Sermon Illustrations for Baptism of Our Lord (2021)
Illustration
Genesis 1:1-5
One of the terms those who watch superhero movies have become familiar with is “origin stories,” which refers to those stories that tell how this or that superhero came to develop his or her powers and became super good or super evil (or a happy mixture of them both).
Interestingly enough, in the ancient world the gods had origin stories. The Greek poet Hesiod wrote a poem known as the Theogony, which means “the genealogy of the gods.” He told their origin stories, their birth, and how they were overthrown in a bloody fashion by the next generation of gods, and those gods by the generation after that. The Theogony reads like a clash of superheroes. Each of the gods had their own superpowers, but the chief gods, first Ouranos, then Chronos, then Zeus, were themselves finite and vulnerable.
Contrast that with the creation story of Genesis. God simply is. Though we read about the creation of earth, sky, sun, moon, and stars, every creature, and the generations of humanity, there is no origin story for God. There is no war in heaven involving God. God reigns. Remember, even in Revelation 12, when Lucifer wages war on heaven, it is Michael who blunts the assault and casts him out because God has no equal, no opposite number!
Frank R.
* * *
Genesis 1:1-5
John Glenn, speaking about his view of earth from the space shuttle Discovery, said, “To look at the window, as I did that first day, to look out at this kind of creation and not believe in God is to me impossible.”
Creation itself speaks of a Creator. Can a book write itself without an author? Can a car build itself without a manufacturer? Can a symphony form itself into beautiful harmonies without a composer? Of course, we know the answer to all these questions. No, they cannot. How then can the marvelous creation that John Glenn witnessed first-hand so many years ago have come into being? Can a universe form itself without a Creator?
The answer is simple.” In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) To believe that is to only believe the obvious.
Bill T.
* * *
Acts 19:1-7
A 2009 Barna Research Center poll revealed that the Holy Spirit has fallen on hard times in America. It seems that only half of us believe in the reality of the Spirit. This lesson, with its emphasis on the Holy Spirit’s role in baptism, can offer a helpful response.
Martin Luther did a nice job explaining how the Spirit works in baptism. He wrote:
In the first place you give yourself up to the sacrament of baptism and to what it signifies. That is you desire to die, together with your sins, and to be made new at the last day... From that hour He [God] begins to make you a new person. He pours into you his grace and Holy Spirit, who begins to slay nature and sin, and to prepare you for death and the resurrection on the last day. (Luther’s Works, Vol.35, p.33)
Luther also explains the Spirit’s work in creation as a whole and how the Spirit uses water to create and give life:
As a hen broods her eggs, keeping them warm in order to hatch her chicks, and, as it were, to bring them to life through her, so Scripture says that the Holy Spirit brooded, as it were, on the waters to bring not life those substances which were to be quickened and adorned. For it is the office of the Holy Spirit to make alive. (Luther’s Works, Vol.1, p.9)
John Calvin had a neat way of describing the Holy Spirit and what the Spirit’s presence can mean to us. The Spirit, he says is the Power of God (Institutes [Westminster ed.], pp.142-143). To have the Spirit is to be empowered with the things of God.
Mark E.
* * *
Acts 19:1-7
Baptism with the Holy Spirit is the theme of this Sunday. Each of us, baptized believers, has been baptized with the Holy Spirit, whether we remember it or felt it in that way. As a local church pastor, it was a profoundly holy moment to participate in the baptism of any infant, child or adult. I could feel the presence of God as I intoned the words, “I baptism you in the names of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. You are marked forever as a child of God.” Holy moments are all around us. In our reading, Paul baptizes the believers, even though John has done so. For Paul, baptism is not about repentance, although that is important. Baptism is about the grace and love and blessing of God coming into the lives of the believer. Celebrate your baptism today. Remember the Holy Spirit dwells in you as well.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Mark 1:4-11
It is extraordinary that the lectionary throws us into the opening verses of the Gospel of Mark three times in just a few weeks. You may think you wrung the first chapter of Mark bone dry during Advent, but there’s a method to this madness.
