Genesis 1:1-5
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Over the last couple of weeks, we have had a lot of holidays in the Christian church, beginning with Christmas Eve and Christmas day and then stretching through now there's a whole lot of things to celebrate. That happened. The day after Christmas is a big day. It is St. Stephen's day, the very first martyr in the Christian church. And, you know, you probably knew this already because of the song Good King once this law, right? Good Kingdom once this law worked out, when on the feast of Stephen, right, the day after Christmas, we also have other days of celebration. New Year's Day is a holy day in the church. It is eight days after Jesus was born, when he was circumcised, and first shed his blood in fulfilling the law for us. You might think, well, that's a little weird day to celebrate. But it's a big moment. In the Christian church. There's also the holy innocence. That is the day that Herod sent out his armies after the wise men left. And he went and killed all the young boys in Bethlehem, two years old, and under the first martyrs of Jesus's day. And yesterday, we celebrated the Epiphany, when the wise men came and saw Jesus for the first time and worshipped him, and gave him gold and frankincense and myrrh. Lots of holidays, in the last couple of weeks. And today, we finish out these series of holidays with the baptism of our Lord, Jesus being revealed for the first time as Son of God, to the people who would hear him speak, going out to the Jordan River and being baptized by John. Sometimes I think we forget how cool this moment is. It's only a few sentences. But I want you to imagine what it might be like, actually seeing it happen experiencing it, whether you're Jesus or someone, they're just watching. The heavens are torn open. The Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit comes down like a dove, and a voice cries out from heaven, you are my beloved son with you. I am well pleased. That's kind of a cool day. I think if that happened to me, it might make my day. Probably I'd be pretty happy after that. might even make my year or perhaps best day in my lifetime. Pretty cool stuff going on. And we read through it, just a few sentences, and it's gone. We don't always reflect on the amazing thing that happened. When Jesus is revealed as the Son of God in this baptism. The Spirit and the Word come together. And it's on this day that our lectionary pairs an odd reading. You know, I have chosen to preach on the Old Testament readings throughout this year. And they often pair readings with their gospels and the Old Testament along a theme, especially on holidays like today. And in Genesis one. We're talking about this creation story. In the beginning, God created the heavens in the earth. Now, we often read the creation story, Genesis one all the way through in our lectionary pops up at least once, usually. And when we do that, it's pretty clear that it's focusing in on the idea of God being all powerful, and over creation. God has made the world and everything and everything is underneath his control and power. And then he hands off managing his creation to the human beings He created, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and have dominion, he says. But here today, it's only got the first day. It's a little hard, right? Why is it that God or our lectionary has paired this story with the baptism of Jesus? And I think what it has to do is the Parents have the Holy Trinity in this creation story, because it says In the beginning God created the heavens in the earth. And then a little bit later, in the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. So what we get is, there is the father, a voice, the spirits hovering over some water, and the Son of God in the word, let there be light. It actually kind of sounds like Jesus's baptism, right? You've got the father of voice being spoken, the Holy Spirit coming down like a dove over the water, and the sun is there to hear it all. What an amazing day. And this Genesis Reading helps us to see the power of God's word. Because when God says something, it happens. God says, Let there be light. And then there was light, it came into being God's creation was just a voice spoken into the void. It did not say God got together and he bound up a whole bunch of hydrogen atoms. And he smashed it together with his hands until it's really tight, and then formed into a star. Let there be light. And there was light. God's voice did it. And it's the voice of God that is important, the word of God. That is important as we consider Jesus's baptism. So as we celebrate Jesus's baptism, we celebrate two things. First, this baptism is a revelation of Jesus is God's Son and the beginning of His ministry. From here, he goes out into the wilderness, and then he preaches the kingdom of God is here. Until we remember that Jesus is baptism sanctifies, the waters of baptism for us. That the experience of Jesus paves the way through his life, desert, death and resurrection, for us to be chosen as God's sons with Jesus, and be fellow heirs with Him. And to be filled with the Holy Spirit just as He is. By His life, death and resurrection, that he makes this happen for us. And Genesis, points us to the power of God's Word. And it makes me ask a bit of a question. What is it that makes a baptism, a baptism? When we splash water on someone, what makes it a baptism? Now, this question may seem weird to you, because you know, especially if you've been a Lutheran your whole life, you're just like, well, it's just is right. We know what it does. When someone comes forward. We say the words we pour the water on their head, and they're baptized, and then they're one of us, right? That's just how it works. And I do that with a lot of things in my life, right? I have a computer. I do not know how it works. It is a box. And it might as well be magic. I mash my fingers on the keyboard. Cool stuff happens on the screen. And it's great. I don't need to know how it works. Until it breaks, right. Kristen had a computer that stops charging not too long ago. And we're like, oh, no, what's going on? And I did my magic thing. You know, the magic thing that you do when your computer doesn't work? You turn it off and you turn it back on again. And it didn't fix it. I'm like, Oh, I'm out of things to do. We had to take it all the way down to the Apple Store. And they figured out that it was an IO board. Just wasn't working wasn't charging. Do you know what an IO board is? I know input output that doesn't fix anything. It just makes the name longer. Once that was fixed, it was back to being a perfectly good magic box again. Sometimes you have to take things apart. Sometimes times you got to know what's going on to be able to understand the thing you need to really look at it.
