Jesus Baptism and Ours

Matthew 3:13-17

January 12, 2013

Baptism of our Lord

I always thought it was strange

that we go right from Jesus birth to his baptism.
He’s an older man by this time, around 30,

it seems like there would be some other events in there.

But this is actually how our life in the church goes too.
We’re born and, for most of us,

our first church involvement milestone is baptism.

We know that baptism is important to our lives as Christians.

The Scriptures stressed its importance

Luther stressed its importance of baptism

we stress its importance too. We remember it we discuss it,

we teach it, we give the gift of baptism

to our children and anyone who wants it, we do it.

Now for many years,

people have stressed that baptism is primarily

about the forgiveness of sins.

Even for Lutherans, we have gotten the impression that baptism
is mainly –sometimes only - about forgiveness and repentance.

A ritual that forgives our sins so that we can

enter into heaven as righteous people when we die.

A “get out of jail free card”, so to speak.

Some of us grew up hearing nothing much more about baptism.

But the question is holds, if baptism is just about forgiveness of sins

then why did Jesus need to be baptized in the Jordan?

And John was right, if that’s all it was about,

Jesus should be baptizing him,
not the other way around.

  

I think the answer for us about what baptism

really means, is found in the scriptures, in this event. Jesus baptism.

Jesus baptism is in every gospel. It’s important.

Only Jesus death and resurrections and a few

other things are in each book.

Each writer thought it was important enough to include.

Now John’s baptisms were for repentance and forgiveness of sins.

He makes that pretty clear to everyone.

And some have tried to say that Jesus was just doing it

as an example to the rest of us. He did it, so we should too.

But it doesn’t say that at all.

And a lot more things happen in Jesus baptism.

It’s a unique event. Different than the rest of the baptisms John did.

And that is what we are given. Not John’s baptism, but Jesus baptism.

In Jesus baptism, he was named by God.

Given an identity as belonging to God.

“This is my son”, the voice said.

We get this in our baptism too.

More than just created by God as all creatures are

The Baptism of Christ, Daniel Bonnell

when we are baptized, we are identified as God’s own.

In Jesus baptism,

The voice from heaven
said that Jesus was loved.

“This is my son, my beloved, 

with whom I am pleased.”

When we are loved,
it is important to be told we are loved.

To have that expressed
to us in different ways.

When we are baptized,
we are told that we are loved by God.

We are cherished forever.

In every account, when Jesus was baptized, the heavens opened up.
Maybe this was a also a description for how the clouds parted,

but each one says it like this – heaven was opened up.

When we are baptized in Jesus name, the separation between

us and the eternal is broken. We are joined with our creator.

And in every account,

the Spirit, in the form of a dove lands on Jesus.

And it's then that he is called into his public ministry.

In our baptism, the Spirit lands on us too.

And when we are baptized,

we are commissioned to do ministry in Jesus name,

to spread the word of God, the love and acceptance of Christ,

to be kind and compassionate to others,

to stand up for justice and the oppressed

we are commissioned to share the word

and the gift of baptism that we’ve received.

We don’t have to ask permission,

that is given to us from the start.

And finally, in baptism our sins are forgiven.
But not primarily so we can escape eternal punishment,

but so we can start anew after each stumble.

Forgiveness is a second, third, and

four hundreth chance to start again every day.

So we are not permanently marked by our past.

We are not spending our whole time trying to redeem ourselves.

So God’s ministry through us is not hampered by our

own shortcomings, God has given us forgiveness -

the gift of being able to start anew.

The church by definition, is the community of people

who have received this gift of baptism.

People who know we have been given this gift

and are living in it’s light and deciding

what it means and what God wants us to do with it.

It is central to our lives together.

When we are baptized we become part of that group forever.

 

I want you to take a second now.

Close your eyes to take away any distraction.

That cross of water you put on your forehead

at the beginning of the worship is dry now.

Just like the water of  your baptism has dried off

but even though you can’t see it or feel it, it’s still there.

Remember that water.

And remember that you have been baptized.

•  You have been named by God.
• You have been chosen as God’s own child.
• You have been told that you are loved forever.
• The separation between you and God has been taken away.
• You have been anointed by the Spirit for ministry
• And whenever you don’t live up to your calling in life, every day you are forgiven and given a chance to start again.

Thank you Jesus for giving us this gift.
May we always live it,

and share it’s joy with others.

Two Christmas Stories

Matthew 2:1-12

Epiphany

January 5, 2014

Christ has been born,

the savior has come into the world

the light has shattered the darkness

And now everyone is happy,

and all it takes is for the wise men to follow the star

and find the child, spread the good news far and wide.

Everything else goes absolutely smoothly.

Maybe we could believe that

if we just read Luke’s version of the birth of Jesus

like we do on Christmas Eve.

We could enjoy the sights of shepherds,

angels, heavenly hosts,

quiet mangers and holy families.

But Matthew’s gospel doesn’t

let us get away that easily.

