November 9

November 9, 2008

You Have to Make a Choice,
and What Good is Baptism When You Do?
a sermon on Joshua 24.1-3a, 14-25
by David C. Mauldin
Westminster Presbyterian Church, Mobile, Alabama
Some things never change. One of them is the need to make a decision for God. “Choose this day whom you will serve,” echoes through history as each generation, each individual faces the ultimate decision. No one can choose for you. Only you can choose. And choose you must, because trying not to choose is a choice too. You either surrender your life to God or you do not. There is no middle ground. If you want to belong to God, you must make a commitment.

To me this seems odd, because God’s grace is so important. Where are we without Christ? Scripture says we are dead in our sin. Dead sounds conclusive. If we were sick, we might get better. We could pray and do religious stuff—the way a sick person eats right and takes care of herself—and nurse ourselves back to health. But dead? What can a dead person do to be alive and healthy again? Nothing. Only God can give life where there is no life, and this is exactly how scripture speaks about what Jesus does for us.

Jesus not only did the hard part, he does it all. We turned from God. He died to save us. He paid the penalty for our sins. He showed us God’s love. He made peace between God and us. By his Spirit he called us to faith. Some Christians even believe our faith itself is a gift from God. It’s not something we do; it’s grace. And I believe there’s something in that. Our new life in Christ, the eternal life he has promised—all of it is grace from top to bottom.

We baptize our infants in order to testify to this grace. Gifted comes to the water of baptism this morning unable to choose whom she will serve. Obviously she’s far too young for that. And yet … Christ died for her. God’s promises are for her. God’s hand is on her life. God is already calling her—to faith, to a beautiful life of holiness, and to ministry of some sort. We know that someday she will have to choose. She will do so on the basis of her faith. We know that without faith baptism does not save us. It is not magic; it is a sacrament. Sacraments are things we do that point to God’s grace. They are like signs, saying, “Here is God! Here’s what he’s doing!” We know they point to something real, because Jesus told us to do them. He’s not going to tell us to point to something that isn’t there. So we baptize Gifted today because we know God has claimed her as his own. Jesus has done all that is necessary. All that remains is her faith, and you can think of faith as the empty hand that receives God’s gifts.

And yet … despite the importance of grace, God demands a conscious, free decision on our part. No one gets shanghaied into the kingdom of God. God says you have to choose. Think of Jesus’ ministry. He went around telling people, “Follow me.” Some did; some didn’t. Often Jesus grieved because people rejected him, but he never forced them. In fact, he never overpowered them with miracles to make them believe. He did what he did and offered an invitation. If you or I were in his place, we’d probably use our power to make people believe. That’s not his way. Someday, when he returns, there will be no more room for doubt. But for now, we receive the same invitation, and face the same choice, as the fishermen beside the Sea of Galilee and the Israelites entering the promised land.

In our scripture reading, Joshua has settled the children of Israel in the promised land. Their wanderings are over. They are home, finally. They enjoy peace at last. Then Joshua summons leaders of all the tribes for an important conference. Speaking for God, he reminds them of all that God had done for them. The verses our reading skipped over recount God’s dealings with Israel. Having reminded them of the wonderful things God had done for them, he solemnly charged them to honor God. Then, he gave them a choice: If they would rather serve other gods—such as the gods their ancestors worshipped before God spoke to Abraham, or the gods of the Canaanites—then they should say so now. If the wanted to serve the Lord, they should also speak up now. “Choose this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” It’s a classic verse.

Question: Someday, when Gifted has to make her decision, will her baptism make any difference? If so, how? What I want to do now is look at Israel’s history as a parallel to our own life journeys. I think we can learn something from it about God’s grace and human response that is relevant to all of us.

Consider Israel on the day Joshua issued his famous challenge. They were who they were, and they were where they were, by God’s grace alone.

God called Abraham. Abraham didn’t choose God. God chose Abraham. Yes, Abraham had faith, but all his faith could do was respond to God’s promises. Abraham’s faith couldn’t generate the promises. They were grace.

Later the promises passed to Jacob, whom God renamed Israel. If you’ve read that account, you know how unlikely this was. Jacob did not come highly qualified. Jacob caused himself a lot of heartache and suffering before he had even a clue what belonging to God is about. And yet the promises came before the suffering. Why? Grace again.

Later God saved the lives of Jacob’s family, his twelve sons and their families, from famine. God chose Joseph and worked out a bizarre series of events to do that. When the Egyptians enslaved them, God delivered them through Moses. They passed through the water of the Red Sea. On one side, they were slaves, but God brought them through the water. On the other side they were free.

Moses’ own life was grace. The exodus was grace. God dragged them kicking and screaming through the wilderness for forty years. He showed them his glory and gave them the Law. Grace upon grace upon grace.

