Still Sermonating

www.sarahlaughed.net

• Jesus' baptism gives him a vocation--one that places him in conflict with spiritual adversaries (immediately after his baptism, Jesus is led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil)
• we baptism joyfully--but why? Do we know the "danger" it involves? The author of this blog offers that our joy in baptism comes from being in touch with the "vision of God's dream for humanity, in which we participate" as members of the Body of Christ
• in baptism, we come to participate in God's mission
• we pledge our whole selves in baptism
• Jesus' baptism provided him with clarity about his purpose and his message
• some part of us knows that the world is not as it ought to be--when we realize this, we feel God's baptismal call (to participate in God's work in the world!)

I find myself brushing against the question: When did Jesus become the Son of God? At his birth, we are told that he is the Messiah, but Luke seems to only identify him as God's Son at his baptism. Is this significant?
We are named children of God in our baptism, and in our baptism, I believe we receive a vocation as well. What are we before baptism?

Other notes
I know I said I would only preach on the Gospel text, but I'm finding that a little hard to stick to. First of all, I love the verses from Isaiah, the visions of God gathering God's people from all the ends of the earth, and I love the Acts text as well. In the Acts text, I'm struck by how the people had been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, but had not yet received the Holy Spirit. I know we believe that, at baptism, individuals receive the Holy Spirit...and yet we still do the laying on of hands as a later ceremony (Confirmation or Affirmation of Baptism) What exactly does this mean?

Brian Stoffregen's notes (www.crossmarks.com/brian)

• epiphany means "to appear" or "to make known"--at this baptism, the voice from heaven makes it known that Jesus is 'my son'
• in Luke, the purpose of Jesus' baptism is not the baptism itself, but to answer the question of Jesus' identity and highlight the work of the Holy Spirit in anointing people for ministry
• Luke's main point is what happens AFTER the baptism
• in terms of the wheat and the chaff...argues that the primary purpose of the judgment is to save the wheat (not to burn the chaff). In this text the separation of the wheat from the chaff is not even explicitly stated, all that is stated is that the threshing floor must be cleared. The separation of the wheat from the chaff has already happened in the work John did in terms of proclaiming repentance for the forgiveness of sins
• Jesus' baptism identifies him with "all the people" who were also baptized
• bodily descent (in this case, of the Holy Spirit) implies permanence-->the Holy Spirit not only descended on Jesus, but stayed upon Jesus
• the Holy Spirit was an anointing and empowering of Jesus for ministry. The Holy Spirit is not an afterthought, but the very source from which Jesus has power to do his ministry.
  

Getting towards a theme...
I think I'm down to deciding between two particular themes. Either:

1. It is very easy in this text to just ignore the wheat/chaff and unquenchable fire details, but I am intrigued by Brian's remarks about the judgment already being completed, and the only thing left to be done being the cleaning of the threshing floor. I like the thought that John's proclamation of repentance for the forgiveness of sins has already separated the wheat from the chaff...but I'm really not too sure of where I would go with this. Workingpreacher.org mentions that baptism itself is not just an initiation rite, but is also a judgment...I wonder how this all fits together.
   
2. I like (and agree with) the various points made about how Luke is not primarily interested in Jesus' baptism, but in what happens after his baptism. I do think that the Holy Spirit is de-emphasized in our churches, and I think we could use to be reminded about the POWER the Holy Spirit provides for ministry. I like that the descent of the Holy Spirit happens AFTER Jesus' baptism, WHILE he is praying. I think this encourages us in the practice of prayer. I need to do some research about the differences the Lutheran church makes between baptism and Confirmation (I know one's a sacrament and the other is not...but I guess I'm in need of a greater clarification of what confirmation is, or what 'happens' at confirmation). I think this also piggy-backs with the text from Acts, where individuals are said to have been baptized, but to not yet have received the Holy Spirit. I think talking about the ministry for which we are baptized can link back to the stuff SarahLaughed.net offered regarding God's vision for the world, and our call in baptism.

So, I guess I'm going with option 2, but I wonder how all of this relates to Jesus' identity as the Son of God (which is obviously an important focus of this text...) Do you think that option 2 remains faithful to the text?