WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.200 --> 00:00:02.700 In the name of Jesus. 2 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:03.600 Amen. 3 00:00:07.400 --> 00:00:10.900 Outwardly baptism is a pretty simple ceremony. 4 00:00:12.700 --> 00:00:13.900 We say a few words. 5 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:15.400 You apply some water. 6 00:00:17.100 --> 00:00:18.800 It's cute when the baby cries. 7 00:00:20.500 --> 00:00:21.200 How nice. 8 00:00:25.400 --> 00:00:30.900 Yet, there's something stirring about water and the Word. 9 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:35.600 If you look around in the chapel Windows, there's a lot of water 10 00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:36.600 depicted. 11 00:00:37.900 --> 00:00:39.700 And none of its calm 12 00:00:41.300 --> 00:00:43.500 it's all churning, somehow. 13 00:00:44.900 --> 00:00:48.100 Which is a way of kind of hinting that what we're dealing with here, 14 00:00:48.100 --> 00:00:50.200 with water and the Word 15 00:00:51.900 --> 00:00:54.000 are primal forces. 16 00:00:56.200 --> 00:00:58.300 These are the forces that are at work already 17 00:00:58.300 --> 00:01:00.700 in the very first pages of Genesis. 18 00:01:02.800 --> 00:01:07.400 Because there God is in a battle against the water. 19 00:01:09.800 --> 00:01:13.800 And this is a battle that last all the way to the end of Revelation. 20 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:22.600 The Spirit of God hovers over the watery chaos, which suffocates any 21 00:01:22.600 --> 00:01:24.000 possibility of life. 22 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:25.300 And so what does God do? 23 00:01:25.300 --> 00:01:31.200 He speaks his word and he separates the waters from the waters. 24 00:01:32.400 --> 00:01:36.600 And he fixes a firmament to keep the waters above away from the waters 25 00:01:36.600 --> 00:01:40.800 below so that he can open up a space. 26 00:01:42.200 --> 00:01:44.300 Where life can flourish. 27 00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:49.400 And as long as those boundaries are in place 28 00:01:50.500 --> 00:01:53.800 the waters that do exist on the earth in the Garden of Eden, for 29 00:01:53.800 --> 00:01:54.700 example. 30 00:01:56.200 --> 00:02:02.700 Are not the destructive chaos of Genesis 1 31 00:02:03.900 --> 00:02:07.000 but a cool life giving mist. 32 00:02:09.500 --> 00:02:13.700 But the waters take us somewhat more ominous tone after the fall into 33 00:02:13.700 --> 00:02:19.200 sin because when God sees that the wickedness of the human heart is 34 00:02:19.200 --> 00:02:22.600 increasing at an exponential rate. 35 00:02:25.600 --> 00:02:27.200 He takes away the boundaries. 36 00:02:30.300 --> 00:02:36.000 It not only rains for 40 days from above but the water comes up 37 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:39.800 from the springs of the earth beneath as well. 38 00:02:39.900 --> 00:02:45.600 The separation that God made on day 2 of creation is undone and the 39 00:02:45.600 --> 00:02:49.400 waters, come rushing back together again, and they wipe out all life 40 00:02:49.400 --> 00:02:50.300 on the planet. 41 00:02:51.800 --> 00:02:52.500 Almost. 42 00:02:56.500 --> 00:02:59.800 Now, when Saint Peter reflects on the 43 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:05.600 experience of Noah, despite this destructive power of the flood. Saint 44 00:03:05.600 --> 00:03:12.900 Peter is able to say that Noah was saved by the waters. 45 00:03:15.500 --> 00:03:20.900 Because the waters made the ark float on top of everything. 46 00:03:23.500 --> 00:03:27.200 The next time that the waters play, a significant role in the 47 00:03:27.200 --> 00:03:33.200 history of God's people is during Moses leading the Israelites out of 48 00:03:33.200 --> 00:03:33.700 slavery 49 00:03:33.700 --> 00:03:37.500 in Egypt. There are fleeing from the Pharaohs Army, and they come to the Red 50 00:03:37.500 --> 00:03:39.500 Sea and they're trapped. 