The Shepherd’s Voice

Several years back our family in conjunction with a couple other families used to go to Yosemite each summer. The scenery there is spectacular. As a family we used to love to take the trail from the canyon floor to Nevada Falls. Perhaps you’ve done the same trail. It wasn’t a particularly long hike, it may have taken us 4 – 6 hours with smaller kids. When we prepared for the hike we would always try to determine how much water we should carry. Some thought we should take at least a quart each, others thought more or less was necessary.

Anyway, one of the things I remember is how good that water tasted after we had been hiking for about an hour or so. Your mouth gets dry, the sun is bright, and when we stopped for water everyone was eager to drink. How long can you or do you go without drinking water?

I looked it up the other day and knowledgeable folks who study these kinds of things said that with an air temperature of about 70 degrees we can live without water for about 10 days. I thought no way…

As I looked into this more deeply I discovered whenever we go without drinking water, even after 24 hours our bodies start to adjust for the lack of water. Our blood changes consistency, it becomes a little thicker, unfortunately that leads to other health issues so going without water has a major negative effect on us as human beings. Because of this we appreciate water; it’s one of the necessary elements we need to sustain life. Without water we die!

We were reminded of the importance of water in our opening to the service today. What did I say? Through the waters of the flood God delivered Noah and his family. Through the sea God led the people of Israel from slavery into freedom. At the river Jesus was baptized by John and anointed with the Holy Spirit. By water and God’s Word, God claims us as daughters and sons, making us heirs of His promise and servants of all.

Water, chosen by God to sustain life, used as an element in baptism reminds us of our connection with the sacred. God wants us to make a connection, a life and death connection. We experience a process of rebirth from death to new life in baptism. There is also another element or medium involved in baptism.

AIR – How long can you live or survive without air? I want you to hold your breath right now and see just show me how long you can make it. Minutes – how long can you hold your breath?

In the story of creation in Genesis 2:7 it says “the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground,a and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the human became a living being.”  You and I were a crusty clump of clay until God “breathed” that air-borne Spirit, and made of us a “living thing.” Jewish scripture spoke of the Spirit, the “ruach” of God, the creative, active, energizing wind of Yahweh. When God breathed into Adam the breath of life it was the beginning of a new world, a new creation. God spoke this world into existence. Last Sunday we talked about the Word becoming flesh. God’s breath, became word, and the Word became flesh in the form of Jesus.

Breath is not something we should take lightly. Perhaps you’re aware of how important breath is becoming in the area of health science, if you’re not let me share this with you.

There is a new way of measuring the body’s “health” which is being touted as the next “big thing.” It’s still not in use yet, much of the hard science is still in its infancy. But they tell us it’s coming soon to your home, your hospital, your ER. Instead of taking your body’s temperature, the doctor or pretend-doctor will “take your breath away”— and then of course analyze it. You exhale deeply into a device that measures every component of your breath, and that one breath reveals the health of your whole body.

“The lung is a soggy mess of tubes and sacs whose job is to exchange gases from blood into breath,” says Joachim D. Pleil, an analytical chemist and environmental health scientist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “The breath is a window into the blood.” Pretty soon we’ll be able to smell how people are doing by their breath. Breath-mints anyone?

Water and the Word, the breath of God, we are people of God through whom God has made a connection using water and the Word. In other words what we exhale, our breath, what we drink, water are important to our survival not only physically, but also spiritually.

It was in John the Baptist’s mission that the experience of baptism with water and with the Spirit, the very breath of God, we see God’s promise move forward. Of course, John himself only provided the water bath and re-birth. But as Paul reminds these “sort-of disciples” in today’s epistle text, John’s baptism in water brought “repentance,” to each person he baptized. However, John’s real mission was to be a “voice crying in the wilderness.”

John was to “prepare” the world for the One who was to come. John was pointing all creation towards the coming of Christ. John’s water-only baptism was part of that prep work necessary for the Spirit of God to come upon us. However, John’s baptism of repentance reached deep into each individual’s heart, stirring the soul, making fertile, watered soil for the baptismal seeds of the Spirit…

We still consider repentance, the turning away from sin to be an important aspect of Christian Spirituality. It makes no sense to say we want to follow Christ, but we make no effort to refrain from hate, from gossip, from lying, from being greedy, these are all things that do not please God. Our current understanding of baptism is not that we become perfect after baptism, but that baptism marks a beginning of the sanctification process. The Holy Spirit enters our life, the life of a child or an adult and we are welcomed into the communion of saints.

Baptism is not magic, but God uses these elements of wind and water to create new birth in Christ. Baptism in Lutheran tradition is usually done with infants, but we accept all who wish to be baptized or have not been baptized once before. As Lutherans we come to baptism not because we make a decision and become worthy of it, but baptism is efficacious because of God and what we believe God will do as part of the promise. Man/we do not always understand the value associated with the results of baptism.

Forty years ago a Philadelphia congregation watched as three 9-year-old boys were baptized and joined the church. Not long after, because they were unable to continue with their dwindling membership, the church sold the building and disbanded.  They thought failure, right?
One of those boys was Tony Campolo, now author and Christian sociologist at Eastern College in Pennsylvania. Dr. Campolo remembers: “Years later when he was doing research in the archives of his denomination, he decided to look up the church report for the year of his baptism. There was his name, and Dick White’s. He’s now a missionary. Bert Newman, now a professor of theology at an African seminary, was also there. Then Tony says ‘I read the church report for ‘my’ year: ‘It has not been a good year for our church. We have lost 27 members. Three joined, and they were only children.’” How often do we discount what God is doing in the lives of our children?
Now, not everyone who is baptized grows up to be a Tony Campolo or a Seminary professor like Bert Newman or goes on the mission field like Dick White, but we all become missionaries through the water of our baptism because, that water is the water of life. It changes everything!

God cleans us up and gives us a starting point. Through baptism God reminds us of how much we are loved, favored by God. Something very special happens during baptism.

There was a young Baptist pastor doing his first baptism. Typically they do adult baptisms.
Pastor was quite young when he had been baptized so he didn’t remember everything.
He knew being baptized could be dramatic for some people, but he wondered how different it would feel to be the one doing the baptizing rather than the one being baptized.
He was nervous. Would he say the right words, immerse or lower the person into the water correctly.
As he lowered this person into the water he felt the person’s body jolt and tighten.
He thought to himself, “Wow, so that’s how it feels when the person’s sins are forgiven and they receive the power of the Holy Spirit.”
After the service he was talking to the baptized man, he asked him “Did you feel that powerful jolt when the Spirit came into you?”
“No,” the baptized person said, “Although I almost passed out when you hit my head on the baptistery step!”

Sometimes our view of what occurs in baptism can be quite different, but all Christians baptize.

When Jesus was baptized by John it signified a new beginning for Jesus. It was a time of consecration of Jesus by God. God said, “This is my Son, the Beloved,d with whom I am well pleased.” The heavens opened and the Spirit of God descended upon Jesus, Water and the Word!

Baptism is a sacred or sacramental moment when the “Old Adam” in us dies and we receive a new life, not because of anything we have done, but because of what Christ has done on our behalf. Baptism is not the end; we celebrate baptism as a beginning of that journey of faith we are on.

Tradition has it that when Martin Luther would wash his face each morning it would remind him of his baptism. He could identify with the water of baptism washing away his sin so he could continue each new day with a fresh Word from God. I would encourage you to think about what God is doing in your life next time you wash your face in the morning.

Every day should begin with Water and the Word, the primary elements of baptism, the primary conveyance of God’s grace to each of us.

In Christ we are all new creatures, loved and given grace by God for the journey of life! Amen