The Baptism of Our Lord
January 10, 2010
Text: Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
This past week, you received a mailing from the church. In it was a copy of the Alban Institute Consultation Report. This report was generated out of a retreat led by Dan Hotchkiss, from Alban Institute. As you found in reading the report, there is both a positive and a disturbing outlook for our congregation. We face both opportunities and challenges in the coming years.
Included in the mailing was a cover letter from me and a form to record your response to the report. I will stress again what I wrote in my letter regarding this “holy conversation” we have undertaken: “Regardless of the amount of commitment you have to the congregation now, each of you has a vital role to play. A conversation involves all persons. The “holy conversation” within First Lutheran Church involves you.”
If you have not already read the report, or given your response, please take time to do so. Most importantly pray for the congregation and commit to the process.
As I was studying the Gospel reading for this festival of the Baptism of Our Lord, I was caught by the relevance of the opening verses to our situation here at First Lutheran Church. Paraphrasing these verses, I heard them in this way: “As we, the members of First Lutheran Church, are filled with expectation, and are questioning in our hearts concerning our congregation, what God is calling the congregation to do now and in the years to come, we are reminded on this festival of the Baptism of Our Lord that Jesus baptized us with fire and the Holy Spirit.”
Jesus, the Beloved Son of God, has baptized us with the Holy Spirit. This truth is of great importance to us as we enter into our “holy conversation.” Baptized in the Name of our Triune God, we are a people set apart for the holy task of making disciples of all people, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Our baptism into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord leaves us with three defining marks. Our baptism identifies us as the children of God. Our baptism empowers us to fulfill God’s calling in our time and place. Our baptism makes us pure for our work now and in God’s kingdom to come.
Let us look briefly at each one of these marks in relation to our “holy conversation.” First of all, our baptism identifies us. When Jesus was baptized a voice from heaven declared: “You are my Son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased.” When we were baptized, each of us was called by name, and declared a child of God. To each of us, God has said, “You are my child; with you I am well pleased.”
We are in this “holy conversation” not as children of a fallen humanity, not as children born of blood and the will of the flesh, not as children of darkness, but we are in it because we are the reborn children of God, born of the will of God, and born to be children of light. Yes, our conversation will be about numbers, strategies, goals, staffing, administration and organization. However, our conversation will not be from a corporate or business perspective. First and foremost, we are recipients of the Holy Spirit, children of God, and disciples of Jesus. We look at things not as the world looks, but as God would have us look at them. The question before us is, “What is God calling us to do?” This is not a conversation about what the world wants us to do. Yes, we are children of the world, but more than any other identification, we are children of God. Therefore, our conversation is about what God wants us to do.
Having identified us, our Baptism also empowers us to fulfill God’s calling in our time and place. We can do what God wants us to do because God has baptized us with His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit empowers us to do the ministry of Christ – to live as witnesses of Jesus and the Holy Spirit; to heal the sick, comfort the dying and to respect all life, even the unborn and the condemned. The Holy Spirit empowers us to look beyond ourselves caring for others and giving them what aid is necessary. The Holy Spirit empowers us is to forgive one another; to rid ourselves of jealousy, resentment and hurt, even to love our enemies. The Holy Spirit empowers our congregation to be a unified and effective witness of the Christ who loved us.
Our “holy conversation” might result in having before us a goal that will threaten and frighten us. The conversation may pose to us the impossible. If it does, we need not forget our baptism – we are children of God and with God all things are possible.
We must remember throughout this conversation, that First Lutheran Church is God’s church. We are the stewards that God has put in charge of its ministry. It is not our will that is to be done, but God’s will. Our baptism will empower us to accomplish whatever God calls us to do.
The third thing our baptism does for us is to make us pure for our work now and in God’s kingdom to come. John the Baptist preached that Jesus would baptize us with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Fire refines. It burns out the impurities. With the baptism of the Holy Spirit, our imperfections, our paste failures and wrongs, our waste of our gifts are being burned away that we may be pure and fit our work in God’s kingdom.
“We have always done it this way” are words that can make us to be a faithful church, but then again they can also hold us back. The Holy Spirit opens us to the possibility that God is doing new things – transforming, reforming, renewing, re-creating, redeeming. In the book of Revelation, we hear God declare, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Baptized by the renewing God, who made us to be born again to be His children, we wait God’s renewing of our congregation with His blessings of energy and new life.
In summary, our Baptism in the Name of the Triune God identifies us as the children of God; empowers us to fulfill God’s calling in our time and place and makes us pure for our work now and in God’s kingdom to come.
As we enter our “holy conversation,” it is appropriate that we affirm our baptism this morning, re-committing ourselves to be children of God in this time and place. God will lead, guide and direct us. May the Holy Spirit come upon us brothers and sisters in Christ here at First Lutheran Church that in the covenant of our baptism and in communion with the Church we may lead empowered and godly lives until the day of Jesus Christ.