Tuesday, March 12, 2013

“The Washing of Regeneration”--Holy Baptism, Matt. 28.18–20, Lenten Midweek 4, ‘13



1.      Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  This week is a turning point on our journey through Lent. Luther begins the section on Baptism in the Large Catechism by saying we’ve now finished 3 Chief Parts of Christian Doctrine—the 10 Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer. And then he says, “Every Christian also ought to have at least an ordinary, brief instruction about the Sacraments, because without them he cannot be a Christian” (LC IV 1). Those are strong words, and I hope by the time we’re finished you’ll understand them and agree.
2.      To begin, I’d like to say that I’m not a plumber.  But, you probably knew that. If you need a plumber, don’t call me! You’d be better off leaving your plumbing problem alone rather than letting me tackle it. But, God has given me the privilege in this congregation to work with water, the water of Baptism. Why have so many of you trusted your children to me to baptize them? In Baptism, I’m no better than I am a plumber.  Unfortunately, some people think Baptism is something that people do, that it’s the work of the pastor or the person being baptized. This is a misunderstanding of Baptism. If you’ve this idea about Baptism, then you’ve had a terrible plumber wash your child. Baptism is God’s work, not our work.
3.      Luther points out, “In the first place, we must above all things know well the words on which Baptism is founded” (LC IV 3). Then he quotes Mt 28:19: “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.” He also includes Mk 16:16: “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”  The Church didn’t invent Baptism. It’s not a human institution. We should never have any doubt that Baptism is divine. Since it’s divine, it’s not something that I do or you do. It’s something that God does.  Baptism isn’t a human plaything, although some people look at it that way. Some “regard Baptism,” Luther says, “as a silly matter, like putting on a new red coat” (LC IV 6). He goes on to say that there are many religious groups in the world who argue “that Baptism is an outward thing and that outward things are of no benefit” (LC IV 7). But Luther reminds us, “What God institutes and commands cannot be an empty thing” (LC IV 8). “To be baptized in God’s name is to be baptized not by men, but by God Himself. . . . Although it is performed by human hands, it is still truly God’s own work” (LC IV 10).  In these religious groups, there are many people who believe that Baptism is just something we do; that it’s a symbol; that it’s nice, but it’s really not important. Often nondenominational Bible studies simply ignore Baptism because they know there’s a controversy concerning it. But by ignoring it, we give the impression that it’s unimportant. 
4.      Here’s a story to illustrate this. Many years ago a Lutheran pastor in Ignace, Ontario had a good friend who was an Anglican priest in town. A little girl in his congregation died in a car accident. She was 5 years old. The town was so small that they didn’t have a funeral home, and the nearest one was 75 miles away. The custom was for the visitation to take place the night before in the church.  It was winter, and the Anglican church had furnace problems. So the Anglican priest asked if they could use the Lutheran church for the funeral. The Lutheran pastor said, “Sure, that’ll be fine.”  The evening came, and the Lutheran pastor opened the church and turned on the lights and heat. The funeral director arrived. How sad it was to see a 5 year-old girl in that casket!  Many people began to arrive. Then came a woman who was well known in the town. The Lutheran pastor happened to meet her on the steps as she was leaving the church.  For some reason, she decided this was the time to debate the theology of Baptism. She’d been an Anglican but then joined a church that denied infant Baptism. She said to the Lutheran pastor, “You don’t think saying magic words in Baptism over that little girl did anything, do you?”  Can you imagine being confronted in that situation by this woman? But God gave the Lutheran pastor the presence of mind to say, “No, I don’t believe that saying magic words over that little girl in Baptism did anything. But they were not ‘magic words.’ They were God’s Word! And God’s Word does what he says it will do!”  Human beings with human eyes may doubt. Human beings may see a poor plumber with a little water dripping, stumbling over his words, and think, What can there be to this?  But Christian people know that it’s God who is doing the baptizing. That it’s God’s Word that has the promise.
