Jesus and Y’all’s Baptism: Sermon for Baptism of Jesus Sunday 2019
Text: Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who binds us together in baptism.
How many of you remember your baptisms? I certainly don’t. I was only 20 days old, born last Friday the 11th and baptized the 31st. Besides doctor visits, a quick trip to meet the quilting group my mom was part of, that was my first major outing.
For the most part, we have certain sorts of memories around baptisms, they’re nice, cute baby moments. Awww!!! He cried when the water touched him! Oops! Pastor poured water straight down the babies face! Which I have to admit I did when I baptized my niece Abby, well before Sarah and I were married, before dating even. I was supplying over at Trinity for a Saturday service because Pastor Trish who was there then, and her husband Kyle were gone picking up their adopted daughter Amelia. And I used a shell instead of my hand as usual, and straight down her face.
Anyone baptized in full immersion? Fully dunked in? I’ve seen a few, my friend Corrine’s daughter Ellanora was baptized in the font at Wartburg Seminary, and I still can see her frolicking and playing as she sat in the middle of the huge big font bowl probably 2 feet across.
However, Baptism is so much more than just a nice, cute dipping of a child though. It’s a transformative, identity bearing event. This is the time after Epiphany, it’s a time where we read texts that seek to inform us more and more about who Jesus is. Our theme this Epiphany, seeing how Jesus is “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” From Luke 2, Simeon’s Song. So we ask during this time, what it means therefore for us that the Light of the World has entered here, to us, for us, with us.
I look at our theme today, Jesus’ baptism. Jesus is around 30 here, he’s not some cute baby, and most likely baptized while standing in the river Jordan probably by immersion as Jesus, as he emerges from the water, sees the Holy Spirit descending upon him, and the words spoken by a voice from heaven, You are my son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased. In just a few short words, Jesus is claimed, loved, and supported. He is claimed, given identity, you are my son. He is loved, the beloved, the loved one. He is supported, I am well pleased with you.
He’s also sent in baptism. It’s not directly stated, but as soon as this is done, the Spirit drives him out into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil, and his ministry begins. So, his Baptism is the moment that begins Jesus teaching and his journey towards his death and resurrection.
What does this mean for us? It means that just like for Jesus, Baptism is more than splashing or dipping or even just a washing, it is God in the Spirit claiming us, loving us, and supporting us in the midst of washing, and then as claimed, loved, and supported people we are sent out.
In claiming, loving, and supporting us, God tells us we matter. God gives us identity, even more than a name. Our baptismal language echoes the words we read from Isaiah today, I have called you by name, you are mine. Jesus heard that echo as he came up out of the water. We hear it too. In your baptism you are claimed, never to be set down, never to be abandoned, by God. In those words, in that water, you are given more than just a name, you are given family, a place to belong. In baptism, we become God’s children, and nothing can ever change that.
In baptism, God says to us, I have called you by name, you are mine.
Let’s repeat that to ourselves. God says to me, I have called you by name, you are mine.
God has claimed you. God has washed you. God loves you. God supports you, You are a beloved child of God.
Want to know something interesting about that Isaiah passage? The you’s that are there. Well, they’re plural. God is speaking to the whole people of Israel in this moment.
If we were more Texan we could read it as, I have called y’all by name, y’all are mine.
God calls us, all together, by name, God claims us all together. I am reminded of talking about the whole body of Christ. God in baptism brings us together in equality, but not sameness, because we need all the different parts of the body to work.
That’s why baptism is truly powerful. Baptism is not just an individual washing and claiming. It is a washing and claiming into the midst of a washed and claimed community of beloved children of God, who together make the Body of Christ. Who together can work in God’s world, doing God’s work, caring for and making this world better for all of God’s beloved, from all walks of life, from every place in time and place.
And like Jesus is sent through baptism, we too are sent, collectively, through baptism, as the whole people of God, to love and care for the world.
People of God, friends, Baptism is the tie that binds us together to Christ. To his birth, to his life, to his death, to his resurrection. In baptism, we are reborn through Christ, we are sent to life and die through Christ, to care about others more than we care about ourselves, to see the needs of others as more important than our own. And in baptism, we rise. Baptism is the moment, where God says to us collectively, you matter, you count, and you change the world, and no matter what the world directs at us, Baptism tells us that Christ, crucified, died and risen, will raise us up. Amen.
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