Baptism of Our Lord

Sermon by Rev. Dr. Marcus Pera

January 10, 2010

The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the Third Chapter. (Luke 3:15-17, 21-22)

As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

Now, when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

The Gospel of Our Lord.

In the name of Jesus, sisters and brothers, grace, mercy, and peace be unto you. Amen.

This past Wednesday, we celebrated the Festival of the Epiphany of Our Lord. That marks the close of the Christmas season, the traditional twelve days of Christmas observed; and it also is the Christmas celebration for the Eastern Orthodox Church. And now we move to the Sundays after Epiphany and in Epiphany. The word “epiphany” itself comes from a couple of Greek words, “epi” and “phainia.” “To shine on” is actually the literal interpretation, or to reveal, or to make known, or to manifest. And one of the hymns we will sing it says, “God in flesh made manifest.” And that’s the refrain that we will hear throughout the Epiphany season.

Ann Weems, who is a poet and has a book of poetry, one of them titled “Kneeling at Bethlehem,” says in one of her poems, “It Is Not Over,” “It is not over, this birthing of God.” And she says, “God looks anew at the skies and can throw a star.” This revealing and manifestation of God continues.

But in this Epiphany season, we’re looking at a particular phase of it, and that is that this Jesus who was born, we are looking at his identity more clearly and recognizing that he wasn’t just a baby born, but that he is in fact the very Son of God. And so we go through the lessons. And then next Sunday there will be the temptation story, and the Sunday after that Jesus turning water into wine. It ends with transfiguration, when the same voice is heard, “You are my Son.”

And today is Jesus’ baptism, where that voice is spoken, and there is clarity about Jesus’ identity. And when we look at the baptism of Jesus this morning in a special way, I hope we also see in ourselves a new appreciation and understanding of our own baptism and the power with which it gives us for life.

Let’s look at the baptism of Jesus from Luke, which is the lectionary chosen for this year. And there is some uniqueness about the baptism of Jesus in Luke. First off, if you notice, the actual baptism of Jesus took one-half of one verse to make reference to it, one‑half of one verse. Obviously, in terms of the arrangement of the data, Luke was not particularly putting that at center stage. There was another uniqueness, and that uniqueness is, if you looked at the celebrate sheet if you had one, there are two verses missing in this sequence of this reading. The people that choose the lectionary made an arbitrary decision here, and I think the reason is that the reference of those two verses is that John was in prison, that he had made some statements of judgment about Herod, who took his brother-in-law’s wife, among some other things. And obviously King Herod didn’t go for the judgment that was spoken by John the Baptist very well, and he imprisoned him. But the obvious implication then is: did John actually baptize Jesus? Or how could he have done that if he was in prison? So we have another uniqueness there.

The third uniqueness we have in the Gospel of Luke is that Jesus afterwards is off to the side and is praying, and then the Holy Spirit comes down in the form of a dove. It is an appearance of God, a combining of heaven and earth, an incarnating, if you will, of the Holy Spirit. And thus also then the voice is spoken directly to Jesus and not to the crowd around. The word is spoken directly to Jesus, “You are my Son, the Beloved. In you I am well pleased.”

Now, what do we make of all of this? First of all, I think what we say is that Luke was trying to make a distinction between John’s ministry and Jesus’ ministry. John’s ministry was coming to a close; it was to announce the coming of the Messiah. Jesus’ ministry was just beginning. And to have him in prison at this particular point in the sequence of things, I think, is to give the reader the indication that this is a pretty clear understanding of that distinction and that interrelationship.

Secondly, Jesus is baptized. He evidently gets in line with all of the others that have come to be baptized, evidently by the disciples of John in this sequence of reading. And what we understand perhaps is that some people might be bothered by the fact that Jesus is the sinless Son of God, and this is a baptism for repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, and so why is Jesus baptized? But Jesus was sent into the world to enter into the human condition that all of us find ourselves, and that is a broken and a fractured situation. And Jesus comes into the midst of God’s people. He stands with God’s creation, he stands with them, and he identifies and expresses his solidarity with them. And that happens throughout the Gospel of Luke, where you have Jesus also being criticized for being with the prostitutes, the sinners, those who are on the margins of society.

And the third part of that uniqueness is that beautiful affirmation that is there, but it is spoken directly to Jesus, and that is: “You are my Son.”

Eugene Peterson, in his paraphrase of the Bible, states it in this particular way, and I like the way he says it. He says, “You are my Son. You are precious. I love you, and I am proud of you.” What affirming words as Jesus hears that and is forming and shaping and understanding his unique identity.

Well, what about our own baptism now, and what do we hear from that in relationship to that baptism of Jesus?

First of all, I want to concentrate and talk a little bit about the naming and the voice that is so apparent. There used to be at the beginning of baptism a question that was asked: “What name do you give to this person?” That naming which is the baptismal name of a person, the first name that we have. And at my baptism, the response was “Marcus.” My father took me in his hand and he said, “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” The powerful voice of God and word of God was there, as Luther says, with the word that makes that such a powerful not just example but reality when baptism is experienced. The word is spoken; and the word is not only powerful, it is effective. God says that in Isaiah, “As the rain comes down from heaven and waters the earth, so shall it be with my word. It shall go forth from my mouth, and it shall not return unto me void, but it will accomplish the purpose for which I sent it.” And that word, connected to the water, establishes and creates and does what God intends to do, and that is to make us son and that is to make us daughter of God. That naming and that name of God is such a powerful one.

