Barneyisfat

I've always liked John the Baptist.  Even as a child he was one of my favorite Bible characters.  John the Baptist was kind of a hipster when you think about it.  My understanding of hipster is the people who do things that no one else is doing - and that was John the Baptist.  Maybe he was the original hipster and everyone else is just a copycat.

"I started wearing clothes made from camel hair long before it was cool."  "Yeah, I'm going to this really cool little eatery - they only serve raw foods, only bugs and honey.  You've probably never heard of it."

John the Baptist, he was the inviter.  He invited people to come and see.  To come and taste.  To come and experience.

But when Jesus shows up, and says that he wants this whole "baptism" thing that John has essentially created out of nowhere - John is taken aback.  Because while John has always done his own thing, he knows that Jesus is special.  Jesus who was born of a virgin.  Jesus who was so wise even as a child.  Jesus, who was possibly the Messiah that the people had been waiting for.

My sister and always fought to see who would be first.  For decades, it was like we were playing one giant game to see who was smarter, faster, better, and more beloved by our parents.  My sister was four years older than me, so she was smarter than me for a long time.  Not anymore of course, but for a long time she was!  And one time we were sitting in the car while mom went to the bank, and this very fat woman walked in front of the car.  Rebecca made a really funny joke about this woman's name - it rhymed with Bumble bee  and so it was funny - and I laughed a lot.  I was maybe only four or five, so it didn't take much to make me laugh.   Mom came out of the bank at the same time as this woman, and as she got in the car I yelled out the joke so that mom could laugh, too.  But my mom didn't think the joke was funny ... and when we got home I got the wooden spoon.  And Rebecca won another point in our little game.

But what is really wonderful is that my sister and I have grown up, and we never play this game anymore.  Oh, sometimes we joke about it, but now we focus so much more on how we can help each other become better.  I remember when she was in grad school and we would drive somewhere and I would quiz her on medical terms for hours.  And today she supports this ministry every month so that we can finish the remodel of our new student center.  This is what friends do, and this is how John and Jesus treat each other.  
 
And John and Jesus have this little fight - because John knows he has been preparing the way for Jesus and wants Jesus to baptise him.  But Jesus insists on being baptized by John.  That it may be so.

We're going to pause for a few minutes, and everyone is going to get the name of someone famous placed on their backs.  You can only ask yes or no questions - and your job is to figure out who you are.

[we will encourage people to walk around and introduce themselves to anyone they don't know.]

Here is where we are in the story.  Everyone was trying to figure out who Jesus was.  Do you hear the description John gives of the one who is to come?  (John 3:11-12)  How would you like this introduction?  Whenever I'm introduced to someone and they explain that I speak Ukrainian I get really nervous ... because now there is lots of pressure to speak Ukrainian well.  And I always think about this when I read the description John gives - because it is at this moment that Jesus shows up.

To be baptised.

Baptism is such a special thing.  Think back to the last time you were at a baptism.  Were you struck by how holy that moment was?  Even if the parents were perhaps not so very religious - still it was this tremendous moment of covenant with God.

And as Jesus is baptised,heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

This is the moment - the moment when God declares in audible voice that Jesus is the son of God.  That this Kingdom of God thing is really real and that the prince is here to bring it.

I was twelve when I was baptized.  And I remember waiting for the magic to happen.  I remember in Sunday School talking about baptism and being nervous about it because it seemed like a magical thing.  I remember just waiting for something magical to happen.  I thought maybe I would never sin again.

And all of these years later, I am struck by how very magical that moment was.  It was a covenant.  When I told my parents that year that I wanted to go across the ocean and be a missionary, because of my baptism they knew that I would go where God wanted me to go.

This is one of the first moments in the Bible where God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are all mentioned together - that they are all operating in their unique way - and yet all together.

This is the great beginning of the Kingdom of God.  How many of you fully understand the trinity?  I mean ... we get it ... but we don't fully understand it.  Jesus was fully God and fully man.  We don't fully understandit.  The Kingdom of Heaven is already here.  It's something that we don't fully understand, but that we live in and enjoy.

We live in this Kingdom, here and now, and yet we fight for this Kingdom to come.

Over these next few months, we are going to explore Matthew's Gospel.  We are going to explore the Kingdom of God and what it means for us today.

Amen.