Our Calling

January 9, 2022 Baptism of the Lord Acts 8:14-17 Our Calling Opening Song Welcome Call to Worship (from Isaiah 43) One: Welcome to this time of worship, where we hear Good News! Many: We claim this truth: God has called us by name. We belong to God! One: Nothing will overwhelm us, for God is the Holy One. Many: So the song of the angels is for us: “do not be afraid!” One: God gives us God’s own name, and creates us to give God GLORY! Many: Remembering our baptism, we know we are redeemed. One: We are named and claimed! Many: Thanks be to God! Opening Prayer Holy God, even as we step into a new year, this 2022, we find it hard to “fear not”. We’ve been challenged by COVID, weather, storm, isolation and many other things. We’re eager to draw close to you. We’re eager to be filled with expectation. We’re eager to experience your Spirit descending into our lives. So claim us in this hour. Call us to rejoice in you, in Jesus, the Christ, and in your Holy Spirit, AMEN Stewardship Moment Moment for Stewardship Some of you may not be baptized yet, but for those who have been baptized, do you remember your baptism? I was baptized ______________ (describe where and when you were baptized, perhaps with 1 sentence of what that meant to you then). Usually when we baptize someone, we use their whole name, making sure to identify this specific person is voluntarily making a public affirmation of his/her faith. From that moment on, that person is one who can be called by God’s name! Just as there are expectations from your family of how to live up to your family name, we have expectations of how each of us, and all of us, will live up to being claimed as God’s own beloved daughters and sons. One of those expectations is that we will lovingly share our time, talents and treasure in the life of the Church. Today, I want to encourage each one of us to claim what a privilege it is to be baptized into Christ Jesus. As privileged people, we respond with our offering. Let the gifts you offer today, and throughout this new year, be gifts of gratitude for the privilege of being named “disciples of Jesus Christ!” Prayer of Thanksgiving Source of all being, Hear our thanks as we offer ourselves and these symbols of our daily living to you. May your Spirit pour into us, as it came into Jesus, for we truly want to be claimed by you as we follow him. Help us find ways to live the Good News of your love for one and for all, Help us use these gifts and our time and talents in service with Jesus, your Beloved Son, Amen. Scripture Acts 8:14-17 Common English Bible 14 When word reached the apostles in Jerusalem that Samaria had accepted God’s word, they commissioned Peter and John to go to Samaria. 15 Peter and John went down to Samaria where they prayed that the new believers would receive the Holy Spirit. (16 This was because the Holy Spirit had not yet fallen on any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) 17 So Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. Sermon Our Calling We have been following the story of two cousins since the beginning of advent. John and Jesus were born close to one another. Even though they may have led different lives, they keep in touch with one another. It was John who started his ministry first. It was John who started baptizing people in the Jordan river. I don’t know that Jesus ever baptized anyone, he was not a priest. As a matter of fact, one of the last times that they were ever together – John baptizes Jesus. And Jesus hears God call him by name tell him that God loves him and confirms that he must go into ministry to tell the people the good news. Eventually John is killed and Jesus incorporates his ministry. Every year after epiphany, we remember the baptism of the Lord. The beginning of his ministry is the beginning of ours. The beginning of his call is the beginning of our call. The work that he does in the world – we are called to do the same. When we were baptized, we are called to continue Jesus ministry here on earth. I got a letter from Bishop Hopkins, as well as the chair of the Board of Ordained Ministry that on January 2 or 9 that it was important for us to remind everyone of our call to ministry. As we remember Jesus baptism that we should all remember our baptism. I grew up as a Baptist with Pentacostal cousins. So I learned about baptism coming and going. My mother said that I couldn’t get baptized until I was able to make a decision for myself. Even though my friends got baptized as a child, I couldn’t, because I couldn’t afford to get my hair wet. I finally got baptized at Second Baptist Church in Evanston when I was 21. Today I keep my baptism certificate in the same place as my ordination certificates. They all represent my journey into ordained ministry. The one thing that divides us as denominations is our views on baptism. Baptism is an act of water and the spirit. Not everyone agrees on how the water and the spirit interact. • Spirit vs Water- different interpretations (Lee C Barrett, Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 1) o Spirit occurs at the moment of conversion (being born again, adult baptism, etc) whereas Water is the outward sign for observers of what the Spirit is doing within o Pentecostal: These ar 2 completely different baptisms: One by water and a later one by