The baptism of Jesus is at the center of this lesson because, after all, this Sunday is called “Baptism of the Lord.” I will leave it to you to tailor your message about the baptism of Jesus around your own customs surrounding this ordinance. Instead, let me direct your attention to what follows the descent of the dove. If the baptism of Jesus is the pivot point upon which everything turns, then first things first, everything turns towards the desert. In scripture, the desert or wilderness is a dangerous place, the abode of beasts, of bandits, and of the adversary. Yet it’s also the place out of which the Baptist comes, and it’s the place where Jesus goes, to fast, to resist, and ultimately to be blessed because it is there angels wait on him. The forty days of fasting are meant to deliberately remind us of the forty years in the desert before the people of God enter the promised land. These forty days are an essential time of preparation.
Our faith is not a fraternity. It’s not our task to place obstacles in the way of the newly baptized, like some bizarre hazing ritual. But this is a reminder that baptism is not the conclusion of our Christian journey, or even its high point, but one signpost alongside a road which will include wonderful times of affirmation, such as Jesus receives when the voice from heaven declares, "You are my Son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased,” as well as obstacles and barriers such as times in the wilderness, temptation, and deprivation. These are not punishments, snares, or traps, but they are simply the sort of thing we expect during the normal course of our lives as disciples of Jesus Christ.
Frank R.
* * *
Mark 1:4-11
Most Americans know the name Paul Revere and are aware of his midnight ride to warn that the British were coming. Revere is an American hero and that should not be diminished. However, there were others who worked with Revere on that night.
Late on the night of April 18, 1775, Boston patriot Joseph Warren learned of a British military operation planned for the next day. To warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams, who were across the Charles River in Lexington, Warren dispatched two riders, Paul Revere and William Dawes. Revere took the shorter route "by sea," while Dawes went "by land" over the isthmus from Boston to Roxbury, then crossing the Charles River over a bridge in Cambridge. After notifying Hancock and Adams, Dawes and Revere set out for Concord together, joined by Dr. Samuel Prescott, a Concord resident.
Revere is well known. Dawes and Prescott, not as much, yet all of them did a tremendous work. They were messengers for freedom. Reading this text reminded me of these unsung heroes. John the Baptist was a messenger sent to tell people some important news. “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (Mark 1:7-8).
Unsung heroes with a message of freedom…Dawes, Prescott…and of course, John the Baptist.
Bill T.
One of the terms those who watch superhero movies have become familiar with is “origin stories,” which refers to those stories that tell how this or that superhero came to develop his or her powers and became super good or super evil (or a happy mixture of them both).
Interestingly enough, in the ancient world the gods had origin stories. The Greek poet Hesiod wrote a poem known as the Theogony, which means “the genealogy of the gods.” He told their origin stories, their birth, and how they were overthrown in a bloody fashion by the next generation of gods, and those gods by the generation after that. The Theogony reads like a clash of superheroes. Each of the gods had their own superpowers, but the chief gods, first Ouranos, then Chronos, then Zeus, were themselves finite and vulnerable.
Contrast that with the creation story of Genesis. God simply is. Though we read about the creation of earth, sky, sun, moon, and stars, every creature, and the generations of humanity, there is no origin story for God. There is no war in heaven involving God. God reigns. Remember, even in Revelation 12, when Lucifer wages war on heaven, it is Michael who blunts the assault and casts him out because God has no equal, no opposite number!
Frank R.
* * *
Genesis 1:1-5
John Glenn, speaking about his view of earth from the space shuttle Discovery, said, “To look at the window, as I did that first day, to look out at this kind of creation and not believe in God is to me impossible.”
Creation itself speaks of a Creator. Can a book write itself without an author? Can a car build itself without a manufacturer? Can a symphony form itself into beautiful harmonies without a composer? Of course, we know the answer to all these questions. No, they cannot. How then can the marvelous creation that John Glenn witnessed first-hand so many years ago have come into being? Can a universe form itself without a Creator?
The answer is simple.” In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) To believe that is to only believe the obvious.
Bill T.
* * *
Acts 19:1-7
A 2009 Barna Research Center poll revealed that the Holy Spirit has fallen on hard times in America. It seems that only half of us believe in the reality of the Spirit. This lesson, with its emphasis on the Holy Spirit’s role in baptism, can offer a helpful response.
