EPIPHANY 1A - Isaiah 42:1-9; Psalm 89:20-29; Acts 10:34-38; Luke 3:15-16, 21-22 - 7 January 2007 - A sermon preached by The Rev. Peter Munson for St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, Boulder, Colorado

 

All The Way In

 

INTRODUCTION - The Jordan River

 

In 1999, I had the opportunity to go on a tour of Israel with about forty other pastors from around the country. We were from all different denominations. We were there to experience the Holy Land, to breathe in the history, to walk in many of the places where Jesus walked, primarily in Galilee and in Jerusalem. At one point in the trip, our tour bus headed to the eastern part of Israel, and we found ourselves on a road that followed the Jordan River. We came to a wider place in the river, and parked. The water was a deep green color, and as the river meandered through that section, it pooled up and was a little over waist deep, without much current. Could this have been the area, out in the country, where people flocked to be baptized by John, two thousand years before? No one knew for sure, of course. It could have been here, or someplace similar. We were told that we could be baptized again, if we wanted to be.

 

The words of the Nicene Creed, by this time said on many a Sunday in my life, popped into my head. “We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.” Not two or three or four - one. It took the first time, Pete. You don’t have to be baptized again, just because you’re at the Jordan River. I remember some of my colleagues renting a white robe and wading in, all excited about being baptized again. I didn’t feel a need to do that. But I do remember thinking to myself, “This is one advantage Baptists have over Episcopalians and Catholics and Presbyterians and Lutherans and Methodists,” we who tend to sprinkle a little water over the head, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

 

BEING OVERWHELMED BY THE WATER

 

There is something about wading into enough water that it can go over your head. Where we stopped at the Jordan River, we did not have to fight any current, mind you. It wasn’t like the times, as a child, when I got tossed all upside-down and sideways when a wave caught me the wrong way at Folly Beach in South Carolina, and I was overwhelmed, it even for a few seconds. But that’s what the word “baptism” comes from - a word that means “overwhelmed”. When you go under water, even for a short while - in Colorado, perhaps the closest thing would be falling out of a raft in a rapid, and wondering if or when you were going to pop up to the surface, wondering, “Could this be my last breath, right here in this river?” - that is what it means to be baptized.

 

The symbolism is all there - when you wade in, and the water goes over your head, if even for a few seconds, and you are out of control. We are reminded of two different things that are true about water. It gives us life - we can’t live without it. And water - especially out of control, powerful water - can also kill you.

 

That is why wading into the water for your baptism is such a good symbol for becoming a Christian. In that moment of going under, you die to an old way of life - you die to sin. And when you come up out of the water, and are given a new garment to wear, as it happened for the early Christians, you were put in a certain mind-set. I have taken on a new life now. I am following Jesus Christ from here on out. He is my Lord and my Savior. He has a stake in my life, in my decisions. His will is involved in the equation. He is the One I seek for guidance and direction. He is my role model, and my Master.

 

At some point, we come to see what our baptism really means. Whatever way I walked before, I have to put it up against Jesus’ life now. Whatever ways the culture tries to teach me - for example, all the lessons about strong-armed concepts of justice and revenge, and might makes right, and you’ve got to get your own, no matter what, and having a gun makes me strong and powerful... all those kinds of influences have to be put up against the life of Christ, and if it doesn’t fit, and I claim, “I’m following the One from Galilee,” then I also have to say, “No, I died to that, my friend.” Whether the water was sprinkled over my head by those “proper and in good order” Episcopalians, or I waded in and went under in a bigger baptismal font, or in a river somewhere, and I was overwhelmed for a few seconds... the truth is that I died to that way of life, and entered into a whole new way of being.

