I have found my sheep

Sermon planned for Baptism Sunday, September 12th 2010

Text: Luke 15:1-10

Today is a happy day. This morning, we are celebrating baptism. In spring, Meghan & Dylan asked if it would be possible to have Catechism during the summer – they were interested in pursuing baptism. There’s not much that makes me as joyful and excited as when people come up to me and request to be baptized. I’d give up hunting a million times over, just to hear that request, just to see people with a desire to stand up for their faith in Jesus. And so, the first thing I want to do is thank you, Dylan and Meghan, for bringing joy to my heart and asking me to lead you in Catechism. There’s nothing I’d rather have spent my summer doing.

Baptism is a joyful occasion. Like a wedding or a baby dedication, baptisms are a celebration of something new and exciting. And, like a wedding or baby dedication, baptisms are also a serious event. Seriousness and celebration go hand in hand for us as Christians. Sometimes, though, we may have been so good at taking this event serious that we may have forgotten to celebrate. Or, perhaps, we’ve stayed serious at church, during worship, and then gone home to celebrate. This morning, we all have full permission to mix it up a bit. This morning, we are all invited – in fact, I’m going to command it! – that we seriously celebrate what’s about to happen. Meghan and Dylan Funk, siblings in John and Kim’s family, are about to become siblings of a completely different sort. This morning we celebrate in faith and hope that God has adopted Meghan and Dylan Funk into His family. And so, in the spirit of celebration, join me in singing “For God so Loved Us”, song #167 in your blue hymnals. Sing it with joy and in celebration of God’s love for us, and for God’s love for Dylan and Meghan especially this morning.

Meghan and Dylan, it brings us joy, as a family of believers, to welcome you into the community in this special way. God has spoken to both of you. His Spirit has tugged at your heart. Jesus’ call, to “Come and follow”, got through to both of you, and now you are here to respond. You have given evidence of a changed life. You have discerned God’s will for your life and know that baptism is this next step of outward commitment. You have turned from your sins and you are ready to be a full-on servant of our Lord Jesus Christ. These are the reasons it gives us such joy to baptize you this morning. In our Catechism classes, Dylan and Meghan, we discussed the different parts of our Christian faith. I hope you took notes, because I have a short quiz for you… just kidding. The questions come later.

For those of you who haven’t gone to Catechism classes – which is just the name that Christians throughout history have given to classes in which we study the basics of the Christian faith – we go through all the major aspects of Christian faith and life. We discuss our faith in God – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We discuss the meaning and importance of scripture, God’s Creation and Providence. We look at Sin and Salvation, the nature and calling of the Church. We examine the Church’s practices, its understanding of ministry and leadership. We focus on discipleship and Christian spirituality, and we look at some of the Anabaptist perspectives on things like ethics, the Church’s relationship to culture, society and government. And finally, we examine the things we as Christians believe about God’s Future for us.

And since we are celebrating baptism this morning, it will be beneficial for us to call to mind what we as Christians believe and teach about baptism. My comments here reflect on the summary of faith that Dylan, Meghan and I discussed during our classes together – the summary is entitled The Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective. We believe that baptism is “a sign of cleansing from sin.” In Jesus, God’s grace has been made available to us, and baptism is a physical reminder of what Jesus’ has done for us on the cross. He has taken away our sin.

Baptism is “a pledge before the church of a person’s covenant with God to walk in the way of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.” Like a marriage vow, baptism is a public commitment of fidelity and faithfulness. To follow Jesus and no one else. To worship God, and nothing else. It is a commitment that encompasses worship and ethics, thinking and doing, feeling and action.

Baptism is “a pledge to serve Christ and to minister as a member of his body according to the gifts given to each one.” In His body, Jesus equips each of us with the gift of the Spirit, which works in us and makes us useful members of the community. These gifts are given to us to build one another up for the purpose of testifying to Jesus. Just as a hockey team has a variety of players with different skill-sets, so too does the Body of Christ have different members that serve together to build up the One Body of Christ.

Baptism is also “a testimony to the continuing work of the Spirit in the lives of believers.” Part of Catechism involves an examination into a person’s moral character. Both Meghan and Dylan showed clear signs that God had worked a change in their lives. This is important. It is important to also remember that this change is an ongoing thing – the Spirit will continue to be at work in your lives to draw you closer to Jesus. Cultivate that spiritual growth daily. Pray, read scripture, meditate on God’s Word, and put Him first in your Life. Wake up, every day, and ask: what good thing has God prepared for me today? What kind Word has God given me to say? What act of service to give?

