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Sunday, January 9, 2011

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Denver, Colorado
Pastor Dena Williams

The Holy Gospel according to the Community of St. Matthew

in the 3rd Chapter
Glory to you, O Lord

3:13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to

be baptized by him.

3:14 John would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be

baptized by you, and do you come to me?"

3:15 But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now; for it is

proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness." Then
John consented.

3:16 And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up

from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him
and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and
alighting on him.

3:17 And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the

Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."

The Gospel of the Lord

Praise to you, O Christ

Why?

Young parents call the church office.

“How can I help you?”
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“We want to have our baby baptized.”

There is a question I so want to ask
at this point in the conversation.
I so want to ask, “Why?”
“Why do you want to have your baby baptized?”

It would not be kind, though.

Many parents would have no response.
My “Why” question would be met with an awkward silence.
So, I don’t ask at this point.

Instead, I ask the usual.

If the person calling is one of our members,
we have some fun conversation,
we celebrate together and I ask the parents to meet with
me.
If I don’t know the person,
I ask “How are you and your family connected to Good
Shepherd?”
Now, it’s not a test.
I’ll baptize anyone.
Often, though, parents think it’s a test.
They start in—
“Well, my grandparents were married there
and I came to Vacation Bible School there when I was little.”
or
“We’re not really connected,
but my husband’s great aunt is Lutheran
and she is coming from Minnesota for the baptism.
So we’re looking for a Lutheran church.”
or, my personal favorite:
The office assistant answers the phone.
The mother asks to speak to the pastor.
I pick up the phone,
“This is Pastor Williams.” I say clearly.
“Oh, yes, hi. We want to have our baby baptized.”
“Good! Let’s talk about that. How are you connected to
Good Shepherd?”
“Well, I was hoping I could to talk with the pastor about it.
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Is he available?”
“I am the pastor.”
“Oh.”


I invite parents to come and talk with me about baptism.

For some parents, here is where the conversation ends.
They don’t want to meet with me or talk about baptism.
They just want me to set a date and do it!

Some parents will arrange to meet with me.

Sometimes the family is a part of a faith community,
ours or another.
They worship regularly;
they have witnessed many baptisms.
The parents have a general understanding of baptism.
Others really don’t worship anywhere.
They are not part of a faith community.
They have little or no understanding of baptism.

In either case,
I admire the baby (not hard to do, I love babies).
We visit a little,
and, then, finally, I get to ask the question:
“Why do you want to have your baby baptized?”
Some parents are very clear—
“Because then she will be a child of God.”
“Yes,” I respond.
“God will come to her with special blessing in her baptism.”
Some parents are less clear—
“Well, we want to be sure that if something happens to him
he will go to God.”
In either case,
I make sure that I say,
“Remember that God loved your child before she was knit
together in her mother’s womb.
Jesus commands us to be baptized,
and it is right and good that, in obedience to that
commandment you bring your child to the water.
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Remember, though, that nothing can separate us from God’s

love,
not even a parent’s failure to bring their child for baptism.
God loves and will always love and care for your child.”
“In baptism,” I say, “your child becomes a member of the
Body of Christ,
the community of faith.
His sins are washed away forever in the waters of baptism
and he is born again, born from above, as a child of God.”

Then I remind parents of something else,

of the promises they will make at their child’s baptism.
“These are not promises made to me,” I say, “or promises to
the church or even to the child.
These are promises you make to God.”
We read through those promises.

Let’s do that now.

Turn to page 228 in the front of the hymnal.
There, in the middle of the page:
“As you bring your children to receive the gift of baptism,
you are entrusted with responsibilities:
to live with them among God’s faithful people,
bring them to the word of God and the holy supper,
teach them the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten
Commandments,
place in their hands the holy scriptures,
and nurture them in faith and prayer.”

I tell parents that, if they will indeed,

bring their children to God’s house,
as they are about to promise,
if they keep their promise to God and bring their children,
that the community of faith will help them keep all these
other promises.
The congregation promises to support the child and pray for
him in his new life in Christ.

Parents vary in their response to this review of promises.

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I am always hopeful.
Maybe these parents will keep their promises to God.

There is more to it, though, you know.

There’s more to baptism.
I don’t explain all that we think and believe about baptism.
Why?
Because it’s just too scary!
These young parents have enough to think about without me
scaring the daylights out of them.
Let’s look today, though, at the scary parts.

Luther wrote that for a practice to be a sacrament,

there are two requirements.
The first is that the sacrament must be instituted by Christ,
as are baptism and Holy Communion.
The second is that there must be words and signs associated
with the sacrament.
For baptism, there are the words:
“I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit.”
And there is a sign, the water.

Water . . .
Lutherans generally only use a little water when we baptize.
We don’t often submerse babies in water.
The amount of water doesn’t matter, we say.
That’s true,
but I believe our understanding of baptism may be
compromised because we use so little water.
Water, you see, even small amounts of water can be
dangerous.
Water cleanses,
in this case cleanses us from our sin,
but water can do something else as well.
Water can take life away.

When we are baptized,

we believe that we die to sin and rise up to new life.
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Our sins are washed away,

but then, just before we drown in the very water that
cleanses us,
God reaches down,
snatches us up out of the water,
raising us to new life.
Baptism is dangerous.
That is very apparent when a child or an adult is submersed
in water for baptism.
We are buried in the water,
in the likeness of Christ’s death.
We are raised up out of the water to new life
in the likeness of Christ’s resurrection.

Baptism is dangerous.
Baptism is a brush with death,
from which we are rescued by God.

Why?
Why on earth would a parent bring a child for baptism?
Why would we risk death by drowning,
for our child or for ourselves,
in order to be baptized?
Why?

Why did Jesus come to John in the River Jordan?

Why did he insist on being baptized?
Why did he ask for this near death experience?
"Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all
righteousness."

We bring our children, our selves for baptism

for the same reason Jesus came to John.
We come in order to fulfill all righteousness.
We come to be baptized as Christ commanded us to do.

We come.
We are baptized.
We are raised up to new life.
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Then what?
Why? To what end are we baptized?
Why? To what end was Jesus baptized?

The answer to the “why” question can be found in today’s

reading from Acts:
That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee
after the baptism that John announced:

“how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and
with power;
how he went about doing good and healing all who were
oppressed by the devil,
for God was with him.”

Why was Jesus baptized?

Why are we baptized?
Because in baptism we are anointed with the Holy Spirit and
with power.
Why?
So that we might go about doing good and healing all who
are oppressed.

God rescues us from drowning,

rescues us,
and calls us.
Here is why we are baptized.
So that we might go about doing good and healing.

Luther wrote that we ought to remember our baptism every

morning of our lives.
Wonder how our days will be blessed
when we truly live out our baptism,
when we remember each morning how God rescues us
and raises us up to new life.

Why do you want your child baptized? I ask parents.

If they don’t have an answer, or even if they do
we look at these words, right there on page 228,
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right after the promises.

Why?
“So that your children may learn to trust God,
proclaim Christ through word and deed,
care for others and the world God made,
and work for justice and peace.”
Why? In other words:
so that we may lead a Godly life until the day of Jesus Christ,
so that they may go about and do good and bring healing to
others.
Amen