Creekside Church Sermon of December 13, 1998 "From the Baptistry to Ministry" Luke 3:15-17, 21-22	Rev. David Bibbee
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Matthew and Luke know this...but not Mark. He apparently wasn't interested in Bethlehem. Shepherds and Wise Men and "No room in the inn" wasn't a story Mark felt the need to tell. For him, Jesus' message was more important than the manger. Mark's gospel opens with the words, "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ." Then before you know it, you are on the banks of the Jordan River watching John baptize a thirty-year-old Jesus. Baptism, not birth, mattered more in defining who Jesus was and what he would do.

On this Advent morning as we prepare to receive three new Christians into the life and work of the family of God, we are going to examine Jesus' baptism from Luke's perspective. Remember that Luke was a physician and also a historian who paid attention to detail. This makes you wonder why Luke doesn't say John baptized Jesus. You could say it was implied, I suppose, but it is also curious that verse 20 says John was locked up in prison. How did John baptize Jesus from behind bars?

Apparently Luke wasn't concerned with sequence or details. We are not told whether baptism is done by sprinkling or immersion, forward or backward, three dips or one, or if it should be done in a river, a lake, a swimming pool, a bath tub or a baptistry. Luke wasn't interested in mechanics, but in meaning. His concern was, "Why?" not "How?"

When Jesus was baptized, we are told the Holy Spirit descended upon him and he heard God's voice. "You are my beloved Son. With you I am well pleased." He knew whose he was, what he was to do, and the power by which he would do it. It marked the beginning of his ministry of preaching, teaching and healing. It was a sign that God's kingdom was up and running.

When Crystal, Trisha and Joseph are baptized today, it will be for repentance and reorientation. It is not an initiation ceremony, like joining the National Honor Society. Baptism isn't initiation...it's ordination. But wait a second, isn't ordination something conferred upon people who wear clerical collars, fill pulpits, and show up when folks are hatched, matched and dispatched? Well, yes...but it is not limited to clergy. A core belief that the Church of the Brethren shares with many Christian traditions is that everyone who is baptized, is ordained into Christian ministry.

To be baptized is to turn from sin, and turn your life over. It's about being forgiven, being grafted into a new family tree, and receiving the blessings and promises of God. But it is not just this. Two weeks ago I quoted someone who said, "Life is not about you." Life is not about you. Life is not up to you. It's up to God. Being baptized means you aren't just you anymore. You are a sign of what God is doing in the world. You are God's property. You are called to ministry for him.

Jill didn't know what to do with her life. She considered going to seminary and becoming a pastor, but she wasn't sure, so she followed a suggestion and served as a chaplain intern in a hospital. While walking down the hall, a stressed and spent looking man spotted her nametag with CHAPLAIN in large letters. He stopped Jill and said, "I don't know what I'm looking for. We're not church people, but my father is dying and I think he needs to talk with someone. Something's holding him back. Will you please see him?

Jill felt a wave of panic. What would she do? She wasn't a pastor. She was led to a darkened room where a skeletal body lay upon a hospital bed. She softly touched his shoulder. He responded with a flutter of his eyelids. "Would you like me to pray with you?" Another flutter. She felt her prayer was inadequate, as though it was just a jumble of words. After she finished, he still clung to her hand. His face said there was something yet undone. She thought of blessing him, but remembered, "No, I can't do that. I'm not ordained." Then as she looked at this frail, suffering man, her mind went back years ago to when her three children were small. Every night when they went to bed, she gave each a blessing and made the sign of the cross on their forehead. "I can do that," she said to herself. "Mothers do that."

She spoke a simple blessing, signed the cross, softly kissed him, and left the room. Later that night the son found Jill. "Thank you, lady," he said. "Dad just died. I don't know what you did, but thank you." "He was wanting to go to the other side," she said. "I helped him cross the street." In that moment Jill knew God had called her out. Mother's and father's know how to kiss and absolve. Her direction was decided. She knew that God didn't want her to go to seminary to be a minister. "I already a minister," she realized.

