Sermon for Holy Cross Sunday Year C 2016 Remembering Your Baptism Do you remember your baptism? Well, if you are like me, baptized as a baby, the answer is probably no. Do you know the date of your baptism? Now, I actually happen to know the date of my baptism mainly because my mother gave me my baptismal certificate when I got married (nearly 36 years ago) and I discovered that I was baptized on my father s birthday October 30 th in 1955. Being baptized on your father s birthday is a great way to be able to remember the date of your baptism! If you don t remember your baptism Do you know or remember any stories about your baptism? There are two stories I know about my baptism: I was baptized by a much-loved and revered pastor of my childhood church. His name was Paul Qualben who died only a few months after I was baptized. My baptism was the occasion when my mother and her mother were reunited after being estranged for over ten years, following her parents divorce. I love the theological allegory that this parent-child reunion took place on the day of my baptism. Isn t that what baptism is all about? And yet... perhaps we are more like 21 st century versions of Nicodemus. Coming in the darkness of our lack of understanding to question Jesus about who he is, why he came, what does all of this Christianity stuff of baptism mean anyway? Most of us would agree or confess that baptism is the pivotal event in the life of a Christian. And yet, most of us have no memory of our baptism and no clear idea of what it means or why its so important, or no sense of how it might shape our daily lives. Actually, maybe most of us never think about our baptism or baptism in general unless we are invited to the baptism of a child of a family member or friend or we come to church and there s a baptism schedule for that morning (and think... ugh! Church is definitely going to be longer than hour this morning!!) 1
So what is baptism and why is it so important? Baptism first and foremost is God s activity. Ever wonder why Lutherans and Presbyterians and Methodists, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox Christians all baptize infants whereas Baptists and Pentecostals baptize adults? Here s the reason. While both traditions confess that baptism is a gift from God, most Christians, following the earliest practices of the church, place the dominant emphasis on God s unconditional promise to accept us as we are. We are adopted into God s family. We are forgiven all our sin. Because we confess that we are born into a condition of brokenness of estrangement from God baptism reunites us It is a cosmic parent-child reconciliation. There can be no greater symbol of that than bringing babies to the font, babies who have not particularly done anything for or against God (actually, most haven t done anything at all except eat, sleep, gurgle, and dirty their diapers). Utterly passive in the face of God s grace, infants remind us that all we can really do is receive God s love with gratitude and try to live as the persons we ve been called to be, the persons God created us to be. Baptists and Pentecostal Christians focus more on our response to God s grace. God s grace, in this case, is like a blank check that still needs us to sign and cash it. Therefore, their emphasis is on believer s baptism, that is baptism where the candidate is old enough to choose to be baptized. The second important thing to know is that baptism is primarily about identity. Have you noticed that in the various gospel accounts of Jesus baptism, a voice from heaven invariably announces to Jesus, You are my beloved son and with you I am well pleased. So also in our Baptism, God speaks to us and tells us who we are: we are God s beloved children, children and people so precious to God 2
that God would go to any length to communicate to us that love, even to the point of dying on the cross. (Which is what Jesus is trying to tell Nicodemus in our gospel lesson today we are in need of healing from the poison of sin). Which is why Baptism is so important, as in an age where figuring out who you are has never been more complex, baptism suggests that we best understand who we are by paying attention to whose we are God s beloved children. Baptism reminds us that we have infinite value and worth, that God wants only good things for us, that God will always seek to draw us back into relationship with God and each other and forgive us when we stray, and that God will be with us all the days of our lives. But, if you are like me, you might have other questions about baptism, like, what does baptism have to do with sin? Actually this is a question that vexed the early church, too, particularly in relation to John the Baptist. John s baptism is described in the gospels as one of repentance for the forgiveness of sin. Now, if Jesus was sinless why does Jesus need to be baptized by John in Jordan River? Well, just as I wrote in my letter in this month s Tidings, when Jesus was baptized, it was a day of new creation the new creation of humanity. Jesus did not need to be baptized, but we need his baptism. His baptism is not the means by which we identify with him. His baptism is the means by which he identifies with us. (Remember --- Baptism is God s action; God always comes to us) Our baptism allows us to participate in his baptism, his new creation. Through Christ, our humanity was present and baptized in his baptism. Our humanity was the humanity upon which the spirit descended. Our humanity was the humanity to whom God said, you are my beloved. Our humanity was recreated in Jesus baptism. In baptism we are a new creation, a new being. St. Augustine wrote that baptism is our passage through the Red Sea of sin. Your sins are your enemies. They will follow you, but only up to the Red Sea. So baptism is an act of liberation, an exodus, a setting free. So if baptism is about identity 3
