Sermon based on Matthew 3:13-17 Shared on Baptism of Jesus Sunday January 9, 2011 Today I want to be supportive of our education offerings, both adult and children, and I think I can do this by framing our time together in the context of Jesus baptism. I have had two church baptisms in my life. One baptism when I was four years old and the other when I was 19. The first one was for my parents which is valid for its own reasons and the second was for me as a rite of repentance and decision about how I was going to live my life. I am in a process of spiritual development now as much as I was when I was 19 years old and I think that is true of all of us unless we have prematurely closed our hearts and minds. The adult education class after church today will give an introduction to the idea of spiritual development. Before those of us who are quick to scoff at religious language and religious rites turn off our own kind of listening devices, I invite you to hang in with me for a few more minutes and hear the story in a new way. A major cause for our cynicism is related to what American Christianity has done to the faith. We have over emphasized individual piety to the point that other meanings and claims true to the faith have been pushed out to the point of almost non-existence and some would say non-recovery. The terms righteousness and repentance are such terms. So, let us move beyond them and leave them behind some people would say but I find myself in the position of Paul Tillich as he struggled with the term sin. He understood the baggage of the word and he could not find a better replacement but he made sure he defined it in accordance to tradition and modern depth psychology. To help me with capturing a fuller meaning of the words repentance and righteousness I turn to the spiritual Wade in the Water. This spiritual is often used to set up a person s baptism and it has layered meanings and references which apply today Wade in the water. Wade in the water, children. Wade in the water. God is gonna trouble the water! First, it is alluding to one of my favorite stories about the man by the pool of Bethesda who could not or would not get well. The legend about this pool of water was that when the water was disturbed it was believed that an angel had touched it and the first one in the pool after the water had been touched would be healed. Jesus confronted a man who had been waiting by the pool for years and this man always had an excuse for not getting well and getting on with his life. Jesus simply asked the man, Do you really want to get well? Healing depended upon the man confronting the truth about himself and taking responsibility for his illness and his healing. Second, the song Wade in the Water coming out of our nation s slave population also had the meaning that as a runaway slave, wading in the water was one of your best strategies for attaining freedom whether if it was to cross the rivers marking the border
between the North and the South or if it was to enter a stream and throw off the dogs that were tracking your scent. This song and baptism for the members of the slave community was not some act of individual piety. It was an act of social defiance and hope. Third, troubling the waters is what has to happen sometimes in order to bring about a new life and a new world. The breaking of a woman s water in child birth, the parting of the Red Sea, and the dipping of a hand in the baptismal fount are a few examples of God troubling the water in order to bring about the necessary transformation. At 19 years old the disturbance of the water marked me as a person standing on God s side; the side of life, peace, justice, and love. It disturbed the waters of my reckless and lonely life and marked a decision to live with more integrity with myself and my God. These disturbances of the water mark us as standing with God which at times can mean standing against forces that diminish life. These disturbances of the water, our baptisms, mark us as standing with God which means we stand against the voices that deny God s ordering of creation in the ways of justice and peace. My baptism, while an intense personal moment, possesses profound political and social implications. It declares that I will stick my neck out and stand on the side of peace and justice. Where did I get such a notion? In Matthew 3:13-17, Jesus baptism declares his readiness for the political and religious revolution represented by the kingdom of heaven. In the synoptic Gospels, only Matthew presents this curious dialogue between Jesus and John prior to the baptism. Jesus is eager to submit to John s baptism. In Matthew 3:14, however, John s resistance meets Jesus readiness. Recognizing Jesus superiority, John urges a role reversal, protesting that Jesus should baptize him. After some persuading, John eventually concedes and baptizes Jesus. According to Matthew, Jesus submits to John s baptism not because of any need to repent of sin but rather to fulfill all righteousness (v. 15). Interpreters debate extensively the meaning of to fulfill all righteousness, especially since the word righteousness carries numerous connotations. For many people, the word righteousness evokes thoughts of personal piety and the state of a person s soul or conscience before God. Such meanings are inherent in the term righteousness. Often the Christian tradition has emphasized the personal aspects of righteousness to the exclusion of the political aspects of righteousness. Therefore, we frequently ignore the revolutionary characteristics of John and Jesus. Righteousness also signifies God s saving action in the world. We can even translate the Greek word for righteousness (dikaiosune) as justice. Righteousness encapsulates God s passionate commitment to set right the things that are wrong in society. In other words, righteousness is also a matter of social justice. Thus, Jesus submission to John s baptism is no simple act of personal piety. On the