And baptism is also “a sign that a person has repented, received forgiveness, renounced evil, and died to sin, through the grace of God in Christ Jesus.” Baptism is a clear marker that you have intentionally switched teams. There are only two teams to play on: the Prince of Peace or the Prince of this world… Meghan and Dylan have chosen the better team. They have chosen to identify themselves with God and His Son, seeking first the Kingdom of God. They are renouncing Satan and his lies.

We as a church teach and believe that, in baptism, believers are “baptized into Christ and his body by the Spirit, water, and blood.” The baptism of the Spirit is completely God’s act, in which God selects you and brings you to the good confession of Christ’s Lordship. If you confess Jesus as Lord, with word and deed, it is because God has drawn you to that good confession. God adopts you and says, “You are my beloved child, with whom I am well pleased!”

The baptism of water is what we celebrate today. It is an act that participates in God’s grace, in which Jesus claims us as His own. It is a public testimony, in which Meghan and Dylan will give us their story of how they have come to this point and where they want to go with this. But it is also a sign that Jesus has taken his stand with you, and he will never back down.

The baptism of blood refers to the likely possibility of persecution. Today you, Meghan and Dylan, are choosing to stick with Jesus – but Jesus, throughout his life, was always on the road towards Golgatha. Jesus’ life, and the Kingdom which he announced, is continually confronted by the kingdoms of this world. And, like oil and water, they always resist each other. The powers didn’t like Jesus very much then, and they won’t like you, Dylan and Meghan, today. Be strong and courageous for Jesus’ name, and trust that if you should be found worthy enough to bear pain and suffering for Jesus’ name, that you will be given sufficient strength and courage to gain victory.

As a church, we teach and believe that the “baptism of the Holy Spirit enables believers to walk in newness of life, to live in community with Christ and the church, to offer Christ's healing and forgiveness to those in need, to witness boldly to the good news of Christ, and to hope in the sharing of Christ's future glory.” This thick description of discipleship is a mouthful – but it means that Dylan and Meghan are claiming the Christian faith as their own today. They are no longer riding the coat-tails of their parents or their Sunday school teachers. Today they say, “thanks for teaching me the faith, but I am no longer merely a student of faith… today I am also a teacher, a proclaimer, a servant of Christ, and a member of Christ’s body – the Church” Baptism means you have heard Christ knocking on the door, and that you have made it clear to God and to everyone else that He has entered. You’ve responded to Christ’s invitation in obedience and faith.

That’s a summary of what we as Christians believe and teach about baptism. The scripture passages assigned to this morning by the Common Lectionary are especially appropriate for this celebration. Baptism is all about turning and repenting from our rebelliousness and our sin so that we can turn towards God and embrace His saving grace. The passages this morning are all on the theme of repentance and the acceptance of God’s grace. The passage from Luke offers two parables about God’s unquenchable desire to have us as His children. And the Psalm we read is about David’s own desire to be forgiven, after being confronted by the prophet Nathan for his sin of adultery and murder. But the other texts assigned for this morning are also fully appropriate.

I invite you to turn, with me, in your bibles to the first of these: to Exodus chapter thirty-two, beginning at verse 7-14. Last week we heard about the choice that Moses offered to Israel at the end of his life. Choose God, choose life, or Choose death! Israel was offered this choice because they had proven themselves disobedient, over and over again. In our story from Exodus, Israel rejected Yahweh and the prophet Moses. They worshiped a golden calf instead. God’s response was anger and wrath, but Moses was able to change God’s mind about destroying the people. Moses, like Abraham, was able to plead with God – to spare the Israelites. Now mind you, a good many of them didn’t turn back to God when Moses warned them and they were destroyed. Destruction is the end result of any Created being that rejects its Creator. This morning, we celebrate Meghan and Dylan’s choice to embrace their Creator; to reject all other idols and join Moses, and all the saints, in giving praise and allegiance to Yahweh alone.