the Spirit o Roman Catholic: Baptism by water (for the forgiveness of sins) is completed through the baptism of the spirit in confirmation o Wesleyan Holiness: Baptism of water is an initial sign of grace and baptism by spirit is the assurance of salvation and complete sanctification o Reformed: Baptism by water is the outward and visible sign of the invisible grace of the Spirit - i.e. the two are inseparable In the United Methodist Church the water is an outward sign of an inward grace. But the holy spirit works through the water. You don’t actually have to see God at work for God to be working. When people join the Methodist church and they have been baptized in another church, we don’t baptize them again. Whether you were baptized by the father the son the holy spirit or in Jesus name. Whether you were sprinkled or dunk, whether you remember your baptism day or you were too young. God has already touched you and God does not make a mistake, so your baptism does not need to be corrected. But I do think that all of us need to live into our baptism. Late Bloomers Let’s face it: as far as faith is concerned, some people are late bloomers. It takes a while for some people to gain understanding. Wil Willimon tells about a church gathering where people were taking turns giving testimonies about their religious experiences. One man stood and said, “I was a Methodist for 38 years before anybody told me about Jesus.” Wil said he scratched his head when he heard that. What the man probably should have said was, “I was a church member for 38 years before I really experienced my faith and began to live it.” That is, he had a delayed response. He was a late bloomer. The problem, Wil said, was the man sounded so smug when he said it. He made it sound as if there was an instantaneous experience that washed away his past. Well, says Will, what about all those teachers who put up with him while he was growing up in Sunday school? What about all of those preachers who tried their best to speak the gospel to him? What about all those Christians who tried to tell him about Jesus? Will felt like saying, “Listen, pal, it’s nice that your faith is coming together, but what do you think we’ve been trying to get through your thick head for the last 38 years?” William G. Carter, Praying for a Whole New World, CSS Publishing Company Rather than focus on the baptism story, where the water and the spirit acted together – I thought we should look at the book of Acts. A story of separation. Philip is a lay leader, who has been consrecrated to help the ordained leaders. As a Jew, he has been called to go into enemy territory and to minister to the Samaritans who hate jews. Philip has had some success in his ministry. He has even been able to baptize people and start a church. Yet scripture says that the people were baptized with water, but they did not have the holy spirit. The apostles, Peter and John had to come along to baptize them with the Holy spirit. Interesting concept. How did the apostles know that they did not have the holy Spirit. Maybe they were just Methodist, who don’t get excited when they worship. Anyway , the scripture says that they eventually did get the holy spirit. But this scripture teaches us that baptism is an act of God, but it is also a journey. The holy Spirit’s work within us changes over time. In the life of every man there are certain definite stages, certain hinges on which his whole life turns. It was so with Jesus and every now and again we must stop and try to see his life as a whole. The first great hinge was the visit to the temple when he was twelve, when he discovered his unique relationship to God. By the time of the emergence of John, Jesus was about thirty (Luke 3:23). That is to say at least eighteen years had passed. All through these years he must have been realizing more and more his uniqueness. But still he remained the village carpenter of Nazareth. He must have known that a day must come when he must say good-bye to Nazareth and go out upon his larger task. He must have waited for some sign. When John emerged the people flocked out to hear him and to be baptized. Throughout the whole country there was and unprecedented movement towards God. And Jesus knew that his hour had struck. It was not that he was conscious of sin and of the need of repentance. It was that he knew that he too must identify himself with this movement towards God. For Jesus the emergence of John was God's call to action; and his first step was to identify himself with the people in their search for God. Our Baptismal Call What if vocations seem to change in the course of life? What one once felt called to do or be no longer seems right. What then? Sometimes, of course, the covenants of the past must hold us in faithfulness. But sometimes new callings come and lives are remade in response. What of those who are adrift, unsure of any calling? Our lovely imagery of vocation then seems naïve, better suited for the supposed stability and limited choices of an earlier age. But consider this: the calling of Jesus is not about a job or a career. It is not a word of mission, sending him into the future. Not at the outset. The word of baptism is first of all about the delight of God in this beloved, this chosen, this child called by name. Not a call to do, but a calling