Readings
Isaiah 43: 1-7
The context of this section of Isaiah deals with the return from exile in Babylon to Judah. Verses 3 and 4 refer to the parts of Africa that had been conquered by the Persians and verses 5 and 7 describe a return from all directions. We know that people were taken into exile in Babylon, but they would have undoubtedly spread to all parts of the Babylonian empire, so Isaiah is predicting a return of Jews from all parts of the empire, just as Jews returned to Israel after World War Two and in doing so displaced the Palestinian people.
As time passes and different ethnic groups become unwanted where they have been exiled to, returning seems a good idea but inevitably things change and returning can displace others.

Luke 3: 15-17, 21-22
We now read the story of Jesus’ baptism from Luke’s gospel. Fred Craddock draws attention to the key phrase ‘the heavens were opened up’ and says that is the reason why the church has long understood the baptism accounts in the gospels as epiphany texts. They are about the proclamation of God’s Christ in the world.
In the first verse of chapter 64 Isaiah prays to Yahweh ‘O that you would tear open the heavens and come down’ and in stating that ‘the heavens were opened up at Jesus’ baptism’ Luke is saying that in Jesus that prayer is answered.
The words from the heavenly voice declaring ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased’ are drawn from Psalm 2 verse 7 which is used at the coronation of Israel’s king and from Isaiah 42:1 which is a description of the servant of God. As with other sections of the Gospel Luke brings those extra meanings into the text to show that what happened at Jesus’ baptism was part of the people’s religious tradition, a new exodus within the exodus tradition of revelation and guidance.
The final important point Craddock makes is that the heavens opened, the Spirit descended, and the voice affirmed, after Jesus was baptised and while he was praying.

Sermon
In this episode Luke brings Jesus into the new people of God through the Baptism of John and thereby gives a Gospel affirmation for baptism as the entry ritual for the church.
We can go through what Luke says about Jesus’ baptism and ponder what the subtle differences in the other Gospel accounts might mean. That will help us understand the importance of baptism in the history and order of the church. However, I suspect the real challenge is to contemplate what baptism means to us and how it helps us live as Christ to others as part of the worldwide Church. Even more significant perhaps we should ask if our baptism helps us to be truly human in the family of all humanity.
There is little doubt that Baptism has been the entry ritual for various branches of the church and people have been brutally executed for refusing to be baptised into the church or into what others considered to be the true church.
Closer to home I can remember vigorous argument in the General Assembly about the value of infant baptism by a sprinkle of water compared with the total immersion of an adolescent or adult. There were even more passionate arguments about baptising by immersion someone who had been sprinkled as an infant.
One of the lessons we can learn from church history is that, just like John the Baptist’ audience, there are those in the church that he or we could describe as a brood of vipers.
I was taken to an Anglican Church to be sprinkled as an infant by agnostic parents and I can only speculate about their motives. I was their only child, and I have no doubt they wanted the best of everything for me. That’s why my father put me on the list to go to Whanganui Collegiate as soon as I was born. It took 13 years for my socialist mother and I to convince him that State Education is best and I needed to go to Horowhenua College with my mates.
My mother having been a Queens Guide sent me off to Scouts as soon as I was 11 and they certainly had an entry ritual. That involved learning the Scout Law and Promise and showing competence in tying a reef knot, a bowline and lighting a fire with two matches. I also had to stand in front of the whole troupe and recite the Scout Promise.
At JCs we used to regularly recite the JC creed although the only line I still hold in my heart is that service to others is the best work of life. As far as the moto of the Boy Scouts is concerned, I now seem to need to be repaired rather than prepared.
Not surprisingly I have absolutely no memory of my baptism although I still have the certificate somewhere and I do remember being told that I was Christened. The miracle of that event however was that I always felt I belonged. When I had to fill in my religion on Scout forms, I always put Anglican. Eventually, a sweet sixteen Girl Guide finally convinced me I was wrong.
