<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.18999">
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT size=4><STRONG><FONT color=#33cc00 size=5>from
GoodPreacher.com<BR><BR></FONT></STRONG>
<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=2 width="100%">
<TBODY>
<TR><STRONG><FONT color=#33cc00 size=5></FONT></STRONG></TR>
<TR>
<TD vAlign=top><FONT face=Arial>
<P align=justify><FONT size=4><STRONG>The First Step:
</STRONG></FONT><FONT size=4><STRONG>Matthew
3:13-17<BR></STRONG></FONT></P></FONT>
<P align=justify><FONT size=4>We do not think about it much, but
for</FONT><FONT size=4> most of us, one of the things that brings us here
today is that we were baptized. Some were baptized because you turned
seven years old and decided that you were sick and tired of not getting to
drink the grape juice. A few were baptized because your little sister got
baptized and your mother kept pointing out that she was your
<EM>little</EM> sister. Some went to a worship service where the minister
made you cry. You felt God calling you to walk the aisle, and if you walk
the aisle you get baptized. Some of you are grateful that you were
baptized as an infant. Some of you were baptized as an infant, and do not
think about it much. Some of you have never been baptized because you have
never seen any reason why you should. Some of you have not been baptized
and do not know why you have not. Some of you have not been baptized, but
you have had to work hard to avoid seriously considering it. </FONT></P>
<P align=justify><FONT size=4>I was baptized when I was eight years old,
in part, because my best friend and next-door neighbor, Craig, who was
nine years old, had decided to be baptized. I did not think people should
think that he was more Christian than I was. The Sunday after I walked the
aisle, my third grade nemesis, Terri, who was always Lucy to my Charlie
Brown, decided that she would be baptized, too. Terri bragged that she
would be baptized before I was because they always baptize girls first.
She sneered at me just before she went under the water. </FONT></P>
<P align=justify><FONT size=4>The first person I baptized was Keith. He
was a third grader. I was a college sophomore—about ten years too young to
be the pastor of any church no matter how small. Keith and I talked about
his baptism at least a half dozen times. I went over it with Keith’s
parents. We discussed every imaginable possibility, or so I thought. They
all somehow managed to forget to mention Keith’s fear of water. I did not
find out about this fear until I saw it in his eyes as he stood at the
edge of the baptistery. I reached out and led him down the steps slowly. I
spoke the words of baptism, put my hand on his back, and waited for him to
lean back. He did not move. I pulled on his shirt. He still did not move.
He had no plans to move. I finally put my left hand on his shoulder to
ever so gently push him under. He showed his first sign of life. He did
not want to be pushed ever so gently under. There is a small spot on the
top of Keith’s head that never got wet. I am sure there are Baptist
churches that pride themselves on being one hundred percent immersed and
where Keith’s baptism would be at least five percent unacceptable.
</FONT></P>
<P align=justify><FONT size=4>It is good that we learn the meaning of our
baptisms after the fact. Most of us did not fully know what we were doing
on the day we were baptized. It is years later, as we make our way slowly
into faith that the purpose begins to unfold. We discover what our
baptisms mean after the event rather than before. That is how it was for
Jesus, too. </FONT></P>
<P align=justify><FONT size=4>In Matthew’s Gospel the story skips from
Jesus as an infant to Jesus as a thirty-year-old without a clue as to what
happened in between. One day Jesus puts down his hammer, takes off his
tool belt, hangs a "closed" sign on the door of the carpenter’s shop and
asks, "What does God want of me?" He heads south and finds his cousin
John, smelling of locust and honey, standing in the muddy Jordan in his
camel hair baptismal robe. Jesus gets in line and waits his turn. He wades
out into the water, right next to real live sinners like you and me.
