Proper 13 - E - 2013 - Hidden With Christ in Baptism

The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
Baptism Sermon

August 4, 2013 - Pastor Adam Moline
Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-26                  Colossians 3:1-11                Luke 12:13-21

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Our text this morning is from the Epistle lesson just read, especially these words, “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God”  Thus far our text. 

Dear friends in Christ.  You have died.  Your life is hidden with Christ.  All of you.  It happened to you just as it happens to a little baby  in baptism.  Water was poured on your head, God’s word was spoken, and you died, right there, and your life was hidden with Christ. 

You needed to die.  In fact you were required to die because of your sin.  It weighed upon you heavily, declaring you to be guilty in the eyes of our Holy and Just God.  As scripture says, you were born sinful, surely from your mother’s womb you were sinful.  Sinful to the point of death. 

Our text today describes what that sin was.  Each of us was born full of sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.  And not just those things, but also anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.  That sin infects our thoughts, our words, and our deeds.  And because of that sin, we must die.

There are two options for our death to sin.  One option is that of which God told Adam in the Garden of Eden.  “If you sin, if you disobey my command, you shall surely die.”  There were no ifs, ands, or buts.  It was a clear statement made by God.  And so when Adam fell into sin, he began to die. 

And I don’t only mean physically.  The death Adam faced for his sin was also a spiritual death.  It meant not a promise of eternity in peace with God, but rather an eternity of suffering, an eternity without the God who richly and daily provides us with all we need to support this body and life.  Sin meant Hell for Adam, and all who followed after him in sin. 

Word’s cannot describe the terror that is the spiritual death of Hell.  The best words can do is speak of weeping and gnashing of teeth in the outer darkness.  There the worm does not die, but is always consuming your dead body.  There the flames do not go out, but are always burning the sinner, destroying forever.  That is the special death God has reserved for sinners, for those apart from him. 

But there is another death, and it is the death we have all died together.  Yes we still are sinners, but we are sinners who have already died – with Christ.  We died in water and the word, as the Word in and with the water took away our sins, and clothed us not in our sin, but instead in the righteousness of Christ. 

In baptism we truly die – and we face the punishment for our sin, but we face it not alone, but with our Lord and Savior Christ.  For in baptism, our life is hidden with his.  In baptism we are joined with Christ, so that we die with him upon the cross.  We face the mighty judgment of God’s wrath with Christ, as He bleeds and dies for us.  We lay dead in a tomb, with Christ, who for three days was buried graveyard dead.  And because our life is hidden with Christ in baptism, when he is risen from the dead, we are promised to rise as well. 

And so the baptized baby has already died and risen with Jesus.  The baptized baby has already received the promise of eternal life, and not only the promise but has received eternal life itself.  The baby will never spiritually die again, but at the moment of physical death will immediately be spiritually alive with Christ until the last day when all will rise again. 

And this promise is not just for baptized babies, but is also for you dear friends, who are a touch older than babies.  For baptism isn’t just a onetime event.  It is a lifelong process.  Every day of your life, you are baptized.  As Luther says in the catechism, each day you arise and drown your sin in the waters of baptism.  You are a baptized Christian today, and you will be even forever more. 

In your baptism, your life was hidden with Christ.  In baptism you have died already.  In baptism you are alive forever more with Jesus.  For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.  You have the whole inheritance of Heaven, because your sin is gone with Jesus, and you will live for ever more because of baptism.  In the name of Jesus.  Amen.  

Proper 12 - O - 2012 - A Post Deluge Promise

Ninth Sunday After Pentecost - Proper 12

July 29, 2012 - Pastor Adam Moline

Genesis 9:8-17            Ephesians 3:14-21       Mark 6:45-56

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our text today comes from the Old Testament lesson just read, especially these words, “I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”  Thus far our text. 

