From Where Did You Come?

“From Where You Come?”

Baptism of the Lord

January 08, 2011

©Thomas B. Cundiff

Genesis 1: 1-5

Mark 1: 4-11

Genesis 1: 1-5

¹In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, ²the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. ³Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. ⁴And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. ⁵God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Mark 1: 4-11

⁴John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁵And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. ⁶Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. ⁷He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. ⁸I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

⁹In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ¹⁰And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. ¹¹And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

I.  Introduction

OnJanuary 2^nd a good friend, Carrie Ann Talamaivo and her husband Mike, had their first baby, Sofia Elizabeth.  Now living in Seattle, Carrie used to live a few doors down from us on Court street, one of Emily’s best friends, like a second daughter for Nancy and me.  Carrie is now a mom living in Seattle….taking some maternity leave from her work as a social worker.

Thinking about this new baby, Sofia, I ask this morning:  FROM WHERE DO YOU COME?   Where were you born?  Where did you live?  Who is on your ‘family tree’?  From the womb of our mothers, we are born into this world – beautiful and unique creations of God.  Children of God.

In the context of church, from where do you come?   Carrie married into a strong Samoan family with deep spiritual ties to the Christian church—I believe they are Catholic.  There is no doubt in my heart that the strong faith of Carrie and Mike will become an integral part of Sofia’s life as a child of God—just as God has been an integral part of your lives as children of God!

From where do you come religiously?  Spiritually?  A Pentecostal or Baptist background?  Were you a Catholic or Methodist or Lutheran?  Presbyterian?  Maybe you didn’t have any formal ties to an organized church when you were born—and we know there are children around the globe born into religions that are not Christian.  Yet there are always seems to be some kind of ‘rite of passage’ in celebrating the birth of a child.  For Christians that ‘rite of passage’ is through what we call a sacrament:  Baptism.

 

So back to the question:  From where do you come?  GOD?   As a preacher in a Christian pulpit it should be no surprise that I want to focus on this last answer to this question.  WE COME FROM GOD.  ULTIMATELY WE BELONG TO GOD. 

Scripture today leads us down a path in contemplating Jesus baptized by John in the River Jordan.  The heavens open up and the Spirit like a dove descends upon him and the heavenly voice of God that says:  “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

 JUST AS JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD, THROUGH FAITH IN JESUS

WE TOO BELONG TO GOD….BAPTIZED IN CHRISIT, WE ARE CHLDREN OF GOD!

II.       Scriptural Grounding

Let me back up a bit.  How do we know all this?  How do we know, intellectually, we are children of God?  For Christians of many faiths, why is baptism in Christ so critical to our identity?  We turn to scripture and a wholistic approach to reading scripture to answer these important questions.

When I was back in seminary I learned early on that it is important to look at all four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, to expose a complete and comprehensive summary of what happened in Jesus’ life.  Why look at all four gospels?  Mostly because these four gospels were all written some fifty to sixty years after Jesus lived, from different men who lived different lives in different places.  While each gospel tells the story of Jesus from a different perspective, it is important for each of these four men that the story be told!

Matthew was written around 75 years AD – 75 years after the resurrection of Jesus.  90% of what Matthew says comes from an earlier and shorter gospel, Mark. Mark, written about ten years before Matthew.  Luke also known as the physician, was a gentile.  He traveled with Paul on his second Missionary journey—like Matthew writing some 75 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection.    John, called the “beloved”, is more like a poet or song writer among the gospel authors.  The gospel of John was written nearly a century after Jesus’ resurrection and his writing style is completely different from the other three authors..    

Together these four sacred gospels, accounts of Jesus life, become what we believe to be inspired Words from God that paint a pretty good portrait of the life of Jesus from his birth until his ascension into heaven.  There is no doubt in my mind – and this I preach – that these four authors (gospels) truly give us what we believe in our church to be God’s inspired Word to us.     

Something unique to all four gospels and told in different ways – the emphasis placed on Jesus’ baptism!

III.  What is Baptism?

So what is baptism?  As children of God we come from God, baptized with water just as Jesus was baptized by John with the waters of the Jordan river.  Baptism is a sign of something invisible within us connecting us with God.  Baptism is personal.  Baptism is also something we do collectively, in the context of the congregation, because we believe we are members of the one body of Christ.  Through baptism, together, we are one in Christ.  One baptism.  One faith.  One in Christ living as Christ as children of God.

Our path to knowledge of God is through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Our path to belonging to God is faith in Jesus Christ.  Our path to God is recognizing we are members of the one family of faith—together—worshipping and doing Gods work as Christ’s church.

Baptism, to use the formal language of the church,  “…..is the sign and seal of incorporation into Christ.”   Our charge to be baptized in Christ comes directly from the great Commission given to the church found in the gospel of Matthew that says:

“‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.  And remember I am with you always to the end of the age.’”  (Matthew 28: 19)

IV.  Adopted as Children of God

Another scriptural image of baptism, we are ADOPTED AS GOD’S CHILDREN. 

In baptism God looks at you and me and says, “You are my child in whom my soul delights!”  This imagery that comes from Isaiah 42:1 and again Matthew and Mark is beautiful: in baptism we belong to God in whom God delights!

I think of my own feelings baptizing some of you on the steps of this chancel.  God has the same affection and love for us as he had for his own son when he opened the heavens and touched him with his Spirit and called him his beloved, his delight.  That is the same way that God feels about you and me, whether we are eight days or eight months or eighty years old….no matter what our age,  baptism is God’s moment in accepting and loving us as much as he loved and accepted, with affection and delight, his own son, Jesus.

Personally, it has been my sacred blessing as a minister to have had the opportunity to baptize many of you and your children.

On Christmas Eve I had the pleasure of meeting again two young men I first met as infants on these chancel steps, the grandchildren of Yvonne and Jerry Becker….Christopher Hatcher baptized on 2/9/92 and Benjamin Hatcher baptized on 5/7/95. 

We are one large family of faith, baptized in Christ, Christ’s church – and together we belong to God.  We grow and life takes us in different directions, but the fact remains that baptism connects us together.  In looking up the baptism records of Christopher and Benjamin, (by the say, I also discovered Bradford Jebb was baptized the same day, February 9, 1992, as Christopher Hatcher.)  We each have this story, and with each story God is delighted that we have found a common bond through Jesus his son.

Baptized in Christ, we are all connected in Christ….linked with God through the sacred waters of  the Holy Spirit. 

IV.  So much more….

There is so much more that needs to be said about baptism --- but let me leave you with this.  This is one of my favorite creeds written and adopted by our church just a few years ago:   

IN LIFE AND IN DEATH WE BELONG TO GOD!

In my experience and study of scripture, this is one of the most powerful affirmations I have found in all my years of ministry….with a little bit of editing:

IN LIFE AND IN DEATH, AND BAPTIZED IN CHRIST, WE BELONG TO GOD!

THROUGH JESUS CHRIST, GOD DELIGHTS IN

HAVING EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US AS BELOVED CHILDREN!

As we continue our worship, let’s remember our baptism…..when and where…..but most important why?  God gives us through baptism the sign and promise we are his….we belong to God, we are God’s children, we are Christ’s church…..and God never stops DELIGHTING in giving us life! 

Amen