January 8, 2012
A New Beginning
Mark 1:4-11
Today the readings point us to a new beginning. New beginnings are on our minds. We have been enculturated to think about making a new beginning in the New Year. We wish to put the previous year 2011 behind us and make a new beginning in 2012. Some will make resolutions and set goals to do better to improve their situation. After being encouraged to buy in excess and eat in excess for the Christmas season, we are made to feel guilty about our excesses. Back to eating right, back to the discipline of going to the gym, time to measure your performance on the bathroom scale. The season of Epiphany for the world is a season of repentance, of fasting and rigorous discipline until the feast days of Superbowl, Mardi Gras and St. Patrick’s day.
These are not in themselves bad things to strive for especially for the sake of our families, our employees, our neighbors. These things we refer to as civil righteousness. But one does not need to be a Christian to practice these things. In fact many have replaced true religion with this civil religion. If one can show discipline and self‐control, if one has control finances, if you are slim trim and healthy already, if you are able to say no, well then why do you need religion you are already being God pleasing, right?
The church itself under the guise of attracting through the meeting of felt needs, glorifying God with one’s life and boosting attendance have mis‐named this functional form of work’s righteousness, sanctification. Some of the most popular evangelicals including Rick Warren and Joel Osteen make their living off of this form pseudo-sanctification. The titles of their best selling books say it all Rick Warren’s “Purpose Driven Life” and Joel Osteen’s “Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential” and his follow up “Become a Better You: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life Every Day.” So I have to ask, “What is the difference between these titles in purpose and content than the ones on the cover of my Real Simple magazine?”
Recently, Rick Warren has started his new diet plan that he calls the Daniel plan that is based on the healthy eating of the Old Testament prophet Daniel and his followers. Additionally Joel Osteen has preached against the eating of pork. Once again these ideas may promote some healthy eating habits but what do they have to do with the Gospel. And how is this information any different than what we hear from Oprah, Dr. Phil or Dr. Oz. What do they have to do with preaching repentance and forgiveness? Perhaps this is what you came to hear today some tidbits on how to acquire your best life now. The old Adam is us wants to be reformed. It wants to be given a to do list but without the Gospel it is an exercise in futility. And if this is our self-centered works righteousness idea of sanctification or what we want to hear in a sermon then we need to repent
and die to self. We need to turn away from this futility that leads to despair and turn to Christ remembering our
baptisms and confessing our sins.
The truth of the matter is that in order for there to be a new beginning that it does not have anything to do with us and everything to do with God. He is the one who was at the beginning of all things, the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit. They are all mentioned in the first three verses of Genesis with the pre‐incarnate Christ hidden in the Word, “Let there be Light.” When Job in the midst of his suffering cried out to God did not God say, “Were you there when the foundations of the earth was laid, when the seas were given their limits.”
It is God who does the creating and the making of new beginnings and we are the objects of His benevolence of His unmerited grace.
The baptism of Christ is a new beginning revealed. For Christmas the revelation is that in Jesus God became man. The revelation of Epiphany is that Jesus the Man is God. And the revealing of God’s new name Father, Son and Holy Spirit which will play prominently in the Christ’s institution of baptism. This is a new beginning because in the old beginning heaven was shut to Adam and Eve. But, with Jesus heaven opens for God to become man and now in His baptism, as the gospel writer Mark puts it, the heavens are ripped open. And Jesus the Man is revealed to be God the Son as the voice from heaven identifies Jesus saying, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” This He does not say about any other man but only Jesus. He does not say that about you or me or Oprah, Joel, or Rick but only about Jesus.I heard a sermon last week at a non-Lutheran church. Basically the content was based upon the story of David and Goliath. Essentially the message was for the coming year to discern not your will but God’s will for your life in the coming year. The preacher did a very fine job of preaching the law and there was perhaps one mention of Jesus dying for their sins. The sermon culminated with the members coming forward and kneeling before the altar praying for forgiveness but not hearing it. You see righteousness is not found in ourselves but the one whom God the Father is well pleased. The Father is pleased because the Son is obeying the Father. Even though He himself is sinless, Jesus did identify with those repenting and confessing their sins. So much so that He would take upon himself the sins of world. He would take what we deserve to the cross and give to us what we do not deserve His righteousness.
In our epistle reading we see how this past reality comes to us today, “we were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” So true sanctification means that we die, we die to ourselves, to our schemes for righteousness and self‐improvement to please God. God in Christ Jesus is already pleased with you. And this beginning started with your baptism where heaven was opened to you. You were made the Son in whom the Father is well pleased not because of your doing but because of God’s. And so what good works you do you cannot take credit for Jesus does them through you as you show love and care for your neighbor as you bring family members to Jesus through teaching and baptism.Without Christ, all you are left with is civil righteousness which alone will condemn you. But it is Christ who saves.
For God water plays significantly in new beginnings. We have the Spirit who hovers over the face of the waters in the second verse of Genesis. We have God’s use of the flood to save Noah and his family from the unspeakable evil of the world. We have deliverance of the Israelites through the Red Sea from the Egyptians. We have the new beginning for the gentile Naaman when he is cured of leprosy bathing in the Jordan. And now we have Jesus sanctifying all waters for His use to bring His fallen creation into the Kingdom. In the future we look forward to the River of Life that flows through the new Jerusalem our heavenly home. As you can see our Lord has the past, present and future covered. He is the one who says, “I make all things new.” For us baptism was the new beginning for us, the source, the Genesis and it continues to be a source of renewal as our Lord presently in this place washes with His forgiveness using His very blood flows from His altar.
There is nothing wrong with setting goals for the New Year. There is nothing wrong with having optimism for the New Year for our Lord does not change. He will continue to serve you in His Divine Service cleansing you of your sins. Through the Son the Father says to you, “You are my beloved with whom I am well pleased.” Amen
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