Generations (Baptism Sermon)

Scriptures:      Isaiah 65:17-25,   Psalm 145:1-5, 17-21

            Romans 6:1-6      Luke 1:68-79

Today is a special day in the life of Emanuel Church, because today we baptize Vanessa, daughter of Margo and Nick.  In a small congregation like ours, to welcome Vanessa into the family of faith is a great joy.  In a few moments, Vanessa’s parents and godparents will make promises on Vanessa’s behalf, to raise Vanessa in the faith, to teach her to love God, to follow in the way of Jesus and to resist the powers of evil.  And Vanessa’s parents and godparents aren’t the only ones making promises today.  We have promises to make as well, as we promise our love, support and care to Vanessa and her family.

There are two passages in the New Testament that speak of the meaning of baptism.  I Peter 3:18-22 speaks of those baptized as being saved through water, as Noah and those in the ark were saved from the flood.  The passage also speaks of baptism, not only as removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.   And Romans 6:1-6, which we read earlier in the service, speaks of baptism as dying to sin and rising to new life in Christ. 

And so today begins of Vanessa’s journey of faith. 

In a larger sense, though, Vanessa’s journey of faith is part of the great pilgrimage of faith of all God’s people that began with Adam and Eve, and that involved such leaders as Abraham and Sarah and their son Isaac and grandson Jacob, and Jacob’s son Joseph, who led his people to settle in Egypt. After the death of Joseph, Pharoah enslaved the people.  Moses led God’s people from slavery to freedom, and Joshua led them into the Promised Land. . There were the judges – both men and women – who led God’s people after Joshua’s death.  Samuel was the last and greatest of the judges, and after Samuel came King Saul, King David, King Solomon, and after the split of the ten tribes of the Northern kingdom of Israel from the two tribes of the southern kingdom of Judah, all the kings that led each of the two kingdoms until the fall of the northern kingdom to Assyria and the exile of the southern kingdom into Babylon.  After the exile, leaders such as Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah led the exiles from the southern kingdom back to Judah and rebuilt the Temple.  But Judah was later conquered by Greece and still later by Rome – and it was under the Roman occupation that a girl named Mary, engaged to a man named Joseph, conceived by the Holy Spirit and gave birth to a baby named Jesus, who taught and healed and called disciples until he was arrested as a threat to the Roman occupation and crucified – and rose again on the third day.  The teachings of Jesus spread all over the known world of the day, and ever wider as more of the world was discovered. 

Many centuries later, a small group of German immigrants gathered in 1857, and in 1861, as our nation entered into a Civil War, they established a German Reformed Church called Emanuel, which later became part of the Evangelical and Reformed Church and later the United Church of Christ.  The Rev. J. G. Neuber was their first German Reformed pastor.  Pastors such as Emanuel Boehringer, John Gantenbein, John Forster, George Meischner, Victor Steinberg, Ronald Keller and many others faithfully led this congregation through a Great Depression and two World Wars, up to the present time, as this neighborhood has changed with the passing years.   Through all that time, in the words of Psalm 145, “one generation has praised God’s works to another”.  Our longtime members can still tell you the Bible verses they memorized and the hymns they sang at their confirmation – and I still hold onto hope that some day we might again have a confirmation class here at Emanuel.  And today, Vanessa Rae Tilton becomes part of that long, long line of the faithful of all ages, as Vanessa’s parents and godparents promise to teach her to follow in the way of Jesus.

The faith of those present today was handed down by those who went before – and yet, our faith is not a hand-me-down faith, is not some time-worn relic or curio foisted on each generation like an ugly Christmas sweater, to be stuffed in the back of a dresser drawer.  Rather, each generation is encouraged to take what was taught us and make it our own, let it guide our thoughts and actions, so that the life and teachings of Jesus live on in each of us.

In our Gospel reading, Zechariah, the father of a baby who would become John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus, speaks of his hopes and dreams for his son.  And Vanessa’s parents and godparents have hopes and dreams for the person Vanessa will become.  Who knows who Vanessa will be when she grows up, or where life will take Vanessa.  But we pray that the teachings of Jesus will guide her, wherever her life’s journey leads, and that she will pass those teachings on to her children and grandchildren.   The pilgrimage of faith is like a relay race, each of us running our portion, each of us passing the baton onto those who will run when we have run our part of the race.

Our Old Testament reading from Isaiah was written in the time after the exiles returned from Babylon to Judah.  While they were grateful to be home, the work of rebuilding bogged down, and the people became discouraged.  What they thought would be a happy ending to their exile became the beginning of a new time of struggle in their own land.  Isaiah wrote to encourage them, giving them a vision of what God was creating through their efforts – a Jerusalem in which there would be no weeping or distress, where everyone would live out their full life expectancy, where everyone would have enough, where there would be peace.  And this vision from Isaiah helped to sustain the efforts to rebuild. 

We all get bogged down in the mundane details of daily life, and we can become discouraged.  We also need a vision to sustain us.  Amid the frustrations and seeming impossibilities of each day, remember that we worship a God of infinite possibilities.  Our thoughts, our words and actions each day, are like seeds, and we can only guess at what fruit they will yield. 

I’ll close with words from Hebrews 12, a passage I keep coming back to:  “ Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely,^[a] and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, ² looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of^[b] the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.”  May we run our race faithfully and well.  Amen.