And the core meaning of baptism.
Because depending on where you come from,
! different people have different ways and associations
and ways of making meaning or thinking about baptism.
!
I would say the question of identity is a universal one.
Especially if you live in the postmodern West
where we are veritably obsessed with the search for identity.
And there is an inexhaustible supply of people
with strong opinions about where we should look
to figure out our identity.
If you're from a more traditional or communal culture,
most people would point you in the direction
of the people around you.
They would say, well, you're really meant to find your identity
in your tribe or your family or your traditions,
your people group.
That's where you look.
If you've grown up in the West,
you're pointed in the opposite direction.
Right?
In the postmodern West, the worst thing you could possibly do
is to look to some outside source to tell you who you are.
So if you let your family tell you who you are
or some set of social norms or your religion,
then you're a sellout, essentially.
And the only way we can really know who we really are
is to look inward and to analyze our feelings
and our desires and our impulses.
And that's really the source of identity.
It's interesting.
I was with some people from our church over this weekend
and we were just sharing our stories.
And one person in our church talked about what it was like
to grow up part of her life in a more traditional communal culture
and then to move to the highly individualistic culture
of East Coast U.S.
and the shift in identity for her.
Going from a place where you found identity
by kind of blending in and conforming to the people around you
and moving to a place where you really needed to be individual
and unique and make sure that you stand out.
And that was profoundly disoriented.
None of these ways of getting at identity actually deliver what they promise.
And that's what we're going to look at this morning.
The gospel offers something entirely different.
An identity that is not found by conformity
and it's not found by looking within.
It's an identity that can only be received
from Jesus Christ and sealed in baptism.
So that's what we're looking at.
We're looking at Matthew chapter 3, the story of Jesus' baptism.
So we're going to see the crisis of identity,
how Jesus restores identity, and what that means for us.
Let's pray.
Our Lord and Heavenly Father, we thank you this morning
for the fact that you are here
and you are doing your ministry in our midst.
We thank you that you love us, you love Patrick,
that what we're about to celebrate in this baptism
is all a response to your initiating love.
And we pray that in that love,
you would make your word understandable to us.
And that more than that,
you would do your work in us through your word.
We pray this in Jesus' holy name.
Amen.
So first of all, friends,
I want to talk a little bit about the crisis of identity.
Why is there this search to begin with?
In our passage, we meet a man named John.
John is a renowned prophet.
He lives in the desert.
And John's message is essentially boiled down to one core soundbite
that he repeats again and again.
He calls people to do two things,
to repent and be baptized.
Repent and be baptized.
One of the problems with the word repent
is I think when we hear the word repent,
we often think only of behavioral change.
What is John really preaching?
He's saying, stop doing the bad things,
get your act together,
start doing good things.
That's repent.
Stop the bad things,
start the good things.
And that's honestly what you find in a lot of religions around the world,
different versions of that message.
These things are bad.
These things are good.
Stop doing these things and start doing these things.
But John, we need to understand,
isn't just talking about changing behavior.
His message is really about changing our very identity.
To repent is to stop living out of a false identity.
It's to abandon your old way of life
and the identity that it's rooted in.
Because what the Bible would say
is that all of our behavior is downstream from our identity.
Whatever defines us,
that is what leads to all the ways that we live,
good or bad.
So to repent is to abandon an old identity
and then to be baptized is to put on a new identity,
a true identity.
This is why the Apostle Paul,
regularly in his letters,
refers to Christian conversion
as a putting off of the old self
and a putting on of the new self.
So why would we need a new identity?
What's the problem?
Well, what is identity?
Identity.
I heard one person say,
and I think this is a great way of thinking about it,
identity is composed essentially of two things.
Your identity, my identity, two things.
A sense of self
and a sense of worth.
By sense of self,
I mean what sits at the core of you,
underneath all the hats that you wear,
underneath all the roles that you play,
and the various spheres that you operate in,
what remains true about you
and does not change no matter what?
What's at your core?
That's the sense of self.
And then along with that,
where does your sense of worth come from?
What gives you significance?
What makes you confident of your value as a human being?
So those two things together,
sense of self,
sense of worth,
that's your identity.
And what Scripture teaches us
is that we were made in the image of our creator,
of a God who made us.
