Sermon 1/13/2019 The Baptism of the Lord

(Note:  I apologize that this does not lay out well.  I cannot get it to do what I want it to do.  ~DD+)

For the next two months we will be renewing our Baptismal Covenant during our Sunday worship. We do this, in part, because of today.  Today we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus.
There are many questions about Jesus being baptized, like, why did Jesus need to be baptized? But I wonder if his baptism is less about him and more about us.
Think about it.  Why do we bring our babies and children to be baptized?  Why do people who come to know Christ at different times in their lives choose to be baptized?
 For years that formal rite of baptism in the church was like a protection for a child.  It secured them as a child of God in the eyes of the church.  And in times when infant mortality is high, this sometimes private and other times public act of a family committing their child to God is like an insurance policy that if the child dies, that child has a place in heaven with God.
 But it seems like many people are beginning to understand that God’s relationship with us does not start with a rite.  God is in relationship from our beginnings.  We don’t have to do anything to be known by God.
  So this scene where Jesus is baptized by John in the river with a bunch of other people marks a moment.  What makes that moment extraordinary is that God speaks to Jesus.  God says to Jesus, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."
 The thing is, Jesus didn’t need God to say this to him.  Jesus already knew who he was and what he was on Earth to do.  We need to hear God say this to Jesus.  But we don’t need to hear it so that we know that Jesus is God’s son.  We need it to know that we are God’s sons and daughters and that we, like Jesus, are beloved.
 That’s right.  We are each beloved children of God, and God is pleased with us.  Just like Jesus.  
 The implications that go with that statement are huge, don’t you think?  We are beloved children of our Creator, of God. 
 Jesus was born into this world to remind us of that.  The people had strayed far away from God, had forgotten that they were God’s children.  Those in power had taken liberties to marginalize those who were not like them.  The poor, those with disabilities, widows, children, people who lived in other countries, or who had a different faith, or who lived differently than they.  Jesus came into the world to change this.  Jesus came into the world to help us see our beloved-ness and to help us learn how to take the gift that is our lives and live in ways that please God.
 I know I preached about this just a month ago, since part of today’s Gospel was also the Gospel a few weeks ago, so bear with me as I remind us that the separation of wheat from chaff is good and important.  That Jesus is going to help us recognize the chaff that prevents us from being our authentic, beloved selves.  Remember, John is not saying that we are either wheat or chaff, but that we are both.  How we recognize the chaff and how we remove it from our lives, revealing the healthy wheat within is what he is describing.
 So, I chose to use the Baptismal Covenant, to give us the opportunity to be reminded of what we believe in, through the words of the Apostle’s Creed and of the promises made at our baptisms, so that we can look closely at ourselves and at our relationships with God, and see where we can change and grow.
 I believe that when we renew this covenant and listen again to the questions, we might be able to focus a little on the chaff that keeps us separated from living out our love for God.  AND we can rejoice through these questions as we recognize ways in which we are living out our love for God.
 Renewing our faith through the baptismal covenant is one of those moments in our liturgy where we are given time to pause and consider who God is to us and recognize what we might need to change or grow into or develop more fully to be more in communion with God, and in return, with one another and the world.
 After making our belief statements through the words of the Apostle’s Creed I will ask five questions.
         
The first question is this: 
Will you continue in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the               breaking of the bread, and in the prayers?

This question is asking you to come to church, to your faith community, to be in fellowship with others to learn about the Holy Trinity.  To see how God worked in the world then and how God continues to work in the world today.  To strive to learn how to live like the apostles—those imperfect people who did their best to follow Jesus.  To come to the communion rail to be fed and renewed with bread and wine.  And to be in relationship with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit through prayer.

Second, I will ask this:  
Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, 
repent and return to the Lord?

We all try so hard to live good lives, but each one of us can be seduced by things that keep us from our relationship with God. Some would call that “evil.”  We all fall short.  We all make mistakes.  But this question is asking us to recognize when we make those mistakes, to apologize when we mess up and to come to Jesus to ask for forgiveness and strength to keep us from doing or acting in ways that might hurt others or ourselves and that create distance from God.

Next, I will ask:  
Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in 
Christ?

This is Evangelism at it’s finest.  How we walk in the world as Christians, how we do business, how our ethics and morals are perceived by people are reflections of our faithfulness in God.  Do we talk about our relationship with God?  Do we live and act in ways that reflect our commitment to God?  How we live and move in the world can show how we understand Jesus in the world.  And it goes directly to the next two questions.

  Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your                             neighbor as yourself?
          
           If we know that we are beloved children of God, do we recognize the
beloved-ness of all the people we encounter every day?  Oh, this can be so
hard! Especially when we don’t fully understand why someone lives the way 
they do or acts the way they act.  We cannot imagine how some people  
manage life so differently than we do.  We sometimes think everyone should 
or does live just like we do.  And many do not.  This promise we are making is 
reminder to think beyond our own experiences, beyond our own friendships 
and consider that others are loved by God just as much as we are.

And the final question, which piggybacks on the previous, but puts a finer
point on it:  
Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect           the dignity of every human being?
When we recognize that we are all unique, beloved, creations of God, shouldn’t we hope for equity?  Shouldn’t we stand up and speak up and even act, when we see injustice or when we observe conflict?  Respecting the dignity of every human being does not mean every human should be the same, but instead, it recognizes our differences.  If we don’t understand those differences, we should try to learn about them.  It isn’t easy to step out of our comfortable lives and into the unknown of someone else’s.  But we are invited to try.
         
The beauty of each of these questions is in our response to them.  To each we say, “I will, with God’s help.” 
          
When we do the renewal of our baptismal covenant, we are given the opportunity to be reminded of what we believe, and we are given tools, through these five questions, to be reminded of how to live out that belief.  But we recognize that we cannot do it without God.  We need to depend on God’s grace to help us.  We need to trust that our relationship with God will give us the ability to be more and do more than we might think possible.
          
For these next weeks, pay attention to this covenant, these promises you are making to God.  Think about what it means to you that Jesus came into this world to save all of us sinners and how these promises can help you realign or change or adapt your understanding of yourself as God’s agent in the world.  What chaff can you loosen from your good grain that will make you more able to live the life Jesus has modeled?
          
And as you think and pray on this, remember, that you, like Jesus, are a beloved child of God.  Amen.