Text: Luke 3:15-22 (Revised Standard Version)
15 As the people were in expectation, and all men questioned in their hearts concerning John, whether perhaps he were the Christ, 16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with water; but he who is mightier than I is coming, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into his granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
18 So, with many other exhortations, he preached good news to the people. 19 But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Hero′di-as, his brother’s wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, 20 added this to them all, that he shut up John in prison.
The Baptism of Jesus
21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form, as a dove, and a voice came from heaven, “Thou art my beloved Son;[a] with thee I am well pleased.”[b]
In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.
The theme for today is reconciliation. At least, that’s the word that wouldn’t stop rolling around in my head all last week as I began to think about today’s message.
Now, that word does not appear anywhere in the Gospel lesson for today; and you could probably read a dozen sermons or consult a wheelbarrow’s worth of scholarly books that discuss this passage, and not find that word mentioned, except maybe in passing.
Yet I believe that that is in fact what this passage is really all about. Why do I say that?
Well, let’s take a look at what’s going on here. First, the people gathered in the crowd were, as it says, “in expectation,” and all of them questioned whether perhaps John were the Christ, the Messiah. But what was it that the Messiah represented? What was it that he was to bring?
Answer: The Messiah came to bridge the gulf between God and His children. In short: He came to reconcile us to God.
This is more than just a quaint theological construct. It is nothing less than a summation of the whole of human history and experience. The Old Testament in its entirety is essentially the story of God trying to pull us, His children, back onto the right track after we – in our ignorance, our arrogance, our folly – had strayed off of it. He tried everything – famine, exile, natural disasters, the Law, the prophets – and nothing worked. God had given us free will, and we definitely learned how to use it!
But God had one last card to play: Stepping into our world himself. And that’s what He did – He came to us as Jesus.
That’s what’s behind today’s lesson. The people who were gathered to hear John, who were eager to be baptized by John, were waiting with a hope bordering on desperation for the Messiah, the One who was to come to bring them back to God.
And so, naturally enough, they ask John “Are you the one we’ve been waiting for?”
John says, “No. The one who’s coming is far, far greater than I am.”
And then, as if on cue, Jesus shows up, and asks to be baptized. After Jesus convinces John that this is what needs to happen, John obliges.
And the most amazing thing happens – the heavens open, and the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus in the form of a dove, and then comes the very voice of God Himself from heaven: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
It’s all so – poetic. Even fanciful. Hard to believe. We can’t explain it. But we don’t have to, either.
It’s God in action – God coming to us. It’s God being with us, in and through Jesus, His beloved Son. Reconciling the world to Himself.
Remember that great old Appalachian carol, “I Wonder As I Wander”? The first verse goes like this:
“I wonder as I wander, out under the sky, how
Jesus the Savior did come for to die
For poor ordinary people like you and like I;
I wonder as I wander out under the sky.”
This can be a tough concept for us. Even though we’ve heard it and known it all of our lives, it still sometimes makes us shake our heads when we really sit down and think about it, doesn’t it? God first took human form, endured pain, humiliation, and death – just for us? So we can be reconciled to God? And God just hands that to us?
Yes. Absolutely yes. But it takes a long time for this to sink in. It flies in the face of convention. In fact, it takes a lifetime, or even a thousand lifetimes – we’ve been trying to comprehend this awesome truth for two thousand years, after all.
But there it is. God came to us to reconcile us to Him through Jesus Christ. That is the greatest gift that has ever been given, and that will ever be given. And all we have to do is accept it, and then respond.
Respond how?
Respond by being reconcilers.
Our world is in desperate need of reconciliation. Here’s the opening paragraph of just one article from Friday’s New York Times:
“The Chinese stock market is plummeting so fast that authorities there keep shutting it down. North Korea set off a bomb in a nuclear test. Two of the Middles East’s great powers, Saudi Arabia and Iran, are eyeing each other menacingly. In the European Union, political extremists are on the rise, migrants are pouring in and Britain may drop out (three phenomena that are not unrelated).”
What has all this to do with reconciliation? Everything, even the problems with the Chinese stock market – stock markets are based on trust. When investors find their trust failing, they panic. They need reconciliation to happen with each other and the companies they’ve invested in so that confidence can be restored. When nations have differences with each other, they need reconciliation to happen in order for peace to be restored.
The reconciliation that comes through Jesus has never been needed more.
But it’s not just between nations where reconciliation is necessary. It’s necessary between individuals, too.
Father Timothy Fountain, an Episcopal priest, tells the story of an unexpected experience of reconciliation he and his wife had when they met with – of all things – an insurance broker. He writes:
“Yesterday my wife and I met with a health insurance representative. Long story short, the Episcopal Church medical plan is anti-family, and our church is helping us seek other coverage for my wife and dependent kid.
“Anyway, we agreed to meet the rep at a coffee house here in town. We were wondering how we would recognize her when a woman walked in and focused her eyes on my wife, who focused right back, both faces registering surprise.
“’Wait, you’re Melissa?’
“’And you are Michelle.’
“Melissa embraced her and they had a whispered conversation. I didn’t know what was going on at that point so I sat and tried to look like I was forming informed, intelligent evaluation of my coffee’s aroma.
“It turned out that the two of them had worked at the same place not long after we moved to Sioux Falls. And they did not get along or part on friendly terms. I remembered Melissa’s horror stories at the end of some work days, but I never knew the last name of her antagonist, so no flags went up when I made the appointment to meet about insurance.
“In very few words, they owned what had been, laughed a bit, and then built a new connection. The meeting about insurance was fruitful. Michelle made it a point to ask good questions and personalize the plan options to our needs. Then we visited for a good while, and got to know one another better…
“See, when I look at what Melissa and Michelle did, with God’s grace, that strikes me as ‘reconciliation.’ Two people had two stories of the same conflict, and put that behind them to be in the same place with a common purpose.”[1]
God’s plan for us is that we live in harmony with each other and with Him. Harmony is what I believe God would call the proper natural order of the universe. But because we live in anything but harmony, God gave us Himself through Jesus, to reconcile us, to bring us together.
But that is not the end of the story. God calls us to be reconcilers. Are there people in your life with whom your relationship is strained or even broken? Does it cause you pain knowing that you are unable to live in harmony because of it?
Ask yourself: “What can I do to change that?”
That is a question for every one of us. And maybe the first thing that we can do is simply recognize that we do not live for ourselves alone, that we are finite creatures, and that we have sinned against that other person, even as that other person has sinned against us. It is an extremely rare thing that one side of an argument is totally blameless; in fact, I don’t think that’s ever true. It might be 60% to 40%, or even 99% to 1%, but never 100% to 0%. The first step in reconciliation is recognizing that fact. That’s called “penitence.”
And the second thing is that we can turn ourselves once again, heart and soul, over to God. Let me close today with the prayer of the penitent person from our Book of Worship’s order for the reconciliation of a penitent person:
Almighty God, God of strength and mercy, who sent Jesus to save and to forgive, I trust you. Forgive my sins. Refresh my spirit. Free me to love myself, my neighbor, and you. Amen.
[1] http://www.standfirminfaith.com/?/sf/page/30299