Duty

Luke 17:7-10

"Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and recline at table'? Will he not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink'? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.'"

Outside perhaps only the military, when was the last time you heard anyone really advocate in plain words the virtue of duty?

People talk about their jobs. They talk about their endless list of activities. But what about one's sense of duty?

On October 21, 1805, at the famous battle of Trafalgar, the great British Admiral Horatio Nelson, ran up the mizzenmast a thirty-one flag signal to the rest of his fleet spelling out the now-famous phrase, "England expects that every man will do his duty."

After crippling one enemy warship, Nelson's flagship, the HMS Victory, closed on the French Redoubtable from which a sniper in the rigging shot down the greatest of all English naval heroes.

For four hours Nelson retained consciousness, but soon after the battle ended in British victory, he died. His final words were, "Thank God I have done my duty."

In our current age of entitlements, rights, and personal prerogatives, the topic of duty sounds almost old-fashioned, downgraded to the timely performance by Fido out in the back yard.

However, duty is a churchly and admirable word.

Duty is about principle. It suggests that one's beliefs are the marrow of his bones and not just a cosmetic.

Duty is more than having a job. To go "on duty" is to give service. It’s not just having an obligation to take your turn punching a clock. Truly giving service is dutiful. Just putting in your time means nothing.

I'm afraid in America we have gone a long way to devalue the honor of vocation and the sense of duty which is part of being truly human. Work too often is seen just as the means of getting the money to do things to please oneself. The job becomes just a necessary evil.

But when that happens, service loses all sense of duty and honor. Too often, ownership is only seen as having the financial reins or being the guy who holds title instead of the significance of making something consequential even if I'm only assigned the lowest rung of the ladder and someone else possesses me.

I would suggest that Horatio Nelson in his message to the fleet wasn't just sending a work memo to the seamen in nearly thirty ships under his command. His appeal to every man to do his duty was meant to inspire in them a remembrance of their privileges as free-born Englishmen.

The call to duty was to dignify the sacrifice they would be called upon to offer. Duty wasn't about being in the audience, being a spectator or bystander. Duty was the recognition that one's role has meaning and worth beyond the almighty dollar or getting something like the Stanley Cup where 30 guys are on the ice while 30 million are on the couch.

Don't get me wrong. I watch the Redwings and like it when they win.

But I'm talking about the loss to Christians who may not take their Christian duty seriously. The church in too many quarters has become a spectator sport where sanctuaries are being converted into arenas and pastors are cast as performers. Ministry is outsourced to other missionaries rather than me! Sermons are rated by the clock, and congregations become just another local convenience store.

But what are we Christians except servants with real duty to perform. There is nobility in the role God has given every Christian, but if we think we deserve to the thanked, ought to be indulged, or are worthy of the Name we are given just because we're on the rolls, think again.

We have a Captain who is Jesus Christ. We have a Master and Commander who knows what duty is. The Father sent his Son to be the savior of the world. (1 John 4:14). Jesus said, "As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me." (John 9:4). Christ Jesus undertook our salvation as a call to duty. It is what he had to do. It never occurred to Jesus that he had options, rights, or ought to be entitled to something better than what His Father asked him to do.

Jesus is not a pro-choice kind of guy.

He was a man of duty and accountability. The Servant of all.

Yes, his motive was gracious, but His performance he took as obligation. He humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross! (Phil. 2:8)

From the teachings of Christ comes this question, "Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and recline at table'? Will he not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink'? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.'"

Unworthy servants. That is what we are.

Our worth is not in what we can do for God, but in the privilege He gives us to serve others in His Name.

It is from privilege that duty springs. We have the honor to serve, the distinction of even coming last if that is God's will.

Quite frankly, we expect something from those who call themselves Christian. We expect Christians to do their duty just as we expect a good tree to produce good fruit. We expect someone who is a member of the body of Christ not simply to function but to have this service of Christ, the living sacrifice (Romans 12:1) of our bodies deemed as pure privilege.

May you come to the end of your life and be able to say, "Christ fulfilled all God's commands for me. He set me free to serve. What I have done was only my duty. Thank God, I have a Savior who did His.

Happy Home

Genesis 16:1-6

Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, "Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her." And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. And Sarai said to Abram, "May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!" But Abram said to Sarai, "Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please." Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.

In Eden, the first man and woman created by God lived a blissfully happy life. The unity and harmony of one man and one woman in the divinely established bond of marriage was holy, lovely, and sweet.

