WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.300 --> 00:00:02.400 In the name of Jesus. 2 00:00:02.900 --> 00:00:03.400 Amen. 3 00:00:03.600 --> 00:00:04.600 Please be seated. 4 00:00:07.700 --> 00:00:09.600 How can simple water 5 00:00:09.700 --> 00:00:11.800 do such great things? 6 00:00:13.700 --> 00:00:17.000 On the surface, that seems like a pretty good question. 7 00:00:17.500 --> 00:00:18.700 Seems innocent enough. 8 00:00:19.600 --> 00:00:24.800 The catechism is accustomed to using these kinds of simple questions 9 00:00:24.800 --> 00:00:30.000 to guide a Christian simply and systematically into a deeper and 10 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:32.100 clearer understanding of the Christian faith. 11 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:37.100 But this one along with its parallel 12 00:00:37.100 --> 00:00:41.100 question for the sacrament of the altar, how can bodily eating and 13 00:00:41.100 --> 00:00:42.900 drinking do such great things? 14 00:00:43.700 --> 00:00:49.900 This one doesn't arise naturally, out of the confession of the 15 00:00:49.900 --> 00:00:50.800 sacrament. 16 00:00:52.300 --> 00:00:56.900 It's actually kind of a question that came from critics of the 17 00:00:56.900 --> 00:00:57.700 sacrament. 18 00:00:58.700 --> 00:01:04.500 It's innocent on the surface, but it was asked in order to imply the 19 00:01:04.500 --> 00:01:11.100 absurdity of those who maintain that baptism, forgive sins and redeems 20 00:01:11.100 --> 00:01:14.300 from death and the devil and gives Eternal salvation. 21 00:01:16.400 --> 00:01:21.700 It's the kind of gotcha question that we see for example with the 4th 22 00:01:21.700 --> 00:01:25.800 century Manicheans when they posed to St. 23 00:01:25.800 --> 00:01:26.700 Augustine. 24 00:01:27.500 --> 00:01:31.300 What was God doing before he created the universe? 25 00:01:32.700 --> 00:01:36.900 And Augustine, of course smelled, the true intent immediately and 26 00:01:36.900 --> 00:01:37.700 replied. 27 00:01:38.200 --> 00:01:41.900 He was making hell for those who ask prying questions. 28 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:50.700 Now, in this case, the critics are those who on the one hand agreed 29 00:01:50.700 --> 00:01:55.400 with Luther and what he taught about justification, that all people 30 00:01:55.400 --> 00:01:58.400 are saved by the gospel through faith alone. 31 00:02:00.200 --> 00:02:07.400 But they thought that baptism was now being placed in competition with 32 00:02:07.400 --> 00:02:08.300 the gospel 33 00:02:08.800 --> 00:02:16.000 and with faith. That baptism for salvation was just a leftover, a 34 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:18.800 medieval superstitious, right. 35 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:24.700 Christians were to baptized. Christians were to be baptized, but not 36 00:02:24.700 --> 00:02:26.300 because it did anything. 37 00:02:27.100 --> 00:02:29.300 It's just water after all. 38 00:02:30.200 --> 00:02:32.500 But because of what it symbolizes. 39 00:02:33.700 --> 00:02:36.800 And baptism is a Christian ordinance 40 00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:42.200 it's a commandment, it's important, but it's not the gospel. 41 00:02:43.200 --> 00:02:44.200 It's just water. 42 00:02:45.700 --> 00:02:48.800 And so at this point, you might as well start asking some other 43 00:02:48.800 --> 00:02:53.300 questions, like, what kind of water should we use 44 00:02:53.300 --> 00:02:56.900 and, and how much water? Can we use 45 00:02:56.900 --> 00:02:59.900 just a few drops or do we have to have 46 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:04.400 enough to dunk all the way under. And does it have to be running water 47 00:03:04.400 --> 00:03:09.700 like from a live stream or a river, or can we just have water in a 48 00:03:09.700 --> 00:03:12.200 standing pool or tank? 49 00:03:14.500 --> 00:03:20.700 Of course, the catechism asserts, of course, we agree that plain water 50 00:03:20.700 --> 00:03:22.200 can't do these things. 