Dear friends in Christ.  The flood is over for Noah.  Finally after months of being trapped inside of a wooden boat full of animals it is over.  The flood waters that covered the earth are dried up.  The months of stale air, and no sunlight are gone.  The ark has landed, and the door is open.  But as Noah goes outside the ark for the first time, you can imagine his awe and shock.  The world that he remembered is gone.  The family and friends he had that did not make it onto the ark are dead and destroyed.  The homes, the cities, the farmlands, everything that Noah had known from this world is destroyed and buried under the silt and destruction that a worldwide flood can bring. 

Dear friends, as Noah steps off the ark, he is humbled at the mighty power of God and by God’s overwhelming just punishment for sin.  There is no doubt – God hates sin.  There is no doubt for Noah – sin will be punished, it will receive its due reward.  The world that Noah had known, a world of adultery, of murder, of hate and violence cannot exist before an all-powerful holy God. 

And perhaps that’s what worries Noah most.  For Noah knows and remembers preflood world, and was comfortable with it.  Noah himself is no different than his cousins who died, no different from those whose screams of fear rose over the patter of rainfall outside the wooden ark.  Noah has sin.  Noah is a murderer as far as his sin is concerned.  Noah is a greedy person as far as his sin is concerned.  Noah in himself has nothing, no not one thing, that should allow him to avoid this terrible swift judgment of God.  And so Noah has legitimate fear that God will repeat this terrible calamity upon future generations, upon Noah’s children and grandchildren – you and me, because Noah knows his descendants will be no better than he is himself. 

And look us, the descendants of Noah.  Our world is full of chaos and sin.  Just over a week ago a man shot 70 people who had gone to watch a violent movie about the ongoing battle between good and evil in our world.  12 people were killed in this tragedy.  And that is not all that irks us.  Our nation is divided by countless topics.  Who is worse, the people who eat at Chick Fil A or the people who don’t?  Our nation is at war in several countries.  We are in difficult economic times, and it we quickly get into the blame game, “Its that groups fault, so lets take restitution from them.”  Crime surrounds us, and our world every day seems a little more dangerous, and we become a little more wary of those around us. 

Noah was afraid of just and holy God.  Dear friends, we too should be.  We are just as guilty.  We are just as wrong, just as horrible.  We are sinners too aren’t we?  God punished the sin of Noah’s generation with a flood, where all but 8 people died by drowning.  God punished them, even as the rain fell and they cried to the sky asking for it to stop, as they pounded on the doors of the ark, seeking Noah to open it.  Noah was afraid, and you friends ought to be as well for you are, metaphorically, in the same boat as he is.  A sinner, at the mercy of a just God. 

But dear friends, that ought to give you some comfort.  For Noah did not perish in the waters of the flood.  He was rescued.  God came to him, and gave him a way out, a way through the waters.  A way to cheat death, to stay alive even as the world perished around him.  And with God’s help, and only through God’s work, Noah passes through the flood alive.  Finally, as he steps out of the ark, as all the worries about his own sin come crashing in on Noah, God makes Noah a promise sealed in blood, a covenant.  “Never again!  Never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”  God puts his sign of the covenant in the air, a rainbow, so that when it rained, Noah would not look towards the clouds in fear for the punishment of his sin, but instead in the assurance of God’s promises.  Never again will mankind be destroyed by water for their sin. 

And there is a covenant promise for you, a sign lifted in the air to guarantee you that God will not destroy you in the waters of judgment, but pass you through alive.  That sign is not a rainbow, but a cross.  A cross on which God himself was nailed.  An old rugged cross, on which God himself paid the price for sin.  It’s a cross where your sin is forgiven through blood, through toil and through sacrifice.  That cross forgives you, and brings you out of the judgment of God into the forgiveness of sins. 

Dear friends in Christ, it is that cross that is your lifeboat in the judgment of the world.  As Noah passes through the waters of the flood in a wooden ark, you pass through the deadly waters of baptism on a wooden cross with Jesus.  You go with Jesus through the judgment for sin, you die with him, you lay dead with him in a tomb, you are drowned in the deadly deluge, and then brought out of it into life.  All of this, through Jesus. 

And since this is true for you, that promise to Noah is a promise to you as well.  Never again.  Never again will your sin destroy you, for you are precious child of God.  Never again need death be your master, for you are washed in Christ’s blood.  Never again will you drown in the toils of this world, for you have already been brought through God’s judgment safely.  Never again, for now you belong to Jesus. 

