1-8-2012                                                     Matthew 3: 13-17  &  Isaiah 42: 1-9

"Listening to One Voice"

Pray

One Sunday I was baptizing a young girl.  I had just finished baptizing her mother when I turned to baptize her.  Having just watched her mother baptized, I assumed that she would follow her mother and bow her head.  That was not the case.  As I started to say the words and place the water over her head, she said those cute words that I have never forgotten, “No!  I’ve already washed my hair today!”  After assuring her that indeed this was different than washing her hair, and with her mother’s support, this young girl did agree to be baptized and received it.  It was a comical moment in the sacrament, and one that reminds us to never take ourselves too seriously.  That young girl had assumed one thing correctly: baptism is about washing.  She just didn’t realize that it was about washing more than your hair.  Baptism is about washing everything.

Today we are celebrating baptism because today is the Baptism of the Lord Sunday.  We have just celebrating Epiphany, when we recall the wise men visiting Jesus.  David pointed out last week that when God makes an appearance into our lives, that is Ephiphany.  The Christian calendar moves fast, though.  In this short time we go from celebrating the magi to Christ’s baptism.  Christ’s baptism is an important event.  We heard it this morning from Matthew’s gospel.  Christ’s life changes dramatically after his baptism.  He goes forward from this to begin his ministry and assemble his disciples.

As I read the Matthew text there was one part that caught my attention.  This is one of the few times in Scripture where we see each part of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, acting in specifically different ways.  After Jesus is baptized, the Spirit of God descends on him like a dove.  Then, the Father speaks from heaven saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”  This is a monumental moment.  God is here.  Jesus is beginning his ministry.  Promises are being fulfilled.  Baptism is a big deal.

Any time the voice of God comes down and speaks to people, it is a big deal.  We read Psalm 29 this morning in our call to worship.  Psalm 29 tells us what God’s voice can do.  It recounts creation, when God’s voice was over the waters.  God’s voice created the world.  God’s voice can come in the thunder as well, in physical storms as well in the storms of our lives.  Or, as happened to Elijah in 1 Kings 19, we see God’s voice didn’t come in the wind, earthquake, or fire.  God’s voice came in the silence of a gentle whisper.  God’s voice can be used to raise up mountains, or raise up troops to fight.  It can “break the cedars of Lebanon,” as Psalm 29 recounts.  It is powerful.  It can also quiet the heart of every person.  It even can come through the voice of a donkey, as it did to Balaam.  I’ve always thought that if God can use a donkey, God can use any of us, including me.  God’s voice comes through burning bushes, whispers, dreams, donkeys, thunder, and the list goes on.  God speaks through so many things and people.  I can remember when I’ve heard God’s voice through preaching, or by someone reading the Word to me.  We serve a living God, and our God still speaks today.

God’s voice, then, is calling out to everyone.  God is calling each of us to God’s self.  As we come to God, we come to understand our own sin, our own story, and how we need God.  That is when God calls us to baptism.

Why does baptism get so much focus in the church?  Why do we celebrate the sacraments?  In the Methodist tradition we hold two sacraments: the Lord’s Supper, or communion, and baptism.  We spend a lot of time taking communion and watching others baptized.  What is it worth?  Why do we do it? 

We live in a world where we believe what we see is what we get.  Our culture is not very mystical.  Science and technology have shown us how so much of our world works, and new discoveries are happening every day.  Unlike centuries ago, we can explain what happens when most illnesses occur.  We know so much.  We live in the ‘information age.’  When we look at baptism, it is easy to dismiss it as another ceremony, like a graduation, just symbolism or celebration.  We don’t really think there is much going on beyond what we see.

As Christians, though, sacraments are important.  All of worship is important, but the sacraments are ever more important.  These are specific acts that God has asked us to do, as modeled by Christ.  We believe that these are especially important moments in our lives where God works in great ways.  These are moments where God’s grace impacts our lives.  We believe that the sacraments are, well, sacred.  There is more going on here than just what we see.  There is a spiritual realm where God is working. 

What makes baptism important?  Why does God call us to be baptized?  Why did God’s voice appear and the Spirit come down like a dove?  What made this moment special?  What happens when we are baptized?

First, God is active.  We know that God makes the first step towards baptism.  God’s voice calls us into relationship.  God desires us to be close.  Here, in baptism, we see God acting first.  It is the work that God does that is most important here.  Baptism is not about what you do, but instead about what God has done and is doing!  As we look at what God is doing, we see God’s voice drawing us to faith, to repentance, to the Truth. 

When we were lost, unable to find our way to God, God sent the Son to us to show us the way.   How do we know that God loves us?  Paul tells us in Romans 5:8 that it is because that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Christ made the first move.  Such is also true in baptism.  God waits for us to answer the call.  This is God’s Prevenient grace.  Prevenient grace is the grace that comes before our salvation.  It is the grace that shows us the way.  It is God’s voice calling out to us.  Prevenient grace is a friend showing us the Truth.  Prevenient grace is your conscience telling you that something is not right.  This is grace that helps you identify that you need God.  In baptism, we recognize that God first was baptized, then died, then rose again all for our sake.  God made the first move.  This is all grace, that we even have a way to be saved.  We don’t deserve any forgiveness, any path to salvation.  It is all by the grace of God.

It is because of this grace of God that we baptize infants and young children.  These are children that are below an age of accountability.  They can’t choose to accept Christ.  We still offer to baptize them.  We do this because baptism is different than a dedication.  In a dedication we make a gift of a life to God for God to accept.  In baptism, as a sacrament, God offers the gift of God’s unfailing grace for us to accept.  Baptism, then, is more about God’s work than our work.  It is about God’s grace for us, not our work for God. 

