Scripture/Sermon of the Day. January 9, 2022

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

Responses to John
15 The people were filled with expectation, and everyone wondered whether John might be the Christ. 16 John replied to them all, “I baptize you with water, but the one who is more powerful than me is coming. I’m not worthy to loosen the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 The shovel he uses to sift the wheat from the husks is in his hands. He will clean out his threshing area and bring the wheat into his barn. But he will burn the husks with a fire that can’t be put out.” 21 When everyone was being baptized, Jesus also was baptized. While he was praying, heaven was opened 22 and the Holy Spirit came down on him in bodily form like a dove. And there was a voice from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I dearly love; in you I find happiness.”

Reflection/Sermon:

I. In his letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul says: “Thanks be to God, because once you were slaves of sin, but now, having been set free from sin, you are slaves of righteousness.”
II. Wait a minute! I thought we were free. Because we’re Americans, right? We live in the land of the free to do what we want. We can eat steak or tofu. And just because we’re in the middle of of a pandemic that’s killed a million Americans, no one can make us be vaccinated! We can choose to get sick and also to make others sick — because we’re Americans, and we’re free. Right?
So why does Paul say we’re slaves?
You know what I say about that? We’re free to rip that page out of our Bibles! And if you want to follow Jesus but don’t like something he says — take a black magic marker and cross it out. Make Jesus say what we want him to say. Because we’re free.
III. Where did Paul get the idea that we are either slaves of sin or slaves of righteousness? Jesus didn’t say that. Did he? OK — maybe. Remember when the two brothers James and John asked him for the best places in heaven? And Jesus said, “if you want to be great, you must become other people’s servant, and if you want to be first — “you must be everyone’s slave.”
Paul said we’re the slave of sin or righteousness — we serve one or the other. That’s our only choice.
IV. Even Bob Dylan said this in a song called “You Gotta Serve Somebody.” (1979). Listen:
[Verse 1]
You may be an ambassador to England or France
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls

[Chorus]
But you’re going to have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re going to have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re going to have to serve somebody

[Verse 2]
You might be a rock ’n’ roll addict prancing on the stage
You might have drugs at your command, women in a cage
You may be a business man or some high-degree thief
They may call you Doctor or they may call you Chief

[Chorus]

[Verse 3]
You may be a state trooper, you might be a young Turk
You may be the head of some big TV network
You may be rich or poor, you may be blind or lame
You may be living in another country under another name

[Verse 7]
You may call me Terry, you may call me Timmy
You may call me Bobby, you may call me Zimmy
You may call me R.J., you may call me Ray
You may call me anything but no matter what you say

[Chorus]

V. Psalm 100 says:
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
And know that the Lord is God. It is God who made us, we belong to the Lord. Many people in our country and in the world don’t know this. They think we belong to ourselves. Some people call themselves “self-made.”
In our Baptisms we acknowledge that we are God’s, and we serve the kingdom of heaven. Like St. Francis we pray “O Lord, make us instruments of your peace, and channels for you love to flow into this wonderful world which you made.”