Sermon for the third mid-week Lent service - How can water do such great things?

                                                                                   Mid-week Lent 3

How can water do such 

great things?

3/6/24

 

          “It works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation.”  That’s what the Small Catechism says about the benefits of baptism.  Those are lofty claims, especially when you compare baptism with what it actually is.  After all, baptism is water being poured on the head. 

          So how can water do such great things?  As we would expect, the answer is not to be found in the water itself.  Instead, we find the power of baptism in the Word of God which is added to the water.  The Small Catechism says, “Certainly not just water, but the word of God in and with the water does these things, along with faith which trusts this word of God in the water.”

          Notice that this explanation points to two things. First, there is the expected reference to the Word of God.  But second, we also learn that for baptism to do these things faith must be present.  In the same way the Small Catechism had said that baptism gives the benefits “to all who believe this.”

          The word and faith.  Both of these must be considered, but for different reasons.  We begin with the word.  The Small Catechism says, “For without God’s word the water is plain water and no Baptism.”  We recognize that it is the word of God that makes water to be baptism.  Where there is no word, you just have water.

          However, the Small Catechism goes on to say, “But with the word of God it is a Baptism, that is, a life giving water, rich in grace and a washing of the new birth in the Holy Spirit.” The word of God makes the water of Baptism to be a source of life.  It is the Spirit who gives life, and so the explanation goes on to quote Titus 3:5 where Paul says, “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs of eternal life.  This is a trustworthy saying.”

          Baptism is a washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.  The word is never without the Spirit.  There is no “Spirit-less word.”  The Spirit has given us the word and continues to work through it.  The water and the word of baptism become the means by which the Spirit is at work.  It is the means by which the Spirit works rebirth and renewal.

          Jesus addressed this work of the Spirit in John chapter 3 when he was speaking to Nicodemus.  First Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  Our Lord declared that to be saved a person needed to be born again.  Then when Nicodemus was puzzled about how this could happen Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”  Christ identified baptism as the means by which the Spirit causes a person to be born again.

          Baptism is the gift of water and the word.  It works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation.  Yet like all of the Means of Grace these blessings must be received by faith.  Luther says in the Large Catechism, “Because such blessings are offered and promised in the words that accompany the water, they cannot be received unless we believe them from the heart.”

          The blessings of baptism are received by faith.  This means that we must believe what God has promised about baptism.  And of course, this also means that we need to think about baptism.  Once baptized, baptism is always there. But baptism does us no good if it never enters our mind.  It is not a benefit if is not part of our life of faith.  The Large Catechism says, “For it is not the treasure that is lacking; rather, what is lacking is that it should be grasped and held firmly.”

          When we have faith in God’s gift of baptism, we have faith in Christ, for it is Christ’s death and resurrection that is offered to us.  During Lent we prepare to ponder again the suffering and death of Jesus.  We hear tonight in Luke’s Gospel that though he was innocent, Christ was condemned to death.  The One who had no sin was offered as the sacrifice for us on the cross.  He won forgiveness for us by his death. Yet we will also rejoice in remembering that Good Friday was not the end.  On Easter, God raised Jesus from the dead in order to give us life.

          The benefits of this death and resurrection are given through baptism, and are received by faith. But it is here that a question arises for many.  To receive the blessings of baptism requires faith.  Yet the Church baptizes infants who cannot confess faith.  In fact it is even denied that infants can have faith.

          We begin with the recognition that baptism is God’s work and not ours.  It is his saving work by which he delivers the forgiveness won by the crucified and risen Lord.  It works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation.

          Scripture teaches us that even the new born infant needs this.  The child does because since the fall of Adam, all people are conceived and born as sinful fallen creatures.  Jesus told Nicodemus, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”  Fallen sinful nature, gives birth to fallen, sinful nature.

We enter into the world as people who are cut off from God by our sin and face his judgment.  No one is able to change this by their own power. Paul told the Corinthians, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”

Yet God’s saving intention extends to all people of all ages.  Jesus expressed this when he told the disciples, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Our Lord excluded no one as he spoke of all nations. And indeed when Peter told the crowd at Pentecost to be baptized for the forgiveness of sins, he added, “For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

We baptize infants on the basis of God’s command and promise.  Christ has commanded us to make disciples by baptizing and teaching.  God’s Word promises that the Spirit is at work through baptism, and that the benefits of Christ’s death and resurrection are given in this way.

We confess the power of God’s word to work faith.  Peter said that “you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.”  God’s word has the ability to work faith, and we put no limits on its ability to create faith in infants before baptism.

We bring infants to baptism confident that it is a means by which God works faith and new life. The Holy Spirit is at work in baptism.  It is as Paul said, a “washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”  It is the way that a person is born again of water and the Spirit. 

If the creation of faith in infants seems mysterious, it is because the work of the Spirit to create faith in anyone is mysterious.  Jesus told Nicodemus, “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

There are those who say is it not possible for God to create faith in infants. But when the disciples asked, “Then who can be saved,” Jesus looked at them and said, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”  God has the power and ability to create faith in infants.  God establishes a relationship with himself on account of Christ.  God works a trust in himself through Christ.

God’s word demonstrates that God can and does work in infants.  When the pregnant Mary met the pregnant Elizabeth, John the Baptist leapt in her womb.  Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and cried out, “"Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.”

Faith is not purely an intellectual or rational thing.  As a child grows, faith expresses itself through these developing powers.  Jesus told us to make disciples by baptizing and teaching because the faith created in baptism must be nourished and taught.  Baptism can never be separated from the teaching that occurs.

The water of baptism does great things.  Through baptism God works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation.  It is the word of God in and with the water that does these things.  Faith trusts this word of God in the water, and receives the blessings of baptism.