Remember Who You Are!

 

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

The Baptism of Our Lord/January 11, 2004

Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, Moorhead, MN

 

“Remember who you are!”

“Remember who you are!”

I dare say those four words have spoiled many a good time that some of us had planned on Friday evenings when we were in our teenage years.

You know what I’m talking about: It’s T.G.I.F.—Friday night—“date” night—the night young folks go out and paint the town red.  You look forward all week to what’s in store on Friday night.  You make arrangements.  You keep ma and pa in the dark.  You and your chums get all the details worked out.

Then—just when it’s time to escape your house—just when you’re finally going to enjoy some hours of precious freedom and fun—one of your parents takes you by the arm, looks you square in the eyes and utters those fateful words:  “Remember who you are!   Remember what your name is, what people know about and expect of our family.  Remember what our values are—remember what we stand for.”

And those last-minute words of farewell take all the fun out of the big plans you had made for the evening.  When you hear those words—“Remember who you are!”—you know you just can’t, with a clear conscience, go through with the mischief you had lined up for yourself.

“Remember who you are!”

I’m not going to ask for a show of hands from you adults here this morning.

But I betcha those four words spoiled more than one Friday evening out for a few of you when you were younger.

“Remember who you are!”

Those words have spoiled many a good time for some of us¼

¼and those same words have also, probably, saved our necks, kept us safe and sound, and--in a sense--given us our “marching orders.”     Those words have contributed to whatever success we have made of ourselves.

Funny how that works!

Funny—how the very same words:   “Remember who you are!”—can be simultaneously both so unwelcome to our young itching ears, and yet so healthy and life-giving in the long run of our lives.

“Remember who you are.”  

Who among us hasn’t heard those words—with reluctance?!  

And yet what parent among us hasn’t spoken those words—with fervent expectation?!

“Remember who you are.”

In this morning’s gospel lesson it is Jesus—of all persons!--who hears those words, or at least a version of those words.

Here’s the scene:  John is baptizing by the river Jordan.  The teeming crowds are in a frenzy—wondering whether John’s preaching signals that the End of the world has arrived.

Is John the One they’ve been waiting for—their Savior, their Messiah?  

John takes pains to say:  “Absolutely not!”  John speaks of a more powerful One coming after him, Someone John isn’t even good enough to serve as his slave¼

And then, suddenly, that more powerful One shows up, slips into the crowd, blends in with all the sinners coming to the Jordan to repent and be washed.

All at once the One John spoke of is there among him—and before anyone knows it, before anyone even recognizes him, Jesus is already present--praying, being baptized like the rest of them.

It’s almost a little anti-climactic, this Baptism of Our Lord. 

In fact, our text says virtually nothing about the baptism itself—it’s almost an after thought.

But what is clearly not an after-thought is what follows Jesus’ baptism.

“¼the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon [Jesus] in bodily form like a dove.  And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’”

Luke’s account of the Baptism of Our Lord says surprisingly little about the baptismal washing itself.  Luke focuses, rather, on what immediately follows Jesus’ baptism—the heaven’s opening, the Holy Spirit coming down, and that divine voice speaking.

And what the heavenly voice says to Jesus is, in effect:  “Remember who you are.”

God says those words to Jesus:  “Remember who you are.”

God says those words, not because God’s worried Jesus is going to stay out past curfew, or that Jesus is going to drink too much or fall in with the wrong crowd or wind up in trouble¼.

No.  God says those words to Jesus—“Remember who you are”—because even Jesus, in his full humanity, could be tempted to forget who he was, to lose sight of what he was about, and thus to abandon his mission.

God wants it to be crystal clear to Jesus and to anyone else with ears to hear that  Jesus (and not John) is the one everybody’s been waiting for, and that God is pleased to claim Jesus as God’s child, and that God has a task, a mission for Jesus.

“Remember who you are,” God thunders to Jesus, knee-deep in the Jordan River.  “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

On that score at least, Jesus’ baptism is like the baptism each of us has received.

In other respects our baptisms may be different.

Jesus didn’t have any guilt to be washed away.

Jesus didn’t need to be rescued from sin, death or the power of the devil.

Jesus didn’t become something in his Baptism that he was not already.

But Jesus was reminded of his identity, and in that reminding Jesus was commissioned for the ministry that was now to be his.

And it’s that part of baptism I want to shine the spotlight on this morning.

Indeed, that’s the part of Baptism, the aspect of Baptism that I fear we as Lutheran Christians have all too often given short shrift.

We know that Baptism is God’s initiative, God’s rescuing action, God’s incorporation of us into the Body of Christ for all time and for eternity¼

We’ve got all of that down pat—we know it all “in spades.”

But there’s a facet of Baptism we have too often ignored.

It’s the fact that in our Baptism we aren’t just saved from all the awful things that threaten us¼.but we’re also saved for all the good things God intends to do through us!

Baptism is more than an insurance policy.

Baptism also is our marching orders, our commissioning papers.

Baptism doesn’t shield us from this world.   Baptism sends us out into this world, with our heavenly Father’s words ringing in our ears: 

“Remember who you are.” 

“Remember that you are my beloved Child in the world.”

“Remember that I am well pleased with you—that I trust you to bear my creative and redeeming word wherever you go.”  

“Remember that the Holy Spirit has taken up residence within you—and therefore you won’t be able to keep still about what I have done and am doing to restore all things, to make the whole creation new, to piece back together everything that is broken--all for the sake of Jesus Christ.”

Baptism saves us by incorporating us into the Christ who saves us.

We Lutherans have that part down pat.

But Baptism doesn’t just save us. 

Baptism also sends us.

Since 1978 we North American Lutherans have been visualizing, symbolizing that sending in a wonderfully memorable way.   Since 1978—when our Lutheran Book of Worship first appeared—we’ve added something to our baptismal service.   Every “baptizee” receives a lit candle, with these words from Matthew 5:16:   “Let your light so shine before others, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

I truly hope that that has been for us more than just a nice little liturgical appendage to the baptismal service.

I truly hope that all of us have been able to see and hear in that act the giving of “marching orders,” the commissioning, the sending that is also integral to Baptism.

In Holy Baptism you are saved by God’s grace in Christ, but you are saved so that you might also be sent.

Saved and sent!  

Sent with God’s own voice saying to you, again and again:  “Remember who you are.   As you walk through life, walking wet in your Baptism, remember that you now bear the light of Christ wherever you go.   Remember that God intends to speak of Christ through you.  God’s going to enact Christ’s love in you.   God’s mission for you is to make Christ known because of you.”  

And don’t you forget it! 

Here are your baptismal marching orders:   REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE…and “Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

In the name of Jesus.  Amen.