Believe!

The following is a sermon I preached at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, Butte, Montana, on June 29,2014 on the occasion of the baptism of our youngest grandson, Colin Aaker.


“There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him." Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
 Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
"If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? "No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. 
John 3:1-13

Indeed, how will we believe?

The Aaker family is overdosing on World Cup soccer these days. Every four years we get involved as spectators of this world-wide event - of a sport that is even catching on in the US as millions of fans get on this roller coaster of high hopes and gut wrenching endings of matches.  Hoping to go on to the next round...

The mantra tweeted around the internet on social media and chanted at the matches is:  I BELIEVE.  I BELIEVE THAT WE. I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN! 

As the camera scans over the  enthusiastic US fans in Brazil we see large signs that say BELIEVE!!.

The team, the coaches and the fans are convinced that if their belief is strong it will help bring about the desired outcome.  Bob Green would tell us, I suspect, that a coach has to believe in the team, and help them believe in themselves... The idea is that Believing helps make it come true. This is one use of the word believe..

Now, the verb believe and the noun faith are used extensively in all forms of Christianity..  I believe and We believe stand at the beginning of the creeds used by most Christians in worship.  

If I were to ask you this morning about your associations with the word believe, ask what that word brings to mind, I believe there would be quite a variety of responses... though since this is church, we would perhaps tend to talk about our belief in God, and what that means to us.   

But outside on the street maybe it would be more like the soccer fans or others who would say things like these:

o   Seeing is believing", or

o   "When I say, I believe you, it means that I believe you're telling the truth"   or

o    "There are some things you can know, and other things you can only believe."

o   "Well, I believe the capitol of New Mexico is Albuquerque" - but of course it isn't.

And in our modern secular world, where more and more people claim to be spiritual but not religious, and don't believe in organized religion, I have heard responses like these, 

"I believe there is an energy in the universe that..."

or, 

  "I believe all people are basically good at heart" - which flies in the face of reality - those people haven't been reading the news papers

In his book, "Speaking Christian", Marcus Borg writes that the "modern meaning of the word believe is very different from its meanings in early Christianity" until the seventeenth century. In early times the verb believe always had a person as its direct object, not a statement.  It didn't mean believing that a statement is true, but more like what we mean when we say to somebody, "I believe in you"   This implies a relationship.  

The meaning in Old English was be loef, which means to hold dear, or to belove another person.

So it is more than believing that a set of statements about God are true, or somehow believing that  God exists but doing nothing in response to that belief. 

Thinking about it this way, then, to believe in Jesus does not mean that we believe that a set of statements about him are true, or that he indeed once walked the earth, but it means to belove Jesus. It means to be in relationship with Him. 

Remember! when Jesus spoke about the great commandment he did not say,

"You shall believe that these statements about God are true"..  What did he say?  

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all you mind and with all your strength" (Matt. 22:37.  That means all of me.

I want to introduce you to our newest grandchild, Colin Silliman Aaker.  He’s three months old.  I’m sorry that you in the back probably can’t see very clearly this little picture I’m holding up.  (But, believe me, he is beautiful ...just like your children, grandchildren or nieces and nephews!)   

After the service this morning there will be a special time for us, since Bret and Rachel his parents, together with Janel Morgan, as sponsor, and us grandparents are bringing Colin up front to present him to Pastor Tim Christianson for the sacrament of baptism . 

In the Gospels the words believe and be baptized are marks of the Christian. In the baptismal service we will sing the hymn "All who believe and are baptized, shall see the Lord's salvation".  

I don't know for sure, but that may well have been the hymn that was sung at my baptism some 75 years ago.

Baptism is the key event in the life of a Christian, although I concede that it might not feel that way to most of you here today.  Maybe some of you were baptized in one of the churches that require you to be old enough to make your own decision about baptism.  Or maybe you were baptized in the Lutheran Church, but as an adult rather than as a child.  If so, you will remember all  about your baptism and about what it meant to you. 

 But the rest of you who – like me – were baptized in infancy may be asking, “How could baptism have been the big moment in my life, since I was a little baby and I don’t remember anything about it at all?”  

What does believing and having a  relationship with God have to do with Colin now... he is really not capable of holding any beliefs yet...

But certainly he is beginning to know in some deep and mysterious way the love of his mother and father.

And consider this: you don’t remember anything about being born either, yet it was a key event in your human life.  

And the DNA we inherit from parents determines much about the persons we are today (your body type, your hair and eye color, whether you are right or left-handed, and a lot more) – even though you didn’t have any choice in the matter whatsoever.  You didn’t pick your parents, and you didn’t decide to be born.  It just “happened,” and you’ve been dealing with the consequences ever since.  

For Christians, baptism is regarded as somehow analogous to physical birth.  That is to say, it’s not optional.  If you’re to have a human life, you must be conceived and go out into the world nine months later through the waters of the womb. 

  If you’re to have a life in Christ, at some time you have to pass through the waters of baptism... which early Christians called “the womb of the church.”   Jesus said to Nicodemus, No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.”  Certainly Nicodemus had difficulty understanding that, as we probably would have to admit that we do too.

We take it on faith, that is, we believe that Baptism is the Sacrament of New Life in Christ. 

Babies enter this new life in Christ because someone decided to bring them to be baptized, a gift given by the Grace of God..  but the children – as they grow older – will work out the  consequences of life in Christ for themselves in exactly the same way that they will make decisions about things in their natural life.  

Those who have been given a new life in Christ through baptism ultimately have to figure out what this new life will mean for them about relationships, education, work, leisure activities,  and their spiritual lives  ...in short, everything. 

While baptism is mystical, it isn’t magic.  It’s a new beginning, just as being born is a new beginning, in a new context of relationships – with Christ and with the Church.  (The emphasis here is on beginning.)  

Just as the birth of a baby makes that little human being the member of a biological family, baptism makes us members of a family of which God is Father, the Holy Spirit is the life-giver, and Jesus Christ is the first-born elder brother, always ready to show us the path to follow.  

Nothing can change the facts of our human heredity.  We’re always our parents’ offspring.  

Likewise, something equally real on the spiritual plane happens in baptism.  Nothing can ever dissolve the relationship created by our passage through the sacramental water. 

In the baptism ritual, the pastor anoints the newly baptized person with holy oil and says, 

“You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever.”   

Forever!!

That’s what we believe.....

Pastor Tim with Colin