that names. I was an adult with children of my own when I came across my baby book, the collection of precious trivia and wonder prepared for me when I was new in the world. Among its pages was my mother’s description of how on the day of my birth she held me on her belly and welcomed me to the world. With me there in that hospital room she offered up the great Laudamus in thanksgiving. As for Jesus, so for us. Our first calling, the baptismal call, is the one that simply loves and names: You are my child. I delight in you. The words embrace us and promise to hold us. This is where it begins, and this is also, we dare claim, the last word, the one that holds our future. John Stendahl, "The Outset," article in the Christian Century, Dec. 24-31, 1997, p. 1219. I know that over the years, I have shared my call story of how I became a Christian, why I am United Methodist, how I became a pastor in bits in pieces. It is a little late in this sermon to share all of that in one place. But when I think about my story I can see evidence of those life changing moments in my life, but I can also see the journey of the spirit. Those ordinary moments in life, when I had already made a decision to follow God, I just didn’t realize it. I can see those traces of how the Holy Spirit was working in my life and my situation. God's Getting Better at It Since the beginning God has attempted to get people’s attention and to call them into a commitment to live with principles, values, and sense of sacredness that God wants from all humanity. Sometimes the people heard and responded to God, and sometimes they ignored God. God kept trying. God kept working at getting their attention. I heard about a little girl who sort of understands that about God. She was sitting on her grandfather’s lap as he read her a bedtime story. From time to time, she would take her eyes off the book and reach up to touch his wrinkled cheek. She was alternately stroking her own cheek, then his again. Finally she spoke up, "Grandpa, did God make you?" "Yes, Sweetheart," he answered, "God made me a long time ago." "Oh," she paused, "Grandpa, did God make me too?" "Yes, indeed, honey," he said, "God made you just a little while ago." Feeling their respective faces again, she observed, "God’s getting better at it, isn’t he?" God got better at it. After untold efforts to win our allegiance and our hearts, God took on human form, walking among us and living with us so that we would understand. It is in the living, breathing person of Jesus that we really see all things we call holy, such as forgiveness, sharing, joy, vision, courage, perseverance, and especially love. We might think we understand love, for example, but when we receive totally unconditional love from another person, love takes on a completely new meaning for us. Jesus shows us the ultimate example of love, namely, God’s love. Seeing this example in the flesh makes all the difference in the world for us. Lane Boyd, What’s So Important about Jesus? The Holy Spirit comes to each of us at different times, in different ways. The holy spirit is a sign of the freedom of God, it shows up in unexpected ways. But how do we know that the spirit is at work. Someone to Call Our Name "After the death of her husband, Prince Albert, Queen Victoria said, "There is no one left to call me Victoria." I know there are a number of you here this morning who have experienced what this woman of royalty experienced. The death of a spouse or loved one simply means that you do not hear your name called the way you remember it being called for so long. Only time helps us to cope with that pain. In spite of her royalty, Queen Victoria needed someone to call her by name. That's what baptism is about. We are named by God as His child. In adult, or what we may call "believer's baptism," baptism becomes the sign of our return to our Father from whom we have wandered. By repentance and our profession of faith in Christ as Savior and Lord, we claim the inheritance God has offered us as His children. Maxie Dunnam What’s The Holy Spirit? A minister named Al was pursuing a doctoral degree in theology. He worked long hours on his dissertation, so many hours, in fact, that his children often entered the study to interrupt. “Daddy, can you come out and play?” “Sorry, kids,” he replied, “I have too much work to do.” “What are you working on, Daddy?” Well, he couldn’t really give the title of his dissertation, which was something like “the experiential dimension of the divine pneumatological reality.” So he said, “I’m writing about experiences of the Holy Spirit.” They looked at him with blank faces and said, “What’s that?” One day Al and his family were sitting in church. They had not expected much that morning, he says. The pastor was soft-spoken and meek. He never said anything very clearly, but everybody liked him. This particular Sunday was different. The pastor stood up and preached a powerful sermon on racial equality. This was during the sixties, in the South, in a white, middle and upper class congregation. People sat transfixed as the preacher laid his career on the line, perhaps even laid his life on the line. “The day is coming,” he said, “when all God’s children, white and black, will join hands in worship and service. And that day is upon us.” The congregation left in