Sermon - The Rev. Leah D. Schade
Jan. 13, The Baptism of our Lord
Texts: Isaiah 42:1-9; Psalm 29; Matthew 3:13-17
John is confused as to why Jesus is coming to him to be baptized. This is understandable. It seems to be backwards, as John says: “You should be the one baptizing me, Jesus. Not the other way around.” But Jesus responds that he wants to be baptized in order to fulfill all righteousness. What does he mean by this? What is Jesus trying to accomplish here? He is making a conscious effort to connect himself with the scriptural mandate that is laid out in Isaiah about being God‘s servant in righteousness - that‘s the key word here. Let’s take a few minutes to explore this Isaiah text and see what it was that Jesus was trying to link up with.
Look at verse 1. It talks about God presenting the servant. Now the text does not give us the name of this servant. But it does tell us about this servant, the qualities of this person and the things that this servant will do. We know that God chooses the servant and delights in him or her. We know that the servant will be humble - he will not cry or lift up his voice, he won‘t be a blowhard. “A bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench” - this tells us that the servant will not harm those who are vulnerable or hurting. The servant will faithfully bring forth justice and will be relentless until justice has been established in the earth. We also know that the servant will be a teacher: “the coastlands wait for his teaching.”
And then in verse 6, God speaks directly to the servant. “I have called you in righteousness (there is that word again), I have taken you by the hand and kept you.” So God is faithfully accompanying the servant, like a parent with a child. Then: “I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations.” Not only is God making a promise to the servant, but the servant is God’s promise, the light of hope shining for all people. And the servant has specific tasks: “to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.”
It’s pretty obvious that Jesus fits this description. There upon the banks of the Jordan River, with God speaking from heaven that God is well-pleased with him (taking delight in him), Jesus takes upon himself this mantle of the servant. As he is baptized, following God’s command for righteousness, he assumes the duties and responsibilities that being a servant entails. He protects those who are vulnerable - like women and children. He opens the eyes of the blind and frees many from the dungeons of illness and poverty. He confronts both the Roman and Jewish authorities on their hypocrisy and speaks truth to power in order to establish justice. And he teaches - on the coastlands, on boats, on mountains, in houses, and anywhere else his followers are gathered. He also regards his relationship with God as one between a parent and child - calling God “Daddy”, or Abba.
And we saw last week, as we will during this whole season of Epiphany, all the nations will benefit from Jesus as a light to the whole world - as represented by the magi coming from distant lands, and as will be seen by his ministry among not just his own Jewish people, but with Gentiles as well.
Today on this second Sunday of Epiphany, we celebrate this Baptism of Jesus, and the gift of baptism itself. You probably noticed when you came in today that we have placed the baptismal font right in the center of the congregation, the idea being that we pass through the baptismal waters on our way to worship, and that this central sacrament of our faith is placed right in the center of our gathering. Later we’ll be doing an Affirmation of Baptism to renew our covenantal commitment.
I think it’s interesting that Jesus chooses to begin his ministry on the banks of the Jordan River seeking baptism from John. Water is central to Jesus’ ministry. He is, in a sense, inaugurated in the water and by the water. And what was John’s message of baptism all about - repentance, and changing one’s life in order to be used by God to establish God’s reign on earth. It’s all about being a servant of God for righteousness. And this has very real implications for those of us who are baptized as well.
Because we, too, are linked to this Isaiah passage. For the Israelite people, this call to be God’s servant wasn’t necessarily for one person - it was for their whole nation. God empowers people to do the work of building the peaceable kingdom - it’s a divine transference of power. This is a commissioning - God is telling the people: I have given you as a covenant - you are a sign of the covenant. You are blessed in order to be a blessing.
So I’m wondering - can we as a baptized community of faith, be a people who do this? Can we be blessed by our baptism to be a blessing to others? And can we do this - can we be a blessing for the very water with which we were baptized?
Just consider the gift of water itself for a minute. Water covers about 70% of the earth‘s surface. But of all the water on the earth, humans can use only about three tenths of a percent of this water found in groundwater aquifers, rivers, and freshwater lakes.
