St John 3:1-17/Isaiah 6:1-7/Romans 11:33-36
Holy Baptism of Janae Tyshae Jamice Anderson
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
Today is Holy Trinity Sunday. It is also the Holy Baptism of Janae. And so you are given to confess two Creeds, two ancient statements of faith of the historic Christian Church. The Apostle’s Creed, that Baptismal profession, is simple and concise. The Athanasian Creed is lengthier, more elaborate, and technical in its language. Yet they are in agreement. By the recitation of both you believe and confess the evangelical, catholic, and orthodox faith. This is the faith once for all delivered to the saints. Hold fast this confession, my friends, for it shall save you.
But the recitation of these Creeds today and the Baptismal questions asked of the little ones may give some the impression that knowledge is the means of entrance into the Christian faith; that intellect or decision is how one enters the kingdom of God.
This is false. It is not by reason or strength that one enters the kingdom of God. Rather the Holy Spirit calls and enlightens you by the preaching of the Word of the Gospel, which is the forgiveness of sins in Christ Jesus. Indeed our Lord calls the little children to Himself, for of such is the kingdom of heaven; and unless you turn and become like a little child, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Nicodemus thought he had it all figured out. He had evaluated Jesus on the basis of what he knew. His preliminary conclusion is flattering and complimentary, Rabbi we know that You are a teacher come from God. He is learned, studied, and eloquent. Yet for all that he is ignorant and naïve. And Jesus has to stop him in his tracks and take him to school; not for academic information, though, but to be entirely reborn by water and the Spirit, because Nicodemus was in the dark.
You also were in the dark. For you were conceived in sin and born under the Law, blind to the kingdom of God, as was said of Janae. Indeed we would be lost forever unless delivered from sin, death, and everlasting condemnation. For we are, all of us, men of unclean lips who dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.
Yet today Janae have been born again by water and the Spirit; that is, she have been given new birth from above by the Word of the Lord. God has become her Father who is in heaven. Christ is her brother in the flesh. And the Spirit who breathed life into her by the Name of the Holy Trinity, has made her body His temple. By the mystery of Holy Baptism she has entered the kingdom of God, through the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus.
All of this is the gracious good work of the Holy Trinity for you, His gift. You could not recognize it, nor even receive it, by your own perception and insight. The kingdom of God does not come by any ingenuity or understanding of yours. It becomes all the more impossible for you, as it was for Nicodemus, to see or understand the kingdom when it comes down to the Sign that Jesus performs in the hour of His glory: His crucifixion. There upon the Cross Jesus glorifies the Father’s Name. But He surely does not look like a teacher sent from God, rather, like a Serpent lifted up on a pole, in suffering and agony. But it is His Cross and Passion, first of all, that Christ is lifted up for you, in order to atone for your sins, to call you to Himself, and to bring you with Himself back to the Father in heaven.
It is through His death that you are born again, unto life with God. There is no resurrection or ascension for you except by the Cross of Christ. As it is written, From Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever.
None of this is within your own natural grasp. You could not see it, nor comprehend any of it, much less believe it. Nor can you even now by any will or wisdom of your own heart and mind. No matter if you be sixty years old or six.
So how, then? How do you look to the Son of Man, lifted up for you, with the eyes of faith and so believe in Him that you may have eternal life? How does God’s kingdom come?
It comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word. Like a fiery angel from heaven, God sends His pastors to carry the cleansing coal of Christ, the very Word made flesh. For the Spirit who breathes were He wills, is given to you in the preached Word of Christ. He speaks of what He knows and bears witness to what He has seen. That is, God the Holy Spirit proclaims Christ to you. He calls you by the Gospel, enlightens you with His gifts, sanctified and keeps you in the true faith, unto life everlasting. That is the essential key to everything, by which you enter the kingdom of God through Christ Jesus the incarnate Son. The Spirit reveals Him.
For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has given a gift to Him that He might be repaid? None. Not Isaiah, not Nicodemus, not Janae, not you. Holy Baptism is not your gift to God; not the proof by which you evidence faith. Holy Baptism is the blessed gift of new birth granted you by the grace of the Father through the Son by the Spirit. Holy Baptism bestows faith, which is itself a gift.
