{"id":69,"date":"2019-01-13T18:51:54","date_gmt":"2019-01-13T18:51:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/?p=69"},"modified":"2019-01-19T18:56:14","modified_gmt":"2019-01-19T18:56:14","slug":"sunday-january-13-2019-baptism-of-our-lord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/2019\/01\/13\/sunday-january-13-2019-baptism-of-our-lord\/","title":{"rendered":"Baptism of Our Lord"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Luke 3:15-17,\n21-22<\/a>, Acts 8:14-17<\/a>  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of all the festivals and\nscheduled services held within the Lutheran Church, in fact within all of\nChristianity, the one that brings me the greatest joy, is the celebration of\nthe Sacrament of Holy Baptism. Today\u2019s Gospel tells us the story of Jesus\u2019\nbaptism, a story that rather than bring joy, has confused Christians from the\nday that it became known. Why was Jesus baptized? If Jesus was without sin and\nbaptism is for the forgiveness of sin, why would Jesus need to be baptized and\nwhy do we need to be baptized only once? Shouldn\u2019t we be baptized whenever we\nsin? If baptism is not for the forgiveness of sins, why do we get baptized? A\nlot of questions!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace to you and peace\nfrom God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To understand why Jesus\nwas baptized and why we ourselves are baptized we need to first understand that\nour baptism is very different from the baptism as understood by John the\nBaptist, when he baptized Jesus. John the Baptist baptized people again and\nagain, so that the people he was baptizing may receive God\u2019s forgiveness after\nfalling into sin, again and again. The people who came out to him were burdened\nby their sins, they listened to his words, John called them to repentance and\npromised them God\u2019s forgiveness, the people repented their sins and then they\nsubmitted to John\u2019s baptism. John washed away all of their sins, by a simple\ndunking in the Jordan river.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as our questions\nmade it so very clear, Jesus didn\u2019t need God\u2019s forgiveness, so why was he\nbaptized? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus\u2019 baptism was a\npart of God\u2019s plan. Something very different happened when Jesus was baptized\nby John the Baptist; Jesus didn\u2019t need forgiveness but he did need God\u2019s\nblessing; Jesus did need to be anointed with water or oil and receive the gift of\nthe Holy Spirit, just like all the prophets and kings of old. And the story of\nJesus\u2019 baptism tells us that the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus like a dove. And\nthe voice of God was heard in blessing, acknowledging Jesus as God\u2019s Son, of\nwhich God was well pleased. This event, Jesus\u2019 baptism, could be described as Jesus\u2019\nconsecration, or ordination, or installation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was just one more\nthing that Jesus would have to do before he would begin his public ministry. Jesus\nneeded to go out into the wilderness and confront his demons, confront Satan\nhimself. It is important to understand that Jesus went out into the wilderness\nwith all that he would need, in order that he may stand up against his greatest\nenemy, Satan. That story is for another day, but Jesus\u2019 baptism, the gift of\nthe Holy Spirit and God\u2019s word all made it possible for Jesus to defeat Satan\u2019s\ntemptations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Jesus may not have\nneeded a baptism for the forgiveness of his sin, we<\/strong> certainly need God\u2019s forgiveness for our sins, and Jesus, though\nwe know him to be God\u2019s Son, surely did not presume to be sinless before God. And\nwhile Jesus alone could have stood before God and defended the purity of his\nactions, as being without sin, Jesus freely humbled himself before God, as\nthough a sinner, acknowledging the authority of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, Jesus\u2019 baptism, we\nunderstand, was needed to establish a process by which all people could receive\nthe blessing of God\u2019s forgiveness and adoption into the Body of Christ. We who are\nbaptized, some of us as infants, some as children, some as teens and some as\nadults, have been baptized by a baptism that is very different from the baptism\nperformed by John the Baptist on the masses of people seeking God\u2019s forgiveness\nand different also from the baptism received by Jesus. (And I am not talking\nabout the differences of dunking a person in a river or sprinkling water on a\nhead. The \u201chow\u201d of the baptism is not the issue.) The fact is our baptisms\ncontain elements of both kinds of baptism, forgiveness and anointing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what are the\nbenefits of baptism that we receive?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Martin\nLuther, as he wrote in the Small Catechism, \u201cIt (baptism) brings about\nforgiveness of sins, redeems from death and the devil, and gives eternal\nsalvation to all who believe it, as the words and promise of God declare.\u201d The\nauthor who added a longer ending to the Gospel of Mark made it clear that those\nwho are baptized and believe will be saved. In the section of Matthew\u2019s Gospel known\nas the Great Commission, Jesus said to his Disciples, \u201cAll authority in heaven\nand earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,\nbaptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and\nteaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am\nwith you always, to the end of the age.\u201d All of these writings suggest that baptism\nis very important and somehow linked to our salvation, in fact our Service of\nBaptism describes baptism as dying to the world and being reborn a child of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is definitely the\nwill of Jesus that we all be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son\nand of the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist, in his baptisms, directed his request\nfor forgiveness only to God the Father. But in Jesus\u2019 baptism we hear, not\nonly, God\u2019s word of praise, but also see the Holy Spirit descend upon him as a\ndove.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And in our reading from\nActs, it seems the baptisms received by the Samaritans did not include the\nmention of the Holy Spirit, and so they had not received the Holy Spirit. The\nDisciples in that story laid their hands upon them so that they might receive\nthe gift of the Holy Spirit, and they did. \n\nJesus\u2019 baptism was about\nhis being anointed to stand as the Messiah of God, to become the Savior of\nhumanity. And Jesus\u2019 baptism was to be an example for all who would follow\nJesus. It may, in fact, be a condition for salvation. It is certainly something\nthat is recommended, for with baptism we are forgiven of our sins, we receive\nthe promise of salvation and we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit, to\nguide, comfort, protect and advise us. In our baptisms we are called to faith\nand consequently led to ministry in the name of Jesus Christ. So important is\nbaptism that we, as the Lutheran Church, define church membership in terms of\nbaptism. Everyone is welcome to attend our worship services and welcome to participate\nin the Church and its activities and their participation is appreciated, but only\nthose who are baptized may be considered Church members.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22, Acts 8:14-17   Of all the festivals and scheduled services held within the Lutheran Church, in fact within all of Christianity, the one that brings me the greatest joy, is the celebration of the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. Today\u2019s Gospel tells us the story of Jesus\u2019 baptism, a Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-and-services"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions\/73"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}