THE ROAD TAKEN

Matthew 3: 13-17

January 13, 2002

I have never been one for getting into poetry; somehow it has always been a struggle for me to get interested in it. If it is not simple and straight forward, I lose interest fast. One poem that I have remembered from my youth has been "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost; maybe that is because I sang a choral version of it in high school. Anyway, it is about coming upon a fork in a path in the woods and he has to decide which path to take. He looks at both and decides to take the path that looks less worn.

At various points in our lives we all face that fork in the road and must make the decision as to which we will take. In many situations, we could go either way and would be just fine. A high school student thinking about college is an easy example; there are many good quality schools. Which do you pick? But the decision directly affects your life. Kathy wanted to go to Oregon State University; her father encouraged (insisted?) that she take at least one year at Northwest Christian College. She did; otherwise, we wouldn’t have met.

Sometimes the decision you make is controversial and there is opposition to it. You feel it is right and pursue it, but you know the consequences in terms of support, or even friendships, or even family. At other times you have to make decisions in response to someone else’s decisions and you have little if any choice.

I have sometimes wondered why Jesus decided to leave his hometown to go to listen to John the Baptist preach. Jesus was 30 years old; he was middle age; he was established in the community. Yet, something inside him said, "Now is the time!" He walked those 40 miles or so, listened to John the Baptist talking and decided to be baptized. His life took an entirely different direction; he never returned home to stay again.

As our daughter-in-law would say, "It was a God thing." At the moment we might not be able to say why, but looking back on an event we have to conclude that somehow God was involved in the process. God was direction in some mysterious way. John was calling the people to repent, change their ways, as a means to prepare for the coming Reign of God. We generally don’t think that Jesus needed to repent of anything, but he did share the vision of the coming Reign of God.

The reason Jesus was baptized is generally different from the reason we are baptized. For Jesus, baptism wasn’t for forgiveness of sins, but it was a sign of a new beginning, a new direction, a dedication of himself to a calling he sensed in his life. It means a radical redirection of his life – leaving the comforts of home, an uncertain future ahead of him, but knowing it was the right thing – a God thing.

And as he came up out of the waters the Gospel tells us that the heavens opened, the Spirit of God descended like a dove, resting on him. And a voice from the heaven proclaimed, "This is my son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased." I still remember the day I was baptized and my father, with tears in his eyes, gave me his big hug and said, "I’m proud of you, son."

It’s nice to know that those you know bless the decision you make; however, that is not always the case. Later in Jesus’ ministry, Jesus begins to talk about going to Jerusalem to suffer and die. Peter, his closest friend on earth, disagrees with him sharply; there is an argument. But Jesus knows that it is the right thing; Peter doesn’t understand. A little later we have the story of the Transfiguration; in that encounter a voice speaks out of a cloud and says, "This is my son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!" Again, God affirms the direction Jesus has chosen to take as the right one.

In our tradition baptism takes place when we are old enough to make the decision ourselves; we call it a "believer’s baptism." Do you remember your baptism? Or if you were baptized as a child, do you remember your confirmation? It was a decision you made; it was a fork in the road. You may not have understood all its meaning at that time, but it was "a God thing." It was a God moment on which you can grow. It meant what it could for me when I was 11, but it means a lot more to me now. But that decision shaped the direction of my life.

Historically, the meaning of baptism has included several themes. First, we claim that the waters of baptism are for cleansing, for the forgiveness of sins. As water washes the outside, so baptism washes the inside. Second, in the physical act of baptism, we act out the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus; Jesus lived, died was buried and God raised Jesus from the dead. We, in baptism, die to our old self and are raised to a new life in Christ. Third, if nothing else, baptism is about the grace of God. Our being baptized is not an act of works righteousness – we are not earning God’s favor. Rather, in faith we come before God and God is the one who acts on us. God is the one who forgives, cleanses, includes. Fourth, baptism is about regeneration, that is, a new beginning, being born again – Jesus and Nicodemus in John 3. And fifth, baptism joins us to the Body of Christ, all believers everywhere who confess Jesus as Lord and Savior. It is a new covenant, a new relationship.

Yet, our baptism has a major point that is parallel to Jesus’ baptism. For Jesus, his baptism marked the new direction in his life, taking a particular fork in the road that shaped his life. He began his public ministry that moved to Jerusalem and the cross. For us, our baptism is a conscious decision to say publicly that we are a Christian, which our lives are going to take on this shape and direction. To claim to be a Christian means that we are going to let our lives be shaped by the Christ. That means, our morals, our values, our attitudes toward others, the way we do business, the way we think about people different from us. It means living his teachings: love our neighbors as we love ourselves, love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, welcome and include the stranger, the hurting, the hungry; to have compassion for those without and not shove them aside. It means seeking peace and wholeness, not war and conflict.

Martin Luther King, Jr. writing from the Birmingham jail wrote his friends saying that he had to be there. Injustice is injustice and a Christian must take a stand even if it is not popular or comfortable. He took a fork in the road that God put before him and it cost him dearly, but it was God’s way. And our country and world are better because of it. It was a God thing.

The Apostle Paul proclaimed in Galatians 2, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

(Sing – "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus")

Two roads diverged and I have taken the one less traveled, and that has made all the difference.