5.      This is what our Old Testament Reading says in Isaiah: “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (55:10–11). That’s what God does in Baptism. He does the things he’s promised to do.  In the Large Catechism, Luther says, “It is pure wickedness and blasphemy of the devil when our ‘new spirits’ mock Baptism, leaving God’s Word and institution out of it. They look at Baptism in no other way than as water that is taken from the well” (LC IV 15). (Of course, we would have said “faucet.”)
6.        So why did God give Baptism? Luther says this: “[To] state it most simply in this way: the power, work, profit, fruit, and purpose of Baptism is this—to save” (LC IV 24).  1 Pet 3:21 says, “Baptism now saves you.” That’s why God gave it to you, to give you the blessings of salvation won for you by Christ on the cross.  Martin Luther goes on to say, “To be saved is nothing other than to be delivered from sin, death, and the devil . . . to enter into Christ’s kingdom . . . and to live with Him forever” (LC IV 25). “It makes sense that whoever rejects Baptism rejects God’s Word, faith, and Christ, who directs us to Baptism and binds us to Baptism” (LC IV 31).
7.      Where can you find this in the Bible besides 1 Peter 3? You can read it in Rom 6:3–6. There we learn that Baptism gives us victory over death and the devil. In Acts 2:38, Peter says that it gives us the forgiveness of sins. Titus 3:5–6 calls Baptism “the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.” This is what God is doing in Baptism.  People can become confused and think that faith makes Baptism. They think a baby must have faith before it’s baptized; otherwise, the Baptism couldn’t be valid. The other way of thinking would be that any of our Baptisms might be invalid if our faith were too weak.  Imagine if that was true. Let me ask you this, Does your faith make Jesus? If you don’t believe, does it mean that Jesus didn’t die on the cross for the sins of the world? No, your faith has nothing to do with the objective reality of what God did in Christ.
8.      Dear friends, Jesus is real. He really died on the cross for the sins of the entire world. As John the Baptist declared, he is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn 1:29). My faith doesn’t make that true.  My lack of faith can’t change it. But if I reject it, then it’s not mine. It’s like putting up an umbrella and saying, “I don’t want any of God’s forgiveness raining on me!” It’s still there and real. So also Baptism is real and valid. But, if a person doesn’t have faith (if they reject it), it doesn’t change Baptism. It just changes the result.
9.      Some of you are married. Let’s pose a question.  If someone were to ask if you are married, you might respond, “I was married on my anniversary.” For me that was June 24, 2005. I was married on that day.  But if I were to answer, “I was married,” what would you hear? “But I’m not anymore.” If you really are married, you would say, “I am married.” That was a wonderful day on June 24, 2005. But there have been many wonderful days since then. I not only was married, but I am married. That’s how we’re to think of Baptism. Not that I was baptized, then fell into sin, and now something else has to come along so that I’m not baptized any longer. Christians answer, “I am baptized.” I was baptized on a date some years ago, and I still am baptized today.
10.  Every time you come to the Lord in repentance, kneel before his cross, and seek forgiveness, you are returning to your Baptism. Luther says, “Repentance . . . is nothing other than a return and approach to Baptism” (LC IV 79). Let this be of value to you. The blessing of being a baptized person is comfort for your soul. When the devil says to you, “How can such a rotten scoundrel call himself a Christian?” You answer, “Because I’m baptized and I’m forgiven. I’ve been washed clean of my sin and have Christ’s robe of righteousness placed on me.”
11.  “If we have received forgiveness of sin once in Baptism,” Luther says, “it will remain every day, as long as we live” (LC IV 86).  In a few minutes, we’re going to speak together Luther’s Evening Prayer. The genius of Luther’s prayers is that they hit so close to home. In the morning we pray, “Keep me from sin” but at night he takes us back to our Baptism, and we seek forgiveness. And there it is, new every day. When you go to bed tonight, you have no guilt on your conscience. If you should pray, “Now I lay me down to sleep” and if you “should die before you wake,”  There Is No Doubt That Your Sins Have Been Washed Away in Baptism.  Though they were like scarlet, they now are as white as snow (Is 1:18), because you are one of God’s baptized children. In Jesus’ name. Amen.


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