So what is it that makes baptism work? What is it that makes a baptism? A Baptism? You can go to a pool, splash people with water, that's not a baptism. My brother and I, we love the Super Soakers back in the day and we pump those things up and he spray each other down. And that's not a baptism. What makes it work? What makes it so that when the father looks down on the person who is being baptized, he says, You are my son, whom I love with you, I am well pleased. Well, Luther gives us some help. He asked the question, what is baptism in his Small Catechism, and he says, baptism is not just plain water, but it is the water included in God's command, and combined with God's word. Then he goes, which is that word of God? He writes this, Christ, our Lord says in the last chapter of Matthew, Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. There says something pretty simple. What is baptism? It is the water, included with God's command, and combined with God's word. So what you get is, Jesus says, do it. And then he gives us the words, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And it's the word that empowers the sacraments to do their thing, because it's the same word that said, let there be light, and there was light that sends us to baptize. See, there's nothing magic about the water. We, we take the water from the tap, pour it into the bowl, we bring it out, and we set it down. And then when we're done, we take it back out and we dump it. It's the same water that you drink. It's nothing magic about it. We don't order it from the Jordan River and have it shipped in so that the magical properties of Jesus's baptism can be given to you. That's not what makes the baptism work. It's the voice that said, let there be light. And there was light. That also says, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. It's not even the pastor who makes a baptism work. There is no indelible quality, no magical gift that the pastor receives that makes a baptism happen. Sometimes we think that I want you to imagine for a second, the wizard Gandalf probably have an image of him or maybe any other wizard there. There's a common image right? wizards in our mind, and in our imagination, they typically are wearing a well. A white robe, right? I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm wearing a white robe. They usually have a rope tied around their waist. You don't get to see it. But you know who's wearing a white rope when he's up here. The vicar. We call it a Cincture. They often also wear a really tall pointy hat. Do you know who wears really tall pointy hats? Bishops, right. Gandalf also walks around with a really big stick could dunk right? Everywhere he goes, who also walks around with a really big stick a bishop. They call it a Crozier. I bet you never really thought about why are our wizards in fantasy look just like pastors. Because some people think that pastors can do magic with the waters of baptism, or with Holy Communion. But it's not because I wave my hands over the cauldron of God's word and the baptism and say Ah, now it's a baptism. It's very simple. The same voice that said, let there be light sends me to say, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. That's what does it. The command of God, and the voice of God. Luther says it this way. How can water do such great things? Certainly not just water. But the word of God in and with the water does these things along with the faith which trust this word of God, in the water, or without God's Word, the water is plain water, and no baptism. But with the Word of God is a baptism. That is a life giving water rich in grace, and a washing of the new birth of the Holy Spirit. As St. Paul says in Titus, chapter three, he saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit comi poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ, our Savior, so that having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs, having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. Jesus gives us this amazing thing when he sends us to be baptized. We have the word of God, the same word of God that spoke in creation that said, let their light be light and brought light into existence. That same voice said, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. And it's that word that makes a baptism into a baptism that saves you because it's the power of the Word of God at work behind it all. In Jesus name, Amen.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai