In the name of God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen.
What
is Baptism? Have you ever stopped to really consider what Baptism is all about?
The first thing that you see when you walk into St. Luke’s is our Baptismal
Font, and this is by design. The Font is the first thing you notice when
entering because it is through Baptism that one becomes a member of the Church.
Our Book of Common Prayer, is built
upon the foundation of Baptism – Eucharist, Burial, Ordinations, Confirmation,
all of these liturgies would be dramatically changed if we removed the
underlying Baptismal theology. The belonging, calling, and hope that are
embodied in these services flow from our Baptisms. It is clear that Baptism is
crucial to our faith, but really, what is Baptism?
Today’s
readings all focus on the theme of Baptism, as today, and every first Sunday
after the Epiphany, is the day on which we remember the Baptism of our Lord.
The first thing to say about the meaning of Baptism is that Baptism is a symbol
that is plenty capable of supporting multiple meanings. This sermon is not a quest
to fine the “one” valid interpretation of Baptism, but rather is an attempt to
help us to think about what Baptism means for our lives.
It’s
also important to recognize that there are two baptisms that we will focus on.
The first is Jesus’ and the second is ours. Jesus’ baptism is not the same as
ours. When we were baptized, it was into Jesus. Jesus, of course, was not
baptized into himself; so there is a difference. There are few stories that are
presented in all four of the gospels, but one of them is that Jesus was
baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. Jesus’ baptism is central to
his story as the Christ.
The
question that has plagued scholars for centuries is “why was Jesus baptized?”
The problem, they say, is that if Baptism is about the forgiveness of sins, why
would the sinless Messiah need to be forgiven for anything? And it is a
conundrum. Part of the confusion comes from our forgetting that Jesus’ baptism
isn’t identical to ours. Certainly, Jesus’ baptism is a model for ours, but
what we think of as the Sacrament of Baptism wasn’t something going through
anyone’s mind that day at the Jordan. What matters is that Jesus’ baptism gives
meaning to ours.
So
did Jesus have sins to wash away in Baptism? I don’t know, but I think that
question is about as relevant as “how many angels can dance on the head of a
needle?”. Rather, what we see in Jesus’ baptism are a few things that are
helpful in our faith. One is that it shows that Jesus, as God incarnate, wasn’t
just going through the motions. Jesus fully embraces humanity, including
religious rituals. This shows us that rituals matter. Baptism isn’t some
practice concocted by the Church, but rather it is something that Jesus thought
was important enough for him to take part in.
Perhaps
the reason why the authors of the gospels thought it was so crucial to record
this story about Jesus’ baptism is what it says about John the Baptist. For
Jesus to be baptized by John is a clear validation of John’s message and
ministry. As we heard in Advent, John’s central message was “Repent, for the
kingdom of heaven as come near.” By choosing to be baptized, and saying “it is
proper for us to do this,” Jesus affirms the prophetic tradition of the Old
Testament that John stands as a part of. By being baptized by John, Jesus is
saying “Yes, this message of repentance and the nearness of God’s kingdom is
one that is central to my ministry as well.”
Remember that “repent”
means “to change your mind.” John’s call to repent isn’t about saying “I’m
sorry,” but rather seeing the world in a new way – recognizing that God’s
peace, love, mercy, justice are all around us, so we ought to wake up to this
reality. By being baptized, Jesus is saying “amen” to the need for us to
reorient our lives to a new way of being.
In
this sense, Jesus’ baptism is an epiphany. The word “epiphany” means
“manifestation,” “revealing,” or “showing.” We use the term “epiphany” to speak
about Jesus being made known to the whole world as its savior. And so, on
Epiphany, we remember that the light of Christ was made known to the magi from
the east. Then on the first Sunday after the Epiphany, we always hear of Jesus’
baptism, and how God’s voice was an epiphany to the whole world, announcing
that Jesus is God’s beloved son. Jesus’ baptism was an epiphanic event because
it reveals how Jesus affirms John’s ministry and it announces to the world
God’s affirmation of Jesus’ ministry. It is also an epiphany because it reveals
to us something of our own Baptism.
When
you ask people what Baptism is about, you’ll get a variety of different
answers: forgiveness of sin, adoption as God’s children, reminding us of our
identity as God’s beloved, initiation into the Body of Christ, union with
Jesus’ Death and Resurrection, a remembrance of how God saves us through water,
namely in the Exodus from Egypt. Those are all certainly valid ways to approach
the Sacrament of Baptism, but there isn’t enough time for us to consider all of
those interpretations this morning. So to pick one and focus on it, let us consider
how Baptism is something that makes us a part of Christ’s Body.
St. Paul writes about how we are all parts of the same body, and how each part is
indispensable. A body needs feet, arms, eyes, and ears. Even if you think feet
are smelly, you need them to function best. At the Last Supper, Jesus takes the
bread, which he calls his body, and invites us to partake of it and become a
part of it. Baptism makes us a part of Christ’s Body, as Baptism unites us to
Jesus and all others who have been Baptized into his name. Baptism makes us a
part of the Body – this probably isn’t anything you haven’t already heard.
But
I’m not so sure that we stop often enough to consider the implications of this
statement that we are members of the Body of Christ. Martin Luther King once
said that “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a
single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all
indirectly.” I know that we like to think that we are independent, that we can
be self-sufficient islands unto ourselves, that we can pull ourselves up by our
own bootstraps. But we can’t. Independence is an idol at best and heresy at
worst. We were created to be in relationship with God and with others. There’s
a reason why solitary confinement is seen as one of the harshest forms of
punishment.
And
yet it seems that so much of our lives is spent trying to separate from others.
Through technology, we put ourselves into artificial bubbles of reality.
Sometimes when we fear that we are getting too close to someone or risk being
challenged, we act out in order to push away. In our culture, it’s generally
accepted that teenagers will do this as a pat of adolescence; that they will
push against their parents in order to differentiate themselves as an individual.
We do it with fashion as well – we want the world to see us as unique. And we
certainly are. That’s one of the blessings of Creation, that we are all unique.
But just because we are unique, it doesn’t mean that we are superior.
We tend to take this to the
extreme – we say “You haven’t walked in my shoes, you can’t understand me” or
we think that somehow we are above societal norms. Sometimes we forget that as
unique and wonderful as we all are as individuals, that we are a part of
something much, much bigger. Baptism saves us from isolation as it reminds
that, indeed, we are a part of the Body of believers.
And if we are a part of
this Body, then it affects the way in which we live our lives. You might say
that because of Baptism, we are implicated in each other’s lives. Our lives and
conditions are interwoven. It’s easy to fall into the trap of not worrying
about others, but that is just to put our heads in the sand. There are so many
issues related to our common life that affect us. And even if the effect is
indirect, it still affects us. If your kids go to private school, the success
of our public school system still deeply affects the society in which your
children will live. If you don’t live in poverty, the fact that there are those
who live in poverty still shapes the city you live in. If you drive a hybrid
and recycle, you still live on a planet whose environment is being degraded by
human activity. If you aren’t concerned about the war in Syria, you might be
surprised when the conflict spreads. If your faith gives you hope and joy,
there are still those who live without knowing the love of God in their lives.
As Jesus will note later
in Matthew, just as we do to others, we do to him. We are implicated in each
other’s lives. I’m sorry if this is sobering, but it’s very unlikely that any
of us will find our names in a history book a few hundred years from now. This
doesn’t at all mean that our lives our insignificant, rather the opposite is
true. Each and every moment is sacred and full of meaning – but it simply to
say that we will be remembered and judged as a whole, as a Body. When we look
back at history, we say “How could they have let that happen,” “Why did they
condone that,” “I can’t believe they allowed that to happen.” Even if
individuals were not directly guilty of a crime, because we are members of the
human family and the Body of Christ, we are implicated in the lives of all
people.
I wonder what people will
say about us in a few hundred years? How could they have not gotten more
serious about environmental stewardship? How could they ignore the nearly 9,000
children in Rowan County that are food insecure? Why did they hold so many
grudges against people who voted differently? Why did they let rather small
issues divide them so fiercely?
I pray that we might also
be remembered in positive ways – Wasn’t it great that they were so faithful in
stewardship that we have this place called St. Luke’s to worship? Aren’t we
thankful that they worked hard to find cures for diseases which no longer plague
us? Isn’t it so wonderful that though progress can be slow, that they were are
a more accepting and peaceful generation than their predecessors.
Certainly, there are some
wonderful things that we will be remembered for, but history may well ask us
questions that we would be embarrassed to answer because by the fact of our
Baptism into the Body of Christ, we are “guilty by association.” Jesus’ baptism
alerts to the centrality of John the Baptizer’s message – that we need to
repent and see things afresh in light of the Good News of the Gospel. Our
Baptisms are about many things, one of the most central being our initiation
into the Body of Christ. As we all know from that metaphor, if a part of the
body suffers, all suffer. While a disease may only attack one part of the body,
no part of the body gets to escape the side effects of treatment or the
possible demise of the entire body. By the same token, if the body is healthy,
then all parts of the body can thrive.
Individually, we may not
be able to change the way that history remembers us, but as a Body, certainly
we can change the course of history. This means we need to commit to sticking
with each other, as a body isn’t going to function well if the right leg is
trying to remove itself from the body because it doesn’t like the left arm. It
means that we need to listen to each other, as the body works best when it
works together in concert. It means that we need to pay attention to all people
and all of Creation, because, like it or not, we’re all in this together. Our
Baptism is an invitation to see the world differently, trusting that God’s
kingdom is all around us; and by making us part of the one body, Baptism means that
we are all implicated in each other’s lives. Amen.