They didn't have a pre-nuptial agreement. I doubt there were many occasions even for compromised because both lived for the happiness of each other, glad to yield in love at every turn. Before the Fall, our first parents didn't resort to power or expediency. They had no call for marriage counseling because they knew nothing of shame, embarrassment, bickering or quarrelling. They loved each other as God in Christ loved them. What rights they had were always at the disposal of each other, never jealously held because they knew themselves to be one flesh.

Few today believe such a marriage is ever possible.

The editors of Ladies Home Journal, commenting on marriage wrote, "Every marriage has problems. The pressures are real and never let up . . ." About marriage, Garrison Keillor says: "Marriage is a good thing. But as for the sanctity of it, you shouldn't look too closely. Every marriage has its profane moments." The documentary, "Married in America" concluded, ". . . every marriage, by definition, will experience bumpy times."

Is that so?

Marriage, we would argue, by definition is holy. God gives marriage for blessing and delight. Such marriages do exist.

We don’t say there are some perfect few people just lucky or compatible enough to have the rare fluke of the one ideal marriage in a thousand. Rather, there are many marriages where Christ is the center and substance.

In such unions, sanctity is real because the Lord's forgiveness is applied. Problems are occasions for faith in the love of Christ and are actually welcomed by couples who see the benefit of resolving whatever comes on the basis of God's Word. Unity is authentic from being joined together by God, not by power or practicality.

Sorry to say, we don't have a very good early example in Abram and Sarai.

Abram's wife, Sarai, had a heartache in her marriage. No children. A decade into their years in Canaan, and more years prior to that in marriage, but still she was childless.

Not wanting to look bad, however, Sarai holds God at fault for her barrenness and unfulfilled feelings. "The Lord has prevented me from bearing children." And so, Sarai seeks to solve the emptiness in her life by a dubious method, albeit legal in the ancient world—a form of surrogate motherhood.

She uses power which is never intended by God as the bond for marriage.

An Egyptian slave girl named Hagar is the tool under her control. Sarai then gets Abram to go along with a morally unsanctioned sexual business of obtaining a son through Hagar. The slave is twice maltreated: sexually (because "it was not to be this way from the beginning; Matt 19:8b), and then through the "legal" loss of her son.

Abram, for his part, chooses expediency. He substitutes his own common sense for God's Word. Abram is impatient with God even though he knows full well the promise of a son God had given him (Gen 15:4). Here was Abram's distortion of marriage on the flip side from Sarai's. Marriage is not an entitlement for our convenience but a gift of God for our blessing.

Waiting for a son may have been an inconvenience for Abram, but it would not invalidate God's Word. He should have remembered that.

The same is true in any of our marital tensions or even in the wreckage of a marriage. God's Word applies. Christ is our safe harbor.

The Gospel is the foundation on which those who are married can repeatedly study the love of Christ for his bride, the church, and then reflect that love.

"Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless." (Eph. 5:25-27) Just so, husbands ought to love their wives.

As it happened, a son, Ishmael, was born from Hagar, but the sad price was domestic strife and tragedy. The hurt in Hagar led her to be rude and disrespectful of Sarai. Hagar acted superior now that she was pregnant which Sarai was not.

Sarai counters with an appeal to her own "sacrifice" she thinks Abram should appreciate, now blaming him for what she herself instigated.

Everybody is miserable.

Sarai wants God to act as judge in the matter (v.5) which is exactly the opposite of what they need. Abram leaves the mess to Sarai only to address it with more "power" (v.6), exactly the opposite of what they needed. Hagar is simply mistreated further, so much that she leaves altogether (v. 6), exactly the opposite of what was good for her. According to ancient law, a slave-mother was not to be banished, but Sarai made things so wretchedly horrible that she got the job done without appearing guilty.

These horrible kind of things sinful husbands and wives do lead to those blanket statements that every marriage is flawed.

Of course, if we only look at two people, even if they are notables like Abraham and Sarah, then every marriage is bleak.

But marriage is fundamentally a divine union created by God. What God has joined is a marriage made in paradise.

First it is the perfect joining of Jesus to those whom He loves and has redeemed. Christ is indeed The bridegroom (Mark 2:19-20) who regards his bride (the church) as flawless and pure. He covers her sin, pronounces her cherished, vows never to leave her, and presents her to the world perfect.

