Thursday, January 17, 2013

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 "Marked by God"


       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. 
 As Mary Beth Danielson wrote, “baptism is not a sacrament administered in a closet. It is not a private, holy ceremony passed down from the pious to the pure in heart. It is about belonging to a church. It is about the strengths and failures of the ordinary and extraordinary people who make up that church. It is about being rooted and joined to real people in imperfect but real ways.”  And in being rooted to those people, we are re-rooted to God in a new way.
         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 

        



         

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