Sermon for January 12, 2020 Baptism of Our Lord House of Prayer Lutheran Church

Isaiah 42:1-9; Acts 10:34-43; Matthew 3:13-17 First Sunday as Pastor at HOP

Everyone knows you can’t have life without water. It’s one of the first things you learn as a kid in science class. Three days without water and your dead. When astronomers search other planets for signs of possible life, what is the first thing they look for? Water. If they can’t find evidence of water in some form, there is no point in looking any further. No water, no life.

Even take the story of Genesis chapter 1: “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth,” it says “the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light.” Genesis describes water not so much as one of the first things God created--it is described as something already there when God began creating things. Water is at the beginning of everything it’s a gift, a sign that God is with us. Without water there is no life.

Or you can take the musical, “Singin’ in the Rain”. “Singin’ in the Rain, I’m...singin’ in the rain; what a glorious feeling I’m happy again”: it’s more than just a great song in a classic movie. Watch any movie or show--if a scene takes place in a big downpour, you can almost guarantee is a big turning point in the story. Why? Because water is symbolic of birth, death, growth, cleansing, change, forgiveness, new life, renewal.

So what a great day this happens to be, even with the ice and snow we’re dealing with, for my first Sunday as your pastor--the Baptism of Our Lord! It’s a great day to remember where our life in Christ begins--in water. And to remember what Jesus did on our behalf--traveling through the rocky desert wilderness to get to the thin long line of lush lively river valley that we know as the Jordan. There he met up with his eccentric cousin, John, and John baptized him in the river.

It seems that both of them knew--in one sense Jesus didn’t really need to be baptized. After all he was the Son of God, the Messiah, the Lord. He could do, or not do, whatever he wanted. John even says to him, “I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?”

But in another sense, Jesus did need John to baptize him because he needed a public sign that something special was happening: he was beginning his public ministry. And he wasn’t just doing this for his own sake, to try to become famous or gain worldly power, but to be in solidarity with people; to be for others. So if they were being baptized by John, then he would do the same thing. He was also doing this to fulfill God’s purpose for him, to be a servant-leader. AND he was teaching others how they could fulfill the purposes God had for them to be servants of Christ and his healing and renewal. What better way to get things started, than the most basic element of all. No water--no life!

God couldn’t have chosen a more simple or more common thing than water to be the most precious gift of creation. Water is the perfect sign of God’s love and grace because everyone knows what it is, and everyone needs it. No matter who you are or where you come from, you can’t live without it. But sometimes, we as human beings try to overcomplicate things that are really very simple. By giving us baptism God is telling us--hey, this really is simple. My love and grace is all around you and is always available for you, and you need it, just like water. So I give it to you, like water.

Like water, God’s love and grace is meant for everyone! This means baptism is a relational act. You don’t baptize yourself; somebody else baptizes you. So when you’re baptized you automatically become part of a larger story--you’re connected to others.

[PAUSE] What is your baptism story? What are the stories you can tell about baptism? For many of us, we don’t remember being baptized personally because we were infants when it happened. So it becomes something that we rely on others to tell us about. Boy, isn’t that the definition of evangelism, right there?! We learn things in these stories like: What day was it? Who was there? How did things look? How did people feel? If you do remember your own baptism because you were older, then you get to tell the story in your own words. Again, it’s a ready-made method of evangelism! And sometimes it’s even yourself that you need to evangelize--those times that come to everyone in your life, in your faith journey, those dark nights of the soul, when you feel like God is far away, or maybe even absent from your life. That’s when you need to remember the story: I am baptized. God made a promise to me. I belong to Christ forever.

I’ll tell you a few baptism stories. I was baptized on March 29th, 1975. I was about 2 months old and it was Easter Vigil--the night before Easter. Three pastors took part!-- the pastor of the church we were in (Pastor Trexler), my dad (who was a pastor), and my godfather (who was a pastor). I guess they were trying to tell me something, ‘cause look at me now!

My wife, Beth Ann, was baptized in a Methodist church during the brief time her parents lived in a little town called Red Oak, Iowa. When Beth Ann went to seminary (that’s where I met her), guess where her roommate, Sara, happened to be from? Red Oak, Iowa. Guess which church Sara had grown up in? That little Methodist church where Beth Ann was baptized. You can’t make this stuff up.

Beth Ann and I have two sons, Henry is almost 15 and Liam is 13. Henry was baptized May 1, 2005; Liam on May 6, 2007. Every year we celebrate their baptismal anniversary by taking them out for donuts. How many times do you think they’ve forgotten? Never! They always remember--they want their donut!

They eat and we get to tell them the stories. How our families, scattered across the country--from New York, Nebraska, Florida--were able to travel to our small town in the mountains of Pennsylvania to celebrate with us. I tell Henry, when I was praying for the gifts of the Holy Spirit and I laid my hands upon his head to pray, I accidentally stuck my finger in his eye. -- I’ve been a lot more careful since then. I promise!

And I tell Liam how, after his baptism, we took a road trip with the extended family out to Niagara Falls, where we rode the giant Ferris wheel, and sailed in the Niagara River on the Maid of the Mists cruise. Have you ever been on that? Oh man, it’s just amazing. You get right up close to the falls and you feel the power of water in a very thrilling way.

Like baptism, these stories are about our relationships--to each other; to God; to God’s creation. It’s about how we depend on each other, in faith, to remember what God has done for us, and to care for other people, and to care for God’s creation in Jesus’ name. It’s about how God makes us part of his people, part of Christ’s family. How God calls us to follow Jesus, and to serve others. How God has made promises to us that can never be broken--promises fulfilled in Jesus who lived, and went to the cross, and rose again from the tomb, for us and for our salvation. He did that not only for us who are gathered here, but he did it for everyone--from any nation, from any background, who’s been living through any kind of difficulty or suffered any kind of marginalization, or for people who’ve been trying to patch up any kind of brokenness they feel in their lives: everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.

We are beloved children of God forever. Amen.