Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Word of the Lord which engages us this morning comes from our Gospel lesson (Mark 1: 4-11, Jesus' Baptism), especially v. 10 "As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove".

The heavens were never meant to be shut. In the beginning, God had free and steady access to Adam and Eve. The LORD God would come and walk in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3: 8). But Adam's sin changed all that. Adam failed to trust God at his word, he doubted God's wisdom and fell into sin. The heavens between God and man were never meant to be shut. But Adam's sin changed all that.

We might look at that and think, "Well, that wasn't our fault what Adam and Eve did. Why should God continue to keep the heavens shut because of them?" But questions like that are a lot like Adam and Eve's response to God after the fall. Adam said 'It really wasn't my fault.' (Genesis 3: 12) "The woman you put here with me-- she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." Eve said 'It really wasn't my fault' (Genesis 3: 13) "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." When we are brutally honest with ourselves, we know that we have sinned and sinned grievously against this holy and righteous God of the heavens. Our sin slams the heavens shut, locks them up, forces God to bolt them shut from the inside.

We fail to keep even the 1st commandment "You shall have no other gods." In our Old Testament text Isaiah quotes the Lord: "I am the LORD (Yahweh); that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols." In the Catechism class several of the youth and I have been discussing what is an idol, a false god? What is a god? We normally think of idols as those ancient statues of Zeus or Apollo or Baal, statues that represented false gods. We would never trust or worship something as crass as an ancient idol. But Luther keenly pointed out that a false god, an idol is anything we primarily put our trust in, anything we look for refuge in (Large Catechism, p. 13). "To whatever you give your heart and entrust your being, that, I say, is really your God." We give our hearts to so many false gods: Money, success, intelligence, power, sex, athletic abilities, family connections. Whenever we find ourselves saying "If only I had more of _____, then I would be happy," then we have stepped over the line and made that "blank" our god. Whenever we fail to love the Lord our God with all our heart and mind and strength (e.g., Luke 10: 27), we have fallen into the same sin as Adam and Eve and our sin bolts the heavens shut.

Really it's good that we humans cannot tear the heavens open. With sin uncorrected, it could only be an angry God who would come charging out of heaven split open by man. So many other religions wishfully think that humans can somehow earn their way back to God by being better or holier or more spiritual people. But God knows human hearts: (Romans 3: 10-12 and Psalm 14) "There is no one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." The heavens were bolted shut at the sin of Adam and Eve, and our sin, the sin of the whole human race continued to keep them shut.

But here at Jesus baptism we see a miracle occurring, in a very real sense the first miracle of Jesus' ministry "As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove." Jesus is certified as the one and only one able to split the heavens open to bring mankind to God and God to mankind! Jesus, the Servant of the Lord prophesied in Isaiah had come to bring justice on earth.

When Jesus came up from the waters of baptism, His Father in heaven says "You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased." When you and I came up from the waters of baptism, our sins were forgiven.

When Jesus was baptized, the heavens were torn open. When you were baptized, the heavens were again torn open and God's name was placed on you: "Father, Son and Holy Spirit." When Jesus was baptized, he began his earthly ministry to conquer sin and continue to keep the door open between holy heaven and sinful earth. He went on to conquer sin by casting out demons and healing diseases and raising people from the dead. He went on to fully conquer sin by giving up his own life as a painful ransom on the cross. At his baptism the heavens were torn open. At his death the curtain in the temple was torn open (Mark 15: 38), another indicator of the holiness of God now being connected with we who are still sinners. When you were baptized, his ransom was formally placed upon you. Romans 6: 3-4 "All of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."

Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was a very devout evangelist. Many times he baptized new converts in a river. He would wade out waist-deep into the water and call out for new Christians to come to him, one by one, to receive the sacrament. Once he baptized a mountain chieftain. Saint Patrick was holding a staff in his hands as the new converts made their way into the water. Unfortunately, as he was lowering the chief down under the water three times, he also pressed his staff down into the river bottom. Afterwards the people on the riverbank noticed their chief limp back to shore. Someone explained to Patrick that, as he pressed the wooden staff into the riverbed, he must have also bruised the foot of the chief. Patrick went to the chief at once and asked, "Why did you not cry out when I stuck you in the foot?" Surprised the chief answered, "I remembered you telling us about the nails in the cross, and I thought my pain was part of my baptism." (Traditional story modified from e-sermons.com)

Few of us feel any pain at our personal baptisms. But at Jesus' baptism He began to put on our pain, our death on Himself. From another Suffering Servant poem in Isaiah (53: 5) "He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed." Jesus' baptism was the first Christian baptism, the first washing with the formal presence of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. But He wasn't baptized for the same reason you and I are. We are baptized to receive the forgiveness of sins, to put on his baptism and crucifixion. But in Christ's baptism he enters into solidarity with we sinners, not because He was a sinner like us, but to tear open heaven and rescue us who are sinners. By Christ's death he tears open the veil so that those who trust in Him can enter into God's Holy Place.

A part of me always wishes that at a baptism, God would simply come and take His newly washed child back through that tear in heaven, to be free of this world's sin and temptations. We are washed, but like that cup I used in the Children's message, our sin continues to cause a leaks from which God's blessings for us are forgotten. But while we are baptized only once, we continue to receive His blessings of Word and Sacrament, regularly in order to keep our leaking cups full. When His Word reminds us of our baptisms and what He placed upon us at that time, we are once again renewed and refreshed in His forgiveness. When we receive His body and blood at the Lord's Supper, we again receive His forgiveness of sins, by faith. Heaven is again torn open so that we can receive his strength.

So remember Jesus' baptism. Remember and trust that your own baptism connects you with His. Know and trust that He came to tear open the locks of heaven so that our Holy God can come to you and me in peace and forgiveness.

And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4: 7)