Dear friends in Christ, Noah comes out of the ark, afraid for God’s judgment, just as you so often are afraid in this world.  But God gives promises to those who are afraid.  Fear not, the Lord is with you!  Fear not, God will carry you through.  Fear not, you have come through the flood with Jesus.  Amen.  

Epiphany 6 - O - 2012 - Washed and Cleaned

The Sixth Sunday After Epiphany

February 12, 2012 - Pastor Adam Moline

2 Kings 5:1-14 1        Corinthians 10:19-11:1    Mark 1:40-45

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our text today is the Old Testament lesson which was just read, especially these words, “and he was clean.”  Thus far our text. 

Dear friends in Christ.  Naaman was an enemy of God.  I know that is a very strong and bold statement, but it was the truth.  He was a complete mortal enemy of God, despising his Word and hating what the true God stood for.  He was diametrically opposed to everything Godly.  He wanted to do whatever he could to destroy the idea, the thought and even the memory of God. 

Now don’t get me wrong.  Naaman probably was an average everyday person, even as he was commander of Syria’s army.  He was wealthy and influential in his own land.  He probably had a family that he loved, friends that he laughed with, and people he cared for.  He wept when they died, and smiled when something exciting happened. But even in the midst of all these everyday things, he was a mortal enemy of God. 

So it is quite the predicament that we have in our text today.  Naaman, the Great Syrian General, the powerful, the great, the wonderful deliverer of Syria from God, had one small problem.  He was a leper.  Leprosy was the ancient title for a variety of skin diseases, diseases that could eat away the flesh, which could slow healing, and could cause loss of limbs or even death.  It was not a good thing to have in that time, as not only did you have these health issues, but when you contracted leprosy, people avoided you.  They didn’t want leprosy too, so they avoided lepers.  In Israel they made them cry out from 50 feet away “Unclean!  Unclean!  Unclean!”

Imagine the day they diagnosed such a disease.  Imagine the hurt, the pain, and the questions.  “Why me, why?”  It isn’t fair, It isn’t what I deserve.  And yet, here I am cursed with this disease.

The Father Naaman, sick.  The great general Naaman, unclean.  What a turn of events.  It’s not fair, it’s not what he wanted, and it isn’t what his family wanted.  But Naaman had an Israelite slave, captured in a raid and forced to serve the Great Leper Naaman for the remainder of her life.  She had nothing that Naaman had.  But she did have something Naaman didn’t.  Faith in God.  This young slave, faithful even in her duty to serve, told her master, “Would that Naaman were with the Prophet in Israel.  He would heal you.”

So Naaman goes to Israel, to find this prophet.  All of Israel is afraid and nervous at the entrance of this great general seeking healing.  This great enemy of God now seeking rescue in God’s holy land.  And finding Elisha, Elisha says, “Go wash seven times in the Jordan river, and you will be clean.” 

It sounds preposterous doesn’t it?  Washing in a river can’t heal this.  Washing in a dirty river isn’t going to make him clean.  In fact, it will probably make him worse won’t it?  It is just a silly ritual that those religions crack jobs from Israel told him.  Naaman thinking the same thing, leaves the river behind, deciding to return to his own land. 

But as they are packing up, to go and try the same thing with the water of the Rivers of Syria, a servant speaks to Naaman, “My Father, why not give it a try.  The prophet said you would be clean, dip in the water, what could it hurt?”  Naaman washes, and is clean, his flesh no longer leprous, but instead fresh as a baby’s bottom. 

Dear friends, I know this is quite the long history of Naaman’s life.  What in the world does it have to do with us here this morning?  Why take so much time talking about it?  Because dear friends, at one time you too had been an enemy of God.  I know that is a bold statement, just as it was for Naaman, but one time you were God’s mortal enemy.  For conception you had turned your back on him.  You had hated him.  You had despised the very word of God and did everything in your power to go against him.  You hated!  Hated!  Hated God. 

