Broadway Christian Church · Columbia, Missouri
Morning Worship · March 4, 2007
Second Sunday in Lent
Eternal God, the life to which you call us is a life in Christ. Let us hear again his invitation: “Come all you who thirst. Come to the source of Living Water. Come rest beside the still waters. Come taste the eternal springs. Come be plunged deep into the fresh and healing rivers of God’s love.” We come today, O Lord, to remember our baptism and to baptize in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Scripture
Mark 1:9-11
Rick Frost
In years past I’ve told you stories about baptism – baptisms that have taken place in churches, in rivers, in oceans, in swimming pools, indeed, even in hospital rooms. I’ve told you stories about baptism that have taken place in the Jordan River and in the catacombs underneath the city of ancient Rome. I’ve told you about baptisms that have taken place on the beaches of Africa, or maybe in the small-town baptistry on the plains of west Texas. I’ve told you, in years past, about my baptism. I’ve told you about Jesus’ baptism. I’ve asked you, on occasion, to remember your baptism.
Today I have no stories about baptism. Today I have a story about an airport. Most of you have done some flying. Right? Everybody’s been to an airport, I think. Most of us have.
About a month ago I flew to “Louavil’,” Kentucky. Now, it’s not Louisville, and it’s not “Louieville.” It’s “Louavil’.” You have to swallow it. I was trying to save money. The flight got there at some ungodly hour. It involved a 30-minute layover in Cincinnati. We arrived in Cincinnati about 6:30 in the morning. It was February. The sun was just coming up, and the cold, winter wind was blowing. I had to catch a shuttle. They didn’t tell me about that. I had to catch a shuttle from the terminal where I landed to get to another terminal at the airport in 30 minutes. Time was of the essence. I couldn’t even stand in line to get a Starbucks. I was just going nuts.
Finally I got to the new terminal. It was an amazing thing. I walked into that terminal, and there was this sea of humanity – hundreds, thousands of men, women, and children, along with me, all going someplace.
I hadn’t been in Cincinnati before, and I didn’t know my way around. I was looking for signs. I was looking for monitors. I was looking for somebody on staff who could help me. This wonderful, kind lady, who worked there, had a list of gates and connecting flights. She gave me the number of my gate. She pointed me in the right direction. Sure enough, waiting at Gate A-6 was the plane that was going to take me to my destination.
Later, it occurred to me that what is happening in this place this very day is not unlike a modern-day airport. Knowing where to get the flight that is going to take you to your destination is absolutely critical, folks. It’s everything. The choice of which plane you are going to board is of utmost importance, because the plane you get on is the plane that is going to take you where you want to go. It is where you are going to end up. Where one begins determines where one will end.
That, according to the New Testament, is also true of our fate as human beings. Only with this airport that we call Life, and this sea of humanity that you and I are apart of, according to St. Paul, in the New Testament, there aren’t all of these flights that are available, and there aren’t all of these terminals. There is only one terminal, and there are two choices.
The first choice, he says, is to get on board and to belong to the humanity whose destination is going to be determined by Adam and Eve. Or you can get on board another flight, belong to another humanity that is destined and whose destination is determined by Jesus Christ. According to the letter that Paul writes to the church in Rome, that is the most important decision you will ever make in your life.
At issue here is nothing less than the Lordship of the Creator of all that is. The Lord of all creation. You see… according to Scripture, as you know, God is the Lord over what God has created. Our choices are to accept that Lordship or to reject that Lordship, to submit or obey, if you want to use biblical words, to the Creator of all that is, or to rebel, to disobey, to oppose, to resist, maybe even engage in opposition to the Creator of all that is. In fact, we are invited, according to Scripture, to enter into a love affair with the One who loves you, and me, and all of humanity more than any of us even know, or to reject that love, be one who rebuffs, who refuses that love, that relationship, and all of the affection, and all of the concern, and all the benefits that go with that relationship.
Folks, we human beings have an inherent problem. It is part of our genetic predisposition. It’s in our DNA. No one is exempt. To be a human being is to be in rebellion. We are born that way. It’s amazing. Not only are we born into it, we’re enslaved to it, according to Paul. We are talking about a power of rebellion that goes all the back to the beginning. The Bible calls that sin. You can use whatever word you like. It’s huge. It’s big. It’s powerful, because everybody, even these beautiful, wonderful children – young people that you will see baptized today – all of us, including them, are under its power. We don’t even know it.
Rebellion, folks, it’s not something you just stumble into. It’s not something that involves just an occasional mistake. You are going to see in just a few minutes that these folks have been working on their sins. They’ve written them out. Kim is going to have them burn them in just a few minutes. You can just imagine the horrendous, horrible things they have done. Not really. Right?
