Sunday Drive to Church (Jan 7, 2024)

[00:00:00] Good morning, St. Paul Lutheran Church. It's Pastor Wolfmiller, and this is the Sunday drive to church podcast just for you on this day, January 7. Sunday, January 7, 2000, the year of our Lord 2024. A podcast as you're making your way to St. Paul Lutheran Church, rejoicing in the Lord and his great gifts. This day especially as we celebrate the baptism of our Lord. Yesterday, Saturday, Saturday, January 6, was the epiphany of the Lord. That's the feast that happens after Christmas. It's always January 6. There's twelve days of Christmas that goes to January 5 and then Epiphany, where Jesus is revealed. That's the big idea of Epiphany, is the revelation of Jesus, and especially the revelation of Jesus to the gentiles. That's why Epiphany is marked by the visit of the wise men, which we celebrated last night. [00:00:53] These men who come from the east at the guiding of the star and the prophets, and they fall down and they worship Jesus. God be praised. That's what we do when we gather into church. We fall down and worship him. Traditionally, the epiphany, although it has its own season, and remember, the season of Epiphany, is one of the accordion seasons. It grows if Easter is later, and it shrinks if Easter is sooner. It's pretty short this year because Easter comes coming up pretty quick. There has to be two seasons like that because you're locked in at Christmas. December 25 doesn't move, but Easter moves depending on the moon and all this stuff. [00:01:31] So you have to have two shrinking or expanding seasons. So Epiphany is the festive accordion season, and Trinity season, or Pentecost season during the summer is the other one. Now, normally, though, epiphany has an octave. So this is eight days of celebration. Same with Pentecost. The octave is Trinity. Sunday, there's another octave that I'm forgetting of right now. Epiphany has an octave, and that normally means that on the 13th, eight days after the 6th, is that right? Something like that. 13th, 14th. We normally would celebrate the baptism of our Lord, but it's become custom among us, I think, for the last generation or two to celebrate the baptism of Jesus the Sunday after the epiphany. So that's what we're going to be celebrating today. And you're going to hear it in the hymns, and you're going to hear it in the scriptures, and you're going to see it on the bulletin. I'm looking at the bulletin now. I'll take a picture of it and make it the COVID art for this podcast so you can see it, but you'll want to spend some time. It's an icon, and these orthodox icons are full of incredible teaching. Nothing in there is accidental or not on purpose. And if you're looking at the icon, you see right down the middle of it, the Jordan river between these two mountains, cracked open like heaven itself, like a curtain pulled back, and Jesus is revealed there on the background of the Jordan river, you see the circle at the top indicating God the Father, the Holy Spirit. In the middle is pictured as a dove coming down. And then Jesus. It has the ICXC, which is Jesus Christus, indicated above the halo, standing in the midst of the Jordan River. I think that's the best way to say it, but you'll notice he's not getting wet. He's in fact standing on a tile, and under the tile are seven serpents. It looks like these seven serpents are like holding up a little raft for Jesus to stand on. Why? I don't know. My best guess is that in his baptism, Jesus is crushing the devil. That's my best guess on that. You also see two little men kind of in the Jordan river. One of them is on a red pot and the other one is on like a little sea monster. I went and looked this up because I was curious about this. And the best guess, I don't know, the best guess that the icon experts have is that that's a symbol of the Jordan river and the Red Sea. Both seas which, both bodies of water which the Lord parted. The Red Sea when he rescued the people out of Egypt, the Jordan river when he brought the people into the promised land. And both of those journeys through the water are pictures of baptism. The Lord brings us out of slavery. That's the Red Sea. The Lord brings us into the promised land. That's the Jordan river. And Jesus has both of them. John the Baptist is there on the left, and he's baptizing Jesus. And you'll notice kind of held up on a branch below John the Baptist is an axe. That has to do with the preaching of John the Baptist. He says an axe is laid at the root of the tree. So John comes hammering away at people, chopping them down, causing them to repent. And so you see that in his preaching. But it's laid aside for the baptism of Jesus because this is the revelation of who Jesus is. You'll notice though, that John is looking not down at Jesus, but up at the. [00:05:15] It is. And John hears the voice John is reflecting here on the mystery of the holy Trinity. It's revealed in this moment not only who Jesus is, the Christ, the anointed one. That's really the doctrine of the baptism of Jesus. This is when Jesus is anointed. It's when he's ordained as the Christ, but he's also shown to be the father's son. This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. He is the one who bears the spirit in full measure. [00:05:47] Psalm 45. [00:05:50] Some icons of the baptism of Jesus will show Peter and John, or Andrew and John behind John the Baptist. His disciples which become Jesus'disciples. They're not in this icon. It is interesting that Jesus is being tended to by four angels. So on the left side of the Jordan river is John the Baptist. On the right side are four angels, and two of them are there, ready with towels to collect Jesus up out of the