We Are Baptized!
This is the sermon I preached on Sunday, Jan. 7, Baptism of Our Lord at St. Timothy Lutheran Church. The scripture text is Mark 1:4-11 . This last part of this morning’s gospel reading grabbed my attention. It stood out like the words were neon lights.They are action-packed and we are going to concentrate on the part which is Jesus’ baptism. Today we have the appearance of all three members of the trinity at this event—Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the Father’s voice. In one sense, Jesus did not need to be baptized, since he had nothing to repent of. He was sinless, so why did he get baptized by John? In doing so, he more fully identified himself with sinful humanity. As the Nicene Creed says, Jesus “ became truly human.” In this passage, as Jesus starts coming out of the water, four things are happening simultaneously: as He comes out of the water, the heavens are ripped open, the Spirit descends and enters Jesus like a dove and lastly, the Voice—declaring Jesus as the belove...