And so God made you sick.  Not only as a punishment, but also so that you might realize how badly had you needed a savior.  God made you sick with death, death not just of your body but also your soul.  With suffering.  With weakness.  God gave these things to you just as he gave leprosy to Naaman. And now, before God, you are "Unclean!  Unclean!  Unclean!"

And just like Naaman, God also gave you to wash.  Not to heal your bodily ailments, but to heal your soul, so that one day your body might live forever.  He sent a man, just as he sent Elisha, to wash you, not seven times, but with the sevenfold spirit – the Holy Spirit – and with the words “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  There you were made clean, just as Naaman was.  There your old sinful self was destroyed, drowned forever in dirty water.  There he saved you, “not by righteous things you had done, but by a washing of rebirth and renewal in the Holy Spirit.”  (Titus 3:5). 

Dear friends, that washing – baptism – has made you clean, just as Naaman was made clean.  And it saves you, not because of magic water, not because of the water is holy water, but because when God’s word is present with the water, that water kills you with Jesus.  In that water, Jesus blood covers you so deeply that sinful self drowns with him as he gives up his life for you , in your place.  And then Jesus, having died for you sin rises again, and takes you with him. 

It is as if that water is glue, that glues you back to God where you belong. “Or did you not know that when you were baptized you were baptized into the death of Jesus.  You were buried with him, therefore, through baptism into death, so that just as Christ has been raised from the dead you too might raise into new life.” 

It happened for Naaman, for when Naaman came out of the water, he no longer hated God simply because of the work that God had done for him.  And in the same way when your forehead was dried off, you no longer hated God, because of what Jesus had done for you. 

Yes I know, there are times that sinful self still kicks up out of the water of baptism into your life.  I know there are times when you would like to turn back to that sinful way, that has been killed in you.  There were times in his life where Naaman was sick still, but know this.  That sin is dead, here today and now, through the baptismal waters of Jesus Christ.  That’s your promise, that’s your reality, that’s God’s promise.  

Wash me, and I shall be clean.  Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.  Pour your water and word upon me, and make me your holy, pure, clean child.  It happened to Naaman, and through Jesus, it happens to me.  Amen.  

Baptism of our Lord - G - 2012 - Jesus the Sponge

Genesis 1:1-5         Romans 6:1-11            Mark 1:4-11

Grace, Mercy and Peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.  Our text today comes from the Gospel lesson just read, especially these words “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”  Thus far our text.

Dear friends in Christ.  We have all seen a new sponge, sitting idly by the sink, waiting to be used.  It looks pristine.   It is clean and soft.  It isn’t missing any pieces, and it is relatively germ free.  But you know that as soon as you stick it in the dirty dishwater, that clean sponge will soak up all the grease and grime and germs of the dishes you are washing.  A clean white sponge becomes a nasty brown and crusty sponge.  It takes the dirt of the water up into itself.  It no longer is clean, but it is stained with the goop of the other things in the water. 

Friends, that is what happens in our Gospel lesson today.  Jesus Christ, the spotless, sinless Son of God gets down into the dirty water of the Jordan River, and is baptized.  The baby who was born pure and holy, the Savior who has no sin of his own soaks up all the yucky disgusting things that are in the baptismal waters in the Jordan River. 

You see, for Jesus, the baptismal waters were not clean.  They were full of filth, filth that you and I had put in the waters.  For we, just like Jesus in our text today were baptized.  We too, just like Jesus were washed in the waters of baptism.  For you and for me, those waters washed away all our bad things.  It washed away our sin. 

For our sin stains each and every one of us.  Scripture says our sin is as scarlet.  Isaiah says, “For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness.”  You are guilty.  You are dirty with sin.  It corrupts all your nature.  Your sin is so great that it is like you have been wallowing in the mire, covered in mud. 

This sin doesn’t just cover your outside, it penetrates deep into the very recesses of your soul.  It has become a very part of your nature.  You cannot help but sin, as Scripture says, you are a slave to sin.  “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin” Jesus says.  Because of your sin, when God looks at you, he sees your filth, even the hidden filth.  When God looks at you, he sees all the wrong you have done and received.  He knows your guilt.  It stains your very being. 

