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The Rev. Dr. Dennis E. Morey, Pastor
Scripture: Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
Baptism … the beginning
If Jesus was going to die at age 33 we may wonder why he waited until he was 30 before his public ministry began.
Some believe that Joseph, the husband of Mary, died. Jesus, being the oldest son, would have had to care for the household until the youngest child was 18. That could have delayed the beginning of his ministry.
Some believe it had to do with his not being accepted as a teacher because the culture would have said he was too young to have enough life experience to produce any kind of wisdom to teach or preach before age 30. In fact there was a saying that a rabbi wasn’t worth his salt until he was 40 years old.
I remember being a student pastor as a 22-year-old, still in college, and preaching every Sunday to a congregation in which the youngest member could have been my grandparent. I was younger than most of the congregation’s Sunday shoes. I think they came not for any wisdom I could impart but just to see the next big mistake.
We aren’t sure why Jesus waited until he was 30 years old before he began his ministry. Obviously it was what God had planned. It seems that it was his baptism that marked the beginning of his ministry. From that point on his life and work focused so intently on the Kingdom of God that all else seemed irrelevant in his life. Jesus may have been free from obligations to his family of origin, but now he was compelled by his passion for the human family to proceed toward the cross.
Luke gives us the focus of the life of Jesus in the story of the family’s journey to Jerusalem for the Passover when Jesus was 12 years old. When Mary and Joseph discovered Jesus was not with the group going home, they went back to Jerusalem and searched all the places a 12-year-old boy might be.
Finally they went back to the Temple, and there they found him. Mary said, “We have been looking everywhere for you. Where have you been?”
Jesus replied, “Why were you looking everywhere? Didn’t you know I would be here and that I must be about my Father’s business?”
Jesus was always about his Father’s business. God’s plan was his total focus.
As a young man he did not start a business, marry and have a family. He did not care about owning a house or becoming famous. He focused his personal life on the goals of God.
Nothing blurred his vision. When his close friends were wrong, he was quick to point it out. When people suffered, he was first in line to do what needed to be done.
When the religious claimed their own righteousness as the focus of their lives, he pointed out the futility of their efforts. When the sinners came hopeless and in despair, he made sure they knew that God was about mercy and God’s grace was always extended to those who repent of their sin and seek forgiveness.
If Jesus met Tiger Woods, he would invite him to change his ways, and tell him to go after his wife and children seeking reconciliation.
If Jesus met the banking executives of today, he would remind them who owns the cattle on a thousand hills and tell them a story about a man who decided to tear down his barns and build bigger ones.
Jesus was always relevant to his circumstances. That kind of Kingdom focus happened because he was guided by the Holy Spirit.
How did Jesus know which way to go, which village to visit, which lessons to teach? We learn in today’s scripture that when Jesus was baptized the Holy Spirit of God came upon him.
Yes, Jesus the Son of God was part of the Trinity, but he was also human, and the Holy Spirit of the Trinity came to help him deal with his humanity. The Holy Spirit knew the plan and Jesus yielded himself completely to it.
How did he get the direction of the Holy Spirit? He stayed in close communication with God the Father. Each, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, was part of God. Again and again in the scripture we read the accounts of times when Jesus got away by himself to pray. It was the Holy Spirit that directed him to do that.
Often we do not have the focus and the direction in life because we neglect having time alone with God.
We say we have Jesus in our heart. If that is so, then the Holy Spirit that dwells in us is always calling us to communicate with God and allow God to communicate with us.
Often we think that our hour on Sunday morning is supposed to take care of our God-needs much like getting a flu shot should protect us from getting the flu.
The flu shot contains usually three strains of dead flu virus. The human body recognizes the dead virus and produces antibodies to destroy the virus. When we come in contact with the live virus, the body has those antibodies already activated so it can fight off the live virus. It usually works one season for those three particular strains of flu.
Our Centers for Disease Control look at which kinds of flu China and Australia have experienced in the previous year and try to guess what will be coming to our country.
