4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 6 John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
Click through for all the baptismal goodness God have given to us!
In church we took Jesus' baptismal story as an opportunity to remember our own, the day and act that made our world anew as we became part of God's family through baptism. We talked about five gifts that baptism gives us.
1. Forgiveness
This is a driving force to both church sacraments, contact with God washing away our faults and imperfections, making us clean and able to stand in his presence. We know imperfection from the moment we enter this life. Babies cry in Moment One because they're cold, squished, somewhat traumatized, and scared in this new, womb-free world. That same longing echoes every time an infant wakes up in the night without its mother or feels its belly rumbling without food in view. We all know need. We all know the world falls short of filling it.
As we grow, we find that we, too, fall short of ideal. Not only are we not given to perfectly, we fail to give to others perfectly. We're "only human". Our sinful condition limits us no matter how we try to overcome it.
Forgiveness looks beyond those limitations, allowing God to see not who we are, but who he created us to be. With our sins washed away we become our heavenly selves instead of being bound by our earthly shortcomings. People who on the outside look ordinary and flawed work amazing miracles. People chained by their own failings are suddenly free and powerful. This is the gift of baptism.
2. Death and Life
In order for that miraculous, new-life freedom to exist the old chains have to be eliminated. Jesus broke them on the cross when he took all our sins to the grave with him. Baptism is our conduit to that event, that breaking. Through his own death Jesus destroyed the power of death and sin. Through baptism we are connected to Jesus' death. Our old selves--the selfish, clinging, sin-embracing, distrustful, me-first blobs of humanity--drown in its waters. It's a scary thought, but true. Everything we would instinctively follow and grab for ourselves dies in that moment. Embracing that part of ourselves afterwards is like embracing a corpse: fruitless, empty, even sick.
In an instant, though, we rise from the baptismal waters into a new life: sanctified, redeemed, claimed as God's own. We rise to and for love. We rise to and for beauty. We rise to and for life as it was meant to be. There's no reason to cling to the old, selfish ways when this new life is so profoundly good.
We could never accomplish this transformation ourselves. Moving through death into life is beyond us. But God does this through his miraculous gift.
3. Grace
The proper name of God's gift is grace...that which happens when his Word and Spirit enter into our lives to dwell among us. Grace turns our losses into love, our failures into forgiveness, our sin into salvation. The actual moment the water hits us is Baptism. Grace is everything else that flows after, that continual washing, cleansing, renewing, strengthening that carries us through the best and worst times of our lives. It is the redemptive power of God given to us.
4. Our New Name
Baptism gives us a new name: Child of God. It's stuck on there right with our other names, never to be removed, the surname of surnames. Those three words, "Child of God" indicate everything we need to know about our lineage, connection, identity, and inheritance. It keeps us from looking at each other as strangers, allowing us to trust each other and our Father as loving family members. Because of this we can look past the faults of each other just as God does, simply saying, "Be welcome, and be loved."
5. Love
The passage from Mark ends with a declaration from God, "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." Having been forgiven and cleansed, having died in all the ways that would separate us from God, living sustained by grace, bearing God's own name as part of our identity, we now hear these words in our own ears...God's ultimate gift. "You are my child. You are loved. I am pleased with you and to call you my own."
I summed up all of this in the sermon using an example from my own life. I always look in on Derek at night, an old habit from the days when he was a baby and I wanted to check his breathing. We always tuck him in under the blankets when he first goes to bed but by the time I get in there for the late look he has inevitably kicked off the covers and is laying on top of them. This can't be because he's too warm because almost always he will say, "Daddy?" When I reply that I'm there he will say, "Can you cover me with the blanket?"
That's a lot like life, isn't it? We try to do well but we always end up kicking off our own blankets even when we need and desire them. Then we cry to God, "Father...will you cover me?" Baptism is like our nightly tuck-in. The answer always comes back, "Yes." God loves us and takes us in his arms warm and tight. He assures us that he's there and won't let us down. He promises that tomorrow will be a new day, full of goodness too. And he'll be there with us like he always has been, ready with blankets and everything else we need to be assured and for life to be full. That's the purpose of the act, that's its message.
What a wonderful gift we have in baptism. What an amazing God who gives it to us! Don't forget your baptismal covenant each day, nor to thank God for thinking of you in this way!
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
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