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.

The Seal of Our Faith

 

Text: Ephesians 1:3-14

Focus: The Holy Spirit

Function: Experience the Holy Spirit

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. ⁵He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, ⁶to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. ⁷In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace ⁸that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight ⁹he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, ¹⁰as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. ¹¹In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, ¹²so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. ¹³In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; ¹⁴this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.

Good morning and Happy New Year to the beloved Children of God!

On the first of the year, I like to remind people to have hope and faith in what God has in store for them in the next year. It is a time for us to pause and consider where we are going.

Personally, I hope this year to grow in my own understanding of the presence of the Spirit of God in my life. I pray the same thing for the Painter Creek Church and the people who seek God together with me in this place.

It is by the power of the Spirit that we are lead to follow Christ in this world. And this passage is ripe with the theology of what has happened to us since we are people who have placed our trust in the Christ Spirit that indwells us.

The text implies that God has destined the entire world to receive God’s love, mercy and grace and I believe that in the end we will all find God’s salvation since Jesus died for the sins of the world entire.

We are the Church, the body of Christ in the world. It is important to remember that the word that we translate as Church literally means “the gathering.” The Church is the gathering of believers and Jesus said when even if just two or three gather, the Spirit of God is present with them in that community. It appears to me that by gathering, we incite the beloved community that Jesus gave his life to foster.

I work hard a making sure everyone is a part of this community because when we gather, we stir up the Holy Spirit.

Now let me take us back to verse 13 from our text: ¹³In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit;

He gives us the course of the salvation God has for us. It starts with hearing “the good news of salvation” that God is here to restore the world to the right and bring justice. And by hearing that word, through the Holy Spirit, we trusted in those words and are now allowing the Spirit of God to lead us.

So, the connection to what it means to be in the church is evident by the leading and moving of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the people who identify themselves as members of the gathering of believers, the Church.

Remember also that believers are those trust Jesus and his teachings to lead their lives. To believe literally means to trust.

It is like in marriage. We trust that from then on the person we are now bonded to will live with our best interests at their own heart and commit themselves to care for us. We become partners who value each other.

With God, like marriage, it is a bond of love that God makes with us when we trust in Jesus and his way of living. And that bond of love is given to us by God, simply because we are resting in Their love for us. We partner with God and live by Their values.

Now the the thrust of the passage speaks of the title of the sermon and how we are sealed by God’s Spirit for restoration.

Look at verse 4 ...he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.

Brother Paul speaks of the majesty of God and God’s ability to know every single person. God has the ability to keep account of all the good that God helps us do through the power of the Spirit. And, God has forgiven all the mistakes we have made.

Paul’s understanding that God knew us before God created the world implies that God exists in the realm of the fourth dimension: outside of time itself. I think that is kind of cool, but that is not why this verse is wonderful.

Through the power of love, God has made us to be holy and blameless. By holy, it means to be a separate people. That is why our early fathers and mothers in the faith dressed in plain clothes because they believed that by their dress they could remind themselves that they live by Jesus’ value system instead of the world’s value system of greed and selfishness.

Holiness means that we are different and gives us the power to live by the leading of the Holy Spirit instead of the revenge and greed orientated systems of this world.

Be Holy, for God is holy is a command from scripture for us to follow. Because it is commanded it is expected and okay for us to be different.

The salient word in verse 4 is the love.

In God, we have the power to love and forgive. And it is our love for others that makes us separate: holy. At the same time, it is God’s love for us that makes us blameless. We are Holy and Blameless in love.

So, forgive, because God forgave you. We forgive even when we are wronged and have no recourse. Forgiveness sets us free from the pain inflicted by someone else upon us. And it works even if they haven’t changed their ways. When we forgive others, the slate between us and God is cleared. Walking in forgiveness is part of that holiness and love.

The Spirit of God seals us in a miraculous way.

In my personal life, I have seen just a few miracles. They remind me to rest in God’s love and to not fear the circumstances.

However, I have seen many miracles in my role as pastor. And they are all the same. It is the miracle of being born from above, according to John 3, and it happens when one places trust in Jesus. One of the greatest joys in my pastoral ministry is to watch the supernatural joy flood into someone who has been forgiven.

We respond to God’s love with love and that moves the Spirit in us. Be loving.