51 00:03:40.800 --> 00:03:42.400 They can't go back 52 00:03:43.700 --> 00:03:46.600 because they'd impale themselves on the swords of Pharaohs Army. 53 00:03:46.600 --> 00:03:51.000 They can't go forward because they would meet a watery grave. 54 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:52.800 And so what does God do? 55 00:03:53.600 --> 00:03:54.900 He does for them 56 00:03:54.900 --> 00:03:58.500 exactly the same thing he did in creation. 57 00:03:59.800 --> 00:04:05.100 He divides the waters from the waters and he opens up a space. 58 00:04:06.800 --> 00:04:11.000 Through which they can escape on dry, land dry land. 59 00:04:13.800 --> 00:04:16.399 When the Egyptians try to follow them, God does what he did 60 00:04:16.399 --> 00:04:17.000 the same thing 61 00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:18.200 He did at the flood. 62 00:04:18.399 --> 00:04:23.200 He takes the boundaries away and the waters, come rushing back 63 00:04:23.200 --> 00:04:27.400 together again, and they wipeout Pharaoh's chariots, and they drown 64 00:04:27.400 --> 00:04:30.200 his soldiers. And Miriam sings this song. 65 00:04:31.000 --> 00:04:35.100 I will sing unto the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously. 66 00:04:36.500 --> 00:04:42.200 The horse and the rider, He has thrown into the sea. 67 00:04:45.700 --> 00:04:49.200 For the Egyptians, the sea was divine wrath. 68 00:04:50.800 --> 00:04:53.400 But for the Israelites, it was God's salvation. 69 00:04:56.600 --> 00:05:00.900 Jesus battled the sea in his Earthly Ministry. 70 00:05:00.900 --> 00:05:01.300 One day 71 00:05:01.300 --> 00:05:05.500 He was asleep in the back of a boat and the storm arose on the Sea of 72 00:05:05.500 --> 00:05:08.000 Galilee and it threatened to kill the disciples. 73 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:10.300 So they woke him up. 74 00:05:12.500 --> 00:05:16.800 And Jesus spoke to the Sea. 75 00:05:18.900 --> 00:05:19.700 Peace 76 00:05:21.200 --> 00:05:22.400 be still. 77 00:05:24.900 --> 00:05:26.900 And there was a great calm. 78 00:05:29.800 --> 00:05:34.100 We see how this battle plays out at the end of the Bible and the Book 79 00:05:34.100 --> 00:05:37.400 of Revelation, Where we see God's throne 80 00:05:37.400 --> 00:05:40.600 and before his throne is a sea of glass. 81 00:05:41.800 --> 00:05:45.700 No more storms, no more chaos 82 00:05:48.900 --> 00:05:50.000 but peace. 83 00:05:51.900 --> 00:05:55.700 And even more strikingly at the end of Revelation, when we have the 84 00:05:55.700 --> 00:05:59.400 new heavens and the new Earth, John tells us the sea 85 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:02.000 is no more. 86 00:06:04.400 --> 00:06:11.300 This represents the final triumph of God's Word over the watery 87 00:06:11.300 --> 00:06:12.300 chaos. 88 00:06:15.600 --> 00:06:21.200 But in this life, the battle between the Word and the water still 89 00:06:21.200 --> 00:06:22.000 rages. 90 00:06:23.600 --> 00:06:27.800 And in your baptism, God throws you directly in the middle of that. 91 00:06:30.100 --> 00:06:34.100 So no wonder Luther describes the Christian Life as a struggle. 92 00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:40.900 In our systematics curriculum, we learn these three cool Latin words 93 00:06:41.900 --> 00:06:46.300 that Luther uses to describe the Christian Life oratio, meditatio, 94 00:06:46.300 --> 00:06:51.600 and tentatio. Oratio is prayer for the Holy Spirit. 95 00:06:51.600 --> 00:06:56.500 Meditatio is meditation on God's Word and tentatio 96 00:06:56.500 --> 00:06:59.900 is the struggle of the Christian Life. 97 00:07:02.400 --> 00:07:06.900 Now if you'll grant me a little bit of leeway here, in a way, these 98 00:07:06.900 --> 00:07:11.900 three Latin words place our Christian Life in the context of Genesis 99 00:07:11.900 --> 00:07:12.400 1, 100 00:07:14.900 --> 00:07:18.000 Because those three elements are are present in Genesis as well. 101 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:23.000 We pray for the Spirit who was hovering over the watery chaos, at 102 00:07:23.000 --> 00:07:23.700 creation. 