{"id":8605,"date":"2023-01-17T05:48:14","date_gmt":"2023-01-17T12:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=8605"},"modified":"2023-01-17T05:54:45","modified_gmt":"2023-01-17T12:54:45","slug":"certainly-means-certainty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=8605","title":{"rendered":"
\u201cCertainly\u201d means \u201ccertainty\u201d<\/div>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Click here for a pdf version.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A sermon on Baptism for the Season of Epiphany<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2 Kings 5:1-14; Romans 6:5<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After we have celebrated a Baptism, we ask ourselves: \u201cWhat did we do?\u201d It didn\u2019t take very long. Only a few minutes. There was speaking and a candle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Small Catechism Luther asks: \u201cHow can water do such great things?\u201d That\u2019s why this account in 2 Kings about this General in Syria is so useful here. It\u2019s important to remember how Naaman had leprosy. That was a terrible disease. He was the Commanding General of the Army, and there was nothing he could do about it. But Naaman\u2019s wife had a little slave girl from Israel, and she said to her mistress: \u201cWhy don\u2019t they go to the prophet in Israel? He could heal him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naaman went to the king of Syria and said: \u201cGive me permission to go.\u201d He took a gift of about $10,000 and went to the king of Israel and said: \u201cHeal me.\u201d And the King of Israel said: \u201cI don\u2019t know how to do that. You\u2019re just trying to make trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But fortunately one of the servants of the King of Israel said: \u201cThere\u2019s Elisha down the road. He can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naaman took his gift and his entourage and went down to see Elisha, but Elisha sent his servant to meet Naaman and the servant said: \u201cGo to the River Jordan and dip yourself seven times.\u201d Naaman got mad! \u201cWhat in the world? If Elisha had come himself and waved his hand over me or something.\u201d Naaman thought: \u201cDon\u2019t we have good rivers in Syria, just as good as here?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But fortunately one of Naaman\u2019s servants said to him: \u201cIf he had asked you to do some big thing, you would have done it, so why not go?\u201d Naaman went and he did this and he was healed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We may at first say about Baptism: \u201cIt\u2019s not very much; it\u2019s not very long; it\u2019s sort of trivial.\u201d We know that sometimes a baby in an incubator is baptized with just a drop or two of water because that is all that can be done. Yet if you are in the Russian Orthodox Church, the baby is dunked nine times, three times for each member of the Trinity! And some Baptists have big pools in their sanctuaries for Baptism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it is not a matter of being a big thing or a little thing; what matters is that the Lord is doing this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another thing that is important is that one\u2019s Baptism is an important day. We all know our birthdays. It is sometimes said: \u201cYour birthday is the first day of the rest of your life!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what happens in Baptism is that this is the first day of living together forever in the Lord. It\u2019s really far more important than the day you were born in the usual way. This is the beginning of the gift of faith, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the gift of being adopted as a son or daughter of the Lord, and the gift of being in him forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We generally don\u2019t realize that sin and death are the same thing. When we talk about Baptism, we\u2019re talking about death and what this means and how we look at it and how Baptism in the Lord is what it\u2019s about, to have life forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does the Lord do it? He does it with his Word. You remember the first chapter of Genesis; it says: \u201cHe spoke and it was done.\u201d The same is true in the storm in Mark 4:35-41. The disciples thought they were going to drown, and Jesus spoke to the storm and said: \u201cPeace, be still!\u201d And the storm stopped. Or at the door of the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus said: \u201cLazarus, come out!\u201d (John 11:43), and he came out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is spelled out in Isaiah 55:11, which says: \u201cMy Word . . . shall accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.\u201d And finally in John 1:14: \u201cThe Word became flesh and dwelt among us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does that apply to us here and now? It comes to us here and now and it\u2019s specifically spelled out in Romans 10:17: \u201cFaith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the preaching of Christ.\u201d It is that which God does to us, not something we do, not even saying: \u201cHe gives, but you have to receive the gift.\u201d No, he\u2019s the one who does it because that\u2019s what it means for him to be Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two things that go with this. The first has to do with Mark 10. Jesus was blessing little children and then he gave this command: \u201cUnless you become like a little child, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven\u201d (Mark 10:15). Therefore adult baptism is simply deferred infant Baptism. What it is really about is that the Lord does it and we don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there\u2019s the Lord\u2019s command at the end of the Gospel of Matthew: \u201cGo into all the world . . . baptize . . . and teach\u201d (Matt 28:19-20).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then there\u2019s the key promise in Romans 6:5: \u201cIf we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.\u201d The key word is \u201ccertainly.\u201d (The Greek idiom requires the word \u201ccertainly.\u201d) What\u2019s different about God\u2019s promise is that when the Lord makes a promise, that\u2019s what happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once again: \u201cIf we have been united with him in a death like his, which is referring here to baptism, then we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his\u201d (Romans 6:5).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Luther: \u201cFinally, we are not primarily concerned whether the baptized person believes or not, for in the latter case Baptism does not become invalid. Everything depends upon the Word and commandment of God. This, perhaps, is a rather subtle point, but it is based upon what I have already said, that Baptism is simply water and God\u2019s Word in and with each other; that is, when the Word accompanies the water Baptism is valid even though faith be lacking. For my faith does not constitute Baptism but receives it. Baptism does not become invalid even if it is wrongly received or used, for it is bound not to our faith but to the Word . . . As we said, even if infants did not believe\u2014which, however, is not the case, as we have proved\u2014still their Baptism would be valid and no one should rebaptize them.\u201d [LC Part 4: Infant Baptism, 52-53, 55] Tappert)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about all those people who aren\u2019t baptized? In the United States about 40% of the people are outside of the Christian church. We are a mission country. This is a real problem. We say: \u201cThey do their thing and we do ours.\u201d What do we say to this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are three things that we say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first is: We have to point out for those who are not baptized, there is no promise, no certainty. We can\u2019t say the certainty is there because the promise goes with doing what the Lord has commanded. For the unbaptized, there\u2019s no certainty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second thing we say is: \u201cThat\u2019s the Lord\u2019s problem, not our problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third thing is that we continually fall into the problem of saying: \u201cBut he has to do it this way!\u201d Or: \u201cHe has to do it that way!\u201d We end up trying to manipulate the Lord by saying: \u201cWell, of course, Baptism doesn\u2019t matter. It\u2019s just a trivial thing.\u201d Or: \u201cIt\u2019s all ritual; just religious talk.\u201d We try to manipulate and manage the Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our response to that kind of thinking is: \u201cWe leave that up to the Lord,\u201d but we cannot imply that it doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A sermon on Baptism for the Season of Epiphany<\/p>\n

2 Kings 5:1-14; Romans 6:5<\/p>\n

After we have celebrated a Baptism, we ask ourselves: \u201cWhat did we do?\u201d It didn\u2019t take very long. Only a few minutes. There was speaking and a candle.<\/p>\n

In the Small Catechism Luther asks: \u201cHow can water do such great things?\u201d That\u2019s why this account in 2 Kings about this General in Syria is so useful here. It\u2019s important to remember how Naaman had leprosy. That was a terrible disease. He was the Commanding General of the Army, and there was nothing he could do about it. But Naaman\u2019s wife had a little slave girl from Israel, and she said to her mistress: \u201cWhy don\u2019t they go to the prophet in Israel? He could heal him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Select here<\/a> to read more or here <\/a>for a pdf document.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8605"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8615,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8605\/revisions\/8615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}