We just heard and participated in the reading and singing of the Psalm for today. And did you get all of those references to the voice? The voice that is powerful; the voice that is filled with splendor; the voice that breaks those powerful cedars in Lebanon apart; the voice that causes Lebanon to skip like a calf; the voice that creates Mount Hermon also to be as a wild ox. This is the power of that voice of God; the voice that creates in the beginning and the voice that recreates through the sacrament of baptism as well.

And in this baptism, we were named and claimed by this name of God. It says so in that first lesson, that Isaiah lesson. “I claimed you.” “I named you.” “You are precious in my sight.” “I love you.” These are all words that are so important for us to hear as an ongoing reminder of the reality of our baptismal lives as well.

There used to be a retreat experience. One of the things they would do at this retreat is, they would have parents or loved ones of the people participating in the retreat send a letter, and that letter would be distributed at some point during the retreat. They were asked to simply tell and express what they felt about their loved one. I recycled that once into a campus-ministry experience at the University of Cincinnati. And here we had young adults on this retreat. Thankfully, I had gotten a hold of all the parents beforehand and I got letters from all of the parents. And so at the appropriate point in that retreat people went off to different parts of the room with this letter in hand. And here they read the expressions that so often aren’t heard or expressed with much adequacy. Why do we have so much trouble with that in our culture; trouble to say, “I love you,” trouble to say it often enough; trouble saying “I’m proud of you”; trouble saying, “You’re precious in my sight.” Anyway, they opened those letters and heard them, and they came back and tears were streaming down their cheeks, because of how they were affirmed and felt that affirmation, affirmation that is certainly there day by day in our baptism, but affirmation that also comes to us through the families into which we were born, through the love that is shared and given.

And then the final part of experiencing and understanding what this baptismal journey can mean for us is that it also gives us a sense of what our mission is and is to be. And here’s where the dove, the Holy Spirit, and prayer come in.

It’s interesting that in Luke’s Gospel there are a variety of references to prayer and Jesus in prayer. Usually it’s an occasion of some instruction from God, some direction from God. And with it is the Holy Spirit’s presence that gives the power to fulfill and complete this instruction or this suggestion. Well, that Holy Spirit has also been part of us in our baptism. “You are sealed with the Holy Spirit and signed with the Cross of Christ forevermore.” And this is our call, to live out our baptismal life and to live it in ways that make possible for us to know that we are a called “Child of God” and are called to do God’s will.

We just did it in the affirmation or reaffirmation of our baptism, did we not? Do you intend to live with God’s faithful people? Do you intend to hear the word and participate in the sacraments? Do you intend also to proclaim the good news of God in word and deed? Do you intend to seek to be and live after the example of Jesus Christ? Do you intend to strive for peace and justice in all of God’s creation? And we said, “Yes. We intend to do so, with the help of God.”

Someone has once said that our baptismal certificate is our ordination paper into the priesthood of all believers. What a wonderful concept, that calling that we have to be a priest for all of God’s creation, and all of the earth is God’s altar. And every day we are reminded of that reality. Luther said that we should wake up every morning, make the sign of the cross, and then shout out, “I am baptized! I am baptized!” What a way to start the day, to be reminded of God’s preciousness as He looks upon us, and also to be reminded that this day we are called to serve God and to live out our baptismal covenant.

Another of my campus-ministry experiences was for our campus ministry at the Minnesota State University in St. Cloud. The person that was serving there at the time was Pastor Darius Larson. And one of the things he did, they had a chapel that had a fairly large baptismal font, and it was a fountain so that there was water streaming all the time. And every time they were there with some group, whether it was there for a committee planning meeting, or whether it was there for a fun social night, or whether it was there for some other speaker or Bible study, they didn’t leave until they went and gathered around the font. And they gathered around the font and they were playful. They took the water and kind of splashed it on each other. And it was that reminder that they would not leave until that they were reminded of their baptism.

Let our intercession with water every day be that reminder for us. We wake up in the morning and go in the shower, and it hits us in the face. Let it be a reminder that we are baptized. We sit down at lunch or dinner, and we have dinner with our friends, our loved ones, our family, and we have a glass of water at each table. Let it be a reminder as we take a sip that these are people with whom we walk in a baptismal journey together, and to understand more perfectly what that means. As we sit at the end of the day and wash our face before we go to bed, what a reminder that God says these words again to us—that “You are my son, you are my daughter.” “You are precious.” “I love you.” “I am proud of you.”—and then to be able to go in peace and sleep the night in peace.

Yes, it isn’t over; it isn’t over, this birthing of God, birthing in us; a reminder that that birthing, because of our baptism, happens day after day after day. And it is that water that guarantees a place for us around His table. And we hear the voice once again, reaffirming us this day, from God, “Take, eat, this is my body.” “Take, drink, this is my blood.” Yes, it isn’t over.

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