This sermon was preached at Glenwood and Canoe Ridge Lutheran Churches, Decorah, Iowa on January 13, 2019. It’s based on Isaiah 43:1-3a, 5-7 and Luke 3:15-22. If you’d prefer to listen to it, find it at https://soundcloud.com/stacey-nalean-carlson.
Isaiah 43:1-3a, 5-7
1But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. 2When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.
3For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
5Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you; 6I will say to the north, “Give them up,” and to the south, “Do not withhold; bring my sons from far away and my daughters from the end of the earth—7everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”
Luke 3:15-22
15As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 16John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
18 So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people. 19 But Herod the ruler, who had been rebuked by him because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and because of all the evil things that Herod had done, 20 added to them all by shutting up John in prison.
21Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, 22and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
I’d like to add one more verse to our gospel reading for today. It picks up immediately where our reading ends. Luke 3:23—Jesus was about thirty years old when he began his work. Jesus’ baptism, then, which we celebrate today, is a beginning. So is ours.
In his book, To Bless the Space Between Us, John O’Donohue writes: Sometimes the greatest challenge is to actually begin; there is something deep in us that conspires with what wants to remain within safe boundaries and stay the same…There is an old Irish proverb that says, “Tus maith leath na hoibre.” “A good beginning is half the work.” There seems to be a wisdom here, when one considers all the considerations, hesitation, and uncertainty that can claim our hearts for such a long time before the actual act of beginning happens. Sometimes a period of preparation is necessary, where the idea of the beginning can gestate and refine itself; yet quite often we unnecessarily postpone and equivocate when we should simply take the risk and leap into a new beginning.1
I once had the joy of baptizing a little girl who was old enough to walk and talk and be aware of what was happening. So I went to great lengths to inform her about what was going to take place. I didn’t want her to be startled by the water landing on her head and maybe even dripping down into her eyes. I wanted her to know what to expect. I wanted her to be comfortable. As I was yammering on and on, she interrupted me. Just do it, she said.
It was as if she knew something that I had forgotten. Baptism isn’t comfortable. It’s startling. Even dangerous. Baptized we live, yes, but we also die.
We die to sin—to that insistent inclination to curve in on ourselves, to isolate, to focus only on what we think will give us security. We rise from the waters that drown us, to a new life that insists on the way of love for neighbors near and far.
There’s no way to know what to expect when we come to the font, no way to know where our baptism will take us. But this little girl was impatient to get on with her journey…no matter where God might lead her. She was ready to leap into the new beginning that God had created for her.
Who was I to stand in her way with my desire to make this easier for her? I baptized her in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. And God claimed her in those cleansing waters. God lit a fire in her for justice and peace and joy.
God is propelling her on a path of love that might just turn out to be a path through rivers that threaten to overwhelm and flames that threaten to consume. But it is also God who will keep those threatening rivers from overwhelming her and those dangerous flames from consuming her.
I don’t know where your baptism will take you. I don’t know the situations where God will call for you to speak, to act, to make a difference. But I do know this: it is your creator who will go with you, the one who formed you who will free you from fear, your Savior who will gather you into the beloved community and bless you with the support and encouragement of those around you.
Some of you may know that Alllysen Lovstuen wore a dress every day during the month of December, as she has done for the last few years, to raise awareness and funds for Dressember, an organization that works to combat human trafficking.2
In one of her daily posts, Allysen began with a quote from the Global Slavery Index of 2018: $127.7 billion worth of garments at risk of including modern slavery in their supply chain are exported annually. Then she wrote: I have always been a bargain shopper. Unfortunately that means I have supported slavery. I commit to being a more discerning shopper because all should have the chance to live a good life.
Baptism may cost you. There might be a price to be paid for doing what God calls you to do. Are you willing to take the risk and keep on beginning, keep on dying and rising, keep on trusting your Savior?
Today, do you intend to continue in the covenant God made with you in Holy Baptism: to live among God’s faithful people, to hear the word of God and share in the Lord’s supper, to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed, to serve all people, following the example of Jesus, and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth?
If so, answer: I do, and I ask God to help and guide me.
And do you promise, people of God, to support and pray for one another in your life in Christ?
If so, answer: We do, and we ask God to help and guide us.3
I’m not sure I had ever noticed this before, but Luke tells us that Jesus was praying after his baptism and before the heaven opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him. We don’t know what he prayed. But I like to imagine these words, again from John O’Donohue, on his lips.
And I hope that this might be our prayer as well–the prayer of the baptized, the prayer of God’s beloved, the prayer of those who live secure not because the way is easy, but because God is good.
Let us pray:
May I live this day
Compassionate of heart,
Clear in word,
Gracious in awareness,
Courageous in thought,
Generous in love.4
Amen.
1 To Bless the Space Between Us by John O’Donohue, Beginnings, p. 3. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com
3 Questions and responses from Evangelical Lutheran Worship, Affirmation of Baptism, p. 237.
4 To Bless the Space Between Us by John O’Donohue, Matins, p. 8.