Sermon for January 11th

In today’s gospel reading Jesus gets baptized. But why did he have to get baptized? It seems so, less than divine-like doesn’t it? Perhaps baptism looks more religious, but it is really no more good looking than being born, getting crucified or dying. Those are things we do, you and I, humans. Not God. But, I guess since God did became truly human in Jesus, he would have needed to eat, drink, take baths, be born and die, but baptism just seems a little, well, I don’t know, excessive? A little too religious maybe? Baptism just doesn’t seem necessary for Jesus. Why does HE need THAT?

And if it isn’t necessary for Jesus, why do you and I do it? Romans says, “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.” End of story. What’s the baptism for then? To look good? To go to church? To cover your bases (just in case)? To make grandma happy? What do you think?

Several years ago I remember reading about how traditional marriage vows are changing. Instead of putting in the final, “till death do us part” section, they stick in something like, “As long as our love shall last”. The article said this was more realistic. But the problem is that sometimes people who are married don’t “feel” in love anymore. Does that mean your marriage is over? What if one partner isn’t happy anymore but the other is still head over heels? Is the marriage still “game on”? “Till death do us part” is an unconditional promise for a person who is going to die someday. “Till our love ends” is a conditional promise because everyone’s emotions change eventually. Words and promises seem to float around in space until we internalize them, until we make them our own, until we believe them and “feel” that they are true. Sometimes words are just hard to believe.

Throughout high school, my dad usually took me to a good Lutheran church where the rest of our family went. We sang with the choir and sometimes went to the adult Bible Study. I attended the youth group seldom, but we were almost always at church. When I began college, I attended about three different churches, once by myself and twice with a friend. But none of them really seemed right. It didn’t “feel” right. They didn’t inspire me. I didn’t like them.

So what do you think happened? Well, I stopped going. I attended what my pastor would later call, “Saint Mattress by the Springs” and, while I was the only attendee, I was a faithful worshipper for three months. I told people that I didn’t go to any church, but that I read my Bible at home—and that was true. I “felt” faithful. I loved God. And I knew God loved me too. I just knew it. I could “feel” it.

Lucky for me, that feeling really never changed while I was not attending church. But others are not so lucky. I remember an old movie called, “Legends of the Fall” where the character Brad Pitt was playing, named Tristan, screamed hateful things at God when his younger brother, Samuel, died during a war. Suffering seemed to follow Tristan and his family ever since. Toward the end of the movie, Tristan confided to his father than when he had gotten angry at God, he believed that God must have gotten angry right back at him. Tristan’s father argued that this was not true, but Tristan FELT that way. So who could argue, right? There was nothing his father could say. No way to prove God’s love. No way to argue that Tristan wasn’t perfectly correct. The suffering was there for everyone to see. How could Tristan have believed any differently when he felt the way he did?

You see, for many Christians, baptism is an outward sign of an inward feeling. It shows, in a physical way, something that has already happened on the inside. The baptism is just an old, traditional ritual. The inside feeling is the most important. In America, we shudder to think of marrying someone we do not already love; therefore, the concept of being loved and baptized by a God we aren’t madly in love with sounds impossible! Marriage seems to be a ceremony to reflect what has already happened—they’ve both fallen head over heels. In the same way, many people argue that baptism is a way to show others, and God, that you are serious in your relationship and are willing to go all the way with God, so to speak. That’s why, for instance, so many denominations don’t baptize infants or do so only as a preliminary dedication to be completed at confirmation. Why? Because you must be at an age to actually prove your love and confess your intentions before making promises to God—so the argument goes.

I have an overactive imagination and, throughout my life, I have often daydreamed about how I would act if confronted with various situations. You know, like saving puppies from danger and winning fights with my wife. One of these recurring daydreams involves me talking to someone over lunch about baptism. As I said before, many people maintain that in order for a baptism to “stick” or really take, a strong faithful feeling must be present beforehand. Well, at my imaginary lunch table, I always do the same thing when my conversation partner says that baptism is based primarily on a person’s feelings for God. In one fell swoop I pick up my water glass and toss it directly in the face of my conversation partner saying, “Jesus loves you.” And then, as they sit there shocked, cold and wet I smile and say, “How do you feel about that! Just TRY to give it back!”

That’s why we use water at a baptism instead of just telling people that they are washed clean of their sins in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. When I tell you that God forgives your sins even if you don’t get wet, it’s still true. But when you come back from hearing God’s promise with water behind your ears, it’s harder to wiggle out of it? Especially when your mother, father and a congregation full of witnesses can vouch that it really did happen. A question that comes up all the time is, “What if I don’t feel forgiven?” Well, what do you expect to feel? Feel the water. Or, if that’s already happened, eat the bread, drink the wine. God puts himself and his promises in THINGS so that you and I will have something to hold onto when our religious feelings are floating away out of our reach.

Why did Jesus have to be baptized? In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus says, “It is proper . . . to fulfill all righteousness”. What if Jesus had not been baptized? Well, then we would have had to trust that, indeed, he was one with God without hearing it from God’s mouth himself. Without hearing God’s pronouncement, “This is my Son, the Beloved, Listen to Him.” Without Jesus’ baptism, without seeing with their own eyes, without hearing it with their own ears, who could have believed that it was true? It would have been an internal matter. Was Jesus telling the truth? That would be up to you. But when God says it himself, it is much harder to argue about it. The same is true with your baptism. Do you feel very religious today? No? Well, God said that you are his and it’s hard to argue with that. Even if you don’t “feel” saved or forgiven or even loved.

I recently read about a scene from the television series “All in the Family” if you remember that one. When the character Michael protests at Archie’s conniving to have the baby baptized, Archie retorts, “What’s the matter, you were baptized weren’t you? Yes. Michael replies. “But I renounced my baptism.” You can’t do that, Archie says, “You can renounce your belly button, but it won’t go away!”

When Sophia was a little baby, we had to wait six weeks before she was baptized. We were going to make a seven hour trip with her to Nebraska so that our family could attend the service. I remember being really worried about what might happen if we got in a car wreck or something before we ever made it to the church. A professor of mine told me not to worry, because God’s promises are redundant. I had been singing each day that Jesus loved her when I put her to sleep. She heard the forgiveness of sins every week in church. Baptism would not be the first time she heard of God’s love and so, if anything tragic did happen, I could trust that she knew Jesus and God knew her and loved her dearly. But, he added, “Steven, go down there to Nebraska hear God’s promise and see her get all wet, and then, you won’t have to wonder ever again about God’s intentions.

That’s why you were baptized. Not to prove your faith. Not to show off your feelings. But to give you faith. To give you faith. So that you could truly believe that he is your Savior, God’s beloved Son. And, so that you could trust that he has washed you clean once and for all. No matter how you feel today. God’s love for you is forever. Amen.