One Matthew 3: 13-17 and Acts 10: 34-43 January 12, 2014 (Baptism of the Lord Sunday) Rev.

Deborah Dail Denbigh United Presbyterian Church Matthew 3: 13-17 13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. 14John would have prevented him, saying, I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? 15But Jesus answered him, Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfil all righteousness. Then he consented. 16And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17And a voice from heaven said, This is my Son, the Beloved,* with whom I am well pleased. Acts 10: 34-43 Then Peter began to speak to them: I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christhe is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living
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and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. Sermon Sometimes its helpful to have the back story for a scripture reading. Heres what happened before todays reading from Acts. It must have been a real shocker for both Peter and Cornelius. Im sure they both had rather ordinary days planned. But both of their agendas were disrupted by God by Gods agenda. You know how that can be. You have your to-do list. Youre going to accomplish everything on the list. Then the phone rings. Someone needs your help. Someone needs to talk. Someone needs a ride. Someone forgot his lunch. There goes your agenda. Cornelius, a military officer, was a Gentile a non-Jew. He and his family believed in God. He was a man of prayer. He was generous to the poor. Did I mention he was a Gentile? On an ordinary day about three in the afternoon, Cornelius agenda was disrupted by God. He had a vision. In the vision an angel told him to send men to Joppa to find a man named Simon Peter and bring him to Cornelius home. Cornelius did as the angel said. Over in Joppa, Peter had gone up on a roof to pray. This was part of Peters agenda for his day. But so much for agendas. Like Cornelius, Peter had a vision a strange vision. In his vision he was told to eat foods that the scriptures said were off-limits for faithful Jews. Was he being told to break the rules? In his vision, Peter heard these words: Dont consider anything unclean that God has declared clean. I imagine that from the outset Peter figured the vision was about more than food. Sure enough, as he was pondering the visions meaning, the men Cornelius had sent to Joppa showed up to invite Peter to Cornelius house. And the Spirit told Peter Dont hesitate to
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go. You see, Peter (as a Jew) would not have visited in the home of a Gentile under normal circumstances. Gentiles were unclean. Peter was obedient to Gods agenda, rather than his own. He went to Cornelius home and there said to everyone gathered: I truly understand that God shows no partiality. Jesus Christ he is the Lord of all. Peter went on to share the Gospel message with Cornelius and the others who were gathered. As Peter was speaking, the Holy Spirit came upon the Gentiles just as the Holy Spirit had come upon the Jews at Pentecost. And Peter asked: Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. The church was to include all who called upon the name of the Lord all who are made right with God not through their own merits but through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Because God shows no partiality, neither should we. When we think back to Jesus baptism and his ministry we know that Jesus came to save the world not just some of the world. Jesus offended and angered his fellow Jews by breaking the rules by building relationships with, talking to, eating with and loving Gentiles. He included people that others wanted excluded. You see many of the Jews of Jesus day understood their relationship with God to be exclusive. They understood themselves to be privileged. They thought God was for them and no one else. They had misunderstood what it means to be set apart. They got confused, thinking they were set apart for privilege rather than responsibility. They got confused, thinking they had been set apart from others rather than set apart for others and for Gods work whatever that work might be.

Jesus radically challenged this notion. When Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist he was set apart for his ministry. He was not set apart from others. He was set apart for others. Jesus modeled for us what it looks like to be baptized and set apart set apart for others. Jesus modeled for us what it means to include all people even when it was unpopular. Jesus was once preaching to a group and they were very happy with him until he said that he had come for all people. After that they wanted to throw him off a cliff. As we start this New Year . . . as we start our life together as Denbigh United, we must ask ourselves if there are any people wed rather not include in the church. Is it the young people or is it the old people? Is it the rich people or the poor people? Is it the liberals or conservatives? Is it the people of color or the person with white skin? Is it the people who dress a particular way or speak a particular way or act a particular way? Are there people wed rather not include in the church? God has a way of disrupting our agendas and not just our daily activity agendas. God has a way of disrupting our personal agendas our thinking, our priorities, our ideas of how things should be. Is God asking us to reconsider who weve called unclean . . . unacceptable . . . too much trouble . . . not one of us? Today as we remember Jesus baptism and ministry, we are challenged to serve as he did. We are challenged to include as he included, to love as he loved, to give as he gave. In the moments ahead we will be invited to affirm one of our own as an officer leader in this church called to serve all. Then, we will have an opportunity to recommit our lives to Christ and his service. We will renew our promises to God made at our baptisms. I pray as we do that we will be open to God rearranging our agendas and our thinking as we remember that Jesus is Lord of all.
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