THE POWER AND WONDER OF BAPTISM

(Preached on Sunday, January 13, 2008)

ACan anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?@  So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.  Then they invited him to stay for several days. -Acts 10:47-48

 

The Rt. Rev. Chandler W. Sterling, the Episcopal Bishop of Montana at the time, once spoke on the function of sponsors for baptism in the early church.  AYou needed at least two baptized Christians, members of the church, to sponsor you.  When it came time for your baptism, they would accompany you into the river C one on each side.  They would dunk you under C once (in the Name of the Father) C twice (in the name of the Son) C and a third time ( in the name of the Holy Spirit.)  Only, the third time they held you under, ....... and under, .......and under.  About the time you thought this was the end, they would bring you up.@

 

Literally, baptism was a matter of life and death.  Persons being baptized knew beforehand that they would be held submerged on the third dunking.  That=s why they selected sponsors they trusted and who loved them.  The symbolism is rich: Membership in the church was so important that one=s life was laid on the line and was put in the hands of others members.

 

There is a power and wonder to baptism and this early church practice captured this reality.  Many worry today that baptism no longer has that same power and wonder.  Every clergy person has had those  experiences where young couples come asking us to Ado@ their baby.  I read one story shared by the husband of a female pastor who answered the door one day to greet two very young people.  They were visiting his next door neighbors for a party and they had heard that a lady pastor lived here and, well, they thought it would be cute if she could come over and baptize their baby during the party.  Many of the couples I talk too about baptizing their children often cannot articulate why they are seeking baptism, much beyond it will be important to one or more of their parents or grandparents.  None of these are bad people.  Most of them have had some involvement in the church growing up, but undoubtedly drifted away during their teen years or after moving out of their parents= home.  They are indicative of the confusion in both the world at large and the church about the Sacrament of Baptism.  Last May when I invited your questions on AAsk the Pastor@ Sunday, someone asked AHow does the baptism of people whom we will never see again add value to our church?@  A most understandable question.

 

Today is the feast of the Baptism of Jesus.  In the early centuries of the church, this feast day was more important than Christmas.  Notice how the baptism of Jesus is recorded in all four gospels, while the birth story is told in only two.  It seems most appropriate on this feast day to explore the power and wonder of baptism and reclaim for ourselves a better understanding of this sacrament.

 

Whenever we celebrate a baptism I open with these words from the United Church of Christ Order for Baptism: AThe sacrament of baptism is an outward and visible sign of the grace of God.  Inasmuch as the promise of the gospel is not only to us but also to our children, baptism with water and the Holy Spirit is the mark of their acceptance into the care of Christ=s church, the sign and seal of their participation in God=s forgiveness, and the beginning of their growth into full Christian faith and discipleship.@

 

When we say baptism is a sacrament we are saying it is a powerful visible and tangible enacting of God=s grace C God=s love, forgiveness and acceptance of us.  We regularly hear those words spoken to us in worship, in scripture, in the sermon.  But they are powerfully dramatized for us each time we participate in the pouring of water over a person.  That water signifies a washing clean and a washing away of any wrongdoing, any mistakes, any harm we have inflicted on any of our relationships, including our relationship with God.  That water signifies a new birth, a rebirth C it signifies a new creation, a new life, a new beginning.  All of this comes to us from God, freely offered, freely given, freely received.  It is given to any who will accept it simply by submitting their life to God=s guidance, signified by a willingness to submit to this public rite of washing.

 

First and foremost then, the power of baptism is in its nature as gift bestowed freely upon us by God.  Second, there is power in baptism because it is the entry into the Christian community, the earthly manifestation of God=s family, the body of Christ.  It is the essential incorporation of one into the body of Christ.  When we emerge from the water of baptism we do so fully aware of our status as beloved sons and daughters of God.  In that incorporation into the community of faith baptism functions as the seal, the official stamp of approval.  In ancient times, when a king issued a decree, his words were written down and read aloud to the people.  But the decree was not official unless Athe king=s seal@ had been affixed to it, usually by applying hot wax and using the King=s signet ring to apply the official mark.  The seal made the proclamation authentic.  If the seal was affixed, the hearers knew the proclamation was not  false or fraudulent, and that the king himself was speaking to them through it.  Baptism is the means by which we and others know that we have been incorporated into God=s family. 

 

Far too often Christians have taken this understanding of the entry-gate aspect of baptism and elevated it to primary importance.  And done so in a restrictive way.  As a result they have wielded baptism as a Amust do@ requirement that diminishes the power and wonder of the sacrament.

 

Baptism is a blessing, not a bludgeon to manipulate and frighten people into commitment and participation.  The importance of baptism is so much larger than Christians generally acknowledge when we say, AI was baptized a Catholic,@ or an Episcopalian, or a Methodist, or a Baptist, or a Congregationalist, or even a United Church of Christer.  A Christian is baptized into the Christian faith and not a particular denomination.  Baptism is that big. 

 

The reading from Acts offers us a glimpse of something bigger still: a God who is not limited by our understanding of baptism and what it signifies C a God who created humanity in the divine image and whose love for us is so great that it embraces all people, no exceptions.  Peter went to see Cornelius, a gentile seeker after God, because of a vision he had that told him not to call unclean what God had made clean.  Even so, Peter was still not sure about God=s acceptance of Cornelius, until he experiences the Holy Spirit falling on this Gentile and all the Gentiles present listening to his preaching.  When the Holy Spirit falls upon them, Peter realizes this is God=s doing, for God=s Spirit is totally free and no human being can control it.  He realizes that God has taken the initiative here to welcome and accept these people.  At that moment Peter realizes there is absolutely no reason, whatsoever, to refuse the act of water baptism to these new followers of Jesus.  God has accepted and blessed them, there is no one beyond the reach of God=s loving embrace.

 

Because baptism is such a powerful and wonderful moment in our lives, too frequently it carries the connotation of having arrived.  As we have remembered together, though, baptism is not something we earn, nor is it a sign that we have found all the answers.  Baptism is a beginning.  It is the desire to see the world differently, to see each other differently, and even to see ourselves differently.  Baptism is a fresh start, not a destination.  Baptism is not a free-trial membership, but a rite of initiation into a way of life following Jesus.