A Sermon
Presented by Rev. Merlin T. Batt
Intentional Interim Pastor
St. Matthew’s United Church of Christ
Maiden, North Carolina
The First Sunday After Epiphany
Baptism of the Lord
January 13, 2008

Scripture Lesson: Matthew 3:13-17
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One day last week I was thinking about the pastoral search process now underway here at St. Matthews, and was reminded of the times in my ministry when I have sought a new pastorate. One of those times came especially to mind in light of today’s Scripture reading from Matthew’s Gospel.

At the time, I was serving as a pastor in Arlington, Massachusetts, one of the inner suburban communities around Boston. A search committee from a church in Northampton, Massachusetts came unannounced to worship one Sunday morning. By the way, a word to St. Matthews’ Pastoral Search Committee at this point: never do that to a minister – that is, never show up unannounced at worship. It only causes trouble for the minister and the church he or she is serving (as it did for me!). What’s more, it’s a terrible way to start a relationship with a potential pastor. But this is a subject for another time and another setting.

The search committee which showed up unannounced in my congregation, as I said, was from a church in Northampton in western Massachusetts. It was the church where Jonathan Edwards was ordained to the Christian ministry in 1727, and where he served as pastor for 23 years. This church in Northampton was later re-named in his honor, “Edwards Congregational Church.”

In preparation for meeting with that search committee, in spite of their having made life very difficult for me in my Arlington congregation, I did some research on the church, especially on their most famous pastor, Jonathan Edwards. He was born into a Puritan evangelical family in the year 1703 in East Windsor, Connecticut, the fifth of eleven children, imagine that (!), born to Rev. Timothy and Esther Edwards. His childhood education immersed him not only in the classics and ancient languages, but especially in the study of the Bible and Christian theology. (Who said that our modern educational system is better than that of our ancestors?!) An outstanding student, Edwards went on to Yale College to earn both undergraduate and graduate degrees.

Soon after graduating from Yale, Edwards succeeded his grandfather as pastor of the church in Northampton, then the largest and most influential church outside of Boston. He married his wife Sarah, and the two of them would go on to raise ten children during the 23 years he served in Northampton.

As a potential pastor of the same church (albeit 138 years later), I did take note that the congregation fired Edwards after he attempted to impose stricter qualifications for being admitted to the sacraments. The theological difference caused a bitter controversy with his congregation, area ministers, and political leaders in Northampton. That, by the way, wasn’t the reason I chose not to pursue a call to the Edwards Church, though I must admit I did think about it as I met with their search committee!

After having been fired in Northampton, Edwards traveled 50 miles west to be pastor of a small English congregation in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where he spent much of his time as a missionary among 150 Mahican and Mohawk Indian families living in the area. Six years later, Edwards left Massachusetts for New Jersey to serve as the president of what would become Princeton University. But after only a few months in this new, influential position as college president, Edwards died at the age of 55 in 1758 from complications following a smallpox inoculation. His grave can be seen today in the Princeton Cemetery.

What Jonathan Edwards is remembered for in American history are his prolific theological and philosophical writing, and especially his role in the First Great Awakening, a spiritual renewal movement that transformed both church and society in the 18th century, the effects of which still influence the religious landscape in 21st century America.

Now, as you might imagine, Jonathan Edwards was a deeply committed Christian man. One of his spiritual disciplines was the keeping of a personal diary. I want to share with you what Edwards, as a very young man, wrote in his diary on January 12th, 1723, on this very weekend 285 years ago. It describes a spiritual turning-point in Edwards’ life, an experience which launched him into a vigorous life of service to God and others. His diary entry reads as follows.

In the morning, I have this day solemnly renewed my baptismal covenant and self-dedication…I have been before God; and have given myself, all that I am and have to God, so that I am not in any respect my own. I can claim no right in myself, no right in this understanding, this will, these affections that are in me; neither have I any right to this body or any of its members; no right to this tongue, these hands nor feet, no right to these senses, these eyes, these ears, this smell or taste. I have given myself clearly away…This I have done. And I pray God, for the sake of Christ, to look upon it as a self- dedication; and to receive me now as entirely His own, and deal with me in all respects as such; whether He afflicts me or prospers me, of whatever He pleases to do with me, who am His.

These are the words of a man who has given himself away to God. Yes, he had been raised in a Christian family and would have claimed the name “Christian” throughout his life, but now as a young adult he was making a mature, personal commitment to Christ, placing all that he had and was at the disposal of his Lord, Jesus Christ. You see, the mature Jonathan Edwards understood Christian discipleship as having primarily to do with self-giving, with living a life marked by complete obedience to Christ, involving every aspect of his being.

