It was a joy to join the saints of Tri Saints Parish in Byron and Hardy, Nebraska- consisting of St. Paul Lutheran (Byron), St. Paul Lutheran (Hardy), and St. Peter Lutheran (outside of Byron) on Baptism of Our Lord Sunday January 12, 2025. Thank you Vicar Jack Roegner for the invitation and to the whole Tri Saints congregation for the warm welcome. I was invited to share conversation and help lead a time of question and answers during the Adult Forum before worship, to bring greetings and words of gratitude at the beginning of worship as well as to preach and assist in worship, and to be present for St. Peter’s annual meeting following worship. What follows is the majority of the manuscript that I preached from, based especially on the appointed gospel for Baptism of Our Lord (Year C), Luke 3:15-17, 21-22.

Grace and peace from God in Christ, who is with you, for you, and who loves you. Always. Amen.

Take Me to the Water
There’s an old spiritual that comes to mind today. It’s become a song I can’t ignore when I think about this story. A story about Jesus being baptized. A story about all of us being invited into these waters too. A story about how God’s love is real and for you. A story about how we are invited to respond as disciples and stewards of God’s love through all that we are and all that we do. The song begins like this:

Take me to the water, take me to the water, take me to the water to be baptized.
I love Jesus, I love Jesus, I love Jesus, oh, yes, I do.[1]

I invite you to join me as we dive into this familiar story again and wonder about what God might be up to and inviting us to sense and be a part of today.

Diving into the Story this Week
“A voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’”[2] Suddenly in the story, we have jumped ahead. In Luke’s gospel, we have moved from early chapter 2 with Jesus’ incarnation and birth, to when he was twelve years old in the temple, to chapter 3 where we find John baptizing and proclaiming in the wilderness during the “fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea…”[3] We know this story. We hear some version of this story every year in the early days of the time after Epiphany. We do so, because this matters.

The Gospel of Luke makes clear that Jesus is God’s son.[4] So we gather again at the river, and today let’s stay at the water for a bit. Imagine you are at the water’s edge. It might not seem all that threatening. It might seem refreshing and inviting. For others who don’t know how to swim, its current might be terrifying. Regardless, the water flows. Water which is the very necessity for life itself. Water that we are all baptized with, the very water of life.

Let’s set the scene for today’s story. John’s message has been spreading.[5] The people “were filled with expectation and all were questioning in their hearts” and minds.[6] They wondered whether John was the Messiah. John made clear though, “I baptize you with water, but one who is more powerful than I is coming…He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”[7] John said a lot more than that, but he made clear this message he was sharing was not about him. It wasn’t up to him. He had been entrusted with the responsibility to prepare the way. And so he did. And among those he baptized, was Jesus, himself.

Close your eyes if you are willing. Hear these words of the story again. “Now when all the people were baptized and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’”[8] Go ahead and open your eyes. What did you hear? What do you imagine? What do you wonder?

I hear a promise. I sense something new. God is up to something here. Everything has changed. Again. All is made new. This person named Jesus is beloved. But I also think, that because this message was so widely heard by all those present that day at the river, it seems, this message wasn’t just for one person. This message was for you and for me. This message was for all those who had gone to the water’s edge, who had jumped in, who had prayed. To all those who had been baptized, and would be baptized in the days, and years and centuries to come. You are God’s Beloved. And as Jesus would show- You are Beloved. We are Beloved. And we are Beloved to Love. We are beloved to love, with a love that far surpasses any human ideas and imagination, and really does change everything. For through it, all things are possible.

God’s Promise and Love is For you!
We hear about this love through God’s promise made real in the gospel story, and the other stories we hear today. We hear the word of the Lord from Isaiah, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.”[9] God says to each of us and to all of God’s beloved of all times and places, “I have called you by name; you are mine.” God reminds us that God is with us always. God meets us where we are at. God walks with us through every joy and challenge, through every up and down, for anything and everything that we might experience. You are not alone. The Lord says through Isaiah, “Because you are precious in my sight and honored and I love you… Do not fear, for I am with you.”[10] These are God’s promises for you. Signs of God’s gracious love that is for you today and always. Signs of God’s gracious love that is pure gift and grace, given for you, which we could never earn or deserve. But God gives them, because that is what God does and is what God’s love looks like.
 
We hear from the psalmist that “The voice of the Lord is over the waters… The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.”[11] This is the voice that Jesus heard in the flowing waters of the River Jordan. This is the voice that those present that day heard. It’s the voice that we each hear, in one way or another, when the promises of baptism are proclaimed, and the water is splashed on us too. For this, we join in with the psalmist responding with joy, gratitude, and “Glory!”[12] Glory for all that God has done and will do. Glory for bringing peace and love. Glory, for feeding the hungry, housing the houseless, providing for all in need.[13] Glory. Because God’s love is real.

God’s love is made real too, through the movement of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit as we heard in our second lesson from Acts, came upon the newly baptized in Samaria through the laying on of hands by Peter and John.[14] The Spirit moved over the waters, just as the Spirit always moves. Through the prayers of God’s people. As a gracious and living sign that God’s love is real and is for you. Today.

