Baptism Calls us to Ministry

Sermon for the First Sunday after EpiphanySt. Paul’s Sacramento The Baptism of our Lord

January 12, 2020

Isaiah 42:1-9

Psalm 29

Acts 10:34-43

Matthew 3:13-17

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.”

Today we are celebrating the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist.  We have jumped forward from Jesus as a baby and a small child to Jesus as an adult – scholars say he was likely in his late 20’s.  In our Gospel narrative, during the Christmas season, Jesus birth was announced to the Shepherds, the wise men and women from “the east”, likely Persia, have presented kingly gifts. After that Joseph, Mary and Jesus flee from the wrath of King Herod to Egypt where they live in exile until the death of King Herod.  And now we are at the River Jordon.  This is a turning point in our Gospel.  Jesus will leave the River Jordon and start his earthly ministry.  A ministry that will ultimately get the attention of the ruling elite.  A ministry that is about brining God’s Love to the Loveless.  But I don’t want to get ahead of myself.  We have several months to recall Jesus work in the world before we get to Lent and Easter.

John is a little surprised that Jesus has come to him.  He recognizes that Jesus is the one foretold by the prophets that has come to transform our world into God’s world.  Jesus as God incarnate certainly does not need to be baptized.  John has been preaching about forgiveness of sins and the coming of the one who is greater than he is.  Jesus comes to recognize John and to have John do what he was called to do.  To Baptize.  Jesus said it was “proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.”  Jesus is letting the story of the Prophets, the story of John’s calling to play out.  Jesus, who we say was without sin, is baptized by John, a baptism of repentance.  

This baptism is different than all the others that John has performed at the River Jordon.  As Jesus comes out of the River a strange thing happens.  The heavens open and the Spirit of God – looking like a dove – descends on Jesus.  And then the voice of heavens confirms that Jesus is different.  That Jesus is the one foretold.  “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”  God the father is well pleased with Jesus, who up to this point has not done much – well at least that was recorded in the Gospel. God is pleased.  Jesus has lived with the people and learned what humanity was like.  The good and the bad.  Jesus has seen and experienced it and God is pleased.  Jesus will go from here to do things that are miraculous.  It is important, however, to notice that it did not take a miracle for God to be please.  God is pleased because Jesus showed up.  God is pleased because Jesus is following what the prophets said. 

This is not all for Jesus sake.  He did not need baptism to forgive sins. He did not need the dove.  He did not the voice from heaven.  These things where all done for us.  To show us that Jesus is different.  To show us that God was indeed speaking through the prophets. 

Today is also a day that we can, and should, remember our own baptisms.  Because through our baptisms we have been called to continue the work that Jesus started.  Through our baptisms we are called to ministry.  Through our baptisms we are called into forgiveness so that we can be God’s change agents in our world.

David Lose, a preacher I follow said, “Baptism is about forgiveness. But forgiveness is not a mechanism but rather is a gift. We aren’t forgiven in Baptism in order that God can call us God’s children, but rather we are forgiven because we already are God’s children. So, yes, baptism is about forgiveness. But it’s also about so much more! It’s about love, identify, affirmation, commitment, promise, and still more. In fact, I’d argue that Baptism is first about all these other things and then, as by-product and gift, about forgiveness. That is, in Baptism God proclaims God’s great love for us; calls, names, and claims us as God’s beloved children; gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit;…and then, because of God’s love for us, God also promises to forgive, renew, and restore us at all times.

Which is why I think that what ought to surprise us […] is not that Jesus is baptized like we are, but rather that we get to be baptized – and therefore named as beloved child – just like Jesus is.”^[1]

We are children of God.  Whether you saw it or not that spirit of God came upon you at your baptism.  Whether you heard it or not the heavens opened up and God said that God was well pleased.  In our baptisms we are called out to continue Jesus ministry.

In our baptism we are called to see the world through the eyes of justice and love.  Through our baptisms we are called to be prophets that call out the iniquities in our world – iniquities that cause people to be seen as less than human.  We are called to welcome all of God’s beloved children into our world – and to change the world into one that brings God’s dream of love into our world. 

