Matthew 3:13-17

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

In the 5th century, St. Augustine called baptism and communion, “visible signs of an invisible grace.” Sacraments are things we touch and taste when God’s grace is too intangible for our weary, hungry bodies. Today’s lectionary passage is one of those visible signs. Matthew 3 is more than just the first record of baptism in scripture; Jesus’ baptismal story is about a man both fully God and fully human. It is a story of the first step in the path that we all walk in following Christ. To be a Christian is to literally follow Christ and so the church follows him first to the water.

From Matthew’s gospel, we know that baptism did not begin with Jesus. It was not a uniquely Christian practice. John was baptizing Jews from around the region for repentance and cleansing of their sins. That is what baptism meant and it was all that it meant. But then Jesus came to his cousin dressed in camel’s hair and standing in the Jordan River and asked to be baptized. So, of course, John immediately protests. He knows Jesus has no sins to repent or be cleansed of. He mistakenly assumes that therefore Jesus must be wrong. He should not be baptized! But in God’s first recorded words in over 400 years since the prophet Malachi, Jesus says, “This is what is right. Trust me.” Jesus teaches John, and teaches us, that baptism holds more than one meaning. 

            The Presbyterians have a long section on baptism in our Book of Order and it’s my favorite part of our polity. I feel like the biggest church geek when I say that, but the theology is so beautiful that I was tempted to just read that instead of trying to a sermon for this morning. Our book of order describes the deep reservoir of theological meaning that baptism holds:

Yes, it is for pardon, cleansing, and renewal; 
and it means dying and rising with Jesus Christ; 
and the gift of the Holy Spirit; 
and incorporation into the body of Christ; 
and a sign of the realm of God. 

            Baptism is the beginning of Jesus’ entrance into ministry, but it would be a mistake for me to say it was the beginning of Jesus’ story. Just like it would also be a mistake for me to say that the section on baptism is my favorite part of the Book of Order. My very favorite part is the beginning, which describes God as the “primary actor.” Nearly all that we believe rests on the truth that God acts first. God, the triune Parent, Son, and Holy Spirit, creates, redeems, sustains, rules, and transforms all things and all people. Jesus’ story begins with God who, as John writes, “sent God’s only Son to us that we may not perish but have everlasting life.” When we baptize infants like Tressa, we affirm that God is reaching out in love and grace towards us before we ever have a chance to turn our love toward God. God acts first.

            In his baptism, Jesus named and claimed. The Holy Spirit appears in the form of a dove, and a voice from heaven is heard saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” Before Jesus he healed the sick, raised the dead, or forgiven people from their sins, he is called “Beloved” just for who he is. In baptism, he is named and claimed as the one in whom God is so very pleased. 

            God’s favor and claiming of us as beloved is a part of our identity as well. When we say, “remember your baptism” what we are saying is, “remember that you are beloved. Remember that you belong to God. Remember that God is delighted in you.” 

            Witnessing the baptism of a baby is one of the holiest experiences of my life. It’s a “thin” space where Heaven seems near and God’s delight feels present. Yes, she is God’s beloved and always will be. I can only imagine what Jesus’ baptism with an actual voice from heaven must have felt like. You would think there would be a glow that would follow Jesus for a while. He’d get to bask in the wonderful feeling of being called God’s beloved and he would get to rest awhile.

            But that is not what happens. Instead, Jesus is immediately led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by the devil. It’s a time of intense testing and discipline and it is only after forty days of this that Jesus leaves the wilderness and begins his ministry.

            Baptism. Discipline. Ministry. That is the path of Jesus and it is the path we as Christians must follow. Our stories, like his, begin with our baptism into the body of Christ. Whether you were baptized as an infant, a child of age to consent like myself, or as an adult choosing for yourself, your baptism was the beginning of your journey.

            In some form or another, what eventually follows is testing and discipline. The Christian life is not always easy or comfortable. When Jesus is led into the wilderness, he has practices at his disposal that help him resist temptation from Satan. Jesus fasts from food and water, he prays, he meditates on the scriptures he has memorized all his life. We call these spiritual disciplines and there are many in the Christian tradition. Spiritual disciplines are practices that develop our spiritual growth. There are corporate practices like worshipping together, serving together and reading scripture together that are essential to the Christian life, but they are not the total. Spiritual disciplines must also be practiced on our own. We pray together, but we also pray alone.

            In his testing in the wilderness, Jesus practices the disciplines he must have been taught by his mother Mary and his rabbis at the synagogue. These are not attitudes or ways of seeing the world, they are ways of practicing our faith. Just as the sacraments are a visible sign of an invisible grace, spiritual disciplines are ways that we engage our bodies in our spiritual lives. Our faith does not exist in our minds. Our faith is part of who we are—mind, spirit, and body. 

            And so, Jesus, fully God and fully human, practiced his faith through fasting. Fasting is complicated, in part because our society has a deeply messed-up relationship food and dieting. Fasting from food is not a healthy spiritual practice for many people. To be clear, fasting is not a diet nor is it an excuse to give up something like smoking that you know you should probably give up. Fasting is about abstaining from something good and nourishing for the purpose of focusing on our physical hunger on our spiritual hunger for God. The same spiritual practice can be done by fasting from your smartphone or from music in the car. They are not bad, but by abstaining for a while, we have newfound time to spend in prayer and newfound hunger for God. Last fall, I did something called the Whole 30 to test for allergens and I couldn’t eat bread for a month. I kid you not, by the time communion Sunday came around, I have never been so hungry for the body of Christ in my life. My physical practices became my spiritual practices. 

            Jesus’ 40 days and nights in the wilderness are remembered each year in the church calendar in the season of Lent. It’s a time when many Christian chose to fast in solidarity and practice with Christ. For most of my life, Lent was a season I thought about exclusively on Ash Wednesday when I haphazardly choose something to fast from that lasted till approximately the next Tuesday. But those years, I missed out. I missed out on the opportunity to engage in a spiritual discipline on my own yet in community with the global church walking alongside me. You don’t have to fast for Lent. You can take-up a spiritual discipline. Perhaps for Lent, you will practice the discipline of bodily prayer, of study, of confession, of generosity, of secrecy, of service, or of celebration. Yes, to celebrate the goodness of God in the face of so much evil and pain can be the hardest discipline of all.

            We are still months away from Lent, but there is an Adult Education class beginning this week on spiritual disciplines. We chose it for this season, instead of Lent, so that you might have an opportunity to learn more about spiritual disciplines in order to discern how God is calling you to participate in the season of Lent.

            After the wilderness, Jesus took these disciplines with him into his ministry. Throughout his three years with his disciplines, he routinely took time alone to read scripture and to pray. The practices that he cultivated in the wilderness were the practices that supported and fostered his ministry. This is why we need them too. We too have a calling. We are called to participate in God’s mission to God’s beloved world. Some are called to be pastors, some elders, some teachers, and some healers. You are part of the Body of Christ and that means you are called by God. You called Beloved and you are called to serve.

            As Christians, we follow Christ’s path from baptism to discipline to living out our calling. Remembering our baptisms, we return to the spiritual practices that lead us ever closer to God and enter into the calling God has placed on our lives.  A favorite professor of mine in Seminary used to often remind us, “your baptism is sufficient for your calling.” You have everything you need, not because you have earned it but because God acts first. Dearly beloved, baptized people, draw near to God.