Matthew 3:13-17
January 9, 2011
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
One of the things that brings us here today is that most of us were baptized. We don’t think about it much. Perhaps only twice a year: on Palm Sunday and on the Third Sunday of Advent.
Some were baptized because you came back from a week at Youth Camp and you wanted that close feeling with Jesus to last longer. A few were baptized because when you saw that all of your friends were doing it, you didn’t want to be left out. Some went to a Billy Graham crusade many years ago where the Dr, Graham made you cry. You felt God calling you to walk down the aisle, and if you walk the aisle you get baptized. Some of you are grateful that you were baptized as an infant and have no recollection of what happened except that your parents gave you a paper certificate that it really happened. And I would guess that some of you were baptized because you got tired of not being able to drink the grape juice when we have the Lord’s Supper.
Some of you have never been baptized because you have never seen any reason why you should. Some of you have not been baptized and do not know why you have not. Some of you have not been baptized, but you have had to work hard to avoid seriously considering it.
I was baptized when I was twelve years old, in part, because my older brother, Philip was baptized when he was only 8! He was the first one in our church who got baptized so young and it took the Deacons to make a special exception for him. I didn’t want people to think that he was more Christian than I was.
I was baptized with my older cousin Donna Ang by Rev. Charles Griffin in 1961 but what I thought would happen didn’t. I envisioned that I would be saintly but I was still my old self. So, I asked Rev. Griffin to give me some remedial baptism classes and we met for a number of weeks after my baptism. He told me that baptism is just the beginning step to a lifelong journey of discipleship.
You may find this hard to believe but my very first baptisms that I performed were with Don Fong, Sharon Fong, Brianne Fong, Brandon Fong, Brent Fong, Wes Chan. Sheryl Chan, Chris Chan and Allison Chan on Jan. 2, 2000. And it wasn’t here in our sanctuary but at the Independent Baptist Church on Washington Street since our church was closed for our retrofit. I remember their baptistery was not heated like ours.
When I baptized Stephanie Ng, I got the reputation that I was trying to drown her. Stephanie being small and light just floated and started to flagging her arms but I was determined to immerse her completely with no dry spot on her head! As a Baptist church, we take pride on immersing people 100%.
We learn the meaning of our baptisms after the fact. Most of us did not fully know what we were doing on the day we were baptized. It is years later, as we make our way slowly into faith that the purpose begins to unfold. We discover what our baptisms mean after the event rather than before. That is how it was with Jesus.
Jesus’ Baptism
In Matthew’s Gospel, the story skips from Jesus as an infant to Jesus as a thirty-year old man without any clue as to what happened in between. One day Jesus puts down his hammer, takes off his tool belt, hangs a “closed” sign on the door of the carpenter’s shop and asks, “What does God want of me?”
He heads south and finds his cousin John, smelling of locust and honey, standing in the muddy Jordan in his camel hair baptismal robe. Jesus gets in line and waits his turn. He wades out into the water, right next to real sinners like you and me.
While three gospels tell the story of Jesus’ baptism, only Matthew records the curious conversation prior to the baptism. Jesus is eager to be baptized, but John hesitates. Standing in the hip-deep river, they have this theological debate about who should baptize whom. Jesus says he needs to be baptized because it will help him learn who he is meant to be. Jesus leans back into the water because he believes that God is calling him to a different kind of life.
When Jesus rises, the waters of the Jordan dripping on his face, he sees the Spirit descending like a dove to rest upon his soggy head. The Spirit comes not as an all-consuming fire of judgment, but with the flutter of hopeful wings. A voice says: “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
Then Jesus goes into the desert for forty days to think about what it means to be God’s child. Jesus spends all the days and years that follow that afternoon in the Jordan River discovering the meaning of his baptism. Jesus gave up everything—his dreams, his plans, his carpenter career, and his life itself. Jesus gave himself to God’s people, took his place with hurting people. Baptism was Jesus’ commissioning to ministry.
During the week before his death, the leaders of the temple challenged Jesus: “By what authority do you do these things?” Jesus answered with a reference to his baptism: “Was the baptism of John from heaven or not? I was baptized. That’s why I do the things I do.” In the waters of baptism, Jesus heard the Spirit calling him to speak the truth and live with grace.
Jesus does not die of old age. He dies because he takes his baptism seriously. When Jesus cried on the cross, “It is finished,” it was his baptism that was complete.
Beginning is Easier than Finishing
Baptism, like most beginnings, finds it’s meaning long after the event. Starting, by itself, is often of little consequence. Beginning is usually easy. Finishing is often hard.