</FONT></P>
<P align=justify><FONT size=4>While three gospels tell the story of Jesus’
baptism, only Matthew records the curious conversation prior to the
baptism. Jesus is eager to be baptized, but John hesitates. They stand
hip-deep in the river and engage in a fervent, theological debate as to
who should baptize whom. The first time that Jesus speaks in Matthew’s
Gospel, it is to say that he needs to be baptized, because baptism will
help him learn who he is meant to be. Jesus leans back into the water
because he believes that God is calling him to a different kind of life.
</FONT></P>
<P align=justify><FONT size=4>When Jesus rises, the waters of the Jordan
dripping into his face, he sees the Spirit descending like a dove to rest
upon his soggy head. The Spirit comes not as an all-consuming fire of
judgment, but with the flutter of hopeful wings. A voice says: "You are my
child. I love you. I’m delighted with you." </FONT></P>
<P align=justify><FONT size=4>Then Jesus goes into the desert for forty
days to think about what it means to be God’s child. Jesus spends all the
days and years that follow that afternoon in the Jordan discovering the
meaning of his baptism. </FONT></P>
<P align=justify><FONT size=4>Paul Tillich said that Jesus is the only one
who has been completely true to the voice he heard at his baptism. Jesus
gave everything—his dreams and deeds, his labors and his life itself.
Jesus gave himself to God’s people, took his place with hurting people.
Baptism was Jesus’ commissioning to ministry. </FONT></P>
<P align=justify><FONT size=4>During the week before his death, the
leaders of the temple challenged Jesus: "By what authority do you do these
things?" Jesus answered with a reference to his baptism: "Was the baptism
of John from heaven or not? I was baptized. That’s why I do the things I
do." In the waters of baptism, Jesus heard the Spirit calling him to speak
the truth and live with grace. </FONT></P>
<P align=justify><FONT size=4>So Jesus does not die of old age. He dies
because he takes his baptism seriously. When Jesus cried on the cross, "It
is finished" it was his baptism that was complete.</FONT></P>
<P align=justify><FONT size=4>Matthew’s account of Jesus’ baptism was
first read in a church where some of the people had been baptized years
earlier, but did not think about it very much. There were many who had
never been baptized, and as they listened to the story, they thought about
what being baptized would say about who they wanted to be. There were a
few who had been baptized, but at the time it did not mean much. Now as
they looked back they could see that it was the beginning of everything.
</FONT></P>
<P align=justify><FONT size=4>Baptisms, like most beginnings, find their
meaning long after the event. Starting, by itself, is often of little
consequence. Beginning is usually easy. Finishing is often hard. Bobby
Knight, the retired basketball coach, and not a person most preachers
quote in sermons, was asked about a player who was doing a great job
coming off the bench, "When will he get to start?" Coach Knight responded:
"You don’t understand the game. It doesn’t matter who starts. It matters
who finishes." </FONT></P>
<P align=justify><FONT size=4>A month before the wedding, glassy-eyed
couples tell the minister that they are the perfect pair. One of the joys
of ministry is getting to tell them: "You get no points for getting this
far. On your wedding day almost every couple is capable of creating a life
together filled with faith, hope and joy, and almost every couple is
capable of creating something more horrifying than your worst nightmare."
Marriages cannot be judged on the wedding day. In ten years you just start
to see what they have done with it. What does it mean to get married?
Sometimes the meaning is found in pictures of strangely attired
bridesmaids and ill at ease groomsmen. More often it is discovered as you
sit together at the dinner table.</FONT></P>
<P align=justify><FONT size=4>Beginning is usually easier than finishing.
Any husband can stand in the delivery room, give his wife ice chips and
say, "You’re doing great, honey." Every father looks good holding a
newborn. You cannot judge fathers in the maternity ward. In twenty years
you start to see how hard they have worked at it. What does it mean when a
child is born? Sometimes the importance is glimpsed by looking at a baby
book. More often it is discovered in conversations that take place in the
car on the way to school. </FONT></P>
<P align=justify><FONT size=4>Beginning is easier than finishing.
