Atom“Baptized - Discipled and Discipling”
Mark 1:4-11 “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.”
He found what he had been searching for—upside down, the bottom barely out of water and stuck in the sand. Two days before a strong wind had apparently blown it into the lake where it eventually drifted to where it now lay capsized. He had been searching for two days simply because he couldn’t let go of the possibility of finding that canoe. You see, that canoe was special—it was a birthday present for his wife. The canoe was just a “thing”—but it was tied to his heart because it was a gift from his heart to his wife. She had always wanted a canoe and this was her dream come true. So, he couldn’t leave it there. He went home and came back in chest waders and entered the water. He began to pull it up from the sand that held it tightly. He pulled from the front then the middle while standing in the cold water. Hands wet, sleeves soaked and ears and nose stinging from the bitter wind, he finally pulled it from the lake’s grasp. Freed from its place of “stuckness,” he was able to paddle the lost canoe home.
I tell you this little story as an illustration of the Gospel story this morning. Jesus enters the waters of the Jordan this morning to be baptized. Why? Why is this important for him? Why is it important for us? One way of understanding its importance is to see that in the waters of the Jordan River Jesus enters into a very real human problem that we know as Sin. Mark tells us this in verse 4: John the baptizer ap¬peared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. We understand sin in two ways. The first is that sin is what we do. Sin is a voluntary action. Sin is a choice we make to go contrary to God’s will that hurts others or hurts us. OK, we get that…but what about the thoughts and actions that come flooding in and out of our lives that are clearly outside of God’s will. They just kind of erupt out of us. Before we are conscious of making a choice, they are there and we are doing them or thinking them. Paul says it this way in his letter to the Romans…”The good I would do I don’t do. The evil I detest I do. This sin is who we are deep inside. Sin is an inbred self-centeredness that is part of being human. Sin is a brokenness in us that can lead to destructive actions that are both chosen and un-chosen. Sometimes they are reactions more than actions. Sin has a hold on us like the canoe cap¬sized and stuck in the sand. Sin is a condition from which we cannot free ourselves.
Jesus is our heaven sent rescue. The Bible tells us that Jesus was without sin—so his entry into the Jordan River was not for for¬giveness but for another purpose. God had waited long enough—having humanity stuck and capsized in the waters of sin. So, Jesus wades into the waters of our consequences of sin. Sin is a tragedy—for us. Sin always promises what it cannot deliver—happiness and a sense of personal value. But sin delivers us into the mud of broken promises and broken relationships. So, Jesus enters the waters of the Jordan River so that God’s love might pull us from the “stuckness” of sin. God’s love comes in the person of Jesus to get wet and dirty so that we might be lifted into freedom and new possibility. Friends, please hear this: No matter where you are today, God wants to reach out to you and give you love. You may think that what you have done is so bad that even God has given up on you—but it isn’t true. God can’t let go of you and God won’t. So, the Holy Spirit has led you to this worship and this moment to that you might be given a new beginning. That canoe was banged up from the storm but its purpose was to float and carry people to safety. And it did exactly that. God knows that you have been created for a wonderful purpose—and no matter what you’ve done or has been done to you—God is here to give you another chance at living into that grand design for your life.
So…the baptism of Jesus is about God seeking us. The baptism of John is a “wake-up call.” It is about repentance, recognizing sinful choices and attempting to turn in a new direction. The baptism of Jesus not about this repentance, but about God in Jesus entering the waters of sin and the Holy Spirit descending to us and God’s voice affirming from the heavens, “This one is mine.” Baptism is God’s claim on us…God’s stamp on our lives.
Call that point one this morning. Point two…baptism is also about community. And that is an important truth we must not miss. When we are joined to Jesus, we are joined to his body – which the Bible tells us is the community of faith, the followers of Jesus. Faith and following Jesus is not only about Jesus and me walking the road of life together. It’s about Jesus and me and you and people we haven’t even met yet walking the road together. And this flies in the face of very popular views of what faith is about. Pollsters tell us over and over again that America is a religious nation. 90% of people believe in God. But…less than 50% are connected with the body of Christ. George Gallop has said, “Americans are believers, but not joiners.” But what God do they believe in then? Because the Christian faith tells us that when we believe in Jesus, when we are rescued from the muck of sin and set on the road to new life, we are also joined to a new community, a new family, the body of Christ. This community is what keeps us believing and following.
