June 24, 2001,
Vicar Rick Marrs
The Nativity of St. John the Baptist

Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The text on which this morning's message is based comes from our Acts and Luke lessons read earlier.

First aid makes an injured person ready for medical treatment by providing temporary, but important procedures. For example, a broken limb is put into a temporary splint until it can be properly set by a physician and put into a long term cast. A person bitten by a snake might have a tourniquet placed around their arm to keep the venom from spreading until an antidote can be given. Temporary first aid procedures are often critically important in keeping a person alive, and in turning them toward more permanent healing procedures.

Today we celebrate the spiritual first aid implemented by God through John the Baptist. Today is one of those floating church holidays, the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. Since we know that John was born 6 months before Jesus, the ancient church saw fit to place a church holiday for his birth some 6 months before Christmas Eve. This year that happens to fall on a Sunday. It seemed only fitting to me on this day of an adult baptism and confirmations, that we be reminded of St. John the Baptist. His was the temporary, but critically important spiritual first aid that turned his world toward the permanent healing brought by Jesus. John's message was to turn his hearer's attention toward the true spiritual healing that God was bringing to the world through our Lord Jesus Christ.

In reality, God had been providing this temporary spiritual first aid for centuries. In Acts 13, Paul reminds those Jews and Gentiles listening to him of the first aid throughout the Old Testament. He starts with the promises God made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, then the promises to Moses and Joshua, the protection he provided by the Judges until Samuel, King Saul, and King David. From David's "descendants God brought to Israel the Savior Jesus, as he promised." "But before the coming of Jesus, John preached repentance and baptism to all the people of Israel."

Paul correctly places John the Baptist as the last of the Old Testament prophets, the last of the salvation history God was writing, the last of spiritual first aid. God had a plan, first the forerunner, then the Messiah. First the prophet of the Most High to prepare the Way, then the Savior to be the Way.

John was a forerunner, not the Messiah. John's Baptism was a forerunner. John baptized with water, as a symbol of washing and repentance. The followers of the Messiah, Jesus, would be baptized with water, but also with the Holy Spirit. Jesus said (John 3): "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born from above…" "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit."

 These Baptismal waters look pretty ordinary. How can water do such great things for Gabe, for Kathy, for you, for me? It is not the water indeed that does them, but the Word of God which is in and with the water, and faith, which trusts such Word of God in the water. For without the Word of God the water is simple water and no Baptism. But with the Word of God it is a Baptism, that is, a gracious water of life and a washing of regeneration in the Holy Ghost. As St. Paul says, Titus, chapter three: According to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior.

What is the significance of Baptizing with water, what does it mean still for us today, whether we were baptized 9 minutes ago or 90 years ago?

Our Baptism is still significant because it teaches. It teaches us "that the Old Adam in us should, by daily contrition and repentance, be drowned and die with all sins and evil lusts and, again, a new man daily come forth and arise, who shall live before God in righteousness and purity forever. "Where is this written? St. Paul writes, Romans, chapter six: we are buried with Christ by Baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." (Small Catechism)

John called for repentance. He warned that repentance, turning away from man's ways and toward God's ways, was required. That message is still necessary for us today. All of us fail to keep God's Law. For some, the sin struggle may be disobeying parents or other authorities. For others, the temptation may be toward sexual sin, or harboring sinful anger toward one's neighbor. For still others it may be gossiping or coveting. For still others, it may be neglecting God's Word. For all of us, the temptation is to put our loving Lord in a position less than first. When we realize our struggle with those sins, and our inability to save ourselves, we are then ready again for repentance.

Repentance is not, as some Christians falsely assume, a once-in-a lifetime event, or even a once a week Sunday event. Faithful repentance is a daily, even hourly activity, recognizing our own sinfulness, and our need for a savior, for continuing spiritual healing. When we recognize that need we are not being spiritual masochists, or guilt-ridden self-loathers. When we repent and recognize our need for a savior, then we can turn to Jesus and be confident that his words "Father, forgive them" apply to us. When we repent we can say with John the Baptist "I am not worthy to untie Jesus' sandals." But Jesus comes to us, in the form of a servant, washing us, even washing the feet of his disciples (John 13).

The Old Testament and John the Baptist's Baptism were temporary first aid for life. Humanity had been bitten by a poisonous snake, Satan, and the temporary tourniquets were God's promises in the Old Testament and John the Baptist. But after John came the true antidote toward which the promises point. Today we have Jesus, and Baptism in the name of Jesus, in the name of the Triune God as our personal, enduring spiritual antidote.

We are not baptized in case we die. We are baptized into Christ in order to live. That is the Baptism that Gabe received today. That is the Baptism that Kathy, and in a sense, the rest of us confirmed today.

We are baptized to live, through Christ Jesus, for Christ Jesus. Our Baptism is our own personal seal placed on God's adoption form for us into His family.

Pastor George Bruening, the former District President of Kansas shared this story about Baptism recently. Just a few months ago Pastor Bruening was visiting a hospital to call on patients. A nurse asked him to visit an elderly man in an adjacent room. The man welcomed him and began to explain that when he was an infant in western Kansas, the Lutheran church in town in which he lived was closed. His family moved around to many places in Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. He said that his mother used to read Bible stories to him as he grew up. He related that he had read the Bible through- twice cover to cover – but was never confirmed and had never been baptized. After much more conversation he asked if Pastor Bruening would baptize him. Pastor asked him if he believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. The man gave one of the finest testimonies of faith in Jesus that Pastor Bruening had ever heard. They asked for water, and Pastor poured water on his head, made the sign of the cross, and spoke Christ's words, "I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." Pastor welcomed him into the Holy Christian Church as a fellow member of the Body of Christ. He read the 23rd Psalm and closed with a prayer. Pastor returned to the hospital the next day looking forward to a visit with his new brother in Christ, to help build him up in the faith. He stepped into his room, but found it empty. He went to the nurses' station to inquire about his friend. A nurse informed him that the man had died during the night. Baptized to live, the Lord had called him home.

 We too are baptized to live, to live forever. We join together in church, not because humans like to join social clubs, but because our Lord has taught us to join together to celebrate the grace that He has given us, the love He has shown through his death on the cross.

Today we welcome new members into that life of faith with us, one by Baptism, one by a confirming of her Baptism, others by transfer. We pray that God remind all of us daily of the grace he brought us at our Baptisms, so that we can continue to daily turn to him, be confident in his love for us, and join together in a life serving him.

The grace, peace, and baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us always. Amen.