St. Paul Lutheran Church, Minden, Nebraska

Sunday sermon – First Sunday after The Epiphany – January 10, 2010

“Baptism Done!  Beloved Son!”  

Text: Luke 3:21,22

   As we gladly say our goodbyes to the first full week of January 2010, I’ve heard plenty of talk about how cold it’s been. Now, here, in this place, in this hour, in the readings from God’s Word for this Sunday and in the readings from God’s Word for the remaining Sundays in January, there’s plenty of talk about how close God is, how powerful & personal & present God is! 

   First, there’s some liturgical stuff to take note of and second, some review stuff to go over.

   First, the liturgical stuff! On the calendar of the Christian church year, this past Wednesday, windy, cold, snowy, blustery day that it was full of cancellations, Wednesday was also the Epiphany of our Lord, January 6th, the 12th day of Christmas. Every Jan. 6th, the Epiphany of our Lord, also call the second Christ-mas, Christmas for the Gentiles, commemorates the visit of the Magi, the wise men; those Gentile astronomers from the East who were led by a star to Bethlehem to worship the child Jesus at the home of Joseph & Mary. 

   These next five Sundays, while we try to shake off the snow & cold of winter, liturgically speaking the Sundays after the Epiphany of our Lord shine with the power & presence of God, hidden, manifested in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ; “God in man made manifest” God in man, here on earth, God bringing to fulfillment here on earth His long awaited plan of salvation.    

   Second, is review stuff to go over!  Last Sunday, the 2nd Sunday after Christmas the sign of God in was Jesus’ incarnation. Jesus’ incarnation is that great & wonderful mystery of how God came down from above, how God took on human flesh & blood in Jesus the Word made flesh; how the Word Incarnate was born of the Virgin Mary, wrapped in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger, and how The Word Incarnate cried loudly when he was painfully circumcised 8 days after his birth.

   What a gift of God’s grace, what a gift of redemption, how human Jesus was & is, how fully & obediently & humbly Jesus came to be our substitute and to take upon himself God’s wrath & punishment for our all sins and failures before God.

   Now this first Sunday after the Epiphany another sign of God in man is the sign is Jesus’ baptism! So, from some liturgical stuff to take note of and a little review, we move to some vocational stuff.

   On the basis of Luke’s account of Jesus’ baptism it can be said, Jesus baptism is a sign of Jesus’ calling, Jesus’ vocation.  Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist in the Jordan river when Jesus was 30 years old is a remarkable sign of how God goes about doing business here on earth - God overseeing the public ministry of Jesus – a ministry of loving, rescuing, saving, redeeming a broken & sinful humanity – a ministry God approves of by God anointing, God affirming, God declaring how pleased He is with His beloved Son.

   For Luke, Jesus’ baptism is important but it is not of first importance. What IS of first importance for Luke is the picture he gives us of Jesus praying, heavens opening, Holy Spirit descending on Jesus in the bodily form of a dove; and the voice of God declaring to Jesus from heaven, You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased. (or as The MESSAGE has God saying it: You are my Son, chosen and marked by my love, personal representative of my love, pride of my life.)

   This is good to know; Jesus of Nazareth is good to go; baptism done; beloved Son!  In other words, as God’s beloved Son, with whom God is well pleased; Jesus has a calling, a vocation, a ministry, a life-long work to do -- the work of responding to a great human need; the work of fulfilling a great and long-standing promise; the work of showing great mercy and compassion toward Jews & Gentiles alike, and last but not least the work of serving not as a charismatic, powerful popular ruler but serving as a suffering servant who lays down his life for the salvation of all mankind. 

   This is good to know; Jesus of Nazareth is good to go; baptism done; beloved Son! Jesus does not have a job to do, Jesus has a calling to fulfill, to do what He was born to do, not to live & work & retire, but to serve & suffer & die, and then be raised from the dead.

   But what word of good news is there in this sign of Jesus’ calling Jesus’ work, Jesus’ vocation for you and me?  The good news of Jesus’ baptism done, beloved Son, is good news when it comes to us striving to live lives of quiet, unselfish, humble, faithful service & compassion based on God’s affirming grace and favor poured out on us in Jesus Christ.  Or to put that another way, “You and I are God’s beloved sons & daughters with whom He is well pleased.” 

