Baptized in the Spirit Matthew 3__1-17 ADVENT II
Second Sunday in Advent (A)
the kingdom of heaven is at hand
Isaiah 11:1-10
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.
Psalm 72:1-8, (9-19) BCP
Romans 15:4-13
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.
For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name.” And again it is said, “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.” And again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him.” And again Isaiah says, “The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles hope.” May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope
Matthew 3:1-12
In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.” Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Baptized in the Spirit Matthew 3__1-17 ADVENT II
INTRODUCTION
In the past year we have all seen houses blown away by tornadoes, some only a few miles from here. On the news programs we have seen tsunamis wipe out cities in the Orient, and a tidal wave also hit Spain. We have seen New Orleans devastated by two storms. Homes there and across the gulf coast were lifted off their foundations and washed away. Earthquakes in Europe and in the Orient have brought down many homes, mountains fell on villages swallowing them up in a sea of mud.
Jesus told a story about two builders – one foolish who built his house on the sand, and the sea beat against it, and the storms lashed at it and it fell. The wise man built his house on a rock and withstood the storms of life.
Think about the foundation of the church, and the foundation of it’s founder Jesus Christ. Few human structures stand up to the tides of time and the storms of life, but the Church, built on the foundation of Jesus the Christ, still endures. Is it real? Does it work? Generation after generation of Christians have lived successfully, triumphantly against the storms of life because they know and have experienced that the essence of reality is spiritual in nature. The world passes away.
Building a life on the things we see around is like building a house on quicksand.
That word, the Christ, means the one anointed by God to lead and save God’s people. Save them from what? From captivity in the transient world.
Have you ever considered that Jesus the Anointed, the Christ who is our foundation- must himself had a sure foundation in order to become foundation of our faith?
Jesus had to rest upon some secure base so that he could do all that was needed for all of his disciples throughout the last 2000 years. The foundation upon which Jesus rested is your foundation as well. It is not an economic theory. It is not a political or social force. It is not an earthly kingdom that will be over thrown in life’s storms. As the prophet said, “Not by armies, not by might, but by my spirit says the Lord.”
That foundation we discover at the scene acted out by the River Jordan that was read from the Book of Matthew this morning.
We are at the beginning of the Christian Year. Year after year for the last 2000 years the Church has followed this cycle. For a long time, I thought the prayer book had it wrong. We should begin the Church year with Christmas, with Jesus in the manger. No, Christmas is not the beginning. The miraculous birth and the bright child in the temple is not the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Christmas is not the beginning of the Church, or of the ministry of Jesus.
Those who laid out the Church year had it right. The prayer book is correct.
Mark, the no-nonsense Gospel says it vigorously and powerfully.
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, "Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ’Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,’"
John the Baptist called the people of God to repentance. He had not undertaken a mission to the Gentiles, to England, or to Northern Europe or the Far East. He stood at a cross roads in the Jordan Valley where the people chosen long ago by God would come by and hear his call.
“Repent. The Kingdom is near at hand,” said John. “Turn around, the Kingdom has come upon you.”
The Church of the Good Shepherd has taken seriously the task of building the Church, extending the Reign of God here in this community. We must be certain of the foundation.
St. Paul had started a Church in the ancient city of Corinth in Greece. That Church had grown quickly but had serious internal problems. Paul wrote to that Church say, “According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another builds thereon. But let every man take heed how he builds thereupon.”
“For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 3:10-12 )
After laying out the problems in that Church, Paul called them to remember their Baptism into Christ, that they had put on Christ, and had been given the Spirit that would allow them to grow. Then they would manifest that spirit by an infusion of the cardinal virtues of FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE.
The Foundation of the Church is Jesus the Anointed, Jesus the Christ, Jesus the Chosen by God and Anointed by God. Where do we see this? It is at his baptism! The beginning of Jesus’ ministry would lead him to a cross on a hillside called Calvary. The journey started in a river named Jordan at a baptismal service. Here he began his life’s mission.
Jesus was not there to renounce a sinful way of life; John the Baptist recognized Jesus’ character and said, “I need to be baptized by you!”
"I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he consented. 16And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved Son,[c] with whom I am well pleased.”
(Mat 3:14-17)
Here, he had answered the call of the Father to ministry. After being baptized not only in the water but in the Holy Spirit, the Spirit drove him to the place of testing where he resisted the allurements of the world, the flesh and the power over the world offered by the Devil.
Then the same Spirit, after he had passed the test, sent him minister to the sick, to those possessed by Demons, to those caught in vice and attached to this passing world. His message was: “The time has arrived; the Kingdom of God is upon you. Repent, and believe the Gospel, the Good News.”
What was the Good News? The Good News was that the Kingdom had come upon them, the Anointed King was in their midst, by the power of the Spirit he was healing bodies, minds, and souls that had been imprisoned.
