Baptized in Water

Let’s travel back in memory a ways. I want you to remember your baptism. If you were baptized as an older child or adult, this shouldn’t be too difficult. If you were baptized as an infant and can’t remember your own baptism, then think back to the baptism of someone close to you, or perhaps a baptism in which you participated, or one you witnessed in this church. Where did your baptism take place? Was it outside, perhaps in a river, pond, or stream? Or was it inside, perhaps in a tub or pool. Was it in a church like this one, with a font and pitcher? When you were baptized were you fully immersed, or were you sprinkled on the head with water from the font? When did your baptism take place? How old were you? Who was there? Were you surrounded by family, friends, and parish members? And what did you feel when it was all over? A friend of mine who was baptized as an adult said that afterwards he felt as if he had “the holiest head in town.” Did you feel like that?

We have begun Epiphany tide. You can see the change from the celebratory time of Christmas tide to the growing time of Epiphany tide reflected in the change from the joyful white and gold paraments of Christmas to the calmer green paraments of Epiphany. Epiphany is an important season in the liturgical year. Epiphany gives us the chance to focus on several key occasions in which those around Jesus began to see who he really was. In the gospels of Matthew and Luke we hear of the circumstances surrounding the births of John the Baptizer and Jesus, and in Luke we even hear of an incident from Jesus’ early adolescence. The gospel according to John begins with statements about Jesus identity couched in the language of Greek philosophy. However, the writer of the gospel according to Mark, much of which we will hear during this liturgical year, begins his account with the coming of John the Baptist and Jesus’ baptism. This event, at the beginning of Jesus’ work as an adult, is for the evangelist, as it should be us, an important first sign, among many that are to come, of who Jesus really is.

The community to whom Mark was writing learned several things from Mark’s account of Jesus’ baptism. First, they learned that what happened to Jesus that day in the Jordan River was not a private event. Jesus did not come out under cover of darkness and have John immerse him secretly. Instead, Jesus’ baptism was a public event, witnessed by many. Second, Jesus slipped into the gathering along the river without any fanfare and was baptized along with many other people. All the others allowed themselves to be baptized as a sign of repentance after confessing their sins. Although we believe that Jesus had no need to repent, he allowed himself to be baptized to demonstrate his solidarity with those around him. In so doing, he experienced all that other human beings of his day were experiencing.

The evangelist’s community also came to realize through Jesus’ baptism – and perhaps through their own – that God’s grace does not come to us out of the air. It is not something ethereal. Rather, God’s grace is always mediated to us through concrete people. You could not get more concrete and down to earth than John the Baptizer: dressed in camel’s hair, eating locusts and honey, proclaiming God’s word. More important, God’s grace comes to us through the things of nature, through water, earth, light, and sky. The evangelist’s community also learned that by God’s grace Jesus was empowered by God’s Spirit and affirmed by God as both anointed ruler and prophet. God’s declaration, “You are my beloved Son,” echoes psalm 2:7, a psalm of David addressed to a king. God’s declaration that God is “well pleased” with Jesus echoes Isaiah 42:1, and suggests that Jesus is also destined to assume the prophetic role of speaking out for and caring for those who are poor, marginalized and victims of injustice. Finally, the evangelist’s community learns from Mark’s account that in baptism God has called Jesus into ministry. Immediately after his baptism, God’s Spirit drove Jesus into the desert surrounding Jerusalem where he wrestled with how to make real the vision which God had given him.

Fast forward twenty centuries. Are there lessons for us, as Jesus’ followers, in Mark’s account of Jesus’ baptism? Go back again to your own baptism or that of someone close to you. Like Jesus’ baptism, our baptisms too are – or should be – public events. The Book of Common Prayer, always our standard for appropriate practice, is clear that, “Holy Baptism is appropriately administered within the Eucharist as the chief service on a Sunday or other feast.” The BCP also notes that the most appropriate days on which to administer baptism are today, i.e., the Sunday of the Baptism of our Lord, the vigil of Easter, the vigil of Pentecost, All Saints Day, and the Sunday following All Saints Day. Just as Jesus demonstrated solidarity with his own people, our practice of baptism reminds us that baptism welcomes us into a community, that we are all part of a Body, and that the Christian life is always lived in common – even by monks, nuns, and hermits!

As in Jesus’ baptism, God’s grace is mediated to us through people and things. Some of you may have come from traditions where baptism was only offered to children old enough to consent to it. Nevertheless, most of us did not walk up to a river, pool, or font, and immerse ourselves. Someone brought us to the water, and someone poured it over us. And, of course, God continues to supply us with more grace than we can possibly imagine, through the people around us, through the sacraments, and through God’s good creation.

Perhaps more important, just as God did with Jesus, God also affirms us in our baptisms. God acknowledges and accepts our imperfection, our brokenness, and our incompleteness as God’s creatures. But God also empowers us by God’s Spirit. It’s not so much that we receive God’s Spirit – as people created in God’s image, we already share in God’s Spirit. We have what Quakers call “that of God in every man.” I like to think instead that in baptism God awakens God’s Spirit within us, so that we can then be open to God’s presence in our lives. God also affirms as God’s beloved children. Henri Nouwen, the great Dutch spiritual teacher, tells us that the the spiritual life, our life, is a “life of the beloved.” Pause a minute. Hear God saying to you, “You are my beloved daughter, you are my beloved son.”

And here’s the most important lesson for us. In our baptisms, God also calls us to discern our ministries, to ask how we too are called to help bring God’s reign nearer. And we too are warned that we might end up following Jesus to the cross. Indeed, one writer suggests that we should issue warnings with our baptismal certificates: “This is a passport to places you never thought you would go, to be an emissary of the living God in the desert and the wilderness, to plant seeds of hope and healing and life.”1

Are there concrete ways we can continue the process begun by God in our baptisms? To begin with, we can remember that we have been baptized. Most of you know that there is blessed water in our font. I invite you, as you enter the church, to dip your fingers into it and either touch your forehead or make the sign of the cross to remind yourself of what God has done to you and for you in baptism. I invite you also to remember the anniversary of your baptism. Light a candle, thank God for those who brought you to baptism, and pray for them. Let the Spirit drive you into the wilderness. No, I don’t mean backpacking in the mountains – although for some people, that might be just the right place to listen to God. Find some time, even just a few minutes, for silence in your life. Read Morning or Evening Prayer, or any other material that turns you back to God, and then let God’s Spirit speak to you. Consider a more formal quiet day, a day in which you can join others in learning some prayer practices and awakening more fully to God’s presence. I would even invite you to consider a silent retreat at a convent, monastery, or retreat center – they are not just for clergy! Continue to let God’s grace become part of your physical body in the Eucharist and to allow God to lead you more deeply into God’s life. Finally, continue to pray for a vision of the ministry to which God is calling you. Anne Lamott has a lovely little book on prayer entitled Help, Thanks, Wow. After bringing your needs before God, thanking God, and praising God, add one more word: “how.” Ask God, “How can I continue to know myself as beloved, how can I share your love with others, and how can I follow in Jesus’ footsteps?”

Then trust that God has indeed awakened God’s Spirit within you, and rejoice that God has empowered you to bring God’s love to the world.

1. Diane Roth, “Reflections on the Lectionary,” Christian Century, January 7, 2015, 20.