Then he gave them the promised land. Isn’t that crazy? Every good salesperson knows you close the deal before you deliver the goods. If you are selling your house, you don’t let someone move in and only then start haggling over the price. You get a good solid contract and some money up front before you hand over the keys. In fact, usually you don’t hand the keys over until after closing. God did it the other way around. He settled his people in the promised land. They got everything divided up and squared away. They moved in and began to enjoy their new home. Then God summoned them and called on them to make a decision. It wasn’t, “Hey, choose me and I’ll give you this land.” It was, “Here’s the land I promised. Oh, and by they way, if you want to be my people, please say so.” If that’s not grace, I don’t know what is.

So their whole history is grace, grace, grace—nothing but grace. God established a covenant, then he demanded a decision: “Choose this day whom you will serve.”

I believe our experience is similar. When a person professes faith in Christ and makes a public commitment … well, it doesn’t just happen. Grace comes first. Grace starts way back with all God’s promises. Then there’s the cross and resurrection of Jesus. Before you believed in him, before you were even born, Jesus died for you. At some point you were born. You heard the Good News about Jesus. Someone told you that God loves you. You recognized your need for the life Jesus offers. (And I think we ought to attribute this kind of spiritual awakening to the work of the Holy Spirit.) You discovered you believe God’s promises. You believe the Good News. You are willing to trust God. (Is all this your own doing, or is God working behind the scenes? Maybe somehow it is both!) And then, like the Israelites, having received grace upon grace upon grace, you make your choice.

When Gifted—or any of the children baptized in our church, for that matter—reaches the critical point of decision, will her baptism matter? I believe that it will. Just as the Israelites, when the time came to make their decision, could look back to the crossing of the Red Sea, when God brought them through the water, Gifted will be able to say to herself, “I am baptized. God has claimed me as his own. I did not choose to be this baptized person, this child of God, and yet, it is who I am. Now it is up to me to embrace this identity or refuse it.”

Martin Luther, the great Protestant reformer, had a tough life in many respects. For most of his adult life, a price was on his head. Anyone at all could kill him and claim a reward. If you think that isn’t stressful, try it sometime. He was also anxious about his work and its effects. The peasants’ revolt was a blow to him. People were taking his ideas and applying them wildly in directions he never intended. Add to the ordinary struggles of everyday life (which were more daunting in the 16th century than today) the problems of trying to bring together Lutherans and other Reformed Christians, and you can see he had more than his share of troubles. When he would get down, as he did … when his faith would waver … when he got depressed … two things kept his head above water. Two facts gave him comfort and the fortitude to press on. Do you know what they were? One was, of course, the cross of Christ. How could Luther know God really loved him? How could he know God wouldn’t judge him or destroy him? Simple: Jesus had died for him. The other was: He would say to himself, “I am baptized.” Luther found in his own baptism the assurance of God’s grace. When he wanted to know who he really was, he came back to that basic fact: he was baptized.

If you are baptized, you have solid ground that will hold you up amid the storms of life. What does your baptism mean? I have been talking about the value of baptism in making an initial decision for Christ. Baptism is of even more value once your decision is made. Why? Because you make your decision based on faith, and faith makes baptism effective. By baptism and faith, God’s promises are sealed on our hearts. In baptism God claims you as his own, and in faith you realize this is true.

A lot of people will try to tell you who you are or make you someone they want you to be. I heard a country song on the radio. The guy was singing to a woman about how to the bank she is just another number, to the postman she’s just another house, and things like that, but to him, she is the whole world. We could write a song about baptism along the same lines: At school you are one student among many, at work you are an employee, at home you are a mother or father or husband or wife or brother or sister, on weekends you are one of the guys or girls, at church you are a member maybe an elder or deacon, but to God … God says, “You are my beloved child, and with you I am well pleased.” That is what baptism gives you, that assurance of who you are. Sometimes we change hats so often and wear social masks so much that even we lose track of who we really are. Who do my friends think I am? Who does my church think I am? Who does my family think I am? Who do I think I am? That’s all well and good, but what matters most is: Who does God think I am?

Most people despair of known such a thing. After all, they aren’t fully convinced God even exists, much less what his opinions are. How could we even know what God thinks of us? Well … if you believe in Jesus, you are in luck, because he has given us a sign. Baptism. We call it a sacrament because it is something we do that points to something God does. OK, but how do we know God really does something? How do we know baptism isn’t something we do that points to nothing at all? Because we trust Jesus, and he is not going to give us a worthless sign that points to nothing. Baptism is his gift to us, it points to a reality that we might not be able to see, but it is real nonetheless.

Grace upon grace upon grace. God claims you. He says, “I love you. You are mine.” And then he says, “So choose this day whom you will serve. If you want to be like everyone else and live for yourself, say so. If you want to worship money or power or self conceit, say so. If you want to fit in with the crowd and embrace whatever ideas and values are fashionable this week, say so. But if you want to be my child, one of my people, just speak up and say so.”

Considering all that God had done for the children of Israel, their choice was obvious. And so is yours. Amen.

rev_mauldin@yahoo.com back to sermons