But you have been baptized.  You have been washed by God.  All that disgustingness of your sin was washed, inside and out, here in a few drops of water and the Word.  There you are washed, made whiter than snow.  There you no longer are guilty, but instead forgiven.  In baptism all the sin of your body of your soul, that which you know and that which you don’t know is taken away from you.  In baptism you are clean. 

We all know what happens when you wash the dirt off of something in a tub.  The water becomes dirty.  The water takes up the filth that is washed away and stains the water.  That, friends is the water that Jesus climbs into today.  Water filled with your sin.  Water filled with your guilt.  Water that is dirty.  And Jesus, the spotless lamb of God, just like a sponge, soaks up your sin and guilt.  As Jesus goes down into the water He is clean, and as He comes out he is filthy with your sin. 

In fact, you can say, that after Jesus soaks up your sin, he is the biggest sinner ever, the greatest sinner in the whole world.  For he has all the sin of you his people.  And as he comes out of the water, God says, “This is my Son, with whom I am well pleased.”  God is pleased, because you are saved.  God is pleased because Jesus has taken your sin and given you His righteousness.  Because you have traded places.  Where once he was clean and you were dirty, now he is dirty and you are clean. 

Jesus takes your sin, and he bears it through this world.  He carries it boldly and humbly onward through his life, setting his eyes on his ultimate goal.  Destroying that sin.  Killing that sin.  Eliminating it from you forever, preventing you from taking it back to yourself.  Jesus, who has soaked up your sin, goes to the cross of his own free will, to suffer and die for all your sin. 

For it is his blood, the blood that pours out of his hands, his feet, and his side.  The blood which comes from his wounds that truly cleans away your sin that he carries.  In his death you are given life.  In his death you are rescued, because in his death your sin gets killed forever.  Your filth is destroyed, run down the drain if you will.  And you are left clean forever before God.

Dear friends in Christ, you have been baptized, just as Jesus is in our text today.  And so when God looks at you, he no longer sees your filth and sin, but he sees his Son Jesus and his righteousness.  And so he looks to you and says, “You are my child, and with you I am well pleased.”  For you are cleaned in Jesus.  You are rescued in his death.  You are set free forever.  Amen. 

Paul Alan Fenske Prayer Service

Dear friends in Christ, baptism is an amazing thing.  In baptism, with simple water and word, death is destroyed, swallowed up forever.  In baptism, we die with Jesus, and then are raised with him.  Every person who has been baptized has already died, and been raised into eternal life.  Because of baptism, while we mourn, we know that death is not the end for those who believe in Jesus.

Why speak of this today?  Why bring up something that happened to Paul 52 years ago when there have been so many things that have happened since then?  Why bring up baptism before cancer, and pain? 

Why?  Because Paul’s baptism is important today, when all our senses try to tell us that Paul is now gone.  It is so important today as we are gathered here with family and friends to mourn the loss of a father, a grandfather, a son and a brother.  It is important because today we hurt deeply.  Today we mourn.  Today we wonder what has happened to Paul. 

But I tell you the truth, baptism has done an amazing thing for Paul – not just baptism, but the One whom Paul was bound to in the waters of baptism.  For Paul already had died, more than 50 years ago.  He died with Jesus, was buried with Jesus, and as our text says, “if he died with Christ, we believe he also lives with him.” 

In water, in a font at Trinity Lutheran Church Great Bend, Jesus grabbed ahold of Paul, and carried him through death into life.  In Baptism, Jesus carried Paul through cancer, through suffering, through pain and agony, and brought him safely into God’s eternal kingdom.  There he will no longer thirst, nor will he hunger, for the Lamb in the midst of the throne is his shepherd.  There, Jesus wipes all tears away from his eyes with nail marked hands. 

Friends, one who dies in Christ “has been set free from sin.”  One who dies in Christ, “walks forever in newness of life.”  Baptism is that place where faithful Christians like Paul, and like you, die with Christ.  Baptism is that thing that gives us hope today, hope that cancer is not the end, that in “death no longer has dominion” over us. 