103 00:07:23.900 --> 00:07:28.700 We meditate on God's Word, which is how he created the world in the 104 00:07:28.700 --> 00:07:29.600 first place. 105 00:07:30.900 --> 00:07:36.600 And then that Word throws us into chaos in our Christian Life. 106 00:07:40.900 --> 00:07:45.600 And that chaos may mean a struggle against temptation. 107 00:07:46.100 --> 00:07:48.800 It may mean a struggle against other people's sins. 108 00:07:49.100 --> 00:07:51.400 It may and especially in Luther 109 00:07:51.400 --> 00:07:52.500 I think he has in mind 110 00:07:52.500 --> 00:07:56.900 a struggle to believe God's promises, despite God's own wrath. 111 00:07:59.100 --> 00:08:01.500 But however, you slice that struggle 112 00:08:03.400 --> 00:08:06.400 don't be deceived about the Christian Life. 113 00:08:08.400 --> 00:08:10.700 It's not nice. 114 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:17.100 Now, when you look around you and other people in this room, you may 115 00:08:17.100 --> 00:08:21.100 be tempted to think that everybody else has everything together and 116 00:08:21.100 --> 00:08:22.700 you're the only one who's a mess. 117 00:08:25.500 --> 00:08:27.100 But what do you think the church is? 118 00:08:29.800 --> 00:08:34.700 Is the church, some kind of place of calm, a place filled with light? 119 00:08:35.799 --> 00:08:40.799 Where we gather together in an orderly fashion at the appointed time 120 00:08:40.799 --> 00:08:42.000 and we sit quietly 121 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:45.900 and we listen to a few polished words of fine rhetoric. 122 00:08:46.200 --> 00:08:50.400 And then we nod piously and say to ourselves 123 00:08:51.600 --> 00:08:52.600 how nice? 124 00:08:56.100 --> 00:08:57.900 No, we're baptized. 125 00:08:57.900 --> 00:08:59.800 And that means we're in the fight of our lives. 126 00:09:02.700 --> 00:09:05.300 So, of course, you're overwhelmed by chaos. 127 00:09:06.900 --> 00:09:08.300 That's tentatio. 128 00:09:09.400 --> 00:09:12.300 And I don't just mean talking about, like, superficial sins that 129 00:09:12.300 --> 00:09:15.300 sometimes we pretend that we're worried about like, well, someone 130 00:09:15.300 --> 00:09:17.400 stepped on my toe and I got angry with them. 131 00:09:17.400 --> 00:09:22.700 So I deserve to go to hell. Or I drove 45 miles an hour in the speed 132 00:09:22.700 --> 00:09:23.900 limit was 35 133 00:09:23.900 --> 00:09:27.000 and technically, that's a sin against the fourth Commandment. 134 00:09:27.400 --> 00:09:29.200 So I deserve to go to hell. 135 00:09:31.700 --> 00:09:34.900 No, I mean your life isn't turning out the way you hoped it would. 136 00:09:35.700 --> 00:09:35.900 I mean 137 00:09:35.900 --> 00:09:38.300 maybe you lost your parents too soon. 138 00:09:38.400 --> 00:09:41.500 And now you're bearing some burden that you that it doesn't seem like 139 00:09:41.500 --> 00:09:45.600 other people have to bear. Or maybe you're single and everyone else, 140 00:09:45.600 --> 00:09:49.400 you know, is getting married or engaged and you don't think there's 141 00:09:49.400 --> 00:09:50.500 any hope for you. 142 00:09:51.500 --> 00:09:56.800 Or maybe your filled with self-loathing convinced that God can't 143 00:09:56.800 --> 00:09:57.600 really love you. 144 00:09:57.600 --> 00:10:00.600 And of course, people in the church, people say, God loves you, but 145 00:10:00.600 --> 00:10:02.600 they don't see what's really in your heart. 146 00:10:04.600 --> 00:10:10.300 Or maybe you have doubts, because this whole Christianity thing just 147 00:10:10.300 --> 00:10:11.900 seems implausible. 