Called and Sent through Water

Once the Lord has chosen a direction and a person, he continues with, pursues, persuades, makes use of, comforts, strengthens, holds onto, and accomplishes his will though that person.

That is the one true bit of security for us.

-- Possessions break and wear out.

-- Money comes and goes, as it does this week in the stock market.

-- Time flees so rapidly from us.

This word from and of God is the one thing we can grasp firmly.

It seems that the Lord has arranged things so that our forebears in the faith went through all sorts of experiences and recorded them in Holy Scripture so that we could learn from them more rapidly than they did experiencing them the first time.

This day we hear of the Exodus, the key event of God's salvation in the Old Testament, so that when our time passing through the water comes in Holy Baptism, we can more easily recognize what God is doing with us and through us.

Baptism is a drowning action...

Just as Israel was brought through the drowning waters of the sea, so Breanna was brought sputtering through three whole pitchers of water poured over her at the Easter Vigil in April.

Baptism is a saving action...

Just as Israel is saved from all the enemies that would have destroyed it, so even when the problems seem insurmountable to us, they will not in the end overwhelm us.

Baptism is a defining action...

Just as Israel is made a community by its passage through the water, and ever after persons who join that community are said to have taken part in that past action, so we who live now are said to be a part of the covenant community of Christ Jesus.

Paul reminded us earlier in Romans:

We have been buried with Christ by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. [Romans 6:4]

Baptism is a commissioning action...

Just as Israel struggled to understand how they were to be a “blessing to the nations” as the old covenant with Abraham had proclaimed [Gen.12:3], and how they were to follow Miriam's lead on the seashore in praising God, while at the same time not rejoicing in the downfall of the Egyptians (as we are reminded each year in the Passover Seder meal) ...

so are we sent by the Lord Jesus: Go therefore into all the world...make disciples....[Mt.28:19] and at the same time remembering his words: Bless those who curse you; bless and do not curse....[Lk.6:28, R.12:14]

The technical word for all of this is type.

That is to say, God's actions in the Exodus set the pattern for what happens with us in Baptism.

We are drowned, saved, defined, and commissioned.

But an immediate question arises as to how do we know that it applies specifically to us?

And the answer is that Jesus own death and resurrection is the way that we know that salvation is to both Jew and Gentile, to all those whom he calls, whenever, wherever!

“Today you will be with me in Paradise,”[Lk.23:43] he says to the startled thief suffering on the cross next to his own.

It is a promise that he can keep when there are no conditions to impede his word; not even death gets in his way.

The resurrected Lord Jesus continues to make good on all his promises.

-- When he said earlier to Peter, Come.[Mt.14:29]

-- When he makes true the words of the prophet Joel that Paul quoted: Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.[Joel 2:32]

-- When through Paul he commissions them, and us, using the words of the prophet Isaiah: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news! [Isaiah 52:7]

Called and sent through water.

-- That is what happened with Israel in the Exodus.

-- That is what happened with Jesus in the blood and water of his death on the cross and resurrection.

-- That is what happens each time we baptize in the name of Christ Jesus.

So that we can pray:

“Lord, here am I” Your fire impart

To this poor cold self-centered soul;

Touch but my lips, my hands, my heart,

And make a world for Christ my goal.

[HS98-#868.4]

Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.