51 00:03:23.500 --> 00:03:29.200 But we're not talking about water, all by itself. Water 52 00:03:29.200 --> 00:03:33.700 that's drawn from a well that the maid uses to cook or that's water 53 00:03:33.700 --> 00:03:35.000 for a dog bath. 54 00:03:36.700 --> 00:03:42.900 It's the Word of God which is with and alongside the water. 55 00:03:43.800 --> 00:03:48.000 The Word fastened to and enclosed in the water 56 00:03:48.300 --> 00:03:54.600 the large catechism says. The Word as a most precious jewel, placed 57 00:03:54.600 --> 00:03:57.100 within the setting of the water. 58 00:03:57.500 --> 00:03:59.800 This is the heart of baptism. 59 00:03:59.900 --> 00:04:05.100 The Word of God, a treasure greater and nobler than 60 00:04:05.500 --> 00:04:11.200 and Earth. Because of the Word and the promise of God, this water 61 00:04:11.200 --> 00:04:14.700 bears, the very gospel itself to us. 62 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:20.800 And by believing that Word by clinging to that Holy Name, that fills 63 00:04:20.800 --> 00:04:21.500 this water 64 00:04:22.500 --> 00:04:25.700 all that God promises is ours. 65 00:04:28.100 --> 00:04:31.300 Well, as I pondered this part of the catechism. 66 00:04:32.700 --> 00:04:36.700 It reminded me of something that one of my favorite teachers taught me 67 00:04:36.700 --> 00:04:41.000 when I was a seminarian here and it's always remained crucial for me 68 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:41.800 ever since. 69 00:04:43.400 --> 00:04:44.600 It was the sainted 70 00:04:44.600 --> 00:04:50.900 Norman Nagel, who used to repeatedly tell us all about how Christian 71 00:04:50.900 --> 00:04:54.600 doctrine and practice can utterly change 72 00:04:54.600 --> 00:05:00.500 when one, quote runs, in the way of the law, as he said, in his quirky 73 00:05:00.500 --> 00:05:05.600 style. Rather than when it runs in the way of the Gospel. 74 00:05:06.800 --> 00:05:12.800 He'd point out that talking and thinking in the way of the law is 75 00:05:12.800 --> 00:05:19.600 always concerned about limits about questions of validity and 76 00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:25.200 legitimacy about what's required about bare minimums and 77 00:05:25.200 --> 00:05:28.800 jurisdictions and about measuring and restricting. 78 00:05:30.600 --> 00:05:34.000 And so the Anabaptist and the Sacramentarians that Luther 79 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:34.800 encountered. 80 00:05:35.200 --> 00:05:41.400 They saw the sacraments in this way baptism and the gospel were in 81 00:05:41.400 --> 00:05:42.300 competition. 82 00:05:43.300 --> 00:05:44.900 It was a zero-sum game. 83 00:05:45.600 --> 00:05:49.400 The gospel was a spiritual thing, and it couldn't spill over into 84 00:05:49.400 --> 00:05:51.800 Earthly things. Faith 85 00:05:51.800 --> 00:05:55.300 that was limited to only those who could reason and think. 86 00:05:55.700 --> 00:05:58.300 And so the baptism of an infant 87 00:05:59.100 --> 00:05:59.600 it wasn't valid. 88 00:06:01.800 --> 00:06:06.300 But this way of running in the way of the law. 89 00:06:07.300 --> 00:06:09.600 It's not limited to the 16th century. 90 00:06:11.100 --> 00:06:16.400 One only has to remember that recent article in the news about Roman 91 00:06:16.800 --> 00:06:18.100 about Roman Catholics. 92 00:06:18.100 --> 00:06:23.300 And when up this story broke that a priest entire Ministry was 93 00:06:23.300 --> 00:06:28.400 declared invalid because he used the wrong baptismal formula. 94 00:06:29.400 --> 00:06:35.600 He said we baptize you instead of I baptize you. And so an entire 95 00:06:35.600 --> 00:06:40.700 generation of baptisms were transformed from a life-giving 96 00:06:40.900 --> 00:06:43.600 bath to just plain water. 97 00:06:44.800 --> 00:06:46.000 On a technicality. 