Jill claimed her ordaination, like all who have been baptized are ordained. Today we'll add three more to our pool of ministers.

But also remember that as the ordained, you will be asked to do what is too much for you. Luke doesn't simply say that Jesus had a job to do. Jesus needed help to do it, which is why Luke places such an emphasis on the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit "descended" upon Jesus at baptism. In the opening of chapter four Luke says that Jesus came from the Jordan "full of the Spirit," and then was led " by the Spirit" for forty days in the wilderness. Whatever Jesus did, it was with the accompaniment of the Holy Spirit. A biblical scholar has suggested there is a parallel between Jesus' baptism and the angel's annunciation to Mary. The Spirit descended like a dove upon Jesus. The angel told Mary, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you. The power of the Most High shall overshadow you." Did this mean Mary was a minister? I've heard those who support women becoming Catholic priests say that Mary was the first priest because the body and blood of Christ came through her for the world. The heavens opened and Jesus heard, "With you I am well pleased." Then in Luke 2: 14 the heavens opened and angels sing "Glory to God and peace upon those with whom he is pleased."

Mary didn't just decide one fine day, "I think I'll have God's baby." Jesus didn't just decide one day while sawing two by fours in the carpenter shop, "I believe I'll change the course of history." The initiative was God's. The call went out to Mary. She said yes and was empowered to do her work. Jesus' life began in the manger, but his ministry didn't begin until his baptism which was sealed with God's approval.

When I was baptized on Palm Sunday in 1971, I didn't realize at the time what I was becoming. Back then I didn't have the experience, the skills, the wisdom or the sensitivities of a minister. Some days, I still don't. It took eleven years of study, struggle and testing to get to a point where I was of much use to anyone. On an April Sunday twenty-seven years ago I said yes to Jesus and, like you, became a minister. It wasn't my idea. I was going to be a rock star and if that failed an architect. But God had another idea in mind.

God's idea was to make Mary the starting point in the story of salvation. She said yes. And because she did, he came, was baptized, ministered, was obedient unto death, was raised to life, and bids us to the waters of baptism and the work of the kingdom. And please, hold onto this...He doesn't set us up for failure. There is no ministry we shoulder that He won't provide the resources to meet.

I read that in a certain city, all the African-American congregations gather on Good Friday for three hours of preaching from their various pastors. One of them had just delivered a superb sermon, but the preacher who followed was struggling. The folks from his congregation were scattered throughout the sanctuary trying to encourage him, but he was so unnerved he floundered for the first ten minutes. Suddenly he stopped in mid sentence and cried to the congregation, "Give me some hep! Ah can't do dis without yo hep. Please hep me now!"

The congregation responded like they had been asked to pull a drowning child from a lake. A bolt of electric excitement shot through the people and was expressed by spirited encouragement, hand clapping, and shouts of "Amen!" "That's right!" "You tell it right!" They raised him about four levels, and though it wasn't the best sermon that afternoon, it certainly was the most exciting. They lifted him instead of letting him down. He didn't preach that sermon...the whole church did! The Spirit had led everyone to minister to each other.

There is really no need to get bogged down in "go nowhere" debates about "how" baptism ought to be done. Mechanics aren't what matters. Meaning does. Baptism in Christ is the beginning point of a life- long ministry and a timeless relationship with God. Crystal, Trisha, and Joe...your decision is the focus of our attention this morning, but what you are about to become focuses attention on what we all have promised. It is our job to help you hear what God wants you to do. It's our job to help you know the gifts you have been given. And it will be our joy to watch what God will do in your life.

Somebody said that, "The miracle of the baptism of the Lord is not what he gives up, but rather what he takes on, and what he takes on is US." We all have been ordained for ministry-to help, to hold, to heal, and to reflect the light of his love. In Jesus' baptism, he took on us. In ours, we reflect him:

He the head, we are His members, we reflect the light he is.
He the master, we disciples, He is ours and we are his.

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