Who? (sermon draft for 1/13/08)

Grace and peace be with you from our Father God, and from the Son, the Messiah, the Light that shines in the darkness, Jesus, our Savior and Lord.

Some things that I learned in grade school I can still remember, believe it or not. Things like the first few lines to the poem “Paul Revere’s Ride.” Listen my children and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere. The capital of New Jersey. Trenton. And what a good journalist is looking for in a story. The who, what, when, where and how. All those questions get answered in a good news story.

I also remember a few things from seminary. For instance, a good theologian, looks for the what, the “so what,” and the “now what” in a story. Those questions get answered in a good sermon. Not that theologians ignore the who, what, where, when, and how of a biblical passage. Quite the contrary—they examine each one carefully to see where the import lies. Is it a “how” passage—one that examines how something is accomplished? Or is it a why? Why God flooded the earth, why people are so reluctant to trust God for everything.

So, finding out which of the five is most important helps a theologian determine the “what” of the sermon. So, strangely enough, the what of the sermon might very well be a what—but it could just as well be a where, or even a why. You follow? Once you determine the “what”—“what God is doing in this passage?”—then you can go on to the so what, or “what does it matter to us?”, and the now what, as in “what are we going to do in response to this information?”.

Now—maybe you’re wondering “what?” As in what the heck is he talking about? Let me simplify. When I read through the lectionary for the week, I’m looking for the meat and potatoes of the gospel—the good news for you and me. And to some extent, I’m looking for whatever there is in the other readings that supports that. Sometimes that comes to me by asking the text “What?” What is God doing here? What is sin? Sometimes it’s another question that does it for me.

Let’s look at today’s gospel and see where that takes me, shall we? Because there are several good questions to be asked of it—but only one will make it into the sermon!

So, I begin with the two most obvious by asking, is this a “what?” or a “why?” passage from Matthew’s gospel? Are these the questions to ask of it? One thing’s for sure—the scene is sparse—short—without great detail. You’d almost have to think that if “Matthew” was going to wrestle with the “what,” that is, “what is baptism?” he would have invested more than four verses. So this passage is not mainly about baptism, per se. Similarly, if the “why” of “why did Jesus get baptized in the first place?” was paramount, then Matthew was certainly capable of more than the cryptic, “to fulfill all righteousness.” At first glance I would have guessed that either of these two was it—but there’s obviously something more important.

Perhaps, then, this is a “where?” Answer being by the Jordan River, location of other famous bible passages [such as Jacob wrestling with God, the people of Israel crossing over to the promised land, Elijah also crossing Jordan before being taken up into heaven (interesting!), and Naaman washing in the Jordan to cure leprosy]. But the where’s hardly ever cut it when it comes to proclaiming a sound, theologically astute message. The main idea of the gospel can’t be found solely in a place. Of course the realtor’s mantra (location, location, location) rings true here as well, so certain places can evoke fine metaphors for the explication of a passages’ underlying tones of law and grace. Golgotha, Jerusalem, and Zion to name three. But, alas, in this case, the Jordan just happens to be where this takes place. Important, but not vital.

How about “how?” How does Jesus become Messiah? Is he “adopted” at his baptism? [there’s a fine heresy that holds that true] Consecrated? Commissioned? Already it? I already told you this was a short passage—it couldn’t possibly pack any of those punches!