Depending on which study you read, the average tenure for a pastor in the
United States is three to four years. That is embarrassing for churches
and ministers. In many of those situations, the congregation and/or the
pastor too quickly decide that they need a new start when they have never
lived out the promise of the old start.</FONT></P>
<P align=justify><FONT size=4>The significance of any decision takes a
while. It does not take nearly as much to <EM>decide</EM> to be a friend
as it takes to actually <EM>be</EM> a friend. Moments of initiation are
meaningless until we are true to the promise of that beginning.</FONT></P>
<P align=justify><FONT size=4>We too quickly think that what we need is a
new start. Our culture has an insatiable appetite for new things, but we
can add a thousand new things without it meaning anything. "What’s new?"
is not a bad question, but if we constantly pursue only what is new the
result is an endless parade of trivia. We ought to be consumed with the
question, "What’s best?" We spend too much of our lives looking for the
new without really exploring the old. We do not need new beginnings nearly
so much as we need to make sense of the old beginnings.</FONT></P>
<P align=justify><FONT size=4>Some of the people who think they need a new
job need to fulfill the promise of their old job. What did it mean when
you took your job? The job description they handed you before your first
day may not mean much. The real significance is found every Monday
morning. We may not need new starts. We may need to fulfill the old
ones.</FONT></P>
<P align=justify><FONT size=4>Baptism is a beginning, the prologue to a
book waiting to be written. Introductions are not enough by
themselves.</FONT></P>
<P align=justify><FONT size=4>Every once in a while someone will ask to be
re-baptized. They say something like: "I was sincere when I was baptized,
but then I drifted away. I want to start again." Most of the time the best
response is: "The problem is not with your baptism. Your beginning was
fine. You need to live out what you’ve already started."</FONT></P>
<P align=justify><FONT size=4>We are handed a map, but then we have to
take the trip. It takes our whole life to finish the journey we begin when
we’re baptized. When Martin Luther was tempted to give up on following
Christ, he would sit in his study and recite, almost as a mantra: "I am
baptized. I am baptized. I am baptized." </FONT></P>
<P align=justify><FONT size=4>What does it mean to us to live out our
baptisms? If we are true to our baptisms, we cannot make ourselves
comfortable, cannot do only what will be appreciated, and cannot be
satisfied with the way things are. Our baptisms demand that we struggle
with what’s right and what’s wrong, what’s important and what’s not.
</FONT></P>
<P align=justify><FONT size=4>The children of God tell the truth in a
world that lies, give in a world that takes, love in a world that lusts,
make peace in a world that fights, serve in a world that wants to be
served, pray in a world that waits to be entertained, and take chances in
a world that worships safety. The baptized are citizens of an eccentric
community where financial success is not the goal, security is not the
highest good, and sacrifice is a daily event.</FONT></P>
<P align=justify><FONT size=4>Baptism is our ordination to ministry, our
vow to live with more concern for the hurting than for our own comfort,
and our promise to take issue with ideas with which everyone else agrees.
Baptism is the commitment to share our time with the poor and listen to
the lonely. </FONT></P>
<P align=justify><FONT size=4>What did it mean when we were baptized? For
those of us who were baptized as older children or adults, it might be
helpful to remember what we thought, felt, and did on that day. However,
the meaning of our baptism is seen more clearly in what we think, feel,
and do this day. "Is there anything we should do differently today since
we are baptized?" We are forever answering the question, "Why am I
baptized?"</FONT></P>
<P align=justify><FONT size=4>Brett Younger</FONT></P>
<P align=justify><FONT size=4>McAfee School of Theology</FONT></P>
<P align=justify><FONT size=4>Atlanta, GA<BR></FONT></P>
<P align=justify><B><A href="http://www.GoodPreacher.com" target=_blank
__removedLink__401546002__href="http://www.goodpreacher.com/">www.GoodPreacher.com</A></B></P>
<P align=justify><FONT
size=4></FONT> </P></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>