And what that means is that
we're meant to find our identity in Him.
Right?
We have His image.
And so that's the thing that's meant to define us,
is our relationship to Him.
It raises the question,
what happens when we stop doing that?
What happens when, at some point,
human beings said,
we don't want to be defined by you,
we don't want to live for you,
we want to live for ourselves.
In fact, we kind of want to be like our own gods.
What happens when we cast off
that source of identity that we're meant to have?
Well, inevitably,
we have to start looking for identity somewhere else.
And that's exactly what we see happening
all through history and all around the world.
Because the truth is,
as we have discovered,
much to our chagrin,
almost anything can become a source of identity
if we let it.
Almost anything can give us a sense of self
and a sense of worth if we let it.
So a lot of us look for areas
in which we have to perform.
Right?
So identity can be very performative.
So things that we do.
Most people come to D.C.
because they want to advance in their career somehow,
whether it's through education,
internship, fellowship, residency,
or some sort of career path that we're on,
which is great.
And there's a lot of impressive people
doing impressive things.
But it's easy in a place like D.C.
for career to become a sense of identity for us.
I am what I do.
I have value and significance
because of what I do.
Some people,
myself not included,
look to their athletic ability
and say, you know,
I was a college athlete.
I thought about going pro.
And for much of your life,
that's all you focused on.
Your friends were out playing and partying
and you were at practice all the,
you know, 6 a.m. every day,
you were up,
you were practicing all the time.
And it comes to define you.
Who are you?
Well, I'm a basketball player.
I'm a football player.
I'm a baseball player.
That's what I am.
That's what gives me value.
Some people look to their intelligence.
They're the smartest person in the room.
Right?
They're the one with the answer.
Some people look to their competence.
Some of us define ourselves
according to the values that we hold.
Right?
So that's why our political views
and affiliations can become
such a powerful source of identity.
I'm defined by the way I think
and I'm connected to the,
and validated by the other people
who agree with me.
Sometimes we're partially defined
by the roles that we play.
You know, we just came out of the holidays.
I don't know if you've ever experienced this.
When you go home
and you visit your family of origin
and maybe you've been living somewhere else
as a grown-up adult for 20 years
and you go back
and you spend time with your family of origin
and all of a sudden,
it's like you were sucked back into that role
that you haven't played for 15 or 20 years.
None of your friends think of you as that person
but you go back home
and all of a sudden,
you're that person again.
You get pulled into that old family system
and it's like they're forcing a hat on you
that hasn't fit for a long time.
But it's because the family system
needs you to play that role
and that's who you are.
That's your identity.
Right?
And so we can play lots of roles
as parents or as siblings or as kids.
You know, we can be helpers.
We can be rescuers.
We can be the golden child.
We can be the perpetual victim.
What defines us?
What gives us a sense of identity,
meaning, value?
It can be almost anything if we let it.
Here's the question.
I want you to think about your own life.
What are the things that you look to
and say,
that tells me who I am
and that tells me that I matter?
Because I guarantee you,
you're going to find stuff
and it's not going to just be one thing.
It's going to be probably
some combination
of everything I just said.
The point for this morning, though, friends,
is that anything we look to
to give us a sense of self
and a sense of worth
other than God
is doomed to failure.
It is unsustainable.
It will not last
for at least two reasons.
Number one,
if we look to something
other than God for identity,
our sense of self
will always be fragile.
It will always be fragile.
When we root our identity
in anything other than God,
then we end up
basing our sense of self
and worth
on something
that is impermanent.
It means it will
eventually be taken away from us.
So we have to live
with the perpetual insecurity
of knowing
that the things
that we are relying on
for our self
and worth,
we could lose them
at any point.
And that creates
a profound sense
of instability.
So recently,
we've gone through
a couple of hard years
with the government,
people who work
for the government,
and all the changes
in the government,
which means a lot of people
have lost their jobs.
So many of us know,
and at some point,
even if it didn't happen
even in the last year or two,
it's happened to many of us
at some point,
you have a job
that you think
you can count on,
that's stable,
that you kind of like,
and you're pretty good at,
and all of a sudden,
for reasons outside
of your control,
you lose it.
It's taken away from you.
