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Sermon for Sunday, January 11, 2008
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Sunday, January 11, 2009 8:34:21 AM
From:
Phil Hobson
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To:
Phil Hobson
A New Day
Genesis 1:1-5
Mark 1:4-11
Grace and Peace to you this morning. Grace and Peace.
In Mark's Gospel, we do not get the questioning of Jesus by John. Elsewhere, John asks if Jesus shouldn't be baptizing him, not the other way around. Perhaps Mark is too much in a hurry. Every other line seems to start with "and then," or "immediately," or "suddenly."
And we might well pause and, like John elsewhere, ask why Jesus, who doesn't seem to need any forgiveness, gets baptized?
If we are following Jesus into the kingdom of God, then that means following Jesus through the water. And maybe Jesus didn't need any forgiving, but I have yet to meet anyone else who didn't need any. And I put myself at the top of that list.
But there is more going on here than forgiveness. There is washing. Washing off the dust of the world, washing away sins, washing away those things that cling so stubbornly, washing off the old world and putting on the new. There are very few things that feel as good after working hard, getting sweaty and dirty, than a nice hot shower and some clean clothes. Only this is not simply getting dirt off and putting on a robe. This washing off the world and putting on the kingdom of heaven.
Baptism is also dying to this world, which is sin-sick and weary, and rising to a new way of being, a new life.
We come from a long line of churches who baptize once. If you were baptized as an infant, come on in. If you had believer's baptism, making the vows for yourself when you were old enough, come on in. If you haven't been baptized yet, come on in.
We don't re-baptize just because the church you came from did it differently. And we don't re-baptize when life has brought you through the wringer and you have come out the other side.
But we do remember our baptism. We do so every time we confess our sins and receive God's forgiveness. Martin Luther, when he famously shaped protestant worship, said that there were only two sacraments: baptism and communion. What he really wanted to say was that there were two and a half sacraments. Penance, confession and absolution, reconciliation, he saw as sacramental, but in his mind it was really a return to our baptism.
We renew our baptismal vows, whenever we witness the baptism of a child or an adult.
And we can renew and remember and return to our baptism at any time. It is called confirmation. Confirmation isn't just when we get to be at the most awkward age possible and then try and learn about God. It is a repeatable rite, suitable for any time in life.
But before we do that, I want us to think about the creation story. The first creation story in Genesis may have been a liturgy. It certainly has a refrain to it.
"And there was evening and there was morning, one day."
"And there was evening and there was morning, a second day."
"And there was evening and there was morning, a third day."
After a while, it picks up a new part to the chorus, "And God saw that it was good."
The first story of creation in Genesis has verses and refrains, like a responsive reading, like a song. Which means it was meant to be read or spoken or sung over and over again. It is not simply a statement of how the earth came to be and how animals came to be and how we came to be.
"And there was evening and there was morning, a new day."
We know about evenings. That is when things get darker, when it gets colder, when we have been working all day, evening is when we are tired.
And we know about mornings. The sun comes up. Sure, it may be tough to get out of bed on a cold morning, but somehow making it through the night is something.
"And there was evening and there was morning, a new day."
And this is what God does over and over again. Genesis doesn't start with nothing. It starts with an unlivable, uninhabitable, unsustainable chaos. And the power, the wind, the face, the strength, the breath, the Spirit of God moves over these crashing waters, and from them come a livable place, a place that is sustainable, a place we can inhabit. That is what God does over and over again, more often than we can sing it.
So when life becomes unsustainable, too chaotic, unlivable, too dangerous for humanity, we pray for a new day.
And when our lives are turned upside down, and we dig ourselves in too deep, or we have been living out of fear more than faith, or we just need to know that God can still make all things new, we turn back to our baptism.
And so this morning, as we remember Jesus being baptized, washing off the world and stepping out into the new kingdom, which is God's way done here on earth, we also recommit ourselves, remembering our own baptisms.
Those who are able, and who wish to reaffirm their baptism, please rise.
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, do you desire to affirm your baptism into the faith and family of Jesus Christ?
I do.
Do you renounce the powers of evil and desire the freedom of new life in Christ?
I do.
Do you profess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior?
I do.
Do you promise, by the grace of God, to be Christ's disciple, to follow in the way of our Savior, to resist oppression and evil, to show love and justice, and to witness to the work and word fo Jesus Christ as best you are able?
I promise, with the help of God.
Do you promise, according to the grace given you, to grow in the Christian faith and to be a faithful member of the church of Jesus Christ, celebrating Christ's presence and furthering Christ's mission in all the world?
I promise, with the help of God.
Strengthen, O God, these your servants with your heavenly grace that they may continue yours for ever; and daily increase in them your Holy Spirit, until you receive them at last in your eternal home. Amen.
We rejoice, O merciful God, with these people in the gift of the Holy Spirit, and in the Spirit's power to awaken us to new truth and to inspire us to venture into fullness of life. We give thanks that they have been moved to affirm their baptism. Help them to live not for themselves but for Christ and those whom Christ loves. Keep them steady and abounding in hope, never giving up, pressing toward the goal of life with you in Jesus Christ. Amen.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