shock. People couldn’t understand how their mild, housebroken preacher could suddenly have been filled with such fire. On the way home, it occurred to Al what had happened. “Kids,” he said, “remember how sometimes I go up to my study to write about the Holy Spirit?” One of the children said, “Yeah, but Daddy, what’s the Holy Spirit all about?” Al said, “We got a good picture today, in church.” They saw the power of God, pushing us to a day when every hand shall join in mission, when every voice shall join in praising the Lord. It is no empty promise. Why, that power was given to us right over there ... at the baptismal font. William G. Carter, Praying for a Whole New World, CSS Publishing Company. The Water of Our Baptism Is Dangerous There was a multimillionaire businessman, known for his extravagance, who hosted an elaborate, spectacular summer party. Part of his decorations and part of the uniqueness of his party was that he had filled his swimming pool with sharks, barracuda and other assorted dangerous fish. After cocktails and dinner had been served and everyone was just standing around looking at the assortment of dangerous sea life. The business man announced to his guests that he would like to challenge any of them to try swimming across the pool. And to sweeten the challenge he offered a first prize of either a new home in the mountains, a trip around the world for two or a piece of his business. No sooner had he made the announcement than there was a splash and a man swam rapidly across the infested waters and bounded up out on the other side. The millionaire turned to the sputtering young man, shaking water off of himself and said: "That was an absolutely stunning performance. What prize do you want?" With a growl and a scowl the swimmer said: "Right now I really don't care about the prize. All I want is the name of the turkey who pushed me in." I can assure you that the water of our baptism is dangerous, it is filled with sharks, barracudas and other dangerous sea life. I can also pretty much guarantee that should you take the plunge, accept Christ and be baptized, you probably won't get a new home in the mountains, or a trip around the world for two. But I can promise that you will get a piece of the business, God's business. Kingdom business. The business of Redemption and Second Chances through Christ. Billy D. Strayhorn, Come on in, the Water's Fine! The holy spirit calls us by name, the Holy Spirit gets us out of our comfort zones, the holy spirit calls us to dangerous work, it calls us to erase barriers, to open doors, to fix divisions. The holy spirt calls us to put aside our differences and to come together in love. If We Could All Be Royal In his book, The Gospel For The Person Who Has Everything, William Willimon tells of a young friend, age 4, who was asked on the occasion of his 5th birthday what kind of party he wanted to have. I want everybody to be a king and queen, Clayton said. So, he and his mother went to work, fashioning a score of silver crowns – cardboard and aluminum foil, purple robes – crepe paper, and royal scepters – sticks painted gold. On the day of the party, as the guests arrived, they were each given a royal crown, a robe, and a scepter, and were thus dressed as a king or a queen. It was a royal site - all kings and queens. Everyone had a wonderful time. They ate ice cream and cake, they had a procession up to the top of the block and back again, and then when it was all over, everyone knew it had been a royal, wonderful day. That evening as Clayton’s mom tucked him into bed, she asked him what he wished for when he blew the candles out on the birthday cake. I wished, he said, that everyone, everyone in the whole wide world could be a king and a queen. Not just on my birthday, but everyday. My friend Willimon closed this story by saying, well Clayton, baptism shows that something very much like that happened one day at a place called Calvary. We who were nobodies became somebodies. Those who were no people became God’s people. The wretched of the earth became royalty. William Willimon, quoted by Maxie Dunnam The greatest sign of the Holy Spirit is community. When we come together as a congregation and we worship, we work we minister together, that means that the holy spirit at work. That is one reason why baptism and faith commitments are always done I the presence of the entire congregation. That is the place the the spirit is at work. et's Get Him Advertised There was a little boy named Richie. Two special events had taken place in his life and both had impressed him very much. First, he had recently been baptized, and second, he was the proud brother of a baby boy named Stevie. One Sunday his father asked if he wanted to go to church. Richie's answer was an enthusiastic, "Yes. And let's take Stevie and get him advertised, too!" Richie wasn't too far off the mark. You see baptism is never really a private affair. The inner changes and convictions, the inner workings of the spirit leading an individual to Christ are personal and private. BUT, the declaration of that faith can never be a private thing, for it is a time of advertising faith and grace. Billy D. Strayhorn, A Faith Odyssey He wasn’t wrong. Baptism is an advertisement for God. It is just that the advertisement doesn’t stop when we walk out the door. How