First Lutheran Church • Baptism of Our Lord • Sunday, January 11, 2025

The New Year is always a time of reflection. It's a time when we take stock of our lives and think about, are there any changes that we wanna make? It's a time when all the gyms are full again for, a month or or two, and people recommit to their health. It's a time when we start eating better, maybe for a week or two, and the the health cookbooks fly off the shelves. [00:18:16] (24 seconds)  #NewYearReflection

It's a time when we determine to do better in an area of our life that matters to us. Maybe this time, we will spend more time with our family. Maybe this year, we'll get control of our budgets. Maybe this is the year that we incorporate a daily rhythm of prayer into our lives. All this is to say is that the New Year is a time for repentance. It's not usually a word we associate with New Year's resolutions, but that's what we're doing. When we make a commitment to change, we are repenting. That's what the word repent means. The word literally means to turn around, to change directions. [00:18:39] (45 seconds)  #NewYearRepentance

Repentance isn't just a word game. It means specific changes in specific lives. And people came. People came from the city of Jerusalem out into the wilderness to hear John the Baptist preach, to receive this instruction, and then to be baptized. They confessed their sins. They made a commitment to change, and then they went under the water guided by John's hand. [00:21:37] (28 seconds)  #RepentAndCommit

Why did they come to be baptized at that point in their lives, at that point in history? What was going on in the world that made them so ready to come out into the wilderness and make a change to their lives? John told them that the kingdom of God was near, that God was gonna do a new thing in their nation, The change was coming, and they wanted change. They needed change. [00:22:07] (26 seconds)  #KingdomIsNear

Again, Jesus doesn't appear in the expected places. He doesn't appear in Jerusalem at the temple. He's not in some palace or or lofty place. He goes out into the wilderness. He goes to the Jordan River. He goes to where the people are committing themselves to change. And the Jordan River is important. It has a history. Remember, the Jordan River was the place that god parted into so the people could move from the wilderness where they were wandering into the promised land that god was giving them. Jesus launches his ministry there to show his commitment to us and his commitment to God. [00:25:16] (44 seconds)  #JordanMinistry

``Jesus is God incarnate, Emmanuel, God with us, which means he is with us in our need for repentance. He is with us in our desire to change. He is with us in our confession of sin. He is with us in our prayers for help. He is baptized to show that he is the kind of king who cares more about people than he does about power. Jesus reveals his humility. He stands in line. He waits his turn. He does what is required of others himself. That is the fulfillment of all righteousness. [00:26:00] (43 seconds)  #EmmanuelWithUs

And god, the holy spirit affirms Jesus' identity too, descending in the form of a dove and alighting on him. Jesus is revealed again to us as the king who is one with god, as the god who is one with us. We don't have a god who is far off. We don't have a god who uses strength and violence to exert his will on us. We have a god who comes to where we are. He loves us, And the way he will change us is through a relationship of discipleship with us as he invites us to follow him so that when we are baptized, the heavens open to us, The spirit comes down and fills us too, and we are adopted into this holy family as daughters and sons of God. We get to hear the same thing Jesus heard. [00:26:58] (55 seconds)  #SpiritAffirmsJesus

Jesus was baptized with water. We are baptized with water and the holy spirit. And then we are called to follow the new king, to repent of our sin, to align ourselves with Jesus' way in the world. Jesus came at a time when people were anxious and fearful about what was happening in their world. And I know many of you are feeling anxious and fearful about what is happening in our world. We're only a few days in to this new year, and the news has got me fearful. [00:27:58] (38 seconds)  #BaptizedAndCalled