I won’t lie to you, these past few days have been difficult.  They have brought us pain, and they will not magically get better over the coming weeks and months.  Death hurts.  It makes us weep and mourn, and long to be with the one who has departed.  But it is not the end for those who believe and are baptized into Jesus.  For Christ has destroyed death and gives eternal life to all who believe in him.

Friends, because Paul was baptized let not your hearts be troubled, even as you mourn.  For Jesus has come and taken Paul unto himself, to a place where they might be together, forever.  It’s a place with many rooms, a place of peace, a place of life.  It’s a place of living water, where God’s baptized people are raised to live with Jesus forever.  Do not let your hearts be troubled, for if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

In baptism, Jesus does an amazing thing.  He brings you, me, and yes our dear friend Paul through death into life.  Because of baptism, while we mourn, we know that death is not the end.  In baptism, in Jesus, death is destroyed forever.  Amen

Baptism Bible Study 02

Below is the link to the second part of our study of Baptism.

Click here for Baptism Bible Study Part 2

God's Blessings

Lent 3 - 2011 - G - Jesus KnowsYour Secret Sins and Still Loves You

John 4
5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. [1]



7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. [2] The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.

39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”


Grace mercy and peace to you from God our Father through Our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. Our text today is the Gospel lesson read, especially this verse, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” Thus far our text.

Dear friends in Christ, Secrets. Every single one of us have secrets. Things that we don’t want those around us to know about. Things that we are afraid to bring up, or to even hint at. We will do anything in our power to keep them secret, to lock them up and hide them away. In fact often with our secrets, we even try to hide them from ourselves.

That is what the woman in our text today is dealing with. She has gone out to fetch water from the local well, just like she had probably hundreds of times before. She waits to go out until the hottest part of the day, to avoid meeting other people, to avoid people who might know her secret. You see, she has a secret that she tries to keep buried away, where no one can see it. Her secret? That she has been married 5 times before, and that each of those marriages has ended for one reason or another. Finally she has given up on marriage all together, and is now in a relationship outside of that sacred bond, living with a man that is not her husband at all.

As she goes out something is different. As she arrives at the well, there is a man there, a man weary from travel. The man asks her for a drink. The woman is caught off guard. She doesn’t like speaking to people, she doesn’t want to open up her life to anyone, let alone this man. “How can you a Jew talk to me a Samaritan woman? Don’t you know that you Jews don’t get along with us Samaritans?” In other words, leave me and my secrets alone. Don’t pry where I feel you have no business.

But this man is not a regular polite man. This man is the Way the Truth and the Life incarnate. He is God’s living Son hidden in human flesh. This is Jesus. Jesus doesn’t allow secrets to separate Him from His people, be they Jew, or Samaritan, or even you.

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life”

This response catches the woman off guard. She isn’t sure what to think, or how to respond. The words of Jesus, the words of God have caught her off guard. Suddenly she is interested. No more thirst? That means she won’t have to sneak to the well, that means she won’t have to avoid other people on her way, it means she would be able to keep her secret. “Give me this water, Sir, that I may drink and not have to come to this well every day.”

But now Jesus’ word calls out her secret. Now Jesus pulls out her secret and its fullness. “Go and get your husband first, and I will give you this water.” Jesus’ question hits close to her secret. “I have no husband she replies,” trying again to avoid her shameful secret. But Jesus already knows her secret. Jesus already knows her sin. He already knows about five husbands. He already knows she is in a relationship outside of marriage. There is no point for the woman to play any more games with Jesus. He knows and won’t look the other way.

Friends, what secrets do you try to keep from Jesus? What things to you hide away in your heart hoping that no one will ever find out about? What secrets do you have? Are they related to sex and marriage, just as the woman in our text? Have you been in an extra marital affair that you know was wrong, and are now hiding it? Have you lived with someone who was not your spouse or have you condoned this behavior for friends or family? Or are your secrets a little more subtle than that? Have you stolen, have you lied, have you hurt someone? Have you gossiped, judged, desired revenge? Do you feel shame about some terrible action that you have done? Do you lock up those sins out of fear and shame and hide them away? Do you try not to even think about them?