What a spiritually refreshing picture this is, especially when we compare it to what passes for Christian discipleship these days. It doesn’t take long to spot the difference between Edwards’ spirituality and what we commonly see today. For example, listen to the lyrics of much Christian music being produced today. Read the Christian bumper stickers. Watch and listen to Christian programming on television and radio. Browse through the books in the devotional section at Barnes and Noble. Scan the church advertisements in the newspaper and on highway billboards.

If you pay close attention to the evidence, I think what you see and hear will make you conclude that Christian discipleship in America today is often defined not by giving one’s self away in obedience to God, but rather by using God to do what we need and want, and to accomplish the goals we have set for ourselves.

It’s not surprising, for example, that in the church-growth literature in recent decades, you find advice for church leaders to be “consumer-oriented.” In other words, find out what the people want and then come up with a way to meet those needs and desires by offering the resources of God.  That’s the way churches grow, say the “experts.” No wonder, then, that some churches have fallen right into line, promoting the use of God, rather than challenging us to offer our selves to be used by God.

Now you know why I “drill” into the children every time I have the opportunity what Jesus said is the heart and center, the summary, the main thrust of what it means to follow Him, to be His disciple: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength…and your neighbor as yourself. In other words, discipleship is about loving God and loving others. It’s not about using God as a technique for gaining something else – joy, peace, a sense of meaning, and so forth.  What if the Gospel is more than a means of becoming healthy, wealthy, autonomous, well-adjusted, successful, and victorious believers?

From time to time, you see, we all need a “dose” of Jonathan Edwards to get us back on the discipleship track, to help us understand that giving our selves away in the service of God – all that we are and have – is what Christian discipleship is about.

And, of course, you know where Jonathan Edwards got it, don’t you? From Jesus! Matthew tells us that Jesus began his public ministry late in life. With many others, Jesus came out to John at the Jordan River where John was proclaiming the coming of God to His people and offering baptism to deal with sin and get ready for the coming of God’s Messiah.

When Jesus stood before John, Matthew tells us that John is horrified. He seems to have known that Jesus was the one he was waiting for, but then why would Jesus be coming for baptism? Surely, if anything, he, John, needs to be baptized by Jesus. And he said as much. But Jesus told him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” In other words, “Look here, John – in coming to you for baptism I am simply being obedient to my Father. I have given myself to Him. Let it be, John. Get on with it, for thereby we are obeying the Father’s will, doing what He requires of us now!” And so the baptism of Jesus proceeds, the Spirit of God descends upon Jesus, and a voice from heaven says, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

I’ve often wondered what it is that the Father so pleased about at this point? After all, this is just the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. The baptism of Jesus is only the first scene of the first act in the drama. So what prompts the Father to be well pleased with Jesus? I think it’s the fact that He loved God so completely that He obeyed. Jesus came to John to be baptized and gave Himself completely away to his Father’s will, holding nothing back, offering all he was and had in the service of loving God and others.

Every year in the liturgy on the Sunday after Epiphany we read the story of Jesus’ baptism by John. One reason we do this repeatedly is to give each of us an opportunity to remember our baptism in Christ. You see, remembering our baptism regularly is essential to our living into this counter-cultural, against-the-grain way of giving our selves away to love and obey God. Today, for this reason, I have placed the baptismal font in the midst of the congregation, so that on your way out of the sanctuary, you may touch the water to your forehead, and thus remind yourself that you are baptized, that you have been given away for the use of your Father in heaven.
 
Let me close my message this morning as I began, with Jonathan Edwards’ diary entry on this same weekend 285 years ago, but do so in a way that allows you and me to renew our baptism in Christ. I’m going to read Edwards’ words in the form of a first-person prayer. I’ll read the prayer  line by line and pause after each one. If you decide to make the prayer your own, repeat each line, but do so silently in your mind. Do not repeat the words aloud. I don’t want to force anyone to say what does not come from the heart. So now, asking the Holy Spirit to work within us, let us bow our heads and pray responsively, in silence:

God our Father…
this day I solemnly renew my self-dedication…
I come before you and give myself to you…
all that I am and have…
I claim no right in myself…
no right in this understanding…
this will, these affections that are in me…
I have no right to this body or any of its members…
no right to this tongue, these hands or feet…
no right to these senses…
these eyes, these ears, this smell or taste…
I give myself clearly away…
For Christ’s sake, look upon this as a self-dedication…
Receive me now as entirely belonging to Christ…
Deal with me in all respects as such…
whatever He pleases to do with me…
for I belong wholly to Him…
Amen…