What We Really Need Keith McFarren January 12, 2025 Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 Last week, we each reaffirmed our Covenant with God. That’s all well and good, but for this church to be successful and do the work of God, and fulfill our commitment to make disciples of Jesus Christ, we can’t work as individuals; we need to come together and work together as one, as a faith community. There is also an individual component when we talk about baptism. When it comes to baptism, a choice to be baptized has to be made…sometimes the choice is made as an individual and sometimes the choice is made by a sponsor…our parent or parents when we are too young to speak for ourselves. That’s how it was for those who waded into the river when John the Baptist was baptizing people. John made the offer to baptize but it was up to each person to make the choice as to whether they wanted to do it or not. But even though it was, and is, an individual choice, no one who is baptized is ever left to suffer or to struggle on their own. No one who is baptized is ever left to suffer or struggle on their own nor are they left to grow or be transformed on their own. Even though we are baptized as individuals, our baptism is also a corporate ritual, a type of communal covenant. That’s because our baptism becomes our adoption into God’s family which then forms a partnership with God and at the core of this partnership is the transforming work of the Holy Spirit that is continually at work in the life of the person who chooses to be baptized. Baptism is an individual promise we make to God. Baptism is also a corporate promise that the one being baptized makes to the congregation and the congregation makes in return to the one being baptized. This corporate promise we make to one another promises to “surround this person with a community of love and forgiveness, that they may grow in their trust of God and be found faithful in their service to others.” To the one being baptized, the congregation promises that they “will pray for them, so that they may be true disciples who walk in the way that leads to life” (The United Methodist Book of Worship, Baptismal Covenant). It’s a congregational promise that brings us together as a community of faith as we bind our lives together in discipleship. The church pledges to the newly baptized member that “Your joy, your pain, your gain, your loss, are ours, for you are one of us” (UMBOW, 83). All this makes our baptism appear to be a big deal. The United Methodist Book of Worship devotes four pages to explaining the meaning and the importance of our Baptismal Covenant and within the United Methodist Church there are six various baptismal services that can be used to baptize someone. Last Sunday or Sunday school lesson talked about baptism…and today, our entire scripture reading was about the baptism of Jesus so all of this baptism stuff must be important, wouldn’t you think? But if we take a good look at what was read to us this morning, we find out that in Luke’s depiction of Jesus’ baptism the actual act of the baptism itself is barely even mentioned. After all the hype and all the build up of John the Baptist calling people names (Vipers) and yelling and carrying on about repentance and changing our ways of living, we’re simply told that when all the people had been baptized, Jesus was also baptized. End of story! You would think that Luke, a medical doctor, the most intelligent and most educated of all the gospel writers, would have spent a little bit more time with the dynamics of the baptism of Jesus Christ. We don’t know if Jesus was immersed (dunked) or sprinkled. We don’t know what type of liturgy John used, if he used any at all or if the vows that Jesus made were the same ones we make. We don’t know if John had the proper credentials to baptize or if Jesus attended any classes to learn more information about his baptism. We don’t even know if he was issued a certificate of baptism or who signed it. It’s almost as if Luke doesn’t seem to think any of this extra stuff is important. “Jesus had also been baptized.” That’s it. It’s as if Luke is saying that the methodology used for baptism isn’t what is important…but if it isn’t important, then what is? The fact that all four gospel writers spend some time wrestling with the relative position of Jesus and John, and in the long run it seems that John is talked about way more than Jesus, then maybe one important question to be asked in all of this is “Who is really in charge here?” After all, this is supposed to be about Jesus’ baptism but at the same time, the whole story from beginning to end seems to center more around John the Baptist. In fact, as all the people gathered on the riverbank, they were all drawn toward this phenomenon that was John the Baptist. They watched him wade into the water and loudly and forcefully and boldly call out for people to start changing their lives. “Quit playing games…quit fooling yourselves about the importance of status and power and riches. Get down to the hard work of living. Get it right or pay the price and get left out!” Maybe it was the way he spoke… with such boldness and such confidence…or maybe it was how much he seemed to know about repentance and the change of lifestyle that went with it. With all that John knew, the people began to wonder if maybe, just maybe, he was the one that they had been looking for. After listening to John, the people began to recognize that they were