It is through God’s Prevenient grace, the grace that comes before our salvation, that we can practice infant baptism.  God offers grace to the child even before the child has accepted it.  This is about God’s work.  The parents or family, on behalf of the child, accept responsibility to raise the child in the way of God.  Baptism doesn’t mean that someone is getting a ticket to heaven.  It is not a magical ceremony for admission to eternity.  It is a celebration of God’s grace being offered to a child or adult.

As an adult, though, as we answer God’s calling and come and ask to be baptized, we come as we have accepted God’s grace.  We have realized our need.   We have asked forgiveness.   God’s grace, then, acts for us to make us justified.  This is called justifying grace.  God’s grace declares us forgiven.  God’s grace declares us righteous.  God’s grace washes us clean.  Baptism is a recognition of God’s grace, working deeply in your life, to show that you have changed, and that your life is no longer you own.  God is the one who died for us.  It is God’s action in dying and being raised that forgives us.  We cannot earn it.  We cannot do it alone.  This is, again, all about God’s work, not our own.

Thankfully, the work of God does not stop with baptism.  This is only the beginning!!!  This is the start of your walk with God.  The calling that God’s voice brought you before you came to salvation has been answered.  Now, God’s grace calls to you again, but it is different calling.  This calling is not to come to salvation, but instead, as Paul also tells us in Philippians 2:12-13, “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”  It is God who works in you.  God’s calling after baptism is to go forward and obey, be holy, and work your salvation with fear and trembling.  This is the work of sanctification.  To be sanctified is to be holy.  God is not done with us when you are justified.  The real work begins at baptism.  Here at baptism God’s grace starts its work to change each of us to become the child of God that God wants us to be.  It is obedience.  It is God’s sanctifying grace.  It is all by God’s grace.  So, recognize God’s grace, God’s call, and God’s truth.  Many of us here have been baptized.  We are not done with God’s grace at baptism.  Actually, we are just beginning our work with it.  We now know how much we need it!!! 

Sanctification also calls us to go and work in the world.  Baptism reminds us that we must work to show others God’s love.  We must be about God’s mission in the world.  We must bring justice to others.  Isaiah 42: 6-7 states, “I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.”  We cannot be that light to people unless we go and shine that light for them.  We are needed in the world, to have compassion for the sick, the needy, and the downtrodden.  We become the hands and feet of Christ.

Baptism is about God’s work, but there is a part that does recognize that we must respond to God’s grace for baptism.  Parents must respond by raising their child in God’s love.  As adults, we must accept our need for God’s grace, ask for forgiveness, and receive it.  We must acknowledge our faith in Christ, for justification comes by faith.  Salvation comes by faith.  It is not something bought or earned.  It is by faith that we believe that Jesus died for us and was raised on the third day.  In baptism we confess all of this.

In the baptismal covenant, we each answer questions about whether we have renounced evil, trust Jesus, confess faith in Christ, and be faithful servants of Christ.  We also confess as one body the Christian faith found throughout the Scripture.  We confess Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Remember, each one was active in Jesus’ baptism.  Each one is active in your baptism as well. 

Baptism is also about testimony.  We do it in these services, in public, because baptism is a testimony to God’s work.  We share together what God is doing.  We confess one Lord.  We declare to the world what we are Christians, that we are Christ’s.  For the ancient church, and for today, baptism is the entrance into the church.  We require it for membership because it is a public declaration that you no longer belong to the world.  You are a changed man or woman.  It is an outward sign of an inward change to everyone who witnesses it.  It is testimony.

Baptism, through God’s work and our obedience to respond, has an amazing imagery with it.  The water shows us that God is washing away our sins.  We each use water to clean things.  The waters of baptism cleanse us from sin, shame, regret, and despair.  They leave us clean, white, spotless, and sinless.  As well, in an immersion baptism, a person goes into the water and comes back out.  This is an image similar to being taken into the water in death, with our sin, and coming out of the water being raised with Christ.  When we are raised back up out of the water we have new life.  They remind us of Isaiah’s words in chapter 42:9.  “See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare.”  We are made new in baptism.  These are powerful images that remind us of the truth of baptism. 

Baptism is God’s work.  God’s grace comes to us before we are saved, justifies us at baptism through the water, and propels us onward to be God’s hands and feet.  We respond through obedience, to answer God’s voice, to confess, repent, and accept God’s love.  When we see baptism, we see God’s washing our sins away and being raised in new life.  We see a testimony of God’s power. 

That young girl I baptized reminded me that she had already washed her hair today.  I’m certain she did.  In time, I pray that she realizes her need for God’s grace.  Washing your hair is important.  Washing your sins away, though, is not something we can do ourselves.  It requires God’s work.  God’s voice calls out to this world.  Who will answer?  I am so thankful that many of you have answered God’s voice.  You have been through the waters of baptism. 

This morning we will reaffirm our baptism.  We will answer those same questions to renounce our sin and profess our faith.  This is not another baptism, but a reaffirmation, a reminder to each of us what baptism means and God does through it.  If you were baptized as an infant, this morning is an opportunity for you to realize your baptism in a fresh way.  If you have forgotten whose you are and who you are in Christ, you can reaffirm your baptism here.

If you have never been baptized before, I would like to invite you to consider it this morning.  Answer these questions as we ask them.  Later, after we have had the reaffirmation, we will offer an opportunity for you to be baptized today.  If you would rather not be baptized today, you can always come and talk to David or myself any time about baptism.  We would love to talk with you!  We want to give you the opportunity to respond as the Spirit is working within you.

Christ was obedient to his Father when he came to earth and was baptized in the Jordan.  Will you, as well, respond obediently to God’s voice?  My hope is that God’s voice will descend on you today much as the Father’s voice came to Christ at his baptism.  My prayer is that God is well pleased in you, God’s child.

Amen