water. Three of them look at Jesus, one of them looks to God the father. What that indicates, I don't know, but you can notice it and it means something. And I think the angels are here. I don't know exactly why. It's probably because this revelation of Jesus, the icon is called theophony, the baptism of Jesus. But theophony means the vision of God, the sight of God. And it's probably this marvel that the baptism of Jesus is revealing true God to humanity, but it's also revealing true man to the angels. So there's something also being revealed to the angels. And we know the angels were close by, because when Jesus came up out of the Jordan river, he went straight into the wilderness to be tempted for 40 days. And immediately after that temptation, the angels were there to minister to him. So maybe that's what's going on there. That's the best I can do with thinking about this picture. There's a greek word, I think it's hospie, which I think means the wash. It's on the top, but if you can figure that out, then please let me know. The colic for the day. It's a beautiful. I think it's a normal. I mean, a newer colic. I'm just guessing the way it reads, it reads like a newer collect, but it's really nice. It has those five parts of the colocs, the address, the rationale, the petition and the termination. Doxology. [00:07:52] The thing to notice the structure of this is a chiastic structure. This is kind of nerdy thing, but pay attention to this kind of thing in the liturgical poetry. It's kind of just a little piece of beauty. A chiasm is when a parallel structure would be like Abab. Chiasm would be like Abba. So you go in and then you back out. [00:08:17] And so you see that the two parts of the rationale, Father in heaven, at the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan, you, one, proclaimed him your beloved son, two, and anointed him with the Holy Spirit. And then the petition make all who are baptized in his name faithful, first, faithful in their calling. Two, as your children and inheritors with him of everlasting life. So that he's anointed. We pray for faithfulness. He's shown to be the Son, and we pray that we would be the inheritors of everlasting life. So it's quite a beautiful structure. Let's pray it together before we turn in and look at the scriptures. In the hymn Father in heaven, at the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan river, you proclaimed him your beloved son and anointed him with the Holy Spirit. Make all who are baptized in his name faithful in their callings as your children and inheritors with him of everlasting life through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. [00:09:24] Here's the scriptures. I'll tell you what they are, and then we'll dig into it. Genesis one, one to five. The first five verses of the Bible. Psalm 95 or, sorry, psalm 29. I don't know where 95 came from. Psalm 29, which is a psalm about the voice of the Lord. I'll show you that in just a second. Romans six, one to eleven. That's that famous. We buried with him in baptism into death. That's the fourth baptism verse in the catechism. And then the baptism of Jesus from Mark, chapter one, verses four to eleven. Now, John doesn't talk about the baptism of Jesus, the gospel of John, but Matthew, Mark and Luke do. It's the most extensive in the Gospel of Matthew. It's the least extensive in the gospel of Mark. So you'll find that the gospel of Mark, not always, but most of the time is moving along at a pretty good clip. Immediately. Immediately. That's the key word for mark. Immediately, immediately. And it's moving really fast and it doesn't dwell on things. It's just going to kind of touch on them. And that's what it does. It just sort of touches on the highlights of the baptism of Jesus. I'll show you that in a bit. But the first thing is the psalm. That's psalm 29. It's eleven verses. We're going to chant it back and forth between the men and the women. We did that last couple of weeks ago and you guys weren't ready for it. So you got to be ready. [00:10:47] Get ready for the psalm. You lead us off, all us men will sing. Psalm 29, the first verse. The first verse in fact is a call to the angels to worship the Lord. It's pretty amazing. [00:11:01] Ascribe to the Lord o heavenly beings ascribe to the Lord glory and strength ascribe to the Lord glory to his name worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness and then 123-4566 verses about the voice of the Lord. The voice of the Lord is over the waters. Verse three. The voice of the Lord is powerful. Verse four. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. Verse four. The Voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. Verse five. The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire. Verse seven. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness. Verse eight. The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth and strips the forest bare. And all in the temple cry glory. That's the voice of the Lord. Now. Amazing. Amazingly, we only hear the voice of the Lord of God the Father three times in the New Testament. And the first is here at the baptism of Jesus. And what does his voice say? [00:12:01] This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Later we hear his voice at the transfiguration. This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Listen to him. [00:12:13] And then a few days before the crucifixion, when Jesus is praying, we hear the voice of the Father answering, Father, glorify your name. I have glorified it and I will glorify it again. [00:12:24] So three times we hear this voice, the voice that's over the waters, the voice that's powerful and full of majesty, the voice that