Baptism of our Lord

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

Do you remember your baptism? Some of you were christened or baptized as infants and maybe you know your godparents or have photographs from the day, but you probably don’t remember the event. Others of you grew up in traditions where you were baptized as an older child or teenager, and maybe you remember the baptismal pool or the river where you were baptized, or the water dripping into your eyes afterward. One family I know celebrates their children’s baptismal days like birthdays, not with gifts, but with joyful celebration, as they remember God’s life-giving promise that we receive at baptism: forgiven of our sin, we are made new and, united with Christ, we are given new life.

Whenever we read Scripture, our own experiences shape our understanding of what is taking place in the story, so it is important to ask questions to expand that understanding.  As lay theologian and Christian educator Verna Dozier writes in her book The Dream of God, “Faith never says, “This is how it was,” but “This is how we saw it.” She writes, “Faith always includes the possibility I could at any given moment be wrong,…that what I understand today may be revealed to be
wanting tomorrow.”[i]

As we listen to the familiar story of the baptism of Jesus, I want to challenge us to listen for the parts of the story that are different from what we think we know or practice and ask what questions are revealed.

One of the first things I noticed was that Jesus was in a crowd of people who were being baptized. In the verses just before this, Luke tells us that the tax collectors and soldiers were among those who had come to be baptized, so there were people there who would have been scorned by the Jewish leaders. There were probably people there who had never been “religious.” There were probably children noisily splashing in the water and clusters of people gossiping. It was a crowd of people, after all, just like all of us who gather here on a Sunday morning — imperfect and sinful, but loved by God.

Jesus’ baptism teaches us that we too are baptized into a community of people who are witnesses of God’s love.

One question I have heard asked is, “Why was Jesus baptized at all?” While in some Christian traditions baptism is an outward sign of our obedience to Christ as Lord of our lives, our Lutheran understanding is that baptism is the outward sign of God’s promised forgiveness of our sin. Jesus didn’t need to either proclaim his obedience to God or be forgiven for sin, but in baptism, he could participate in corporate atonement that repented for the collective sins of the world — for injustice and oppression, exploitation and violence.

Jesus’ baptism teaches us that we are not only responsible for ourselves, but we bear responsibility for our neighbor.

Another question is what does it mean when Luke says Jesus is separating the wheat from the chaff? The phrase “burn with unquenchable fire” inspires images of the chaff – the “discontented, lazy rabble” among us — being exiled to a fiery hell.[ii]  But I don’t think that’s what Jesus is describing here; I believe Luke gives us a description of the purifying or sanctifying work that the Holy Spirit, often described as fire or wind in Scripture, completes in each of us. It is the same work Luther describes in his Small Catechism, when he writes,

“I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.”[iii]

Here Jesus teaches us that baptism and the work that follows it are God’s work in us; it is not work we can do alone.

I don’t know anything about farming, but apparently, after the wheat farmers separated the wheat berries from their stalks, they would toss the berries vigorously enough that they would rise in the air and fall again and the force of the wind or air moving against them would help separate the chaff or husks. This winnowing is an exhausting hands-on task. [iv]

Loved by God, baptized in the water and united with Christ in life, I believe we are called:
to examine ourselves and our ways of being in the world as God’s people;
to question what keeps us from witnessing to God’s love and mercy; and
to ask what we need to release as chaff for Jesus to burn.

God is not threatening us but inviting us to participate in this winnowing with confidence that we will not find anything that God does not already know about us and that God loves us unconditionally.

Let us pray…
Holy God,
Thank you for the gift of baptism that fulfills your promise of forgiveness and new life, united with Your Son and named as Your children here on earth;
Continue the good work that you have begun in each of us, that we might be sanctified by Your Holy Spirit
And bear witness to your loving mercy in our words and in our love for our neighbor.
We pray in Jesus’ name,
Amen.

[i] Verna Dozier. The Dream of God, 147.
[ii] Capra, Frank, and James Stewart. 1946. It's a wonderful life. [Los Angeles, CA]: [Liberty Films].
[iii] Luther’s Small Catechism
[iv] https://news.yale.edu/2017/10/23/hands-lesson-separating-wheat-chaff#&gid=1&pid=1, accessed 1/12/2019