The coal touched Isaiah’s lips and he believed the promise of forgiveness; he participated in the atoning sacrifice. Also Nicodemus, who had spurned the baptism of St John and here rejects the Word of Jesus, would later host fast to the atoning Cross of Christ in hope. So too Janae – the burning coal of Holy Baptism has cleansed her. Christ who atoned for her sin and takes away their guilt, has put Himself in Holy Baptism, the washing of water with the Word.
So too has He given you the new birth from above.
Today the Church has become her Mother in Christ, having given birth to them from the womb of the font. God Himself is her Father; she His own dear children. They do not have the Father without the Mother. One does not have the Lord his God apart from His Bride, the Church. To say it another way, one does not have his Father’s eyes, unless he has his Mother’s ears.
So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. Do not suppose that you can lay hold of heavenly things apart from earthly means. Do not suppose that you may be a Christian apart from the body of Christ. You won’t. You can’t.
But the Holy Spirit performs His work upon you with the earthly things that you can see and touch and handle and taste. That is, the Holy Spirit is actively present and at work within the Church on earth, speaking the Gospel to you by earthly ways and means. Here He is breathed upon you from the Cross of Christ in the Word of forgiveness, in Water, in the Body and the Blood.
You cannot see the Spirit with your eyes. You cannot predetermine His comings and goings. Do not even try. But you do hear His Voice, because He calls your by the Gospel our of the darkness into the Light; out of the nighttime of your sin and death and unbelief, into the Day of the Lord.
You have received Him, that is the Holy Trinity, in Holy Baptism. By His grace you believe on His Name. He has made you His children, born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but begotten from above by God Himself.
And as Nicodemus would eventually learn, the children of God speak the language of God their Father in the tongue of the Church their Mother. Thus do you confess the Creeds. The mystery of the Holy Trinity is not comprehended by intellect, but is received by faith and spoken back to God in praise and before and with your brothers and sisters in Christ. And here your confession and song is joined to that of the angels and archangels, singing, Holy, Holy, Holy the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!
And at the Last, He who lifted Christ Jesus up, shall lift you up from your graves, having breathed life into you by His Spirit, and bring you into His kingdom forever and ever.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Holy Baptism of Janae Tyshae Jamice Anderson
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
Today is Holy Trinity Sunday. It is also the Holy Baptism of Janae. And so you are given to confess two Creeds, two ancient statements of faith of the historic Christian Church. The Apostle’s Creed, that Baptismal profession, is simple and concise. The Athanasian Creed is lengthier, more elaborate, and technical in its language. Yet they are in agreement. By the recitation of both you believe and confess the evangelical, catholic, and orthodox faith. This is the faith once for all delivered to the saints. Hold fast this confession, my friends, for it shall save you.
But the recitation of these Creeds today and the Baptismal questions asked of the little ones may give some the impression that knowledge is the means of entrance into the Christian faith; that intellect or decision is how one enters the kingdom of God.
This is false. It is not by reason or strength that one enters the kingdom of God. Rather the Holy Spirit calls and enlightens you by the preaching of the Word of the Gospel, which is the forgiveness of sins in Christ Jesus. Indeed our Lord calls the little children to Himself, for of such is the kingdom of heaven; and unless you turn and become like a little child, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Nicodemus thought he had it all figured out. He had evaluated Jesus on the basis of what he knew. His preliminary conclusion is flattering and complimentary, Rabbi we know that You are a teacher come from God. He is learned, studied, and eloquent. Yet for all that he is ignorant and naïve. And Jesus has to stop him in his tracks and take him to school; not for academic information, though, but to be entirely reborn by water and the Spirit, because Nicodemus was in the dark.
You also were in the dark. For you were conceived in sin and born under the Law, blind to the kingdom of God, as was said of Janae. Indeed we would be lost forever unless delivered from sin, death, and everlasting condemnation. For we are, all of us, men of unclean lips who dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.
Yet today Janae have been born again by water and the Spirit; that is, she have been given new birth from above by the Word of the Lord. God has become her Father who is in heaven. Christ is her brother in the flesh. And the Spirit who breathed life into her by the Name of the Holy Trinity, has made her body His temple. By the mystery of Holy Baptism she has entered the kingdom of God, through the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus.
