Not one of my better efforts, probably because it tries to *jam in* too
much deep theology into one sermon.
/
My heart stirs of a good word. I say, myself, my work to the King; my
tongue--the pen of a swift scribe. You are beautiful, more than sons of
Adam; pours out grace on Your lips; Therefore God blessed You forever.
Gird your sword on a thigh, warrior; Your majesty and Your glorious
attire. And in Your glorious attire succeed, ride on the way of truth
and the humiliation of righteousness; and teach You awesome things, Your
Right Hand. Your arrows--sharp; (peoples beneath You will fall); in the
heart of the enemies of the King. Your throne, God, forever and ever; a
Scepter of rightness, a Scepter of Your kingdom. You love righteousness
and You hate wickedness; therefore has anointed You, God, Your God; of
oil of joy, more than Your fellows. /
Today's psalm is in the form of a love-song. How fitting for the Baptism
of our Lord, since at His baptism at the hands of John in the Jordan,
Christ Jesus weds His beloved bride, the church. He is the beautiful
one, without sin or blemish, dressed in the glorious attire of a
majestic King. He comes down from the right hand of His Father in
heaven, to enter the waters of baptism in the humiliation of
righteousness. Yes the humiliation of righteousness. To fulfil such
righteousness He is baptized.
How can righteousness be humiliating? If you are *right*, you ought be
the one talking proud, head held high, exuding confidence. Why would the
one who is *right* be meek, humbled, and found suffering humilations? It
doesn't make sense. It didn't make sense to John either, when he knew
that the holy Jesus ought to wash John's sins away, not the other way
around. For Jesus had no sins of His Own to be washed away from Him in
the Jordan. But He is baptized anyway, for righteousness.
For us, righteousness is not humiliating, since it is so rare that we
are viewed as doing something completely right and perfect. On such rare
occasions, we are puffed up with pride at a job-well-done. Yet,
truth-be-told, even our so-called righteousnesses leave something to be
desired. We may think that we have done something totally right, only to
find out that there is a tiny flaw, imperceptible to most, but we know
the imperfection is there. All our righteousnesses are like this--flawed
& imperfect.
For everything we strive to do on our own is tainted by sin. All we
aspire to is flawed by the corruption of our sinful nature, in one
fashion or another. We do something that seems perfect, yet we become
puffed up with the sin of pride in our accomplishment, thus tainting our
achievement. Or we attempt to do something helpful in hopes that it is
from a purely generous and magnanimous spirit, only to realize that we
did it for the self-acknowledments and compliments which praise our name.
Yes all of our righteousnesses are really sins, *filthy-rags* before
God. But such so-called righteousnesses were washed clean off of all of
those who were baptized by John in the Jordan. Into that sin-filled
water Jesus deigned to lower Himself. The Righteous One choosed to
number Himself, willingly, with sinners and is immersed in that
sin-tainted water as though He needed the same cleansing. But He didn't.
His washing was unique, special. Jesus' baptism anointed Him with a task.
For in this baptism by John in the Jordan, Jesus entered into the
humilation of righteousness, which means that His baptismal anointing is
to the task of giving up His righteousness at the +. There, on the tree
of Calvary He takes on Himself your sin and its wages, which is death.
There He takes your place of punishment and gives His body up to death,
and sheds His blood for you there. He humiliates Himself for your sake,
making your righteous & holy in His Father's sight forevermore!
Jesus went into the Jordan to be baptized into a job only He could do.
Instead of sins being washed from Him in that river, His righteousness
was washed from Him there. In the murky sin-infested baptism water,
Jesus loses His righteousness, and takes upon Himself the wrongness of
your sin. A blessed exchange takes place in Holy Baptism for you. In
place of your sins, which Christ took on Himself, He gives to You His
righteousness, washed from His holy body as your own holiness!
All this Jesus does for you because He is the Beloved, the bride-groom
of His church. He takes upon Himself your sin-soiled garments. In
blessed exchange He gives up the wedding clothes of His holy
righteousness for you. For at Jesus baptism, He takes your wickedness
along with His Father's hatred of it, suffering His eternal wrath at the
+. But out of love, He gives you His righteousness, along with His
Father's love for it, which is yours, now and forevermore! He--anointed
to His task of humiliation, you now have been anointed in your baptism
to the exultant joy of salvation in Him!
John C. Drosendahl, Pastor
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
___________________________________________________________________________
'CAT 41 Sermons & Devotions' consists of works that are, unless otherwise
noted, the copyrighted property of the various authors; posting of such
gives members of this list implied consent for redistribution _with_
_attribution_ unless otherwise specified by the author, as well as
for quoting or use in a congregational setting
_with_or_without_attribution_.
Note: This list's default reply is to the *poster*, NOT the list.
Do *not* reply to the list with your comments, but to the poster.
Subscribe? Send ANY note to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Unsubscribe? Send ANY note to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Archive? <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/>
For more information on this or other lists offered by Confess And Teach
For Unity, you can contact the CAT 41 list administrator at:
Rev. Fr. Eric J. Stefanski <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
