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A writer once watched a group of
Sunday school second graders perform a skit, titled,
“How Was You Baptized?” The teacher had adapted it from
an ancient and long out of print curriculum. The skit
began with a bunch of cowboys and cowgirls seated around
a campfire. “How was you baptized?” one of them asked.
“Sprinkled as a baby,” said three of them. “Sprinkled
as a baby?!” answered three others. “That’s not right!
We was dunked at twelve.” “Dunked? That’s not right!”
said the first three. At this, all leapt to their feet
and drew their six-shooters. “WAIT! WAIT!” called out a
tall girl with a commanding voice. “Don’t you see?
You’re all baptized. At the very least,” she was
talking like a firm parent, “that means God loves every
one of you, and it means you all belong together.” “Oh,
that’s wonderful!” said the others, putting down their
six-shooters. They locked arms like pals and giggled
all the way back to their pew.
These children are now middle aged adults. “They carry
with them the mark and guarantee of their true
identity,” the writer reflects, “they are beloved of God
and drawn daily into growing union with Christ.” (1.)
Today we celebrate the Baptism of
the Lord Sunday, remembering the time when Jesus
presented himself for baptism in the river Jordon. For
Jesus it was a moment of divine affirmation—he was
clearly following God’s will. God spoke from the cloud,
“You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well
pleased.” This was a moment of divine confirmation and
affirmation as Jesus began his earthly ministry.
Jesus’ baptism marks the beginning
of his earthly ministry. Following his time in the
desert, Jesus would call his disciples and embark in a
ministry that would forever change humanity’s
relationship with God.
Our baptism, carries the same significance, we too are
sealed with the Holy Spirit and called to be modern day
disciples. We continue the ministry that Jesus began,
calling persons to new life in Christ, caring and
serving those in need. The mark of baptism remains with
us our entire life, reminding us that we can never
escape God’s love.
Turning to our lesson from the prophet Isaiah, as we
discovered last Sunday, the people were living in exile,
dragged from their homes, their possession confiscated,
families separated, and the temple in ruins. It was the
worst of times for the people; all sense of hope had
vanished. They saw no way out of their dilemma either;
clearly in their minds their best days were past.
Perhaps you know someone who is filled with doom and
gloom and always dwells on the negative. Such persons
are no fun to be around, they never see anything good.
That is how I pictured the people Isaiah addressed,
despondent, depressed, and living without any hope.
Isaiah broke through the doom and gloom with a fresh
message from God which would instill new hope in the
people. “But now,” in the present hour the prophet
proclaims the very word of God, “Do not fear, for I have
redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”
The verb “redeemed” suggests a family intervention,
where a stronger member of the family confronts the
weaker one who is struggling with problems. A modern
translation has, “Don’t be afraid, because I have saved
you.” (NCB)
In
their depressed state the people needed to be reminded
of how God saved the people in their dramatic escape
from the cruel hands of Egyptian slave masters. “When
you pass through the waters,” God promises through the
prophet, “I will be with you.” Whatever else the
people would experience God would not desert them but
would remain with them always. Further, “When you walk
through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame
shall not consume you.” God’s commitment to the people
is strong, unbreakable.
Not only that—but God has called them by name signifying
an intimate relationship with the people. We can
readily recall the names of people who are important in
our life— our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles,
brothers, sisters, other family members, neighbors,
friends or co-workers. We do not know or remember the
names of everyone we’ve ever met or influenced our lives
however God knows our names. Out of all the billions of
people living on the earth God knows our name and
remains present with us all of our days. God never
stops loving us no matter where we are. The bond
between God and us is unbreakable.
No
doubt this passage was chosen for the Baptism of the
Lord Sunday because of its reference to water and
fire. We associate water with our baptism. We are
incorporated into God’s family when we are baptized.
Baptism is a sacrament of relationship where we are
inducted into the protective care of God. We say out
loud the name of the person being baptized and at that
moment the person takes on a new last name—Christian.
Fire symbolizes the fire of Pentecost and the coming of
the Holy Spirit. When we are baptized we are gifted
with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit remains with us
all of our lives as well.
When you stop to think about it--it is truly amazing
that God loves us, and knows our names. The word of God
spoken by Isaiah must have been just as amazing to the
people. The people living in exile were assured that
God loved them and that they were precious in God’s
sight. God would do anything for the people, the bond
is that strong!
To
reinforce the teaching, God repeated, “Do not fear, for
I am with you.” We need to hear that word, “do not
fear” over and over again. When people are in crisis it
often takes repeating over and over again that God is
with them and will see them through whatever difficulty
they are presently experiencing. Even in exile God had
not forgotten the people. According to the prophet the
day was coming when they would return to their home
land, and life would not just return to the way it was
before, but would be better. God will gather people,
“from the east, and from the west,” north and south.
Families that were separated by the exile will be
reunited. Sisters and brothers who had not seen each
other for years would be reunited. This would be a grand
homecoming which again reinforces God’s love for them
and for us today as well.
At
the end of our lesson we are reminded that God was the
creator of all the earth. God formed the people,
“everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for
my glory, whom I formed and made.” The imagery of the
potter sitting at the potter’s wheel and carefully
forming bowls comes to mind. We give our lives to God
and allow God to reform us, reshape us to make us the
people God intends us to become. It is never too late
either. We give all of our sins, mistakes, misdeeds,
even bad things that happen to us, to God and God is
able to reform and transform us using all of our
experiences for God’s own glory.
When Christian singer Steven Curtis
Chapman and his wife, Mary Beth, lost their 5 year old
daughter to an SUV driven by their 17 year old son, they
questioned their faith and were answered in the most
beautiful ways.
Christmas had always been a joyous
occasion in the Chapman home—except last year. Having
lost a daughter six months before Mary Beth admits she
could not get out the Christmas decorations—it was just
too painful. They struggled with grief but could not
seem to shake it.
Steven is one of Christian music’s most successful
artists but at first he did not want any part of his
music. “I didn’t know if I’d ever write another song,”
he remembers thinking at the time.
Their mood of despair began to lift when they heard
about an earthquake in China. Steven explains, “when I
began to pray for those Chinese mothers and fathers who
had lost their children, and when I allowed myself to
really feel their pain, there arose this unexplainable
hope… and I was able to breath again.” He began asking,
“God, what would you have me do with what has
happened?” Rays of hope shinned through their lives and
their children’s this past year.
The experience led Steven to offer “a public gift of
hope—in the form of a personal and moving collection of
songs” entitled, “Beauty Will Rise.” “Part of the
process of creating and releasing this record is to see
God bring beauty out of the ashes and to see the comfort
to other people that can come from this,” Steven
explains.
The lyrics from the title song reaches out and offers
hope; “If you can’t believe, I will believe for
you/because I have seen the signs of spring/just watch
and see/out of these ashes, beauty will rise.” (2)
On this the second Sunday, of the
new year, the day we remember and give thanks to God for
our baptisms, we can live our lives in confidence
knowing that God loves us and will never desert us. We
give our lives to God, as Jesus submitted at his own
baptism, allowing God to shape and reshape us. It is
this powerful sense of hope that yields in us a greater
faith.
Amen.
1. “The Way
of Discernment: Companions in Christ,” Stephen V.
Doughty with Marjorie J. Thompson, 2008, pp111-112.
2. “Out of
the Darkness We Found New Light” Deborah Evans Price,
First for Women, 12/28/09, pp.49-51
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