Belonging

Isaiah 43:1-7; Luke 3: 15-17, 21-22
January 13, 2019, Baptism of the Lord
First Presbyterian Church, Sterling IL
Christina Berry


On this Sunday, the church traditionally celebrates the baptism of Jesus.
In our text from the Hebrew Scriptures, the prophet
calls to mind how God has been with God’s people throughout time.

The imagery of water appears throughout the Bible,
from the watery chaos of Genesis, to the deluge of the flood,
to the parting of Red Sea and the River Jordan.

Through it all, God’s salvation story remains the same:
God created you and formed you.
Do not be afraid, for God is with you.
You belong to God.

Let’s listen for God’s promise in Isaiah 43:1-7:

But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.

For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you.
Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you,
I give people in return for you, nations in exchange for your life.

Do not fear, for I am with you;

I will bring your offspring from the east,
and from the west I will gather you;
I will say to the north, "Give them up,"
and to the south, "Do not withhold; bring my sons from far away
and my daughters from the end of the earth—
everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made."

Here ends the reading.

There are stories of the baptism of Jesus in the other Gospels,
so it is easy to get the various narratives confused.
Luke doesn’t report the actual baptism of Jesus,
preferring to focus his lens on what happened afterward.
It appears that the writer of Luke wants to keep our attention on Jesus,
rather than on his cousin, John the Baptist.

Some speculate that this is because the early church 

did not know what to do with the story of Jesus’s baptism.
After all, why would the son of God need or want to be baptized?

Let’s listen for the word of God to us in Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

As the people were filled with expectation,
and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John,
whether he might be the Messiah,
John answered all of them by saying,
"I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming;
I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor
and to gather the wheat into his granary;
but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

Now when all the people were baptized,
and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying,
the heaven was opened,
and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove.

And a voice came from heaven,
"You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."

The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.




The first question in our baptismal liturgy is this:
“Trusting in the gracious mercy of God,
do you turn from the ways of sin and renounce evil
and its power in the world?

This question is known as a “renunciation.”

Historically, the question is asked in the Roman Catholic tradition as:
"Dost thou renounce Satan?
and all his works?
and all his pomps?"
To each of these interrogations the person, or the sponsor in their name, replies: "I do renounce". 

The next two questions in our baptismal liturgy
are questions relating to a profession of faith.
Do you turn to Jesus Christ and accept him as your Lord and Savior,
trusting in his grace and love?
Will you be Christ’s faithful disciple,
obeying his Word and showing his love?”

These questions are asked at every baptism in the Presbyterian church.
They are asked of the person being baptized,
or in the case of an infant or small child, the parents or guardians.

Frequently, members of the congregation who are already baptized
are invited to answer the questions too, and renew their baptisms.

And of course the whole congregation is asked to promise their support:
“People of God, do you promise to guide and nurture (this person)
by word and deed, with love and prayer,
encouraging them to know and follow Christ
and to be a faithful member of the church?”

It’s quite a lovely thing, the celebration of the sacrament of baptism.
And it is very far removed from this scene in the gospel of Luke.

John the Baptizer has been roaming around the countryside,
dressed in animal skins and eating locusts and honey,
calling the people to repentance.
His pet name for his fellow Israelites is “brood of vipers.”

He is proclaiming the coming of Jesus and preparing the way for him.
And it doesn’t really sound like good news that Jesus is coming!

John’s baptismal sermon goes like this:
“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 

Bear fruits worthy of repentance.
…Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees;
every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit
is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

Imagine us including those images in our baptismal liturgy:
putting the axe to the root of the tree,
burning the chaff with unquenchable fire,
and, of course, addressing those who come to be baptized
as a “brood of vipers.”

John wanted those coming to the river to repent.
He seemed to understand repentance as a requirement for baptism.