I know that this all sounds a bit too simplistic.  Just look at the world around us.  We have ever increasing homelessness in our communities.  We have greater income disparity in this nation than we have ever had.  We have increased international tensions that this past week looked like they could have led to all out war.  What can we do to change that. 

I sometimes despair about being an agent of God.  An agent that is supposed to change the world and usher is a world of peace and love.  It is all too much.  The endless hate that we read about in the news and in social media.  The increased ethnic tension in our world.  Climate change and environmental destruction.  But God continually reaches into my soul and pulls me through the despair into joy. Pulls be from inaction to action. 

I am not delusional that I will be able to make an immediate worldwide change by myself.  But I am able to make changes to my world.  I can be in relationship with those that society treats as outcasts.  I can open up the church during the week for prayer, fellowship, and sanctuary.  I can treat all people as God’s beloved children.  I can support, through my giving, both in money and in my time, organizations that are making a difference.  And I can pray. 

Pray that the holy spirit that moves in my life and calls me will be able to enter into the hearts of those who are perpetuating the policies that tear down.  Enter into their hearts so that we can transform the world into that world of Love that God dreams about.  That dream of God that our world will finally get it and turn around – repent – and welcome all of God’s children into relationship.This is not magical thinking.  Jesus’ baptism by John marked the beginning of Jesus earthly ministry that called society to change.  Our baptism also calls us into the same ministry. 

Several years ago I was at the River Jordon.  It is still a powerful place of ministry.  It is a thin spot where God’s presence is palpable.  It is palpable in the diversity of people who are drawn to that place.  There is an amazing cross section from all over the world that come to be baptized in the River Jordon, or to renew their baptisms.  It is a place where we can witness God calling the diversity that is creation into relationship.

Joy Moore, a professor at Luther Seminary said “Baptism signals a journey that begins at a fork in the road where one path is chosen and another is rejected. It is our surrender to God’s righteousness that is not merely individual moral conduct but a focus on relationships restored.

Treating one another rightly restores relationships. God’s intention remains to draw from every nation, tribe, and tongue a people who demonstrate the righteousness of God’s reign.”^[2]

Today, a day set aside to remember Jesus’ baptism in the River Jordon, is also a day to remember our baptisms.  A day to remember that through our baptisms we are called to restore relationships. To restore our relationship with God.  To restore our relationships with all of God’s beloved children. 

We are called to change the world.  To show through our actions that we love God and love all of God’s creation.  It is not easy.  Some of God’s children make it difficult to love them.  It is hard to love those we see as creating a world that is the opposite of what God dreams we could create.  In those cases we need to call out the actions that separate our world from God – and to pray.  Pray for us and those who we see are making choices that do not bring about God’s dream.  Pray that their hearts will be changed.  Changed by the letting the holy spirit into their hearts.

It is not all bad news.  There is good in this world.  Unfortunately, the bad news seems to get the headlines.  But I see the good all the time.  I see it in the relationship that are built in this place.  I see it in the people who come in here during the weak for a little sanctuary and to worship god.  I see it at St. Matthew’s where they are, once again, dismantling their worship space to welcome our brothers and sisters into a warm place of sanctuary for a week.  To provide a hot dinner and a safe place to sleep out of the winter weather.  I see it in the work of Sister Libby and the Mercy Pedalers who ride through town and offer God’s love to the homeless on our streets.

We are called in our baptisms into ministry.  It is not ordination as a deacon or priest that calls us into our primary ministry.  It is our baptism.  A baptism that calls us, as Joy Moore said, to choose that fork in the road.  To choose the path that brings God’s dream into our world.  To choose the path that creates relationship.  To choose the path that sees that Dove descending upon our souls and hear God say to us “You are my beloved child, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.

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^[1] http://www.davidlose.net/2019/01/the-baptism-of-our-lord-c-forgiveness-and-so-much-more/  Accessed 1/11/2020

^[2] https://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=5405 Accessed 1/11/2020

The Reign of God has come near - indeed in is here!