And we take this gift of water for granted. We can enter any house, virtually any building in North America, turn on a faucet, and clean water comes pouring out for us. In countries without access to clean water, people walk for hours a day back and forth from a water source, carrying heavy jugs, being careful not to spill a single precious drop. And yet we are endangering the very waters that give us life. Pollution, chemical run-off, acid rain, and fertilizers threaten the health and safety of our streams, rivers, ponds, lakes and oceans.
And do you know what I think the most ubiquitous symbol of our disrespect for water? (lift up bag of bottles) The water bottle. We spend millions of dollars for water bottled in places where the natives don’t have access to the water we’re taking from them. We shell out a dollar for a bottle of water when we could simply put it in a reusable cup or bottle. According to the Waste Management website: “More than 60 million plastic bottles end up in landfills and incinerators every day – a total of about 22 billion last year.” And our landfills are choked with these clear plastic bottles that use up unnecessary resources to produce.
And full disclosure here - our family shares this guilt. My husband just loves the flavored water they market now. And while I reuse my water bottles many, many times, I still buy a six-pack every few weeks.
Perhaps what is most frightening is the potential of future wars over water. With populations exploding and water scarcity increasing, there are distinct possibilities that we may be headed for armed conflict between governments over water resources. What we are dealing with is a global crisis generated by decades of gross mismanagement of water resources. And it’s very likely that the poorest and most vulnerable people will be the ones who suffer the most.
Psalm 29 that we chanted today declares: The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of glory thunders; the Lord is upon the mighty waters.” Well this voice of God is the same one that called upon the people of Israel to do justice, righteousness, in the Isaiah text. It’s the same voice that commissioned Jesus to his ministry of righteousness. And each of us in our baptisms is called by God’s voice to establish justice and righteousness in the earth. We are sent to the earth - we have a job to do.
Our baptisms conferred on us the duties and responsibilities that being a servant of God entails. We are to protect those who are vulnerable - like the fragile ecosystems - bruised reeds, if you will. We are to open the eyes of the blind, share the truth about environmental degradation with those ignorant of the ramifications. We are to confront authorities on their hypocrisy and speak truth to power in order to establish ecological justice. The coastlands do indeed wait for God’s teaching (they wait for us to learn how to care for them). And we are to teach - on the coastlands, on boats, on mountains, in houses, and anywhere else people are gathered.
If God is our father, then the earth is our mother. The God described in verse 5 of the Isaiah text, the God who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it - God entrusts it all to us, and we are commissioned to care for it. God will not hurt the weak. If we are servants of God - we will not hurt the weak either. We will bring justice to all the earth - even to the earth itself.
Because when we do justice to the earth, it has a flow-through effect for the entire human community, and particularly for the poor and those living in the most fragile of circumstances. The connection between poverty and poor environmental conditions can be seen throughout the United States and the world. It is those who have no resources who cannot afford to move, much less fight against industrial pollution, landfills, and toxic dumping sites, often right in their neighborhoods. Two-fifths of the world's people already face serious water shortages, and water-borne diseases fill half its hospital beds. People in rich countries use 10 times more water than those in poor ones.
As one person put it in a BBC online commentary: “If water is life, we must learn to treat it not as a commodity to be sold to the highest bidder or as an entitlement to the privileged, but as an essential component of human existence. We must learn not only the methods and habits of sharing equitably, but also the technologies and values of protecting the environment that makes fresh water available to us.” (Dennis Warner, Baghdad, Iraq).
I said earlier that John’s baptism was about repentance - changing one’s life in order to be used by God to establish God’s reign on earth. It’s all about being a servant of God. Well, if I’m going to take that seriously, then I need to change my life in order to at least do some small part in establishing justice for the earth. Here’s what I’ve committed to do. I’m giving up bottled water for Lent. And for me, Lent is starting today. I’ll have to make do with the six-pack that my husband bought for me at Genuardi’s earlier this week. That’s going to have to last me until Easter. I’ll get my water filtered in my reusable water pitcher, and take it on the go with me using my reusable Reformation water bottle.
And as a pastor, I’m going to ask our Eco Ministry to look at ways we can educate our congregation and community about water conservation and water justice issues. It won’t change the world overnight. But it may be one small drop freed from the bottle(pour water from bottle into font). And it may be part of God’s ripple effect that spreads out over all the earth. Amen.
Sources:
Waste Management page on plastic water bottles --
http://www.container-recycling.org/mediafold/newsarticles/plastic/2006/5-WMW-DownDrain.htm
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