98 00:06:48.100 --> 00:06:53.100 Now, I also remember a story told to us by one of our colleagues from 99 00:06:53.100 --> 00:06:56.500 Australia when he was part of an ecumenical dialogue with the Eastern 100 00:06:56.500 --> 00:07:01.700 Orthodox church, and the topic was on baptism. And the Lutheran's came 101 00:07:01.700 --> 00:07:04.400 to the table feeling pretty confident because, you know, we're pretty 102 00:07:04.400 --> 00:07:06.200 solid on baptism. 103 00:07:07.900 --> 00:07:09.500 But they were surprised. 104 00:07:09.800 --> 00:07:11.800 The Orthodox did not think too 105 00:07:11.800 --> 00:07:20.000 highly of our theology of baptism because we did not use chrism, 106 00:07:21.300 --> 00:07:28.000 Holy oil. For in their words, chrism was a distinct, but inseparable 107 00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:30.000 sacrament with baptism. 108 00:07:31.700 --> 00:07:35.300 But not long afterwards, the Russian Orthodox representatives began to 109 00:07:35.300 --> 00:07:39.900 argue with the Greek Orthodox, about the proper liturgical recipe of 110 00:07:39.900 --> 00:07:41.900 the oil in the chrism. 111 00:07:42.100 --> 00:07:45.600 How many herbs were necessary to make it valid? 112 00:07:45.800 --> 00:07:49.900 And suddenly it became so heated about whether was Heinz 57 or Worcestershire 113 00:07:49.900 --> 00:07:54.100 or whatever the entire dialogue broke down. 114 00:07:54.100 --> 00:07:57.600 And the Lutheran's were just sitting there wondering blinking. 115 00:07:58.800 --> 00:08:00.600 Now that's in spades 116 00:08:00.900 --> 00:08:05.000 what Nagel would mean by running in the way of the law. 117 00:08:06.500 --> 00:08:10.600 But Nagel would point out that running in the way of the Gospel 118 00:08:11.900 --> 00:08:16.100 is always laser-focused on the gift. 119 00:08:17.000 --> 00:08:24.800 It's always about more about a cup that runneth over the good measure 120 00:08:24.800 --> 00:08:28.500 pressed down shaken together, running over into our laps. 121 00:08:29.600 --> 00:08:33.200 It's about all of the forgiveness of all of our sins that have been 122 00:08:33.200 --> 00:08:35.000 bestowed to us in baptism. 123 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:39.600 And then all of the forgiveness of all of our sins that is given to us 124 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:44.000 again in the Lord's Supper. And then the Spirit 125 00:08:44.600 --> 00:08:51.100 and all of his gifts on top of that. Gifts upon gifts from faith to 126 00:08:51.100 --> 00:08:55.600 faith, and the reckless generosity of God and the faith that can only 127 00:08:55.600 --> 00:08:58.500 live in wonder and awe at it. 128 00:09:00.600 --> 00:09:03.600 It's a distinction that is inspired by 129 00:09:03.600 --> 00:09:10.600 how Luther talked about law and gospel as God's alien and proper work. 130 00:09:11.300 --> 00:09:17.800 You remember this, both are, holy works of God, but one is in service 131 00:09:17.800 --> 00:09:23.300 to the other. The work of the law of measurement of judgment of 132 00:09:23.300 --> 00:09:24.600 condemnation. 133 00:09:25.600 --> 00:09:32.000 That is penultimate, that's done in preparation for and for the sake 134 00:09:32.100 --> 00:09:40.400 of the gospel, for the sake of God's proper work of Grace, and life 135 00:09:41.100 --> 00:09:42.100 and forgiveness. 136 00:09:44.400 --> 00:09:49.500 But this distinction goes for the church as well. 137 00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:55.400 As a creature of the Gospel, the churches proper work is to bear 138 00:09:55.400 --> 00:10:00.200 witness to the generosity of God, manifested in his Son. 139 00:10:01.200 --> 00:10:05.900 Now, to be sure the Church must also judge false teachings. 140 00:10:06.500 --> 00:10:08.600 It must name and denounce sin. 141 00:10:08.600 --> 00:10:16.300 It must oppose threats to the truth, but this is still its alien work. 142 00:10:18.100 --> 00:10:24.800 And the danger for the church is that this alien work takes over. 143 00:10:26.100 --> 00:10:29.800 And that it becomes our Horizon and that all of our energies and our 144 00:10:29.800 --> 00:10:32.700 identities are exchanged for what we are against. 145 00:10:33.900 --> 00:10:38.900 Rather than bearing witness to the joy of what we've been given. 