13 January 2013

“Fire-water”
Isaiah 43:1-7 / Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
Baptism of our Lord / 1st Sunday in Ordinary Time series C
13 January 2013


And so … we begin.
Yes, we are now nearly two weeks into another calendar year, a new year full of hopes, dreams, plans and preparations.
But today ... here … in this time, in this place … we’ve concluded the Christmas cycle of texts and events surrounding the infant Jesus; today, this Baptism of our Lord Sunday, the first of what we call the “Sundays in Ordinary Time” ... we begin another cycle of stories about the grown-up Jesus.
Yes, it’s true ... Jesus doesn’t stay young for long, does he? – Not in the circular way of keeping time in which we mark his life … the cycle of seasons we call “the church year” … nor in the Bible stories in this year of Luke’s gospel, which that cycle of seasons follows. One day he’s a baby, a teenager the next, and now, this week, he’s an adult – an adult, being baptized.
And so … we begin. This week, this Sunday, this beginning, with a beginning of beginnings …
BAPTISM.
Baptism. A sacrament for some – a vehicle, a way God’s grace comes to us in a physical sign, the extraordinary, coming down to the world in a very ordinary way. Here, in water. Water. Plain old water.
Baptism. A sign for others – a mark of repentance, a sign of turning one’s life around, of turning one’s back on an old way of life and choosing to live another … a statement that says “now I will walk in faith.”
But for all – Baptism is a beginning.
What did Baptism mean for Jesus?
Not the same thing it meant for the others who were there. They were wondering … wondering first of all about Jesus’ cousin John, wondering if he was the Messiah, the deliverer, the One they believed God had promised to send to them, who would come and save them from their terrible way of life, right here, right now, the political and military oppression of the Roman Empire, the religious oppression of their faith leaders, the miserable nature of living in a place and time that showed little in the way of Hope.
John, for his part, set them up for something BIG. “No, it’s not me … someone else is coming, someone more powerful, someone who will gather the wheat and burn the chaff. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire!”
But what did Baptism mean for Jesus?
It was a naming and claiming for him. A voice came from heaven – Luke doesn’t say who, but Jesus knew, and we do too, if we have ears to hear … “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
It was his Confirmation. “The Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove.” God’s Spirit came upon Jesus to fill him and prepare him for what would come next.
And what would come next … though we don’t read the very next verses of Luke’s gospel in worship until Lent comes, in February … so you can go home and check yourselves … but what happens next is that Jesus is driven out into the wilderness, filled with the Holy Spirit, to wrestle with what all that means for him … as he’s tempted and tested by the evil one.
It’s as if – Jesus is living out the words of Isaiah 43 … our Old Testament reading for today:

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

And that IS what Jesus’ baptism meant for him as he went dripping wet from the banks of the Jordan, out into the heat and suffering, temptation and testing of the wilderness.
And guess what … that’s what baptism means for us, too. When we pass through the waters, the rivers, the fire and the flame … literally, or figuratively, in all the rotten stuff that life can throw at us … we walk dripping wet too. God promises to be with us … just as God promised to be and was with Jesus in his earthly walk.
Now that’s a different way of thinking about baptism, than many believe … many who hold Baptism as a kind of “fire insurance” policy … meaning one of two things …
… for some, that the flames of this world won’t come close to them at all (baptism = the lucky ticket for life, nothing bad will happen to me anymore because I’ve been baptized!)
… for more, that baptism = get out of the fires of hell free card, and so we are to do with baptism the same as most of us do with our fire insurance policies … you know, stuff them away in the attic, or in a safe deposit box, out of sight, out of mind, just pay the premium once or twice a year and all will be well.
But that’s not what baptism is at all.
If Baptism is to be thought of as an insurance policy, then it’s not fire insurance, but fear insurance.
“Do not fear,” God says in those verses from Isaiah. And for good reason.
Fear is the great destroyer of faith. Faith builds the house and fear is the termites, carpenter ants, and dry rot that will make it crumble and bring it down to the ground. We need to have our fears removed, so we can have and keep faith.
And this is what baptism does. Baptism moves us out dripping wet, walking wet, into every part of life – reminding us that God is with us; we shall not be overwhelmed, or burned, or consumed by the floods and the fires of life, the illnesses and accidents, the temptations and trials, the fears and even the everyday wearing downs of life … Baptism is a daily reminder that God Is With Us – so we can move out ... not paralyzed by fear but propelled by love ... move out into a world that is so weighed down by fear that sometimes you can smell it in the air.
Fiscal cliff and debt ceiling limits. Flu. Terrorists, atomic, biological, electronic. Guns and violence. Windstorms and snowstorms and earthquakes and floods.
(move)
“I won’t be popular.” “I won’t have a boyfriend or girlfriend.” “I won’t get the right husband or wife.” “I won’t have enough money to retire, or the health to enjoy it.”
I fear ... I won’t … I can’t … leading to I’m stuck.
Fear. It’s everywhere. It paralyzes us and kills life as God wishes and wills it for us ... full, rich, abundant.
And so Martin Luther – living in a time five hundred years ago when baptism was thought of as little more fire insurance to keep babies out of hell – Luther brought this sacrament back ... first for Lutherans, and then for all the church, back from the magical Wilderness into which it had been cast. Luther could, would and did say daily when things would get bad for him, “I am baptized!”
Not “I was baptized.” But “I am baptized.”
In other words … it’s not about being frozen with fear, but moving out, washed, thawed, dripping and walking wet, with the constant reminder that God Is With Us.
So Baptism – isn’t the whole story, isn’t the ending, some wonderful, magical thing that happened way back in the past or way back last month … no, Baptism is the Beginning. The Beginning.
Baptism gives us One Day At A Time ... helps us appreciate, be thankful for, live into, be fully present in this life … not just once, but Every Day Of Our Lives. Because Baptism gives us back the life that fear takes from us. Baptism restores us to life … life together with each other, life in which we can live and give ourselves freely for each other. Making up for past wrongs and mistakes. Starting over – starting anew – every day, a fresh, clean start in God’s love.
And so … we begin. Another year, another cycle, another day.
We begin … with Baptism. Jesus’ baptism.
Our baptism. Reaffirming it once more, acknowledging the gift given to us, its impact on our lives.
And like Jesus, we are led out … this is not the end, but a beginning … we too have our wrestling to do …
With what this means – for our lives, and the lives of everyone we touch.
Just because we’re baptized, doesn’t mean it will always go well for us. Some days it will be downright rotten for us. But because we’re walking wet, dripping wet ... with Fire-Water ... the waters of Baptism, God’s Spirit-given good gifts infused into every part of our being, every moment of our lives ... means God Is With Us and will lead us on to the Ending he has promised for us.
Because we are wet, because we’re given faith in the promise … we can wrestle with what this means for us, through the bad and the good, every day of our lives.
And so we begin.
And here, just as in the beginning of so many things in life, we have basic steps laid out before us ... at the start of another new year and another new day … provided by our God, given in his Word:
At the font.
At the table.
In the Scripture.
In prayer and devotion.
Sent in service.
Walking, living WET. With Fire-Water ... God’s Spirit, leading, guiding, comforting, sustaining you, every moment of your lives.
So Do Not Fear.
Amen.