Washed and dedicated

Isaiah 42:1-9

Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faith or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching. 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; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to idols. See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.

Psalm 29

Ascribe to the LORD, you gods, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. Ascribe to the LORD the glory due god’s name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness. The voice of the LORD is upon the waters; the God of glory thunders; the LORD is upon the mighty waters. The voice of the LORD is a powerful voice; the voice of the LORD is a voice of splendor. The voice of the LORD breaks the cedar trees; the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon; the LORD makes Lebanon skip like a calf, and Mount Hermon like a young wild ox. The voice of the LORD bursts forth in lightning flashes. The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness; the LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the LORD makes the oak trees writhe and strips the forests bare. And in the temple of the LORD all are crying, “Glory!” The LORD sits enthroned above the flood; the LORD sits enthroned as king forevermore. O LORD, give strength to your people; give them, O LORD, the blessings of peace.

Acts 10:34-43

Peter began to speak to Cornelius and his household: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ - he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Matthew 3:13-17

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

****************************************************************

Even Jesus isn't above the law. Sure, we’d expect somebody who wrote the laws to be able to bend them a bit, get around them, call in a favor every now and then, but Jesus follows this standard of righteousness by acknowledging he is right there with us in the thick of things and getting baptized alongside folks who wanted to look holy and folks who were pretty convinced nothing they ever did would be holy enough and folks who had been told they were holy and folks who had heard all their lives nothing but how unholy they were. Whoever had come to John for this washing, signifying a new start rooted in turning their lives around, no matter how many times they had tried to change and failed to do so, how many times they repeated the ritual hoping hard it would ‘take’ this time and they could finally be free of their burdens, how many times they had come just for the spectacle, how many times they had gone through the motions because their friends urged them to try it, Jesus went right into that water with them. Once. Since three of the four gospels hold no real insight into his life prior to this event, we can read into this baptism that it was a turning point for Jesus, an end to whatever life path he had been on previously, and a complete and total dedication to the work set before him on the long road to Jerusalem. 

Many, though not all, of us have been to the waters of baptism at some point. Some of us remember that day, some of us were far too young to recall the sights, sounds, and smells, or the feel of the water and chrism oil on our heads, the lighted candle, the promises of parents and sponsors. Our theology proclaims that infant baptism is a sign for the whole community of God’s unending and unconditional love and acceptance of us, even before we have a chance to reject or deny that love. Some who are baptized as infants go on to leave the church and the faith entirely, some come and go, some make of the church a second family, and whatever decisions we make that precede or follow baptism, the fact that we are loved as we are does not waver. Will we fall short of our expectations, or the expectations of others? Will we disappoint or anger somebody from time to time? Will there be conflict? Of course! Baptism is not a ticket to instant comfort, not an award proclaiming we are always right and completely above those who may not be baptized in a way we recognize. God knows we need physical reminders of these intangible promises, so we have the sacrament of Baptism as a sign to point to, with elements as everyday, as basic to human living, as water and stories. We have these elements joined to the promises of God so those reminders surround us each day.

We talked a bit about baptism last week, when we read about Jesus’ naming day, when he was only eight days old. Two thousand years ago, the rites and rituals were very different than they are today. They adapt to culture and context over and over again, so the baptisms we celebrate today look almost nothing like they did when Jesus came to John at the Jordan, at a time when baptisms meant a very distinct choosing of a particular spiritual path. In many traditions today, it still carries the same meaning. And while that is not our theology as Lutherans, it does beg the question: to what are you wanting to devote your life? What direction do you wish your life had taken? I’m not talking about New Year’s resolutions, I’m talking about where your values lie and how closely the pattern of your life so far reflects those values, that vision of the world. God has already unequivocally claimed you and accepted you, there are no depths of failure to which you can fall where God would be so petty as to abandon you, so if there is no failure to be afraid of, what can you turn toward, what can you try, what will you be willing to risk, to live into the life that really is life?

Because, friends, we only have this one life. We have hope of resurrection, yes, but we cannot let that hope in heaven rob us of our life in the here and now. Baptism is not a ticket to salvation so that nothing else we do matters - it is quite the opposite. It is an invitation, and a dedication, to co-creating heaven in the here and now with the God who created us to begin with. Far from nothing we do matters, everything we do can be significant, can be full of holiness, can bring life and light into dead and drowning places. Whether we give or receive this hope hardly matters, because we will have days when we hardly have the energy to hope for ourselves let alone to share any with others, and sometimes being loved is the best we can do. That’s okay, too. That’s better than okay, in fact, that’s what we live for.

Jesus refused to be removed from the world we live in when he submitted to that baptism. He immersed himself in our rules and rituals and expectations and pressures and lived his own life as his own person in spite of it all. Yeah, we killed him for it. We harassed him and threatened him because his life of freely joining us in our struggles threatened our hierarchy of power that separates people into righteous and unrighteous, worthy and worthless. God has watched generation after generation of holy people dismantle and disavow one another for the sake of some self-imposed systems of oppression and power which we didn’t need for survival, we didn’t need for success, we didn’t need for thriving. And God came down in the flesh to walk in those systems and let them throw their worst at him, and love us all through all of it anyway, even though they are the vey systems we build and perpetuate. Every step along his ministry, Jesus is recommitting to us, again and again, dedicating himself to this relationship so that we might finally trust the promise that we are loved no matter where we come from or what’s in our hearts, no matter what we’re hiding or hiding behind.

And the best part? Even if you don’t think God could possibly love you, for whatever reason, or that God couldn't possibly love a certain somebody or type of somebody, for whatever reason, God’s love is bigger, stronger, more mind-boggling and more stubborn than all of our problems, than everything we call ‘sin,’ than every fear or bad habit. That water that washes us in baptism? Jesus is in that water with us. And that water is in us, that water makes this planet livable, that water is everywhere. Almost as much everywhere as God is.