Preached January 10, 2010 
from Luke 3: 15-17, 21-22 

So, here is John, living in the desert and calling people to change their ways and get ready for the coming of someone so special that he wasn't even worthy to be a lowly servant to him. John was careful to make it clear to the people that he was not the Messiah they were waiting for. He called the people to be baptized in the river as a symbol of their death to their old way of being, as a symbol of cleansing and renewal. And then Jesus shows up on the banks of the Jordan River. 

John's baptism was a baptism of repentance, and, although Luke's gospel doesn't mention it, Matthew's gospel tells us that John was a little freaked when Jesus came to be baptized.  John said, "You should be baptizing me" but Jesus said that it should be done "to fulfill all righteousness."  We aren't sure what that meant.

Over the last 2000 years or so, many people have speculated on why Jesus did this.

•     This was a major turning point in the life of Jesus.
•      He was identifying with the brokenness of humanity as a symbol of solidarity.
•      The act models humility and submission for us.
•      Water is a symbol of newness and power; Jesus was beginning a new ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit.
•      Baptism is a symbol of death and resurrection to new life.

Perhaps it is some of all of this.

But part of why John was reluctant to baptize Jesus is because he realized that there was a greater baptism than what he offered, and that Jesus, the Messiah would bring that baptism to the people, a baptism "with the Holy Spirit and with fire." 

So, what was the difference?  John's baptism focused on the individual decision to change one's life.  The baptism of Jesus focuses on what God does for us.  Yes, even the best of people have ways they need to change, things they need to repent of, but even more than this, we all need the salvation that only the baptism of fire and the Holy Spirit can give us.  The baptism that Jesus brings burns away our pretenses, and fills us with spiritual power. The baptism that Jesus brings is not a one-time event.  It is a rebirth into lifelong role as a beloved child of God.  As John the Baptist did, we use the symbolism of water baptism, but because of Jesus, our baptism is much more.  The water ceremony is just a symbol of something that seems almost too good to be true.  Through Jesus, we become the chosen ones of God.  The reading from Isaiah 43 tells us what it means to be chosen. 

God tells us: "I created you. I formed you. I have redeemed you.  I summon you by name.  You are mine.  I will be with you.  I am your God."

This is not some kind of exclusive superiority of Christians.  God wants everyone to share in this.  But too few people do. It is though our identity with Christ that we discover God's claim on us. 

Let's read it again. "And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

Heaven opened up. This was the inauguration of a new working of God. The Hebrew people had understood that they were God's chosen, but far too few others understood this.  Jesus shows us that if we will just die to self, our true identity in God can be born. 

Baptism is not about our repentance, our changing direction, although that is part of it.  But it is primarily about God.  God has claimed us as God's own.  We are God's beloved.  We are God's much loved children.

Throughout the New Testament, we see the term "beloved" or "those loved" used as the term for the followers of Christ.  In the English Standard Version Jude 1:1 says, "Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ"

And the title "beloved" also appears in Romans, Hebrews, Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, and Timothy. WE ARE GOD's beloved! 

Sometime try saying it out loud.  It is truly amazing.  "God LOVES me." Or maybe "GOD loves ME."  "I am God's beloved."  The psalmist found this amazing too when he wrote "When I consider the heavens the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have set in place, what is humanity that you think about us, that you care for us.  You made us a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned us with glory and honor"

Let us LIVE as God's beloved. Let us share the good news of our place in Christ.  AMEN.