“The Baptism of Jesus”
A Meditation Preached by the
Rev. Jean Niven Lenk
Sunday, January 20, 2013
First Congregational Church of Stoughton, United Church of Christ
Text: Matthew 3:13-17
Over the last couple of weeks, our Bible Top 40
stories have commemorated significant events in the life of Jesus.
During Advent, there
was the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel tells Mary she is to bear the Son
of God. But that event is told only in
the Gospel of Luke. Then there was Joseph,
who is told in a dream not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife. But that scene occurs only in the Gospel of
Matthew. Then there is the birth of
Jesus in Bethlehem – only in Luke. And
the visit of the Wise Men – only in Matthew.
And then, when he is 12 years old, Jesus preaching in the temple – only
in Luke.
We don’t have much more information about Jesus
growing up into adulthood, and we surmised in our Bible Top 40 discussion last
week that perhaps this is because the Gospel writers want us to understand that
Jesus, fully divine AND fully human, had a childhood and young adulthood that
was not all that different from any human being’s.
Today, we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus. It is the first event of his life that is
told by all four Gospel writer, and that tells us something — that the most
important part of Jesus’ story begins with his coming to the River Jordan to be
baptized.
Of all four Gospels, Matthew offers us the
fullest, most robust description, and you will find it on page 3 of the New
Testament section of your pew bibles: Matthew, chapter 3, verses 13-17.
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the
Jordan, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him,
saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 But
Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to
fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus had
been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were
opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting
on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the
Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
Last week, in the story of 12-year-old Jesus sitting in the temple, he
was beginning to grow into being whom God has sent him to be. He was feeling a stirring deep in his soul,
and a curiosity to “deal with the things” of God. And today, the day of his baptism, Jesus
fully answers God's call and says “yes” to God’s purpose for his life. What that means is that his baptism is the
turning point in his life. And just as
his baptism is the formative event in Jesus’ life, so it is in ours.
Do you remember your
baptism? Some of you may, if you were
baptized as an older child or as an adult.
But if you were young, you may not remember being held in the pastor’s
arms and sprinkled with — or dunked in — water.
Some of us took the baptismal vows for ourselves; for others, our
parents spoke them on our behalf. But
it’s not remembering our actual baptism that is important; it’s remembering
THAT we are baptized; it’s remembering the significance that lies in its
meaning — that we are beloved by God and accepted into God’s family.
Through the sacrament
of baptism, we are incorporated into the universal church. You might think this is a curious usage of
the word incorporated, but it literally means “made into the body,” and
that’s what happens at baptism – we become unified into the body of Christ, St.
Paul’s imagery for the Church universal [Romans 12:5, 1 Corinthians
12:12].
And this unity makes
baptism the great equalizer. In St.
Paul’s eloquent words, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer
slave or free, there is no longer male or female, for [we are all] one in
Christ Jesus” [Galatians 3:28].
This unity in Christ
is especially important to remember on this weekend that we celebrate the
legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr..
When we are united as one in Christ through our baptism, there is no
place within God’s family for domination, oppression, inequality or
discrimination. And this unity in Christ
is especially important to remember as we pass the two-year mark of being an
Open and Affirming church. Baptism
knocks down the walls and barriers that keep some people in and others
out.
One of the most powerful ways we can express our baptismal unity in this
church is to live into our Welcome Statement, in which we extend an extravagant
welcome to all persons of every age, race, nationality, ethnicity, faith
background, marital status, family structure, gender, sexual orientation,
gender identity, gender expression, socio-economic status, physical or mental
disability, affirming that we are all members of the family of God and the body
of Christ.
Today, as we celebrate
Jesus’ baptism, it is a time for us to remember and celebrate our own baptism
with a renewal of our baptismal vows. Just
a few weeks into this new calendar year, as we commemorate Dr. King and renew
our commitment to being an Open and Affirming church, it is especially
appropriate for us to refresh our awareness of belonging to Christ and for us
to consider how we are continuing to live into our baptisms, when our lives
were claimed by God and bound together
in the Christian community called the church.
And so, let us
remember our baptism. Let us remember
our acceptance into Christ’s church, our participation in God’s forgiveness,
and the day we were reborn into full Christian faith and life. Let us remember that each of us is God’s
beloved child. Let us remember that
baptism is the great equalizer, and that it breaks down walls that exclude and
makes each of us an essential member of one body, the same body — the body of
Christ.
I invite you to turn
to the Reaffirmation of Baptism insert on page and let us reaffirm our
baptismal vows…
