A young man had come forward to the altar
to receive the sacrament of baptism. As he was standing before the
congregation, the pastor turned and looked at him through those half-moon
glasses that sat perched precariously on the very end of his long nose and said
to the young man in his most preacher-like voice, “Baptism is a serious step to
take; are you prepared for this?”
“I think so,” said the young man. “My
wife has fixed appetizers, and we have a caterer coming to serve the meat and
the vegetables – and we had a special cake made for dessert.”
“That’s not what I mean,” said the pastor
in his deep, soul-filled voice. “I mean, baptism is a serious step; are you
prepared - in spirit?”
“Oh, most definitely,” said the young
man. “We have a keg of beer and a case of whiskey just for the occasion.”
Today is the day that we set aside in
the church year to remember the occasion – the serious step - of our baptisms –
or if we have not been baptized or cannot remember our own, perhaps we can
remember our children’s baptisms – or our grandchildren’s.
And
if we cannot remember their baptisms either, then surely we can remember the
baptism of Jesus – which, for us at least, is where it all started anyway.
This year we look at this ancient story
from the perspective of the writer of the Gospel of
Luke. Mennonite pastor Leo Hartshorn
describes the event beautifully: “Along
the Jordan River John the Baptizer was drawing crowds of people. They came to
hear his fiery preaching and to be dunked beneath the murky waters as a sign of
repentance, a moral about face, before God bursts through the doors of time and
like a farmer separates the chaff from the wheat. Some thought John to be the
Messiah, the Coming Judge. John pointed his finger to the horizon and said,
"I dunk you in water. The One who is coming will dunk you in the Holy
Spirit and fire!"
John's
baptism was a counter ritual to the temple (purification rites). His baptism…
was offered as an alternative…..(And) as the common people turned from their
old lives in preparation for the coming judgment, they were marked as people
identified with John and his apocalyptic message of the coming judgment.”
One
of those who came to be baptized in such a way was Jesus. Interestingly enough, however, in this particular
Gospel, John does not do the baptizing.
We know that because if we were to read the verses that are skipped in
our lectionary reading, we would discover that John was in prison at the time for
not being quite as supportive of King Herod as Herod’s wife wished him to be.
And
in her hatred of John, the man from the mountains dressed in his camel’s hair
and sporting that crazy diet of locusts and wild honey, she had applied some palace
trickery. It had all resulted in John’s
arrest, and soon the baptizer would be executed, and his head would be served
on a silver platter at Herod’s birthday dinner no less in the presence of a
shocked court. However, that is another
story for another sermon.
Back
to Jesus’ baptism….“He steps waist deep into the brown water with the rest of
the people. By all appearances he's just one more sinner come to repent and be
scrubbed clean by the Spirit. The
reeds along the shore bend in the breeze. Expanding circles spread out around
him from the water drops. A crane soars over the surface of the river. (Jesus
is dunked) beneath the watery skin of the river with a splash and gurgle.
The
dripping of water harmonizes with the mumbling of a prayer as Jesus lifts his
wet arms to the heavens. The cobalt blue sky responds to Jesus as if opening to
receive his prayer. The Spirit of holiness descends upon him as when Noah's
dove finally found a resting place. A thunder clap in the sky speaks, "You
are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."
In
that pivotal moment, Jesus becomes a marked man – marked as one of God (“You
are my beloved son”). But he is also
marked as one of us – and that is important too. There he is, in Leo Hartshorn’s words: “wading right beside us through the murky
waters of life.”
There
he is – lined up for the dunking on the muddy shoreline right beside the
cheaters, the oddballs, the one who stole a loaf of bread just yesterday, those
who lived on the wrong side of the tracks, the ones who last week had coveted
their neighbor’s wife, yelled at their mother-in-law. There Jesus is – rubbing shoulders with the
marginalized and even more so with the peasant poor.
For
the Gospel writer of Luke, the baptism of Jesus signifies the beginning of his
active ministry, and the Gospel writer makes no bones about its unusual
setting.
Jesus puts himself willingly in the
very midst of the lonely, the blind, the impoverished, the halt, the lame, the widows,
the whores, and the tax collectors – in the very midst of all of the murkiness
and muddiness of humanity.
