevail but we need to trust and act on God’s word. Jesus promises to always be with us in our beginnings and when we end our life on earth and move onto our eternal life in heaven. We have seen God’s glory. God glory has been revealed through Jesus will continue to reveal his glory through his church and people carrying out the Gospel. God’s word is powerful and changes lives. I cannot stress it enough that through our beginnings and our ends, Jesus will always be with us. That is our faith and that will carry us through even our worst times in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen
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