On Sunday, the pastor has read the scripture for the day and tries to guess how to offer you hope from what you have experienced in the previous week and courage for what you will be facing the coming week.
A worship service is put together with the help of musicians hoping it will not only be an expression of worship to God, as we praise God together, but also be a resource to help the congregation face what is coming.
Having one hour on Sunday morning so we can hear about someone else’s relationship with God, maybe someone who died many years ago and has left something written down, is like getting the dead flu virus. Our soul may be inspired and activated.
When that particular challenge or problem comes along we can deal with it. But that Sunday inoculation is good for only that strain of the life’s challenges for that particular week.
If there should be some other strain of problem suddenly thrust upon us, we may feel unprepared and, often, as if God is far away when we need him most.
Yielding to the Holy Spirit as we are called into a personal relationship with God the Father, as Jesus did, is much better. If we talk to God often, we don’t have to wait until Sunday to catch up on our prayers, or have to get to the church building to say “Thank you” to God.
The Holy Spirit speaks to us every day of the week. We have been directed again and again to God’s word, and there we have gained direction.
From that daily contact with God we will have what it takes to serve God’s Kingdom. We will have all the energy and resources we need to do what God has for us to do in our homes, at school, at our job, and in our life in the community.
We think that is all well and good and someday when we have more time we will get started on that. We don’t have to begin. We have already had our beginning when we were baptized. On that day God declared, “This is my child in whom I am well pleased.” On that day the Holy Spirit came to dwell in us.
Now maybe you have been busy going your own way. Maybe you have been in a tug-of-war with God. But there is no contest. Give up. God is stronger.
The Holy Spirit wants to guide us in everything we do. And the Holy Spirit will always guide us back to focusing on God’s Kingdom, our “Father’s business.”
The Holy Spirit wants to guide us in our life at home and in the relationships under our roof. The Holy Spirit wants to lead us at our jobs. The Holy Spirit guides us at school. The Holy Spirit is with us wherever we go. The Holy Spirit will present us with opportunities to make good choices and grow in attracting others to know God as well.
God the Father made us, and gave us life. In mercy our God has sent his Son, Jesus, to be the payment for our sin. When we hear that Good News and invite him into our lives, we change from being focused on what we want to being focused on God’s plan.
The Holy Spirit comes to us to guide us to remain focused on God’s plan. The Holy Spirit constantly calls us away from our sin, and into a relationship, a personal, every-moment relationship to our God.
There is a longing inside us to know God. The Holy Spirit is calling us to take some time to be with God and focus once again on God’s plan.
We read these words in Jeremiah 29:11-14. This is the Message Translation. “I know what I am doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen. When you come looking for me, you’ll find me. Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.”
The person who made the dishwasher had a purpose in mind for that machine. It was not made for feeding cattle. It was made for a specific reason.
God has created us. God has a purpose for us. God has a plan for each of us.
We read about that plan in the story of creation, when God made Adam and Eve. Do you remember the reason God made them?
We see that God put them in the Garden of Eden, the scripture says, “To till it and to keep it.” That gave them something to do and an opportunity to develop their relationship to one another. In the evening God came and the three of them just hung out. They just enjoyed each other’s company.
Often life seems hollow and pointless because we have forgotten the purpose for which we were made. Just as surely as feeding cattle with a dishwasher is a ridiculous idea, we have used God’s gift of life in dozens of ridiculous pursuits.
God created all this just so God could have someone who would love him by choice. God has given us the life we have so we can know God and enjoy hanging out with God.
The Holy Spirit dwells in all of us, and is calling us to know God so intimately that we would take time, to just hang out, just be quiet and enjoy God’s company.
How are you doing at that? Are you using your time here on earth, these precious few years, focused on the reason you were made?
If you haven’t, who can change that focus? The Holy Spirit is there to guide you.
Amen.
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Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, 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.” (From the
New Revised Standard Version of the
Bible) |
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