Sunday
01/08/17 Freeville/Homer Avenue UMC’s
Sermon Title: “You’re hired!”
Old Testament
Scripture: Isaiah 42:1-9
New Testament
Scripture: Acts 10:34-43
Gospel Lesson:
Matthew 3:13-17
My sisters and brothers, my friends, welcome again on this
our Baptism of the Lord Sunday. This is the Sunday in the life of the church that
we celebrate Jesus getting baptized in the Jordan River, by his cousin John the
Baptist.
I find it funny that the church has for many years
celebrated the Epiphany, or the coming of the Wise Men or Magi, last Sunday, and
that this Sunday Jesus is a full grown man of about thirty years old, getting
baptized in Jordan River. That is pretty big expanse of time in Jesus’ life,
between two Sundays!
The big problem here, is once Joseph flees to Egypt with
Mary and young Jesus, and once they return to Nazareth when Jesus is a young
child, we are not given much information about Jesus’ early life. We do have
the story though, of young Jesus being at the Temple in Jerusalem at the age of
Twelve (Lk. 2:41-52, NRSV). This is the story where Joseph and Mary are headed
back home to Nazareth after celebrating the Passover in Jerusalem. When they then
noticed that Jesus wasn’t with the group, and then went back to Jerusalem to
get Jesus (Lk. 2:41-52, NRSV).
Other than this story of young Jesus at the temple, at the
age of twelve, which is only in the gospel of Luke by the way, once Joseph,
Mary, and Jesus return to Nazareth after fleeing to and from Egypt, all we have
written of Jesus is this story of him being twelve at the temple during the
Jewish Passover.
In
this way, one of the reasons that many Christian Churches go from Epiphany
Sunday last Sunday, in which the Wise Men or Magi visited, to the Baptism of
Lord this Sunday, is that we have little information of Christ’s early life.
Once again, we know that Jesus’ family returned to Nazareth when he was young,
and we know that he was in the temple in Jerusalem at age twelve during the
Passover. This story and the birth story of Christ, is all the information we
have on young Jesus.
This might make us ask the question, what was Jesus’ early
childhood like? Unfortunately, this is not the topic of my sermon today, but I
just wanted to provide some historical context of why we go from Epiphany
Sunday every year, right to the Baptism of the Lord Sunday, the very next
Sunday.
With this said, I want to tell you a story about Melissa
and myself. So there we were, twenty-two years old, newlyweds, I was a school
teacher, and Melissa was at the time a substitute school teacher. In that first
full year of teaching, we had a small apartment. We scrimped and saved, we didn’t
go to dinner much, and etc., so that we might save up enough money to put a
down payment on a house.
Well after my first full year of teaching, we did this in
the summer of 2005. The house we bought wasn’t anything fancy, and as it turned
out, we spent days fixing it up with my parents. We put in many new windows, a
new hot water heater, my step-dad and I build a new front porch, we put a metal
roof on the back porch roof, we had a metal roof put on the front porch roof, we
put in a wood stove, and etc., and etc. You see Melissa and I hoped that if we
worked hard, and if we carefully saved, that one day we would be able to get a
mortgage, to buy a house.
Then it just seemed to happen! We were sitting in a
lawyer’s office in Moravia on a hot day in August, 2005, we wrote the biggest
that he had ever written, with what seemed like a fortune to us at the time. Then
we began unpacking in our new house in Moravia. Many folks from the Methodist
church in Moravia came over to help, and some even brought us gifts. It was a
great day, a day that we had been dreaming about.
As we lay there in bed that first night though, it was so
quiet. Then suddenly this little bit of fear seemed to creep through us very
young twenty-three year old newlyweds. I looked at Melissa and said, “Oh no,
can we really afford this house! Maybe we made a mistake!”
Well I quickly calmed down, and ten years later we sold
that house in November, 2015, to as it turns out, to someone that we knew from
the church. During our many years in that house, we did so many fixer-upper
projects, had youth pastors over for dinner, had prayer meetings, and etc. It
wasn’t a miraculous house, but we had waited and worked hard to have it. We
worked for it, we longed for it, and then we had a moment of what they call
“buyer’s remorse,” when we said, “Oh no, what have we done,” when we got it.
In ancient Jewish culture, many sects of Judaism would
identify promising young boys who had the right gifts and graces to become “Rabbis”.
The word “Rabbi” means “teacher” in Hebrew, and Jesus is often referred to as
“Rabbi” in the gospels by his disciples and others. A Jewish Rabbi is our equivalency
to a Christian Pastor.