146 00:10:41.300 --> 00:10:42.900 Some of the darkest moments in church 147 00:10:42.900 --> 00:10:47.600 history are result of that confusion. 148 00:10:48.600 --> 00:10:50.000 And sometimes I wonder 149 00:10:51.100 --> 00:10:53.200 iIf even today, we forgotten this. 150 00:10:55.300 --> 00:11:01.600 We are surrounded by a world that is at home running in the way of the 151 00:11:01.600 --> 00:11:05.700 law and maybe it's not God's law but it's law nonetheless. 152 00:11:06.200 --> 00:11:12.000 But the one thing that the church does that is unique to it alone. 153 00:11:12.500 --> 00:11:14.100 Proper to its life 154 00:11:14.100 --> 00:11:21.000 and mission is its witness to the overwhelming kindness of God poured 155 00:11:21.000 --> 00:11:23.900 out for us in the gospel. 156 00:11:26.900 --> 00:11:28.100 Well, back to baptism. 157 00:11:30.400 --> 00:11:37.900 William Willimon tells a story when he was the dean of Chapel at Duke 158 00:11:37.900 --> 00:11:38.800 University. 159 00:11:39.700 --> 00:11:44.000 And while he was there, he received a phone call from an angry father. 160 00:11:45.500 --> 00:11:50.300 And the father began by saying, I hold you personally responsible. 161 00:11:51.500 --> 00:11:53.900 For what Willimon replied. 162 00:11:53.900 --> 00:11:56.300 He says my daughter. 163 00:11:57.700 --> 00:11:59.600 We sent her to Duke. 164 00:11:59.700 --> 00:11:59.800 She 165 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:03.200 4.0. She had scholarships. 166 00:12:03.200 --> 00:12:07.200 She was on track to go to medical school and be a third-generation 167 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:13.000 doctor, but now she's got some fool idea about going to Haiti and I 168 00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:15.400 hold you responsible. 169 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:18.100 What are you talking about 170 00:12:18.400 --> 00:12:23.400 Willimon said? I'm talking about how she has some fool idea about going 171 00:12:23.400 --> 00:12:26.500 to Haiti for three years to teach kids there. 172 00:12:27.100 --> 00:12:29.800 And none of this would have happened if it wasn't for you. 173 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:34.000 She likes your sermons and you've taken of advantage of her at an 174 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:38.800 impression impressionable age, and now, she's giving it all up and 175 00:12:38.800 --> 00:12:42.000 she's going to Haiti. At this point 176 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:45.500 Willimon getting a little hot too and says down just a minute. 177 00:12:46.700 --> 00:12:47.600 Didn't you have her 178 00:12:47.600 --> 00:12:53.900 Baptized? Father said, well, yes, but. And didn't you take her to Sunday 179 00:12:53.900 --> 00:12:54.400 school? 180 00:12:54.700 --> 00:12:59.300 Well, sure, we did but we never intended it to do any damage. 181 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:02.500 And Willimon said, well, that's it 182 00:13:02.500 --> 00:13:03.000 see now 183 00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:05.300 she was messed up before she came 184 00:13:05.300 --> 00:13:05.500 here. 185 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:08.900 You baptized her, you brought her to Sunday school. 186 00:13:08.900 --> 00:13:09.900 Don't blame this one 187 00:13:09.900 --> 00:13:10.300 on me. 188 00:13:10.700 --> 00:13:12.000 You're the one who started it. 189 00:13:12.300 --> 00:13:14.600 If you want to go complain to somebody. 190 00:13:14.600 --> 00:13:16.700 You better go talk to your priest, or talk to 191 00:13:16.800 --> 00:13:18.600 your wife for your Sunday school teacher. 192 00:13:19.200 --> 00:13:23.400 You're the ones who got her into this when you had her baptized. 193 00:13:23.500 --> 00:13:24.100 Thanks. 194 00:13:24.200 --> 00:13:25.200 Have a nice day. 195 00:13:28.900 --> 00:13:30.300 Now, of course, that's kind of funny. 