Matthew 3:13-17 NRSVUE
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, 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 it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented.
16 And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw God’s Spirit descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from the heavens said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
Last week we were reading the passage right before this, that introduces John the Baptist, a passage we usually read before Christmas, even though it happens at the beginning of Jesus’ adult ministry and here in verse 13 Jesus enters the chat.
John is out offering a traditional Jewish ritual bath in the water of the Jordan – a mikvah – a ritual of spiritual and physical cleansing and transition. And John is being John, saying the kind of things that got him beheaded by Herod, son of Herod. Calling out the brood of vipers who had taken over the government of Judea and sold them out to the Romans.
When Jesus walks up to him and before Jesus can even say, “Hi cousin John,” John, who has known Jesus since before he was born…and still thinks Jesus is cool…
Do any of you have relationships with your cousins like that?
My cousins were my favorite people when I was growing up.
The Nicene Creed tells us that Jesus was fully human and fully God, so I like to think about Jesus’ human side sometimes.
So before Jesus can even say, “Hi cousin John,” John is already talking about Jesus being too cool for school — or at least too important for John to perform a ritual bath on.
But Jesus knows that it’s his time.
The time of transition from just being Mary and Joseph’s kid to transitioning into the role of Messiah has come.
And Baptism is a ritual of transition.
Before we had the Nicene Creed – Before Christianity was a religion — back when The Way was still a movement within Judaism, Baptism was still practiced like John did it – a Mikvah in running water or clean water. A ritual of spiritual and physical cleansing and transition.
When a first century or second century Christian was Baptized, they changed their life.
Early Christianity was 100% nonviolent, so if a Roman Soldier became a Christian, he quit the Legion and Baptism was the ritual of transition from a life of violence to a life of peace.
And this was why there were so many arguments about circumcision and head coverings for women between the Apostle Paul and the Jewish Christians. The question being – at Baptism what was a gentile believer transitioning into – were they becoming Jewish and therefore subject to all the Laws of Moses and the laws of the Patriarchs who wrote Deuteronomy and Leviticus, including circumcision?
And because Christianity was a dispersed movement – the original title of Bishop meant the leader of the Christian Community in a particular geographic area – each Episcopal Area, if you will, had their own creed, their own local worship customs, their own gospels, their own collection of letters from the Apostles, and their own Baptismal customs.
So when Roman Emperor Constantine first, decided to make Christianity the official religion of Rome he didn’t like a few of things.
- Constantine didn’t like that there wasn’t ONE unified version of Christianity.
- He didn’t like the emphasis on peace. It was not at all useful for his wars of conquest to have his soldiers quitting when they converted!
- He didn’t like the messy, bottom up, good news for the poor, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, feminist, share economy, we are all one in Christ Jesus – “Wokeness” of Christianity. It’s hard to maintain a dictatorship when the people believe everyone has value in the eyes of God!
So Constantine gathered as many Bishops as he could, and locked them in a room (you think I’m kidding — seriously — he locked them in!) and wouldn’t let them out until they came up with, a statement on ONE definition of God – that’s what the Nicene Creed is. An attempt to define God.
Let’s read through it together. You can follow along on the screen or in the Hymnal it’s #880 in the back: Follow along and be thinking about what you notice about the Nicene Creed.
Nicene Creed
We believe in one God,
the Father, the almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one being with the Father.
through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven;
by the power of the Holy Spirit
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism
for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
What do you notice about the Nicene Creed?
There are no wrong answers!
What I notice. It’s 100% teachings about Jesus – an attempt to define the substance of God. An attempt to define Jesus –
“begotten not made”
In the original Latin – the phrase “of one being with the Father,” actually reads, “of the same substance of the Father,” There was a huge argument about whether Jesus was of similar substance as the Father or the same substance as the Father!
What I notice the most is that the Nicene Creed contains precisely 0% of the teachings of Jesus.
There is no “good news for the poor,” in the Nicene Creed.
There is no “love your neighbor as yourself” in the Nicene Creed.
There is no “whatever you do for one of the least of these who are members of my family, you do to me,” in the Nicene Creed.
By focusing solely on trying to define the Mystery that is God, they entirely missed the point of the teachings of Jesus.
And the Nicene Creed waters down the transformational ritual of Baptism to just forgiveness of sins.
Did you know that Emperor Constantine refused to be baptized until he was on his death bed, because he wanted to save his one baptism to clean up all his sins right before death so that he could make sure he got into heaven?
As if it is the ritual bath that saves us, not God’s commitment to mercy.
As if God’s love is bought obedience to rituals.
Back to our Bible reading for today — in verses 16 and 17 John baptizes Jesus at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.
In the gospel of Matthew in chapter 2 Jesus is a baby refugee in Egypt and in chapter 3 Jesus is grown.
In Matthew’s gospel Jesus hasn’t done anything yet.
No getting lost at the Temple.
No wedding at Cana.
No teenaged eye roll at Mary, “Mooooommmm, it isn’t my time yet”……
In Matthew’s gospel Jesus hasn’t done anything yet.
When the Spirit descends like a dove and the voice of the proudest Dad ever says,
“That’s my son! I love him sooo much, and I’m just sooo proud of him!”
I think God said it that way – Translators are so dry and stiff with their language!
This is the God that I experience in Baptism!
This is why Methodists baptize infants or people of any age.
Not because we think babies are sinful, but because there is nothing we need to do to earn God’s love.
You don’t need to earn baptism.
You don’t need to understand baptism.
You don’t need to be able to define your faith or recite creeds that contain nothing of the teachings of Jesus to be Baptized.
And you don’t need to promise to be good for the rest of your life.
When I Baptize people, every time, every time, all I feel is the love of God, saying, “THIS is my Beloved and I’m so proud of them!”
And I’m about to start quoting our United Methodist Baptismal Vows, so you can turn to page 34 of the Hymnal if you want to fact check me. Please do! I love it when people fact check me! It means you’re taking responsibility for the content of your own faith! Pages 34 and 35.
Baptism is a transition into Beloved Community.
A community where we promise to “surround one another with a community of love and forgiveness” (UMH p35)
A community where we commit ourselves to “reject the evil powers of this world” and “accept the freedom and power God gives us to resist evil, injustice and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves.” (UMH p34)
And then we recite the Apostle’s Creed, which is older than the Nicene Creed, but still does not include the key teachings of Jesus…
I mean how hard would it be to insert just one line about what Jesus did while he was here?
They could have stuffed it between birth and death, like
“Born of the Virgin Mary”
Taught us to love our neighbors,
“Suffered under Pontius Pilate
Was crucified, died and was buried
Then we bless and pour clean warm water and it doesn’t matter if we dunk or pour or sprinkle, because Baptism isn’t about the ritual. Baptism isn’t about what we do.
It’s about how much God loves us.
I believe beyond believing, especially in times like this, that we are most certainly called to resist evil, injustice and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves – I mean, I bought the T-shirt!
But the most important thing is Love.
God’s unconditional love for every single sparrow and lily and human being, no matter who they are, no matter what we’ve done or left undone, is our WHY — for everything else.
So friends, remember your baptism and remember that you are beloved, and you are beloved, and you are beloved, and so are they — all the people whom we are finding hard to love in this moment are still beloveds of God.
Which doesn’t mean that they aren’t also a brood of vipers who need to change their ways.
It just means that God still loves them.
Remember, in the midst of everything, we are God’s Beloved.
All of us.