about being born anew as God s beloved child about liberation and being set free, if baptism is about our ongoing need to be restored to relationship with God then it seems like remembering our baptism could matter to us every day. So, does baptism make us part of God s family or does it announce to us that God includes us in God s family? I think how you answer this one greatly shapes your sense of why we baptize in the first place. If it s the former Baptism makes us part of God s family then Baptism becomes a requirement of life with God now and in the life to come. At its best, this greatly stresses Baptism s importance, but at it s worst, it devolves into a ticket to heaven mentality where parents want their children done just to be on the safe side. If, on the other hand, it s the latter Baptism announces God s inclusion of us into God s family then perhaps we can feel some urgency to keep reminding ourselves and each other of that tremendous gift and be willing to imagine how God might also reach out to those who have never been baptized. But even more when we are baptized we are reborn in the image of Christ we become a member of the body of Christ. We are clothed with Christ. When we are baptized we become Christ s hands and voice. Sealed with the sign of the cross by the gift of Holy Spirit, God lays claim to us. He has saved us for a purpose. He has saved us from sin for service, for love, for good works for enlarging the kingdom. So baptism is far more than the remission of sins. Baptism is about new birth, clothing, anointing, gifts, washing, enlightening, claiming, and liberation and most of all it s about God s love and God s grace. So to help you remember some of these good things that baptism is all about I thought it would be helpful for us to consider some of the symbols of baptism. 4
The principal symbol of baptism is water. Water cleanses and gives life. In the very beginning of creation, the Spirit of God breathed over the waters of the earth. In the great flood, water marks the end of sin and a new beginning of goodness. The Israelites passed through the Red Sea and were delivered from slavery into freedom. In the waters of the Jordan, Jesus was baptized by John and was anointed by the Holy Spirit. In baptism we pass through the water Baptism is our trip to the Jordan River. In this water our old sinful nature is drowned and we are born anew to share the new life in Christ. Baptism is both a tomb and a womb. It is a bath, a washing. And so our font is always full of clean, clear water. But any encounter with water is a reminder of our baptism. When you shower or swim or walk in the rain remember and give thanks for your baptism. Now after a bath, we need to be clothed. And so, we place on the newly baptized a white garment. The garment is white, a reminder that our sins have washed whiter than snow a reminder that we have put on Christ whose clothes shone when he was transfigured. We are anointed with oil. Oil is an ancient sign of God s favor and a solemn anointing indicated a call for a specific task in God's kingdom. The kings and prophets and priests of Israel were anointed to signify their special and holy callings. Being baptized into the anointed body of Christ, we are called to be part of the priesthood of all believers, we are called to be a prophet announcing the Word of God; and we are part of a royal family, called to lead with integrity. Oil is also a sign of healing, of protection and comfort. And we receive this anointing in the sign of the cross on our foreheads with the words child of God, you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever. And finally, we receive a lighted candle, which has been lighted from the flame of the Paschal candle. 5
The Paschal (Christ) candle symbolizes the light of Christ The light that no darkness can overcome. 700 years before the birth of Christ, Isaiah the prophet told of a people walking in darkness seeing a great light. (Isaiah 9:1). Jesus announces to us that he is the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. (John 8:12) At Easter, the Paschal candle is lit as a sign of the risen life of Christ. This life is stronger than death. It cannot be put out but shines brightly in the world as a sign of hope and of the strength of love. And so the lit candle reminds us that we have received the light of Christ. The flame reminds us, also, of the enlightenment and gifts of the Holy Spirit. Luther said, A Christian life is nothing other than a daily baptism, once begun and ever again entered into. More than ever, we need to let our light shine and spread that light to a deeply sin-scarred, sin-bound world. Though we may not remember the day or even the date of our baptism. it is most important to remember that we are baptized, and in remembering this being mindful of who and whose we are. This is the great challenge of our baptism. Today, we remember our baptism which is the watershed of God s love for us a love that saves and does not condemn. So let us come to the waters and begin anew! 6