If even that mess in Canaan was healed by God's mercy, so also can our lives be.

God had a plan for Hagar sending her the angel of the Lord. Though the record of Genesis tells other episodes of household conflicts, each time the Lord remained true to His Word. One day Abraham and Sarah received the son God had promised. They named him Issac.

One day the friction and rivalry is past. In the Day of the Lord, marriage is again holy, lovely, and sweet.

In that day the beloved of Christ live for the happiness of each other. They have no call for power or pragmatism. They live by faith. The Lord has taken away their shame, embarrassment, bickering and quarrelling. God in Christ loves them, and they in turn each other.

Where is that day and happy home?

The day is today. The happy home is right here where Christ binds lives to Himself and never lets us go.

Bright Light at Midnight

Matthew 4:12-16

Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

“The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.”

Jesus Christ is the light of the world who has come to obliterate the darkness, to demolish the blackness of sin and the gloom of death. His light is hope for the lost, liberation from blindness, and the morning after a nightmare.

Once as a boy, I did one of those juvenile things boys stupidly will do. As a kind of initiation, I slithered with a couple of friends down a storm drain that fed off into a huge sewer intended to carried rain water off the San Gabriel mountains above our homes in Altadena, California. Each of us lay down in the street gutter and squirmed our way quite a few feet underground until dropping ourselves into the massive tile which must have been at least eight feet high. We had no flashlight and had to hold each other’s outstretched hands to grope along in pitched darkness.

As I remember it, Mike Geibel was touching one side wall and maybe Steve Perry the other. One or two others of us walked in the middle. It was so black that our eyes never adjusted. There was no light whatsoever. I worried about possible drop-offs. Thank God it didn’t start to rain. An awful lot of water can come off those mountains, and this was no minor storm pipe.

I don’t know how far we walked. It seemed a long way. We certainly weren’t going to be doing any slithering out the way we came in. Any other street conduits, if we could have seen them, were high on the wall. I had my eyes wide open, but eyes, open or shut, don’t produce light.

But that night I saw a great light. Suddenly ahead of us, I saw a vivid brightness. How great it was to see a beam so propitious. We guys walked straight toward it. It was an auroral and striking light. And then we walked out into the dry reservoir.

Know what? It was near midnight, but until then I hadn’t realized how bright even starlight is. From the region and shadow of death even the glint of a single star gives hope.

To the land of Zebulun and the land of Nahtali beyond Jordan God gave the people dwelling in darkness a great light a wonderful and boundless light. Christ’s coming was not a single shaft of light as though through a crack. He is not just a glimmer of hopefulness or mere spark of optimism. He is the light beyond all suns or infinite candle power. He is Himself the light.

God gave a great light. He sent the full-blown dawn of a brand new day, radiant with the blaze of his own countenance. The promised Christ, the light of the world, was come.

In the closing promises of the Old Testament, God spoke through Malachi of that day when God would act, “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.”

You should have seen us boys in that dry basin that night. Minutes before we were walking like frail old men holding onto the wall or tentatively testing each step with indecision and constant doubt. The light changed all that. The clock said midnight, but we had light.

We let go. Like idiotic ninnies we ran, skipped, and were young again … like calves from the stall. I hope to never underestimate light again or take it for granted.

When St. Matthew quotes Isaiah, “… for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death” he is speaking of all of us. Underground where the dead are buried, where this is no light or life, he broke in. To shine on us, Christ would come into the region of our death. God didn’t just train a spotlight on us. He came Himself into the darkness and overcame it.

A light has dawned. The darkness is ended. And for us who bask in Christ’s light, upon whom His countenance has been lifted, even if the clock says midnight, even if others say we Christians live in a gloom of naiveté and gullibility, even if darkness threatens and the dark lord would have us think Christ’s doctrine be a murky fog, you and I know differently.

“The Lord is my light and my salvation.” (Psalm 27:1a) Egypt may be plunged into darkness, but we live in the land of Goshen (Exodus 10:21-23), the region where God's people, as the church of Jesus Christ, are light in the Lord (Ephesians 5:8).

Tain't .........

Acts 23:1

And looking intently at the council, Paul said, “Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.” And the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! Are you sitting to judge me according to the law, and yet contrary to the law you order me to be struck?” Those who stood by said, “Would you revile God's high priest?” And Paul said, “I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest, for it is written, ‘You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.’”

