Pastor Dismer’s sermon for Sunday, Jan. 11, 2009

“Baptism is a gift of the Holy Spirit, the promise of forgiveness and eternal life. May we choose to receive this gift daily and to share the promises of this gift.”

Mark1:4-11

We enter a new season in the church year today: Epiphany: the season of light. Epiphany literally means “manifestation” – making something known.

Epiphany actually began on Jan. 6 with the remembrance of the arrival of the Wise men in Bethlehem. They literally followed the light – the star of Bethlehem – which made known to them the location of the child they sought.

And their arrival made known the nature of Jesus’ birth. Jesus had come, not just to his family, but to all the world.

During this season we will encounter many revelations about Jesus. Today, as we examine Jesus baptism, let us ask, What does this make known to us about Jesus? What did Jesus’ baptism mean to him? What does his baptism mean to us, and what does it teach us about our own baptism?

You know that I like to invite the children in the congregation to come and stand nearby when a child is to be baptized. I want them to see and hear what is going on.

A pastor did this once and saw it as a teaching opportunity. He asked the children, “Do you know why we sprinkle water on the baby’s head? Before the words were barely out of his mouth, a happy child announced, “To make the baby’s hair grow!”

On this day when we commemorate Jesus’ baptism, we are also going to baptize Audry. We will be sprinkling some water on her head, but it will not be done to make the hair grow. So why will we sprinkle water on the baby’s head?

To answer this question, let’s begin by examining what the gospel of Mark has to teach us about Jesus’ baptism.

After announcing in the first verse of his gospel that this is the gospel - the truth, the good news- about Jesus Christ, the son of God, Mark continues with a quotation from the Hebrew prophet Isaiah: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way – a voice of one calling in the desert.” And then Mark identifies who that voice is: “And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”

The stage is set. The words of promise from the past are being fulfilled. John is out in the desert – in the wilderness – preaching and baptizing; and crowds – huge crowds come. Mark writes, the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem came, confessing their sins and wading into the water of the Jordan River to be baptized.

Why did they come? It could have been curiosity. John was a little different! Also, there had been no prophets for hundreds of years. But I think there was more to it. John preached repentance. He invited the people to confess their sins and be baptized – and this message touched their hearts and lives.

And then John made a new promise.

I have baptized you with water, but someone is coming – so important that I am unworthy of even untying his sandals – someone who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

Enter Jesus of Nazareth – Jesus, about whom we know very little at this point. Jesus, who is John’s cousin, but who is recognized by John to be so much more - Jesus comes and wades into the water. John baptizes him and the very heavens rip apart! The heavens open – “The Spirit, like a dove, descends on Jesus, and a voice from heaven announces: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’”

What is going on here? What does this baptism mean – to Jesus, and to us all?

This is the very first event Mark records about Jesus in his gospel. It reveals, in summary, everything Mark wants to teach his readers about Jesus before he reports on Jesus’ public ministry: namely that Jesus is the very son of God, that God himself has acknowledged Jesus as his son, and that it is by God’s spirit that Jesus will minister.

It is only after this event – Jesus’ baptism – that Jesus goes into the desert to be tempted, which is the next revealing story about Jesus – the next Epiphany event – and then Jesus’ public ministry begins.

This, then, is what Jesus’ baptism meant to him: acknowledgement of who he was, affirmation of his mission, and the blessing of the Holy Spirit. What, then, does our baptism mean to us? What will it mean to Audry, who will be baptized today?

It means that in baptism, we, like Jesus, are acknowledged by God as God’s own child – loved and beloved! Pleasing to God. It means that we, too, are blessed with the Holy Spirit in our lives. It means that we, like Jesus, are called to a public ministry.

Remember Jesus’ commission to his disciples: “Therefore go 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 I have commanded you.”

Why do we sprinkle water on a baby’s head when we baptize him or her? The water part reminds us of John’s word that we must repent. Repent means change our ways; it means confess our sins, turn away from them, and live our baptism daily.

The water is a symbol that our sins are washed away. But what sin does a baby have to repent of? Nothing, you are surely thinking.

This is why I love it that we baptize babies. We baptize them when they don’t even know what is happening – when they might even sleep through the whole thing.

We baptize because forgiveness is a gift; – because forgiveness already is accomplished; – because all our repenting is not what accomplishes our forgiveness: it is what prepares our hearts to receive this gift.

It is the gift Christ brings to us and the world.

We baptize babies because repentance is life-long, on-going, a daily need on our part. Audry will have the rest of her life to daily repent and daily live out her baptism, just as we all will.

We baptize babies because we want them to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit from the very start of their lives. Not because it is some kind of magic protection from sin, or a “get-into-heaven-free” card.

No, we baptize babies because in baptism, as they are welcomed into the family of God, they receive a promise of forgiveness and eternal life, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. But, to receive these gifts they must each come to know, just as we all must, what these gifts mean, and choose, daily, to receive them.

And that brings me to my final point: the promises that we all make today. For Audry to learn these things, we must take our promises seriously and keep them.

We must, as parents, sponsors, and members of this congregation, be sure Audry receives a Bible to read; is brought to God’s house and taught why and how to worship; is taught the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed and the commandments – because these are foundation stones for faith.

Audry cannot live her baptism daily as she grows up, if she doesn’t learn from us to name sin for what it is. If she doesn’t learn from us what repentance means, and see what a blessed gift forgiveness is in our lives; if she doesn’t learn from us the joy to be found in a life of worship and service.

Part of our public ministry as a baptized member of God’s church is to share our faith with our children, providing opportunities for their learning, and living as role models of faith for them.

At baptism we are each washed clean, forgiven, and embraced as God’s child. Daily, we repent. We ask forgiveness for the things we think and do that pull us away from God’s love. Daily we open our hearts anew to God’s Spirit in our lives, and embark once again on our public ministry. Daily we live our baptism, just as Jesus did: as God’s beloved child. Amen