Palmdale Presbyterian Church January 10, 2015

Sermon:  “Then what?”

Do you remember your baptism?  A few years ago I was doing a funeral using the words from the “Witness to the Resurrection” service and I read the opening words from Romans 6: “When we were baptized in Christ Jesus, we were baptized into his death.  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that, as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live a new life.”  And then later in the service from one of the prayers I read: “O God, before whom generations rise and pass away, we praise you for all your servants  who, having lived this life in faith,  now live eternally with you.  Especially we thank you for your servant Sarah, whose baptism is now complete in death.”  Those words startled one of the people in the congregation who later asked me what that stuff about death meant.  What do they mean to you?

This morning we read Luke’s version of the baptism of our Lord. All four gospels portray this scene, but Luke's version is a little different than the others. In each version the Spirit descends "like a dove."   The Holy Spirit is not a bird. Luke and the other apostles use the dove as a metaphor for the Spirit's coming into our lives. That is the way the Holy Spirit will enter into our lives. The Holy Spirit came to Jesus gently, quietly, and in Luke's version, privately.

Luke says, "Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’”

The Holy Spirit came to Jesus when he was by himself, praying. According to Luke, it wasn't a public event. It was a personal and private experience. No one else saw it. No one else heard that voice from heaven. He came out of the water, went off by himself, and prayed. Then what?

Luke, more than any other gospel, calls our attention to the fact that Jesus prayed.  A lot.  Usually in private.  Jesus went off by himself to pray. Several times Luke says, "He left the crowds and went off by himself to pray," or "He left his disciples and went off by himself to pray." I think Luke emphasizes that to make a point. When Jesus prayed, something happened, especially at those critical points in his life, when he was facing a crisis, or a decision, or a time of doubt, or questions. He received his identity, "You are my Son, the Beloved" and regained power and vision for his life, through the Spirit.  Then what?  He recognized that his baptism would be complete in his death.

Luke is writing his gospel for Christians, us. He is telling us, your baptism means the same as Jesus' baptism. You are God's daughter, or God's son, with you God is well pleased. In your baptism your relationship to God was affirmed and then sealed. You are a child of God.  You have been baptized.  You are the beloved.

That is one of the most startling things about Jesus' preaching. He preached that you and I can have the same personal, intimate relationship with God that he had as the Son of God. For persons in Jesus' time that was blasphemy within his religion and treason within the Roman Empire.  After all, the emperor was considered either god or the son of god. 

Jesus shocked the world by saying, "God is waiting for you.  If you come to God, God will be with you the same way he was with me, a father to a child. God desires to have that relationship with everyone." So he said, when you pray, say, "Abba, Our Father." 

There are few commands that Jesus gave the disciples. One was, when you pray, say, "Our Father." The other was, "Go into all of the world baptizing everybody in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit." Which is to say, go baptize people so they will have the experience that I did in knowing that I am a child of God. You are also. Then teach them how to pray, "Our Father."

Up until the life of Jesus, religions were used to define strict social relationships and hierarchies.  The message of Jesus shatters wipes out those distinctions. The hierarchy of class was demolished by that preaching. The segregation by race, the division by gender, the separation that is caused by poverty and wealth in our society, all of that was shattered by the message of Jesus.  He said to reveal to all people that we are God's children. Seal it with a baptism. Then teach them to pray, saying, "Our Father," so that they will learn that we are all children of God, all of us, in whom he is well pleased. Therefore, we are all brothers and sisters of the same parent, to whom we pray alike. We all pray the same prayer, intimately, personally, to the same God. And we are God’s beloved.

God did not protect Jesus from all of the pains and problems of this human life. Like us, his baptism was made complete in his human death.  That was one of the temptations that the devil threw at him in the scene that comes right after the baptism. The Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness, forty days and forty nights. There the devil tempts him by reasoning (the Temptor is always reasonable), saying, use your special relationship with God to show that you are superhuman.  

Jesus rejected that temptation. His relationship with God was like our relationship with God, like that of an independent, adult child. He did not pray for intervention. In the Garden of Gethsemane he said, "‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.’ Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength.” 

That appears in Luke and in a slightly different form in Mark. That is not a prayer for intervention, but for empowerment, to face what he had to face.

We have within us as human beings two needs. One is to be free, and the other is to be loved. When things get difficult we feel the tension between these two basic human needs. We want to be free, but we also want others to accept us and to understand us. That will happen when there is someone who will give us the freedom to be who we are, and then love us as we are, even if we make mistakes, even if we have to carry some cross of shame, they will stand by us. They will not abandon us.

The love that a parent has for a little child may occasionally call for direct intervention.   The love a parent has for an adult child is the love that stands by.

A daughter calls home, talks to her parents about the great disappointment in her life, how she feels. She talks about what she can do now. They talk about all this. At the end the parents say, "We wish we could do something." She says, "You have done a lot just being there. I can feel your love. It helps. Thanks for being there."

I think it must have been like that when Jesus prayed to God in those critical moments in his life. His identity was confirmed, "You are my Son." He was assured that he is loved, "You are my beloved." He was assured that God would always be with him. The Holy Spirit empowered him and led him.  Strengthened by the Spirit he surrendered his will and followed where he had to go to complete his baptism.

Just as a single Christian is called to pray to the Lord, so too is a congregation called to pray as a congregation.  This past week I have been reading a book called “A Fellowship of Differents: Showing the World God’s Design for Life Together,” by Scot McKnight.  He says that the church is God’s great social experiment.  It’s the place where everyone, everyone, no matter who they are, are called to fellowship around the table hosted by Jesus.  McKnight says if that’s not your church then you’ve missed the mark.

The church exists to serve the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  To do that churches need to be scripture led, which requires prayerful discernment together, and churches need to be Spirit led which requires prayerful surrender.  He lists a series of questions that churches should ask themselves but perhaps the most important is “Do you fear the Spirit’s guidance?”

You have been baptized.  You have heard God say, “You are my beloved.”  Then what?  Go out and tell all the world about it and welcome everyone, everyone, into your fellowship and to their place at God’s table.

Let us pray:

Take, O Lord, and receive our entire liberty,
our memory, our understanding and our whole will. All that we are and all that we possess You have given us. We surrender it all to You to be disposed of according to Your will.
Give us only Your love and Your grace;
with these we will be rich enough, and will desire nothing more.

In gratitude to Christ Your beloved we pray.

Amen.

(Adapted from a prayer of Ignatius Loyola)