Matthew 3.13-17

Marked for Life

It goes without saying that Christianity is rooted in the ancient story of God and Israel. But like most things that go without saying, it’s important to say it. Matthew sets the beginning of Jesus’ ministry along the banks of the river Jordan where a fiery prophet named John is calling the people of God to repent and be baptized. John is doing nothing different than all the rest of Israel’s prophets, it only seems like it because be dresses weird, eats strange foods and lives in the wilderness. His message is about turning to God and renouncing the habits that lead away from God. Nothing new here. The prophets of old have done the same for generations; calling the people back to a relationship with God, the Holy One of Israel, to live a God-centered existence.

For John, baptism is the ritual cleansing that will mark one’s desire to enter a whole new way of life. The evidence of this desire will be a holy life – or as John says, one that bears good fruit. No one can rest on their laurels or even their profession of religious heritage – a child of Abraham. What matters is how you live your life. Are you bearing fruit that displays God’s ways? John, like all of Israel’s prophets, has no patience with religious lip service or with sanctimonious people who profess one thing and live something entirely different. The reign of God is at hand; what is required is new way of life in word and deed.

With all this going on down at the river – all those sinners rushing to get drenched and get on with the business at hand – the obvious question is, why is Jesus standing with all the other sinners, knee deep in the river waiting his turn to be baptized by John? No one is more startled than John. After all, he is the one who leaped in his mother’s womb when hearing the announcement of Jesus’ birth. He knows who is now standing before him. The very One whose presence he has been announcing, whose kingdom is at hand. “I ought to be baptized by you. Why are you coming to me?” This is a crowd of sinners along the banks of a muddy river.

It is not where John expected Jesus to show up.

And that is the difference that makes all the difference between John’s expectations and the reality of Jesus.

When you think about it, where else would Jesus be? If he is truly Emmanuel which means – God with us – as the prophet foretold, then where else could he be than with us who belong to the crowd of sinners undergoing baptism for righteousness sake? None of this is particularly clear to John, or anyone else actually, until Jesus rises from the water. The skies break open and the voice declares who his is for all to hear: this is my Beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.

Now we know. Jesus, who is God with us, will submit to the Law at the beginning of his ministry even as he will submit to crucifixion at the end. He who is God with us, and so his whole ministry displays what it is to be fully human and fully God. His humble submission is the clue to how God rules the world.

Matthew’s gospel is the story of the God with us. It begins with an epiphany at his baptism in a muddy river alongside where all of Israel is called to new life. Interestingly enough, Matthew ends his gospel with another story about baptism. In this one it is Jesus who is now telling his disciples to go into all the nations, baptizing in his name and making disciples. Like worship, Matthew invites us to a baptismal service at the beginning, then at the end the One baptized tells us to go forth to baptize others and make of them disciples. Baptism marks the bookends of the Gospel.

II

So then what is the connection between Jesus’ baptism and our lives who are baptized in his name? Isn’t it right here that we discover our own purpose by recalling our own baptism? Isn’t it here that we remember the Beloved One – God with us - is calling us to be the beloved ones. We are marked forever in our baptism as disciples of Jesus called to live as God’s beloved in the world. Being the beloved is simply the most essential thing of our lives. It is not the only thing, of course, but living into the notion that I am the beloved of God – you are the beloved of God – each and every moment is more important than anything else. Forgetting that you are the beloved of God is the source of a great deal of misery and failure to discover a positive purpose in life.

This is why I love to repeat the story of Martin Luther who said at the points of his deepest fear, anxiety, doubt and despair he would cry out, “I am baptized.” By that he remembered his essential calling to be God’s beloved child and rest his soul in that knowledge.

It is why we will renew our baptism today.

III

A fellow named Charles Huffaker said, “when the history of the Church is our time is written a vital part of that story will be the rediscovery of the connection between baptism and mission.” I believe this is a much needed discovery of the mainline church that there is nothing static or passive about being a Christian. It is not enough to say I am a child of John Calvin, or Martin Luther, or John Knox.

What is more important is know that I am a child of God called to be a disciple of Jesus, along with every other baptized man, woman or child, rich or poor. Each of us has a role to live into God’s mission in the world. Living into that mission through the generous grace of the Spirit is the connection between our baptism and our life in the world. Baptism marks us for life as disciples – ordinary people set free for service in the world. Today Ravi Zutshi will begin that journey in his baptism.

The rest of us – beloved of God - will remember our own baptismal blessings. It’s the journey of our life together as God’s beloved in the world.

Amen.