Download January 12 The Way of Life: Belonging and Rejoicing

Baptism of Our Lord Sunday
January 12, 2013
The Way of Life: Belonging and Rejoicing
Matthew 3:13-17; Acts 8:26Central Question: How does belonging to a community of faith lead us
39; Didache 7:1-4
to a deeper acceptance of our status as beloved children of God?
Today is Baptism of Our Lord Sunday. On this Sunday, we recall the epiphany that occurred as John the Baptist
baptized Jesus in the Jordan River. As Jesus came up out of the water, a voice from heaven declared, “This is my
Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” Today, we will celebrate baptism in the 11:00 a.m. sanctuary
worship and candidates will hear an echo of these words spoken to Jesus – “You are a child of God and God
takes great delight in you; and God has given you everything you need to live the life God has called you to
live.”
Focal Outline:
Didache 7:1-4
Matthew 3:13-17
Acts 8:26-39
Instructions, Commitments, and Water
A Beloved Child of God
The Gospel Knows No Boundaries
Summary Statements:
1. Baptism reminds us that we are beloved children of God in whom God delights.
2. Baptism reminds us of the commitments we make to God and to one another to follow the way of
Jesus.
3. Baptism is an initiation into covenant relationship with the family of faith.
4. The Gospel knows no boundaries but is inclusive of anyone who is willing to repent and follow the way
of Jesus in faith and love.
5. The way of Jesus is different from other ways. Accepting the way of life and love can sometimes
separate us from the norms of culture, our friends, and even our family. Baptism signifies that our
loyalties are in Christ alone and are lived out in the community of faith.
[Re]Introduce the Didache
Because some class members may not have been present last week, do a brief overview of the importance of
the Didache for the early Christian community.
How Did It Make a Difference?
Each week, ask your class how what they learned last Sunday informed how they lived the Way of Life, the Way
of Love, in their daily life this past week.
In a book I read recently about family ministry, the author spoke of the need to recognize that faith is not just a
Sunday activity but something that happens in the home. She suggests that instead of someone asking, “What
did you learn at church today?” that we, the teachers, would ask the participants, “What did you learn at home
Baptism of Our Lord Sunday
January 12, 2013
this week?”
My favorite quotation about Christian education comes from a book written in 1962 by the late Roger L. Shinn
called The Educational Mission of Our Church. He writes: “Christian education is life studied, broadened beyond
its immediate interests, deepened from its shallow activities, interpreted from a Christian perspective, directed
toward a Christian purpose.” In other words, the Bible reads us and helps us to know how to live the way of
Jesus in our ordinary, everyday life. So, ask your Bible study group, “What did you learn this week? How did the
study last week inform how you sought to live this week? How did it make a difference?”
So What Does This Mean for Us? Questions
1. Reflect on the experience of your baptism. How was it administered? What words do you remember
being spoken by the pastor to you? Was it a meaningful experience to you at the time? What does it
signify for you today?
2. Do you think of your baptism more as an individual experience between you and God or as a communal
experience reminding you of your covenant with God and the community of faith? Why?
3. Do you think of yourself as a beloved child of God? Think of a particular time when this affirmation
seemed most real to you? What obstacles prevent you from accepting God's unconditional love?
4. How does belonging to a community of faith lead us to a deeper acceptance of our status as beloved
children of God?
5. Who are the “seekers” that we might turn away because they fit our view of what a follower of Jesus
looks like? Is there anyone that you believe God would exclude? Why or why not?
6. How will you live out your calling as a baptized believer this week? What difference will it make?
Some Thoughts
To immerse or to sprinkle or to pour? Infants or those who can choose for themselves? What is the “age of
accountability”? These question and many others have been central to the church over the years. As a Baptist
Christian, I hold fast to the freedom of conscience and freedom from coercion in matters of faith. If one has
been baptized as an infant, confirmed when they could choose for themselves, and believe their baptism is a
sign of their allegiance to a life of faith following the way of Jesus, I welcome them into this community. If one
chooses to be baptized (by immersion in our tradition) as a child, youth, or adult, professing their faith as a
follower of Jesus, I welcome them to join our family of faith.
For me, baptism symbolizes entry into the covenant community of fellow Christians who are seeking together
to live the way of love, the way of Jesus. At baptism, we are affirmed as beloved children of God and called to
live out of that identity in our everyday lives.
Here is a thoughtful reflection from Nadia Bolz-Weber:
At the baptism of our Lord, heaven simply could not contain God the Creator and God the Spirit, who
interrupt the regularly scheduled programming to bring a very important message. That message is
that this Jesus who just moments ago was standing in line with all the other rif-raf, this Jesus who has
just been baptized, is the Son of God, the beloved in whom God is well pleased to offer to the whole
world. That was God's first move. From this place of identity, Jesus was then equipped for his purpose.
Identity. It's God's first move.