Of all the words in common English, there is one I have come to loathe. There is nothing wrong with the word itself. It isn't profane or obscene. There is nothing offensive in the dictionary’s definition of it, but I still detest it. It is a “four-letter-word” but not in the sense of what that usually means. It is not a politically incorrect word for which I would be criticized by the language police.

But I come very close to hating this word. It scratches my eardrums and nearly always makes we wince. Inside I churn and grind my teeth. It just “gets to me.”

Oddly enough the word has a definition most think honorable people would appreciate. I don’t. I feel bad about it because the word fits right into the wheelhouse of our American sense of decency. These days President Obama seems to use it in nearly ever sentence he speaks on the campaign trail. He hopes to secure a second term as president on the strength of this single word.

In the passage from Acts cited above, the word isn't exactly used, but the concept is at the heart of an exchange between St. Paul and the Jewish religious authorities. Paul had an entirely different footing than they did.

Ananias, the high priest, presumed to live on this word, to have it define his life, office, and conduct. With it, Ananias believed he could justify any behavior and exonerate any personal faults of his own just by invoking his own interpretation of it.

St. Paul on the other hand considered the word so toxic that he would use it only when absolutely necessary, and knowing its dangers, just as quickly back away from it.

I went looking through various Bible translations and never found the word used except in a few places with an entirely different meaning—a meaning something like a balmy breeze or a bonny day.

But otherwise, our modern use of it is virtually unknown in the scriptures. The right biblical term would be the word “just.”

But the word I hate is the word “fair.”

President Obama on the other hand, loves it. He adores it. He uses it all the time. The rich have to pay their “fair share.” The little guy has to be given a “fair shot.” More federal regulations will give folks a “fair deal.” You voters are not being given a “fair shake.” You’re being robbed of “fair value.”

Whiners love to claim, “Tain’t fair; tain’t fair; tain’t fair.”

Tain’t fair what the corporations are doing to you. Tain’t fair that someone should have more than you. Tain’t fair that you’re not a winner. Tain’t fair that you don’t get what other people got.

The word “fair” in that spirit means something entirely subjective. Something isn't fair just because I say so. Such “fairness” is one-sided and exactly the opposite of the actual meaning of the word. Fairness used to mean free from bias or injustice. Most griping about fairness today is selfish.

St. Paul got slugged right in the mouth for declaring his innocence against charges made against him. He was accused of speaking against God's Word, God's people, and the temple. When Paul declared his clear conscience, the high priest ordered somebody to belt Paul right in the kisser.

Paul didn’t whine about it. Undoubtedly, he didn’t like it, but you have to look carefully here. Paul didn’t use the law of fairness to defend himself. He didn’t bellyache over his treatment and simply bawl, “Tain’t fair, you bully.”

Notice what the apostle actually does. He uses this lethal weapon of the law—real justice—and gives it back to Ananias in spades, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall.”

It was as though Paul was saying to Ananias; You look fair. You look fine. You look bonny and nice and whitewashed, but you make a perilous choice to mock justice when you can't bear it’s scrutiny on yourself. “Are you sitting to judge me according to the law, and yet contrary to the law you order me to be struck?”

Mind you, Paul was not defending himself with the Law. Paul’s words were not a defense. They were offense. Paul had just said his conscious was clear. “I have lived my life before God in all good conscience.” Paul’s footing was the righteousness of faith in Christ, not righteousness through the law. He didn’t need to plea the law. Paul’s use of the law was the proper use—the exposure of sin even if that sin comes from one holding the highest office in the church.

And yet, when it was pointed out to him even by his opponents that he was bound to show consideration for his rulers, immediately Paul realizes the parallel duty he has to show respect. He quickly retreats from the law, not because he disavows its proper use but because he knows his own vulnerability under the dominion of the law. The apostle knew he had been treated unjustly, but he cares little for that. His conscience before God rests on the merit of Christ in whom he trusts.

But Ananias is a different matter. Here is a man alleging the use of the law without actually knowing it. So, Paul gives him a lesson. He absolutely nails Ananias with the law because that’s what Ananias needed. But Paul knows how quickly and justifiably that same law, like a sin-seeking torpedo can just as quickly turn and seek him out.

That’s why I hate the word “fair.”

Not that there isn't a proper place for evenhandedness, impartiality, and fair dealing in the affairs of men. But we can be all too cavalier with this potent material of the law. When it is used as cover for oneself or as a club against somebody else, it is more dangerous than handling nitroglycerin.