we live our life as baptized people is also our advertisement for God. We are to remember our baptism in everything that we do. Let is remember our baptism and be thankful. Amen. Prayer Your word of light and hope floods into our lives, O God. We have lived in darkness, in despair and fear, doubt and strife. But on this day of celebration, you remind us that we are marked by you to be witnesses to your light of new hope. As the heavens opened at Jesus' baptism, so is your love poured out on us. We have brought before you names and situations which concern us, people who face illness and grief, whose lives are torn by poverty, war, alienation, addiction, and hopelessness. We ask for your loving mercy on them, O Lord. Heal them and bind up their wounds. Help us to be people who are ready to be involved in ministries of peace and justice, bringing the light of your hope to those who dwell in darkness and despair. We ask this in Jesus' Name, AMEN. Lord’s Prayer Song The Spirit Song UMH 347 Announcements Closing Prayer for Facebook Remember, you are God’s beloved, called and claimed to love as you have been loved. May God bless you and keep you, this day and in the days to come. Amen. Terri McDowell Ott – Presbyterian Outlook Community Time Benediction People of hope and peace, go into the world. Bring God's healing love to all whom you meet. Help with ministries, which promote justice and compassion. In Jesus' Name, go in peace. AMEN. Children’s Sermon Greet the children, and ask a few questions... Hello, children of God! Do you see what I have here? What is this? (Hold up a glass, pitcher, or bottle of water.) That’s right, this is water! Now, what does water do? What can we do with water? (Encourage kids to come up with a variety of water uses, such as drinking, swimming, cooking, and bathing.) So water is powerful and important stuff. And did you know that your body is made up largely of water? That’s why it is essential that you drink it and stay hydrated. But water also makes me think of baptism. Do you know what baptism is?? Baptism helps us remember that God has saved us and washed our sins away! Some people do baptism in different ways… some sprinkle water onto people (feel free to demonstrate with a small toy and your water); some people dip all the way into the water; some baptize people when they are little babies; some when they are older…there are a lot of ways to do it. But it is a wonderful and important thing to be baptized because it shows us that we are new in Christ! We are born sinful, and will likely do a lot of bad things in our lives, whether we mean to or not. But we can rest assured that God will forgive us. He sent Jesus to take our place and die so that we can live with God. He loves us no matter what we do! And did you know that Jesus was baptized, too? Now, that might seem strange, because we know that Jesus never sinned…so why would He need to be baptized? Well, John asked that same question. Remember John, the camel hair-wearing, locust-eating guy? He baptized people in a river. Jesus came to him one day asking to be baptized, and John tried to send Him away. But Jesus insisted, saying He needed to do it. This lets us know that baptism is a blessing and a great thing. And when Jesus was baptized, something remarkable happened. Heaven opened up, Copyright © Ministry-To-Children.com – Permission granted for any non-profit use. Written by Kristin Schmidt . Illustrations from ChristianClipArts.com Scripture quotes from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® and the Holy Spirit came down like a dove (hold picture of dove or toy), and the voice of God was heard, saying “This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.” So all parts of the Trinity were present at once. And God was announcing who Jesus was, His beloved Son. We can take heart that Jesus was and is who He proclaimed. That is a comforting reminder. He lived and died so that we might have eternal life, and be made clean and new in Him. This is something that we should help us to live joyfully every day. We are made in God’s image and we can live in His presence. We were sinful, but can be cleansed in Christ. So the next time you wash your hands or take a bath, remember how God has washed away our sins. Why don’t we Thank Him for that right now? MinistrytoChildren.com Additional Illustrations Baptism: Take My Good Name French writer Henri Barbusse (1874-1935) tells of a conversation overheard in a trench full of wounded men during the First World War. One of the men, who knew he only had minutes to live says to one of the other man, "Listen, Dominic, you've led a very bad life. Everywhere you are wanted by the police. But there are no convictions against me. My name is clear, so, here, take my wallet, take my papers, my identity, take my good name, my life and quickly, hand me your papers that I may carry all your crimes away with me in death." The Good News is that through Jesus, God makes a similar offer. Something wonderful happens to us when we are baptized. When we are baptized, we identify ourselves with Jesus. We publicly declare our intention to strive to be like Jesus and follow God's will for our lives. When we are baptized, our lives are changed. We see things differently than before. We see other people differently than before. Baptism