I was reminded this week by my friend Dave Lose that when the devil says to Jesus "If you are the Son
Baptism of Our Lord Sunday
January 12, 2013
of God...." he calls into question Jesus' relationship with his God because he knows that Jesus, as with
Adam and Eve before him, is vulnerable to temptation precisely to the degree that he is insecure
about his identity and mistrusts his relationship with God.
So perhaps there's a reason why when Jesus was baptized and given an identity and purpose from God
that the devil's first move was putting this very identity and purpose into question saying, "If you really
are what God says you are?" Identity. It's like the end of the spool of thread that when gotten a hold of
can unwind the whole thing.
I wonder if we too are vulnerable to temptation: Whether it be temptation to self-loathing or selfaggrandizement, depression or pride, self-destruction or self-indulgence -- I wonder if we too are
prone to these temptations precisely to the degree that we are insecure about our identity from and
relationship to God. We are vulnerable to darkness precisely to the degree in which we doubt the
identity and purpose given us by God on the waters of our baptism. . .
The longer I try to participate in God's redeeming work in the world the more I am convinced despite
my proclivity to cynicism that there are indeed forces that seek to defy God. And nowhere are we
more prone to encroaching darkness than when we are stepping into the light. If you have ever
experienced sudden discouragement in the midst of healthy decisions, or if there is a toxic thought
that will always send you spiraling down, or if there is a particular temptation that is your weakness
then I make the following suggestion: take a note from Martin Luther's playbook and defiantly shout
back at this darkness "I am Baptized" - not I was, but I am baptized. When Luther himself was holed up
in a castle translating the Greek Bible into German so that for the very first time somewhat regular
folks could read the Word of God for themselves, well, while he was doing this he struggled mightily
with doubt and discouragement from what he understood to be the devil. And he was known to not
only throw the occasional ink pots at whatever was tormenting him and causing him to doubt God's
promises, but while doing so he could be heard throughout the castle grounds shouting "I am
baptized".
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Sparking Interest:
1. Tell about your baptism experience or another that you have witnessed. What was most meaningful?
What was most memorable? What was the strangest? Where was it? Do you remember who else was
baptized with you?
2. What does it mean to you to say “I am baptized” in the present tense?
3. Consider taking a bowl of water and having persons dip their hand in the bowl as a sign to remember
their baptism and what it means for them today.
4. What role does baptism play in becoming a part of this community? Why would one want to become a
member of this church? What does membership mean in relationship to covenant? How do we
celebrate one who professes faith and is baptized? How should we?
Baptism of Our Lord Sunday
January 12, 2013
Asking questions of the text:
Didache 7:1-4
Instructions, Commitments, and Water
What does “first having said all these things” suggest about what should happen before baptism? Why baptize
in the name of the Trinity? What about living (running) water makes it the ideal medium for baptism? How do
you feel about the flexibility of the method of baptism? Should we ask the minister and the ones being
baptized to fast leading up the the act of baptism?
Matthew 22:35-40
The Greatest Command
How would you feel if Jesus had asked you to baptize him? Why do you think Jesus said he “needed” to be
baptized by John? What does it mean “to fulfill all righteousness”? Do you think anyone else heard the voice
from heaven?
Acts 8:26-39
The Gospel Knows No Boundaries
In a sermon on this text, Guy Sayles noted that the prohibitions of the Hebrew scriptures would have forbidden
the Ethiopian eunuch from entrance into the temple. "Their Bible said it: A man like him could never call the
Temple his home. The Ethiopian experienced what too many people experience from God's people: the
ugliness of exclusion . . . Too often, Christians read the Bible in ways that overemphasize isolated texts and use
them to push aside the just, gracious and merciful God whom the grand overarching themes reveal. The result
[is that] followers of Jesus think, feel, and act in ways that aren't Jesus-like but seem to be required by their
reading of the Bible."
The tension in the story rests on the questions, "Would [the eunuch's] race, or the fact that he was a foreigner
or his high place of authority, or his peculiar status as a eunuch bar him from following Jesus? Would he be
held back, hindered and cut off once again? Were there hidden barriers in the Gospel, exceptions and
exclusions written into the fine print of the Good News?" The answer from Phillip is No. Jesus has "made the
radical inclusiveness of God unavoidably clear."
Application:
1. What is the purpose of baptism? What difference does it make to you that you are baptized? How does
it affect your daily living?
2. Guy Sayles wrote, “What prevents people who make us uncomfortable, or who raise issues for which
we lack adequate responses from being baptized? What bars their becoming and being full and equal
participants in the Christian community? Nothing in God. ... Therefore, it is a denial of God's
unconditional love and of salvation by grace if the conditions of someone's life seem to us to justify our
excluding him or her from the community." Who are we tempted to exclude from community?
3. How are you helping others to know that they are beloved children of God? How is our community a
welcoming place that accepts those who seek to follow Jesus?
Closing Prayer
End the time together with a prayer or benediction.
Weird fact: The old Irish when immersing a babe at baptism left out the right arm so that it would remain
Baptism of Our Lord Sunday
pagan for good fighting.
January 12, 2013