New Beginning: A Sermon for the Feast of the Baptism of Christ

Mark 1:4-11

⁴John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁵And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. ⁶Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. ⁷He proclaimed, ‘The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. ⁸I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’

9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ¹⁰And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. ¹¹And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
   be acceptable to you,
   O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Most of the conversations I have with Noah that are of a theological nature have to do with what God does and does not do. I was tucking him into bed recently and we were talking about the glow-in-the-dark stars over his bed, and the little projector nightlight that shines our eight planets onto his ceiling (we miss you, Pluto). He noted that God didn’t make the planets; stars made the planets.

Now, for a kindergartener, that’s a pretty doggone astute revelation.

But it misses the point.

So we read the first creation story, which we remembered this morning in its first five verses. And we asked the question: Who creates planets? God does.

That doesn’t negate the wonder of black holes and nebulae as cosmos-changers and solar-system generators. It just reminds us who’s behind all of it.

God is.

Every new beginning is a work of God. Every maintaining thing in creation is a work of God. Every changing thing is a work of God. And every ending, which is nothing more than a changing, is a work of God.

We are works of God. Everything we experience and know and observe is a work of God. There is, in fact, no such thing as a self-made man. There is no such thing as pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps. Everything you think you’ve done for yourself, God has actually done for you.

Recognizing that fact is how we understand that the grace of God is so important to our development in faith. In fact, God’s grace is everything in the development of our faith.

Upon the work of God in our lives depends all our salvation and sanctification. Only God’s grace grabbing ahold of us and saying, “You are mine”, can save us from darkness and sin.

That’s why baptism is so widely misunderstood. What we want to believe is that in our baptism, we are choosing to follow Christ, to be washed clean of our sin, to join the family of God. We still want to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. We want self-made salvation.

I’m really sorry. You’re just not good enough.

Only One is good enough. Only One can save us.

Only Christ. Only the Son of God. Only God-Made-Flesh, Emmanuel.

Only because God is with Us can we be saved.

That’s good enough for the person who is fully aware of what the commitment to follow Christ means, and it’s good enough for the person who can never be aware what it means to be claimed by the Creator.

God can claim a grown and intelligent adult as well as God can claim a newborn infant. It’s up to God.

And the good news is that God claims all of us. No, you’re not good enough. But God claims you anyway. And if you’re anything at all like me, God loves you even while you are busy doing stupid, violent, hateful, sinful stuff.

And God forgives you. And God welcomes you.

All this God does even before we know to ask, because God creates us in love and never stops loving us. God never forsakes us and never leaves us.

And in baptism, we recognize the fact that God is working, that God is calling us, that God desires that we follow. So is the timing of baptism important? Is the method important?

Probably not in the long run. But to us, it is important. Because we are a people who need to commemorate things. Is there something magical about the moment a couple share their vows? No. They’re affirming something that they’re already covenanting to each other and to God. We need to recognize that commitment. We need to commemorate it.

Baptism works in the same way. We could go our whole lives with an understanding, just between us and God, that we’re committed to follow the Way of Christ. But baptism is the sign of that covenant.

Now, those of us who were baptized as infants probably don’t remember it. That’s why it’s important to be confirmed in our faith, to have a time set aside when we say, Yes, I recognize that God is claiming me, and I commit myself to be faithful in my prayers, my presence, my gifts, my service, and my witness.

Our whole lives are spent in remembering and living into that covenant. And I want to allow us an opportunity to remember this morning, to renew that covenant. So this morning we are making space and time to remember our baptism.

This is not a re-baptism. We don’t need that. God’s work in our lives is singular. God does not re-claim us. God claims us once and for all time. This is a time to remember and to embrace that call that God has already placed on our hearts, and so I invite you to join me in a Congregational Reaffirmation of the Baptismal Covenant, which is in your UMH on p.50.