Passage: This Week's Second Reading

"Baptism Memories"

T.G.I.F. Thank God It's Friday.

People have been offering this secular prayer of thanksgiving for years, and the phrase has become so popular that it’s even attached to the restaurant chain, T.G.I. Friday’s. "Give Me More Friday’s" is their current trademark.

This phrase is based on the belief that people are happier on Friday, the end of the work week. And to be honest, would we respond enthusiastically to a restaurant that tried to lure you with the words "Give Me More Mondays"?

Probably not. People talk about their "Monday morning blues," and they hum the tune "Rainy Days and Mondays." Mondays are usually a downer kind of day. Everybody thinks you’re supposed to be down on Monday. But what if they don’t bring you down?

Recent research has uncovered that people are really not that much happier on Fridays than they are on Mondays. They really aren’t. Fact is, our moods do not change very dramatically over the course of the week. But we remember Fridays as happy days because of the meaning and emotions we attach to Fridays. Friday is when we’re liberated from the chores of the work week. It’s when we turn from business to pleasure. It’s when the door to the weekend is thrown wide open.

Those are the meanings and emotions we attach to Friday. Friday has connotative and emotive significance and it affects and shapes our memory of how we actually felt on a particular Friday. Because we believe that Fridays are happy days, because we remember them as happy days.

Take a moment to think about this. Meaning shapes memory. A bride says that her wedding day was the happiest day of her life. In fact, it was more likely an incredibly stressful day, but the meaning of marriage turns it into a happy memory.

A man says that the birth of his first child was a joy. Truth is, it was absolute misery to watch his wife suffer through labor, but the meaning of childbirth makes the memory a positive one.

A teenager says that her rejection by a boyfriend was the most crushing blow of her life. In fact, she really felt a bit relieved and bounced back quickly. But the meaning of romance makes the breakup a very painful memory.

An adult convert to Christianity says that his baptism was wonderful. The reality is that it was wet, cold and uncomfortable. Being up in front of everyone may have made him nervous. But the meaning of the Sacrament makes it deeply moving to him.

Meaning shapes memory. "In short, Mondays are not actually blue," says Professor Charles Areni in The Washington Post (May 26, 2008), "but people persist in the belief that they are."

This insight can help us to better understand the significance of what happened to Jesus in the Jordan River. The Sunday after Epiphany is the day in the church year called "Baptism of Our Lord," and it gives us an opportunity to remember this event and reflect on what it means for us. It’s a perfect example of how meaning shapes memory.

John the baptizer appears in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. It’s a strange place to be a prophet. There's no synagogue or amphitheater or marketplace in sight. He's far enough away from town that the dinner menu is down to locusts and wild honey. Demographically, it doesn't make sense; it would make more sense for him to go into

Jerusalem or Judea with his message. But in the wilderness he stays, because that is where God has called him; he is to be the voice crying in the wilderness, and his station has been determined since the time of Isaiah.

But it seems to be working out okay. People from the city of Jerusalem and all Judea flock to him, and are baptized in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. After years of living with a filthy buildup of sin and unrighteousness, the people of the region are relieved to be washed clean and their relationship with God renewed. This feels very good to them. John is providing a much-needed spiritual service, and you probably wouldn’t be surprised to hear the people saying, T.G.F.J. — Thank God for John.

He preaches a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. It's not the hippest sermon ever offered. John bludgeons his hearers with the Law: He bellows at soldiers to act justly and commands tax collectors to work fairly. No respecter of persons, he blasts the Pharisees as a brood of vipers. This is not a feel-good homily, at least not so far; he warns them of their sinfulness and guilt before God. Of course, like a good Lutheran preacher, he doesn't stop with the Law.

He is not there only to accuse them, to make them despair and leave them lost. He is preparing the way; so after a heavy dose of applicable Law, he turns to Gospel: One is coming after him, one who is far mightier and will baptize with the Holy Spirit. There's hope for you sinners, because He is coming. And with such a strange message, the people undergo a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Then John changes gears and reveals that he’s not simply in the purification business. He proclaims, "After me comes he who is mightier than I… I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

When we look at the actual events that occurred at the Jordan, we see a variety of emotions. There’s gratitude for the gift of forgiveness. Surprise and shock at the sight of the baptizer’s camel’s hair clothing and diet of locusts and wild honey. Anger at the accusations of sinful behavior and actions. Certainly there would be some confusion about the identity of the powerful one who’s coming after John.