Back before Minnesota writer Garrison Keillor faced his own repentance,
he told the story of Larry the Sad Boy:

“Larry the Sad Boy … was saved twelve times in the Lutheran Church,
an all-time record.
Between 1953 and 1961, he threw himself weeping and contrite
on God’s throne of grace on twelve separate occasions –
and this in a Lutheran church that wasn’t evangelical,
had no altar call, no organist playing ‘Just As I Am Without One Plea’
while a choir hummed and a guy with shiny hair
took hold of your heartstrings and played you like a cheap guitar –
this is the Lutheran Church, not a bunch of hillbillies!
These are Scandinavians, and they repent in the same way that they sin:
discreetly, tastefully, at the proper time,
and bring a Jell-O salad for afterward.
Larry Sorenson came forward weeping buckets
and crumpled up at the communion rail,
to the amazement of the minister,
who had delivered a dry sermon about stewardship,
and who now had to put his arm around this limp, soggy individual
and pray with him and see if he had a ride home.
Twelve times.
Even the fundamentalists got tired of him.
Granted, we’re born in original sin and are worthless and vile,
but twelve conversions are too many.
God didn’t mean us to feel guilt all our lives.
There comes a point when you should dry your tears
and join the building committee and start grappling with the problems
of the church furnace and the church roof
and make church coffee and be of use,
but Larry kept on repenting and repenting.”[1]

I think John the Baptist would have liked Larry!

Things have changed a lot since Jesus came down to the Jordan.
In the early church, entire households who turned to faith in Jesus
were baptized – children, parents, servants and slaves.
By the middle ages, when the church introduced the idea of original sin, 

“infant baptism became common practice,
as many believed baptism would save the child from hell.”

There were some long arguments in the centuries to come
about whether water was needed,
and what words had to be said.

As you know, there are significant differences among Christians
about the correct understanding, methods, liturgy (or lack of it)
place and time, and elements needed for baptism.

We can’t really agree whether “baptism is an act of obedience,
a remembrance of Jesus’ baptism,
an act that cleanses, or an act that saves.”

But most of us agree that at the heart of baptism
is the importance of belonging:
we belong to God,
and we belong to one another.[2]

In some other Christian traditions, 

people are not baptized until they are older, 

and can make a profession of faith for themselves.
In those traditions, the order of action to be part of the church
is to first believe a certain way, then behave properly and then belong.
So you make a profession of faith,
and demonstrate by your behavior that you have repented,
and then you join the church.

Believe, then behave, then belong.

In our tradition, the order is not the same.
More than 20 years ago now, the Presbyterian church 

published a catechism for young children called “Belonging to God.”
The first question in the catechism is “Who are you?”

As you know a catechism is a learning tool,
a series of questions and answers devised instruction in the Christian faith.
Back in the day, those were memorized,
and the Westminster shorter catechism in our Book of Confessions
is comprised of 107 such questions and answers!
But our even shorter catechism, “Belonging To God,”
has only 60 questions.

Like I said, the first question of that catechism is “Who are you?”
And the answer is, “I am a child of God.”

The second question is equally simple, but enormously weighty:
“What does it mean to be a child of God?”
And the simple, clear answer speaks profoundly to Christians of every age:
“That I belong to God, who loves me.”

We understand baptism to be symbolic enactment
of those two questions and answers:
Who are you? I am a child of God.
What does it mean to be a child of God?
That I belong to God, who loves me.

We Presbyterians would put order our entry into the church this way:
belong, believe, behave.

In our baptism, we affirm that we belong to God.
In that belonging, we acknowledge that we are each claimed by God,
and we are called, in our baptism! – to Christian service.
That’s where our ordination starts!
Right at the font!

So we have come once again, as we do every year,
to the waters of baptism with Jesus.
We may not remember our own baptism,
but we can feel the water on our heads,
and we can see the heavens opening, and the dove descending.

And unlike Larry the Sad Boy, or the brood of vipers,
we hear once again, with Jesus,
those words we all yearn to hear:

“You are God’s child, beloved. With you God is well pleased.”

Who are you? I am a child of God.
What does it mean to be a child of God?
That I belong to God, who loves me.

Amen.




[1] Keillor, Garrison Leaving Home, 1989
[2] Brent Parker, The Thoughtful Christian, “What’s Baptism All About?”