The New England Patriots has the best record in the NFL. They finished the season 14 and 2. The Patriots quarterback Tom Brady from San Mateo said something like we may have the best record during the season, but in the playoffs, all the teams are starting out equal—We are all 0-0. We have to focus on finishing the post-season to win the Super Bowl.
A month before the wedding, a glassy-eyed couple can tell me that they are the perfect couple. One of the joys of ministry is for me to tell them: “You get no points for getting this far. On your wedding day almost every couple is capable of creating a life together filled with faith, hope, and joy.”
Marriages cannot be judged on the wedding day. In ten years they are just starting to see what they have done with it. What does it mean to get married and to stay married? Sometimes you can find some meaning in the wedding pictures but more often it is discovered as they sit together at the dinner table and what they say to each other. Beginning is usually easier than finishing.
Any husband can stand in the delivery room, give his wife ice chips and say, “You’re doing great, honey.” Every father looks good holding a newborn. You cannot judge fathers in the maternity ward. In twenty years, you start to see how hard they have worked on it. What does it mean when a child is born? You won’t know until this child is finished with college, starts a career and settles down to have a home. Beginning is easier than finishing.
The significance of any decision takes a while. It does not take us nearly as much to decide to be a friend as it takes to actually be a friend. Moments of beginnings are meaningless until we are true to the promise of that beginning.
We too quickly think that what we need is a new start. Our culture has an insatiable appetite for new things, but we can add a thousand new things without it meaning anything. We think that just because something is brand new and it comes out of a newly opened box, it must be better than the old one that we have. We spend too much of our lives looking for the new without exploring the old. We do not need new beginnings nearly so much as we need to make sense of the old beginnings that have not yet come to completion.
Baptism is a Beginning
Baptism is a beginning, the prologue to a book waiting to be written. The Introduction might be intriguing but the chapters still need to be developed.
Every once in a while, someone will ask to be re-baptized. They say something like: “I was sincere when I was baptized, but then I drifted away. I want to start again.” The problem is not with the baptism. Your beginning was fine. You need to live out what you’ve already started.
My younger brother Steven became cynical about his faith especially when he knew I was in seminary asked if he could be un-baptized. My theology was not as integrated as it is now. But I wish I could have said to him, “The problem is not with your baptism. Your beginning was fine even if you don’t have much interest in it for now. You need to live out what you’ve already started.”
Notice when Jesus’ baptism served as his commissioning to ministry that after he came out of the Jordan, a voice from haven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” “Well pleased” is not heard at the culmination of Jesus’ ministry, but at the beginning.
We are accepted by God for what and who we are, as we are, and not for what we have managed to do. Not our resumes nor our degrees, inventions nor awards, empires we have built, diseases we have cured, lives we have saved, good works we have done—but the divine word of affirmation comes prior to everything else. Our baptism is our spiritual credentials.
At baptism as at Creation, one might say that God looks upon the face of the water, beholds those who emerge from it, he pronounces it all “very good.” Just imagined when you came out of the baptismal waters, God said, “This is my child, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” God said this to you. He said it to me. This is the beginning step of a whole new life.
Living Out Our Baptism
When we hand out your Baptism Certificate, it’s really a road map for you to take a trip. It takes our whole life to finish the journey we began when we’re baptized.
What does it mean to us to live out our baptisms? If we are true to our baptisms, we cannot make ourselves comfortable, cannot do only what will be appreciated, and cannot be satisfied with the way things are. This is the reason why we want to answer the question, “Who is My Neighbor?” in 2011. Our baptisms demand that we struggle with what’s right and what’s wrong in the world, what’s important and what’s not.
What does it mean to us to live out our baptisms? It’s the beginning step for us as the children of God to
Tell the truth in a world that lies,
Give in a world that takes,
Love in a world that lusts,
Make peace in a world that fights,
Serve in a world that wants to be served,
Pray in a world that waits to be entertained,
Take chances in a world that worships safety,
Go out and get to know our neighbors in a world that is fraught with fear.
Baptism is our ordination to ministry. It’s the beginning step that we take to live with more concern for the hurting than for our own comfort. It’s the beginning step that we take to share our time with the poor and listen to the lonely. It’s the beginning step that we take to take issue with the values and norms of the world and to speak about peace, justice and reconciliation.
For those who have not yet been baptized, are you ready to take the beginning step? For most of us who are baptized, we know now that beginning is easier than finishing. Are you prepare to finish and lived out what you‘ve already started?
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus, in your baptism the heavenly voice proclaimed that you were indeed the Son of God. You came among us, in the flesh, as manifestation of the full glory of God. We pray that in our baptism in your name that we too claim our identity as the children of God to live out the meaning of our lives in humble and faithful service to you. Grant us courage to finish what we started in this New Year. In your precious name, we pray. Amen.