Below I republish the sermon I delivered last year on the Feast of our Lord’s baptism. Sermon delivered the first Sunday after the Epiphany, January 10, 2010.
Lectionary texts: Isaiah 43:1-7; Psalm 29; Acts 8:14-17; Luke 3:15-17, 21-22.
In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
What is the Human Condition?
Today we celebrate the feast of our Lord’s baptism and I want to remind you this morning why it is important that we remember both our Lord’s baptism and our own. The biblical narrative is a narrative about a people in exile and what God is doing about it. From the time of the Fall to this very day we humans have suffered the consequences for our sins and the separation it causes. God created us to have a relationship with him and each other but time and again we refuse his gracious offer and the result is separation, alienation, and exile. Sometimes our sin causes us to be literally exiled as when God’s called out people suffered exile in Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon. Other times our sin has devastating consequences for us and our relationships. If we have lived long enough, we can empathize with the pain that David felt when confronted about his adulterous affair with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11:1-12:25) or relate to Peter as he wept bitterly after hearing the cock crow (Matthew 26:75). We can relate to these stories because they are our own, perhaps not in the specific details but certainly in the separation, brokenness, and exile they cause.
And to make matters worse, we often delude ourselves into thinking we can fix ourselves and our problems. I was talking to a person the other night and he told me how glad he was 2009 was over because it was a terrible year for him. I could relate to that. He then said how glad he was that 2010 was here because he could have a fresh start, as if the coming of a new year would solve all his problems and hurts. But that isn’t likely, is it? How often have we tried to start afresh at the beginning of the year only to have December 31st roll around to find us exhausted and worn down by defeat? No, if we are really honest with ourselves, we will admit that our attempts at self-help are generally futile and we remain mired in our sin and brokenness.
By now I am sure some of your are saying, “My, Fr. Kevin, what an uplifting sermon for the new year! You sure know how to lift our spirits on this cold morning!” Thank you. I try to please. Talking about our sin and our inability to fix ourselves is never pleasant. But until we acknowledge that this is our human condition, and that we are incapable of fixing it by ourselves, we are not ready to hear the wondrous Good News that is in today’s Scripture lessons.
Where is God’s Grace?
For you see, while the history of God’s called out people has been one of brokenness, rebellion, and exile, the Good News is that God has done and is doing something about it to bring our exile to an end. From the poignant story we read in Genesis 3 about God searching for his fallen creatures hiding from him in the Garden to his call to Abraham to his Presence with his sinful and rebellious people during their forty years of wandering in the desert to today’s beautiful passage in Isaiah, to our Gospel and Epistle lessons that point to the reality of the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of his people, we are reminded that God loves us, warts and all, and promises to redeem us.
Imagine that you are a Jew living in forced exile in Babylon. The unthinkable has happened to you. Jerusalem and God’s Temple, the very place of his dwelling, are lying in ruins. God has apparently utterly forsaken and abandoned you. You are suffering exile because of your sins and the sins of your people. Or if that little scenario doesn’t work for you, get even more personal. Think of the sin you have committed that you dare not let anybody else know about, the very thing that convinces you that there is no hope for you, that God could not possibly love you because you have done what you have done. And now close your eyes and listen once again to these gracious words from Isaiah: “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” (Isaiah 43:1). Don’t be afraid. I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine! Imagine the Creator of this vast universe saying this just to you. Awesome. Simply awesome. These words were not written to sinless saints but to people in exile, people just like you and me. This is the wondrous love of God and the reason we Christians have hope. God loves us passionately despite who we are and has promised to end our exile from him!
But our story does not end here because if it did, we really would not have much hope. No, the good news gets better, because we see God’s story of salvation continuing to unfold in today’s Gospel lesson. In it we see Jesus being anointed for his work as Savior of the world. We see him getting ready to fulfill his mission to save us from permanent exile and separation from God. Luke tells us that as Jesus was praying, the Holy Spirit came on him in the form of a dove and that he heard a voice from heaven affirming who he was and in effect telling him to get to work.
