He Went Under to Win Us Over

Luke 3: 15 – 18; 21 – 22

 

The Masterpiece Classic TV series, Downton Abbey, was a huge hit when it first came out some years ago.  It was so popular that some public broadcasting stations still offer the series on Sunday evenings.  Downton Abbey portrays a family and their servants in England in the early 1900s.  It’s full of historical details.  The very first episode shows you’re in the early 1900s, because you see a telegraph operator tapping out a message in Morse code.  The year was 1912.  In those days Morse code was the fastest means of communication.

 

In those days, there was a great demand for people who had the specialized skill of typing Morse code.  One business, seeking someone with that special skill, put an ad in the newspaper.

 

A young man saw the ad and went to the address the business had listed, hoping for an interview.  He arrived at the building and entered a large, noisy office.  Above all the chatter and noise of the office, he could hear a telegraph clacking away.  He saw the sign on the receptionist’s counter, telling job applicants to fill out a form and wait until they were summoned to the inner office.  The young man completed his form and sat down with seven other applicants, who were also waiting.

 

After a few minutes, the young man stood up, crossed the room to the door of the inner office, and walked right in.  When the other applicants saw that, they were annoyed.   They looked at one another and wondered what was going on.  This guy had some nerve, they said, walking right in to the inner office that way.  They muttered among themselves that the rest of them hadn’t heard any invitation to the inner office yet.  They took some satisfaction in the idea that the young man who went into the office would surely be reprimanded for being so presumptuous.  Surely he would be immediately disqualified from the job.

 

So they were flabbergasted a few minutes later, when the young man emerged from the inner office with a smile on his face.  The boss who had interviewed him was also smiling and patting him on the back.  The boss announced to the other applicants, “Thank you all very much for coming, but you can go now.  The job has been filled by this young man.”

 

The other job seekers began grumbling to one another.  One of them spoke up. “Wait a minute!” he said.  “I don’t understand.  He was the last one to come in.  The rest of us never even got a chance to be interviewed.  But he got the job.  That’s not fair!”

 

The boss said, “Well, maybe you didn’t notice, but the whole time you’ve been sitting here, the telegraph has been ticking away.  The message it has been sending is in Morse code, and it goes like this:  ‘If you understand this message, then come right in.  The job is yours.’” The boss went on, “None of the rest of you heard that message or understood it.  This young man did.  So the job is his.”

 

You know, our world today is a bit like that noisy office.  Our world is full of clamor and confusion.  But, if we listen, we can hear a message above all the noise.  The message is the still, small voice of God.  The still, small voice of God calls us by name, claims each one of us, saying, “You are my beloved child; you are my pride and joy.”

Jesus heard that message on the day he was baptized.  He was assured that he was God’s beloved child.  He assures us that that simple message, the message of God’s beloved ones, is also for you and me.  Like him, we are God’s pride and joy.

 

During the season of Epiphany, the lectionary readings invite us to reflect on events in Jesus’ life.  Last week we heard about the visit of the wise men to the holy child and his family. Next week we’ll hear about the young man Jesus at a wedding in the village of Cana, where he turns water into wine.  If you pay attention to the words of hymns, you probably noticed that our gathering hymn today was a kind of “Epiphany’s Greatest Hits.”  We sang of the wise men’s visit to the holy child, robust and blessed, and the wedding where Jesus was a guest.  And we sang of Jesus’ baptism, which Luke describes in our gospel passage for today, where Jesus heard the message of God’s love.

 

You know, when you think about it, it’s puzzling that Jesus came to be baptized.  Why did Jesus need to be baptized?  Surely he didn’t need to repent.  Surely he wasn’t like the other people John baptized: the sinners who flocked out to the Jordan River to repent and be washed clean of their sins.  Jesus was God’s own Son.  Still, he comes to John, to the Jordan River, to be baptized.  He comes to John and wades with him out into the river.  He leans back in John’s arms, under the waters of the Jordan.  Jesus goes under the flowing stream, letting it cool his skin and wash away the dust of the wilderness.

 

Why does Jesus come to John to be baptized?  He doesn’t go under the water to meet any need of his own.  He goes under the water to meet our need.  He goes under the water because you and I need to hear, above the noise of our lives, the words Jesus heard that day:  “You are my beloved child; my pride and joy.” Jesus is baptized to show us that he is one of us.  Jesus is baptized so that you and I might see ourselves in him; so that we might know the words he heard that day, are also for us.

