Sunday Homily - January 13, 2019 - Baptism into the Very Life of God

The Baptism of Christ Icon

I.

Water is really really weird.

Every living thing on earth,
 in one way or another,
  must have water in order to live.

Your body composition,
 the stuff that your body is made up of?
  60% of us is water!
   [https://water.usgs.gov/edu/propertyyou.html]

Even though you can survive multiple weeks without food,
 you can only survive without water for a maximum of two days,
  perhaps even sooner!
   [https://www.livescience.com/32320-how-long-can-a-person-survive-without-water.html]

But water is also an incredibly destructive force as well.

If you have been to the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans,
 you know how destructive Hurricane Katrina was
  and the rising flood of water that broke the levies near the Gulf Coast.

Even though you are 60% water by material,
 you cannot breathe it.
  And many many people each year die by drowning.

Water:
 it is a substance that is both essential to life,
  and is can be destructive to that life as well.

And water is the principle substance used in baptism
 for exactly these reasons.

Because in our baptism,
 the water is showing forth two truths about what is actually happening:

First, the water is destructive of our sins.
 It is lethal to the dirt and grime that cover our soul,
  and it cleanses us from that stain that nothing else can remove.

And second, it is life-giving.
 It is the water in the desert that our inward spirits desire,
  it is that spring of living water that is offered by God for our everlasting life.

And this paradox of water,
 life-giving and destructive,
  Is what some of us have coming to our minds when we talk about baptism,
   as least in the basic sense.

Which raises a big question:
 if baptism is for the forgiveness of sin,
  what on earth is Jesus doing getting baptized?

II.

So, what exactly was Jesus,
 the Incarnate Son of God,
  one whom sin has no hold over,
   what was Jesus doing being baptized?

Why is Jesus in the middle of the crowd,
 being baptized with John's baptism,
  a baptism for the forgiveness of sins?

In the Gospel of Matthew,
 even John the Baptist is confused,
  and says to Jesus,
   "I need to be baptized by YOU;
     and you are coming to me to be baptized?"
      [Matthew 3:14 NIV]

And really, the only clue we get
 in the Bible as to why Jesus is baptized
  is again in the Gospel of Matthew
   when Jesus says to John the Baptist,
    "Let it be so now, for it is necessary to fulfill all righteousness."
     [Matthew 3:15 NIV]

But we perhaps still are confused,
 as Jesus is then baptized with John's baptism.

But then, something completely unexpected,
 completely unanticipated,
  something quite scary, if we are honest.

Jesus comes out of the water,
 and all of a sudden, the sky breaks open,
  the clouds roll back,
   the sun in its blazing heat shines forth,
    and the Holy Spirit of the Living God
     descends bodily on Jesus.

And a loud voice,
 a thundering voice from heaven announces,
  "You are my Son, whom I love; in you I am well pleased."

III.

Its a wild scene:
 Jesus rises above the water
  to be greeted by the Holy Spirit
   and the voice of God the Father.

And in this single passage,
 we perhaps find in Jesus's baptism
  something different that is happening
   than when we go through baptism, for the forgiveness our sins
   and the salvation of our souls.

Jesus undergoes baptism in the ultimate solidarity,
 the humble and loving condescension
  of his identity as the only begotten Son of God,
   and instead to say openly, clearly, unequivocally,
    that God has indeed taken on our humanity
     and has come in solidarity with our weakness.

But because Jesus had no sin, and needed no forgiveness of sins,
 his baptism did something much more glorious:
  his baptism manifested the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

If you notice in the passage,
 all three persons of the Holy and Undivided Trinity are present!

The Holy Spirit, descending in the form of a dove,
 the Heavenly Father, calling down and declaring, without a doubt,
  the identity of Jesus Christ, the only Begotten Son.

In Christ's baptism,
 we are given a glimpse of the life of the Trinity.

But not just that:
 we are also given a foretaste of what our relationship with God is through our own baptism,
  through the salvation brought about by the forgiveness of our sins:
   we are meant for that restored, that repaired relationship
    that catches us up into the mysterious life of God.

In baptism, we are not just dying to our sins,
 crucifying our worldly bent toward brokenness,
  but we are also being raised into the very life of God.

And just as this baptism of Christ began his earthly ministry,
 so also our baptism into the very Body of Christ
  inaugurates our ministry empowered by the Life of Christ.

We are given power by the Holy Spirit to go into the world,
 and to preach this saving Gospel to all people,
  baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Baptism, that mysterious,
 wonderful,
  holy occurrence,
   where we actually receive the grace of salvation,
    we actually receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

And as we receive that Holy Spirit,
 you have actually received God into your very being!
  And because of that, you are changed forever,
   to live into that holiness that we couldn't ever live into
    unless God in the divine humility,
     descended to us almost 2000 years ago in the person of Jesus Christ our Lord.

You hear me every week invite anyone who wishes to be baptized
 to come and talk to me afterwards.
  This is why.

Its because being caught up in that mystery of Christ,
 the incarnation of Christ as a human,
  the death of Christ on our behalf,
   the resurrection of Christ from the dead,
    the ascension of Christ to God's presence,
     this is actually the life we are given the opportunity to participate in!

Jesus came to give us this gift of being caught up into the very life of God,
 and it is a life offered FREELY to us through baptism.

It is a wild life of loving God and our neighbor,
 of being transformed from one degree to another
  into the holy people that we have always meant to be.

Don't be afraid to dive in deep to this life.
 So come on in!
  The waters fine!

In the name of the +Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.