As we listen to this story of Jesus’ baptism we remember our own. We remember Whose we are. We remember that our old sinful selves were buried with Christ by baptism. We remember that because we have been buried with him in baptism, we will also be raised with him so that we might walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4-6). We remember that our baptism is a visible sign to us that God’s gracious promise of redemption is true, that he is working to end our exile and the separation our sin has caused. We remember that we have been sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever. Forever! And as Paul reminds us, nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ our Lord. Nothing. Not hardship or distress or peril, not even death. Not even that sin we just thought about and don’t want anybody to find out about, the one which we are sure God cannot or will not forgive. There is nothing conditional here, nothing so heinous in our past or present to exclude us from the promise. Our baptism reminds us that our salvation is not about us or who we are but rather all about God and his gracious love for us in Jesus Christ.
This is why we must stop and remember our baptism because it is an outward and visible sign of God’s great love for us. It reminds us that God wants us to have life as he intended for us to have. And this is why we stop and remember our Lord’s baptism because it reminds us of all that God has done for us by taking on our flesh and dying for us so that we could have life with him forever.
We also remember that in giving us his Holy Spirit God has been true to his promise to be with us as we walk through the waters and fire of life. Our baptism does not make us immune from all that can go wrong in this sinful and broken world. Rather, our baptism reminds us that we do not have to go through this life alone. We have the very power of God working in us, transforming us and helping us to overcome all our hurts and failures. We remember that we are God’s beloved sons and daughters whom he redeemed at a terrible price and with whom he promises to walk forever.
Where is the Application?
So how can we best honor our Lord’s baptism? As Christ received his vocation at his baptism, so we who are sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and claimed by Christ forever receive ours. In the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ the problem of sin and the alienation it causes has been taken care of once and for all. When Christ comes again, our long exile will be ended forever. This is God’s free gift offered to each of us and ours for the taking if we accept it by faith.
In response, we should celebrate Christ’s great gift of life to us by living holy lives, lives that are full of grace, humility, patience, service, and love. We can live holy lives because we have God’s very Spirit living in us and giving us power to live as his holy and redeemed people. He reminds us that God has transcended even our worst sins and still loves us. That allows us to be patient with others and to love and serve them despite their warts because we know that they are just like us. We also live holy lives because we have been given a wondrous gift and want to share it with others. We want to be Christ’s light to others.
Living holy lives does not mean we live mistake-free lives or are immune to failure or frustration. Being transformed into Christ’s own image is often slow, painful, and sometimes convoluted. Nevertheless, we are being transformed into the fullness of Christ because God’s promises are true and we can trust that his Spirit lives in us and helps us in our weakness. As Augustine reminds us, we are not to give up while our healing is going on. We must remember how much Jesus loved us when there was little to love at all. And then Augustine asks us to imagine what Jesus will finally do for us when he finishes healing us through the power of his Holy Spirit, considering that he died for us when we were still warped and ugly.
Summary
In closing, I want to read an excerpt from one of the early Church Fathers, Gregory of Nazianzus, that beautifully summarizes why it is so appropriate for us to celebrate our Lord’s baptism by living holy lives.
Christ is bathed in light; let us also be bathed in light. Christ is baptized; let us also go down with him, and rise with him. Jesus rises from the waters; the world rises with him. The heavens like Paradise with its flaming sword, closed by Adam for himself and his descendants, are rent open. The Spirit comes to him as to an equal, bearing witness to his Godhead.
Let us do honor to Christ’s baptism and celebrate this feast in holiness. Be cleansed entirely and continue to be cleansed. Nothing gives such pleasure to God as the conversion and salvation of human beings, for whom his every word and every revelation exist. He wants you to become a living force for all humanity, lights shining in the world. You are to be radiant lights as you stand beside Christ, the great light, bathed in the glory of him who is the light of heaven. You are to enjoy more and more the pure and dazzling light of the Trinity, as now you have received—though not in its fullness—a ray of its splendor, proceeding from the one God, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and power for ever and ever.
Remember your baptism. Remember Whose you are. Remember what God has done for you and is doing for you. Remember that you are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and are marked as Christ’s own forever. Remember that you can use his light and power so that he can use you to be his light to a broken and hurting world that so desperately needs to see it. That’s good news, folks, now and for all eternity.
In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.