I am a believer and follower of Jesus not because I have continually sought Jesus and found him. I am a follower because Jesus has sought me and continues to seek me through a whole bunch of people in my life. I am a believer in Jesus because my Mom and Dad brought me to worship and Sunday School. They were important in my meeting Jesus. But they were not alone. I am also a follower of Jesus because Mrs. Blosberg taught me the Bible stories in Sunday School class and because Mr. Blosberg sang the hymns so loud that the whole congregation just kind of came along. When Mr. Blosberg sang you just knew he believed what he was singing. I am a follower of Jesus because my girlfriend in high school invited me to youth group and kept me connected to Jesus when there were others inviting me to take a different path. I a follower of Jesus because when I was in college, Pastor Grimstad and a whole bunch of students welcomed me into the community there and guided me along. I am a follower because every congregation I have served has had sisters and brothers who have encouraged me and corrected me and helped me to see the presence of Jesus and to hear the voice of Jesus calling in my life. Wayne showed me how followers share their treasures and Martha showed me how followers tend to the sick and dying. I could tell stories on you as well. The point is that faith does not happen and is not practiced in isolation. God does not intend this. God brings us into community so that we might grow together and be nurtured by each other.
As we move on in the story of Jesus next week and the week after, we will hear of teaching and healing and marvelous acts, but we will also hear how Jesus formed a community, gathered disciples, brought together some of the most unlikely of people and made them a family, a community…and a movement that changed the world of his time and continues to change the world of our time.
So…this is the community we are brought into through baptism, and, on the flip side, the community that is given the task of bringing other folks into the fold and helping them follow Jesus as well. You see, if I am a follower because of the Church and you are followers because of the church, that is a reminder to us that we have the responsibility of seeking and welcoming and encouraging, of following the command of our Lord to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them.” We in the church are the ones gifted with faith in Jesus, who in turn bring God’s gift to others. Celebrating the baptism of Jesus is not only about celebrating that “we belong.” It is also about remembering what we who belong are supposed to be doing as the body of Christ – we who are joined to others in baptism.
All of Christian education, family devotions, involvement of children in worship, youth ministry, sermons, confirmation classes, church lutefisk suppers, weddings, funerals, and Lord’s suppers, are part of the church’s continuing work of baptism. These are all part of how the church shares the gift. That is why children must be fully included, fully present, full participants in all of the church’s life – especially the church’s worship life. After all, how did you learn what it meant to be a part of your human family and bear its name? How did you learn what it meant to support and to be supported by the family? You learned by being given responsibility in the family, by eating at the families table, by loving and being loved. So too, in the family of God, we grow by participation and experience.
I know you hear it when we do baptisms here at First Lutheran. After we have administered water and word, named and claimed in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we quite often walk the little ones down the aisle and say something like this, “Child of God, we have baptized you and received you into this church. God loves you and has great plans for your life. But you will need the rest of us to tell you the story and from time to time to remind you who you are, and to keep you in God’s family, to help you believe even, when belief is hard. We are going to specially appoint some of our members to guide you and watch over you as you grow in faith. And all of us promise to adopt you as our sister in Christ.” We know that this is our responsibility to our children.
We probably need a few more adult baptisms in our congregation, however, to remind us that the same baptismal ministry is still critical to adult life…that we might recognize our sisters and brothers among us and say to each other, “Child of God, we have baptized you and received you into the church. God loves you and has great plans for your life. But you will need the rest of us to tell you the story, and, from time to time to remind you who you are, and to keep you in God’s family, to help you believe when belief is hard. We are going to specially appoint some of our members to guide you and to watch over you as you grow in faith. And all of us promise to adopt you as our brother in Christ.”
So…we celebrate Jesus’ baptism and remember that baptism is God coming to us in Jesus and that Jesus comes for us through the community of believers and as community of believers we keep doing the ministry of baptism – baptizing, teaching, and embracing with the love of our Savior and God .
Let’s pray…
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