Baptized in Water, Sealed in the Spirit

Scripture Lessons: Isaiah 43: 1-7 and Luke 3: 15-22 Sermon Title: Baptized in Water, Sealed in the Spirit Preached on 1/9/22 When meeting someone new, for generations, the advice has been to steer away from politics or religion. Instead, ask about your new friend’s health or just talk about the weather. That used to work. In our world today, a conversation about health can lead right into a debate over COVID-19 and talking about the weather might turn towards carbon emissions, and why it’s 70 one day and 32 the next. Making conversation these days may feel something like navigating a minefield, yet there have always been those touchy subjects that set off something unexpected in our conversation partners. For example, a session of premarital counseling once turned into a debate over the validity of infant baptism, because the young groom I was meeting with was raised in the Church of Christ, while the bride, raised in the Presbyterian Church, was baptized as an infant. From time to time I’ll find myself in such a conversation: why baptize infants? By a Baptist I’ve been asked: “why would you do that? Babies can’t talk, they can’t walk, they haven’t yet even had the chance to sin, so why wash their sins away in the water of baptism?” That’s a fair question, but it’s also a reflection of a little bit of biblical illiteracy, for you could ask the same question of Jesus. Why was Jesus baptized? We often associate these two things: baptism and having your sins washed away. That’s part of it, yet why was Jesus baptized? If he was perfect, what was washed away? In 1561, Swiss and German protestants met to write the First and Second Helvetic Confessions. There they defined it, saying: Now to be baptized in the name of Christ is to be enrolled, entered, and received into the covenant and family, and so into the inheritance of the children of God. In other words, baptism has so much to do with initiation. It’s not just about washing sins away. It’s our adoption papers. Because we’ve been baptized, according to the Lord’s will and testament, we are heirs to inherit our place in the Kingdom of Heaven. Infants, children, teenagers, adults who are baptized here become a part of this family of faith. They are welcomed into that great cloud of witnesses. Those who are baptized gather beside the foremothers and forefathers of the faith in this age and every age, who forever sing of the Glory of God’s name. They are heirs to the promise. Therefore, we are members of this church and the church universal. But have you heard about the Church? I’ve told you once before that those experts in the field expect that one in four churches have either closed during the pandemic or will close because of it. I can think of a few. Only, not only that. So many say that the age of the great institutions of our society is ending; not only are bowling leagues a thing of the past, but civic clubs, PTAs, churches, all kinds of voluntary organizations that made up such a big part of our parent’s and grandparent’s social lives are declining in membership. The Church is declining in membership. Now then, why was Jesus baptized? Why would Jesus want to be initiated into this? I’ve heard all kinds of great baptism stories, and I’ve lived a couple of them. I’ve heard about infants who’d held it and held it until the moment the pastor took her and then the floodgates opened, and the diaper almost held all of it… almost. I’ve heard about pastors who never checked the baptismal font for water, and so one just pretended that there was water in there and baptized a baby with air. Even still: 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.” Did you hear that? Jesus was baptized in the Jordan by John. Were there sins within him that needed to be washed away? No. Were there imperfections that he needed to be cleansed from? No. Why then was Jesus baptized? Looking down from heaven on all of us, we who can’t even have civil conversations with each other about the weather anymore: why was Jesus baptized? I’ll tell you. It’s because when you see a problem in the world, there’s only one thing to do about it, and it’s not write about it on Facebook. Back when “the customer is always right” was a slogan that more businesses lived by, there was a Rich’s department store manager who refused a return on a dented up old lawn mower. “Must have been sold to this man 20 years ago, and he came in asking about a warrantee,” the manager said. Well, when this man was denied a return of his antique lawn mower, it wasn’t but a day or two that Dick Rich’s driver parked his car in that store’s parking lot, so that the leader of the whole network of department stores was having a one-on-one conversation with this renegade store manager who wouldn’t live by “the customer is always right” slogan. Why was Jesus baptized? Because when God sees a problem in the world, God shows up in person. We heard it first in our Old Testament reading from the Prophet Isaiah: For thus says the Lord, He who created you, He 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. Do not fear, for I am with you. That’s how the Prophet Isaiah said it because that’s how it is with God. That’s how it is with Jesus. How is it with us? I’ll tell you. There’s a story about a shipwrecked man on an island. Eventually he was found, and even though he was all alone, he had made three huts. His rescuers asked him about them, and he said, “That one’s my house where I live. And that second one is my church. The third one is the church I used to go to. I don’t go there anymore.” There are plenty of good reasons to leave churches. I can think of several. While the only way to save the church is to join one. I’ve heard it said a hundred times: “If you want to make the public schools stronger, enroll your kids in one.” If you don’t like the politicians in power, run for office or at least vote. If you’re worried about those who are locked up, volunteer at the jail. If you’re concerned about kid’s these days, become a youth group advisor. Join up. Don’t quit. Nothing gets betting if you stay home, and everything could get better. I heard the most inspirational story the other day. It came at the end of an article I was reading. A family went to their synagogue and met the old rabbi. “What’s your son’s name” the rabbi asked, and his father told him it was Elijah.” “Ah, the prophet of unlikely redemption,” the rabbi said, smiling. “With them, the good news is almost as hard as the bad.” That’s an interesting thing to say, isn’t it? So, it took the author a while to sort out what the rabbi meant, and this is what she decided, “Sometimes the task of rebuilding – of accepting what has been broken and making things anew – is so daunting that it can almost feel easier to believe it can’t be done. But it can.” It can. Only how do we do it? What do we do? Where do we start? Start where Jesus does, for our entire hope lies in our connections. The hope for the world still lies in relationships. The way to rebuild our society is the way Johnny Isakson did it. He was famous for saying that there are only two kinds of people: friends, and future friends. That’s how it must be, because before people will even think about changing, they must feel scene and heard, valued, and appreciated. All this separating of the wheat and the chaff business that John the Baptist is talking about: before anyone will let go of their chaff, they must know that there’s wheat inside them. It’s just so easy to read this passage and be terrified, isn’t it? I don’t think I’d like to be there to hear John preach, and it scares me how he describes Jesus. “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.” That sounds scary, yet I believe that’s true. There’s so much in this world that must be refined. There’s so much chaff that must be swept away with the wind or else burned in the fire, but don’t ever forget what is precious and good. I think about the Church all the time. I don’t just mean this church. I mean, the Church. The Church full of slick televangelists and power drunk megachurch pastors. I think about how, growing up and going to some youth groups, it wasn’t a matter of whether I was going to hell, it was just a matter of when. The Church is a mess. It’s just like every other human institution. It’s just like every college football program and every bowling league. It’s full of imperfect people, yet Jesus joins up and was baptized by John. Why? To remind us again that there is something so sacred here. And I don’t just mean a little sacred. I mean, sacred sacred. Did you know that we’ve distributed a million meals out of the parking lot? Did you know that I cut myself shaving on Christmas Eve and had toilet paper stuck to my face? But now I have not just one but two styptic pencils, so that next time it happens I’ll be ready. Who gave them to me? Two members of this church who were so thoughtful to find them, buy them, and bring them up here. My friends, Christ came down from heaven to join a group of believers at the river. It was a congregation, just like this one. Just like us. That’s why he was baptized. To remind us that along with all the mess, there is so much precious here. Don’t ever forget that. Amen.