Sermon for July 7, 2019Pentecost 4C Proper 9 – RCL

2 Kings 5:1-14
Psalm 30
Galatians 6:(1-6)7-16
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

The Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, `Peace to this house!' And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, `The kingdom of God has come near to you.' But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, `Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.'

"Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me."

The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!" He said to them, "I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

The readings today have a theme of healing – healing by unlikely people.  One theme that stuck out to me was ‘who do we consider to be people of God?’  In the reading from Second Kings there are assumptions made about who had the power to cure the soldier’s leprosy.  Not only who but how!  It was assumed by the king of Samaria first, that there ought to be someone in his kingdom that could heal his commander, and second, if the power exists in Israel then it must rest with the king. 

I think we all too often have similar thoughts – in today’s hyper nationalistic world the assumption is that the power to do the right thing, the power to heal, must rest in our location.  As our Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry reminded the clergy last we we are not talking about red vs blue states, or the US vs Russia.  I am talking about the rise of nationalistic talk all over the world lately.  The rise of leaders who talk about the importance of keeping their nations pure ,so that by some spoken or unspoken purity code, all will be well with their people. 

The other assumption is that Naaman expects that he will only be healed by a physical interaction with the prophet.  He wanted the prophet to come out and wave his hands over him!  He can’t imagine that God could work in any other way.  That God works through unexpected people in ways that we can’t begin to predict.  For Naaman it is a servant – one who probably was risking a lot to talk to the commander – that told him about the prophet and also a servant that challenged him to try the “simple” way of washing in the river to be healed. 

If we look around us I bet we will see the same kinds of things going on.  There are the same assumptions about who is in, who has power, and who we should turn to to “heal” what is ailing us and our world. And yet I see people with no power – at least in the eyes of society, working to help people, working to help provide healing.  I have seen people who do not have a home reach out to others to provide healing.  I see it in the ministry that happens in our parking lot and in the church and parish hall during the week.  A place where people look out for each other, a place where we feed people, a place where we invite those who feel society has separated into “the other” into places of healing.  Invited into places of sanctuary. 

Look around it is happening all around us...

Sister Libby – when she retired from Loaves and Fishes was not content to sit around so she started Mercy Peddlers – to go out and visit folk where they are.  Their website says that the mission of: “ Mercy Pedalers are bicyclers and tricyclers reaching out to men and women experiencing homelessness on the streets. It is a ministry of presence and action based on the “Works of Mercy” and emphasizing “Welcoming the Stranger”.”^[1]  A group of people making a difference by proclaiming the kingdom of god – not necessarily with words but with actions. 

Today’s gospel lesson is one that gives me hope.  Hope because Jesus does not send one person out to proclaim God’s kingdom.  Jesus does not send one person out to heal people and cast out demons.  Jesus sends out 70 – and he sends them in pairs.  Seventy people can seem like a lot of people being sent out – especially when we otherwise tend to hear about the twelve apostles in the Gospel lessons. David Lose, a preacher I follow, pointed out that 70 can either seem like a lot or too few.  He pointed out that 70 is about the size these days of the average mainline congregation – a size where many people are worrying that they are in decline and dying – but Jesus found that number was a good size to proclaim the reign of God. 

The Gospel lesson provides a lot that we could use in our ministry.  It instructs us that ministry is frequently best done in community.  Not that a one on one encounter can’t provide healing and proclaim God’s near presence – but that it certainly helps us all to have someone to work with.  Because sometimes – despite our best efforts our works, our being, will be rejected by those we are trying to help.  That our work in proclaiming God’s healing presence will be rejected by those we think of with secular power.  And especially during those times it is good to have someone else with us – someone we can talk to; someone with whom we can examine our actions and see if we need to change our approach – or someone to simply offer us an understanding ear to hear our stories.

