The Baptism of Our Lord 2010                         Christ Church , York

It might have been a favorite of your grandmothers or something spoken by your own mother. It might have been a quote pronounced by your father or by that pastor who taught you catechism. But regardless from whom it came it is that verse from Scripture which has remained important to you, stuck with you and helped provide its own strength in your journey through life and to which you return to time and again for support or consolation. Most of us here probably have such a favorite piece from Scripture and this morning we heard one of my favorite passages, this wonderful piece from the prophet Isaiah spoken on behalf of God to His people while they lived in exile. These are great words of hope and consolation that have not only meant a great deal to me in my life but have also become the words I often use when speaking with people in the hospital or to those going through their own trials and tribulations. “But 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 your name you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through the fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel , your Savior.”

It is the prophet Isaiah who comes to speak these words to God’s people, a people living in the midst of their great trial and tribulation, a people who had been defeated in battle by the Babylonians and taken into slavery, a people to whom life seemed impossible and for whom all hope was gone. But then along comes this prophet to assure the people in exile that they would return to the land which God had given them and that once again God would save His people. For Isaiah, these words affirm that the God who had created all things and who had redeemed a special people would now re-create them in fulfillment of the promises He had made. In and through the words of the prophet, God promises that He would never forget His people, that even though things seemed bleak and almost impossible, yet He would once again redeem them and bring them home. And so Isaiah proclaims “But 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 your name you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through the fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel , your Savior.”

We could hear these words on any day of the year and they would speak to us of the same hope and promise that the people must have felt when they heard them so many centuries ago. Yet on this Sunday when we also come to celebrate the Festival of the Baptism of Our Lord, these words take on special meaning. For as the exiles made their way home, as they passed through the rivers and waters that barred their way, they literally came to see this passing through the waters as a form of redemption. The waters that could be so troublesome, so threatening, so overwhelming are now waters which behave in a different way. Instead of drowning and destroying this people as they had done to the Egyptians many years before, the waters now become their assurance of salvation, fulfilling the promises made by the prophet. The waters, so prominent in God’s creation, so necessary for the sustenance of life, so essential to the cleansing and purifying of life, now perform a new function for the people, testifying that God was indeed with them. “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you,” says God. The waters would not be ordinary waters. Instead they would be the visible witness that God was redeeming and saving His people.

So, as the prophet goes on to explain, the preconditions of salvation are found not in what we have done, but rather in what God has done for us. For it is the God who created, formed and redeemed this people and who now says to them, “Do not fear for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are mine.” This is important for us as Lutherans, especially in the face of other Christians who make the validity of baptism dependent upon what the candidate for baptism believes or does. Many of the fundamentalist churches believe that a person must make his or herself worthy of baptism. But this makes of baptism a hoop through which you must jump in order to be saved. What the prophet makes clear is that the God who created the people and the God who redeemed them will now save them again by the fact of their passing through the waters of baptism. For God has called them by name and stated that they are His alone. God initiates the call. God brings us through the water. God offers us His salvation.

And by passing through the waters, with the presence of God promised to them, Israel was also being offered the strength to face whatever God had in store for them. Leaving the land of exile and returning home would not be easy. The people would face many more difficulties in their lives. It would be hard. But the troubled waters would be the sign of their baptism into God’s love and grace. And with that love and grace they could pass through any fiery that beset them. Instead of being consumed by the fires, they would find themselves strengthened for life, mission and ministry. Our own Christian baptism does the same for us. When Jesus was baptized in the Jordan by John, He was being prepared for the ministry which He was about to undertake, a ministry which would be filled with troubled waters and fiery temptations and lots of trials. In the same way, our baptism is to recall for us that God has conditioned us for life, preparing us to face what we must, secure in the knowledge and confidence that the divine resources of God are at our disposal.

That is why we can live without fear, for our baptism is God’s assurance to us that He is always acting on our behalf and so we can be confident and trusting about the future. Baptism wards off fear. Twice the prophet mentions that we do not have to fear. “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you.” And again, “Do not fear for I am with you.” Because God loves us so abundantly, we can be sure that He will never renege upon all the promises and guarantees that are given to us in baptism. Our calling is to live in the faith and trust that God is serious about His promises to us and will not fail us.

But the crowning feature of the baptism that God has created for us is that it is designed not just to cope with the difficulties of this present life, but it is also designed to prepare us for the future. The purpose of Isaiah’s words to the people was to reassure them that God would deliver them from exile. But in that act, God was also preparing them for the future, a future in which they would share in His own glory. These are my people, says God, “whom I created for my glory.” This is the same promise that God makes to us in our baptisms. In baptism God promises that He will raise us from the dead and bring us to be with Him in the glory of His kingdom. And we know that He will do this, for He has already done it once for His Son, Jesus. In the Gospel we read how it is that when Jesus is baptized, God promises to be with Him in and through the presence of the Holy Spirit that descends upon Him. God was faithful to that promise, even to the very end for, after Jesus died on the cross, God raised him up. And if God has done it for Jesus, He will do it for us. Paul says it best with these words that we read so often at funerals, “We have been buried with Him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we will certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.” This is our baptismal promise. This is our baptismal future. Baptism is about daily discovering our new life in Christ. Baptism is about living each day as the newborn children of God who are privileged to live in His Spirit. Baptism is about our future, a future which is guaranteed to us God has created us for His glory and to share that glory with Our Lord Jesus Christ.

With all this you can see why this is one of my favorite scriptural passages, for it speaks of nothing less than hope and promise, salvation and future, cleansing and rebirth and the new life promised to us through this most holy sacrament. Therefore, says the Lord God, “do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name, you are mine.” Amen.