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).

(An interesting footnote here is that from his baptism, Jesus heads straight into the desert wilderness to be alone. It is in the wilderness that he hears another voice -- and this is NOT the voice of God. The voice of God in the wilderness comes from Jesus' quotations of the scriptures. In Jesus' day it was clear that 'getting away from the crowd' could easily mean 'getting away from God' as well.)

On more than one occasion, I have been asked to baptize someone in a private setting. On Sept 13, 1986, I baptized Cecil Atwell in a hospital room in Fredonia, Kansas. He died three days later. Three months later I baptized Lacey Dawn Burns. Lacey had been born without internal organs and died within hours of her birth.

Clearly these were cases where my presence as pastor brought the sense of community into the lives of these people and their families. The decision to be baptized or to have someone baptized was taken seriously though a community of faith could not be present to witness the act nor was there time to seek out that community in the process of making the decision.

On another occasion, the person who was being baptized was embarrassed by it and did not want a public display. To him it was a private matter, between himself and God, a matter that did not need the attention of others.

To me it was not. I suggested that we do it at the lake so that a smaller crowd would be present, but he insisted on using the Church building. In our discussion, we finally agreed to a baptism AFTER church with the knowledge and blessing of the church body so that there was a sense that the community had supported him in this decision.

Harold's reluctance to have a public baptism made me even more aware of the fact that our society has changed the Christian faith in unhealthy ways. We no longer want to make public statements of faith. We no longer want to openly confess our faith. And we no longer draw strength from other pilgrims of the Christian faith.

Jesus came to John and submitted to his authority. "Let it be so now . . . to fulfill righteousness" (v 15). Jesus' ministry was filled with examples of serving other people. He healed the sick. He raised the dead. He gave respect to the outcast.

In this particular passage we get a glimpse of a man who has willingly submitted his own authority to that of another. John himself had said that "one more powerful . . . is coming" (v 11) whose sandals he was not qualified to carry.

That 'one' was Jesus. Yet Jesus took the inferior position and allowed John to give the commands as he took Jesus into the water and plunged him beneath the surface of the water.

How many of you have been baptized by immersion? While it is not the traditional baptism of United Methodism, it is recognized and can be a very powerful experience. In January, 1976, I was baptized in the Stillaguamish River in Arlington, Washington. I remember the sensation of being under the water and knowing that the weight of my body was now in my pastor's hands. My pastor reported afterward that he almost lost his footing and nearly dropped me into the river.

Being baptized in a river brings with it the sensation that you are not in control. Perhaps Jesus gave into the power of John and allowed himself to be out of control for a few moments. In so doing, Jesus models for us what it means to be a servant, to willingly take direction from another person and to freely give them control over our lives.

Jesus not only invites us to give him control of our lives, he also invites us to serve others. But servanthood cannot be done in isolation, either. The invitation of God is to serve other people, to love God by loving other people; neither of which can be done effectively as an individual. We need to remain in community.

Anyone who has experienced crisis in their lives will attest to this fact. Those who are surrounded by friends and family are much more comfortable, much less troubled, and seem to face the most impossible tasks with a sense of confidence. Those who are alone are the most frightened the ones who are in the most pain, the ones who seem to suffer the most.

People who are in community at the time of crisis have the prayer support of others -- a support that makes an incredible difference. People who are in community at the time of personal crisis know that they are not alone and find strength and comfort in their personal crisis -- whether anyone knows they are in crisis or not.

The community of faith, the Church, is also stronger when faced with crisis. When an individual faces crisis -- whether that be the death of a loved one, the trauma of divorce, or a major medical crisis -- the Community of Faith is given the opportunity to respond with love and prayer. We draw together and lend our support to others.

Without a community, there would be no one to serve. Without a person to serve, we cannot be servants. When we are not servants, we have missed one of the key concepts of the Gospel of Jesus. We simply cannot be a faithful witness of Jesus the Christ without a sense of community in which to act and react. And those who try it lose out. At the same time, they deny the rest of us the opportunity to play the role of servant to them.

Being a servant is what Jesus taught us to do and to be. Being a servant is how Jesus fulfilled righteousness in his day and it is how he invites us to fulfill it today.

Certainly this is a private, personal decision. Certainly it will affect our personal and private lives. But it is nothing if it is not done within the context of community and in the presence of fellow servants. I do not mean to suggest that we must always and everywhere make a public display of our faith. It is often more appropriate that we keep things to ourselves lest we become overtaken by our own pride.

But let us not allow our pride to keep us from being public in our faith, either. Today we will welcome into our community of faith two new people. They both come to us by transfer from another church. As they make a public statement about their faith I invite you to remember your own profession of faith and to reflect upon how public you have been and how you may grow by experiencing more community in your life. Amen.