destroys and builds up, the voice that created the world. That voice we hear today in the text. And that voice is telling us to look at Jesus, to listen to him, to know who he is. Oh, it's beautiful. [00:12:47] So when we're singing this psalm 29 together, we're getting ready to hear that. In fact, even the Old Testament is warming us up. The very first verses of the Bible we have. And I think the reason why it fits so well today is because just like in the baptism of Jesus, where you have the voice of the Father and the spirit coming down over the waters and the son coming up out of the waters, so you have in verse one and two of the Bible, this trinity in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. It's a Father. The earth was without form and void. Darkness was over the face of the deep. And the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the water. There's the spirit. And God said, let there be light. That's the word. In the beginning was the word. And so you have father, Son and Holy Spirit right at the beginning. And now Father, Son and holy spirit in the baptism of Jesus. I don't know why, but baptism is always connected to Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So it is not an accident. When Jesus says, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them. He says, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Baptism is the way that the Lord adopts us into that, into that family of the Holy Trinity. [00:14:00] The epistle lesson is romans six, one to eleven. Many of us have verses three to four baptized because it was part of the catechism. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so too we might walk in newness of life. [00:14:29] The beautiful, wondrous mystery here is that baptism is death and life. [00:14:37] It is drowning and rising. It is putting off and putting on. It's being buried and being raised so that we're united. Verse five. We're united with him in a death like his. We shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. [00:14:57] So that when you were baptized, you died, the flesh died, the old man died death. Your death itself died. And you came forth to walk in newness of life. You have that newness of life already now, waiting to see it on the last day. [00:15:19] I think I've told you all this. I remember I was trying to help some compromans remember this verse. And I said, okay, you got to imagine it. [00:15:28] If you've been baptized into Jesus Christ, you were baptized into his death. So you were crucified with Christ. That's Galatians 220. I've been crucified with Christ. So imagine being there on the cross next to Jesus. And you're nailed to the cross. He's nailed to the cross. You're nailed to the cross. He breathes as last. You breathe as last. He's taken down off the cross. You're taken down, and you're carried along through the cool of the late afternoon to be quickly buried next to Jesus. And they roll the stone over, and there you are in the darkness, in the Quiet, wrapped in grave clothes, next to Jesus. Friday night, Saturday. [00:16:15] Then early on Sunday, you look over and Jesus is looking back at you, and he's alive, and you're alive with him. That's what baptism does. It joins you to the death of Jesus and to the resurrection of Jesus. There's an old existentialist thing, remember? The existentialists would talk about how we're just thrown into this life, and they would say, we're toward death. Every moment is a moment closer to death. Well, okay, but we Christians are. We're not living toward the grave. We're living away from it, away from the baptismal font. [00:16:51] We already passed through death to newness of life, which will never end, so that we have eternal life already. [00:16:58] That's the promise. [00:17:01] God loved the world so that he gave his only begotten son. So whoever would believe in him should not perish. But have not, will have, but have now, right now, have eternal life. And you have it. You, the baptized, can you have eternal life already? [00:17:16] You're already living eternal life. [00:17:19] It might not look like it, but a lot of things don't look like what they are. [00:17:26] In fact, that's a good transition to the hymn, the hymn that we're singing to Jordan came the Christ our Lord. It's a Luther hymn. It's a late Luther hymn. It's 1546. Most of Luther's hymns were written the twelve months, 18 months, 1523 to 1524. He wrote some later on. In fact, in 1539, he wrote the our father hymn, our father, thou in heaven, about that one. And that meant once when he wrote that one, he had written hymn stanzas for all the parts of the catechism except for baptism. So I think, thinking about that, he wanted to have a complete set. So 1541, just five years before his death, he's teaching on Genesis, kind of late Luther. He writes this hymn to Jordan came the Christ our Lord, talking about Jesus'baptism and our own baptism to Jordan came the Christ our Lord to do his father's pleasure. [00:18:19] Baptized by John, the father's word was given us to treasure this heavenly washing. Now shall be a cleansing from transgression. And by his blood and agony, released from death suppression, a new life now awaits us. [00:18:34] Even in just that first stanza, there's seven stanzas, but even in that first stanza, there's so much there. [00:18:42] Luther connects the baptism of Jesus to our baptism, and he connects our baptism to the blood and suffering of Jesus. There's in another place, Udhir Hetta says, you have to imagine that the font is filled with the blood of Jesus. [00:18:55] It's in the water is the blood that washes away sin. And in fact, that's what the last stanza says, but also just on the first one. A