Sermon 1/7/07
Well Pleased - Luke 3:1-17, 21-22
(view lectionary notes for this text)
During Advent, we took a first look at this text, this scene, that we read again today. We met John the Baptist, and heard him preaching to the people, encouraging them to repent, and instilling in them an attitude of expectation, so that they would be ready for the coming of the Messiah. John baptizes the people, a symbol of their repentance, and he baptizes them with water, a symbol of cleansing, purifying. But he talks about the one who is coming, and tells the people that that one will baptize with Holy Spirit and fire. John conjures an image of an intimidating Messiah, as he envisions the one is coming after him. But then Jesus arrives before him, and in an event Luke barely pauses to recount, he himself is baptized by John. Unlike the other gospels, Luke seems barely interested in recounting Jesus’ baptism – he refers to it as an event gone by – “when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized” he says, and what little attention he does give the baptism, he focuses on what God does in Jesus’ baptism. Luke tells us that the heavens open and the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus like a dove, and that a voice speaks to Jesus, saying, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
I think we can think about Jesus’ Baptism in a way as the second part of our Christmas celebration. In Christmas, we celebrate Jesus’ birth. In his baptism, we celebrate a second kind of birth, as Jesus’ identity, his purpose, his call, his ministry, becomes clear, evident, transparent. From this place, from this point of baptism, Jesus begins in earnest his ministry of teaching and preaching. And so in baptism, in a way, we celebrate the birth of the Jesus who isn’t only the child of Mary and Joseph, who isn’t only a child with promise, a child who will be the one to save the people, but the man who is the rabbi, the teacher, the preacher, the Christ. Is his baptism necessary? Does he need to be baptized? No more than we do – baptism isn’t a requirement for Christians. But it is a ritual of belonging, and it is a symbol, a mark of God’s hand on us, a reminder of our identity as God’s precious children. It’s like our birth certificate, reminding of the truth that always is – who we are.
This past week, as many of you know, I was in South Carolina attending a continuing education event called the Congress on Evangelism. I went primarily because of some of the internet and technology related offerings at the event, but I enjoyed the whole program, especially getting to hear J. Ellsworth Kalas speak. Kalas is the author of several books, including the Christmas from the Backside book that we used in our evening service this Advent. Kalas spoke to us about the kinds of people who are Jesus-seekers that we encounter in the scriptures. Not necessarily people who are sought out by Jesus – those who are on the margins and fringes of society – but people who are seeking Jesus – seeking to meet him, interact with him, get something from him. And he said that the first group of people like this we meet in the Bible – Jesus-seekers – are the Pharisees – in particular the Pharisee named Nicodemus.
You might remember Nicodemus’ story – he was the Pharisee that came at night to talk to Jesus. He approaches Jesus in the cover of night and says to him, “We know you are from God because no one can do the miracle you’ve been doing unless God is with them.” He doesn’t even really ask a question of Jesus. Maybe he isn’t even sure what to ask. But he’s intrigued by Jesus, challenged by him, and something compels him to seek Jesus out. Jesus responds to Nicodemus, to his unasked question, by saying, “unless you are born again [or born from above], you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.” Nicodemus asks how this can be – how can one be born again, a second time? Jesus tells him again that to be part of the kingdom of God, one must be born of water and spirit. And he marvels that Nicodemus, a teacher too, a teacher of the faith, does not know these things.
Kalas told us that he thinks Nicodemus is seeking, but hardly even ready or wanting the answers Jesus gives. That’s why he takes Jesus’ statements, which are directed towards Nicodemus, and turns them into third-person issues. Kalas told us that he thinks Nicodemus is seeking, but hardly even ready or wanting the answers Jesus gives. That’s why he takes Jesus’ statements, which are directed towards Nicodemus, and turns them into third-person issues. Jesus says directly to Nicodemus that he must be born again, but Nicodemus responds “how can someone be born again?” Jesus is making it about Nicodemus, but Nicodemus isn’t ready for that responsibility. He’s seeking, but maybe he’s not ready to find what he’s really looking for. I like Kalas’ way of looking at this passage, about seeing Nicodemus, a Pharisee, as a seeker, because as a Pharisee, Nicodemus was a leader of the faith community. He no doubt had been born and raised as a faithful, obedient Jew. As a Pharisee, he had committed his entire life to following God and God’s laws for his people. He was committed, devoted. And yet, as Jesus points out, he doesn’t event get what it means to be born of water and spirit. He’s missing something essential – an understanding of his identity – who he was born as – a child of God, loved, precious, unique, called.
When we are baptized, we are baptized by water and spirit. We also celebrate two births – the physical, tangible parts of our coming into the world, and our birth as a child of God, the birth of our spiritual identity. In our reading from Isaiah, the prophet is clear to the point of repetition, trying to remind of us of our identity, who we are. “But now says the Lord, the God who created you, the God who formed you, Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, Your Savior . . . because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you, I give people in return for you, nations in exchange for your life. Do not fear, for I am with you . . . everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”
Called by name. Precious, honored, loved by God. Theologian Sarah Dylan Breuer writes, “Jesus' baptism provided him with clarity about his purpose and his message.” Our baptism is meant to provide us with clarity and too – with identity. Breuer continues, “You and I, the Baptized, are sent forth, designated as apostles of Jesus Christ, sent to proclaim the new life of Christ Jesus not just with empty words, but with power -- with deeds that change lives, with the offering of all that we have and all that we are. That's appropriate enough for the Baptized. When we were Baptized, what part of us was left untouched? None. When we seek to follow Jesus, what part of us is reserved for someone else's cause? None. And when we are following Jesus with all we are, what part of us -- indeed, what part of our world -- will be left untouched and not transformed fully by grace? None. That, I believe with all my heart, is why it's worth everything that we pledge when we are Baptized, when we Baptize our children, when we reaffirm our Baptismal vows. It's worth it all because it is more than the "all" we humanly thought possible; it is embracing the end for which the Word was breathed and all things made in the beginning. It is the imagining that will stretch our imaginations for as long as eternal life lives.” (1)
Today, we have the opportunity to remember who we are. We all need reminding sometimes, I guess, of the simplest, truest, most basic things in our lives. We need reminding, like Nicodemus, answers to the questions we didn’t even realize we were asking. Who are we? What is our purpose? What’s it all about? If we don’t know we are, we can’t know what we’re supposed to do, and if we don’t know what we’re supposed to do, then we’re not really being disciples, we’re not really being the church, we’re not really being in ministry. So today, come to the water and remember that you are called, even by name. Remember that you precious to God, made by God, formed in God’s image. Remember that honored by God. And remember that you are loved. Beloved, God’s children, with you God is well pleased.
Amen.
(1) www.sarahlaughed.net/lectionary