Baptism of our Lord

Isaiah 42: 1-9 Rural Retreat Lutheran Parish
Psalm 29 Baptism of our Lord
Acts 10: 34-43 Year A
Matthew 3: 13- January 9, 2011

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

Thankfully and joyfully, God does not have a surcharge for baptism. It is a free gift where God claims us as one of his own and sets us free from our bondage to sin. Saint Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, describes baptism as literally being clothed in Christ. This means that our identity is no longer found in worldly things such as Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female but rather we are all the same. We are all wearing the same clothing and there is no way to distinguish what class, gender, or race we are. We are all simply one people, united in Christ.

In very similar wording to Saint Paul, Martin Luther describes baptism as “not simply plan water” but it is water used according to God’s command and connected with God’s work.”1 Baptism “brings about forgiveness of sins, redeems from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe it, as the word and promise of God declare.”2 We are not merely dealing with something as simple as water or taking a bath in baptism. We are dealing with something of epic proportions--something that God commanded us to do so that we might find forgiveness of sin, unity with one another, and safety form the evils of this world--death and devil

Interestingly, Luther also equates baptism to that of a daily dying experience. He beautifully explains baptism as dying from our old ways daily but also rising each day--instantly forgiven, renewed, and restored as God’s people and children. We experience both death and life each and every day because of our baptism into Christ.

Our Baptism serves as the best possible reminder of life after death—even though we might die, God has sealed a promise with us to never abandon us and that one day we will all be raised back to life. Even amidst one our greatest fear, we still have that sure hope that God never breaks a promise—that we will have life.

Luther never underestimates the great mystery surrounded in baptism. He says:
In Baptism every Christian has enough to study and to practice all [their] life. [He or she will] always [have] enough to do to believe firmly what Baptism promises and brings— victory over death and the devil, forgiveness of sin, God’s grace, the entire Christ, and the Holy Spirit with his gifts. In short the blessings of Baptism are so boundless that if timid nature [individual] considers [all the blessings found in baptism], he or she may well doubt whether [these blessings] could all be true.3
That last line really drives home the greatness of God’s grace and how easy it is to forget the great power baptism has in our lives. Our God promises to forgive us even when we cannot forgive ourselves, prevail against the devil and death, and bless us continually. We could spend an entire lifetime contemplating the nature of Baptism and not even begin to grasp the magnificence of this sacrament.

Today in our gospel, we witness only a glimpse of God’s power in baptism. In Jesus’ baptism, as soon as he comes up from the water, we hear God claim Jesus and announce to the world that this is God’s son, the one who we all have been waiting for has come.

This is Jesus, God’s only son, born of the Virgin Mary, son of Joseph the carpenter, and made man. This is Jesus, claimed by God so that all righteousness may be fulfilled and we might be brought closer to God. This is Jesus, our crucified and risen savior, who claims us the same way God claimed him at his baptism.

But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, we need to know that our baptism is different from the one Jesus experienced. 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.

Where our baptism is more about forgiveness, Jesus’ baptism was more about a promise. Jesus needs to, in a way, have the torched passed to him. John is the last prophet to prepare the people for what God is going to do. Now Jesus is on the scene and he needs to take over. Instead of signing a contract, he is baptized and promises us that God’s plan for us will be done. God is pleased and the will of God can now proceed as planned. Jesus can now begin his journey to Jerusalem--his journey to the cross.

This is what this season of Epiphany is about--The beginning fulfillment of how God revealed his glory to the people (to the everyday people). That is why we hear stories about The Magi coming from the east, Jesus’ baptism, and creating Wine from Water so that the party could continue. These are a the beginning events of Jesus’s ministry and how God began to reveal his glory to us through Jesus. But equally important, Epiphany is a time when we continue to see how God will reveal his magnificent glory to us: in our sacraments, in our preaching, in our churches, in our people, our ministries, governments, and even in people like us--living in small towns or big cities. God is still working in our world.

That is the best part of our story. God is still here with us. The story did not end at Calvary or at the Ascension. Today is only the beginning of this great story because God has not given up on us yet. We are all claimed as children of God because of Jesus and sent out to proclaim that God is not done with us yet.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

1 A Contemporary Translation of Luther’s Small Catechism, The Sacrament of Holy Baptism, translated by The Rev. Dr. Timothy Weggert, 1996, 35.
2 IBID
3 Lutheran Quarterly, Luther on Baptism, Mark D. Tranvik, 1.