Jesus Also?

 

Text:  Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

Theme:  "Jesus Also?"

Baptism of the Lord/First Sunday after the Epiphany

January 13, 2013

First Presbyterian Church

Denton, Texas

Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

 

+In the Name of Jesus+

The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. ¹⁶ John answered them all, “I baptize you with^[b] water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with^[c] the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹⁷ His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” ¹⁸ And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them. ²¹ When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened ²² and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

My friend Brian is a pretty cool guy who is out there living life, as they say, "ninety to nothing".  I don't know how he manages everything he packs into one day.   He's traveled a lot of different places -- all over the world, actually --  doing a lot of good things.  That's not even to speak of the stuff he does here in Denton.  He's a firefighter, by the way.  When he's not on the job, he's running around on his motorcycle doing such things as organizing a golf tournament for the department and its charity.  Late last year when I caught up with him, I noticed he shaved his head. I thought, since he just bought a new Harley, that it was some biker thing.  As it turns out, a fellow firefighter was battling cancer.  As a way to identify with their friend and show solidarity with their friend (who had lost his hair during chemotherapy treatments), Brian and the other firemen decided to all shave their heads.  "You're our friend and our brother.  We love you and we're going to stick with you; you're not alone":  these are the thoughts that this gesture conveyed. 

The alternative to such gestures (and others like them) is, of course, to maintain the status quo.  "Hey, people get cancer; that's just the way it is.  They get killed in car accidents too.  Life is hard; life is unfair.  You're basically on your own.  It's survival of the fittest out there.  So quit whining and suck it up."   So goes the thinking of the status quo in this age that some call the age of "rugged individualism".

I have another friend, and I don't even know this guy's name.  I do know that he has lots of big muscles that he exercises regularly.  He's one of those guys that looks like you don't want to mess with him.  He's originally from New Jersey -- or, as he says, "Joisey"!  Over at the gym last week, we got to talking about our Christmas experiences this year, and this gentleman said that he and his wife made a two week road trip out to "Joisey" to see his grandmother. There was an awkward pause in the conversation.   He shook his head, and it looked like a tear was forming in the eye of this big, buff, brawny guy.  "It's worse than you think," he said.  He spoke of the devastation of Hurricane Sandy. 

Ironically, earlier in the day, I read a story from the Associated Press coming from Amityville, New York.  There's a six year old boy who lives there by the name of Steven Beckman.  Sadly, the little lad's home was wiped out by the aforementioned hurricane.  That's bad enough, but when you're fighting for your life against leukemia, well, that seems like more than one little boy and his family could possibly bear. 

Following the October 29th storm, the family lodged where they could.  The mother, Danielle Beckman, said they did a lot of couch-surfing at the homes of extended family and friends.  They went a stretch where the entire family -- the mother, father, and two other siblings along with Steven -- slept on a queen size air mattress. 

While all this displacement was going on, an organization called The National Association of the Remodeling Industry got wind of the Beckman family's plight.  They didn't spend a whole lot of time brainstorming; they just got to work.  As a result, a little over a week ago, little Steven and his family were back in their Long Island home.  It was rebuilt by volunteers.  The mother was so excited, as she walked in the front door, that she nearly hyperventilated.  She said, "It was just really an incredible feeling -- to walk in the door this morning and see that not only has the house been rebuilt, but it's also been furnished, literally from rugs to dressers, TVs and curtains."  They even painted the wall of Steven's new bedroom with images of his favorite character -- Indiana Jones. 

Firefighter Brian and his friends, my pal from "Joisey", and the good folks at The National Association of the Remodeling Industry have at least one thing in common:  they identified with people in need, and they do more than "just say" that they identify with people in need; they put themselves in solidarity with people in need.   Their actions say, "You are not alone; we are in this together." 

Folks, I have a birth certificate; I have a Social Security number; I have a driver's license number;  I have a phone number; I have an email address, a Facebook and a Twitter account.  I have DNA!   I have an identity; the evidence is clear.  So do you. 