In Matthew’s story, the birth of Jesus isn’t just a family affair,

it’s not just a miraculous birth of a boy

who will do things when he grows up.

In Matthew, the birth of Jesus almost immediately

sends ripples through the world,

not all of them good ripples either.

Of course we know about

the wise men who see the star in the sky and understand

that this indicates that the messiah has been born.

The Three Wise Men
Bowing With Gifts In Hand,
Penny Pausch ...

And even though they
are not of the Jewish faith

they see the sign and they want to pay their respects to him,

This scene is familiar enough
pleasant enough

To show up in our nativity scenes,

the picture of three kings bowing to a baby.

Giving gifts to him.

And Matthew’s birth story would be a pleasant enough

and full of joy and peace, if this were the end.

But to help them find where this baby is,

the wise men go to the person that they assume

will be in the know about the event --King Herod --

the man who has been appointed the king of the Jews.

But it turns out Herod is not excited that the hopes

and prophecies of his ancestors are coming true.

He is not to have this baby born in his kingdom.

Massacre of the Innocents, Fra Angelico, 1451

He’s not overjoyed
that the messiah has come -

about the light scattering the darkness.

It says that at this news that
Herod was frightened

and not just him, but all of Jerusalem with him.

To think that Herod just didn’t understand

the importance of this birth
would be nieve I think.

Herod understood,
he understood all too well

maybe more than some others.

The birth of the Messiah didn’t just mean

light and fulfillment of everyone’s hopes.

the birth of the Messiah meant,

a different reality, God coming into the world.

it means justice and that means change.

It means that things would be different

that the lowly would be raised

and the powerful would be tumbled down.

And Herod was the powerful.

Herod’s fear had already driven him to kill

several close family members.

And his fear of the Messiah led him to do the unspeakable.

Which is the second part of the world’s reaction to Jesus birth

in Matthew’s story.

 

Herod had his people kill all the children in and around Bethlehem

who were two years and younger.

Some say it was 20 deaths, some say it was 10,000.

Some say it never happened at all.

But it doesn’t matter, we have seen enough leaders react

out of fear and paranoia and a need for control.

We have seen enough killing in our lifetime

we have seen enough innocents slaughtered

to know that even if Matthew isn’t talking about a historical event,

Matthew is telling us a Truth.

Matthew knows, the good news of the birth of

Jesus the Messiah, is not good news to everyone

Everyone who understands the importance

does not automatically react with joy and worship.

Everyone does not risk everything and follow Jesus way.

The wise men understood the news

and they sought it out, they embraced the possibility joyfully,

knelt down to worship, offered their gifts to the cause.

Hero understood the news of the birth

and lashed out in violence in an attempt

to control the situation and maintain the old way.

The foreign, pagan, wise men chose to step

into the mystery and embrace it,

But the king who spoke the words of Jesus’s own religion

chose to violently maintain the status quo.

In these first chapters, Matthew is getting us ready

for the end of the story of Jesus

where religion and power come together again

and eventually put Jesus to death.

 

Now we can come to a conclusion, which some have,

that the world is divided into two kinds of people

that the good people just choose the wise men’s route

And those evil people choose Herod’s way,

But isn’t it closer to the truth that both exist

are in each of us?

Don’t we all have the propensity for worship with our whole selves

to embrace the unknown, to risk going wherever God leads us?

But don’t we also have the inclination to try and control,

to even support violence at times

if it maintains our comfort, our status quo?

We all have the ability to embrace God’s justice and rule and will

and to turn it away, ignore it, rebel against it.

We all make that choice every day.

Matthew’s story is about the world’s journey of faith.

It’s about the many ways that we can react to

the good news of Jesus Christ.

And it’s about what God needs from God’s people:

Not people who are slaves to their fears

who cling to power and violence and control.

but wise people who risk things to follow stars.

God needs people  who are willing to follow

uncertain things with certainty,

God wants us to follow that star that

looks like all the other stars to everyone else,

but that we’re sure in our hearts means something.

God needs us to follow that star even if it means

a loss of our own power and our own status our own comfort.

The messiah has come to us,

Christ has been born,

the savior has come into the world

the light has shattered the darkness.

Let us embrace this, risk the unknown, and follow Jesus.

A Heritage of Scandal

Matthew 1:18-25

Advent 4

December 22, 2013

The Annunciation of Joseph,
the Carpenter, in Nazareth
by Sieger Koder

I had a friend in school who’s older sister

got pregnant and once she started to show,

her parents took her out of high school

and sent her to a convent for six months

so she could have the baby privately,

so no one would ever know.

I think they told everyone that she was

in a study abroad semester.

They treated it as a shameful secret that they hid from everyone

because you’re not supposed to talk about this kind of stuff

especially in church.

I probably shouldn’t be talking about this now.

Three days before Christmas and all.

I remember when I was in middle school

a person in the senior high youth group was
suspected of being pregnant.

Everyone felt like they could stare at her and shake their heads

when she went by, but heaven forbid,

we couldn’t talk about it in church.