We should briefly consider “when?” Coming as it does at the beginning of Jesus ministry and the end of John’s (he’s arrested a scant twelve verses later), this could be seen as the inaugural moment for Jesus mission, and the always-planned “lesser-ing” for John. The watchman has announced the arrival of the bridegroom and so goes home to bed. This would explain John’s expressed confusion and reluctance about baptizing Jesus, too. But “when” seems to me an extravagant use of even so very few verses, not to mention a whopping good story. Something like “when” could have been accomplished in a sentence. Luke does that historical placement well, but Matthew seems to prefer idioms like “in those days,” and “then…”. But, oh, I said we’d look at “when” briefly, and now it’s taken up more time than “how!” Sorry. Moving on…

That leaves but one tool in our journalistic belts—“who? Not who is John, but who is this Jesus? There’s already been a ramp up to this in Matthew’s gospel—a genealogy, a birth narrative, and a visit from the stargazing wise men of the east. Each gives us a little more information about this Jesus. He’s in the Davidic line and a Jew extraordinaire (traces his roots back to Abraham!), the prophets spoke of his birth, people come from far off to worship him at his birth, and then John sets the stage working the crowds into such frenzies, they soon question whether he was the one to come. John lets them know he is not.

All that builds into this climatic moment at the Jordan “Who is this Jesus,” is the question that will be answered definitively, if not exhaustively. Jesus is the one anointed with the Spirit. Jesus is the beloved Jesus is God’s Son who bridges the communication gap between heaven and earth by rending the heavens open. Jesus is God’s Son who is one of us, yet much more. Jesus is God’s Son, and God recommends him to us highly!

What could be more important than that? Nothing! So basically the who of this text is the what of the sermon. What is the good news? The good news is that Jesus is God’s Son, the Beloved, with whom God is well-pleased.

Now, that important bit of work out of the way, we proceed on to the next sermon question—so what? What does it matter that God claims Jesus as God’s own—especially right at the beginning of his ministry? It matters because that claim frames everything Jesus says and does in the rest of the gospel as divinely ordained. Everything—the healing, the preaching and teaching, the miracles, the kind words and gestures—all please God, because they are done by his Beloved Son. That mattered to the first Christians who gathered around to hear Matthew tell the story of Jesus of Nazareth. They were excluded and abused for their belief in Christ. The voice of God declaring Jesus Son of God was extremely important to them. For us, the witness of the gospel writers, and the long, long line of subsequent believers speaks loudly to our modern day doubts about Jesus.

So, that’s the so what? How about the now what? To answer that let me tell you that there is another “who” to ask of this text—and it is “who are we?” Who are we now that we hold this information about Jesus?

We are the ones hungry to know more about him. We are the ones who now have direct access to God in Jesus. We are the ones who also are baptized with water and the Spirit. We are the ones who came after the one who came after but who was before all things. We are the people of God in Christ Jesus.

Now what? Maybe it should be “now, who?” What do we do with this identity? Flip to the end of Matthew. Know what it says? It says, “Go and baptize.” Reveal Jesus as the Son of God to more and more people! Make them disciples with you. That’s what!

Epiphany is about what’s not so obvious suddenly becoming clear. About God that is (and Jesus, too). It’s like looking at something in the dark, and then a light snaps on and everything’s right there to see. The baptism of Jesus tells us a little about baptism, but a whole lot about Jesus. Similarly, the Isaiah text tells us what the new Israel is to be like—a servant nation.. We can take that to count for us as well. And the passage from Acts stands in for a creed at the baptisms of Cornelius and family—again i.d.-ing just who Jesus is to the community of faith. He is Lord of all. He was anointed by God with the Holy Spirit. He healed and did other good things for those oppressed by the devil. God was with him, even when he died on the cross. And God raised him from the dead. The Acts reading also identifies our response – we are witnesses, we eat and drink with him at the messianic table, we preach and teach and tell about all he has done for us, and most importantly—we receive forgiveness from him.

I find what John says to Jesus when he presented himself for baptism to be our line, too: “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Despite our sinfulness, Jesus seeks us out, like a lost coin, like a prodigal son, like a fruitless tree, like a wayward lamb, like a weed among the grain, like an eye with a log in it, like a seed on rocky ground, like a man three days dead. Jesus, son of God comes to us. As the great theologians Wayne and Garth once said, “We’re not worthy!” And yet, because he is who he is (Yahweh) he not only comes to us, but he makes us God’s Beloved too! Thanks be to God!