The law kills.

No one ever heard Jesus say, “Tain’t fair!” The opposition, the slander, the abuse against him; the unjust arrest, the maltreatment, the unwarranted verdict, the castigation, the scourging, the cross— Did Jesus ever cry, “Tain’t fair”?

Christ Jesus was the only truly righteous man who ever lived, and he had a right to cry, “Foul!” But He didn’t in order to bear the full force of the law’s condemnation against our sin which He had taken as his own.

That’s why today’s stunted appeals to what is “fair” so often grinds me. For example, if God or man gave me what is really fair, I would be on the receiving end of unspeakably harsh and objective justice. Not that God wouldn’t give me a fair trial. He would.

But I would lose!

And I would receive a whole lot worse than a bloody mouth.

Thank God he is not putting us believers on trial. The verdict is already in. And God's sentence is mercy to us for Christ’s sake. You and I have already received in Christ by our baptism that which is entirely unfair … clemency, kindness, and grace. Let’s not return therefore to invoking a right to fairness in light of that. In short— mercy it isn't fair, but that’s the glory of it.

Meanwhile, I’m convinced the eternal hellish cry of the damned will be, “This ain’t fair!” Oh, no. Justice is indeed fair, eminently fair, and those who invoke it will be getting just what they ask for.

As such, let us not get in the habit of saying here that odious complaint of hell, “Tain’t fair.”

Nothing Stupid

Romans 7:15

“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”

The fact is: We do stupid stuff. Procrastination of a chore that will have to be done sooner or later. How stupid to put it off, but we all know what it is to drag our feet. Anger over some trivial matter which only makes matters worse. How stupid is that? Stubbornness. How stupid. A hard heart—recklessness. A careless word—thoughtlessness. Leaving someone else out—just plane unkindness. “I don’t understand what I do.”

The famous comedy team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis had a falling out and wouldn’t speak for years and years. Stupid.

According to one historian, the legendary feud between the Kentucky McCoys and the West Virginia Hatfields began when two of their children, Roseanna and Johnse just wanted to get married. Others say the blood feud which eventually claimed dozens of lives began over ownership of a hog. Floyd Hatfield had it and Randolph McCoy said it was his.

Who knows? But we do such stupid things. A grudge. A bad habit. Absence from worship. Failure to apologize. Nit-picking criticism of others. Take a close look and one of those will fit.

Paul said again in verse 19, “For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.”

This was more than the puzzlement or bewilderment of a man stating the truth of his own stupidity. This was a man aware of the sin living in him. He confessed, “I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” A feud was being waged in his own mind and body.

Intelligence is no cure for stupidity. Some very intelligent people like former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich flabbergast others by their senseless stupidity. Neither are more rules or legislation a therapy for idiocy. An idiot like me only breaks them and becomes more evil. The apostle knew this profoundly. “Who,” he cries out, “will rescue me from this body of death?”

Who will rescue me from this incomprehension and incredulous stupidity warring in me?

“Who,” he cries. Not what! Who will rescue me from my stupid, stupid sins? Not, “When will I grow up?” or “How can I beat this thing?” or “Where can I escape from my folly?” but WHO—who will come to help me?

Who never retaliated, never made threats (1 Peter 2:23), never returned insults or harmed? Who never made a gaffe or blunder—a man without error, a sinless man? I need one who is wisdom. I need “Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God-- that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.” (1 Cor. 1:30).

Of course, remember that even his friends thought Jesus was stupid to return to Jerusalem when the authorities already had tried to stone him there. His leading disciple, Peter, considered Jesus ridiculous not to at least put up a fight. This was nothing new. Once his own family went to take charge of Jesus, for they said, "He is out of his mind." (Mark 3:21) Was Jesus stupid to love us so? Was he a meathead to endure the foolishness of friends and the farce set up by his enemies?

You can believe that they called him that and more. What names were hurled at God’s Son we shame to even think. Oh, God, what assault to his ears, his character, his person when it is I who am such a sinful fool, doing what I hate and failing to do what I ought to do.

St. Paul’s answer to his incomprehensible dilemma was simply to shout, “Thanks be to God-- through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom. 7:25), who has never called us a name except to call us Christian—to give us His name; who never played the fool but displayed the very wisdom of God through the cross. Going to his death for you and me was never rash or dim-witted. It was conscious, reckoned, holy, deliberate, and intentional.

