love takes on flesh

Matthew 3:13-17

Prayer: Lord, may the words of my lips, and the meditations of all our hearts fulfill all righteousness, O Lord. Amen.

I remember my baptism. Or at least I think I do. I may have looked at the picture so many times that I have formed a memory out of it. Anyway, I don’t remember this because I was an infant with an extraordinary memory. I remember this because I wasn’t baptized as an infant.

Nope, my mom wasn’t really going to church when I was born, so I wasn’t baptized. Four years later, though, my little brother, Cody, was born.

At this point, my Dad’s mom, my grandmother insisted we get baptized. I never heard the conversation myself, but when I was older my Mom told me about it. She told me how my grandmother insisted my brother and I be baptized to stay out of hell.

I mean, heaven forbid, what if something should happen to Cody, or me?

My Mom was, and is, and excellent theologian. She knew better. My Mom, more importunately, is also a good daughter-in-law.

So, baptized we were.

In fact, we were baptized in a Lutheran church. And, it is safe to say, while my parents had intentions to raise us in the church, the plan wasn’t to raise us in the Lutheran church.

Well, here I am. That is the thing about promises. You never know how they will change your life…

Baptisms are worth giving a thought or two about. Either way, misplaced as my grandmothers intentions might have been. I love her for insisting on baptism. For one thing, she was just following Jesus’ command to baptize.

For another, that baptism was a living promise I have come to time and time again during my life. It was God’s will that Cody and I be sealed with that promise. My grandmother made sure I had that promise, and in doing so I got a God-father out of the deal, too.

My grandmother, good intentioned as she was, and is, thought baptism was some sort of fire-protection insurance, I guess. And, honestly, this is a pretty common way to think about baptism. In fact, it is a common way to think about religion.

Often we think about Christianity as a great vacuum operation! The goal of Christianity is to (sound effect) individuals souls up to heaven! But baptism, and worshiping the triune God, is about much more than hoovers and all-state.

Making worship of the triune God all about souls forgets the Advent and Christmas seasons we just finished. I mean, if worshiping the

Father, Son, Holy Spirit,

Creator, Redeemer, Liberator

Mother, Sister, Friend,

If worshiping that Triune God is all about heaven why was God born into flesh and blood? Why the incarnation.

The word incarnation is Latin. Carnivore, shares the root: Carne, flesh. The incarnation, than, means becoming flesh.

So, if Christianity is all about heaven and souls, why all this talk about the things of this world? This fetish of me and my soul tends to neglect the incarnation…

The incarnation is the odd idea that God is born into history. And, even though Christmas is over, this season of Epiphany is about the incarnation, too. God wasn’t just born into time and space. God’s birth into history, flesh and blood had a huge impact; it happened for a reason.

I like to think the incarnation happened because God just couldn’t help God’s self. God knows that this creation is very good, something we’re tempted to forget…

The incarnation is an act of a God who loves God’s creation. The incarnation of love is what is happening in today’s story, too.

Earlier we heard that John knew Jesus was greater than he was. Accordingly, John said it was inappropriate to baptize Jesus. Apparently John recognized Jesus for the messiah he is.

Despite this recognition, Jesus says it is proper for John to baptize him.

The thing is, when God is born into history God expresses solidarity with creation. God is not a God who runs from the dirty waters of this world. In love God runs to creation. God wades into the waters with creation.

God’s incarnation is complete.

God experienced the whole gamut of this life we all know so well. In Jesus’ baptism, Jesus is incarnated into the community of those who worship God, just like in our baptisms. In Jesus’ baptism Jesus is made part of the community of the church. Jesus, as God in the flesh, wanted to be part of the community.

So, inappropriate as it might seem to our sensibilities, Jesus is baptized by John. And oddly, the baptism of God fulfills all righteousness.

In Jesus’ birth God is born deeply into this world. And, it is that birth into the life of God that we are birthed into in our baptism. In our baptism we’re born into Jesus’ life, his mission, his death and his resurrection.

Jesus’ baptism was a birth into that community, into the history of the church. And our baptism is a birth into this community, into the history of the church.

Baptism is a birth into God’s will for this world. Baptism fulfills all righteousness. Just as Jesus heard that he was God’s beloved in his baptism, we, too, get a revelation in our baptism. We get this revelation because the Holy Spirit is at work.

In baptism, all the baptisms of our daily life as God’s saints, we hear that we are God’s daughters and God’s sons. That is what righteousness is all about; God making children out of us. I love that idea.

You see, baptism is more than a rite.

In baptism we see the Holy Spirit is working, here and now. The incarnation continues. It didn’t end on Christmas or Easter, it is always at work among us.

The Holy Spirit is God working publicly in this world to fulfill all righteousness. The Holy Spirit’s presence is in our midst, in our world. Baptism is a sign for all of us of God’s work; God’s work of calling, naming and shaping saints.

Baptism is intrinsic to our mission here at St. John United. It strengthens, creates and sustains our lives as saints.

Indeed, baptism is more than vacuums and insurance. Baptism is about this life, and a God who is always at work in our lives.

Amen.