enables and empowers us to do the things that Jesus wants us to do here and now. We are able to identify with Jesus because He was baptized. And we are able to love as he loved. Such identification is life changing. That kind of identification shapes what we believe and claims us. Billy D. Strayhorn, Come on in, the Water's Fine! Wash Off the Stuff of The Day One of the most successful and personable people on television is Oprah Winfrey. Movies, book clubs, she does it all. Huge business operations. While all the other talk shows on television are tearing people apart and putting all their illnesses out for public humiliation, Oprah is helping put people and families back together again. . . In a Newsweek magazine interview the interviewer asked her, "How do you separate yourself from work?" Answer, "I take a hot bath. . . My bath is my sanctuary. (Listen to this) It's the place where I can wash off all the stuff of the day" ((Jan 8, 2001, p. 45). Baptism is a huge symbol -- it's the water of creation. . . .we are born anew. . . . life in the Spirit . . . all the "stuff" of the day is washed off. All of that is true. But at its basic level, baptism is the death of the old self. Before anything new can be born, the old has to pass away. Brett Blair, www.Sermons.com. Adapted. Spiritual Perception Back when the telegraph was the fastest means of long-distance communication, there was a story, perhaps apocryphal, about a young man who applied for a job as a Morse code operator. Answering an ad in the newspaper, he went to the address that was listed. When he arrived, he entered a large, noisy office. In the background a telegraph clacked away. A sign on the receptionist's counter instructed job applicants to fill out a form and wait until they were summoned to enter the inner office. The young man completed his form and sat down with seven other waiting applicants. After a few minutes, the young man stood up, crossed the room to the door of the inner office, and walked right in. Naturally the other applicants perked up, wondering what was going on. Why had this man been so bold? They muttered among themselves that they hadn't heard any summons yet. They took more than a little satisfaction in assuming the young man who went into the office would be reprimanded for his presumption and summarily disqualified for the job. Within a few minutes the young man emerged from the inner office escorted by the interviewer, who announced to the other applicants, "Gentlemen, thank you very much for coming, but the job has been filled by this young man." The other applicants began grumbling to each other, and then one spoke up, "Wait a minute--I don't understand. He was the last one to come in, and we never even got a chance to be interviewed. Yet he got the job. That's not fair." The employer responded, "All the time you've been sitting here, the telegraph has been ticking out the following message in Morse code: `If you understand this message, then come right in. The job is yours.' None of you heard it or understood it. This young man did. So the job is his." A man's entire livelihood, indeed his life, depends upon his ability to discern the meaning of these words: "You are my Son whom I love; with you I am well pleased." Gary Preston, Character Forged from Conflict. Buckley's Faith William F. Buckley, Jr., has earned the respect of some of his harshest critics with the publication of Nearer, My God. Many of his critics have been among the theologians who have had great difficulty with his rightist opinions. It is not that conservative viewpoints are not welcome, but Mr. Buckley has a penchant for delivering his thoughts in a cavalier style that betrays a snide manner of talking down to people. However, his book Nearer, My God is not offensive in its approach to Mr. Buckley’s confession of faith. A baptized and confirmed Roman Catholic from his youth, the author reveals a studied approach to the faith that reveals his struggles with the great questions that can trouble us all. Obviously quite satisfied with the strength that he gains from his faith, Mr. Buckley has refrained from making a public display of religious language in the public debates he enjoys immensely. When Buckley was asked by his publisher to write about his faith, his publisher suggested the title, “Why I am Still a Catholic.” Buckley flinched at that, because that suggests there is something wrong with being a Catholic. Likewise, he balked at the title, “Why I am a Catholic.” He wanted to express his faith as he understood it. While he does defend the authoritarian approach of the papacy, he also leaves room for critical observations of the practices of his denomination. When one reads the kind of personal confession we get from Mr. Buckley, we are reminded that all of us should be ready to give an autobiography of the faith that is in us. If we were to do so, there would be no better way than for us to begin where our spiritual journey began, namely, in holy baptism. On this First Sunday after the Epiphany of our Lord, we are helped to understand what happened on that important day in our lives, and why our faith should be so important to us. Harry N. Huxhold, The Presence in the Promise, CSS Publishing Company Commentary – Jesus’ Baptism But in Jesus' Baptism something happened. Before he