Now, some people
can survive that.
Other people,
it just crushes them
because you realize,
I really came to look to that
to give me a sense of self
and a sense of worth.
And without that,
I don't know who I am anymore.
It's one of the hardest things
about losing your job
unexpectedly
is that you have to go
through a whole period
of asking,
who am I?
I don't know
who I am anymore.
If part of your identity
is wrapped up
in being attractive,
what happens
is we age
and we no longer
conform to the beauty standards
of the culture
that we live in,
right?
And you do a little Botox
and you do a little work
here and there
and you start,
you know,
take a GLP
and you kind of
do what you can.
But eventually,
you have to realize,
as the time passes,
I conform less and less
to the standards
of my society.
I'm trying to say it
diplomatically.
What happens?
Like, for some people,
it's like,
okay, I'm going to embrace aging.
I'm going to go gray.
It's going to be fine.
The muffin top,
I'm not going to worry
about that.
Other people,
there's a sense
that my very worth
as a human being
is draining out of me.
And I'm not actually knocking.
That's really hard.
If you feel that,
it's like,
who am I now
that I'm not beautiful?
Now that people,
now that when I'm out
in public,
I'm not turning heads,
who am I?
If part of our identity
and self-worth
is tied up
in our parents' approval,
what happens
when we get older
and maybe we come
to a different set
of convictions
politically or spiritually?
You know,
some of you grew up
in homes
and now you,
your politics
are very different
from your parents
or your family, right?
That used to fit in
because you agreed
with their politics
and now you're
in a very different place.
Some of you grew up
in non-Christian homes
and now you've come
to faith
and your family
thinks you're crazy?
And what happens
when you start
making decisions
and those decisions
don't line up
with what your parents
believe and value
and affirm
and you realize
that they no longer
approve of your choices?
What happens then?
But for you,
your parents' approval
is a huge source
of value
and meaning and worth
and you have to navigate that.
Who am I now?
What am I now
now that I don't have that,
right?
So if you are basing
your sense of identity
on anything other than God,
it's going to be impermanent
which is going to mean
that your identity
is very fragile.
So identity then
becomes something
that we have to perform
and we have to construct
something that we have
to achieve
and something that we
have to maintain
all the time
and it takes a lot
of energy to do it.
That's the first reason
why it's not sustainable.
Number two reason
why it's not sustainable
to search for identity
anywhere else
is that our sense of self
will not only be fragile,
it will be fragmented
because when you start
rooting your identity
in anything other than God,
very quickly
you will find yourself
pulled in lots
of different directions.
One of my favorite
European cultural observers,
Václav Havel,
who I quote from time to time,
former president
of the Czech Republic,
had this great analogy
of saying it's like
playing for a bunch
of different sports teams
and each has its own jersey,
right,
and you're constantly
swapping jerseys
and every team is saying
we are really your team
and all these other teams
are not your team
so you feel like
you're getting pulled.
Whose team do you
really play for?
Who are you really?
And that's what it feels like.
So you end up having
a version of yourself
that comes out at work.
You have a version of yourself
that comes out
around your family,
maybe a different version
that comes out
around your family of origin.
You have a version of yourself
that gets amplified
around your DC friends,
a version of yourself
that comes out
around your Christian
church friends.
It's weird
when you have a gathering
like a wedding
or something
where all those friends
get together
and all of a sudden
you realize
that different people
see you very differently
and who am I really?
The point is
none of these things
can bear the weight
of human identity.
They were never designed to.
How does Jesus
restore our identity?
How does Jesus
offer us something
better
than the constant
cobbling together
of fragile sources
of self and worth?
Here's where we go
with this passage.
John, as we said,
he's out preaching.
He's also baptizing people.
And then he sees Jesus.
And Jesus does something
totally unexpected.
Jesus asks John
to be baptized
by John.
And John's very
obviously confused
by this
because Jesus is
God's perfect
sinless son.
John's baptism
is a baptism
for sinners.
This is for people
who know they're sinful
to go into the waters
to renew their covenant
with God,
to be cleansed
and to be made right
with God,
put right with God.
And John is looking
at Jesus.
He's like,
you don't need
to be cleansed
of anything.
You don't need
to repent
of anything.
