Jan 12, 2020                   Like a Dove                                                 

If you were with us last week, you would have heard me talk about the ancestors of Jesus. Among those ancestors, some were good, some not so good, some bad, some very bad. At the conclusion of that sermon, I tried to note a couple of things. First, that despite the all the bad people in the world and throughout history, God still worked through them for Jesus to be born into the world. Good News! Second, that despite our bad moments, our mistakes, our failures, our sins, God still works through us, for Christ to be present in the world.  More Good News! And finally, I noted that there was a world of difference between those who live mostly for themselves, and those who choose to live a life in communion with God, in the spirit of God. Really Good News! And that is where we come to our gospel lesson this morning, because in our gospel lesson this morning, we are going to get a number of clues as to what that Spirit looks like.

This morning Jesus comes to John to be baptized, and in Matthew’s gospel, John objects, because John knows himself to be a sinner and recognizes Jesus to be without sin. But Jesus tells him, that Jesus needs to be baptized by John to fulfill all righteousness. Now some commentators talk about Jesus humility, but I would rather like to think that Jesus allows himself to be baptized by someone who is a sinner – because it reveals the power of God to work through those circumstances to  can send the Holy Spirit into the world.

One of my colleagues at our Somonauk lectionary group picked up on that theme, and spoke about how Jesus intentionally chooses to come with the sinners to the Jordan river, which was a rather dirty river, and be baptized. The message he got was that the Spirit of God is not just found in temples, synagogues and churches, but can be found, indeed is most powerfully seen, in those unscrubbed places in the world, in the midst of sinners, in the midst of the world.

The biggest clue, of course to the Holy Spirit is the form that it takes when Jesus is baptized, and that form is a dove. For anyone who has read the bible, in the Old testament, God’s Holy Spirit comes in the form of fire. The burning bush, the pillar of flame, the fire on the mountain of Horeb, the anger of the Lord that causes the temple to smolder and smoke in Isaiah, the fire called down by Elijah to consume the prophets of Baal. John the Baptist himself speaks about the Holy Spirit coming as a fire to burn the chaff that are those who are set against God.

But of course, in the baptism of Jesus, that Spirit descends like a dove and alights upon him. Oh, I am not saying that the spirit of God does not consume with fire those who are set against God, their spirits are indeed anxious, fearful, and troubled, but in the gospels we see the good news of the spirit alighting on those who are faithful to God, and the peace and joy it can bring to their lives. It’s not a different God, but it’s a new way of looking at God, that we have been given in Jesus Christ. Roman’s 5:5, if you like proof texts, says it this way, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, which has been given to us,..” Anyway, I think that is what we should take away from the baptism of Jesus.

         Now this morning, in our children’s sermon, I told the story of the boy who moved to a new school and was asked to introduce himself. And when he came to the part about what his mother did for a living, he said she was a minister ordained, and the next kid introduced himself and said his father was a hardware clerk ordained, and the next and the next.

        The point of the story, as I told the kids was to think about what it would mean if all of us, were ordained not just to our jobs, but also in our faith. What would it mean if we all saw ourselves as ministers of the Christian faith? Because I think that’s the message of the gospel for all of us, sinners though we might be, we are called not to keep ourselves separate from sin and suffering, high above and far away, but ministering to those who are sinners, in the midst of the living of our lives.

        And I think most of you get this point. Not just through your attendance at church, you contributing to it’s support, but through your fellowship and work, through your missions, and mostly in your lives. You are minister’s ordained to turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, offer you coat if you have two. You are minister’s ordained who realize that you are called to save lives, rather than condemn them. You are all minister’s ordained, on whom the Holy Spirit alights, and who know the peace and joy of your Baptism into Jesus Christ. And that is Good News!