All of this changes when Jesus comes on the scene, because meaning has a powerful effect on memory. Mark tells us that Jesus comes from Nazareth of Galilee and is baptized by John in the Jordan, and just as Jesus is coming up out of the water, the heavens are opened and the Holy Spirit descends on him like a dove. And a voice from heaven says, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."

The mix of feelings up to this point — gratitude, surprise, anger or guilt, and confusion, are suddenly pushed aside. In their place, a new emotion emerges: joy. When Jesus is baptized, we are filled to overflowing with a feeling of joy that God has revealed his Son, announced his love and proclaimed just how pleased he is with Jesus.

Jesus came to be baptized-just like all the poor, miserable sinners that gathered to listen to John. Other Gospel accounts of this day have John protesting, feeling as if he is not fit to Baptize Jesus. But John's protests don't even make it into Mark’s gospel, because they are not the point. What matters is that Jesus has come to be baptized to fulfill all righteousness. And mark this well, brothers and sisters in Christ: He is baptized to fulfill all righteousness for you.

This Baptism of our Lord is an important stop on the way to the cross. It must be, because the Holy Trinity gathers at the banks of the Jordan, all three persons manifested. The Son is baptized. The Holy Spirit descends. The Father proclaims, "You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased." Just

before his temptation in the wilderness, the Trinity gathers at the banks of the Jordan, where Jesus is baptized like every sinner there. He is baptized for all nations, and He is baptized for you. You could say that in Holy Baptism, the sins of sinners are washed off of them by water and the Word. In Jesus' Baptism in the Jordan, the sins of the world, the sins washed off of you and me were washed onto Him.

God announced Jesus as his Son, and the happiness we feel over this announcement shapes our entire memory of baptism. Gone is the mix of emotions that were felt by the people at the Jordan River. They have been replaced by deep joy that Jesus is God’s Beloved Son. Jesus is now, for us, the Word of God in human form … the Way, the Truth and the Life … God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God. After witnessing his baptism, we don’t have to wonder any longer about who Jesus is. We know his true identity.

As we remember our own baptism, or think about the significance of our Baptism’s, we can see that in this Sacrament, we are connected to the body of Christ. We are part of the universal community of Christians. We become part of the flesh-and-blood physical presence of Jesus in the world today. "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?" asks the apostle Paul. "If we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his." (Romans 6:3,5). In this sacrament, we become children of God, no less loved and accepted than Jesus Christ himself.

Baptism connects us to the body of Christ. It enables us to die and rise with Jesus. It makes us dead to sin and alive to God (Romans 6:11). It gives us new and everlasting life, and a freshly minted identity as children of a loving Lord. It’s an experience that shapes our memory forever.

We make a mistake, however, if we believe that baptism is always the beginning of a lifetime of perfect bliss. Think about what happens immediately after the baptism of Jesus — Mark tells us that the Spirit immediately drives Jesus "out into the wilderness," where he is tempted by Satan for 40 days. Then his Galilean ministry began, and Jesus comes face to face with a man with an unclean spirit, a woman with a fever and a steady stream of people who are sick or possessed by demons. So there’s no rest for the freshly baptized.

Baptism marks our birth as Christians. It involves a process that is in many ways similar to the physical birth that brought us into this world. Through baptism, we are identified as children of God who are both loved and lovable, chosen by the Lord to be his people in the world. The Dutch priest Henri Nouwen wrote; "The truth, even though I cannot feel it right now, is that I am the chosen child of God, precious in God’s eyes, called the beloved from all eternity and held safe in an everlasting embrace."

The chosen child of God. This is not just Jesus. Through Baptism it is each one of us. Precious. Beloved. Safe in an everlasting embrace. It’s our true identity. By the Means of Grace, God the Father declares, "You are My beloved sons and daughters, because My only-begotten Son has suffered in your place. With you I am well-pleased, because My Son has taken all of your sin away."

Those sins were nailed to the cross with our Savior. By God’s grace through faith, God the Father no longer sees our sins. When Jesus rose from the dead, he became the first to live eternally. Through our Baptisms, we are tied to that resurrection, and will also live eternally. Never forget that your sins are forgiven in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Even if you can’t remember the actual event, make this your memory of baptism. Amen.