January 7, 2007 - "Remember YOUR Baptism"

Title: “Remember YOUR baptism”
Text: Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
Day: Baptism of our Lord C
Date: January 7, 2007

Oh! Good morning! Am I in the right place? I…I’m looking for a place called Epiphany Lutheran Church. Is this the right place? It is…oh, good.
So, hi. My name is…well, that doesn’t really matter. All you need to know is that I am one of those people who was baptized by John in the Jordan river many, many years ago. I was asked by a guy named Tim to come and talk to you, to tell you a story, the story of the day that Jesus was baptized. Have you heard this one before? Tim said that you would probably appreciate hearing this story more than another one of his boring sermons again, anyway. So, where do I begin? Ah, yes. I remember as if it were just 2,000 years ago.
I was a fisherman by trade back then. That’s why I’m wearing this silly thing. I just got so used to wearing it, it’s never come off my head. Anyway, my brothers and I were on the shore really early one morning getting our nets ready for the day’s work when we saw a group of people, I mean a large group of people, walking by. It was a rather unusual sight for that time of the morning, so as they passed by we asked one of them what was going on. He told us that there was some guy down by the Jordan River calling out to all Israel, preaching about repentance and baptizing people in the river.
Now, you gotta understand…this was big news. It was not every day that you would hear of someone doing this. In fact, I had never heard of anyone doing this! But, wow…whoever this guy was really knew how to get our attention. Think about it…we, the people of Israel, were prisoners in our own land. We had been released from exile in Babylon, but we came back to a land that was not really ours. We did not rule ourselves; we were ruled by others, like the Romans. For years we had listened to the prophets speaking the Word of the Lord saying that we would be given back the land of promise. But we were still waiting. Waiting for someone to be lifted up and restore Israel as a nation of power and righteousness. We were waiting for a Messiah. So, when I heard about this man baptizing people I thought to myself, “Maybe this could be the One. Maybe this is the Messiah we have all been waiting for.” So, I joined the crowd and walked down to the Jordan River.
Oh, you should have seen all the people that were there. People had come from all over the place had come to see this man, to hear what he had to say. I had to get a closer look at this man, so, I have to admit, I pushed and shoved some people out of my way. Finally I broke through the crowd and reached the shore. There he was, right in front of me…and he looked nothing like I thought he would. I was expecting this man to look like, well royalty. At least better than me! But he looked…well, he looked…different. There was no long flowing robe, there was only a worn piece of camel’s hair wrapped around him, and a shoddy leather belt around his waist. His hair was a mess, and his beard was caked with what looked like dried honey.
But what he lacked in appearance, he surely made up for in his message. It was powerful. He cried out for us to repent, and to do it NOW. And every now and again, someone would come into the river where he would plunge them completely under the water before pulling them back out again. It was quite a sight to behold. I couldn’t hold myself back. I needed to be a part of this, so I eagerly trudged through the water up to this wonderfully strange man. He gave me a quirky little grin before he placed his hand on my head and sent me backwards into the refreshing water. And that was my baptism by John.
I stuck around afterward because I was just mezmorized by this scene. Again, I wish you could have seen all the people! After a little while, I started questioning in my heart whether this man could be the long awaited Messiah. And then, as if he knew what I was thinking, he said aloud, “I baptize you with water, but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
Just then a group from the little nothing-town of Nazareth was added to the throng. Now, normally Nazareans – I mean, there’s nothing in Nazareth – so they don’t attract a lot of attention, but there was a man among this group that caught my eye. Gosh…I remember this so vividly. I was sitting up on this rock over here, just looking over the crowd and the river. And I see this group from Nazareth arrive and this one man who broke away from the rest of them and, without hesitation, started making his way down toward the river. There was nothing particularly flashy about him; he just had a look about him, you know what I mean? It was like he knew what he had come to do; there was purpose in his step.
He walked right into the river, looked around at all the people, exchanged a few muffled words with the baptizer, and then he – just like me and everyone else gathered there – he was plunged backwards into the river. Then, the interesting part: he was sopping wet from head to foot, he gave a little smile to the baptizer and went off to the shore where he began to pray.
Now at this point my gaze was transfixed on this guy. Who was he? What did he say to the man in the river? And while I was mulling these things over in my mind, I saw this man at the riverside look up intently into heaven. It looked like he was listening to someone, but I could hear no one speaking to him. Then, without a word he got up and left, again looking very intent. He looked like he had a purpose. He knew what he had to do now.
Now, to say that I was stumped by this man would be an understatement. But things became much more clear years later, after I had found out who this man by the river really was and discovered what had happened to him at the Jordan that day. His name was Jesus, I found out. And apparently, after he had been baptized and while he was praying there by the riverside, he saw something like…well, something like a dove descending upon him from heaven. And that voice – it was a voice from heaven saying to him, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
Now, you might be wondering why it is that I’m here today, telling you this story. It seems that many of you have heard this story before, so why do you need me to tell it again? Well, the answer is simple really: I have to tell it. I have to tell it because I’ve come to find out that many people don’t really understand the significance of this story.
You see, a lot of people will hear this story and will say that it is a nice story about when Jesus was baptized. But it’s so much more than that. It is a story about when YOU were baptized, too! Okay, maybe you weren’t dunked under the water by John the Baptist in the Jordan River – heck, maybe you weren’t even dunked – but God still did something with you that day when that water, mixed with the Word, was poured upon your head. What happened on the day of your baptism is the same thing that happened to Jesus: that God spoke to you. No one else would have heard it – maybe you couldn’t even discern it, but God spoke to you. And do you know what God said? God said, “You, YOU are my beloved child.” And from that day forward, God has had a hold on you, a claim, a bond, a relationship. A relationship that is always there, whether you’ve felt it or not. A relationship that cannot be broken or severed. A relationship that is built with a love so deep, so strong that not even death can put an end to it.
So, I’m here today telling you this story so that you might remember your baptism and the Divine promise that was made to you that day. So, what can you do to remember your baptism? Well, lots of things. If you were too little to remember your baptism yourself, you could have someone else who was there tell you about that day. You could dig out your baptismal candle and light it tonight at dinner. Or, how about this…at some point today you could come up here and dip your fingers in this water and make the sign of the cross on your brow or on the brow of your family members. Maybe doing these things will help you to remember what God said to you the day that you were baptized.
Oh, it’s been a pleasure to be here with all of you this morning. I hope I didn’t bore you with details of that day…sometimes it just helps to have a first-hand look at the story. When you see Tim again, be sure to greet him for me. Oh, by the way, Terry/Jenn? Terry/Jenn! Tim told me that you were supposed to start playing some music after I was done here, so you can go ahead and do that now.
God’s everlasting peace be with you all. Amen.