Jesus then began calling disciples, followers who would learn and spread the message. By the sea side he called Peter, James, and John.
“Then, Jesus, armed with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee; and reports of him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues and everyone sang his praise.”
Full of the same Spirit, after he had passed the test, the spirit sent him to Church, to the Synagogue at Nazareth in Galilee of the Gentiles and there he preached the sermon that began with the words of Isaiah 61: recorded in Luke 4:18-21
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor."
And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21And he began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."
Christ’s beginning is also our beginning. We begin with baptism, a baptism of repentance toward God, accepting that the Kingdom has come upon us and being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Child of God I baptize you in the name Of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. In our situation, we realize that it is important that it is a sign that God is cleansing us; sin no longer separates us from God, as he has provided a way back to him, just as He parted the waters so the Children of Israel could leave Egypt and find their way to the Land of Promise.
But of more significance to the Kingdom is the beginning of ministry. Now that we have entered Christ, we too have the anointing. We too have a mission to accomplish in this world.
When John cried out in the desert “Repent” He was saying not just turn away from sin, but return to God. That was the heart and soul of John’s message. Turn to God. For God’s kingdom is coming upon us.
That Jesus could do. Wholeheartedly he could seek God, freely and fully. It isn’t that Jesus wasn’t doing so before his baptism, but in baptism He was saying Yes! Yes to God’s call, Yes to God’s purpose in his life, Yes to God’s rule which John colorfully called the kingdom of heaven.
When Jesus said to John “it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” he wasn’t saying he wanted to live an nice moral life. No, to fulfill all righteousness is to do the will of God, whatever it may be, wherever it would lead. In his baptism Jesus embrace God’s mission with a resounding “Amen.” And in turn God embraced Him, poured out the Holy Spirit to empower him for the tasks ahead.
When Jesus came up for the river Jordan, the Holy Spirit came upon him, and God proclaimed “this; is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased
Just as Jesus was not saying he wanted to live an nice moral life, God was not saying “This is a nice Jewish boy.” What God was saying is ... - “This is the Messiah - this is my Servant”. Literally God lifted up his two deepest promises to his people Israel and rested them on Christ. First he bestowed on Jesus the title “my beloved son.” This was his promise to David, that one of his descendants would build God’s temple, one of his descendants would establish God’s kingdom, to one of David’s descendant’s God would say “I will be his father, and he shall be by son.” (Psalm 2:7, 2 Sam 7:12ff)
And secondly God’s bestowed on Jesus the promise that God would uphold him who was to be his true servant, the one who would be empowered by His Spirit, to redeem and restore Israel, and to draw all nations to his salvation.
Isaiah 43: 3 -7
“For I am the Lord your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I have given Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place. Since you are precious in My sight, Since you are honored and I love you, I will give other men in your place and other peoples in exchange for your life.”
The man whom God would give up to ransom us from our bondage to sin just said “Yes” through his baptism. He said yes to the price set for our ransom. Yes to the cost of redeeming us. In Jesus’ baptism God poured out his promises and his Spirit. He filled Jesus Christ with all the riches of heaven, that he might fulfill God’s mission as our Savior.
This was Christ’s sure foundation, that let him carry through the ‘Yes” he spoke to God in his baptism, until all was fulfilled. Christ’s foundation is also our sure foundation. We have been baptized into Christ. He has accomplished our redemption. And he invites us to say yes. Yes to the baptism we have received. Yes to joining him in the mission God is yet working in this world. And Yes to the gifts and graces, the power of the Spirit and riches of heaven that are ours in Christ Jesus.
Martin Luther said,
“baptism is something we do in the church one day, but it takes the rest of our lives to finish. In baptism we have new life in Christ, but as babes who are brought to its waters continue to grow, we too must continue to grow, to obey, to believe, and to serve. We must continually have poured upon us love, grace, and power. We must continually find refreshment through the waters of worship, word and sacrament.”
God invites us to say “Yes” this morning. Yes to the grand scheme of salvation. Yes to the promise found in our baptisms. And more importantly God invites us to say Yes to the coming of his kingdom in our daily lives, where we fret about doing it our way and getting what we want. Where saying Yes to God is so hard.
This baptismal “yes” is hard because it implies saying No to the kingdom of self.
Allowing ourselves to be put to death with Christ on the cross and buried with him that the self might die and in its place saying Yes to the rule of Christ is hard.
Saying Yes to allowing Christ to live in us so the Spirit can give us gifts and empower us to live as true children of God. Life in that spirit is where we find power to build on the strong foundation.
God invites us to have power in the Spirit of Christ. The Father will grant us our daily bread if we ask and will send the spirit so we can daily build on the foundation of Christ.
Will you say Yes? Amen.
Charles Scott
Church of the Good Shepherd, Indianapolis