Friends each person here, each and every person, has sinful secrets that they do not want to be known. Each of us has these secrets because each of us is a sinner. Each of us has turned against God in our thoughts, our words, and our deeds. We know we have done them, and we know that we are often embarrassed and ashamed of how we have done them. We don’t want to confess that sin. We don’t want to tell anyone about it, we hide it and keep it secret hoping beyond hope that it will go away.

But friends, just like in our text today, Jesus knows your sin. Jesus knows your sin, you can’t keep it hidden from him. You can’t lock it away from him, because just like the sin of the woman in our text, Jesus knows. Jesus knows what you are ashamed and embarrassed of. Jesus knows what wrong things you hide away. Jesus knows, and Jesus does not condemn you, just as he does not condemn the woman at the well.

Jesus does not condemn you, because he has taken your sin upon himself in the “living waters” of Holy Baptism. In those waters He knows your sin because He has taken your sin upon himself and borne it to a bloody cross where he killed it. In those waters of baptism, those sins, even those secret ones, are drowned and destroyed in water, as you are raised into eternal life. You receive forgiveness, life and salvation as your sin dies with Jesus in the living water of Holy Baptism. And as you rise again you will never thirst again, because in Jesus you receive everything that you need to support this life and body.

What is more, as you come to church, you know that you may freely confess those sins that bother and burden you, all of them, without fear. Jesus already knows them, and he still loves you. Jesus knows them and He freely gives you forgiveness for them. This doesn’t mean you may go on living in them. It doesn’t mean they are ok. It means you may leave them completely and totally behind you, as he bears them for you. It means you no longer need have shame or fear of them, because now they belong to Christ.

What is more, we are also the body of Christ. We come together and confess our sins side by side, with no one less sinful than any other, no person being less guilty. And then together we hear that “Jesus has had mercy upon us,” just as on the woman at the well. And as we come here next week to receive the Lord’s Supper, we also share each other’s burdens. As we come and kneel, we share in the pains and the joys of each person here. As Jesus has carried your sins, we also help to carry our brothers and sisters in the faith as they deal with their sinful lives. Jesus has served us, and we now serve each other.

Friends, in Jesus, you have received living water. Jesus knows all that you have ever done, or will ever do, and has still loved and forgiven you. What a miracle! What a blessing! Forgiveness even for you and I, the worst of sinners in the living waters of Holy Baptism. Jesus, for you. Jesus for your sin. As the text says, “we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world,” and of you.

Baptism of our Lord - 2011 - G - Those who are dirty need to be washed.

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, [2] and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, [3] with whom I am well pleased.” 

Grace Mercy and Peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text today is from the Gospel lesson just read, especially these words, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

Dear friends in Christ, those of you who have had children, or maybe even those of you who have ever known children, know that they can be quite the messier eaters. You can give them carrots, and they will put the carrots in their hair, and on their faces. You give them banana and rather than putting it in their mouth, they squish it between their fingers, only to wipe it on every square inch of baby not covered with a bib. And what’s the worst? That first piece of birthday cake that usually covers the entire baby, and possibly even covers some of the surrounding people. Babies eat messily, and when they are done, there is only one solution. When they have finished, there is only one thing you can do, plop them down in the bath, and scrub them until they are clean.

WHEN YOU ARE DIRTY, YOU MUST BE WASHED.

The same thing is true for you and for I regarding baptism. Those who are dirty with sin, those who are dirty with unfaithfulness and unrighteousness, enter into the waters of baptism. They are washed, and every day for the rest of their lives, their filth is washed away. In baptism, the ugly sinner, is made a holy, precious, clean child of God.

So why is Jesus being baptized in our text today? Why is Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God, The one born of a virgin a few short weeks ago. The one who for whom the angels shouted, Glory to God in the highest, the only man who will ever lead a sin free life, desires to be baptized. Doesn’t he get it? Doesn’t he know that he doesn’t need baptism, since he has no sin? Jesus, what are you doing?

