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Only two weeks ago we were embraced by the glow of candles the soft strum of a guitar and sang the old Christmas eve hymn allegedly written by Franz Gruber to give his little congregation in Austria a hymn on Christmas Eve when he discovered to his horror that mice had gnawed away at the bellows and the old organ would not play. We sang it first “Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht,  alles schlaft einsam wacht, nur das traute hoch Heiliges Parr…

Then for the language challenged, the rest of the verses in English…There is a parallel in our lessons today starting with Isaiah, which scholars tell us was written at a time when the people of Israel were homesick, longing for the fatherland …

Isaiah 43:1-7

“But now this says the Lord, He who created you. He who formed you. Do not fear for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”

We are in the season of Epiphany. The season of the Magi from the East who found Jesus, and when they found him were told in a dream to return to their homeland by another way because already the powers of this world, the politics of Washington, are at odds with the powers of the Word made flesh, as they always are… Speaking of dreams.

Do you ever  pay attention to your dreams? Not the “Lord, I shouldn’t have had that last helping of chicken and buttermilk biscuits kind of dream, but the one where you awaken in a cold sweat and you are afraid?” Maybe you should. But that is another sermon.

Suffice it to say that Herod’s henchmen search the countryside looking for the baby Jesus… looking for divine royalty. When kings of any age feel that there are rivals for power they do not deal kindly with their nemesis …

Mtt. 2:16. When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men he was infuriated and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time he had learned from the Magi.

Silent Night, Holy Night, all is calm all is bright…

How we love to bask in the glow of candlelight of that night but the NT reminds us that most of the time God and politics don’t make good bed partners. It was an old man whose name was Simeon, Luke tells us, that when Mary and Joseph brought their little boy to be circumcised as was their custom on the eighth day Simeon, who had been hanging out at the temple because maybe he too had a dream, ran up to the child and told his startled parents that their child was destined for the falling and rising of many in Israel… and then almost in a whisper, a look at the young girl who was holding her first-born even closer to her bosom than before… he said “and a sword will pierce you own soul too…” Lk. 2: 34. 

And when Simeon had handed back the baby Jesus, it was Anna’s turn. She too believed in dreams and more so in fasting and prayer ... and when she saw the couple with Jesus she “began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who where looking for the redemption of Jerusalem (Lk.2:38) ”.

So in less than two weeks we move from a cozy Christmas Eve with every seat in the house filled, to Luke’s story of the Baptism of Jesus.

Luke does not tell us who baptized Jesus. We can assume it was John except that those four little vss. are missing in our text.  I know you don’t have the Gospel in the bulletin, but you do have the references. Did you notice that the Gospel is Ch.3, vss. 15-17 (18-20) missing and picking up again with vss. 21-22. Let me read you the missing part:

“but Herod the ruler who had been rebuked by John, because of Herodias his brother’s wife and because of all the evil things that Herod had done (which by the way John had no problem telling everyone)  added to them all by shutting John up in prison, v. 19.

This Herod was not a good guy… even Josephus the Jewish historian,  a secular historian of that period, did not have any nice things to say about Herod.

If we follow Luke’s account chronologically, John was in prison when Jesus was baptized. The question I try to answer in this and all sermons is where is God speaking to us in this today. To answer that question I read the Biblical text and any related texts – I struggle with the Gk. NT text, I read commentaries of Biblical scholars – I pray, I study and read … and always within the context of my own life’s experience. As limited as it may be it is all I have. So when I use my experience to illustrate where I have experienced God in my life, I don’t make it up. It is as I remember it. As I was writing these words the phone rings. A timid female voice identifies herself -- giving me a brief history of her relationship with this congregation. I’m going to make this as vague as I can to guard her anonymity. I have never met this lady and as a check of the parish register later confirmed, her connection with MLC was during Pastor Nessel’s time. She was sure she was a member at some point. Some of her children had been baptized here and she wanted her last child born also baptized. I asked about her present church activity – a long pause…

I learned that she and her family visit other churches but do not have a church home at this time. I really don’t like these long-distance religious conversations. She told me that she worked on weekends and that is why she has not been active in church. I asked about her husband. He does not work on weekends but “church is not his thing.” I have heard that before. What is it with us men, we fathers, sons and husbands that keeps us away on Sundays?

She wanted her last-born to be baptized where her other children were drowned in the Baptismal water of new life… what to do?

Baptism is a birth and the mother giving life  to the newborn is the Church – the body of Jesus who then nourishes us with the bread and wine in the community of love called by whatever we are called – MLC or St. Peter’s or Trinity… but baptize – to birth without a family to nourish is …

I know what some of you are thinking. Who is he talking about? How dare he be so callous, so insensitive?

The baptism today is not the same as our baptism. It is Jesus' baptism not for the repentance of sins but for identification with us. He had nothing to repent for except maybe for creating us in the first place. Baptism is not whether little Amy will fit into her grandmother’s baptismal gown. It is not a Christening. We christen ships with a bottle of Champagne and we baptize with the Holy Spirit.  Baptism is being born again.  It happens when you are five weeks old or 50 years old. It comes at the expense of great tribulation. Of every first-born of the Pharaohs, of all those babies during Herod’s reign two or younger. It continues to come in places like Columbia where some of the indigenous Indian population now are harassing those of their community who are Christian because of what the Spanish Conquistadors did 300 years ago.

Birth is a bloody thing as is Baptism. Isaiah writes:

When you pass through the waters I will be with you... 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.

As we move into 2010 I am asking that you again look at your confirmation promise made not to the pastor who confirmed you or the parent who prodded you or the emotions of the moment, but to God – the Word made flesh.

As they say, this is the reason for the season.

That is why we are here and that is why we have a future. Amen.