like sheep without a shepherd, and they were beginning to see possibilities that this loud, almost arrogant sounding prophet who was churning up the waters of the Jordan River was the one they had been waiting for…the Messiah…the one that they and their ancestors had spent a lifetime praying for. Maybe the people began to question one another or maybe he heard someone shout it out loud…some way or another John became aware that the people though he was the one they had been waiting for, that he was the long awaited Messiah, that he was the one who had come to usher in God’s kingdom and free them from political oppression. But John knew better and he wanted nothing to do with all that talk. “It’s not me!” he yelled out. “It’s someone much bigger than me. Someone much stronger than me. Someone with a shovel who will toss you up in the air and let the wind rip away the empty shells of your sinfulness. Someone who will know you inside and out…someone who will know you deep down to the very depths of your soul. It’s not me” John told them. “But watch out! The one you are talking about, the one you so desperately want, is on his way!” Or maybe John should have said, “The one you so desperately want is already in line.” And therein lies Luke’s subtle point about the likes of Jesus. There was no big, strong muscular guy who breathed fire standing there. There is no grand entrance. There is no miraculous appearance. No white horse. No thunder and lightning. No fireworks. No lights and sirens. No headlines in the newspaper. Not for Jesus. While the people stood in line to be baptized, Luke is subtly telling us that Jesus humbly stood in line with them so that he could be baptized too. So that like those being baptized, Jesus could submit himself to God’s grace and find his identity through God’s affirmation. Jesus quietly stood in line to be baptized to show us that our baptism is meant to express God’s grace through our repentance, and reaffirm our trust and our faith in God. This is the Son of God…the Messiah, the Light of the World, the one who had been waited for forever and ever…and Jesus is treated like one of the guys, like an also – ran, like another everyday member of the crowd who needs to be baptized because of their sinfulness. All to show that he came for us…for the poor, the downtrodden, the marginalized, the hungry and the homeless. From all appearances, Jesus may not be the one you want…he may not be the one you have been so desperately praying for, the one you want to flex his muscles and take the bull by the horn and turn the world inside out and upside down with his power and his might…but Jesus is the one you need. Jesus, the Son of God, is the one you need because he is humble and he will stand in line with those who lives are broken and shattered. He’ll stand shoulder to shoulder with those whose lives are bruised and hurting. He’ll take it upon himself to wade into the muddy waters of the mess you have created for yourself or the mess the world has created and he’s willing to bury himself waist deep in it. He’ll be the one who climbs up out of the deep dark pit of anxiety and despair that so many of us find ourselves living in and he’ll show us how to fall to our knees in prayer. He’ll be the one who’s willing to spend forty days in the wilderness to know of the temptations and the troubles and the worries that we go through. This is the one that John had been raving about. And know this…know that it isn’t a shovel that Jesus carries…it’s a cross…and with that cross, which is the same cross he will eventually die upon for your salvation, we will all be cast into the wind to be transformed by the Spirit of God. And instead of being condemned for the lives we have led and the messes that we’ve made, we, like Jesus will hear the words, “You are my beloved and with you I am well pleased.” The prophet Isaiah, speaking for God, tells us that there will be fire and there will be water all throughout our lives. But, here’s the good news that comes to us in that bad news situation…you won’t be alone. When (not if, but when) you go through the deep, muddy waters, God will be with you. When (not if, but when) you go through the glowing red fire, God will be with you. There are times when it will be hot and painful and you’ll think you’re about ready to be burned to a crisp…there will be times when you think you’re about to be swept out to sea on a dark, stormy, windy night. But know that when this happens, God will be with you because you are a part of his family. Despite who you are and all that you’ve done, because of your baptism, you’ve been adopted into his family. He loves you and he is well pleased with you. That’s the promise. Baptism doesn’t mean safety nor does it mean security and a lifetime of nothing going wrong. Just ask Jesus. But baptism does mean God’s love and it does mean God’s continual presence. It also means the presence of this church and the presence of its people which we call your community of faith who are willing to help you grow in your faith and be there for you to support you when your faith falters. That’s what we have to offer. There are no secret answers. No quick fixes. No easy steps to a better life. But through your baptism, a baptism that adopts you into God’s family, there will be the continual presence of your church and of course, there is the continual presence of Jesus, the one we need…the one who will always love you. God is with us…always and forever more. |