Sermon Text - January 13, 2008
“A Covenant to the Nations”
Isaiah 42:1ff; Matthew 3:13-17
Rev. David Kratz
Today’s Gospel reading is Matthew’s story of the Baptism of Jesus; indeed this Sunday is called the Baptism of Jesus. Not as popular as Christmas, but in the long history of the church a very important festivals. It was considered one of three festivals of lights. Last Sunday the arrival of the wise men and their stars and all. And next Sunday is the story of John’s gospel of the Wedding at Cana, where Jesus turned water into wine, as his first miracle. Along with the Baptism of Jesus the three were called the festival of lights because they revealed God’s various kinds of power and God nature through human nature of Jesus.
The setting is the Jordan River and the wilderness somewhere around it. A man named John, who became known as John the Baptist, was out there wearing his skins and eating honey and beetles and baptizing folks for the forgiveness of sins. And just prior to our story this morning he said that he baptized for the forgiveness of sins, but that one was coming after him who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire and he, John, was not worthy of carrying this one’s sandals. And then this:
Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
Let us linger a bit over the text, the story. It is, as Walter Brueggemann says, a “rich text.” Like baptism itself there is always more going on here than we can put into words.
It is for instance the origin of one our two sacraments, baptism and communion. We always celebrate communion on Maundy Thursday because that was the night in Jesus’ earthly life when we inaugurated this meal in which his continuing presence is celebrated and shared. It is because Jesus was baptized — he himself never baptized anyone, but because he was baptized we in a symbolic way follow him into the water and receive the blessing of God: “You are my beloved, my delight.”
One of things I love about baptism, especially the baptism of a young child, if that somehow when I say these words: “See what love God has for us, that we we should be called Children of God and so we are . . . ” There is a moment when I trust that those promises are for me, and you, and some of the rest of us old sinners.
The power of ritual is that it can sometimes take us to a different place. It is a holy moment that words can’t always enter. A sacrament, as the old proverb has it, is “the outward and visible sign of an inner and spiritual grace.” The grace of course is that it reveals to us God’s incredible love, which if we allowed ourselves to feel its full weight would overwhelm us. It is a love that we don’t simply receive, but something in which we participate.
The story always depicts for us in ways that we often try to systematize but probably should simply allow ourselves to ponder. The story pictures for us the Trinity. God in our particular tradition has been described as a the trinity — and here in this one scene we have the Jesus rising from the water, with the Holy Spirit pictured as a dove sitting on his shoulder and a voice, the voice of the invisible, ineffable God speaking: “You are my son, my beloved, my delight.”
One of the difficulties of the formula Father, Son and Holy Ghost is when we try to turn this mystery into words , and ask how it is it possible, and what if this Holy Sprit is the same spirit that was at creation brooding over the water, and why does Jesus have to pray because he of course he is God, and how is it that Jesus is God and isn’t God . . . it’s a dilemma and so, enough! Rather than celebrating the wonder of the words and symbols and the power of a love like that we fall into sterile theories and authoritarian fingers that point and say you have to believe this or else. Well something of the richness of the text is lost, all of the wonder and light turns dark indeed.
The line that captured me was, “Let it be so for now, for it is proper, it is right for us to full all righteousness.”
What does that mean? “To fulfill all righteousness.”
Some people think it was just a ritual that Jesus went through. John baptized for the forgiveness of sin and at least the way we usually think about Jesus he didn’t need forgiveness because he hadn’t done anything wrong, no sin, therefore no forgiveness needed. So this was, what, just for show?
It’s interesting to note that at least one translation has it: “Let it so, because it is necessary to fulfill all righteousness.” So maybe there is something more than mere ritual going on here.
That in some ways kind of mirrors some of the way we think about baptism, if we think of it at all. Some folks think it is just one of those strange rituals of the church, it’s just part of the package. Like owning a Bible, if you are think of yourself as a Christian it is something you have do to because it is proper. It is the done thing, as the Brits would say.