If anything,
he says,
I should be baptized
by you,
Jesus.
But Jesus insists,
and what does he say?
He says,
let it be so now
for thus it is fitting
for us to fulfill
all righteousness.
Now, we know
because I just said
a minute ago
he's not a sinner.
There's no sin.
That he doesn't mean
by fulfill all righteousness,
he doesn't mean
I need to be made righteous.
He means in order
to fulfill righteousness.
And this is a way
of him saying,
God has enacted
a plan
that has been unfolding
for centuries
to heal humanity
and put the world right.
And what I'm about
to do,
what I'm asking you
to do for me
is a crucial step
in that plan.
In order to fulfill
that plan,
John,
I need you
to baptize me.
when Jesus
is baptized,
we begin to see
the real reason
that he came.
Jesus did not come
to judge humanity.
Jesus came to identify
with humanity.
So instead of getting up
on the hillside,
so John's up here,
you need to repent
and be baptized,
and the sinners
are all down here.
Everybody would expect
somebody like Jesus
to come up on the hillside,
say,
John,
why don't you take a break
and take over?
Everybody needs to repent,
come be baptized,
right?
But Jesus doesn't come
up on the hill
and start preaching
to the sinners.
Jesus goes down
and takes his place
among the sinners.
What do we do with that?
Jesus doesn't heal us
by telling us
to get our act together.
Jesus heals us
by trading places with us.
He takes our old identity
on himself,
right?
So sinners who've rebelled
against God,
he takes that identity
on himself
and then he endures
the punishment
meant for us,
right,
on the cross.
And then what he does
is he offers
his identity
in exchange
as God's only begotten
righteous son.
So here is the gospel
in a nutshell.
Jesus becomes like us
so that we can become
like him.
It's a completely
different way
of offering hope
and salvation
to the world.
Jesus becomes like us
so that we can become
like him.
And you say,
well,
what does it mean
to become like Jesus?
Well,
we get a clue
right after,
as Jesus is being baptized,
immediately after,
it says,
the heavens were opened
to him
and he saw the Spirit
of God descending
like a dove
and coming to rest
on him.
And behold,
a voice from heaven
said,
this is my beloved son
with whom I am well
pleased.
To become like Jesus
is to know
that if you're
a baptized follower
of Jesus,
God speaks those
same words
over you
every moment
of every day
of your life.
Everywhere you are,
everything that you do,
at the height
of your greatest successes,
at the depth
of your worst,
most shameful failures,
the only words
God is speaking
to you
are those words.
This is my beloved child
in whom I am well pleased.
Over and over
and over,
Jesus says,
here's that identity,
this is the identity
that I want you to have,
this is the identity
you were made to have.
We said earlier
that our identity
is made up
of both a sense of self
and a sense of worth.
I want you to understand
that we find
both of those things
in the words
of God the Father.
Where can you find
a sense of self
that is so stable
that you never have
to worry about it
slipping away?
A sense of self
that can remain
regardless of what
circumstances
you find yourself in,
what hats you wear,
what roles you play.
you have to receive it.
You come to Jesus.
You allow God
to name you
as His child.
So if you're a Christian,
you allow God
to name you
and then you know
from that moment on
you are a son
or a daughter
of the King.
That's your identity.
Right?
And that remains true
no matter what.
That remains true
regardless of how you feel.
It may not feel true.
Who cares?
It is.
It remains true
no matter what role
you play.
So in all circumstances,
no matter what else
might change in your life,
the thing that is
most true about you
is that you are a son
or daughter of the King.
And then it gives us
a profound sense of worth
because we see
in these words
that God delights
when He looks at you.
God delights
when He beholds
His children.
And the great thing
about that delight
and love
is it's not the kind
of love
that you need to earn
or maintain
by holding on
to God's approval.
It's the kind of love
that flows freely
from God
into your life
as a gift.
And because you
didn't earn it
and because you
don't deserve it,
you can't lose it.
If you didn't do
anything to get it,
you can't do anything
to lose it.
When you know
deep down
that you are beloved
by God,
that gives you
an unshakable
and inexhaustible
source of worth
and value.
And here's what that does.
It protects you
from the highs
and the lows.
Right?
