THE BEGINNING OF THE GOOD NEWS OF JESUS CHRIST - THE RETURN OF ELIJAH
Have you ever noticed how the gospel of Mark begins? We hear nothing about the birth of Jesus or his early years like we do in Matthew or in Luke. There is no mention of the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us like we do in the Gospel of John. Instead, Mark begins with a quote from the prophet Isaiah. Up pops John the Baptist. And then Jesus walks onto the stage as a grown man and he is baptized.

With this quick succession of events, it’s interesting that there is so much detail put into the description of John the Baptist. Why does the gospel writer care what he looks? How he dresses? What he eats? It all has to do with the last of the prophets. It has to do with promise found at the end of the Old Testament. The prophet Malachi says that the prophet Elijah will return before the Messiah does.

And if you can remember the stories of the prophet Elijah, then John’s location in the wilderness, his camel hair clothing and leather belt, his peculiar diet and even his message, tells us that this is not some ordinary man. The hairy, leather belt wearing prophet has returned... as promised.

He appears in the wilderness, calling the nation to repentance. And so the people of Israel flock to see him, to confess their sins and be cleansed with the baptism of repentance. They go to John to consecrate themselves in baptism; to set themselves apart as God’s people for God’s holy purpose.

Pointing Ahead
And all this happens in the gospel of Mark for a purpose… John the Baptist says it’s to point people towards the one who is coming after him…

He says, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with or in water; but he will baptize you with or in the Holy Spirit.”

And so Mark’s gospel opens with a bang! The prophet returns and prepares the way - calling people to repentance and pointing to the one who is to follow. And our focus quickly shifts from the one who baptizes the masses with water, to the one coming to be baptized, Jesus. But something changes when Jesus gets to the front of the line. Something is different about this baptism. Something happens.

A New Baptism
All of a sudden, this baptism thing isn’t just about dunking people in the river. It’s no longer just pouring water over someone’s head, or a membership into the prophet of the month fan club. It’s no longer simply someone wanting to turn their life around; someone wanting to put to death (by drowning) their old way of life and to rise again and cling to this new way of life. It’s no longer just a spiritual bath; someone hoping to return to God. No! Jesus’ baptism is different.

The baptism of Jesus and the baptisms he will perform, the baptism we perform, are different. In his baptism, the star of the show is no longer the one doing the baptism or the one coming for baptism. In this different kind of baptism, the star of the show, the main actor, is God.

Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the spirit descending like a dove into him. Jesus is possessed by the Spirit of God. A voice calls out from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

In his baptism, God breaks through the curtain, takes over center stage, grabs the microphone and declares in a clear, clarion voice, the identity of the one for whom the nation of Israel was waiting.

"You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased." In Marks gospel, the purpose of Jesus’ baptism is to establish his identity; his identity as the Son of God.  In Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan, God is at work.

Our Baptism
I don’t know what your baptism was like. I don’t know if you were baptized as an adult or as an infant. I don’t know if you knew what you were doing when you were baptized or if you even asked to be baptized. I don’t know if you were baptized Presbyterian or Catholic, Lutheran or Methodist, Baptist, Episcopal or Pentecostal. I don’t know if you were dipped, dunked, sprayed, sprinkled, washed, wiped, dripped, or doused. But I do know who was at work in your baptism. God was at work.

God was at work coming into your life. God was at work sending his Spirit into your heart. God was at work declaring to you the same thing he declared to Jesus. “You are mine. You are a member of my family: wonderfully created and dearly loved.” God entered your world. God entered your life. God broke through the torn curtain of the heavens and turned the Holy Spirit loose in your life. The effects of baptism don’t depend on us.

Unfortunately, we tend to think that baptism is all about us. We read the story of John the Baptist and the crowds that lined up wanting to turn their lives around and we apply that way of thinking to our own baptism.

We think that we need to make a decision before we can be baptized. We think that we need to understand the meaning of baptism before we can be baptized. We think that we need to feel the need to be baptized, before we can be baptized.

And perhaps that’s why some people get disappointed that they can’t be baptized again. I’ve had young people share with me their disappointment that they were baptized as infants because they come to a point in their lives where they want to make a public profession of faith, and they want to experience baptism as a spiritual turning point; a marker of a spiritual high. They say, “I didn’t choose to be baptized when I was an infant. And now that I’ve gotten older and I believe, I want to be baptized again.”

It’s not only young people. Adults sometimes think they need to be baptized again. Adults will return to the church after having been away for a while. And they’ll say “I was baptized once but then I turned from the life of faith and fell away from the church. It wasn’t until six months ago that I finally came back. And now that I’m back on track it would mean a lot to me to be baptized again.

In Human Terms
If we think of baptism in purely human terms, if we think that we are the principal actors in baptism, (or if we think the pastor is the principle actor) then its effectiveness depends on us. If it’s all about us, then you could argue that infants shouldn’t be baptized because infants don’t have the mental capacity or capabilities of realizing that they are sinners. They don’t have the capacity to have faith; nor the ability to confess their faith in God. If this is the case, no child should be baptized until they are “old enough to know what baptism means” or until the child has “accepted Christ for himself or herself.”

