• Fulfilling Righteousness, Matthew 3:13-17          
  Randy Quinn
   

• "With Jesus I can Make It" Luke 3:15-17, 21-22; Isaiah 43:1-7   
  by Rev. Ralph Miller
   

• Remember Your Baptism, Matthew 3:13-17, Thomas Hall        
   
• Act Three,  Matthew 3:13-17          
  by Dr. David Rogne
   
• Baptized to Serve,  Isaiah 42:1-9, Matthew 3:13-17       
  by Rev. Rick Thompson
   
• Baptism, Matthew 3:13-17, Thomas Hall           
   

• Who's the Minister? Matthew 3:13-17            
  Kay 
   

• We become alive in Christ, Matthew 3:13-17         
  HW in HI 
   

• God does Not play Favorites, Acts 10:34-43            
  The Iowa Star

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Fulfilling Righteousness
a sermon based on Matthew 3:13-17
by Rev. Randy Quinn

On Christmas Eve, when the church was as full as it has ever been, the pastor of a nearby church reportedly made this comment:

It is nice to see everyone here tonight. Some of you I have not seen since last Christmas. Some of you will not be back until Easter. We welcome you tonight and hope that you will not be frightened away by the large crowd -- it is not normally this crowded.

When I heard about it, I wondered if it was true. Did he REALLY say that? I know I have thought it before. I suspect that most of the people there had thought it before. But it somehow sounds so wrong to articulate those inner thoughts, doesn't it?

What the pastor was naming is the tendency in our society to see Religion as a private matter. Faith is an individual choice, so we do not impose it upon another individual, nor do we object to other individuals believing and worshipping differently than we worship and believe. That is what most of us think the 1st Amendment guarantees us -- the individual choice about faith and its expression. That is what it means to live in America.

It is also what some have said is the difference between the Jewish Faith and the Christian Faith. Some have asserted that the Jewish faith relies upon community while the Christian faith builds on individuality. Many have asserted that with the implication that one is right and the other is wrong.

As for me, I disagree with both.

The Jewish faith, like the Christian faith, is rooted in individual AND community events and decisions. One cannot be Jewish outside of the community, nor can one be a Christian outside of the Church. And at the same time, being a member of a Church does not mean that a person is a Christian; nor is it necessarily true that an individual who is part of the synagogue is truly Jewish.

We need to make individual decisions and choices.

But the most important decisions cannot be made outside of the community of Faith. Those decisions require the prayerful input and consideration of others who have wrestled with the same issues. And those decisions are most effectively lived out in the context of Community.

Certainly a young Jewish man named Jesus understood those facts. Certainly this man whose faith was deeply personal understood that more lives than his own were affected by how he responded to the call of God in his life. Jesus came to the Jordan River to be baptized by John.

On the one hand, the decision had already been made -- even before he left home that morning. On the other hand, the decision needed to be ratified by and supported by his faith community.

So Jesus goes public with his decision. He goes to John to be baptized in the presence of other Jewish citizens, including the upstanding and the outstanding, as well as the outcast of his society. This is no personal decision that will be kept to himself. It is a public event. And the voice from heaven does not speak to Jesus, it speaks to the crowd, "This is my son" (v 17). [continue]