All of this is the gracious good work of the Holy Trinity for you, His gift. You could not recognize it, nor even receive it, by your own perception and insight. The kingdom of God does not come by any ingenuity or understanding of yours. It becomes all the more impossible for you, as it was for Nicodemus, to see or understand the kingdom when it comes down to the Sign that Jesus performs in the hour of His glory: His crucifixion. There upon the Cross Jesus glorifies the Father’s Name. But He surely does not look like a teacher sent from God, rather, like a Serpent lifted up on a pole, in suffering and agony. But it is His Cross and Passion, first of all, that Christ is lifted up for you, in order to atone for your sins, to call you to Himself, and to bring you with Himself back to the Father in heaven.
It is through His death that you are born again, unto life with God. There is no resurrection or ascension for you except by the Cross of Christ. As it is written, From Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever.
None of this is within your own natural grasp. You could not see it, nor comprehend any of it, much less believe it. Nor can you even now by any will or wisdom of your own heart and mind. No matter if you be sixty years old or six.
So how, then? How do you look to the Son of Man, lifted up for you, with the eyes of faith and so believe in Him that you may have eternal life? How does God’s kingdom come?
It comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word. Like a fiery angel from heaven, God sends His pastors to carry the cleansing coal of Christ, the very Word made flesh. For the Spirit who breathes were He wills, is given to you in the preached Word of Christ. He speaks of what He knows and bears witness to what He has seen. That is, God the Holy Spirit proclaims Christ to you. He calls you by the Gospel, enlightens you with His gifts, sanctified and keeps you in the true faith, unto life everlasting. That is the essential key to everything, by which you enter the kingdom of God through Christ Jesus the incarnate Son. The Spirit reveals Him.
For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has given a gift to Him that He might be repaid? None. Not Isaiah, not Nicodemus, not Janae, not you. Holy Baptism is not your gift to God; not the proof by which you evidence faith. Holy Baptism is the blessed gift of new birth granted you by the grace of the Father through the Son by the Spirit. Holy Baptism bestows faith, which is itself a gift.
The coal touched Isaiah’s lips and he believed the promise of forgiveness; he participated in the atoning sacrifice. Also Nicodemus, who had spurned the baptism of St John and here rejects the Word of Jesus, would later host fast to the atoning Cross of Christ in hope. So too Janae – the burning coal of Holy Baptism has cleansed her. Christ who atoned for her sin and takes away their guilt, has put Himself in Holy Baptism, the washing of water with the Word.
So too has He given you the new birth from above.
Today the Church has become her Mother in Christ, having given birth to them from the womb of the font. God Himself is her Father; she His own dear children. They do not have the Father without the Mother. One does not have the Lord his God apart from His Bride, the Church. To say it another way, one does not have his Father’s eyes, unless he has his Mother’s ears.
So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. Do not suppose that you can lay hold of heavenly things apart from earthly means. Do not suppose that you may be a Christian apart from the body of Christ. You won’t. You can’t.
But the Holy Spirit performs His work upon you with the earthly things that you can see and touch and handle and taste. That is, the Holy Spirit is actively present and at work within the Church on earth, speaking the Gospel to you by earthly ways and means. Here He is breathed upon you from the Cross of Christ in the Word of forgiveness, in Water, in the Body and the Blood.
You cannot see the Spirit with your eyes. You cannot predetermine His comings and goings. Do not even try. But you do hear His Voice, because He calls your by the Gospel our of the darkness into the Light; out of the nighttime of your sin and death and unbelief, into the Day of the Lord.
You have received Him, that is the Holy Trinity, in Holy Baptism. By His grace you believe on His Name. He has made you His children, born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but begotten from above by God Himself.
And as Nicodemus would eventually learn, the children of God speak the language of God their Father in the tongue of the Church their Mother. Thus do you confess the Creeds. The mystery of the Holy Trinity is not comprehended by intellect, but is received by faith and spoken back to God in praise and before and with your brothers and sisters in Christ. And here your confession and song is joined to that of the angels and archangels, singing, Holy, Holy, Holy the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!
And at the Last, He who lifted Christ Jesus up, shall lift you up from your graves, having breathed life into you by His Spirit, and bring you into His kingdom forever and ever.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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