(Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “Baptism in a
Drought”, originally shared on January 8, 2025. It was the 345th video
for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my
wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)
Messiah drought? Prophet drought? God ended
them with Baptism.
Spiritual drought? God’s promise is Baptism.
Today, we’re going to find out how that works.
We have experienced a record-dry start to
winter in Southern California. We are in what is considered a “moderate
drought” and, there is a good chance that dry conditions will continue at least
to the end of 2025.
We are only a couple years past a severe
drought that required water rationing. Every outdoor container at our house was
open and turned up toward the sky to collect what little moisture fell. We kept
most of our potted plants alive be watering them with buckets of captured
shower water.
But that’s not the whole story.
About 65% of LA’s water comes from runoff
from the melting snowpack in the Sierra Mountains in central California, and it
is 80%-100%, and in some places 110%, of normal, so there’s that.
That which we depend upon, though, comes
from someplace else.
That concept is at the heart of the blessing
of baptism and of the meaning of the cross.
This coming Sunday is the Sunday that marks
the “Baptism of Our Lord” in the vast majority of churches throughout the
world. It’s the first Sunday after the day of the Epiphany of Our Lord, a day
that is fixed on January 6th of each year.
Have you ever watched or read a cartoon
where a character is facing some dilemma? They think about it. Hard. Then what
happens? A burning light bulb appears over their head! What was not clear is
now seen clearly. Light has shined in the darkness. Something longed-for has
become real, it has become manifest. They have had an epiphany!
This Sunday, we will see the epiphany, the
manifestation of Jesus at the beginning of his public ministry. It begins with
his baptism, and it is a key to the beginning of our eternal lives.
The reading from the Gospels that will be
read this coming Sunday, Luke 3:15-17; 21-22, sets up the baptism with a
description of John the Baptist, in Luke 3:15-17,
15 As the people were
filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning
John, whether he might be the Messiah, 16 John answered all of
them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I
is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize
you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in
his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his
granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
John was like the Federal Emergency Alert
System that puts those banner messages on TV that are read with the same static-interference
voice that we hear on the radio saying that this is what a real emergency alert
would sound like.
Or like the MyShakeApp in California that is
designed to give us a little time to at least get under a table before an
earthquake comes.
John the Baptist wasn’t kidding around
either, but he wasn’t the main event. He was the one who prepared the way for
the main event.
John came at the end of a prophet drought.
The people of God had been waiting for the
promised Messiah (the anointed one, the deliverer) for 1,000 years and received
nothing but some encouragement from the prophets for the first 700 years. There
was a Messiah drought.
Then, there was no word from God to the
prophets at all for the final 300 years, a prophet drought within the messiah
drought. 😊
Then John the Baptist shows up with a word
from the Lord. The Messiah was close by!
And then, the Messiah shows up where John
was baptizing people in the river Jordan and is baptized by John. It was an
epiphany! A manifestation!
We see it in the rest of the text for this
Sunday, in Luke 3:21-22,
21 Now when all the
people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying,
the heaven was opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended upon
him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son,
the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
What? Why does Jesus need to be
baptized? What is he doing there? He is the Messiah, the Son of God, fully God
and fully human being? He was around 30-years-old, and he had lived a sinless
life. Why did He need to be baptized?
The answer is, “He didn’t.” At all.
Jesus was baptized as an example for us to
follow, as a gift for us to receive.
Like dying for us on the cross, it is a gift
of God’s grace.
Maybe you, too, have been baptized. But why?
What is this baptism that Jesus
extravagantly models for us?
Martin Luther, the 16th century
Church reformer, describes it in his short manual on the basics of the
Christian faith, “The Small Catechism”, from which come these FAQ’s
(Frequently Asked Questions):
What gifts or benefits does Baptism
grant?
It brings about forgiveness of sins, redeems from
death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe it, as the
Word and promise of God declare.
What is this Word and promise of God?
Where our Lord Jesus Christ says in Mark 16:16, “The
one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not
believe will be condemned.”
How can water do such great things?
Clearly the water does not do it, but the Word of
God, which is with, in, and alongside the water, and faith, which trusts this
Word of God in the water.
What then is the significance of such a
baptism with water?
It signifies that the old person in us with all sins
and evil desires is to be drowned through daily sorrow for sin and repentance,
and that daily a new person is to come forth and rise up to live before God in
righteousness and purity forever.
Where is this written?
St. Paul says in Romans 6:3-4, “Do you not know that
all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his
death? Therefore we have been buried
with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the
dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”
We have now passed though death into eternal
life. And it happened in our Baptism as a gift of God’s grace! We don’t have to
feel it; we just have to trust it.
That which we depend upon comes from someplace
else.
Paul makes the connection between death and
resurrection and baptism and holy living in Romans 6:3-4 that was quoted
by Luther a few lines above. It’s followed by verse 5,
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we
will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
We are, in the theme of a long-ago Lutheran youth
convention, not “the walking dead’, but we are the “walking wet.” It has
changed everything for us.
