Resurrection Lutheran Church, St Catharines

Dear people who have passed through the waters,

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

 

The Bay of Fundy has the highest recorded tides in the world. Right now the water rises about 7 metres, that’s over twenty feet, about the height of the ceiling of this chapel. There is an island called Minister’s Island near where my son lives on the Bay of Fundy, where the road to the island is covered over in water except for two times a day at low tide. If you don’t time your trip properly you either cannot drive on or cannot drive off to the mainland for several hours.

 

On our last trip there, while the tide was low we walked out a little ways out on a bar, not too far, about the distance from here to the lounge. And we were not out there very long, maybe three minutes at the most to just look out at around the bay and what was uncovered on the ocean floor while the tide was low. Then we turned around and started coming back, but we found that part of our way back was already covered with water. It happens that fast. There was nothing to do but get wet feet as we headed back to shore.

 

In today’s Old Testament Reading the children of Israel had to cross a pretty big river in order to get to the Promised Land. There was no time of low tide to allow them to hurry across. Rather, the Jordan River was known to swell and overflow its banks at that time of year. Yet no one got a wet foot. The priests went first carrying the ark of the covenant, upon which God promised to sit in order to be with His people all the way from Mount Sinai, through forty years in the wilderness, and now to enter the promised land.

 

“So when the people set out from their tents to pass over the Jordan with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, and as soon as those bearing the ark had come as far as the Jordan, and the feet of the priest bearing the ark were dipped in the brink of the water... the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap very far away, at Adam, that city that is beside Zarethan, and those flowing down toward the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. And the people passed over opposite Jericho. Now the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all Israel was passing over on dry ground until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan” (Joshua 3:14-17).

 

Why did the waters stop? It wasn’t because the people held out their hands and used some invisible power. It wasn’t because some beavers had been overactive in building a huge dam upstream. It was because the LORD God Almighty was in the Jordan. When the priests carrying the ark just touched the edge of the river, it stopped flowing. And while they stood in the river carrying the ark upon which the LORD had promised to be for His people, the waters did not flow and the ground was dry. Once everyone was safely across and the priests came out of the river with the ark of the covenant, the river started flowing again. God’s presence in the Jordan brought His people safely across.

 

He dried up the waters that surely would have swallowed some of the people in death. But with God in the Jordan, His people were safe. Death had to take a time out. It could not claim any victims at the river that day, or perhaps for several days (however long it took the whole nation to cross over). God’s presence in the Jordan saw His people safely to the other side. He made sure that they all were able to enter into the land He promised would be their home. The LORD Himself ushered them across to where the land would “yield its increase” (Psalm 85:12) to feed and sustain the people richly.

 

It was miraculous, not just that the LORD stopped the waters of the Jordan, but even more so that He upheld His promise to bring them safely to the land He promised to them. It is in no way surprising that the LORD keeps His promises, but that He kept this promise to a people who kept breaking their promises to Him. They had promised to do all that He commanded them, and to trust Him because He had delivered them from slavery in Egypt. But they kept rebelling against Him over and over again, not just by breaking His commandments, but by wanting to return to slavery in Egypt rather than trust Him to bring them through their struggles in the wilderness.

 

Yet when they cried out that they had no food. He gave them bread and meat to eat. When they cried out that they had no water, He caused water to gush out from rock. When they worshiped a golden idol of a calf and gave it credit for delivering them from Egypt, He did not destroy them. When they refused to go into the promised land the first time because they were afraid of the people living there, He did not forsake them to live in the desert alone.

 

Miraculously the LORD had mercy upon this rebellious people time and time again. “You forgave the iniquity of Your people, You covered all their sin. You withdrew all Your wrath; You turned from Your hot anger” (Psalm 85:2-3). He brought them to the brink of the land and put Himself in the river in order that they might safely cross over and receive His good gifts.

 

And for generations the people remembered this grace and goodness of their God to forgive all of their rebellions and to be faithful to His promises; to restore their fortunes which they had rightly forfeited through their sins. Now, they didn’t remember this all the time in every individual situation. They still got themselves into a lot of trouble. They still rebelled and sinned against God and their fellow man.

 

But when He brought them to repentance, to think about their evil deeds and the great punishment and destruction that He would bring upon them on account of those sins, they paid attention to the Psalms and Scriptures that we heard today, and they prayed that God would be merciful to them and to the nation once again. Whenever impending disaster brought to mind the destruction that they truly deserved, they longed for God to give them another chance to live as His people, that He would do again for them what He had done for their forefathers long ago.

 

“You restored the fortunes of Jacob... Restore us again, O God of our salvation” (Psalm 85:1, 4)

 

And so it happened again. God, once again, went into the Jordan River. In the Gospel reading appointed for the Octave of the Epiphany we have the account of the Baptism of Jesus.

“Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented Him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?’ But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately He went up from the water, and behold, 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’” (Matthew 3:13-17).

 

The same LORD was in the same Jordan River for His people, to keep all of His promises to them. Jesus baptized in the Jordan keeps His people safe from death. Death cannot keep its hold upon those who have been baptized into Jesus Christ. His death upon the cross serves as the death of each and every one of the baptized. He pays off the penalty of death for the sins of the whole world. And with His death being our death, His resurrection to life is our resurrection too. Death will have to relinquish its hold on those who have been baptized into the baptism of He who went into the Jordan for His people.

 

The baptism of Jesus, given to us in our baptism allows His people to cross safely from death to life. Through Scriptures and summed up in the catechism we learn that “[Baptism] works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this” (Small Catechism. IV. ii).

 

Today’s psalm joins us to the saints of old who called out to the LORD to remember what He had done in bringing His people across the Jordan to the promised land. We call upon the same LORD to restore us again, like He restored the fortunes of Jacob. He forgave their sin and covered their iniquity and that is what we ask that He do for us today.

 

Like them, we do not deserve for Him to forgive us or to show us such grace. Our rebellions against Him have justly deserved His wrath and eternal punishment. But as we fear Him we also remember that He is gracious and merciful, that He turns from His anger in answer to the cries of those who have faith that He will make good on promises. For the sake of the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins, He promises to forgive and to save those who are baptized. “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved” (Mark 16:16).

 

You have a gracious God to whom you can cry for deliverance and salvation from your sins. It is the God who stopped up the Jordan River so that His people could cross over into the land of promise. It is the God who became man and entered the Jordan River to be baptized in order to fulfill all righteousness, to stop death through His own death, and to usher you into the promised paradise of eternal life with Him.

 

He restores your fortunes by forgiving your sins, so that although you would have forfeited eternal life it remains yours by His outpouring of grace. He covers all your iniquity with His own perfect righteousness and holiness so that you can live free from the fear of His wrath and anger. He ushers you through the waters of Baptism into the kingdom of God just as He ushered His people over the dry Jordan riverbed into the land of goodness and bounty.

 

Whenever you transgress His laws and put yourself in peril of death and damnation through your trespasses and sins, before the high tide of the raging flood of His wrath washes you away, He gives you opportunity to cry out and appeal to His mercy and grace. By giving you the words of today’s psalm to pray, He puts into your mouth, mind, and heart the very words by which His people of old have found their salvation in Him. He answered them in faithfulness to His promises and today He answers you in faithfulness to His baptismal grace poured upon you.

 

Memorize today’s psalm, Psalm 85, so that you will never forget that the LORD who restores the fortunes of His people throughout history, will also restore us again when we cry to Him.

 

 

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.