May
the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in Your
sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. AMEN.
The
precious commodity here in Northwestern Kansas isn’t land, it isn’t wind,
because we have lots to spare, but it is water.
When the settlers first came to the prairies the landscape was scattered
with windmills, because the water was under the surface and needed to be pumped
up for use to water the cattle and give the crops the needed moisture. Today the Ogallala aquifer that we sit over
top is drying up at an alarming rate.
But water is what drives the economy here in Northwestern Kansas and
helps us to be one of the largest producers of corn and wheat in the
country. Yet, water not only is used for
crops, we here in the church use water for Baptism.
In
our series on Holy Baptism we have heard the connection of the Baptismal Rite
and the story of the flood and how the story is our personal connection with
Noah. But the Water that flooded the
earth, not only destroyed everything in its path, but clearly and unmistakably
helps us understand a greater fact. God
warned the people about sinning and only after the world turned from God, did
He unleash the Water of the flood. In
that moment God wiped away all the animals that breathed, mankind and sin in
one felled swoop and we remember when we are baptized our sin being forever
removed from us by Water intimately connected with Word.
When
God used the water to remove sinful mankind from the world, we to in our
baptism have our sinful self-washed clean and made new. We are forever changed by the Water and God’s
Word and the truth of Water being connected with Word. The Water and Word intimately connected has
heavenly results offered to us. And
these results are our entrance into heaven.
Some
might view that baptism is a ‘get out of hell’ free card. But this is nothing further from the
truth. In the simple washing with Water
and Word we are set free from the bonds of sin, death and the devil. No longer are we bound by the sin that we
were conceived in, but we have been set free to be the children of God. How can Water do such great things? The catechism is clear, “Because in Baptism water is used
by a special command of God…[and] the promise of the Triune God is connected
with the water…God imparts forgiveness of sins…delivers [us] from death and the
devil…[and] gives eternal salvation…” [Q. 245, 253] These are the gifts from God offered unto us
and which we receive through Water and Word.
And the results are eternal life for us with God in His Kingdom.
God
offers us this gift freely for all mankind.
But some still press the issue, what about those who have not been
baptized, will they go to hell? If one
believes this, then God is nothing more than a monster and cannot be trusted. However, the God Who baptized me through
Martin Luther in his catechism explains, “it is not the lack of baptism which
condemns, but the despising.” In
essence it is unbelief that condemns us.
So those who have not been baptized are not summarily condemned, but it
is the clear and manifest despising of baptism that does condemn. But God is clear, He freely offers baptism as
a means of grace for us to enter into His kingdom and it is not for a ‘select
few’, but for all of mankind.
This
is a clear manifestation of the grace God offers us through His Son Jesus
Christ. For by Jesus enduring the shame,
the beatings, hanging from the Cross and suffering and dying for all of
mankind, His death was not for a few.
Jesus died for all of mankind and through our baptism into His life,
death and resurrection we are offered eternal life. This is God’s gift we receive through Water
and Word that has eternal implications, our entrance into the Kingdom of
God. And this includes all of mankind,
but especially all of us saints gathered here at Emmanuel this evening
remembering our baptism by Water and Word and their heavenly results for each
and every one of us. AMEN.
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