If your source of worth
is based in God's
free gift of love
for you,
then even if you
are wildly successful,
you're never going
to be tempted
to become smug
or cocky
or look down
on those little people
who never made it.
Right?
Because your worth
isn't wrapped up
in your success.
It comes as a gift
from God.
And on the other hand,
when you face
your worst failures
imaginable,
it's not going
to crush you
because your worth
is not wrapped up
in your failure.
It comes as a gift
from God.
So this is how
Jesus heals
our identity.
Being a Christian
is not about
being a better person.
It's allowing Jesus
to trade places
with you.
It's taking on
a new identity.
So last question
we want to ask
this morning,
what does this mean
for us,
those of us gathered here?
At the end
of Matthew's gospel,
and this is kind
of looking ahead
past our passage
to the end
of Matthew's gospel,
after his death
and resurrection,
Jesus sends out
his disciples
into the world
and he tells them,
go and make disciples
of all nations,
that means everybody,
baptizing them
in the name
of the Father
and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit.
He's saying,
go out into the world
and tell everybody
you meet
that there is a way
that is made open
to the world.
There is a way now
to have your true
identity restored.
There's a way
for you to become
who God created you to be.
You no longer
have to look for that.
The way is open.
The answer is here.
All you have to do
is receive it.
And in many ways,
I think that, friends,
this captures
the whole mission
of the church.
church, this is why
we're here.
This is why we're excited
to have a permanent
location in a neighborhood
like Shaw.
This is why we show up.
It's because this
proclamation is going
out to the world
and there are many,
many, many people
who need to hear it
and many, many, many people
who need to be reminded of it.
Everything we do,
and by we,
I mean the church,
everything we do
is aimed at healing
and restoring
human identity.
Everything that we do
is aimed at healing
and restoring
human identity.
So it's about seeing
men and women
rehumanized
by becoming
what God created
them to be,
which is his children.
And friends,
this is especially
true of baptism.
When we see Patrick
baptized this morning,
who is going to go
get ready right now
for baptism, I think,
when Patrick comes up
here in a little while
and we baptize Patrick,
what we're really doing
is we are speaking
his true name
over him.
We're saying,
this is who you are, son.
You are God's
beloved child.
And that is the most
true thing that anybody
will ever say
about that child
is that you're
a child of God
and he delights him.
We're declaring
what is true about him.
Now why is that important?
Because remember,
what happens
just after Jesus
is baptized?
The very next verse
says he goes out
into the wilderness
and what happens?
Immediately,
Satan begins to challenge
and question his identity.
And that continues
to happen,
not just in the wilderness,
but for the rest
of Jesus' ministry
all the way up
to when he is hanging
on the cross
and they're sneering
and they're mocking
and they're saying,
if you're really
the son of God,
if you're really the king,
come down off that cross.
The entire time
Jesus is on earth,
his identity
is under constant attack.
And friends,
the same is true
for us.
From the moment
that child is baptized,
from the moment
you are baptized,
for the rest of your life,
your identity
will be under
constant attack.
Everybody wants
a piece of you
because if you can
tell somebody
who they are,
you can control them.
And whether you're
a good advertising agency,
a good political advocacy group,
or Satan himself,
everybody wants
a piece of you.
So they want
to define you.
This is why
we need the church.
It is not enough
just to get baptized
and say,
well now we've checked
that box,
go do what you want,
go to church.
This is why
when we baptize a child,
we want to make sure
the parents are followers
of Jesus
and we want to make sure
that those parents
are actively participating
in our church
or in a church
if it's not our church.
Because you need
the church
to constantly remind you
who you truly are.
And what do I mean by that?
I mean this.
I mean number one,
we need the scriptures
constantly preached
and taught in our lives
to tell us who we are.
Here is where it says
you're a beloved child of God.
We need the sacraments,
baptism,
and the Eucharist.
What do those do?
Those give us ways
of sharing in the identity
and sharing in the life
of Christ,
strengthening our identity
in Him.
Every time you receive
the Eucharist,
Christ offers His life
to you
to build that identity
up in you.
We need ways
of embodying
the gospel story
that shape our identity.
How do we do that?
That's the whole point
of the liturgy.
That's the whole point
of the prayers
and the singing.
