Sermon Jan. 13, 2008

Sermon-Year A-1st Sunday after Epiphany-1-13-08
The Cloud of Unknowing, "O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of that Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."
to provide plenty of cookies and cakes for all of our guests."
In 1st century Israel, the famous person wasn’t Jesus-it was John the Baptist. There are many references of him in Jewish literature, and hardly any about Jesus. John was very popular, thought of as a holy man. John was greatly respected and admired by the people. Not Jesus. Then, In the early days of the church, after Jesus died and rose, people kept asking, “why did Jesus need to be baptized by John?” It was scandalous, disgraceful. If Jesus was the Son of God, why did he need John to baptize him. It probably doesn’t rank up there with Brittany Spears and Lindsey Lohan for you, but it was very difficult for early Christians. Why does the Son of God need to be baptized by someone else? Why? What sins does he have? No one could answer that. It wasn’t quite as embarrassing as the cross, but there were so many things about Jesus’ life and ministry that didn’t make sense. Early Christians were walking around telling people that Jesus was the Christ, and people kept coming back at them saying, “well, if he’s the Son of God, how come…” Here’s another question people were asking, “what had Jesus been doing all his life?” He’s 30 and now and we’ve heard nothing of him. Til now. What was he waiting for?
Before performing a baptism, the priest approached the young father and said solemnly, "Baptism is a serious step, my son, are you prepared for it?" "I think so," the man replied very gravely. "My wife has made appetizers and we have a caterer coming at 1.
We hear nothing of Jesus’ life up til now. Last week he was 2 and this week he’s 30 and getting baptized. Matthew the gospel writer doesn’t seem at all interested in what has happened inbetween-only in what happens from this day forward. Jesus comes to John and asks to be baptized-like everyone else. And when he comes up out of the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 3:17 And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."
We don’t know what Jesus was doing up til now. But we know what happens next. Jesus gets baptized-and his journey begins. Baptism is when everything begins.
Diane Borg writes: A watermark is an interesting thing. It's usually a mark on some piece of property that indicates possession and ownership by someone.
That’s what baptism is. It’s our watermark. It's a public declaration to anyone watching that we belong to Jesus Christ and we are his followers John is baptizing people as a symbol of repentance, a washing away of the old life. But when Jesus comes up out of the water, something new happens. God doesn’t say, “you’re forgiven”. He says, This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."
He identifies Jesus as someone special, and unique. We don’t know what happened up til age 30, but from now on, Jesus’ life will never be the same.
Fred Craddock, a seminary professor was vacationing with his wife in Gatlinburg, TN. One night they found a quiet little restaurant where they looked forward to a private meal—just the two of them. While they were waiting for their meal, they noticed a distinguished looking, white-haired man moving from table to table, visiting guests. Craddock whispered to his wife, “I hope he doesn’t come over here.” He didn’t want the man to intrude on their privacy. But sure enough, the man did come over to their table.“Where are you folks from?” he asked in a friendly voice. “Oklahoma,” they answered.“Great to have you here in Tennessee” the stranger said.“Oklahoma is a splendid state, I hear, although I’ve never been there. What do you do for a living?”“ I teach homiletics at the graduate seminary of Phillips University,” he replied. “Oh, so you teach preachers how to preach, do you? Well, I’ve got a really great story for you.” And with that, the gentleman pulled up a chair and sat down at the table with Craddock and his wife. Craddock groaned inwardly and thought to himself, “Great! Just what I need…another preacher story!” The man started, “See that mountain over there,” pointing out the restaurant window. “Not far from the base of that mountain, there was a boy born to an unwed mother. He had a hard time growing up, because every place he went, he was always asked the same question, ‘Hey boy, who’s your daddy?’ Whether he was at school, in the grocery store or drug store, people would ask the same question, ‘Who’s your daddy?’ He would hide at recess and lunchtime from other students. He would avoid going into stores because that question hurt him so bad. When he was about 12 years old, a new preacher came to his church. The boy would always go in late and slip out early to avoid hearing the question, ‘Who’s your daddy?’ But one day, the new preacher said the final benediction so fast he got caught and had to walk out with the crowd. Just about the time he got to the back door, the new preacher, not knowing anything about him, put his hand on his shoulder and asked him, ‘Son, who’s your daddy?’ The whole church got deathly quiet. He could feel every eye in the church looking at him. Now everyone would finally know the answer to the question, ‘Who’s your daddy?’. This new preacher, though, sensed the situation around him and using discernment that only the Holy Spirit could give, said the following to that scared little boy…‘Wait a minute!’ he said, ‘I know who you are. I see the family resemblance now. You are a child of God.’ With that, he patted the boy on his shoulder and said,’ Boy, you’ve got a great inheritance. Go and claim it.’ The boy smiled for the first time in a long time and walked out the door a changed person. He was never the same again. Whenever anybody asked him, ‘Who’s your Daddy?’ he’d just tell them,’ I’m a child of God’ ”.The distinguished gentleman got up from the table and said, “Isn’t that a great story?” The professor responded that it really was a great story! As the man turned to leave, he said, “You know, if that new preacher hadn’t told me that I was one of God’s children, I probably never would have amounted to anything! That was the most important single sentence ever spoken to me,” and he walked away. Craddock and his wife were stunned. He called the waitress over and asked her, “The man who was sitting at our table and just left, do you know who he is?” The waitress grinned and said, “Of course. Everybody here knows him. That’s Ben Hooper. He’s the former governor of Tennessee!”
We believe Jesus was sinless, but he still went to be baptized. We don’t know what he had been doing the last 30 years, but we do know what he did the next three years. God spoke to Jesus, his child and said, “you are my beloved, I love you.” And from that day forward, Jesus was a on a mission.
We are all children of God. We have all been adopted by God. We have all been chosen. We have an inheritance to claim, a mission to declare. Jesus was told that he was God’s beloved, and from then on nothing was ever the same. We, also, are God’s beloved.
We have a great inheritance. Go and claim it.
Matthew 3:13-17
3:13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. 3:14 John would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" 3:15 But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness." Then he consented. 3:16 And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 3:17 And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."
The Greek Festival of Epiphany, or 'The Blessing of the Waters', is held every year on January 6 throughout all of Greece. This is the special occasion when many daring young Greek men brave the chilly waters to dive for a cross after it has been blessed by a priest and thrown into the water. For his gallantry, the first man who recovers the cross is said to have good luck throughout the coming year.