Many evangelists throughout the ages have punctuated their sermons by asking the question: "Have you been baptized?" They felt like it was critical to ask the question of believers or would be believers because they thought that it was important that people ask themselves, "Have I been baptized?" Just so, I ask you this

morning, "Have you been baptized?" Why is that so important a question? We turn to that very question in the text today from Matthew’s gospel which tells the story of Jesus’ baptism.

We usually think of baptism as a cleansing from sin. But we know from the Scriptures that Jesus was a sinless person. His baptism must, therefore, be for a different purpose. John the Baptizer immediately caught the irony of the request of Jesus to be baptized. His immediate reaction was: Me, baptize you? Why you should

be baptizing me! Jesus insisted, however. "Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." If not for the forgiveness of sin, then what? Doug Hare, teacher at Pittsburgh Presbyterian Seminary, asserts that Jesus was baptized so as to show

his solidarity with the sinners who had gathered that day to hear John’s preaching. He wanted, furthermore, to consecrate himself to his

vocation by joining the sinful multitude in the river Jordan. This was Jesus’ way of declaring his solidarity with the people. It declared his mission that he was present on earth as God's son to deal with sin and to bring about forgiveness to His people. His job, his primary job, was to deal with sin in a new way.

The allusion here is from the beginning of Scripture in Genesis when the Spirit hovered over the waters of chaos and brought light and order to the world. And the reference to the voice of God suggests to us that this is revelation. It is the uncovering of God's purpose of order from chaos. It is saying to us today -- loud and clear -- listen up, pay attention, God is telling us something very important. God is determined in this man, Jesus, to deal with our relationship to God and the world. And the voice said: "This is my Son,

my Beloved, with whom I all well pleased."

The occasion of Jesus I baptism is the revelation to the people that God was breaking in on history in a dramatic way to deal with us.

It is the public announcement of Jesus’ ministry. It is to tell us that Jesus was going to deal with the separation which existed

between God and humanity in a dramatic new way. In the birth stories Matthew is trying to tell us who Jesus is. He is the Son of Abraham, he is the descendent of David, the great King, and now he is saying he is the Son of God. And that translates to us that Jesus is the Word become flesh and dwells among us for our salvation.

This Jesus was coming to fulfill righteousness. The reference is from the prophesy of Isaiah.3 Jesus is here identified unmistakably with the Suffering Servant of Isaiah who would come to establish justice and righteousness in the land. He would be crowned King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He would do so, not with earthly power but as a suffering servant who would die on the cross and be raised by God to eternal life. Why? So that we might be empowered with the same spirit to do things right -- to establish righteousness in the land.

That brings us to the second important question we must ask and answer today. Why are we baptized? We are not Jesus, of course. But we are baptized so that we can be identified with the righteousness of God which was re- established by Jesus. We need the forgiveness of sin which baptism symbolizes and makes a reality in our lives. In baptism we are given the same Spirit which moved over the waters of chaos in the beginning and which descended like a dove at Jesus I baptism. In baptism we are initiated into the kingdom which Jesus established. We are baptized so that righteousness may be fulfilled in us.

"I like the way Fred Buechner explains righteousness. He tells about an exasperated piano teacher who says to her student: ‘You haven’t got it right!’ The student may be holding his hands exactly right and fingering the keys precisely. He has memorized the music perfectly. He hits all the notes with deadly accuracy. But his heart is just not in it, only his fingers. What he is playing on the piano is a sort of music, but nothing that will start voices singing ~ feet tapping. He has succeeded in boring everybody to death, including himself. "Jesus told disciples, ‘Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’ (Mt. 5: 20) The scribes and Pharisees, were people who knew how to play it by the book. We know people like them – decent, orderly -- who talk the talk and even walk the walk. But they are getting it all wrong, and the effects are worse than deadly boring. They are just deadly. ‘Righteousness is getting it all right,’ sums up Buechner. ‘If you play it the way it’s supposed to be played, there shouldn’t be a still foot in the house.’

Have you been baptized? Then you hold in your hearts and heads, in your own lives, the way to get it right. I like the telling of John the Baptizers hesitation to baptize Jesus. "I am not worthy to do this; I am not worthy to tie his shoelaces~ he once said. But Jesus insisted. Jesus utilized sinful, human John, the prophet to announce his public ministry. He asked John to baptize him. All too often we want to continually declare ourselves unworthy to participate in the mission of Jesus. We protest too much and fail to jump in the water "to sail with the Spirit" as one preacher has ably said it. Have you been baptized? Well, have you? You have? Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! And so what?

Sermon preached on Januray 9, 2005 by Dr. E. Thomas Miller at Georgetown Presbyterian Church.