It's to enter into
and embody
the story of the gospel.
So much of our sense
of our identity
comes from stories.
So we come here
to be restored
by being re-storied.
We are re-storied
through the liturgy.
As we hear of our sin,
as we confess,
as we hear absolution,
as we receive Christ.
And finally,
we need a community
people who have
the good combination
of love and guts
who will push back
and challenge
and question
if we start going
off that path
and veering into
another identity.
You need those people
in your life.
Unfortunately,
in our culture,
so many people
are so thin-skinned.
And so many people
in the church,
quite frankly,
are so thin-skinned
and so prone
to take offense
that we are so offended
when people push back
on our life choices.
And I would say,
if we're not doing that,
we're really abdicating
our responsibility
and our spiritual friendships.
You know,
we live in this world
where when somebody
says who they are,
that's like an unassailable thing
that it's like
an absolute truth.
That is absolutely bogus.
That is the worst possible way
to live as a society.
You know,
a few years ago,
the story came out,
maybe some of you read it,
about a woman
named Kira Bell.
And Kira Bell
began identifying
as a boy
around age 14.
And she was medically
transitioned as a teenager,
hormone treatment,
puberty blockers,
and later,
double mastectomy.
Later,
she realized
it had all been
a huge mistake.
She detransitioned,
but her body
has lasting permanent damage
that's been done to it
as a result
of the medical interventions.
But as she got older,
she looked back
and she realized
that her distress
actually came from the fact
that she was depressed.
She was anxious.
She did not fit in
with her friends.
She didn't like
stereotypically girly things.
She was going through puberty,
which was really hard for her,
and she had no one
to talk to
to help her understand
what was happening
to her body.
So,
the reason I'm bringing it up
is in 2020,
she won a landmark lawsuit
against the doctors
who led her down that path.
And what she said
is essentially this.
She said,
I went to that clinic
expecting for people
to ask me questions
and to challenge me
and to help me make sure
that this was the right
decision for me.
But she said,
from the minute
I walked in that clinic,
nobody challenged me.
Nobody questioned me.
They uncritically,
unquestioningly
affirmed me as a boy
from the moment
I walked in the door.
And she says,
I couldn't find
an institution
or an organization
anywhere
where anyone
would ask any questions.
She said,
everybody simply
affirmed me as a boy
and before I knew it,
I was on the path.
And it's heartbreaking
if you read her story
because she says,
I wish that people
had challenged me
because if they had,
I wouldn't have to live
with the consequences
of the choices I made.
You know,
the point,
friends,
is whatever it is
that is pulling at us
and trying to tell us
who we are,
it shouldn't be the case
that there are no
institutions out there
where you will ever
be challenged
to their questions.
That may be true
elsewhere.
But I just want
to make clear,
you should come to church
expecting people
to call you back
to what is most true
about you.
You should expect
to come to church
and have people
who are going to push back
when you begin
to be pulled away
from that truth.
Right?
When you start getting
too wrapped up
in your career
or too wrapped around
the axle of your,
you know,
politics,
right,
you should come to church
expecting that people
are going to say,
I think this has become
too important for you.
You know,
you need to come back
to Christ.
You are not your career.
You are not your accomplishments.
You are not your failures.
You are not your shame.
You're a beloved child of God.
You are not your feelings
and desires.
You're not the names
that people have called you
or the false accusations
they've made about you.
You're not a victim.
You're not defined
by the things
that have been done
to you
or the harm
that has been committed
against you.
You're a beloved child of God.
Every time we gather together,
that is the message
I pray you take with you
into the world.
And every time you forget,
come on back
and you'll hear it again.
Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you
for your goodness.
We thank you
that
through
an unfathomable mystery
across thousands
and thousands
of years,
you enacted a plan
involving
thousands of people,
thousands of years,
cultures
near and far.
and that plan
unfolded
leading all the way
to this moment
when we could simply
open our mouths
and call you
Father.
And Lord,
we pray that
whatever else
may seem
or feel
to be true
at any given moment,
the thing that is most true
for us here
is that we would know
beyond a shadow
of a doubt
that we are
your beloved children.
And we pray this
that we might glorify you
by living
and being
what we are created for.
in Jesus' name.
Amen.