The
baptism of Jesus is that point in time when God affirms Jesus’ call to preach,
teach, and heal in a radically different way, one that is grounded in
compassion, non-violence, and justice. It
is that moment in time when God gives Jesus the strength to model in his own
life and to do this ministry that so needs to be done to set the world aright.
The
baptism of Jesus is that moment in time when God marks this idealistic, still
wet-behind-the-ears young man with a special love that passes all our
understanding. Clarence Jordan, in the
Cotton Patch Gospel, paraphrases God’s words like this: “You are my dear son;
I’m proud of you.”
And
those words echo and ring and whisper and shout through every Christian baptism
since the disciples themselves went out two by two to continue the ministry of
this man, Jesus. Those astounding words of sacred
forgiving love are for us – whether we are sprinkled with water, have it poured
on our heads, or are fully dunked, whether we are an infant or an elder or somewhere
in between.
We
do not say those words often in a baptism nowadays – “You are a dear child of
God, and God is proud of you” – but maybe we should because surely they lie at
the heart of what we as Protestant Christians affirm about this sacrament – the
holy time of baptism.
Like
so much of what Jesus actually taught, as we understand it, baptism is not
about what happens to us in the future.
It is not about making sure we will get into heaven. It is not about a magic trick that somehow
rids us of what many have called original sin.
Baptism
is rather about the promises we make (or are made for us) to follow the way of
Jesus now – in this life. Baptism as we
understand it is about the community in which we choose to do that
following. And rather than being about
original sin, it would be more accurate to say that baptism as we understand it
is about affirming our original blessing.
Baptism
is when we say (or when our parents say for us until we can say it
ourselves): I have decided to follow
Jesus. I have decided to walk his way.
This is the start of my sacred journey.
This is the beginning of my Christian ministry. As it was for Jesus when he pulled himself
out of the Jordan River – soaking wet, affirmed by God, and committed to the
Gospel message, so it is for us.
“I
am pledging to learn more about who Jesus was and is, about his way of courage
and compassion. I promise to model my own life after his. I do so, knowing that
I will falter and fail in my resolve. I
know I will need God’s forgiveness and grace.”
(Kenneth Gribble)
I
know I will need to remember again and again those words of original blessing: You are a dear child of God, and God is proud
of you.” But I will also need to
remember their corollary: “You are a dear
child of God, sent into the world to make a difference.” That is what baptism, as we understand it, is
all about.
However,
baptism is not an individual affair. One
is baptized into a community of others who are baptized as well, who are
committed in the same manner to living the way of Jesus.
It is a small moment – baptism, that is
– in the scheme of things. Ten minutes
of worship time. Water sprinkled. A few words said. That momentary feeling of
wetness on the top of our head – or the water running into our eyes.
Oh, maybe there is a celebration
afterwards - “My wife has fixed appetizers,
and we have a caterer coming to serve the meat and the vegetables – and we had
a special cake made for dessert….. We have a keg of beer and a case of whiskey
just for the occasion.”
Or maybe we just go home. Either way, it is not like a wedding – or
even a prom. But sometimes, sometimes, it is these
smallest moments that carry with them the deepest truths – truths about the
journey we are on and who will travel with us and, most of all, who we really
are – beloved
and dear sons and daughters of God sent into the world to make a difference.
Baptism is a once-in-a lifetime
event. You do not need to be baptized
every time you find a new church. Once
is enough. And when you really think
about it, we do not experience many such moments. Weddings and proms often come
in twos and even threes these days.
But because of its “once is enough” and
almost ephemeral nature, baptism is easily forgotten as the years go by. And that is really too bad because those
baptismal promises or vows, if taken seriously, indelibly etch on our hearts
the way we have chosen to live. They are
a proclamation to God about who we intend to be.
And so I think it is important to
remember our baptism in an intentional way on this day when we remember the
baptism of Jesus. To do
so, in a moment I will invite you to come forward to the baptismal font. Just take a peek, if you wish, at the stones
now looking all shiny and new in the water – and remember that is like you
because through your baptism you are a new person. God has acknowledged you as a dear daughter
or son.
And if you wish, dip your hand in and
simply feel the water and remember the promises that you made or that were made
for. And if you have not been
baptized? You are still invited to come
and remember that you too are a child of original blessing. I invite you to come forward.
By Rev. Nancy Foran, Raymond VIllage Community Church - www.rvccme.org