What we are talking about is something far beyond what is written on their pieces of paper. What we are talking about today is not something that if we just think about it, if we just plan better, if we just use better judgment, if we just made better choices we could avoid what the problem is altogether.
Let me illustrate. The illustration that comes to mind is an overdraft at the bank. I know that has never happened to anybody here, but it has happened on occasion. It doesn’t happen very often. Indeed, it only happens rarely, but should you fall into it, you know how to take care of it. You know how to fix the thing. You know how to undo the mistake. You can go to the bank, and you can deposit the amount of the overdraft, pay the penalty, and then voila, it’s done. It’s taken care of. It’s fixed. No harm, no foul.
Folks, that’s not what we’re talking about here today. That has nothing to do with the kind of stuff that we’re concerned about in this service. When the Bible talks about sin and talks about rebellion, it talks about something in our hearts. It talks about setting ourselves up to be disobedient. If it were that easy, if it were something we could fix, if it were something we could escape, would it hardly need God’s Son to die in order to break its power? That’s not what we are talking about today. What we are talking about today goes much deeper. It is much more insidious. It’s much more horrible than I can even describe to you.
We’re talking about the power that, I believe and I believe you believe and the Bible certainly believes, is the root cause of all pain, of all suffering, of all injustice, of all war, of all violence, and of all death in this world. I’m talking about the inherent human condition, the condition all of us are born with. There is no escape. It is the condition that drives people like you, like me, to seek to establish ourselves, not as creatures of God, but as gods.
It is the one thing, the only thing the Creator will not allow. It’s as old as Adam and Eve. It’s just as new as this very day. It is our innate desire to be the creator and not the creature. To be in control, to call the shots, to do what we want, when we want, where we want, with whom we want, and how we want. And here’s the kicker. This stuff, this condition is so powerful, is so insidious, and it’s so universal that, as I said, there is no escape. Not according to Paul. You get on that plane, you take that flight, and you decide to belong to that humanity whose destiny is going to be determined by Adam and Eve, you are going to go one way.
The good news, according to Paul, is just this simple. Thanks be to the grace of the Creator God, there is a way of escape. There is another way. There is another group. There is another form of humanity. That way not only calls us, it requires us to make a choice. It’s just like being in that airport. You can’t fly both ways. You can’t get on both planes. You have to pick. That’s what the Bible means by faith. Faith is when you put all your chips on the table. It’s when you choose to take that particular flight, get on that particular plane, belong to that humanity whose destination is determined, not by Adam and Eve, but by Jesus Christ.
The question I want you to think about today: What flight do you think most of humanity in this world is on today? What flight do you think most of the people you love and care about are on today? What flight are you one?
In just a few minutes we are going to witness several persons who are going to stand up before God, and you their friends and family, and they are going to make a public choice. We call it faith. It’s amazing. What makes it faith is they have absolutely no idea how it is going to roll out for them.
I have some news for you, particularly for you young folks. Don’t think that anybody else in this room has it figured out either. OK? That’s what faith is about. It’s about things we don’t know, that we can’t control. We’re not the one who calls the shots.
It’s huge. It’s big. That decision causes me, folks, to tremble, because it is that choice, it’s that faith, that establishes the relationship with God. It’s not the baptism. That is just a sign, a symbol. That’s just the way we are going to depict what’s going on inside - the choice that all of us get to make. What’s going to be our destination? What flight are we going to take? Adam and Eve, rebellion, or Jesus Christ? That’s what this day is about.
If we choose Christ, one of the things that we have experienced here at Broadway is something that has become a tradition for us. It’s the time when we begin to hear a voice from heaven, just the way Jesus did in Scripture that I read to you today. It is a voice from heaven that might say:
“I have called every single one of you by name. You are my dear child, and I have known you from the very beginning. I know you in ways that you don’t even know that I know you. You are mine, and I am yours. And my favor rests upon each and every one of you, because I molded you in the depths of the earth. I’ve knit you together in your mother’s womb. I’ve carved you in the palm of my hand. I’ve hidden you in the shadow of my embrace. I look at every single one of you with infinite tenderness. I’ve counted every hair on your head. I care for you more than a mother, a father, for a child. Wherever you go, I will go with you. Nothing, nothing, faithful one, nothing will ever be able to separate us, because you and I are one. You are my beloved.”
And all the people say… “Amen.”
River God, thank you for the refreshment and renewal that flows over us. With the rebirth and the receiving of your Holy Spirit, we are made new. We rejoice in you. Amen.