 

JESUS IN THE WATER

 

Some people argue about whether Jesus needed to be baptized. Did he need to be? I don’t know if he needed to be, but evidently he thought so. Maybe he knew that something was going to happen, that he needed to begin his ministry in this way. Maybe he knew that God was up to something. But he waded in. John was a bit reluctant to baptize him, we are told in one Gospel. But he went in, and John baptized him, and people were around to see what happened, and to hear what happened. “...and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’” (Luke 3:22)

 

Those words had to have been an amazing gift to our Lord’s ears. And I am convinced that they are intended to be pure gift to our ears, as well. We need to hear those words, and the words in today’s lesson from Isaiah, not once, but over and over again. Yes, we’re only baptized once, but God keeps saying these words, perhaps because we have trouble hearing them, and remembering them.

 

I’d like to ask you to close your eyes for a few moments, and listen. You can picture yourself in the Jordan River if you like, or in some place that is a favorite place of yours. But close your eyes, if you will. Hear these words to you, from God, the Father of Jesus, the Father of you and me, the Maker of heaven and earth. Are you ready?

 

“You are my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon you...Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it: 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. I AM the Lord, that is my name...You are my beloved child. With you I am well pleased.” (Isaiah 42:1, 5-8; Luke 3:22)

 

Linger on those words for a bit longer. Hear God saying your name.

 

“You are my chosen, in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon you... I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you... I have given you as a light to the nations...You are my beloved child. With you I am well pleased.”

 

Sit with those words for a few more seconds.

 

A LIFE OF MINISTRY, A LIFE OF BEING “ALL IN”

 

Jesus heard these words and began a life of faithful ministry, a life of loving and serving the people of God. Your life of ministry, that’s right, your life of ministry... your life of following Jesus and serving others in Jesus’ name - begins when you are able to hear these words, said by God to you.

 

The words are supposed to have an effect. When we take in the truth of these words, and let it sit with us - how much we are loved by the One who made us, the One who gives us life and spirit and breath - then, in our gratitude and thanksgiving, we are moved. We might very well be emotionally moved, but the truth of the words is designed to do more than that, even. The words - God’s words to you - are designed to literally make you move, so that in the same way that those folks flocked to the Jordan River, and waded in to be baptized by John, we are supposed to wade all the way in, and say, “Okay, Lord. I’m here. I’m in. Here I am. Use me for your purposes. What would you have me do?”

 

And as that is true for us individually, that is true for us as a church, as well. For you see, God does not just call us as individuals. God calls us collectively. God calls us into community.

 

A woman called me - cold turkey - a few days ago, and asked if I would baptize her daughter next month. This woman and her family have never been to St. Ambrose. I tried to gently explain to her that that isn’t how baptism works, that isn’t how we see baptism. It is not ultimately just a “me and God” or even a one-family-and-God kind of thing. You’re baptized into a community. You and I are called into community, and it gets messy and confusing and kind of conflicted at times.

 

We argue and let each other down and fall flat on our faces and get up and start again, trying to figure out what God is demanding of us, but make no mistake - we’re called to be Christians together, just as the Jews have an identity - together - as the chosen people of God. I need you and you need me and we need each other, and we’re supposed to be making a difference for God on behalf of the world. We have a high calling. Are the words still ringing in your ears?

 

“I have called you - (that’s us!) - in righteousness... I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations...”

 

We are to be a light to the nations, to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, to show the world another way - a way of love and of seeking out the lost and the hurting... a way of sacrifice and of dying, while at the same time rejoicing, because in dying we find new life.

 

CONCLUSION

 

I think it’s a wonderful thing that we always have this reading of Jesus’ baptism at the beginning of the year. It’s good for us to reflect on our baptisms. It’s wonderful for us to hear again that God delights in us. It’s a good thing that we are reminded that God invites us to wade in to the water, and to not stop until we are all the way in, and the water is up to our neck and even over our neck, and we remember who is in charge, and who gives us life, and what a high calling we have been given.

 

I invite you, at the start of this year, to join me - to be a part of this community in such a way that we love each other and support each other in walking in the way of Jesus, so that we can be a light to those around us. I’m inviting you into the water, just as I strive to go into the water - all the way, even to the point of being overwhelmed! For it is there, at that point of overwhelm, that we will meet our God, and He will save us, and take us where we most need to be, for the sake of the world.