But the question of the hour, here on the First Sunday after the Epiphany/The Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord, is this:  who identifies with us?   I'm challenging you to meditate on that and think about that today.

If we choose not to meditate on it or think about it, then we shouldn't be surprised if something happens.  We'll end up feeling like a number.  An American singer/songwriter put it this way:

I take my card and I stand in line
To make a buck I work overtime
I work my back till it's racked with pain
The boss can't even recall my name

I feel like just another
Spoke in a great big wheel
Like a tiny blade of grass
In a great big field
To workers I'm just another drone
To Ma Bell I'm just another phone
I'm just another statistic on a sheet
To teachers I'm just another child
To IRS I'm just another file
I'm just another consensus on the street

Gonna cruise out of this city
Head down to the sea
Gonna shout out at the ocean
Hey it's me
And I feel like a number
Feel like a number
Feel like a stranger in this land.

This is for you and for all of us who have ever felt -- or perhaps are feeling today -- that they are little more than a number.  This is for everyone who ever felt -- in one way or another -- that they were strangers in their own land.  The good news of today's Scripture, in a nutshell, is this:  you are strangers no more. 

In today's Gospel reading from Luke we are told that "When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too."  Jesus came to be baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River all those years ago.

It didn't seem right.  John had been blasting away at sinners, threatening judgment and doing the whole fire and brimstone thing.  He told all those numbers, those strangers, those sinners to repent!  Then along comes Jesus and He acts as if He's a number, a stranger, and a sinner just like the rest of us.   Wait just a minute, John must have thought.  Jesus should baptize him; he shouldn't baptize Jesus.  Jesus must stay separate, we must move to him and identify with Him.  He should not come to us, be a sinner with us, and identify with us. 

But that's what Jesus does.  He's Firefighter Brian, the friend from "Joisey", and the National Association of the Remodeling Agency -- and so much more! -- all rolled into one!  He identifies with us, is in solidarity with us, is one of us.  He takes on all that has gone wrong with us -- all our sins.  There is no difference or separation between us and Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  That is what Baptism is all about.  When John balked and didn't want to baptize Jesus, our Lord said:  "Suffer it to be so now:  for thus it is fitting to fulfill all righteousness." 

When the magi went in search for a king, they arrived in Jerusalem.  There was a king there named Herod, but that wasn't who they were looking for.  In order to find what they were looking for, they needed a word from God.  They got that word.  They learned that the king was to be born in Bethlehem! 

Things get cleared up, confusion gives way to certainty, when a Word from God is put on the situation.  At the Baptism of our Lord, the Word of God was put upon it.  The voice came from heaven:  "You are my Son, whom I love, with You I am well-pleased." 

The delight and pleasure of God are in His beloved Son, and that is where we are too!  What is ours (sin) is His; what is His (righteousness) is ours.  So God delights in us too. 

Do you live where Christ is -- at that place where God is well-pleased?  The answer is yes.  There is a Word of God that has been put on it.  It is that Word put on you when YOU were baptized.  With the water, His Name was put upon you.  As one faithful and wise teacher once expressed it to his students:  "You are not just a doubtful, ambiguous, meaningless, hopeless bunch of atoms bouncing around."  You are not a number; you are not a strangers.  You have the Word of God put on you.  At your Baptism and at Jesus' baptism too, God identifies with us, is in solidarity with us -- and we with God.  "So you can't just drag along dreary, fearful, guilt-ridden, nobody-loves-me, me-against-the-rest, me-against-the-system, me-separate, all alone.  When John saw Jesus separate, Jesus said "No. Us."

"It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." 

Draw strength and comfort from the Lord's baptism and your own today.  In fact, do it every day.  Begin each day in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit -- the Name, the Word, put upon you at your baptism.  And if you're not baptized or you're not sure if you've been baptized and want the certainty that you are, then let's do this!

Amen.