Some, on the other hand, think it is absolutely necessary, and if you don’t do it, you cannot be right with God and you are going to hell — think of all of those people, poor pagans, who were killed by the tsunami a couple of years ago. The water for them was not a blessing but a curse. Without the necessary baptism they lived and died in vain.
Kathleen Norris writes: “I guess that this is what you can expect when you apply self-serving human logic to the divine mystery.”
Let it be so for now, for it is proper, it is right for us to fulfill all righteousness.”
Righteousness is one of those words that trouble us. It is part of the larger word “self-righteousness” and that leads to a kind of judgmental-ism that tries to act like God.
One of my favorite albums this year has been called Gospel Truth by Suisan Werner. She does her own rendition of the Lord’s Prayer: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from those who think they’re You.”
Like the older brother in the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15) we often think of righteousness as being right, doing everything according “to the book.” Some abstract law. Now there is certainly a place for the rule of law in our lives, but by the graciousness of God’s love it is not the only word and it is not the last word.
Here is the great mystery and power of the baptismal story and of the great mystery of Jesus’ revelation about God. God is not as self-righteous as those who think they are God. It is in sharing the powerful human experience that we discover Christ’s divinity. Not in abstract theories, not in powerful displays of authority, but in humbling himself to the human condition, to our lives, that he saves us.
There is a wonderful prayer by Samuel Miller than I read the other day, he prays: “Bring us once again to the Lord in whose life we see light, and by whose way we come at last to ourselves.”
Fulfilling all righteousness is not a matter of meeting some external obligation, not satisfying some heavenly mandate, but it is to find our lives in right relationship with God, aligned with the power of love, in which we rejoice to be called beloved and give ourselves to the life that is ours.
That is the covenant Christ comes to offer. It is a covenant based not on abstract rules, or legalism. It cannot be enforced by guilt or demanded by guns; but there is something so right about it that it can move us out of ourselves into a community that not only is beloved, but is loving.
That is what we celebrate in baptism - not protecting us from all bad things, not giving us a free ride on the rapture, but it makes us part of a covenantal relationship where we can realize the fullness of God’s love and companionship. To fulfill all righteousness.
Symbolism of the dove, the son and the voice from God.
We symbolically live out the Bible, replay it, represent it in our own day.
I say symbolically because we don’t believe one needs to go to the Jordan River, one does not need the water of the Jordan, Fauntleroy Creek is fine, Seattle city tap water is fine - what is important is that we enter into the covenant, the covenantal community that is the body of Christ.
Our covenant: my work here is to model the covenant of grace.
It is a challenge to follow Christ, never easy, never completed, but it is as we commit ourselves give ourselves to one another that we can find ourselves in the kind of community for which our hearts yearn.
The primary covenant of the church is our baptism, where we not only are designated the beloved of God: “Behold, my beloved with whom I am well pleased.”
And part of the beloved community, where we get to live out what it means to be beloved of God — as a community and set within the world where we become, not solo performers, but part of how we live together and how we serve the wider community, a covenant given to the nations, the people.
The servant’s work is to get things right, inwardly in each of us, in our community of faith in God and in the world. There are three levels that we require our commitment, our love. The big question is whether I will deal with my own covenant as part or all of this sermon.
By the way, note the delight in Isaiah 42:1. I wonder whether I am the delight of God. I think not. But there is always Virginia Mellenkott’s line: “These promises are for you.”
Baptism is a covenant, a particular kind - not a domineering one, not one based on fear, but without quenching a dim wick, etc.
It is not designed to be exclusive, excluding others, not so much as a kind of possession, but a calling; not just something to stop our life, but to propel our lives to become a light, a covenant to the peoples — acting in the manner of Christ, not bruising, not quenching, etc.
How does that characterize our church?
In a way we are always growing into our baptism — whether we were baptized as adults or children.
I think I want to say it is not just an affirmation of my but of our relationship.
Part of the after church vote is what we are to do together, not just elect a candidate, but renewing a relationship. The reason we have a 70% majority is that it is not a vote for a political leader, who has the force of law, who manages to pass with a 51% majority. The work of the covenant is based on trust, and 70% is probably too low, it needs to be more like 85 or 90%.