The bible is full of these kind of turn-around stories – stories of repentance. David’s story in the Old Testament is profound in this sense. Here was the chosen King of God’s people; and, one day, when he saw Bathsheba from his roof, he lusted after her. Because he was King, he could get whatever he wanted – and he wanted Bathsheba all to himself. The problem was, Bathsheba was married to Uriah the Hittite, a soldier in one of David’s armies. This didn’t stop David though. He had one of his servants go and fetch Bathsheba and he forced himself onto her. This great King committed adultery, basically raped Bathsheba and got her pregnant. Later on, in order to hide his sin, he had Uriah shipped off to the front lines of battle. After Uriah’s death, David took Bathsheba into his home and had her for his wife. Talk about evil and corrupt. You barely get this kind of stuff in the movies, and if you’d make a movie about this it would be rated ‘triple x’. But, we as a Church read David’s poems all the time; his songs are recorded in the book of Psalms. And in 1 Samuel 13:14 we read that God chose David because he was a man after God’s own heart. What’s going on here? God chooses sinners? God loves adulterers, rapists and murderers? Of course he does, and God loves you too, Dylan and Meghan. God would still have loved David even if he never wrote Psalm 51, his humble confession and his petition for mercy. But we can be thankful that he did write that Psalm, because it reminds us that we need to repent. It also reminds us that God loves us and chooses us – even we sinners, and all of us in this room are sinners. We are not alone when we pray David’s words of confession: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit”

The story about Israel worshiping the golden calf is one that speaks about the sin of a community. All of Israel rebelled against God. The story about David and Bathsheba is about the sin of an individual. We as a community and as individuals have repeatedly said “NO!” to God, in rebellion and idolatry. Baptisms are a reminder to the community that we have renounced sin. We once said “NO” to God, but now we are those who say “YES” to God. We say “YES” to God because He first said “YES” to us. God says “NO!” to our sin, but that Word of judgment is always already a word of grace. In God’s condemnation of our sin, we already find his loving embrace, which meets us in Jesus, in the Incarnation. In the Word-become-flesh, God has put all of His eggs in our basket. God has staked out a dwelling place among us – we call Him Immanuel: God with us. In your baptisms this morning, you are claiming this God as your own because you have come to know Him as the only God. And in your baptisms this morning, we acknowledge that God has claimed you in His Son Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit.

Turn with me, in your bibles, to 1 Timothy, beginning at chapter 1, verse twelve. If you stop to think about it, we might ask whether or not the Apostle Paul would ever had been welcome in the churches of North America. After all, he was a terrorist who attacked and persecuted the early church. The churches that he wrote to would have had members, who were orphaned by Paul’s own hand or by his command. In the book of Acts we can read about how he was a “man of violence”. Like David, Paul was an unlikely hero of the Christian faith; and, once again, it was only because of God’s grace. He was the chief of sinners; a terrorist no less evil than Osama bin Laden, George W. Bush, Barrack Obama, or those who wish to spread hate by burning bibles or Qur’ans. But God is able to turn things around on us. God can take the worst of situations and bring about a resurrecting goodness. God can bring about grace, transformation, and peace through the most violent of sinners. Meghan and Dylan, your testimonies may not sound as radical as Paul’s or David’s, but it is no less significant for the Kingdom of God. Today you are choosing God’s grace, life in Christ, and membership in his body – the Church. That same grace that turned things around for Paul and for David is still turning our world upside down. God is still changing the hearts of people, and today we celebrate the change that God has worked in your heart and in your lives. Today, we celebrate your choice to become one of the family here at the Gretna Bergthaler Mennonite Church, a member of this fellowship, and a partner with God in his mission in this community and in any other place where He leads you.

As we heard earlier, in the parables of Jesus, both of you are like that lost sheep that was found, that lost coin sought after. From the time you were knit together in your mother’s womb, both of you were being sought after. God was searching you out. God had his eye on you the entire time. You are a precious child to Him. This morning, on behalf of all of us here at Gretna Bergthaler Mennonite Church, I want you both to know that we are overjoyed to celebrate baptism with you, and we are excited to have you join us, for the first time, around the table of communion with Jesus. May it be a place for you to meet your Lord and Saviour. May it be a place for you to remember his sacrifice, and to remember your baptism.

Please join me in prayer,

Creator and Sustainer of all things, this morning we give you thanks for the Church that you have called together as your testimony on earth. We give you thanks for bringing Dylan and Meghan into the fold. May you give us the grace to welcome them in and to welcome their gifts and passions. We ask that you would bind us together, form us as Your Body so that all we do and say might bear witness to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, for we pray in His name. Amen.