Sexagesima Sunday, February 20th, Year of
Our + Lord 2022
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
Why We Baptize - Isaiah 55:10-13, Hebrews 4:9-13, Luke
8:4-15
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
anyone?
There are a number of ways we can correctly answer this question. Our readings this morning from the prophet Isaiah, from the letter to the Hebrews, and from the Gospel of Luke combine to emphasize that Scripture alone is the center of teaching and practice in the Christian Church. God’s Word is at the heart of all that it is to be Christian. We can certainly get at a reason to baptize through this route. Simply put, we Christians baptize because God through His Bible tells us to baptize: Jesus commanded the Eleven Apostles, just before He ascended into heaven, to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Ten days later, Peter at Pentecost cries out to his hearers: “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and your children.” We also learn from Peter a simple reason to baptize Oaklee, or anyone, when in his first letter the Apostle tells us, “Baptism now saves you.” That is quite a promise!
Scripture, God’s Word alone, is our authority for understanding and teaching God’s will, so we are careful not to allow human reason to introduce objections, or put conditions on the gift of Baptism that God has not declared. Which, sadly, we have a tendency to do, because Baptism seems unreasonable to our fallen minds. It’s just water and some words, after all: “I baptize you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Surely salvation can’t come through just that? Throughout the history of the Church questions have entered the thoughts of well-meaning Christians: How can plain water do such great things? Well, says God through Isaiah, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways.” God declares: “I send my Word to save, and this is what I mean to accomplish through it, and so it does.” The Word does not return to the Lord without accomplishing His purposes. So, because of God’s Word, Holy Scripture, we baptize.
There is another way to explain
why we baptize, not unrelated to Scripture Alone, but more personal. My favorite way to explain why we would
baptize a baby like Oaklee is simple: because we love him.
Now ‘love’ is a word that means different things to different people, and often Christians bemoan the way the world twists this good and important word. ‘Love.’ Love is not selfishness, it is not power, nor pleasure seeking lust. Love is not just momentary thrill, nor does it rejoice in the hurt or control of others. Love is not a rejection of the Creator and the order of His Creation. And through these negative examples, we know that the word ‘love’ is terribly misused, so often.
We should be careful how we use this precious word. But we can’t stop the world from abusing language, and in this case, the many ways we use or abuse the word ‘love’ actually provides us with an opportunity. People may misunderstand and misuse it, but everyone wants to be on the side of ‘love.’ Which creates the opportunity to make a comparison, to speak of ‘love’ as God speaks of love, an opportunity, as Paul says, to speak the Truth in love. To speak of the selflessness, the self-sacrifice, the other centered-ness of true love. Such speaking will, among other things, take us into all the depth and riches of the gift of Holy Baptism. For this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son as the propitiation, as the atoning sacrifice to take away our sins. The loving gift of God, which the Holy Spirit delivered to you, in your Baptism.
Think of it this way: When you love someone, you naturally want to talk with them. From birth, long before they can respond with words, we talk to our babies. Which is good for them and good for us. Our words to babies help their brains develop and help them to know in their souls that they are loved. Talking to babies is so good; it is almost God-like. For God promises through Isaiah that the Word which comes from His mouth would be like the life-giving rains that cause seeds to grow, and allow people to eat and live. And the Lord tells us through the preacher to the Hebrews that God’s Word is living and active, it does things. And Jesus in our parable today portrays Himself as wildly optimistic and careless farmer, scattering the seed of His Word everywhere, almost as if God wanted everyone to hear, believe and be saved. Which we know is true, because God is love, and the part of His creation that He loves the most, despite many reasons not to, is us. God loves mankind, men and women and babies, and in an act of sustaining and protecting grace, God has maintained this feeling of love, even in sinners like us.
And so Oaklee’s parents have discovered what so many of us know, that having a child taps a well of love inside us that we didn’t know was there. They love him, and Oaklee’s extended family loves him, and any of you who have had a chance to hold this handsome little man love him, and together, we desired that Oaklee be baptized. Because we love Oaklee, we wanted to give him the promises the Bible makes about Holy Baptism, which is a life-giving water of renewal and regeneration by the Holy Spirit, a dying and rising with Jesus Christ. To be baptized is to be clothed with Christ, to be joined to Him. Baptism is adoption by God the Father. Looking down from heaven, and seeing one baptized into His Son Jesus, the Father extends the blessing He declared when the Christ was baptized in the Jordan River. Today, to Oaklee, for Jesus’ sake, the Father says: “This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.”
When you ask a Christian about the importance of God’s Word, the first thing you will usually hear will have to do with the Authority of the Bible. That God’s Word is inerrant, infallible, and tells us what is true, what is acceptable, what we are to do and not do. You will hear how we must maintain and respect the Authority of Scripture. And all this is true. But this Authority is not the fullness of Sola Scriptura, Scripture Alone. God’s Word is true and authoritative. However, that by itself doesn’t make it good news. But God’s Word, as we have said, is also effective. God’s Word accomplishes what God wills, what He desires. And God desires to save sinners. So the Word brings us to repentance for our sins, and faith comes by hearing the Word of Christ, living and active, the Good News of free forgiveness, which is the power of God unto salvation.
God the Holy Spirit uses the Word to save us, to convert us from rebellion and make us children of the Heavenly Father. The Spirit does this at our Baptism, and continues this work throughout our earthly lives. Which is a good thing. Because we want the promises of Baptism... until we don’t. We need the Word to be living and active, sharper than a two-edged sword, because even as Christians, we try to twist and avoid and ignore what God has said to us. The Word restrains and rebukes our sinfulness. We desire what God knows is bad for us, and so He says no. And we rebel.
So we need the Spirit, with the sharpest of all swords, to come along and cut out what is false, and replace it with truth. We need the Word that comes from the mouth of the Lord to accomplish God’s will, because we cannot. We need the scattered seed of the Word to make good soil out of our hearts. Because not one of us is naturally good soil.
The Word tells us what God does through Baptism, and the Word is the Lord’s tool to actually do His will in time and space, to create good and honest hearts, hearts of flesh and not of stone, to create new hearts, new hearts that gladly receive the implanted Word, which is able to save our souls.
made flesh, Jesus Christ, the very best utterance of the Father, who came down from heaven and joined us in our humanity. Jesus created the powerful Word of forgiveness, through His bloody death, in order that we might be restored to God’s family, today, and forever and ever. Jesus is the Seed who fell into the ground and died, so that He might produce a hundred-fold harvest, nay, a millions and millions fold harvest of souls. The Word of Baptism, the Word of Forgiveness, the Word of the Supper, these Words deliver to us today the victory that Jesus, the Word made flesh, won for us, on His Cross.
And so we rejoice in the love of God, spoken to Oaklee today. And also to you, on the day of your Baptism, and every day since. Rejoice in Christ’s Word of life and love, live in the promise of your Baptism, and go forth, free to love and speak and pray for all,
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
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