12 January 14 “Miraculous Baptism” Matthew 3:13-17

12 January 14              “Miraculous Baptism”                     Matthew 3:13-17

   There is a push and pull in the beginning of Matthew’s gospel this morning.  Jesus has come from Galilee to be baptized by John. But, John says to Jesus, “No way I am going to baptize you, you need to be baptizing me.” Then Jesus pushes back. “Come on John, give in, you have to baptize me. It is the only way for all righteousness to be fulfilled.”

 We may find ourselves taking John’s side in this argument. After all, this is Jesus, and John knew him to be the promised messiah, the savior of the world. How could John be the one baptizing the savior of the world? Jesus is the one anointed by God to bring about the kingdom of God. Jesus will solve all the problems in our lives and of this world and, with John, we are more than ready for that to happen.

Christmas has passed, the New Year has come, and we are still in a state of shock and recovery. From our pocketbooks, to our waist line, to our need to just get our house and our lives back in order, and into some semblance of normalcy and peace. Please let Jesus come and take over.

 Jesus has come and Jesus is Lord and John wants to hand his life over to Jesus as do we. But Jesus has another idea. He wants to hand his life to John and to us. Can’t Jesus tell we are exhausted?

 Perhaps that is the point.  Charles Allen sees Jesus saying to John, “I have come, not in wrath, not with magical solutions to your problems, or the worlds problems, but to put my very life in your hands, to plunge my very self into your hopes, and into your fears, and into your life celebrations.” And into your exhaustion.

 The good news for us this Sunday of the Baptism of the Lord is that Jesus gets his way. We are joined in a common life with the living Lord, Jesus, our Christ. That common life with Jesus took on new meaning when God  baptized us into Jesus’ life and brought into ours the Holy Spirit. In the ebb and flow of life, the highs and the lows, the good and the bad, the joy filled and the sad, we are occupied.

 As Augustine wrote, in Jesus, Lady Wisdom came to a place where she already was, to become not only our home, but our way home.

 Our way home. God is present in us and it is time we immerse our lives into God’s. All of it. Hopes, fears, celebrations, and exhaustions. That immersion wraps us in Jesus’ love, a love we can then give away. Given away so that others may know joy, hope, God’s grace and peace. We need not get bogged down worrying about the past or fretting about the future or being in recovery. God is interested in us as we are, not as we would prefer to be.

 Thomas Kelly has written, “Between the relinquished past and the un-trodden future stands this holy Now, whose bulk has swelled to cosmic size, for within the Now is the dwelling place of God.”

  Richard Hooker adds, “It pleased Christ in mercy to account himself incomplete and maimed without us.”

  John did not hesitate when he saw Jesus standing ready to be baptized. “I need to be baptized by you,” he said. Jesus did not hesitate either. He knew what we needed more than anything was John’s help, “Let it be so now, that you baptize me, for it is necessary that we do it this way to fulfill all righteousness.”

 It is Jesus intention that we understand that only through his life, death, resurrection, and ascension can we be faithful to Gods right will or way for us to live in the Kingdom of God. Otherwise, we live solely in this place and time without a savior.

 We know the implications of living on our own. To whom will we turn when we feel lost, forgotten, needing healing and love? To whom will we turn for the confession of our sins? To whom will we turn for forgiveness and for salvation? Truthfully, we need to be saved from our human condition.

 True to his calling, John was obedient. When Jesus had been baptized, just as he came out of the water, the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove to rest in him. Then that voice from heaven, “This is my Son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

 Seminary professors caution to never try and interpret scripture in isolation of facts. Many of you know, or have heard me say before, doves do not descend and flutter down. Doves swoop, and they are fast. They do not just hover and lightly descend. They can dive like a hawk.  With this image in mind one professor speculates that Jesus just might have been the Holy Spirits prey!

 This certainly changes the way we look at Jesus’ baptism! He was not descended upon gently. He was targeted for baptism by the Holy Spirit, and so are we.

 If we get a bit sluggish about being with God, well, God puts us in the path of this swooping Holy Spirit. You see God has chosen us for great things. True, we are not called to be the savior of the world. But, equally true, God has something great in store for each of us. We are here to love one another, to care for those needing our care. To show the world who Christ is. To glorify God and be pleasing to God.

  The model for surprise is before us. Jesus needed John, and Jesus needs you and me. We are made in the image of God, and whether we want it or not, God created us and God loves us and God’s greatest desire is that we be the example of God’s grace to the world, that we live our entire lives with God. Not on our terms, but on God’s terms.

  A powerful story about God’s terms bears repeating. You may remember the story. It is from Steven Vryhof.  He says, “One Sunday morning, years ago, I entered a Lutheran church in a small village on the coast of Sweden. Perhaps because of the early hour, or the lure of a beautiful summer morning, or the effects of state-run Lutheranism, there were only fourteen congregants gathered. The minister was a slender, blonde lad who had to be fresh out of seminary. I struggled with the Swedish hymns and the Lutheran tendency to stand to pray and sit to sing, the opposite of what I was used to. I joined the others at the front railing for communion, taking the bread and the wine, then returned to my seat.

 While the minister, his back to us, was putting away the elements, a parishioner, a middle-aged woman, returned to the front, this time pushing an old woman, presumably her mother, in a wheelchair. She was here for communion.

 There was an awkward minute as we all waited for the minister to notice the two waiting at the railing. He finally did turn, realized the situation, and proceeded to retrieve the elements. He carefully administered the bite of bread and the sip of wine to the old woman. Then he paused, and I held my breath, because I knew what was going to happen next. The young minister looked at the old woman, physically a wreck of a human being, and he said to her the most important words that one human being can say to another human being. The minister locked his eyes to hers and said, “Our Lord Jesus Christ, whose body and blood you have received, preserve your soul unto everlasting life.”

  At that precise moment, the bells of the church started pealing, ringing and resonating and resounding and reverberating through the church and through me, making the hair on the back of my head stand up. Heaven touched earth and it seemed that Our Lord Jesus Christ himself was saying, “Yes, I will do that!” I will preserve your soul unto everlasting life!

 Then the Father and the Spirit joined the Son, and using words given to Julian of Norwich, the Triune God proclaimed loudly over the ringing of the bells, “I may make all things well and I can make all things well, and I shall make all things well, and I will make all things well, and you will see yourself that every kind of thing in your life will be well!”.

Our souls have been preserved by God unto everlasting life. Our lives have been targeted, we are the Holy Spirit’s prey. We can, with the assurance of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, submit to the inevitable, we are indeed in a state of recovery this morning, but not from Christmas past.

 We are in a state of recovery from ourselves. Yet, we have the assurance that in his baptism Jesus, who was himself sinless, did have sin, ours. He was baptized, washing away our sin. He was crucified, washing away our sin. He was raised from the dead and ascended unto heaven taking us with him. Because we are forever loved, forgiven and saved.

 This New Year, this Sunday of the baptism of the Lord, Jesus pulls us from our lonely recovery efforts to assure us he will always be here with us, to care for us, and to help us, and to love us.

 Heaven now touches earth and Jesus whispers to us, “Yes, I will do that!”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen

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