It’s ironic that it has been a tradition in our lifetime that you

would never dream about talking about pregnancy

especially pregnancy before marriage or any kind of other

scandalous thing like that in church

because it’s a pretty important part of the story right here

at the beginning of Matthew’s gospel,

the first page of the New Testament.

 

The birth of Jesus the Messiah
took place in this way…

When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph,

but before they lived together,

she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

So they were committed to be married,

but they weren’t living together yet,

but still she was found to be with child…

She was engaged to one person but

she was pregnant with someone else’s child. Scandal!
Sure we know it was the Holy Spirit,

but who was going to believe that?

It’s such a familiar story to us, I think we’ve domesticated it.

Taken away some of its original impact.

We read this version of the birth of Jesus in church
every three years.

We start with verse 18, because the 17 verses before hand

seem pretty boring and long, it’s the genealogy

of Jesus, the bits that say, this one was the father of that one

and that one was the father of this one

That information was probably important to people at the time,

but we usually skip over it when we’re reading
other parts of the bible.

But Jesus genealogy is pretty interesting if you take the time

I’ll read you just the first part:

 

An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah,
the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob,
and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar,
and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram,
and Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab,
and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth,
and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David.

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah,
and Solomon the father of Rehoboam,
and Rehoboam the father of Abijah,

Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Uriah’s wife

Four women are included in Jesus genealogy.

Typically the genealogy is traced through the men

Now it’s not absolutely unheard of that some women are mentioned

but it is kind of unique and these women are particularly interesting.

Each of these women is a familiar character in the bible,

each of these women would be recognized.

Just by saying their name, you could bring up a story in the heads

of people familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures,
which the community that Matthew was talking to would have been.

 

All four of these women have very interesting stories.

Stories that you’re not supposed to talk about in church.

But we’ll do it anyway.

Tamar married one of Judah’s

sons but he died before they had children

She wanted her children to be in Judah’s lineage, so

disguised herself as a prostitute and tricked Judah,

her former father-in-law, and as a result,

she gave birth to his sons Perez and Zerah who are in this geneology.

Rahab was a real prostitute, and a gentile

she used her wit to help the Israelites when they came to Jherico.

She eventually married an Isrealite named Salmon

and they had a son named Boaz.

They are all mentioned here.

Ruth was a gentile who married into an Israelite family

after her husband died, she stayed

take care of her mother in law Naomi

She saved them both from starvation

by seducing Boaz, Naomi’s wealthy older cousin. 

She had a son named Obed who was the grandfather of David.

Then of course, there was Uriah’s wife as Matthew reminds us

Bathsheba, the wife of someone else

when King David saw her bathing on a roof top

and had her husband killed when they found that she

was pregnant with his child.

She was the mother of Solomon.

Talk about a line of scandals.

These certainly are things that respectable people
shouldn’t be talking about. What would people say?

Certainly we shouldn’t be talking about this stuff in church.

Except that its in the bible!

It’s how the whole New Testament starts

this is the story of Jesus of Nazareth.

People knew the stories of each of these great ancestors,

and Matthew used the unusual additions of these women

to remind people that everything

about their own beloved ancestry was not all innocent

it was not without its own scandals.

Matthew is preparing the reader.

After humbling them and reminding them

of their nation’s own interesting past, they are ready.

Matthew says,

“Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way:”

And the scandal of Mary and Joseph and their own drama ensues.

We are waiting for God,

waiting for Jesus to come again.

Most of us look for the holy and pure to find God.

The absolutely peaceful, the places without sin or scandal.

But that’s not how our own lives are.

Our own lives are interesting, scandalous, not without sin

because of that, sometimes we think

that God will have no business working through us.

God would have no business even being around us.

But this story tells us different.

God not only can deal with the scandals

of our family and our lives. God can work through them.

The things that we have considered unholy

and too shameful for God, they don’t’ even ruffle God’s feathers.

God loves to use them to show that nothing and no one is

too-far-gone for God’s attention.

Jesus the Christ –

A child born of a scandal out of a line of scandals

Who would live outside of society’s norms.

Who would die in a scandalous way

to show that God is not above any scandal of our life or times.

As the Angel said to Joseph,

“Do not be afraid,

Whatever happens,

I promise you, God can deal with all this.
God has seen a lot worse.

Mary, the young woman you’re engaged to

will conceive and bear a son

and they will name him Emmanuel,

which means God is with us.”

God is with us. In our life

not in that sentimental, greeting card,

sacchrine - sugary sweet visions of sugar plumbs

dancing in their head kind of way.

God is with us

in every hushed story and whispered secret

in every shame and scandal,

in every story that’s been told behind our backs.

In everything that we’re not supposed to talk about.

Does someone you know have a scandal in their life?

Do you have a scandal in your life?

God can handle it.

Maybe even better than that,

God can use it, and you, in God’s plan.

God is with us.

No matter what.