However, looking back on my early life that sense of belonging influenced the way I behaved to others, the decisions I made, the issues I cared about, the questions I asked. Then one strange night when walking through a patch of bush in the company of other I felt embraced by an overpowering presence and knew that John the Baptist was right. He baptised with water but the Risen Christ baptises with the Holy Spirit and fills us with a fire of enthusiasm, not to be part of the church, but part of the family of all humanity. An enthusiasm to live as Christ to others as part of the new people of God. Not as a special people who are better than others but a people capable of showing the world what it is to be truly human.
In contrast to being truly human Luke precedes these passages we read this morning with John haranguing the crowd. In so doing John outlines some of the practices which makes them, and indeed contemporary humanity, much less than a godly people.
John calls members of his audience ‘a brood of vipers’ and we could well apply such a metaphor to developers that collect a deposit to build a home then wind up their company leaving their customer without a home and without their life savings. It’s even hard to turn on your computer or your phone these days without some snake slithering in suggesting you need to register your car or renew your subscription to something you never subscribed to. The list could go on and on and just as John was unimpressed neither are we, like him we would like people to repent such activity.
However, John says being sorry on its own is not enough. People have to bear fruit worthy of repentance, and he uses some very uncomfortable metaphors likes axes and fires to warn them to rethink their lifestyle. He was making the point that its not just a point of being born into a particular people. Folk have to choose to be Godly people and our baptism should be a continual reminder of making that choice.
John exhorts his audience to share with those who are less fortunate and not to use positions of power to collect bribes or run protection rackets. John does not specifically mention internet scams, gang patches, or even blatant disregard for the environment.
But John’s list has the same characteristics as any contemporary list we might make of humanity’s misdemeanours.
In fact most nights after watching the news we could easily join Isaiah in prayer and say with Isaiah ‘O that you would tear open the heavens and come down’
But The gospel, or good news, that Luke brings us is that God answered that prayer. According to Luke the heavens were torn open. The divine voice not only declared a unique relationship with Jesus but said God was pleased with Jesus and the Holy Spirit came down from heaven and alighted on Jesus.
We don’t get the full picture of that until we read the whole Gospel and the sequel Acts but the Holy Spirit, as the empowering agent of the new people of God, is very important to Luke. In this first appearance it comes from heaven into Jesus. After Jesus’ death the resurrected Christ, the bearer of this Spirit that arrived at Baptism, is taken up to heaven. Then at Pentecost Christ sends the spirit, no longer dovelike but divided as of tongues of fire, upon the disciples commissioning them as Apostles, the ambassadors of Christ.
As with all Gospels it is the theology rather than the happenstance that is important to the gospel writer.
These are stories about ideas so let’s look closer at the sequence of events at Jesus’ baptism as Luke presents them along with the important difference to the other gospel writers.
Mark writes that ‘And Just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the spirit descending like a dove on him’.
Matthew precedes the account with a discussion on whether it is right for John to baptise Jesus but then he pretty much follows Mark.
John has the Baptist describe Jesus’ baptism to the crowd ‘And John testified, ‘I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.” Note that in Mark it is Jesus that sees the heavens open, the spirit descend and hears the voice, but in John’s Gospel it is the Baptist that sees and reports.
The particular distinction that Luke makes however is in verse 21 where he writes, ‘now when all the people were baptised, and when Jesus also had been baptised and was praying, the heaven was opened.’
Luke says that Jesus is baptised within a crowd of people and the spiritual experience of empowerment and vision happens as Jesus was praying after his baptism.
These readings remind us that it is that post baptismal experience of prayer and reflection that keeps us in contact with the Divine Spirit and the continued challenge of being a people of God.
Our baptism is the church’s recognition that we belong and our acknowledgement that we accept the church’s guidance. Just like I promised to obey the Scout Law we take guidance from the church rules, although as Presbyterians we reserve the right to debate those rules when the church meets in prayer at Assembly. We read the Bible just like I read Scouting For Boys and Rovering for Success.
The memories of who we have been and the organisations we have belonged to are important to us all, but the memory and the message of our baptism should always be that we have promised or been promised to be a new people of God.
Part of a people whose lives bear the divine fruit in all we do and our world changes as we each live as Christ to others.