new life now awaits us. Baptism is always connected to the new life. Whenever you want to see Paul transitioning from here's the doctrine we believe to here's the love and life that we live, he puts baptism in the middle. So romans six is that transition in Paul's writing from the doctrine to the life. The same in Philippians, same in Galatians, chapter three. That baptism is that transition part to how you live, because baptism is our new life. In fact, the christian life is nothing other than a daily return to baptism. Tertullian. Remember Tertullian, the church father? He says, we are little fish who follow our big fish, Jesus. And the devil knows how to kill the fish. He splashes them out of the water so that the devil is always tempting us away from the gifts of our baptism. Oh, you're not the children of God. Oh, you're not his beloved. Oh, your sins are not forgiven. Oh, you are not walking in newness of life. So he tries to push us back to the walking in the old way of life or to thinking that God doesn't love us or whatever. Every single temptation to sin, every single temptation of the devil is an attack and assault on your baptism, which is why that hymn is so great. I am baptized into Christ, God's own child. I gladly say it. I am baptized into Christ. We're singing that as our opening hymn today. [00:20:28] A devil. Stop your accusations. I am not so soon enticed. Now that to the font I've traveled, all your might has come unraveled. That's a beautiful confession. So that we set baptism against the devil's temptation. [00:20:43] That's exactly what happened after Jesus was baptized. He went into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. So remember, and this comes up on the when's the temptation of Jesus? First Sunday in Lent. So we got a few weeks, but the devil comes along. God had just said, you are my beloved son. And now the devil comes along and says, well, if you're the son of God, say this. So the devil's tempting us away from the gifts of baptism. Here's the last stanza of the hymn. Pay careful attention to this because it's a huge theme in the scriptures, in Luther's writing itself. It hasn't been talked about that much I'll read it for you. And I want you to pay attention to the eyes and to seeing. And what do you see? Verse seven. [00:21:30] All that the mortal eye beholds is water as we pour it. [00:21:35] Before the eye of faith unfolds the power of Jesus merit. [00:21:41] For here it sees the crimson flood. To all our ills bring healing the wonders of his precious blood, the love of God revealing, assuring his own pardon. So your mortal eye looks at water as being poured out. But the eye of faith sees the power of Jesus'merit. It sees the crimson flood. It sees his precious blood. It sees that in the water, because of the word, is the strength of the death and resurrection of Jesus. That is phenomenal. Phenomenal. [00:22:17] The gospel has the baptism of Jesus. And it starts out so, the first few verses, the first four verses are about John's preaching in the wilderness. And then in verse nine, it picks up the baptism of Jesus. In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. When he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens open and the spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven. You are my beloved son. With you I'm well pleased. Now, there's so many things to think about in the baptism of Jesus. And Pastor Davis will be preaching to us about those today. One is when Jesus is anointed in the baptism in the Jordan river. [00:23:02] That word anointed means Christ. He now is Jesus Christ. He went into the waters. Jesus of Nazareth. He comes out of the waters. Jesus the Christ. I mean, he's still of Nazareth and he was always going to be the Christ. But this is the time. This is like his ordination into the office of Messiah. [00:23:21] The other thing that's so wonderful about the baptism of Jesus is that it shows us, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The dove is descending, the voice is booming, and the Son himself is coming up out of the water. And now the Old Testament is finished when John points to Jesus, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. [00:23:46] Now the prophetic voice is complete. [00:23:51] Everything that the prophets needed to say has been said. And the one that they promised is arrived. [00:23:59] It's really wonderful. [00:24:01] Jesus also sanctifies. This is from Luther's prayer, from the baptismal right. It says, by the baptism of your beloved son in the Jordan river, you sanctified and instituted all waters to be a washing of regeneration, something like that. So that Jesus is cleansing the water, he begins here the work of taking up our sins, which will be completed on the cross and delivered to us in our own baptism. And maybe that's the most wonderful thing, that because of the cross of Jesus, what God the Father says to Jesus in his baptism, he also says to us, to you in your baptism, you are his beloved son, his beloved daughter. [00:24:47] He is well pleased with you. [00:24:50] And how do you know it? [00:24:52] Because you're baptized. [00:24:55] That is phenomenal. So God be praised for this. Hey, and by the way, don't forget to join us this morning for Sunday school as well. We'll be back in the parish hall, Noah hall. What a perfect day to be in Noah hall on baptism of our lord. And we're going to be studying Hebrews, hopefully finishing up chapter two, getting into chapter three. We're going to keep pushing through on the Hebrews text, so make plans to join us for that. That'll be really good as well. All right, that's a Sunday drive to church. See you soon. God's peace be with you. Bye.