Jesus doesn’t do stupid stuff.

When he forgives you, he is not being taken in or played for a sucker. He is rescuing you. When he daily and richly shields and cares for you, it’s not silly. It is our God mindful of his promises and premeditated in the guardianship of you, whom he loves, not because you’re astute or know how to step carefully (you and I aren’t any more than St. Paul was), but because He, Christ, is flawless in mercy, love, and undeserved favor. We have been unwise in many things and have done more stupid stuff than we can count. But there is nothing stupid in the cure of all that in the cross.

Prayer: Lord, forgive my stupidity, my sin. And help me to see the wisdom of the cross by which my Savior, Jesus Christ, heals and blesses me. Thanks be to God. Amen

Infant Baptism -- The Gospel in Force

Colossians 2:6-7

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

With all the early church fathers, the universal church throughout the ages, and with all those who hold to Scripture's central doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone for the sake of Christ alone, we believe in the power of baptism to save because it is the power of the Gospel.

Baptism is not exclusive to adults, to the learned, to the dedicated, or to the accountable. It is not limited to those who have made a decision for Christ. It is never restricted because it is God's saving Word, and His power to save is never inhibited.

A little child, even the tiny infant receives Christ through baptism. Little hands do not reach up into heaven. God's nail-marked hands reach down to the child. That little one’s immature voice is fluent only in the bawl of a newborn baby. He or she has nothing sweet to say, but sweet are the promises Christ speaks. "You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." (1 Cor. 6:11)

I recall the holy baptism of my dear granddaughter. The work was God's, not hers.

This was God's work, not that of the church, or her parents, nor her sponsors, nor by anything she fetched along. She came with nothing but her need, her sin, and her helplessness.

The delivery of life comes through Christ alone. Scripture can be understood rightly in no other way.

"Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word." (Eph. 5:26)

Have you ever seen a baby clean up after itself? Babies have a regular habit of making a stinking mess. Likewise, born corrupt, every babe-in-arms has no way out of the soil of sin. The answer is Christ who cleanses through the Word in baptism.

Again: "He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal of 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 having the hope of eternal life." (Titus 3:5-6)

Have you ever seen an infant free itself from a broken high chair or run from a dangerous animal? Likewise, saving from the devil's threats and this broken world is the Lord's rescue.

"He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." (Col. 2:11-12)

Christ has done this. There is nothing whatsoever in these texts that suggests salvation is teamwork. Baptism is neither our act of submission nor our act of worth. It is entirely God's doing. The child of God (infant or elderly) receives. That's it: God delivers and we receive.

We don't earn, merit, or deserve one good thing from God. Yet, through the grace of His Son, God gives the kingdom of heaven with one Word and one drop of water.

This is how one receives Christ. As a gift! Through no work of one's own!

Our granddaughter didn't lift a finger. She supplied exactly nothing. Her contribution added up to one comprehensive grand total of absolute zero.

Christ did it all. He loved her, He elected her. He lived for her and died for her. He conquered death for her. He created her. He sought her and planned for her. He supplied her life and limb, home, family, and health. And He did all of this for her without one iota of exertion or one grain of understanding from her.

Do not suppose, therefore, that the greatest Gift of all, the gift of the Holy Spirit, forgiveness, and eternal salvation will be hers only on consignment.

To deny infant baptism is to emasculate the very Gospel of Christ.

It places God into limbo waiting on events determined by the choices we make. Nothing could be more radically contrary to the very core of the Christian message. It basically makes God an observer rather than the Savior.

If you understand the absolute grace of Christ in baptism, then you will also understand the remainder of these short verses and how one walks in Christ as they grow older. It is by grace.

How is one built up and established in the faith? Not by making mighty efforts, wringing out of ourselves decisions to do better, or committing oneself to strict religious practice. No, it is by faith in Christ's goodness and depending utterly on Him.

How is one to abound in thanksgiving?

Never by turning a share of it back on oneself with congratulations for anything we have done. Ours is simply a life of thanks rendered to Christ alone for his endless love and goodwill.

That is the life our granddaughter was given. That's why the day of her water baptism in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit was the greatest day in her life (not just the greatest to up until then, but the greatest ever!). And that's why it was a sublime joy for all of us to share - because we are the baptized too.

