Sermon for Nov. 14

Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Baptism of Logan Conway
Nov. 14, 2010
The Holy Ark of the Christian Church

In the name of Jesus, our Redeemer and Logan’s Redeemer, amen. Christianity is such a fluid ‘thing’. And by fluid, I don’t mean something that sloshes around like milk in a jug. Christianity is fluid based on what has taken place this morning. Christianity is fluid based on the communion meal we celebrate. Christianity is fluid due to the story of our Lord Jesus. He changed water into wine. He walked on water. He told the howling seas to hush up. When Jesus was born, he was a living, breathing ball of wet messiness. And when Jesus was suffering in the Garden, he sweat blood. He was scourged with an ancient version of a cat-o-nine and he bled. And in his dying moments, he was pierced with a spear and out came blood and water. Christianity is built upon the solid foundation of Jesus and Jesus spent a lot of time dealing with liquids and fluids.

In our baptism this morning, all of us have a blessed opportunity to reflect on our own washing, on our own bathing, on our own immersion into the life of Christ. God’s own children, we gladly say it, all of us are baptized into Christ. He…because we could never in a million years ever pay it, paid our own redemption price. With His holy and precious blood, a great fluid, and with his innocent suffering and death, He, our Lord Jesus, paid the price that was on my head. Jesus gave Himself up for me, in my place, and for you, in your place.

We are baptized into Christ, washed, made clean, swept in a holy flood into the family of God. Reading through God’s Word, you cannot help but notice how water, rain, blood- fluid images all- fill God’s Holy Book. In the beginning God called for the springs of the heavens and the springs of the deep to open up so that the seas, oceans, lakes, and rivers would be formed. And in the last book of the Bible, Revelation, there is a river that flows through the heavenly Jerusalem, a river of great delight for the people of God.

So this day when we celebrate Logan’s washing of water and the Word, we can all praise God that Logan takes his place with all of us, here, in the holy ark of the Christian Church.

Our baptismal service includes what is known as the Flood Prayer, written by Dr. Luther for baptismal services. For the unbelieving multitudes in the days of Noah, for hard-hearted Pharoah’s army, water was not good. Water was destructive. Water was deadly. Yet Noah was spared, along with his wife, his three sons, and the three wives of his sons. Water was good. It lifted the ark, and they were spared. For the children of Israel who were languishing as slaves in Egypt, God separated the waters of the Red Sea, dried the ground, and His people marched through the wall of water from slavery to safety.

Baptism continues to destroy and make alive. All sin- the sin-sickness that we all have inherited from Adam and Eve and the sin the commit because of our identity- all of that sin is drowned in the waters of Holy Baptism.

C’mon, Logan’s so small, so young, so cute…sin? Get real. Oh yeah, it is real. Sin is what we are more than what we do. All of the bad things that we do, and they are many, are done because of our identity. You act selfishly because you are a sinful human being. You overlook the gifts of your spouse because you are sinner. You treat your coworkers with contempt because of your sinful identity. You regard others as more sinful than you because their sinful actions are public, while your take place in the privacy of your own home, they take place via your high-speed internet connection. It is our sinful ID that leads to our sinful actions. The baptism that Logan has received this morning has cleansed him of his sin. The baptism that Logan has received shows him to be a child of God. Logan has been given to his parents Ashley and Joe so they may guide him, nurture him, and train him to give thanks for his baptism and for the reality of the Father’s loving presence in his life.

Logan takes his place within the holy ark of the Christian Church. He sits next to you, behind you, in front of you. He joins the countless throng of men and women, young and old, healthy and sick, wealthy and poor, all who make up the family of God, the body of Christ.

Logan’s baptism, and your baptism, regardless of how long ago it may have been, is something certain. The holy ark of the Christian Church often seems to be sailing on rough and turbulent seas. The Christian Church seems adrift, without any power, without any direction. It has no course because it follows the cultural currents that shift and change.

There are stormy seas that the ship of God’s Church sails in. God’s gift of marriage is under attack. God’s gift of life is devalued, from beginning to end. Babies are being aborted because the gender is found out while they are still in the protective ark of the womb but they are the wrong gender! Those with mental and physical disabilities are shunted to the side, warehoused out of the way, and forgotten. Those who are older, who are drawing toward the end of their life, are encouraged to speed things up. Their value and worth are determined by others and they are seen as a drain on resources rather than as a human being, loved by God, given life by God, protected and cherished by God.

God’s gift of forgiveness is even under attack, as we live in a world occupied by three-strikes-and-you’re-out policies, even zero-tolerance policies. When a Christian forgives, the Christian is often mocked! “Why forgive that person? They’re just going to hurt you all over again!”

But God has put us here, in this family of God, in this church, in this ship. By Baptism God has put his name upon us and has sealed his promise of presence. By Holy Communion, God’s baptismal grace is renewed and refreshed in our living. God’s forgiveness is there. God’s life is there. The salvation of God that is yours by Christ’s work on the cross is there too.

God has put us in the ship, and we are not without power, place, or purpose. The power is the Spirit-filled Word of God. Our place is this world, our Father’s world, His glorious creation that we care for. Our purpose is to glorify God, to point to our Savior Jesus, to serve God with a fervent spirit and a joyful hope. Within the holy ark of God’s Church, God’s people, Logan, you, me, all of us together, are kept safe and secure. SDG