If we forget that God is the star of the show, then we might even be tempted to see baptism as just another initiation rite. We might think of baptism as nothing more than joining a club, the Jesus Club, like joining the Girl Scouts, Kiwanis, Rotary, Sam’s Club or Costco. Once you’ve been done it, you’re a member and you just need to keep paying your membership dues and follow the Jesus rules and you’ll be alright.

Salvation - the Work of God
To think that baptism is something we do is to put the emphasis in the wrong place. It makes baptism dependent upon the actions of people. But trust me, we don’t want a baptism that is dependent upon us… we don’t want the baptism of John. We want the baptism of Jesus; we want to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. We want our baptism to be a work of God. The deeply rooted or unvoiced concern inherent in the baptism of John is “Hopefully this time it will stick; hopefully this time we will stay the course.”

Throughout the Bible, salvation is always depicted as God’s work, not ours. It is a gift. Israel was a small wandering tribe of desert nomads. Yet God chose to make Israel a great nation, a holy people, a blessing to all the nations. Why? The Bible only suggests that it was the inscrutable mystery of divine love.

Israel did nothing to earn that love. In fact, she did almost everything to betray and mock that love. And yet, through all her infidelity and waywardness, God still loved Israel, choosing her again and again to be a light to the Gentiles.

Throughout all of Israel’s ups and downs as the chosen people, the “hero” of the story, the main actor in the drama, is God. The Good News is that God chose Israel and continued to love Israel even though she chose to betray and reject that love.

In the New Testament this notion of salvation is expanded by the story of what Jesus has come to do for us and for our salvation.

We are always the “recipients of” and the “responders to” God’s loving, saving, redeeming, initiating action.

I think we often have it backwards. Rather than asking what people think, feel, or believe about baptism, I think the question we need to ask ourselves is “What does God say, think, feel, promise and do in baptism?”

The Power of Baptism
The power of baptism does not entirely depend upon me: my thoughts about God, my ability to love God, my feeling about myself or God, my skill at leading a holy life. Rather, these things come as a result of God working in my life… through the Holy Spirit working in my heart. And that’s what we receive in baptism.

In Jesus’ baptism we see the transition from John’s baptism (a baptism of self-dedication), to Jesus’ baptism in which God is and will continue to be the principle actor. Jesus goes into the water with the baptism of John and comes out of the water with the baptism of the Holy Spirit; the work of God.

As Jesus is coming up out of the water, the heavens are torn apart, like sheets being ripped up for rags, the Holy Spirit descends into Jesus like a dove, and a voice fills his ears and the depths of his soul with these words: "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased." In Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan, God is at work.

God says to Jesus, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."

Beloved Child
Listen carefully to those words… because those are the same words we should hear and remember as we think about our own baptism. In our baptism, we are set apart by God… our identity is confirmed. God says to us, “You are my beloved child, in you I am well pleased.”

Who am I? I am a child of God, a Christian. In baptism we are given a new identity; we become children of God. We are given a new name; we are called “Christian”. And by giving us this new name, the church makes a radical statement about who we are. This identity is a gift. We are who we are by God’s grace; God’s grace.

We are not essentially good people. We know that better than anybody else. I do not always feel like a child of God. I do not always look like a child of God. God knows I do not always act like a child of God! But I am. I am one of God’s children not because of what I did or because of who I am, but because God chose me, adopted me to be his child. I am owned.

When I am anxious or alone or defeated, my baptism speaks a relaxing word of comfort to me. “You did not choose me, I chose you.”

We Ought vs. We Are
We are who we are because God has loved us, chosen us, adopted us, anointed us as his own. As one theologian says, we have made baptism about us and our actions. We have clouded the Good News with a bunch of “oughts”. We ought to love others. We ought to live a better life. We ought to grow up and act our age. We ought to give ourselves to God. Baptism says little about what we ought to be or do. It mainly asserts who we are: We are a new people. We are a holy nation. We are a children of God. The imperative, “we ought” comes only after the indicative, “we are.”

It makes all the difference in the world whether we conceive of being Christian as something which we ought to do, or as something which we are. Baptism does not say, “You can be God’s own if you do this or believe that.” Baptism says that we belong to God.

True Identity
The Presbyterian Church (USA) has as part of its confessions and constitution, the Heidelberg Catechism. And the first question of this catechism is a great one. It asks “What is your only comfort, in life and in death?” Answer: "That I belong, body and soul, in life and in death, not to myself but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.”

When was the last time you were reminded of your true identity… reminded that you too are child of God, dearly loved and accepted? Well I hope that you are reminded of that now. And that whenever you see water, either a river, a lake, or even a cup of water, that you will remember your baptism, and who it is that God says you are.

In a minute I’m going to ask you all to close your eyes in prayer. And as I am praying, I want you all to take your thumb and make the sign of the cross on your foreheads like this as a reminder of who you are. We do this when we anoint people with oil during our Wholeness and Healing services. This sign of the cross placed upon a person’s forehead is like a brand to show ownership. As sheep are marked to show ownership, so Christians are marked, by baptism, to show who owns them and to what flock they belong. So close your eyes. And make the sign of the cross on your forehead as a reminder of your baptism.

Let us pray:
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, we seek to know you, to experience you, to hear your voice that calls out to us. Help us to realize who we are. Help us to realize that we are your adopted children. Help us to hear your voice calling out to us, saying “You are my beloved child; in whom I am well pleased.” In the Jesus’ name,  Amen.