In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
"In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." You can always think of baptism when you hear those words. In Titus 3:4-7, St. Paul helps us understand that connection between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit and our baptism. January 10, 2010.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And the people in the pews are hushed as they look up and wonder, “Is the aging professor finally beginning to repeat himself?” Well, I suppose that day is coming, but I’m still with it as of this morning. Actually, I meant to say those words twice and now I’ll say them again, “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” We know those words, don’t we? We hear them in church again and again. The pastor stands at the front of the altar after the opening hymn and says, “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” We confess our sins and then, as a called servant of Christ and by Christ’s authority, the pastor forgives our sins in the name of Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The pastor cups water in his hand and pours it over the head of a child or an adult and says, “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
The truth is, you can always think of baptism when you hear those words. Jesus was the one who used them the first time when he said, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” We even call that sentence the baptismal formula. When we begin the service with those words we remember that we are coming to worship God as his baptized children. When we confess our sins, we want to kill the sinful nature that sticks to us just like our sinful nature was drowned in the waters of baptism. When the pastor forgives our sins he does the same thing Jesus did when we were baptized, and that why he says I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Martin Luther suggested that we begin our morning prayers and our evening prayers by remembering our baptism and by saying, “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
Where does this idea come from, this connection between baptism and the Holy Trinity? What was Jesus’ point when he commanded us to baptize in the name of the Triune God? What do we want to remember when we hear the words in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit and remember our baptism?
Jesus often spoke about his relationship with his heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit. Do you remember that late night conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus, the conversation that ended with Jesus’ famous words, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…?” You know how the passage ends. Jesus spoke clearly that night about the work he did together with the Father and the Spirit. In the long conversation he had with his disciples the night before he died Jesus spoke again about the same relationship. But there was only one time during Jesus’ life on earth when the Father and the Spirit were both present with Jesus to be actually seen and heard, and that was at his baptism. There were other times when the Father spoke; we remember that mountain where Jesus pulled back the veil of his human nature and was transfigured; the Father spoke there. But at Jesus baptism we hear the Father and we see the Spirit and we watch the Son of God standing in the Jordan River as human being named Jesus. You heard it in the Gospel, When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” We sang about this in the hymn of the day: “The Father’s Word, the Spirit’s flight anointed Christ in glorious sight.” There, at Jesus’ baptism, when he begins his work as Savior, are the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
But there is more, more to this connection between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit and our baptism. St. Paul is going to help us understand that connection in the second lesson for today. The words of the lesson come from a letter Paul wrote to a young pastor named Titus who was doing ministry on the island of Crete (that’s just south of Greece). The work wasn’t easy. There were troublemakers on the island, and Paul had some sharp words for them. He called them detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good. Whoa. Not good. But Paul had something more to say and it’s a bombshell, “At one time we, too, were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.”
We too? Who’s the we here? When Paul wrote “we”, who was he talking about? Was he talking about himself, was he talking about Titus? You bet he was, and he was talking about us, too, everyone of us sitting in this church today. I know that’s hard to take. For Christian people who take their religion seriously this is even hard to fathom. But Paul is describing what we were like when we came into the world. Some people hear this and just throw up their hands. The idea that a baby, an innocent little baby is born foolish, disobedient, deceived, and enslaved is just, well, it makes absolutely no sense to them. It makes no sense to me, either. I can’t explain this to you; I can only tell you what God says: “We, too,” God said through Paul. God said it before the flood, “every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart is only evil all the time.” God said it through David; “surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” Jesus said it, “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, theft,” and he listed more. The truth is, God’s truth is, that the human creature—these human creatures--are dead without God, dead as far as life with God is concerned and destined for hell. I don’t like to say that to you, and I especially don’t like to hear it myself, but that’s what God says.
And this is also what God says, and he said it through Paul in the second lesson, “but when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us.” God looked down on the world he created and he wasn’t about to let it die or be damned. He came up with a plan to restore what Adam and Eve and the devil had ruined. He wasn’t going to depend on people; even the good things people did were infected with sin. God saved us not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. Think of yourself standing over the bed of your son who has cancer or your daughter who’s been in a horrific accident and you’ll understand a little about the compassion that filled the heart of our heavenly Father. But this Father could do something with his mercy and his compassion. He cured the cancer, he healed the wounds. This Father actually saved us
And this is how he did it. Paul wrote, “God saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.” Well, you don’t have to think too hard to know what Paul is talking about. This is Holy Baptism. Martin Luther called baptism simple water, but water used by God’s command and connected with God’s Word. And what does God’s Word do with this simple water? In the water of baptism the Holy Spirit gives us a new life and a new way of living. It’s like this; the man drowns and they drag his body up to the shore. The woman is electrocuted and they find her body on the living room floor. Both dead, dead as doornails. But in the water of baptism the Holy Spirit races in and does mouth-to mouth resuscitation. He breathes into us and our heart starts beating and our mind starts working. And we’re alive. It’s like we’re reborn! That’s what the Spirit does in Baptism. He puts us and God back together again, he makes us the children of our heavenly Father, he gives us a life we couldn’t have had on our own, he places us on the path that leads to life with God forever.
The Spirit can do this through simple water? He can and he does because of Jesus. Paul again, “God saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit whom God poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior.” Jesus is the reason baptism gives life. The Father couldn’t love us without Jesus. The Spirit couldn’t renew us without Jesus. Jesus was the key. Jesus provided the perfect life God expected from us. Jesus endured the punishment and death God demanded of us. Jesus gave his Father a reason to forgive us—he was the reason. Jesus gave the Spirit a reason to renew us—he was the reason. And what do we have? Paul says it, “Having been justified (declared right) by his grace, we become heirs having the hope of eternal life.”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. It all begins there and it all ends there. At the baptism of Jesus we hear the Father’s voice, we see the Spirit in the form of a dove, we watch the Son of God in human form standing in the waters of the Jordan, and right there we see God’s plan to save the world begin. And here at the font, we find the Father’s compassion, we gain the Spirit’s renewal, and we receive the Son’s life and death and resurrection and right here we see how God wants his plan to end with every human creature. God wants to save us. What stands behind the work of Jesus? We saw it; God Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. What stands behind our baptism? We believe it; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Yesterday, I attended a funeral here at church. Helga Wegner was a dear woman who loved and lived for Jesus. Her casket was right here. And at the head of her casket, less than two feet away, was that candle; the candle we burn every Easter, the candle we light at every baptism. You see the coffin and the candle, and it almost takes your breath away because you understand what it means. From the moment of our baptism until the moment we close our eyes in death, we are connected to the resurrection of Jesus. With Jesus we enter the gates of eternal life. And all this comes to be in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (www.gracedowntown.org) on January 10, 2010
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