Gloria Dei Lutheran Church | Urbandale, Iowa

Baptism: What Now?

Pastor Phillips’ Sermon

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Please pray with me. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have brought us into your family, that you’ve given us the blessing of baptism. We pray that you give us your Holy Spirit at this time as we meditate on your Word to strengthen us in our faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

As we turn to the question of “what now”, our study of baptism moves away from “what is it,” Pastor Burcham explained that, and “who needs it,” Pastor Meyer explained that, but now we move beyond that. We go on to the point of what comes next? We’ve been baptized. We understand what it’s all about but what comes next? To answer that simply, I’ll say, “Now, as Christians walking in our life of faith, we remember our baptism.” You might be saying, “Well, how do we do that? How do we remember our baptism?” Well, there are a variety of ways but just think of all the wonderful things that have happened in your life, the great events and achievements that have happened in your life and think of how you celebrate and remember them. Maybe you tell stories. Maybe you take out the pictures and relive the moment and you just enjoy the blessings that you received.

As we think of remembering the great moment of our baptism, it’s helpful for us to think of it both as an achievement and as an event. Have you ever worked hard on something and then, finally, after all your hard labors, somebody recognizes you and gives you an award for your achievement? That’s something of what we’re talking about now with baptism.

You know, last week, we had a great opportunity to hear Lolo Jones return to her hometown and talk about how her journey has progressed and how the struggle she’s endured has finally come out in her favor. She told of how four years ago, when she was desperately trying to make the Olympic team, she did not even qualify for the finals in her event in the 100-meter hurdle. But she didn’t quit. She said sometimes in races, she’d take 5th, 6th or 7th place but she didn’t quit. She kept trying. She kept working. She kept focusing. And finally, at last, in the most recent Olympic trials, it paid off and in a big way. You saw the headlines. You saw the video clips of her running, winning the 100-meter hurdle. Not only did she win and qualify to be on that Olympic team but she ran the fastest time ever by an American in that event. Now as Iowans and citizens of the Metro, we take some pride in seeing a local girl do good like that. It warms our hearts to see her succeed.

And she also, in addition to qualifying for the Olympics, received thousands of dollars in prize money. But then she did something unusual. She said that when she heard about the people in Iowa recovering from the floods, her heart went out to them so she dedicated the money she won for winning the Olympic trials to a person who needed it. Isn’t that interesting? She took her prize, the thousands of dollars that she had earned and achieved and she gave it to someone who hadn’t even competed.

This act of generosity on Lolo’s part reminds me of how we can remember our baptism as an achievement, not of an achievement that we have attained to but as an achievement of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, on the cross and how He has given us the blessings and benefit of that achievement in baptism. Hebrews 12 describes some of the aspects of what Jesus went through, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God, considered Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Philippians 2 says, “Jesus who being in very nature of God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but He made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant and being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on the cross.” On the cross, Jesus achieved our forgiveness and salvation. And in our baptism, these gifts that Jesus won, are given to us.

Earlier, Pastor Meyer read from Romans 6 and that is a wonderful baptism passage. If you’re ever searching for real meat and substance about baptism, that’s the place to go. Romans 6 describes how, in our baptism, we are connected to Jesus. It’s as if we experienced what He experienced. When He was nailed to the cross, it’s as if we were nailed to the cross. When He died and rose from the dead, it’s as if we died and rose from the dead. Listen again as I read that reading from Romans 6. Listen for all the connections of God to us, of the gifts of God to us. “What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so grace may increase? By no means, we died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We therefore, were buried with Him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection for we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.” Through our baptism, we’ve been connected to Jesus. He achieved it but we received it. He won the victory but He gives it to us as a gift in our baptism.

We can also remember our baptism as an event by thinking of it in terms of an adoption. Now 11 years ago, you know the story, I adopted my daughters, Amy and Grace, and so I’m very familiar with the adoption process. I remember how I was so focused to learn everything I could about that process so I could be successful in the adoption. I studied and I consulted with a lawyer. Then I met with the county attorney and I asked all kinds of questions. And after all the papers had been filled out and all the fees had been paid, there was a court hearing and I stood before a judge who put the questions to me, “Will you provide for these children? Will you protect these children? Will you take care of these children as if they are your biological children?” And I said yes. I vowed that I would. And the judge granted the adoption decree. It was a powerful moment in my life.

The adoption process is a legal process and, in it, the court recognizes three things, first the termination of the parental rights of one party, second the establishment or declaration of parental rights of another party, that was me, and finally usually the child receives a new name. What a powerful experience and that’s very similar to what has happened to us in our baptism, in our relationship with God. We have been adopted by God into His family and listen how Paul describes that in His letter to the Colossians, Chapter 1 of Colossians, “For this reason since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding and we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God and being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience and joyfully giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light, for He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves.” Isn’t that awesome? He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves. That’s what happened to you when you were baptized. He rescued you from the dominion of darkness. He brought you into the kingdom of the Son He loves.

When I adopted my girls, one of the most amazing features of that whole process was the name change. Do you know that when you adopt a child, you can have the name changed on their birth certificate and that’s what we did. So all legal documents, all the way back to the moment they were born have my name on them as the father and my last name for my girls. It’s as if they were always my girls. And that’s similar to the way our adoption in Christ impacts our lives. All the sins that we’ve committed beforehand, all the sins we commit today and all the sins we commit in the future have been paid for in full by the blood of Jesus shed on that cross.

Listen to how Peter describes our new identity as children of God, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation of people belonging to God that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness and into His wonderful life. Once you were not a people but now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy.” Wow. What an event our adoption through our baptism has been.

Often when we reflect on great moments of our lives, they impact how we live today, how we behave today. For instance, when I reflect back on the adoption of Amy and Grace, I remember how the judge put those questions to me, how solemn and serious he was and how I said I would take care of those girls. And as I think about that, I am thankful that God made me a father in that way. I am thankful for the privilege and honor of being a dad but it also inspires me to try harder to be a good father, to provide and protect my girls, to watch out for them and pray for them.

Remembering our baptism also impacts our behavior. Luther writes about this in the Small Catechism. “What does such baptizing with water indicate? It indicates that the old Adam in us should, by daily contrition and repentance, be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever. By baptism, we have been made to share in Christ’s death and resurrection as He has buried our sins so we too can and must daily overcome and bury it. And as He has risen from the dead and lives, so we too can and must daily live a new life in Him.

Now the question comes to us all. What form will your remembrance of your baptism take? How will you celebrate the great things God has done for you? Some choose to remember their baptism on the day they were baptized. Every year, they will take out the baptismal candle they received. They’ll take out the certificate. They’ll take out the pictures of the little baby getting baptized and they’ll talk about it and they’ll share it and they’ll cherish it together as a family. Other people remember their baptism whenever they bathe as they are washing and cleansing themselves. They remember how their heavenly Father cleansed their souls. Still others, whenever they hear the trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit mentioned, they make the sign of the cross because it’s on the cross that Jesus won and achieved those great gifts that He gives us in baptism.

What form will your remembrance take? Luther encourages us to daily confess our sins and fight against that sin and struggle against it. But I believe the ultimate way for you to remember your baptism is to obey the Great Commission in Matthew 28, “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” May God give you such a powerful remembrance of your baptism that you will pour out your life as a thank offering to Him. Amen.