Martin Luther did a nice job explaining how the Spirit works in baptism. He wrote:
In the first place you give yourself up to the sacrament of baptism and to what it signifies. That is you desire to die, together with your sins, and to be made new at the last day... From that hour He [God] begins to make you a new person. He pours into you his grace and Holy Spirit, who begins to slay nature and sin, and to prepare you for death and the resurrection on the last day. (Luther’s Works, Vol.35, p.33)
Luther also explains the Spirit’s work in creation as a whole and how the Spirit uses water to create and give life:
As a hen broods her eggs, keeping them warm in order to hatch her chicks, and, as it were, to bring them to life through her, so Scripture says that the Holy Spirit brooded, as it were, on the waters to bring not life those substances which were to be quickened and adorned. For it is the office of the Holy Spirit to make alive. (Luther’s Works, Vol.1, p.9)
John Calvin had a neat way of describing the Holy Spirit and what the Spirit’s presence can mean to us. The Spirit, he says is the Power of God (Institutes [Westminster ed.], pp.142-143). To have the Spirit is to be empowered with the things of God.
Mark E.
* * *
Acts 19:1-7
Baptism with the Holy Spirit is the theme of this Sunday. Each of us, baptized believers, has been baptized with the Holy Spirit, whether we remember it or felt it in that way. As a local church pastor, it was a profoundly holy moment to participate in the baptism of any infant, child or adult. I could feel the presence of God as I intoned the words, “I baptism you in the names of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. You are marked forever as a child of God.” Holy moments are all around us. In our reading, Paul baptizes the believers, even though John has done so. For Paul, baptism is not about repentance, although that is important. Baptism is about the grace and love and blessing of God coming into the lives of the believer. Celebrate your baptism today. Remember the Holy Spirit dwells in you as well.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Mark 1:4-11
It is extraordinary that the lectionary throws us into the opening verses of the Gospel of Mark three times in just a few weeks. You may think you wrung the first chapter of Mark bone dry during Advent, but there’s a method to this madness.
The baptism of Jesus is at the center of this lesson because, after all, this Sunday is called “Baptism of the Lord.” I will leave it to you to tailor your message about the baptism of Jesus around your own customs surrounding this ordinance. Instead, let me direct your attention to what follows the descent of the dove. If the baptism of Jesus is the pivot point upon which everything turns, then first things first, everything turns towards the desert. In scripture, the desert or wilderness is a dangerous place, the abode of beasts, of bandits, and of the adversary. Yet it’s also the place out of which the Baptist comes, and it’s the place where Jesus goes, to fast, to resist, and ultimately to be blessed because it is there angels wait on him. The forty days of fasting are meant to deliberately remind us of the forty years in the desert before the people of God enter the promised land. These forty days are an essential time of preparation.
Our faith is not a fraternity. It’s not our task to place obstacles in the way of the newly baptized, like some bizarre hazing ritual. But this is a reminder that baptism is not the conclusion of our Christian journey, or even its high point, but one signpost alongside a road which will include wonderful times of affirmation, such as Jesus receives when the voice from heaven declares, "You are my Son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased,” as well as obstacles and barriers such as times in the wilderness, temptation, and deprivation. These are not punishments, snares, or traps, but they are simply the sort of thing we expect during the normal course of our lives as disciples of Jesus Christ.
Frank R.
* * *
Mark 1:4-11
Most Americans know the name Paul Revere and are aware of his midnight ride to warn that the British were coming. Revere is an American hero and that should not be diminished. However, there were others who worked with Revere on that night.
Late on the night of April 18, 1775, Boston patriot Joseph Warren learned of a British military operation planned for the next day. To warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams, who were across the Charles River in Lexington, Warren dispatched two riders, Paul Revere and William Dawes. Revere took the shorter route "by sea," while Dawes went "by land" over the isthmus from Boston to Roxbury, then crossing the Charles River over a bridge in Cambridge. After notifying Hancock and Adams, Dawes and Revere set out for Concord together, joined by Dr. Samuel Prescott, a Concord resident.
Revere is well known. Dawes and Prescott, not as much, yet all of them did a tremendous work. They were messengers for freedom. Reading this text reminded me of these unsung heroes. John the Baptist was a messenger sent to tell people some important news. “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (Mark 1:7-8).
Unsung heroes with a message of freedom…Dawes, Prescott…and of course, John the Baptist.
Bill T.
