Advent Lutheran Church

"The Gift That Changes Everything (Baptism of Our Lord)"

Grace and peace to you from God the Creator, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 

I’d like to start this morning with the Thanksgiving for Baptism on page 97 in the front of  Evangelical Lutheran Worship.  Please join me in reading the words of thanks and praise.

            Today, Christmas ends, and new life begins for Jesus in the waters of his Baptism by John.  It reminds me of the opening scene from Disney’s classic movie, The Lion King.  If you haven’t seen it for awhile, it is worth revisiting.  The first think you hear is the great song, The Circle of Life, while all of Africa unfolds before you:  the plains, the waterfalls, the animals and birds, the sunrise and sunset.  Then comes the ancient Rafiki, baboon-priest leaning on his staff as he approaches and greets his old friend, Mufasa, the Lion King, whose firstborn son is being celebrated.  Rafiki cracks open a fruit, smears its juice across cub’s brow.  Then he bends down and grabs some of the sandy earth and trickles it over his head.  In the blink of an eye he has scooped up the cub, thrust it over the precipice for all who are assembled below to see:  the zebras stomp, the birds screech, the monkeys howl – and all Creation cheers for this new life who will become the next Lion King, as the heavens open up and light spills through the sky, casting a divine glow on the newborn cub.

            It’s a baptismal scene, and not so different from today’s lesson where the prophecy from

Isaiah, “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights,” becomes the reality of Matthew’s gospel, where God speaks the benediction, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”   The echo from the Old Testament prophet and the voice of the proud Father God are saying three critical things:  #1 - Jesus is God’s Son (really, truly, God’s son in flesh.)  #2 – Jesus has been approved for God’s plan, and #3 – he has been chosen for ministry to God’s people.  Jesus got a gift as well, as he stepped into the water of the Jordan.  He became part of the human community in a whole new way.

            But the question still hangs in the air, “Why did Jesus need to be baptized?”  Jesus had no sins to be forgiven, there was no reason for him to present himself for a baptism of repentance.  Yet, FOR US, he goes down to the River with all of us sinners - and he asks John the Baptist for his baptism of repentance - which most certainly changes his life, as well as ours.  Scholar Ralph Klein says that it’s THIS event that begins Jesus’ public life:  “Gifted with the spirit (he) will execute the divine plan for the world:  bring forth justice to the nations.  And, (he) will do this apparently by maintaining trust in Yahweh.” 

            From being a carpenter in Nazareth, Jesus is fulfilling the prophesy, and becoming the long-awaited One.  Hear again these words from Isaiah:   “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…See, the former things have come to pass, new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.

            So why do we baptize? Not for “fire insurance,” against the threat of eternal separation from God, nor for our salvation – that happened once and for all through Christ’s death on the cross and resurrection. For us, it is a baptism for repentance:  a life changed by receiving a gift.

And because Jesus became one with us in his baptism, we become one with him in both his death and his resurrection.  The gift of God to Jesus was part of how he would do his ministry: among and within the people of God.  For when we are baptized, we are called to be a part of God’s work, strengthened by the Holy Spirit, and working together with Jesus by our side.

            Perhaps you may have noticed during one of the baptisms here at Advent, that there is new language in the baptismal promises (ELW page 228.)  Oh, we still ask the parents to take responsibility for their child’s faith life:

                        (Will you) “bring them to the services of God’s house

                        Teach them the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed and the Ten Commandments.

                        Place into their hands the Holy Scriptures

                        And provide for their instruction in the Christian faith?”

But now, the following phrases are added, echoes of the Isaiah passages we have heard today:

                        “…and nurture them in faith and prayer,

                        So that your children may learn to trust God

                        Proclaim Christ through word and deed,

                        Care for others and the world God made,

                        And work for justice and peace.

            And then the parents, the sponsors and the whole assembly are asked, “Do you promise to help this child grow in the Christian faith and life?”  And we all answer, “We do!”

No matter whether you think you are giving your child to God, or giving God to your child, the true gift of baptism is the gift of the Holy Spirit, which flourishes and works best IN a faith community.

            Epiphany, the Twelfth Day of Christmas was last Thursday.  That day we marked the arrival of the Wise Men bearing gifts, which they left at the feet of the baby Jesus.  Then “they left and went home by another way, because they had been warned in a dream not to return to Herod.” They leave their gifts, and go away CHANGED…

            Gifts can change us.  They SHOULD change us.  For they are offerings of love from another.  We bring them to each other for a variety of reasons, and yet how many of the myriad gifts you have received in your life do you remember?  It sort of depends on how much heart was in the box, doesn’t it?  For who could resist a smile at the first drawings of children?  And who would refuse a sigh at a handmade token, regardless of quality?

            Christmas is about the gift God gave to us in Jesus, and God’s whole heart was in that manger.  So how could you forget that kind of love?  How could you not be changed by a love that starts in your mother’s arms, and remains until you return to the loving arms of God?  How can you be washed in this water and not be changed, when God has held you, beloved, in a divine embrace?  How can you walk away from this table the same way you came in, when you have held Jesus in your hands?  AMEN.