could take this tremendous step he had to be sure that he was right; and in the moment of Baptism God spoke to him. Make no mistake, what happened in the baptism was an experience personal to Jesus. The voice of God came to him and told him that he had made the right decision, but more--far more--that very same voice mapped out all his course for him. God said to him, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased." That saying is composed of two text. You are my beloved son--that is from Psalm 2:7 and was always accepted as a description of the Messianic King. In whom I am well pleased--that is part of Isaiah 42:1 and is from a description of the servant of the Lord whose portrait culminates in the sufferings of Isaiah 53. Therefore in his baptism Jesus realized, first, that he was the Messiah, God's Anointed King; and, second, that this involved not power and glory, but suffering and a cross. The cross did not come on Jesus unawares; from the first moment of realization he saw it ahead. The baptism shows us Jesus asking for God's approval and receiving the destiny of the cross. William Barclay, Luke, Philadelphia: Westminster, 1975, p. 37 A great violinist was scheduled to play a concert in Houston, Texas. The Houston newspaper, however, didn’t focus on the artist. It used most of its space to describe his original Stradivarius violin. In fact, the morning of the concert, the front page carried a picture of the great instrument he would play. That night, the hall was filled with people. The musician played extremely well. As he finished, the crowd thundered its applause. When the clapping subsided, the musician carefully laid his bow down. He carried a chair to center stage. Raising his violin over his head with both hands, he slammed it across the back of the chair. The violin smashed into dozens of pieces. The audience gasped. Walking back to the microphone, the artist said, “I read in this morning’s paper about how great my violin was. So I walked down the street to a pawn shop. For thirty dollars I purchased a cheap violin. I put some new strings on it. That’s the violin I played this evening, then smashed. I wanted to demonstrate that it isn’t the violin that counts most. It’s the hands that hold the violin.”3 In this image-conscious world you and I need to pause every now and then and reflect on the God who inspires our faith and is the reason for the existence of our churches, our Bibles, and our hope for eternal life. As Charlie Brown says, “Most of us live just about one cookie away from being happy." It sneaks in on us, doesn't it? Greed comes hunting for us in the depths of our souls. Perhaps you heard the story last year about the American soldier from World War Two who was determined to return a flag to Japan. Japanese soldiers in World War Two carried flags called “good luck flags.” Friends and family signed the white spaces of the flags, and then gave the flag to a soldier who was leaving for war. The soldier carried the personalized flag as a precious memento of home. In the Battle of Saipan, then-Marine Marvin Strombo got separated from his unit, and found himself behind enemy lines. He saw the flag and took it from the body a Japanese soldier who had been killed in the battle. The flag came home with him after the war. These flags were prized keepsakes among American soldiers in the dramatic, difficult days of World War Two. Strombo said he felt bad taking the flag originally, and was determined to return it. According to NPR, “Strombo had long desired to return [the flag]…It wasn’t until he visited a Japanese culture class at the University of Montana last year that Strombo learned what the Japanese writing on the flag was and what the flags meant to the families of the fallen” (NPR.org). Now in his nineties, Marvin Strombo didn’t know how much time he would have, so he contacted the Obon Society. The Obon Society has a mission of promoting peace by returning flags and personal artifacts to Japan. As the Greatest Generation comes to the end of their lives, there is a lot of memorabilia that former soldiers, or their families, want to see returned (ObonSociety.org). Reading the calligraphy on the flag, the Obon Society narrowed the search down to a region, and then a village, and then a family. They determined that the flag belonged to Lance Corporal Yasue. Yasue had left home in 1943, died in battle, and his remains were never repatriated. His family received a coffin full of stones. Strombo traveled to the small village in Japan where Yasue’s family still lived, and presented the flag to Yasue’s younger brother, now 89 and still working the family farm. Yasue’s family was grateful to receive the flag as a remembrance of the brother who never returned home. At that moment, Marvin Strombo and the Yasue family weren’t enemies divided by war, but people who shared a common experience of pain and loss. The gift of the Holy Spirit does the same thing. It leaps across every dividing line we can think of. It heals old divisions, and brings peace to old hurts. It reveals that we are all equal in God’s sight. It makes the Samaritan believers as good as the Jewish believers. It makes people who come later just as good as the people who start out in faith. It draws us all toward Jesus, and erases the lines we draw between ourselves.