Never Plain Stock

Philippians 2:19-24

I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you. For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know Timothy's proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel. I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me, and I trust in the Lord that shortly I myself will come also.

Especially since the time of Henry Ford and the industrial revolution, almost everything around us is mass produced and can be acquired "off the shelf." True craftsmanship which makes something one-of-a-kind is disappearing as every energy is given to avoid what is costly, time-consuming, or labor-intensive.

Consequently, we are accustomed to standardization, interchangeable parts, and homogeneity on many fronts. If your old Chevy Impala, purchased in Bay City blows a gasket in Biloxi, Mississippi, you expect Bubba at the local auto parts store simply to find a duplicate on their shelf. A Big Mac in Bend, Oregon will have exactly the same all beef patty, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, and onions on the indistinguishable sesame seed bun as the burgers at McDonald's on Garfield Road.

People, however, do not come in stock. We don't deny having a common physiology or that organ transplants can't be done. I speak rather of the blessed distinctiveness which human beings have enjoyed as persons individually created and cherished by God.

Adam could not say he was in any way more perfect than botany or beast, but he did rejoice in the unique favor of being made like no other. Adam was made in the image of God to know God as Father, to bear the likeness of God the Son and to reflect the righteousness of God, the Holy Spirit. At the very beginning, God took special care when it came to the crown of His creation. All the rest of what God created was in no way inferior or less important to God, but when it came to the creation of man, God chose to fashion man by hand.

Eve also was brought into being through the manual marvel of God who took in hand the flesh and bone of Adam to shape her when no other suitable helper was found. There was nothing "on the shelf" to meet the exceptional need of Adam. The beginning of humanity was not the Lord setting up a Henry Ford styled production line. It was the peculiar formation of human beings, each of whom to the end of time would be individually loved, personally called to faith, and singularly valued.

There are no cookie-cutter Christians. Yes, each of us have been created and redeemed by Christ, but there the resemblance ends. It is analogous to a master painter who produces a beautiful canvas. He is the artist of all his works, but each painting is beautiful in its own right and unlike all the others.

Likewise, each Christian has been given distinctive gifts, opportunities, and callings as unique as a fingerprint. Though we are all members of the body of Christ, "God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body." (1 Cor. 12:18-20)

This gives none of us the right to boast, as St. Paul says, "For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned." (Rom. 12:3)

We Christians ought to see each other in the distinctive rolls God has given. Each of you were re-created in Christ to have an unparalleled place in the composition of Christ's church. You are not a cog or unessential. When you are not here, we don't just plug in someone else. You are not a transferable commodity. You are a child of God whom He has personally baptized, named, and called. God does not lump you into a batch of believers. He fits you exquisitely into union with himself and with other Christians exactly where He means for you to belong.

And to do so, Christ did not avoid what was costly, time-consuming, or labor-intensive. Just the opposite. Your redemption was costly. Even the salvation of one human being would have required the death of Christ. Jesus didn't compress the paying of your ransom into a free weekend. He committed his entire life. He doesn't limit his good things for you to a hurried hello and good-bye. His labor of love was exhaustive because you mean that much to him and there was no cheap or cheaper method to rescue you.

Christ did it by hand. Personally. Carefully. Painstakingly. Each human being's sin was paid for to the last drop of his precious blood. He knows you by name and by touch.

St. Paul commended his friend and fellow servant of the Gospel, Timothy, to the church at Philippi. Paul said of Timothy, "I have no one else like him." Paul was so grateful for this special young man who was like a son to him. Timothy also shouldered undertakings for which God had uniquely prepared him. In a particular place for a particular time, there was no one else like Timothy.

But the same is said for you. In your specific circumstance, with the unique opportunities to touch the lives of others as no one else can, you serve in the cause of the Gospel, not seeking your own interest but those of Jesus Christ.

Of course, there could be no other like Timothy. Just as there will never be another St. Paul or another Martin Luther or another C.F.W. Walther. Why? Because we don't need a facsimile or replica of them. God isn’t into making run of the mill Christians. We have you. And you. And you. And you.

God is well able to apply his grace exactly where it will do the most good, and He has certainly done so for you. With precision and genius, with the investment of His own life, He has placed you right were you belong in his kingdom, and called you to joyful service which is yours alone.

Don't let anyone make you think being a Christian is ever generic. Christ is far too committed to you ever to regard you as plain stock.