Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost At the baptism of Alayna Marie Muller
My Kinsmen According to Baptism Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. In today’s Epistle, St. Paul wrings his hands with sorrow. He mourns and laments his Old Testament brothers and sisters in Christ. God had given them so many gifts, but they threw God’s gifts all away. I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart… for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites! To them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises! To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. Dear Christian friends, Among those who do not share our ancient practice of infant baptism—that is, those among who reject infant baptism and refuse access for their children to this miracle of God—many do not hesitate to throw stones at us. One of their favorite and handiest stones to throw is what sometimes happens in our Lutheran churches after a child is baptized. What sometimes happens in our churches after a child is baptized? Nothing! More than one Christian parent in our confession—more than one person who claims the name Lutheran and the Scriptural practice of infant baptism (Acts 2:38-39) that goes with that name—more than one of these Christian parents does not follow through. They do not follow through with the full life of baptism that our Lord Jesus both promises (John 3:5-6) and commands (Matthew 28:19-20) in His Scriptures. They baptize but they do not do not learn and they do not teach baptism. More than one Christian fails to teach the children of the Church that: · Baptism is a never-ending, everyday miracle that makes you able to admit your sin and trust in Jesus’ forgiveness, which He earned for you; · Bible stories are more than mere stories; that Bible stories are true food and drink for the nourishment of the baptized, both young and old; · Regular worship—hearing the Word and repeatedly receiving God’s miraculous gifts of forgiveness and life—regular worship is absolutely essential for baptismal faith to remain healthy and active and even alive; · The Christian faith is much more than getting baptized as an infant and then disappearing until confirmation or marriage or death. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you (Matthew 28:19-20). With these Words, Jesus clearly states that disciples get created through baptism AND teaching. With these Words, Jesus marries, unites, binds together baptism AND teaching, giving us the two-pronged approach He wants us to use when raising the children of the Church. More than one Christian parent in our ranks does not follow through. Do not be one of those parents, Jason! Desiree! Jerad, Suzi, and Renee: You have dared to be this child’s godparents and baptismal sponsors. Form a solid wall and hedge around her! Guard and protect her from any temptation her parents might feel not to teach her this faith into which she has now been baptized. Hold Jason and Desiree’s feet to the fire of their own baptisms (Mark 3:11). Use every power that you have to help and to ensure that they hold Alayna Marie’s feet to the fire of hers. People are watching. Those who reject God’s miracle of infant baptism are watching and they are ready to throw their stones. They notice our neglect and misuse of baptism and they hold it against us. “You Lutherans teach, do you, that baptism is just like magic? A child can get sprinkled and that is it? Automatic entry into heaven, huh? I know many people who were baptized as children (some of them members of your own congregation, Pastor Rottmann) they live like unbelievers and they never give any indication at all that they are Christian! Are we supposed to think that your practice of infant baptism will save them while they so clearly reject God’s Word and Spirit? From the look of things, Baptism must not have saved them!” Mark this well: Baptism does not fail Christians; Christians fail baptism! · The recipient of a great inheritance might be rich, but he will never receive the benefit of his riches if he ignores or abandons his money and never makes use of it. In a similar way, your baptism will give you no benefit if you will not use it—especially if you not use is as your daily reminder and sign and assurance that God your heavenly Father forgives you all your sins for the sake of Christ Jesus. · A child may be adopted, but that child will never know the benefit of his adoption and family if he should run away from his new home as soon as he is able. In a similar way, baptism is how God adopted you to be His child forever, just as He adopted little Laynee today. Do not run away. Stay in the house. Eat at your Father’s table. Enjoy the protection and care of your big brother Jesus. Gather with the family. · Gold does not lose its value if it gets dropped into the mud or thrown into a drawer and forgotten. Lost or forgotten gold will simply lose its usage and benefit to its owner. In a similar way God’s miracle of Baptism is a high and holy gift, worth more than anything else in the entire creation. Baptism does not lose its value simply because a Christian might throw it away or toss it aside and forget about it. Baptism, like gold, will simply provide no benefit—no forgiveness, no life, no salvation—to those who throw it aside. When Alayna Marie was baptized this morning, God gave to this child the same sorts of gifts that He had previously given to His people of old, whom Paul calls in today’s Epistle his “kinsmen according to the flesh.” When you were baptized oh-so-long ago, God also gave to you the same gifts! · “To them belong the adoption,” and now in baptism that adoption also belongs to you. “God sent for His Son… that we might receive adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:5). · “To them belong… the glory and the covenants,” that is, the oaths God swore to His ancient people. In Baptism God delivered His greatest glory to you, the glory of sacrificing His Son and on the value of that sacrificed swearing on an oath to forgive you all your sins. · “To them belong… the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises,” says Paul. Now all of these things are fulfilled and completed in Christ, and now Christ has been given both to Alayna and to you. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul speaks about his baptism and Alayna’s baptism and yours when he declares, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me (Galatians 2:20-21). God had given to Paul “kinsmen according to the flesh.” You and I are now “kinsmen according to baptism.” Paul mourns and grieves his “kinsmen according to the flesh” because they had abandoned the gifts of God. It does not need to be that way for us! We do not need to abandon one another or to give one another Paul’s “sorrow and anguish of heart”! We need to care for one another, look after one another, and devote ourselves to one another. “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, Just as you are now doing” (1 Thessalonians 5:11). People are watching, and many of them feel ready to throw their stones. Let’s give them something more than a momentary infant baptism. Let’s give them infant baptisms that continue to grow and to mature and to sustain us all the days of our lives. Let’s baptize AND teach, faithful to Jesus’ command. Let’s do this, not merely for Laynee, but for all her kinsmen according to baptism, so to speak. Let’s do this for ourselves. The peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. 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