Another helpful thing in today’s reading is the promise that Jesus instructs the 70 to declare to people.  Jesus instructs the 70 to declare that “The kingdom of God has come near to you”.  Most of the time when I read this passage I hear the part about offering peace to the households and staying where that peace is received.  The part about sticking around and not searching for the best lodgings in town but to stay with the first house that welcomes you.  And conversely if you are not welcomed to shake the dust off your sandals as you leave the town.  An act that could be seen as condemning those who did not provide welcome. 

A story that sets up in our minds that some were included, and some were excluded.  There are those that welcomed Jesus’ advance party, those preparing the towns for Jesus to came through on his way to Jerusalem, and those that rejected the advance party.  Those who obviously are going to be welcomed by God and those who will not be welcomed because they rejected God’s advance team  made through some unlikely people – people who were following an itinerate Rabbi – people that were likely not from the best of society. Considering all the complaints we read in the Gospels about Jesus eating with the outcasts and sinners the 70 probably where not considered socially the best of that society. 

But this week another part of this story jumped out to me – And that is the promise that Jesus instructed the 70 to proclaim to those they encounter.  The promise that the Reign of God had come near.  Look at it again.  That promise is not to be offered only to those who accepted the peace that flowed through these unlikely proclaimers of God’s peace and healing.  It was to be proclaimed to those who reject it as well.  When I have read this in the past I heard – in my minds ear – differing ways of the promise being offered. 

To the group that accepted the peace – to the group that allowed the healing of God to come into their towns I heard in my mind a sincere promise.  And I admit I always add to the promise – I hear “Rejoice!  You have accepted God and you have felt his healing presence!  The reign of God has indeed come near to this place.” 

Conversely To the group that did not welcome the 70.  To the towns where they are shaking the dust off their feet I usually hear something else!  I hear in my mind “You fools!  You have rejected God.  You have rejected the nearness of the reign of God.  Pity be to you! You have rejected the nearness of God”  A warning rather than a promise.

But what if we don’t interject our own responses into the promise.  What if we read it truly as a promise to both those who accept and those who rejected the 70.  A promise that in both cases the Kingdom of God has come near.  That God’s presence is near – indeed is here.  And we are not responsible for being the gatekeepers of God’s love.  We are called – like the 70 to go out and offer God’s peace, God’s Love to a world that may or may not accept it – that doesn’t make it any less near! 

David Lose said, “the phrase “the kingdom of God has come near” is, ultimately a promise. Yes, it may call us to account. Yes, it may invite us to look more critically at how we treat others. But ultimately, it is the promise that, in God’s kingdom, identity is not something earned or asserted or fought over or claimed and gained at someone else’s loss. Rather, identity is something conferred as a gift, as we discover that we are – each of us and each person we encounter – God’s beloved children.

In God’s kingdom, it doesn’t matter where you’re from or what you have done. It doesn’t matter what nationality or race or gender or occupation or sexuality or age you are. It doesn’t matter where you were born or what economic status or influence you may have (or not have). These designations may be important to us, even at times useful on a day to day basis. But they just don’t matter all that much to God. So while all these descriptors and any others we can think of may describe us accurately, even at times helpfully or importantly to us, yet they do not define us. What defines us is how God sees us, as we discover who we are by remembering whose we are: God’s beloved child. And that, … is always good news.”^[2]

Our call as followers of Jesus has not changed much in over 2000 years.  And if we really look around at today’s followers of Jesus we will still see a mix of people that some in society would accept as leaders and others would draw a line and consider outcasts.  All of Jesus followers are called to offer God’s shalom, God’s healing to a world greatly in need of healing.  We are not called to draw lines that separate people from God’s love.  To separate those who we see as worthy.  We are called to keep drawing the circle bigger.  To offer our world an example of healing,  To offer it even if it is rejected.  And to hear the promise that even in rejections God’s healing, loving presence has come near – indeed has come here.

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^[1] https://mercypedalers.com/about/about-mercy-pedalers/

^[2] http://www.davidlose.net/2019/07/pentecost-4-c-good-news-or-bad/