148 00:10:14.800 --> 00:10:16.300 So, you're left out. 149 00:10:18.300 --> 00:10:21.900 You're never going to have a full and rewarding Christian Life. 150 00:10:23.800 --> 00:10:27.200 Maybe maybe other people can have a full and rewarding Christian Life. 151 00:10:27.200 --> 00:10:31.000 Those other nice people who have everything together, but not you you 152 00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:35.700 will never thrive as a Christian because you're too broken. 153 00:10:38.400 --> 00:10:40.000 Well, don't fall for it. 154 00:10:41.200 --> 00:10:42.700 These are attacks. 155 00:10:44.900 --> 00:10:48.300 This is what Luther's talking about with tentatio. 156 00:10:50.400 --> 00:10:54.300 And the proper response to an attack is to fight back. 157 00:10:55.400 --> 00:10:58.600 And one way to fight back, is to understand that what you're 158 00:10:58.600 --> 00:11:04.000 experiencing in your life is just a microcosm of the titanic forces 159 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:05.100 that are playing out 160 00:11:05.100 --> 00:11:09.700 in the very first pages of the Bible. That there is this force of 161 00:11:09.700 --> 00:11:15.600 chaos that wants to suffocate life, and prevent all human thriving. 162 00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:24.400 But the catechism reminds us that baptism is not just the water. 163 00:11:25.900 --> 00:11:28.200 It's the water and the Word. 164 00:11:28.800 --> 00:11:32.600 And when those two are combined, it's a game changer. 165 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:37.500 Because the Word of God separates the waters from the waters and it 166 00:11:37.500 --> 00:11:44.000 opens up a space in which you can thrive as a Christian. 167 00:11:45.400 --> 00:11:50.400 It divides, the sea and it provides a way for you to escape the 168 00:11:50.400 --> 00:11:51.800 slavery to pharaoh. 169 00:11:56.800 --> 00:11:59.800 It might even turn out that what 170 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:03.200 you think is an instrument of God's wrath is actually an instrument of 171 00:12:03.200 --> 00:12:03.800 blessing. 172 00:12:04.900 --> 00:12:09.400 He has this track record of turning evil into good. 173 00:12:09.400 --> 00:12:14.200 Just like the waters of the flood saved, Noah because they made the 174 00:12:14.200 --> 00:12:15.900 ark float. 175 00:12:21.800 --> 00:12:25.800 So understand that it's a battle and it's a battle that you can fight 176 00:12:25.800 --> 00:12:30.700 and it's a battle that you can win because you have the Word of God. 177 00:12:31.900 --> 00:12:35.800 Which was placed on you, in your baptism. Which is rooted in your 178 00:12:35.800 --> 00:12:38.500 heart by meditation on his Word. 179 00:12:41.400 --> 00:12:48.100 This is the Word of God at whose rebuke the waters fled according to 180 00:12:48.100 --> 00:12:49.400 Psalm 104. 181 00:12:51.900 --> 00:12:56.100 The Word of God that set a boundary for the waters that they may not 182 00:12:56.100 --> 00:12:57.000 pass. 183 00:12:58.600 --> 00:13:01.200 So that they may not cover the Earth again. 184 00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:10.000 So now I've come to the end of the sermon and I haven't yet mentioned 185 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:14.000 the appointed text, which is Jesus baptism. 186 00:13:14.300 --> 00:13:20.000 So let me just say this, if you can see your life in the pattern, 187 00:13:20.300 --> 00:13:23.400 that's disclosed to us in Creation in Genesis 1. 188 00:13:23.500 --> 00:13:28.200 You can also see yourself depicted in the pages of Matthew 3, where 189 00:13:28.200 --> 00:13:30.300 Jesus goes under the water. 190 00:13:31.500 --> 00:13:33.400 But he doesn't stay under the water. 191 00:13:33.400 --> 00:13:39.600 He comes up out of it again and the voice from Heaven says, this is my 192 00:13:39.600 --> 00:13:40.700 beloved Son. 193 00:13:41.300 --> 00:13:42.300 With whom I am 194 00:13:42.300 --> 00:13:43.400 well pleased. 195 00:13:44.700 --> 00:13:45.200 Amen.