Epiphanies, New Possibilities, and Our Response as God’s Beloved
The Spirit’s movement. God’s voice. Jesus being proclaimed as “Beloved.” These are all signs of Epiphanies. They are part of this season of time we find ourselves in. In the same spirit of the Magi following the star. They point to new discoveries. New insights and wisdom. New learning. They call us to pay attention and to witness. They invite us to see and to share. To sense that God is doing God’s thing- bringing life, hope, healing and reconciliation. We’ll be hearing this over and over for the next two months. As we journey through these stories, ponder how these are all signs of God’s love and promise, and an invitation for us today.

These Epiphanies invite new possibilities and call us to respond as God’s beloved. And we do so in many and various ways. We do this as we respond like those first curious people who came to the waters to learn from and be baptized by John the Baptist.[15] We do so by loving our neighbors, welcoming the stranger, and caring for all in need. No questions asked. Because that is what God’s love is and does. We also join with the whole people of God through living out our lives as baptized Children of God through our baptismal promises. These promises we make as part of our baptismal covenant with God, “to live among God’s faithful people, to hear the word of God and share in the Lord’s supper, to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed, to serve all people, following the example of Jesus, and to strive for justice and peace in al the earth.”[16]

These promises are signs of our active lives as Children of God, who are growing as disciples and responding faithfully and generously as stewards of God’s love today. You do this as the saints of St. Paul, St. Paul, and St. Peter Lutheran churches- together gathered as God’s people as Tri Saints Parish here in Byron and Hardy, and from other communities like Chester, Hubbell, and Superior in Nebraska and even across the border from Republic, Munden, Webber, White Rock and others in Kansas. You come together as one people, and you live this out.

It’s part of your story of how you have sensed opportunities and possibilities and discerned new ways of being together as God’s people. You have done this recently too, as you have voted to call your next pastor. How exciting and wonderful it is, to know that an ordination will be happening here in just under two weeks. Another sign of the Spirit moving and God’s love being made real.

But even more so, you do this through you the way you gather, serve, and respond. Through Sunday School and confirmation to teach, equip, and empower. Through the ways you uplift each other for ministry and support one another as siblings in Christ and neighbors. Through the ways you are part of the larger church here in Nebraska and around the globe. Through the ways we walk together as the Nebraska Synod and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, like through Lutheran Disaster Response, as we walk with our neighbors now facing the devastation of wildfires in Southern California, and as you have done with your joint mission efforts this past year as hurricane relief to help your neighbors in North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.

Tri Saints, I mentioned a bit earlier in worship about all that you do. But that was just a starting place. You also support your neighbors through backpack programs in at least five area school districts. You provide quilts for those in need through Lutheran World Relief and Camp Carol Joy Holling’s annual quilt auction. You feed the hungry through providing for the Thayer, Republic, and Nuckolls County Food Pantries. You support the ministries of Nebraska’s Serving Arm ministries with direct partnerships, as well as Mission Field Nebraska ministries like Followers of Christ Prison Ministry and Lakota Lutheran Center and Chapel. All of this and more, are signs that you live out your response to the Good News boldly, faithfully, and with joy and wonder like those first witnesses and hearers of the voice from heaven upon the river that day as Jesus was baptized. Thank you for all of this, and for being the faithful disciples and generous stewards of God’s love that you are!

During this season of Epiphanies take a deep breath. Pause, wonder, imagine and listen more deeply to sense what God might be up to and inviting. And share with each other what you are wondering about. This is what it looks like to be beloved. You are beloved because God loves you, just for who you are. No questions. No exceptions. You are beloved through the love that we know most clearly through Jesus- through the incarnation, birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension. This life-saving love that is given “for you” and for all of God’s beloved. In our baptisms, we are baptized into this life and death of love with Jesus. This is a freeing thing, and an invitation to a deeper life together as God’s beloved people. And it changes everything.

When the voice from heaven spoke after Jesus was baptized, the story was changed. The world knew that God was up to something, and things were about to be different. And they were, as we know the rest of the story of where Jesus would go from here. Through these same waters of baptism we too are forever changed. We are claimed and named Child of God, once and for all. Called and sent as Beloved to Love God and neighbor. May we do so, singing with boldness “Take me to the Water.” For we know that God in Christ is with us, for us, and loves us. Always. Thanks be to God. Amen.

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Citations and References:
[1] “Take Me to the Water,” African American spiritual, arr. Horace Clarence Boyer, as found in All Creation Sings, (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 2020), 957.
[2] Luke 3:22, NRSV.
[3] Luke 3:1, NRSV.
[4] Right after his baptism, Luke continues on with Jesus’ whole genealogy. Take a look sometime at Luke 3:23-38. It takes fifteen whole verses to situate Jesus in his longer family line.
[5] As detailed in Luke 3:1-14, and fulfilling his father Zechariah’s “Benedictus” in Luke 1:67-79.
[6] Luke 3:15, NRSV.
[7] Luke 3:16, NRSV.
[8] Luke 3:21-22, NRSVue.
[9] Isaiah 43:1-2, NRSVue.
[10] Isaiah 43:4-5, NRSVue.
[11] Psalm 29:3-4, NRSVue.
[12] Psalm 29:9, NRSVue.
[13] Glory, like the spiritual “Take me to the Water” ends with.
[14] Acts 8:14-17, NRSVue.
[15] Prior to the selected reading appointed for this week, we read that people came and asked John the Baptist, “What then should we do? (Luke 3:10, NRSV). John responds, Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise…Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you…Do not exhort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.” (Luke 3:11-14, NRSV).
[16] As found in Evangelical Lutheran Worship, (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 2006), p. 236.