   Of all the things you might imagine God saying to you, if God were to speak to you person-to-person, wouldn’t this would be a most blessed, a most encouraging, a most affirming thing to hear God say to you, “You are my beloved son, you are my beloved daughter, how pleased I am with you, how proud I am of you, how much I love you.”

   Now the question is, what do you and I have to do to get that kind of treatment, that kind of blessing, that kind of affirmation from God.  And the answer is, “Be who you are and what you are by the grace of God!  By God’s grace & God’s spirit working in you, be who you are and what you are!”  If you are a Christian, if you are a baptized child of God, if you hold membership in the Kingdom of God by virtue of the saving grace of God at work in your heart & life, your calling, your vocation, your ministry as a Christian is to be what you are, who you are, where you are for the glory of God, for the love of Jesus, for the good of others.

   Now a lot of Christians don’t understand this very well. 

   What most Christians are used to thinking is that a job is a job and we all have our jobs to do; chores, duties, business, desk work, paper work, farm work, house work, home work, a mother’s work. Even preachers have work to do when they are not busy on Sundays. A job is a job, work is work. 

  But a calling, a vocation, having a reason to live other than just going to work or doing a job or making a living is something else.  

   A calling, a vocation is more than just having a job. A calling, a vocation is answering a specific call; doing what one is meant to do.

   In fact sometimes people have been known to quit jobs or take a leave of absence from their jobs to pursue what they feel called to do, and money or success or notoriety isn’t the issue but the issue is a sense of fulfillment, living life with meaning & purpose, answering God’s call to be the best you can be as God’s child, as God’s beloved Son or God’s beloved daughter with whom He is well-pleased. 

   So here I turn from talk about vocational stuff to inspiration stuff; to the good news of God’s blessing, God’s affirmation when you sense your calling; when Christianity is for you, not just your religion, but living out the meaning of your baptism as a beloved son, a beloved daughter with whom God is well pleased.

  Do not all of us, myself included, need help with this? 

   Barbara Brown Taylor, an Episcopalian, has observed it’s not un-usual or uncommon that when lay people are prompted or gently prodded to think of their living, their working, their relaxing, their retir-ing and what that all has to do with God, most lay people see that as more than they want to think about or get involved in. To many lay people ministry, calling, Christian vocation, sounds like more work and most lay people have all the work they can do.      

   A Christian business woman sat in on a presentation delivered by a speaker whose topic was “The ministry of laypeople as God’s best hope for the world!”  When the presentation was over, after a time for questions & answers the woman walked up to the speaker and said, “I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be that important.”

   It turns out that business woman is not alone.  There are plenty of others like her who sit in church as baptized Christians, who are good to go to church when they can, but often they hear talk of min-istry, calling, Christian vocation as a plea to do more – serve on the Central Committee, teach a Sunday School class, join a women’s circle, help with vacation Bible school. Or they hear talk of minis-try, calling, Christian vocation as an appeal to be more – be more generous, be more loving, be more caring, be more religious.

   What is so amazing about Jesus’ baptism done, beloved Son, is not just that Jesus was baptized taking his place & being one with those He came to serve & to save, but what is so amazing is that having been baptized, and praying to God as Luke tells us Jesus was doing, Jesus was affirmed by God, blessed by God, anointed by God, empowered by God’s Spirit to live his whole life according to God’s will and purpose for Him.

   And can we not do likewise? 

   That’s why it is good to know.  Jesus of Nazareth is good to go! Baptism done; beloved Son!  I have a job to do, work to do as the pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church, but more than that this is my calling.  Whether Sunday, Monday, Wednesday or Friday; when I am daily aware of my baptism, when I live by grace through faith in Jesus each day, when each day’s ups and downs, busyness & blessedness is done; God wants me to know, to be glad, to hear, by God’s grace, beloved son.

   And that holds true for you too.  Each one of you has a calling, a baptism calling.  “I have called you by name, you are mine,” says Isaiah   43:1.  Whether it’s Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday for you, when you are daily aware of your baptism, when you live by grace through faith in Jesus each day, when each days ups and downs, busyness & blessedness is done, God wants you to know, to be glad, to hear; by God’s grace, “Beloved son, beloved daughter, well done, we are one, with you I am well pleased.”

   God grant it for Jesus’ sake.  Amen