The Light of Baptism

 

Text: Isaiah 42:1-9

Focus: Jesus

Function: to help us see that we are also the light to God’s creation.

42:¹Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
    my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my spirit upon him;
    he will bring forth justice to the nations.
²He will not cry out or lift up his voice
    or make it heard in the street;
³a bruised reed he will not break,
    and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
    he will faithfully bring forth justice.
⁴He will not grow faint or be crushed
    until he has established justice in the earth,
    and the coastlands wait for his teaching.⁵Thus says God, the Lord,

    who created the heavens and stretched them out,
    who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people upon it
    and spirit to those who walk in it:
⁶I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness;
    I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
I have given you as a covenant to the people,
    a light to the nations,
⁷    to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
    from the prison those who sit in darkness.
⁸I am the Lord; that is my name;
    my glory I give to no other,
    nor my praise to idols.
⁹See, the former things have come to pass,
    and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth,
    I tell you of them.

Good morning to the beloved children of the Living and loving God!

The gospel lectionary text for today was on the baptism of Jesus which struck me as profound this year when I pondered just exactly what it means for us that Jesus, who was deemed perfect by nature was baptized since baptism meant that we are giving up selfishness and living for ourselves and are now living for the glory of God to bring about the peace that Jesus gave his life for.

Because of the virgin birth, we assume that Jesus had a divine nature. And then because we hold a belief that God is perfect and Jesus is divine then Jesus must have been perfect as well.

And the whole theology gets deeper when we start thinking of the atonement and Jesus being perfect was the perfect sacrifice. However, I don’t believe in a God of wrath who needed to be appeased by the his own death.

Jesus said that the divine nature that he possessed is also imparted to us by the Holy Spirit when we trust Jesus. He said literally: That they may be one with me and with you just as you and I are one.

At the Baptism of Jesus, we see a symbolic action whereby the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove physically descends on Jesus and this begins his ministry.

Jesus depended on the leading and the power of the Holy Spirit to perform his ministry and that, I believe is why Jesus spent so much time in prayer and contemplation. It is through that quiet time of prayer and contemplation that the Holy Spirit speaks to us and leads us.

And it happens when the Spirit baptizes us with a its cleansing power in our lives.

As I mentioned last week, my prayer for this church is the same as my personal prayer for the year and that is for us to get to know more and more the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Set aside time for prayer and contemplation, it will help you see the love that God has for others.

The Isaiah text that we read this morning goes along with the New Testament Lectionary text on baptism and the creators of the lectionary can see the beautiful correlation between what it means for Jesus when he is filled with the Spirit of God.

It is a prophecy about Jesus, described as the servant of God.

The passage starts out with “I put my Spirit upon him…”

And then the prophecy about tells us what will happen with Jesus when the Spirit of God begins to make this transformation into the Christ, the same transformation that he makes in us.

When you read it, you get a picture of a kind soul who is gentle and does his best through the power of love to lead people towards loving others.

As 1 Peter 4:8 says, Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

And we see listed as a primary mission of this servant who leads people to the good is concerned with bringing justice to the world.

The prophecy says that God gives the servant to the world to open the eyes of the blind and to bring about the justice of God.

We see this illustrated well in Luke 4:18 when Jesus reads the prophecy, again from Isaiah, whereby he declares that his mission is to bring about the justice that “good news” means for those who are dispossessed and struggling.

The prophecy was that Jesus’s mission was to bring about justice and then Jesus gives his first sermon and declares the same thing. God cares about justice for the poor and the dispossessed.

I believe that we are the body of Christ left here on earth. The mission statement of the Church of the Brethren is that we are here to continue the work of Jesus.

We are baptized into the work and the mission of Jesus. We are the Christ, Christ’s body here on earth.

Jesus calls us to take up our own symbolic cross and follow him. That means that the mission of Jesus is transmitted unto us. We are also called to care and advocate for the poor and the dispossessed.

They are what Jesus called his brothers and sisters, the least of these, according to Matthew 25, the refugee, the asylum seeker, the immigrant, the prisoner, the foreigner, sick, the hungry, and the naked. They are all brothers and sisters of Jesus and how we treat them is how we treat Christ.

That reminds me of the introduction and the question as to why Jesus was baptized to wash away his sins when we believe he didn’t have any.

Baptism is more than the washing of the body with water. Look at 1 Peter 3:21: Baptism, which is like that water, now saves you. Baptism doesn't save by removing dirt from the body. Rather, baptism is a request to God for a clear conscience. It saves you through Jesus Christ, who came back from death to life.

And again, we are taught that Jesus didn’t need to have his conscience cleansed, but he did it symbolically for us, as an example.

And Baptism, as we just read is being more than the physical act of using a form of water, but it is the filling of the same Spirit that Jesus has that causes us to love one another.

Let us seek the filling of the Spirit of God.