196 00:13:31.400 --> 00:13:36.200 Because here you have a kind of way of the law talking about 197 00:13:36.200 --> 00:13:36.600 something 198 00:13:36.600 --> 00:13:38.200 that's pure gospel. 199 00:13:39.600 --> 00:13:44.700 You mean to say that baptism, adversely affects our hopes and dreams? 200 00:13:45.700 --> 00:13:46.400 You bet. 201 00:13:47.300 --> 00:13:50.900 And if you're unlucky enough, it might actually put all of them to 202 00:13:50.900 --> 00:13:53.900 death, kill them permanently. 203 00:13:55.000 --> 00:13:56.600 And what do you have left? 204 00:13:57.000 --> 00:14:01.700 Instead of a responsible person who minds her p's and q's, she's 205 00:14:01.700 --> 00:14:05.400 caught up in a whirlwind of reckless Behavior with no thought of 206 00:14:05.400 --> 00:14:07.400 herself or for the future. 207 00:14:09.600 --> 00:14:14.600 Of course, the gospel way of seeing this is nothing less than the good 208 00:14:14.600 --> 00:14:17.600 news of the very same thing. 209 00:14:19.100 --> 00:14:24.600 That baptism has cleansed me from my sins, has put to death my 210 00:14:24.600 --> 00:14:29.800 moribund hopes and my selfish dreams has filled me with God's spirit 211 00:14:29.800 --> 00:14:33.400 so that I have no fear for tomorrow because my future is entirely 212 00:14:33.400 --> 00:14:35.400 caught up in the resurrection of Christ. 213 00:14:37.900 --> 00:14:42.100 That's why the catechism moves us so quickly away from these meddlesome 214 00:14:42.100 --> 00:14:45.700 questions that try to limit the gospel into a contained and 215 00:14:45.700 --> 00:14:50.900 manageable message and thrusts into passages like this one from Titus 216 00:14:50.900 --> 00:14:51.900 Chapter 3. 217 00:14:52.900 --> 00:14:59.500 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, the philanthropy of 218 00:14:59.500 --> 00:14:59.800 God. 219 00:15:01.400 --> 00:15:07.200 Our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in 220 00:15:07.200 --> 00:15:14.500 righteousness, but according to his own mercy by the bath of rebirth 221 00:15:14.600 --> 00:15:20.900 and the renewal of the Holy Spirit whom he poured out on us richly 222 00:15:21.500 --> 00:15:21.800 through 223 00:15:21.800 --> 00:15:23.400 Jesus Christ, Our Savior. 224 00:15:23.400 --> 00:15:29.300 So that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according 225 00:15:29.300 --> 00:15:30.900 to the hope of eternal life. 226 00:15:32.400 --> 00:15:36.100 Richly pour out on us 227 00:15:37.900 --> 00:15:38.600 the water 228 00:15:40.500 --> 00:15:41.400 the Spirit 229 00:15:43.300 --> 00:15:44.200 His blood. 230 00:15:46.800 --> 00:15:47.900 How much blood 231 00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:52.400 did Jesus need to pour out for our sins? 232 00:15:54.000 --> 00:15:56.200 Wouldn't a few drops work. 233 00:15:57.200 --> 00:16:02.700 Just a few drops of the precious and holy blood of Christ. 234 00:16:03.600 --> 00:16:04.900 Wouldn't that suffice? 235 00:16:06.700 --> 00:16:07.600 I should think so. 236 00:16:09.800 --> 00:16:12.700 But he shed it all. 237 00:16:14.200 --> 00:16:22.300 Richly lavishly, effusively poured it out for us. 238 00:16:23.600 --> 00:16:24.600 On to us. 239 00:16:26.200 --> 00:16:27.500 And his Spirit too? 240 00:16:28.800 --> 00:16:36.900 Yeah. His Spirit too, and all his gifts and always more. A baptism that 241 00:16:36.900 --> 00:16:43.300 once happens and then takes on our whole life unfolding into our life 242 00:16:43.300 --> 00:16:45.200 every day again 243 00:16:45.200 --> 00:16:45.900 and again. 244 00:16:47.200 --> 00:16:55.000 So take joy in your baptism and it's overwhelming gifts and incline, 245 00:16:55.000 --> 00:17:01.900 your speech and your thoughts, in the way of the Gospel lean into the 246 00:17:01.900 --> 00:17:02.500 church's 247 00:17:02.500 --> 00:17:07.400 proper work that proclaims our philanthropic, God who has Dr. 248 00:17:07.400 --> 00:17:10.800 Nagle used to say, gives us everything 249 00:17:12.099 --> 00:17:17.200 and then he gives us more. In the name of Jesus. 250 00:17:17.800 --> 00:17:18.200 Amen.