 

In our passage for today, Luke brings us to the banks of the Jordan River.  The crowd of people gathered there was a mix of farmers, stonemasons, soldiers, mothers, fathers, toddlers, and tax collectors.  They had heard about John’s preaching and they followed him out to the wilderness.  They were looking to make a change in their lives.  They had gone astray from God’s ways.  Now they wanted to shed their old, sinful selves.  They wanted to turn over a new leaf and start a new life.  It was a big crowd.  They didn’t come by ones and twos.  They flocked out to the wilderness to hear John’s message of repentance and new life.

 

To everyone, John said, “Repent!  Change your lives!”  And when they were ready, John led them into the river.  He took them one by one in his arms.  He held them as they leaned back under the water and let the Jordan flow over them.  In the cool waters, they felt their sins wash away.  Cleansed and refreshed, they made a new commitment to God.  It was a powerful experience.  The people began to wonder if John might be the promised One, sent from God, to save them.  But John was not the Messiah they had been waiting for.  His job was to prepare the way.

 

These days, when you go to a rock concert, there’s always a band or two that plays before the big-name band comes onstage: a band that gets the crowd warmed up and ready for the main event.  John was like a warm-up act: he knew his job was to help people get ready for the Messiah who was to come.   His job was to prepare people for the One who would baptize them, not with water, but with the Holy Spirit.

If he were speaking today, John might say to them, “The real action comes next: the star in this drama, to whom I’m [just a] stagehand, will ignite the kingdom life, a fire, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out.  He’s going to clean house – make a clean sweep of your lives.  He’ll place everything in its true and proper place before God; everything false he’ll put out with the trash to be burned.” (verses 16 – 17, The Message, Eugene Peterson).

 

John must be surprised when the One he is talking about, Jesus himself, shows up that day, at the river, to be baptized.  Jesus, the main event, the star whose spark will ignite the flame of God’s Holy Spirit, comes all the way from Nazareth in Galilee to be baptized by John.

 

Jesus didn’t need to repent.  He was God’s own Son.   But the people gathered there that day badly needed to repent.  And they badly needed to hear the words: “You are my beloved child, my pride and joy.” Jesus didn’t need to be baptized.  Jesus was baptized, not for himself, but for them, and for us.  The words spoken that day were not only for him; but also for the stonemasons and tax collectors, and for us.  Jesus was baptized to show that he is one of us.  Jesus was baptized so that you and I might see ourselves in him; so that we might know those words spoken to him, are also spoken to us.

 

As God takes delight in Jesus, God also takes delight in each of us.  No matter how noisy our world may be, above the noise we can hear God claiming you and me as beloved.  God claims us as members of God’s family.

 

Jesus is God’s way of bringing us into God’s family.  In his sermon, “What’s So Important About Jesus?”  Lane Boyd says that, since the beginning of time, God has attempted to get people’s attention.  Since the very beginning, God has been calling us to the life that is truly abundant.  Sometimes people heard and responded to God, and sometimes we ignored God and got distracted by the noise of our world.  But God kept trying.  God kept working to get our attention.

 

God continues to work with us.  God is at work in the life of Jesus: his birth, baptism, death and resurrection, calling us to the life that is truly abundant.  Jesus was God’s own Son.  He was not baptized for his own sake.  He didn’t need a baptism of repentance.  Jesus was baptized for our sake; that we might hear, above the noise of the world around us, the holy voice that tells each one of us,  “You are my beloved child, my pride and joy.”  No matter how noisy the world may be, God claims you and me as beloved.  God claims us as members of God’s family.

 

This morning, as we remember the baptism of Jesus, we’re going to re-affirm our own baptism.  We’re going to renew our vows.  Some of us made those vows ourselves.  For some of us, other people made those vows on our behalf.  As we renew the vows that were spoken at our baptism, we proclaim once more our identity as Christians, members of  God’s family.  We renew our commitment to follow Jesus in lives of service.

 

In a few minutes, you will be invited to stand if able and renew your baptismal vows.  As you renew those vows, you invite God’s Spirit to fill you with love and grace and strength, and guide you in wisdom.  Following the renewal of vows, you will be invited to come forward and take a small token from the font, as a reminder of your baptism.

If you haven’t been baptized, you are invited to take part in the renewal of vows if you feel called to do so.  This will not mean you leave here baptized, because I won’t be pronouncing what’s called the baptismal formula, baptizing in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  But if you would like to be baptized, please speak to me.  I would be happy to talk to you about it.

 

In baptism, the Spirit fills us with God’s love and grace.  The Spirit guides us in wisdom.  As baptized Christians, it is our responsibility to receive that love and grace and wisdom, and release it into our lives and the world.  As the Spirit empowers us to serve God and one another, we proclaim our commitment to lives of service in Jesus’ name.

 

 

 

 

 

Rev. Elva Merry Pawle

January 13, 2019

Epiphany 2