Sermon for the Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost
At the Baptism of Teagan LeMae Morris and
At the Dedication of a Funeral Pall
What Covers a Person
or
Articles of Faith
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus
Christ! Amen. Jesus says to you in today’s Gospel, “There is nothing outside a
person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a
person are what defile him.”
Dear Christian friends,
A few minutes ago, we prayed a prayer for Teagan LeMae Morris that is
particularly hard to believe. You might even say that this prayer requires
great faith on the part of those who dare to pray it:
Almighty and eternal God, … we pray that you would behold Teagan LeMae
according to Your boundless mercy and bless her with true faith by the Holy
Spirit, that through this saving flood [of Holy Baptism] all sin in her, which
has been inherited from Adam and which she herself has committed since, would
be drowned and die (Holy Baptism, Lutheran Service Book, p. 7).
Why does this prayer require great faith? You tell me: you look at the little
cupcake and tell me how it is that she can be thoroughly sinful and rotten to
the core! Those of you who knew her father or mother growing up might feel like
you could make a case for Teagan’s inherited sin, but what about these sins
“which she herself has committed since”? Where are you going to find your proof
for that?
Infant Sin is an Article of Faith
We believe the infant Teagan LeMae to be sinful for one reason: God
says in His Bible that she is sinful. Teagan’s infant sinfulness is an article
of our Christian faith, something we believe NOT because we can prove it
through observation; but something we believe because our God has said it is so
and God does not lie (Romans 3:4, Hebrews 6:18). Yes, you can observe plenty of
proof for sin in the world around you, but you will not see any of it in this
little girl—not for a while, at least. You will become convinced of Teagan’s
sin in one, single way: by the miracle of hearing God’s Word.
We have baptized this child, not because she is sorry for her wild
lifestyle and has now decided to commit her life to Jesus, but we have baptized
this child because God has said:
· All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23);
· Death came to all men, because all sinned (Romans 5:12);
· (in today’s Gospel) There is nothing outside a person that by going
into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what
defile him. … What comes out of a person defiles him. For from within, out of
the heart of man, come evil [things].
You would never know any of these things just by looking at that little girl,
all powder and lace. That is why it requires such great faith to pray the
prayer we pray at Baptism, asking God to forgive the sins of an infant child.
The Resurrection is an Article of Faith
Funeral palls also require great faith. When we arrange our funeral
pall on the caskets of our Christian dead, we will be doing more than saving
money on flowers. We will again be speaking the faith that we have spoken today
at Teagan’s Baptism: Just as it is hard to believe that this child should
already be afflicted by the disease of sin, it is equally hard to believe that
those who die will yet rise again. You cannot tell, just by looking at Teagan,
that she is in fact tagged with the curse of death. You also cannot tell, just
by looking at the dead bodies of your Christian dead, that these bodies are in
fact marked and labeled and stamped with God’s gift of life.
We believe our Christian dead will rise to life again. We believe this
for one reason: God says in His Bible that our Christian dead will rise to life
again. The resurrection of the dead is an article of our Christian faith, just
as much as infant sin is an article of our faith. We believe in the
resurrection, not because we have personally seen dead people rise, but we
believe in the resurrection because God has said:
· Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the
dust wake up and shout for joy! (Isaiah 26:19);
· He will swallow up death forever (Isaiah 25:8);
· I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, thought he
die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never
die (John 11:25-26).
When Travis asked me to schedule Teagan’s Baptism for today, my first
thought was that it would seem a little bit creepy to baptize a brand new baby
on the same day that we consecrate a funeral pall for our dead. I was wrong to
think that way. The funeral pall we will dedicate today is nothing, if not the
remembrance of the Baptism your God has performed for you and for your children
(Acts 2:39).
· At your Baptism, God your heavenly Father covered and hid and sealed
off from His sight “all sin in [YOU], which has been inherited from Adam and
which [YOU YOURSELF HAVE] committed since” (Holy Baptism, Lutheran Service
Book, p. 7). Stated in terms of today’s Gospel, God uses your Baptism to
prevent “the things that come out of a person” from defiling and destroying you.
· When your dead body lies in its casket under the funeral pall, the pall
will preach to your loved ones that God’s Baptismal promises to you still
apply, even in death. Stated in terms of today’s Gospel, the funeral pall will
assure your loved ones that “the things that come out of a person” ultimately
have no power over you; that even though you have plenty in you that “defiles a
person,” you have been cleansed and washed in Baptism’s miracle-producing
water; that “all these evil things come from within,” but your God has saved
you from the outside, by clothing you in your Christ (Galatians 3:27).
The EVERYDAY Power and Benefit of Your Baptism
In today’s Gospel, Jesus alerts you to your great need for Baptism by warning
you about the things that defile you. Jesus wants you to be baptized, not so
that you can prevent any bad thing from entering into you, but so that your
in-born sin and evil may be prevented from defiling you by oozing out of you.
What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the
heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,
coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.
All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.
Jesus wants you to know that these baptismal Words are for you, not
merely at the beginning of your life—when you were baptized—and not merely at
the end of your life—when your casket gets draped with a funeral pall. Jesus
wants you to know that the things He warns you about in today’s Gospel are for
each and every day of your life. There is never a time when it is not true that
“what comes out of a person is what defiles him.” Stated another way, there is
never a time when you do not need your Baptism. Your Baptism is somewhat like a
Tupperware® dish filled with rotten food: the Tupperware does more than guard
its contents from outside things coming in. The Tupperware also protects
everyone around it from the rotten food on the inside. In the same way, your
Baptism is the daily protection God gives to you against “what comes out of a
person.” We might even want to say that there is a sense in which your Baptism
protects your neighbor
from “what comes out of [you]” and your neighbor’s Baptism protects you from
whatever come out of him.
It is hard for Christians to know and appreciate the daily necessity of
Baptism. It is hard to think of Baptism as anything more than what happened
once in your life a long time ago. But this too is an article of our Christian
faith. We should believe in Baptism’s ongoing importance, if for no other
reason than for the fact that God says we must believe it (Mark 16:16). After
all, how else can we escape what Jesus says to us in this Gospel, if not
through His miraculous intervention? Count Teagan LeMae—and count yourself—as
among those for whom Christ has indeed intervened. For Teagan and for you,
Christ has thoroughly hidden in Baptism “what comes out of a person.” Not even
death can break the seal on that Tupperware.
The peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
___________________________________________________________________________
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