Message: Fallen & Dirty World. Solution? A Bath!
What is our answer to the fallen state of our sick world, how do we respond to the selfishness run amuck across our land, and where do we seek refuge from the sickness in which we live in? It is an acknowledgement that only our Lord can save us from all of the depravity and nonsense in our society, ultimately from ourselves.
Inviting the Lord to share in and to be a part of our lives, is a beginning of an eternity that lays ahead for each of us who have gone down that road of trust in our Lord. After being saved by Jesus Christ, a new relationship is forged. A new you has been transformed from the old person you used to be, which will take us places we never dreamed we would actually venture to. The change for some of us happened in a flash, and for others the revolution within occurred over time.
In fact, the outward things happening in our lives is just a confirmation of what is happening deep inside our very being. For many of us, we seem to be in direct opposition to the ways of the world, and are actually living healthier God led lives, a remedy to all that selfish, fear fed poison of the flesh hovering out there.
Well, for three of us today, a bath was definitely on the agenda. Each of them was buried into our Lord, and then arose from their Baptism in imitation of Jesus Christ arising from the grave. In short, for all of us who have been baptized, we share in a passing of death to the world’s idea of value, and then in common we also share in a birth to an eternity of hope, grace, and beauty.
Like our ancestors before us (the children of Israel), we are called into a relationship with a God who wants to share, give, and help us on our journey towards Him. The further down that path we travel, the more in focus our Lord’s plans for us become. At some point, reading and listening to complicated instruction and insights into our future from Prophets like Isaiah begin to make sense. Case in point, please let me read from Isaiah 51:4-8;
4 “Listen to me, my people;
hear me, my nation:
Instruction will go out from me;
my justice will become a light to the nations.
5 My righteousness draws near speedily,
my salvation is on the way,
and my arm will bring justice to the nations.
The islands will look to me
and wait in hope for my arm.
6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
look at the earth beneath;
the heavens will vanish like smoke,
the earth will wear out like a garment
and its inhabitants die like flies.
But my salvation will last forever,
my righteousness will never fail.
*Interrupting Isaiah just to say; all of everything you have ever known outside of your Lord, will rot, fade, and drop like flies in time. Only our God is everlasting to everlasting! That is why we indeed listen to the Holy Spirit’s urge towards a better life in Him. On to verse 7;
7 “Hear me, you who know what is right,
you people who have taken my instruction to heart:
Do not fear the reproach of mere mortals
or be terrified by their insults.
8 For the moth will eat them up like a garment;
the worm will devour them like wool.
But my righteousness will last forever,
my salvation through all generations.”
If everything outside our Lord will fall away and be consumed like garments of wool in time, we can be assured that our choice in Him is eternally a correct one. For His righteousness and salvation will last forever! That is what leads us to Baptism. You see when we publicly agree to follow in our Lord’s footsteps, we say to others, to God, and to ourselves; that we are “all in” on trusting and believing that our God is going to do the things He says He is going to do.
Our Lord has told us to go into all the world to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. To follow Him. And we know where our Lord has been. Reading again from today’s Prelude from Matthew 3: 13-17;
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.
16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
That is leadership by example, and a reassurance to our three brother and sisters today, that where they tread, our Lord has already been! Making you and me a part of an incredible family that spans across this big world, and over two millennia of experience.
So, what happened here today, to make today so special, especially for those of us who were Baptized? Well, our Baptism, is a wet reflection of what the Lord has been doing to the very essence of the person, on the inside. Or what the Apostle Paul instructed happened to the Church of Galatia, when they put on Christ, and moved on from the old them. Reading from Galatians 3: 26-28;
26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Yes, we have become children of God through our faith in Jesus Christ, and through obedience to Him, we publicly declare this in our Baptism. Now we are learning that there is no male and female, or slave and free person, no Jew or Gentile, no inside crowd click or outsiders in our church. There are no those with power over others, just those who belong to God’s family who in a partnership serve God by serving others together in Him!
This is the way God has intended for the people of God to orient and conduct their relationships with each other in partnership from the beginning of this family in God. People overseeing our progression as a family without being overlords, others serving God by partnering and glorifying God. All of us sharing in our Baptism into the family, and then confirming our membership and relationship routinely in our participation in the Lord’s Supper, Communion.
In this way, we of God’s family have so much in common with the children of Israel. Called out of our slavery to sin, for something better in life. Here is what Paul had to say in yet another letter he wrote. This time 1 Corinthians 10: 1-4;
1 For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
That great cloud of witness our Lord’s Holy Spirit leading each of us into new lives. Where we are Baptized (spiritually washed), and then fed spiritually each Sunday in the Communion of faith, hope, and love! This indeed was true in the time of the Exodus, and remains so today with each of us in this family.
This new reality of who you and I are as a family in God, is confirmed and reinforced by Paul’s instruction to the early church of Rome. We heard his words from God in today’s Message Reading. Hear again is our reading from Romans 12:1-10;
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.
*Interrupting Paul to say; living in a family does not just suddenly get easy because you have been Baptized and now partake in weekly Communion. But it helps, and it’s a reminder that all of us bring value and need God’s grace from both, and then from each of us as wellsprings of grace from our Lord. On to verse 4;
4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.
9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.
That’s the rub, isn’t it? Learning to honor others, care for, serve, and love others, before ourselves. That’s when you know that what is being demonstrated on the outside is a reflection of what is taking place on the inside.
Today, Sandi, Shanna, and Sean, are in the first steps of all that Paul has to say are the characteristics of being in the family of God. Learning to love sincerity is easy. Learning to put others before ourselves, how to lead without becoming dictators, followers without grievance, and servants in partnerships? Well, that’s a lifetime of effort for many of us.
When we do, our lives become a symphony of beaty and grace, living well beyond the old lives of vanity, selfishness, fear, and petty ownership into nothingness.
As we grow in our Lord, each other, and into realizations of just how good and real life can be in our new family, we begin to see new meaning in God’s Word. Primarily, because we are more engaged in our Lord, and receptive to His Holy Spirit. For confirmation of this, let’s end this message with how we began today with the Call to Worship that Lynn read for us. This time I would like to read all of Psalm 138. A psalm of David.
1 I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart;
before the “gods” I will sing your praise.
2 I will bow down toward your holy temple
and will praise your name
for your unfailing love and your faithfulness,
for you have so exalted your solemn decree
that it surpasses your fame.
3 When I called, you answered me;
you greatly emboldened me.
4 May all the kings of the earth praise you, Lord,
when they hear what you have decreed.
5 May they sing of the ways of the Lord,
for the glory of the Lord is great.
6 Though the Lord is exalted, he looks kindly on the lowly;
though lofty, he sees them from afar.
7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
you preserve my life.
You stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes;
with your right hand you save me.
8 The Lord will vindicate me;
your love, Lord, endures forever—
do not abandon the works of your hands.
In our lives, so often the foes that David speaks of, are the forces at war within each of us. As we struggle with the battles within, my hope and prayer for each of you this week, is that you reflect back on the time when you realized that there was something different about you.
You were thinking of, dwelling on, focusing upon the needs of others before yourself, and you found that it was really making you crazy and happy all at the same time. Because you realized that it was the Lord at work in you! May that crazy, happy, all consuming new you, in Him, transport you to places yet unthought of by you. Into service, you never before seriously considered, and into feelings for others that reassure you, that you are alive in Him.
Amen!