contrary, Jesus discerns that John s baptism and fiery preaching constitute a revolutionary declaration about a new world order where God will set right all that the establishment (in Jerusalem and Rome) has twisted. Jesus wants to be a part of this revolution. By pleading with John to baptize him in order to fulfill all (God s) righteousness, Jesus in effect says, Through this baptism, I stand with you, John, and join this revolution whereby God s justice will be manifest in the world. By submitting to John s baptism, Jesus declares, I am ready for the revolution! I stand with you and this vision of the world! Further evidence that baptism is more than an act of personal piety and family opportunity for warm fuzzies is the means by which John and Jesus meet their deaths. Their baptisms marked their commitment to a vision of life that threatened power. Neither dies of old age or natural causes. Both are the victims of governmentorganized religion sponsored execution. Don t we want people to take risks and stick their necks out for the right causes? We want people with integrity, compassion, and vision to take risks, stick their necks out and do the right thing for all of us. I think a large part of our disillusionment with the world is fed by people in leadership who do what is safe and act mostly out of self interest. There is plenty of lip service to loving mercy and doing justice but the required risks and costs are not taken. I have been known to stick my neck out from time to time. I have marched for various brothers and sisters who have been marginalized in our society. I have not only marched but I have personally challenged various individuals who are considered powerful people in our society such as presidents of bank holding companies and heads of labor unions. I have spoken against the use of military force as a means to attain economic and national security interests. I have stuck my neck out publically and privately. I have done so because I understood my baptism required it of me. Curious to me is that when I stuck my neck out it was not the bank or union presidents who cut me down and made me pay a price. It was the people from the community of baptized believers who made me count the cost. Is it because we do not understand? Is it because we feel so personally threatened that our theological understanding and spiritual calling takes a back seat to our emotional needs for security and certainty? Still another indicator of the revolutionary commitment of John and Jesus is the centrality of repentance in their proclamation. Excessive, sentimental use has blunted the sharp edge of the word repentance. Repentance involves more than an admission of wrong. The Greek word for repentance (metanoia) connotes a change of mindset. To repent is to adopt a new mindset that causes a person to turn around. Repentance is a revolutionary act, creating a new way of imagining the world. Both John and Jesus assert that only those with new mindsets will be fit for the new kingdom. Challenge By stepping into the Jordan River with John, Jesus takes a stand and chooses which side
he will fight for and which side he will fight against. He sticks his neck out. His baptism marks the way he will live his life and it signs his own death certificate. The church would look so different if we truly lived out the revolutionary implications of baptism. Unfortunately, throughout Christian history, believers often have spent more time fighting over the stupid stuff like mode of baptism (e.g., immersion, sprinkling, in the name of the Trinity, or in Jesus name only) than fathoming the depths of its meaning. The next time we baptize someone, let us be sure to ask that person, Are you really ready for this revolution? Are you ready to stick your neck out? It may just cost you your way of life or life itself! Ambulance Drivers or Tunnel Builders? A group of devout Christians once lived in a small village at the foot of a mountain. A winding, slippery road with hairpin curves and steep precipices without guard rails wound its way up one side of the mountain and down the other. There were frequent fatal accidents. Deeply saddened by the injured people who were pulled from the wrecked cars, the Christians in the village s three churches decided to act. They pooled their resources and purchased an ambulance. Over the years, they saved many lives although some victims remained crippled for life. Then one day a visitor came to town, Puzzled, he asked why they did not close the road over the mountain and build a tunnel instead. Startled at first, the ambulance volunteers quickly pointed out that this approach (although technically quite possible) was not realistic or advisable. After all, the narrow mountain road had been there for a long time. Besides, the mayor of the town would bitterly oppose the idea. (He owned a large restaurant and service station halfway up the mountain.) The visitor was shocked that the mayor s economic interests mattered more to these Christians than the many human casualties. Somewhat hesitantly, he suggested that perhaps the churches ought to speak to the mayor. Perhaps they should even elect a different mayor if he proved stubborn and unconcerned. Now the Christians were shocked. With rising indignation and righteous conviction they informed the young radical that the church dare not become involved in politics. The church is called to preach the gospel and give a cup of cold water. Its mission is not to dabble in wordily things like social and political structures. Perplexed and bitter, the visitor left. As he wandered out of the village, one question churned round and round in his muddled mind. Is it really more spiritual, he wondered, to operate the ambulances which pick up the bloody victims of destructive social structures than to try to change the social structures themselves? Ronald J. Sider12 We get the point of the story and we have heard other stories make this point, i.e. the story about the babies being rescued from the flowing stream. However, I want to acknowledge that some people are called to be ambulance drivers and baby caregivers. I will take this up next week as we talk about the wedgeblade.
Descriptive Details The descriptive details of this passage include: Sounds: The sounds of the Jordan River (v. 13); the dialogue between John and Jesus (vv. 14-15); the voice from heaven (v. 17); Sights: The Jordan River (v. 13); John (whose clothing is described in v. 4); the opening of the heavens (v. 16); the descending of the Spirit of God (v. 16); Jesus 2 ; Smells: The scent of the Jordan River (v. 13); Tastes: John s meals (locusts and wild honey) (v. 4); and Textures: John s clothing (v. 4); the sensation of the waters of the Jordan River upon the skin of John and Jesus (v. 16). Stories and Quotations The New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman provocatively addresses the political, even revolutionary, nature of the ministries of John and Jesus. He writes: If, for example, Jesus had simply been a great moral teacher, a gentle rabbi who did nothing more than urge his devoted followers to love God and one another then he would scarcely have been seen as a threat to the social order and nailed to a cross. Great moral teachers were not crucified unless their teachings were considered subversive. Nor were charismatic leaders with large followings unless their followers were thought to be dangerous John the Baptist was imprisoned and executed because of his preaching Jesus was to fare no better. 3