So in ancient Jewish culture, these young men or boys that
were hand-picked to be Rabbis by the current Rabbis, spent years of training
and preparing to be a Rabbi. Like waiting to buy a house, or wanting to achieve
something, they spent years and years preparing. Generally, at about the age of
thirty though, these “Rabbis in training” would then officially become a Rabbi.
I guess this would be similar to getting ordained in a Christian Church. Now
why did I tell you all of this?
I tell you all of this, because Jesus was baptized around
thirty-years of age, and he was called “Rabbi” by his followers and many
others. Due to this, when Jesus gets baptized in the Jordan River today, it is
not only symbolic in Judaism, but it also symbolic of Jesus being the savior.
Jesus’ baptism means that he is now “ready” to fulfill his mission.
So for thirty-years, Jesus was preparing himself for this
mission that he was called to. Further, after his baptism today, Jesus then
goes into wilderness for forty-days and forty-nights. Some scholars say that
this time in the wilderness was Jesus’ final testing ground to measure his
fitness as the Messiah. To resist evil for forty-days. Then after this, Jesus will
in my own story’s context, “close on the house.”
In reading the gospel lesson for this morning from the
gospel of Matthew, as I said, I thought about when Melissa and I bought our
first house. I then thought about our “buyer’s remorse” that we had, right after
we had finally gotten what we wanted. After Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River
by his cousin John the Baptist, Jesus would go on to have times of great
triumph and great suffering, just like we all do. The idea that God would come
to earth and take on flesh, and be willing to endure what we do is a powerful
idea.
On this day though, with Jesus getting baptized, he
officially begins his public ministry, that will only last three years. A
ministry which will end on cross on Calvary.
As
I was looking over the gospel lesson for this morning, I wondered to myself if
Jesus had that “oh no” moment, like Melissa and I did when we bought our first
house? I wondered if after Jesus got baptized and then walked out of the Jordan
River, if he had a second where the full realization of what his mission on
earth was, just hit him?
In this way, when Jesus’ cousin John the Baptist baptized
him, it is almost like that when Jesus came out of the water, John the Baptist
said, “You’re hired!” “You’re hired” to love, heal, and forgive, to teach us to
love each other more, and to die for us. Well I don’t about you, but that’s a
much bigger transaction than buying a house in Moravia. I wonder though, I
wonder if Jesus had a moment like Melissa and I did, after he was baptized.
Many of us hear in the church today have hopes and dreams.
Perhaps some of us have a “dream home,” as the term goes. Perhaps we dream of
buying a plot of land, building a house just so, having a tire swing in the
front yard, and etc. How would we feel though, after it actually happened? How
would we feel if it actually came true?
Maybe some us when were younger joined the military, went
to college, or got job training, so that one day we could get that “dream job,”
and so one day we would hear those prized words, “you’re hired!” Yet how many
of us then had a moment of angst after getting that job. Maybe we said, “Jeez,
now I need to do all the amazing things that I just promised to do in my
interview”.
The significance of this Sunday, the Baptism of the Lord in
the life of the church, is that on this day, Jesus goes forth publically. He
will go into the wilderness for forty-days and forty-nights to resist
temptation from evil, and then he will go forth and call his twelve disciples.
It is a watershed day, because Jesus goes from growing into becoming the
Messiah, to assuming his role as Messiah.
Maybe for some of us we can remember our high school
graduation, or college graduations, or military basic training graduations.
There is often much excitement and celebration. Sometimes though, we have a
moment of “what do we do now” after the fact.
Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the savior of the world, God in
the flesh, gets baptized on this day, so that he may assume his position of
leadership, and fulfill his mission on earth as the Messiah.
In looking at the text of the gospel of Matthew for this
morning, it says, “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.” (Mt. 3:13-15, NRSV). The baptism story of Jesus is listed in Mark,
Matthew, and Luke’s gospel, as well as our reading from the Book of Acts from
this morning.
The gospel then ends by saying, “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 please” (Mt. 3:16-17, NRSV).
As I said, I wonder if after Jesus got out the Jordan River,
after his baptism, before going into the wilderness for forty-days did he have
a “oh no” moment? Did he have a “You’re hired” moment.
Today is a big day for Jesus, as he goes from being born as
the Messiah, to now actually doing the full work of being the Messiah. He will
now go forth, love, heal, and forgive, and will change us, and thereby change
the world.
Perhaps we in our own lives have had moments where we have
hit great benchmarks, but then have had a moment of trepidation afterwards.
We my sisters and brothers are in a new year, with fresh
opportunities for growth, personally, spiritually, and within the church. God
has given us all hopes and dreams, and I pray that in 2017 we might get ever
closer to them. Be prepared if God does help you to achieve some of your hopes
and dreams in 2017, you may just may have a “oh no,” or “You’re hired” moment.
In Christ's name I bring you this message. Amen.
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