It’s not
about our decision for Christ. We are sinners, cut off from God by our sin. God
has made a decision for us.
Jesus was
baptized, as with his crucifixion, to model his love for us in the face of our
sin, our spiritual drought.
Paul writes, in Romans 5:8,
8 But God proves his love
for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.
God models that love for us in the baptism
of Jesus as an example for us to follow.
Some people experience that baptism in a
deeply profound way, as new life, because this is exactly what baptism is. And
others feel no difference at all. Feelings are not the crucial element.
It’s not the amount of water is the crucial
element in Baptism either, just water and the Word. In fact, the earliest
Christian art we have depicting today’s reading about Jesus being baptized,
shows Jesus standing in shallow water and John the Baptist pouring water over
his head. But I do think that immersion of a better symbol of dying and rising,
and some Christians teach that it is the only way to be baptized. It clearly is
not.
I don’t think that we ever understand what
happens to us in baptism, we can’t earn it, and we certainly don’t deserve it.
That’s why we baptize infants (but later ask that they affirm the baptismal
covenant to grow in the Christian faith as young adults, usually in the
Confirmation ministry of a congregation). That and the Biblical witness that
whole households were baptized, and whole households typically contain
pre-adults.
Many Christians can’t remember their
Baptisms, and some say that they know that great things were done for them, but
that their baptism didn’t make them feel any different.
But, we believe that Baptism is an act of
God, that it is accomplished by God whether we feel it or not, so when people
are re-baptized because they want to speak on their own behalf, or have a
renewal experience, it’s like saying that, “God didn’t do a good enough job
last time, so we’re going to let God try it again.” It’s understandable to
desire an experience to validate ourselves, but it’s misguided.
It’s hard being a Christian in the negative gaze
of the world, but we still do live in a largely Christian country in terms of
our values.
Even now, you just have to travel to a
non-Western world, non-Christian country, and then return to see how deeply
Christianity still influences our culture and our values.
But it’s more difficult to be a Christian
when it’s easy to go along with a so-called “Christian” culture and to be
affirmed for it, while not really knowing a living relationship with Jesus
Christ. If we did, that would make us “counter-cultural”.
It’s like being a fish in the water. How can
the fish know water, except by not knowing it?
How can we know what Baptism means when we
don’t know that we need it, when we are living in a spiritual drought?
I
heard a story many years ago, but I can’t find the source, and I’ve tried.
It was part of a science fiction story where
God creates planets all over the universe and beyond and populates them with
all kinds of living things, the pinnacle of which was a creature made for a
perfect relationship with God on every planet, in perfect harmony with all of
creation. God only required that the pinnacle of His creation not do one thing,
so that they had an option to rebel. God created the option to say “No”, so
that their “Yes” could mean something.
This relationship thrived on most planets,
but on some planets, people disobeyed God and evil entered their world.
God came to each of those planets in the
form of those creatures so that they wouldn’t be afraid, but might be drawn to
Him, listen to him, repent, and live in perfect harmony with Him and all of
Creation. And on every one of those planets, they did. Except one.
On that planet, on a particularly rebellious
and violent planet, the creatures there killed Him.
When word of that got around the Universe
and all of existence, all Creation was shocked, and no Creature wanted to come
anywhere near that planet. And that’s why no creature from another planet has
ever visited ours. 😊
But we didn’t kill God. God gave his life
for us. And when he was crucified, died, and was buried, God didn’t give up on
us or stay away from us.
God took his life back again, rose from the
dead, and promised to start our eternal life here and now, and bring it to perfection
in the life to come. He came to restore us to the state of being for which we
were created.
This, as Martin Luther said, is the word and
promise of God.
I read a little book once, when I was on a competitive
adult swimming team on the psychology of competitive swimming called, You
Only Feel Wet When You’re Out of the Water. The most memorable part of it,
for me, was the title.
It’s true, isn’t it? You don’t feel wet when
you’re in the water. It’s your environment, it’s everything, it’s your
atmosphere. You only feel wet when you are out of the water.
In the same way, we receive everything
important in life, forgiveness
of sins, redemption from death and the devil, and eternal salvation given to
all who believe it through our baptism, from outside of ourselves. It is the
means that brings the benefit of the cross to restore the living relationship
with the one true living God for which we were created. It isn’t the most
important thing, it’s the only thing that makes a real life, real. It is a gift
from God. It is God’s answer to a spiritual drought.
On the Day of Pentecost, the birthday of the
Christian Church, this happened, in Acts 2:37-41,
37 Now when they
heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other
apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” 38 Peter said to them,
“Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that
your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For
the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away,
everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” 40 And he
testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves
from this corrupt generation.” 41 So those who welcomed his
message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added.
We mays be in a spiritual drought today, but
there is water enough for Baptism. That which we depend upon comes from
someplace else.
Receive a new environment for your life. Repent
and be baptized if you haven’t yet received this gift and live into it if you
have. Invite friends and family to do the same. How will they know unless you
tell them?
God ends spiritual drought with the promises of Baptism.
