[Sorry, did not record the first reading]
Isaiah 42:1-9; Matthew 3:13-17
January 8, 2023
- Heading in a new direction in a new year
As we stride right out into this new year, in some respects a “do-over” after 2022, I cannot help but wonder how many of us might make some decision in our life differently were we able to live it again or do it over. It must apply to all of us – and I’m not talking about having the Dutch apple pie instead of the cherry cheesecake at that holiday party. We have all made decisions with some kind of weight that we would like to take back at some point in our lives. Maybe it was something we said that deeply hurt a loved one. Maybe it was a choice that gave us a path we really did not want to go down. Maybe we took someone or something for granted and did not realize it until it was too late to truly appreciate it. Maybe we just do not like the way a significant choice affected our life. If we say we have never made any serious choices that we would not like to reconsider, then we are not being as honest with ourselves as we should be.
I am not saying we all live with a pile of regrets, but we have all done things, said things, or chosen things that we would handle differently if we could go back and live it, again. This is why we have so many stories of time travel in popular culture. The only reasons to ever consider going back in time are to sightsee or to make changes. You can guess which is more pressing. Certainly, we cannot help all the ways we have made, continue to make, and will always make mistakes, and some of those failures are bigger than others and might be ones we wished we could take back.
One thing that we should never, ever, ever want to undo or take back, however, is baptism – even the baptisms that are so shocking that they will always be remembered, such as the baptisms at Grace Baptist Temple in Blackstone some years back. Apparently, they had an electrical short in their heated baptistry pool, and the preacher who wore rubber waders never noticed the electric shocks that provided those who entered the water looking for the Holy Spirit a little more spirit than they bargained for. I don’t think anyone was harmed, but they did feel more alive – let’s say.
For the rest of us, baptism is one of those things that is so precious and so important because we are walking in the footsteps Jesus and stepping out into faith. Even those of us who were baptized as infants (as I was) have the opportunity to recommit, to remember, to re-embrace the gift of baptism. That is what we are doing today later in the service – holding, again, our baptism in gratitude. In our reformed tradition, we are only baptized once; however, we can renew as many times as we want. Ideally, we should be living out the grace of baptism every day, but the one time that water washes over us is something that blesses us the rest of our lives.
And, to be honest, we could not go back even if we wanted to. There is a reason why you should never get your girlfriend’s name tattooed on your body, unless you plan to only and always date girls of the same name. Still that tattoo will come off with the right procedure. Baptism, on the other hand, will never expire; it will never be undone; it will never wash off. In fact, it is how we are washed off.
A very fine point about baptism is that it is really, really, really something permanent. This is because baptism is also a kind of death. Baptism is the path of no return. 20th century theologian Karl Barth pointed out that…
To those who are not ignorant the sign of baptism speaks of death. To be baptized means to be immersed, to be sunk in a foreign element, to be covered by a tide of purification. The man who emerges from the water is not the same man who entered it. One man dies and another is born…. Baptism bears witness to us of the death of Christ…. He that is baptized is drawn into the sphere of this event. Overwhelmed and hidden by the claim of God, he disappears and is lost in this death.
Because we die with Christ in his baptism, we are also raised by Christ in his life. We die to sin, to death, to the former life, and to the ways of the world. We are still in this world, but we are not of this world. Our home, our life, our future, our hope, our faith, our love is all in Christ Jesus our baptized Lord. There is truly no going back, no undo button, no rewind, no official review, no overturning that call.
OK, pastor, I get it. Baptism is one path, one choice, one decision we do not cancel. And there is a big reason for this. In our first lesson, everyone just knew that when the southern kingdom of Judah was captured and hauled off to Babylon as slaves, that was the end. Life as they knew it was over. The king had been blinded in humiliation. The best and brightest were all gone. The nation lay in shambles, penniless. Judah was up a big creek with no paddle, no rudder, and no sail. There was no coming back and not much of a future, either. And this is where God unleashed one of the best passages in Isaiah.
It turns out that God’s best work is always in the future. God’s established servant is coming with justice to the nations and will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching. This is a beautiful passage about a servant who is delicate enough to not extinguish a dimly burning wick but is also an unstoppable force for God’s good. Jesus clearly picks up this ministry in his time, and as people in Christ Jesus today, we carry on in his work, as well. Yes, I just said the passage in Isaiah is also about you and me.
Where there is no going back, God provides a way – justice for all people – restoration and reconciliation, the freeing of people, light to the nations, sight to the blind, safety and salvation by the hand of God. The people who had lost everything gained even more. They were given a beautiful and glorious hope, even as they seemed to lose their way. While those who were hauled off never returned to the land of Judah, themselves, their children and grandchildren did. God provided such a way that we are still in on that way today, living out God’s promise as God’s people of promise. That is what baptism means for us. It is our future from a past that can never hold us. Every sin that breaks us or holds us back is washed away. We are freed to be God’s freedom people, working for justice for all people. That is worth repeating: we are freed to be God’s freedom people, working for justice for all people.
This is the beautiful part of God adopting hurting, broken, sinful children to be the bearers of God’s truth and light and life. There is not a whole lot that I can fix in this world, certainly not by myself. What I can do is pretty special, though. I can sit with someone in their darkness, in their blindness, in their imprisonment, in their brokenness, and in their hurt, fear, and doubt. I can sit with someone in their grief, illness, and hunger. I can sit with someone in their powerlessness. I can sit with someone dreaming for righteous change. While I don’t always do this as well as I should, God has chosen me for this grace, and God has also chosen you for this grace, and you and you and you and you and you and you all. This is God’s justice that values the lives of all of God’s children. Just being willing to be with someone is the first step to changing the world. The Kingdom of God is built in relationships. The love of God is expressed in service. Anyone who is in Christ can do all that and more. Anyone who has been washed and loved into new life can hold another life, even one that has gone down that difficult path, even a path that seems a dead-end, and be the hope that says, “There is always a way forward in Jesus.” We always have a way forward in our Lord together. God’s promise, God’s hope, God’s salvation, and God’s grace is greater than anything in this world. Just try to go somewhere God cannot find you and love you and give you a future. Just try to go somewhere we cannot follow as baptized children in Christ. Just try to go down any hopeless path and find out that every path leads home in the heart of God. We are walking together, friends, all of us, everyone. To God be the glory. Amen.