Even John the Baptist wonders what is going on. Look at our text, “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’” John says, “Jesus, I need to be washed by you, not the other way around. I need you to cleanse me, I need you to make me whole. John knew who needed to be washed. John knew who needed cleaning. He had been baptizing people in the Jordan river, while preaching a message of repentance. “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

John was calling people to turn away from their sins, and then was baptizing them. John knew the people were dirty, and that they needed to be washed. John could see their sin and unrighteousness. These people who were coming to John, were not any different from you and from me. These people had broken families. They had loved ones who would no longer speak to them. They had committed adultery; they had committed murder, hating their brothers and sisters. They had divorced and remarried. The list goes on and on and on. These people were dirty, and they came to John to be washed, they came to John, to be baptized.

You and I have come to be baptized as well. We have come for the same reasons. We are guilty. We are grimy with sin. We stink with the smell of death and the devil. And so we have come to be washed. We have come to have that sin washed off us, and taken away. Just as John was washing away sins with the message of repentance, so too have many of you been brought to this font, and been washed.

Can you imagine how filthy that water was? Can you imagine how disgusting that water was? You have all seen bath water after someone very dirty has been washed. The once clear water, is now a filthy muddy color. The once clear water is thick and brown. There is some speculation that is where the idea behind the phrase, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water” comes from. The water in baptism has taken away your sin. It has washed it away. And daily, we drown our sins, washing them again in the baptismal waters.

So the water is dirty. The water is mucky. In it floats our sin and sickness. And that dear friends is why Jesus comes to be baptized. Jesus comes to John, asking to be baptized, “Because it is necessary to fulfill all righteousness.” Jesus comes, and he gets into the dirty water, the water polluted by your sins, and like a sponge, he sucks up all your sin upon himself. Jesus the spotless lamb of God, enters the water of baptism already clean, and leaves it bearing the sins of the whole world. “Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.”

Friends, as Jesus comes out of the waters, having been baptized by John, he is the greatest sinner that has ever been. Not because he himself has done anything wrong, not because he himself has actually committed a sin. But rather because he carries upon himself the sin of all. To understand the scope of the sin Jesus is carrying, look at your own life. Any time, EVER, that you have broken one of the ten commandments, Jesus is carrying that sin for you through baptism. Any time, EVER, you have thought a bad thought, sworn, cursed, skipped church, committed adultery, hated, fought, shouted, anything, Jesus is carrying that sin for you through baptism. Jesus has sucked up the dirt and the grime of our sin, the dirt and the grime that made us unclean, and now he bears it.

As Jesus comes out of the water, the heavens are open, and we see a picture of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit descends as a dove upon the Son of God, who is bearing the sins of the world, and the Voice of the Father says, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” God is pleased with his Son, because his son now carries your sin and mine. All sin is upon Jesus, and Jesus now will suffer the punishment for sin for you. Jesus carries that sin throughout his entire ministry, until finally, he puts that sin to death, and suffers the punishment that sinners deserve. Jesus will suffer and die. He will be nailed to the cross, thus suffering for you the wages of sin, death. So God is well pleased, because Jesus rescues you from your sin. Where you have sinned, Jesus has suffered. Where you fell short, Jesus has suffered. Jesus takes your sin away from you, and suffers in your place.

Dear friends, those who are dirty must be washed. And so you and I have entered the waters of baptism, for forgiveness life and salvation. And as we entered those waters, we were washed in the blood of the lamb. The book of Revelation gives a great picture of baptism, saying, “These are they who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.” IT is almost like one of those commercials for laundry detergent isn’t it? “This soap can get out even the toughest grass stain.” The difference being that you are what is stained, and the detergent is the blood of Jesus. In baptism your dirty grime sinful self is washed, and made clean, whiter than snow.

Jesus has been baptized to fulfill all righteousness, not just for himself, but also for you and for me. Jesus has been baptized, so that as you are baptized, you receive God’s holy precious gifts of eternal life. Jesus is baptized, and now your baptism also has meaning. In Jesus, you are, and always will be clean. Amen.