Baptism of Our Lord - The Rev. Colette Hammesfahr

Baptism of our Lord 

Mark 1:4-11 

 

Baptism is a significant part of our faith journey …we come from the waters of baptism to live a new life as children of God. And today, we celebrate the baptism of Jesus and we remember our own baptism. 

By now, most of us know about the locust eating man who lived in the wilderness, John the Baptist. John the Baptist came to the people with two things…a message and a gift. He came to them with a message of the coming Messiah. The man Isaiah had prophesied about. He came to the people with a gift. The gift of repentance through baptism. John was at the Jordon to baptize others. When people had turned from God, when they had sinned, through their baptism, they would repent, and be forgiven of all of their sins.  

Our text today opens at the beginning of Mark. This is the first time we “see” Jesus in Mark’s Gospel. Mark doesn’t start his Gospel with the birth of Jesus, he begins his Gospel with Jesus as a man. Our text today opens with Jesus, coming to John. Jesus traveled all the way from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. If everything we have learned about Our Lord and Savior tells us that Jesus was without sin, why would Jesus come to the Jordon be baptized?  

With streaming TV, we don’t have to watch many TV commercials anymore. There is one commercial from a couple of years ago that when it would come on, I would rarely fast forward through it because I want to watch it again.  

It starts with three young boys walking into a barber shop. One of the boys jumps into the barber’s chair to get a haircut. His friends sit, laughing at him as the barber cuts his long hair. He looks to be getting one of those “high and tight” cuts. Very short on the side, with a little length on the top, as if he was preparing for military service. When the barber is done, the boy looks in the mirror and says it’s not short enough. Take off more. So, the barber begins to shave the young man’s head. His friends sit laughing at this new look.  

The next scene shows a doorbell being rung. The door opens and the three boys are standing on the porch. The two boys, previously laughing in the barber shop, are holding up a sign, covering the face of the boy who just received the haircut. The sign reads, “Will You Go To Prom With Me.” The camera pans to the girl standing in the doorway, with a shaved head, which we can assume is shaved because she has cancer. The two boys lower the poster board and there stands their friend, with his head shaved, waiting for the girl to accept his invitation to the prom.  

At first, we can wonder why he would do this. Why he would go to such lengths. While this young man cannot experience everything his prom date is going through........sickness, chemo, emotional stress, and whatever else comes along with what she is suffering from, he can do his best to identify with her. He can show her that she is not alone and that he wants to walk with her through her journey.  

I believe that Jesus’ baptism was an opportunity for him to show how much he identifies with us. Jesus…God, come to us in human form, identified with ordinary people. Jesus was one of us. Born in a manger, he was a simple man. The son of a carpenter, he wasn’t born into royalty. He didn’t walk around in fine robes of silk. Βy him being baptized, he was saying, “I understand. I can identify with you. I will walk with you. You are not alone. You are loved.”  

Just as the young man in the commercial had walked up to the front door of that house with a shaved head. His gesture told the girl standing on the other side of that threshold, “I understand you are hurting. I want to identify with you. I want to walk with you. You are not alone. You are loved.” 

This is what Jesus brings to us. This is who Jesus is. Jesus walked with the poor, the lame, and the sick. He sat down and ate with sinners. Jesus loved all. Jesus meets us where we are. In the midst of all of our pain and sorrow, Jesus is there with us.  

As Jesus felt the waters of the Jordon on his face, with the word from the Holy Spirit, he began his ministry. At our baptism, just as Jesus did, we began our journey. In the water and with the Word, we receive the Spirit, we receive grace, and we received a promise.  

When water is combined with the Word, it is something special. Martin Luther says, “Baptism is not just plain water, but it is water used by God’s command and connected with God’s Word.” It is not human work; it is God’s work. 

Water is powerful and life-giving. It soothes us and it sustains us. Water has sculpted the earth’s surfaces since the beginning of time. Through erosion and depositing of sediment, it is continuously changing the land we live on. The Grand Canyon, 277 miles of wonder, created by the flow of the Colorado River, is continuously changing.  

Water is life-giving. If we have no water, we have no life. It is essential to all biological processes.  

Water is soothing and calming. Research has shown that when a person’s face is under water, their heart rate slows, and certain blood vessels constrict. This redistributes blood from the limbs to the brain, heart, and other organs, causing the rest of the body to relax.  

And so, when we are talking about the water of our baptism, images of strength, power, soothing, comfort, forgiveness, and hope can emerge.  

We were talking about with the group this week at the Wednesday healing service about baptism. I asked what their baptism meant to them. For many of us, it’s not a memory we have because we were baptized as infants. It’s only been within the last few years that I’ve started to look at my own baptism, and the baptism of my children a little differently.  

I had always looked at baptism as a one-day event. But baptism is not a one-day event. It is the start of a lifetime journey. It’s a journey filled with the overwhelming and abundant love that God has for us. 

When Jesus rose out of that water after being baptized, the heavens were torn apart, and the Spirit descended like a dove, and a voice from heaven said, “You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.”  

At his baptism, Jesus was equipped and empowered. At our baptism, God has equipped us and empowered us to do God’s will in the world. No matter what happens in our lives, what struggles we have along the way, we can count on God’s promise to always be with us.  

And so, today, as we celebrate the Baptism of our Lord, we will renew our baptismal vows. And as we do that, next door in the chapel, the children are dipping their hands in a bowl of water and making the sign of the cross on their forehead, remembering the vows made when they were baptized.  

Remember your baptism.  

Martin Luther was said to have said, “Every day, when you wash your face, remember your baptism” and cling to the promises God has made to you. A promise of salvation through grace alone. Your sins are washed away because of the cross. Share your grace with others and live out your baptism every single day. Through the waters of baptism, our lives are changed forever.  

God has claimed us as God’s own. Our baptism tells us who we are and whose we are. We belong to God. The words heard at Jesus’ baptism echo over us as well…”You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.” “God’s beloved.” This is our identity.  

This week, I challenge each of you to find out the date of your baptism and put it on your calendar so that you can remember it when it comes around this year. Think about what it means to live out your baptismal covenant every day. Remember that Jesus came to the Jordan to identify with us…the broken, hurting people and to let us know that we are not alone. We are loved. The young man shaved his head to show the girl standing in the doorway that she was not alone. She was loved. We live out our baptism from the day we are baptized until the day we die. An in our vows, we promise to proclaim the Good News of God, we will love our neighbors as ourselves, and we will strive for justice and peace among all people. We do this because God loves us and we love others.  

May you remember and live out your baptism every single day.  

May you seek the mission that God calls you to.  

May you live in the relationship God has made with you.   

May you know and respond to the love and grace of God.  

Amen.