The Baptism of Jesus





Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Episcopal Church

January 13, 2013

 

The Baptism of Jesus

When I was in seminary, I served at a large Episcopal Church on the North Shore of Chicago. In some ways, the church was unlike any Episcopal Church I had ever encountered. The church actually had two complete campuses. On Sundays, the 8 o’clock and 9 o’clock services were held on one campus, in what they called the chapel, but was actually a full size church complete with an organ, choir stalls, silver, vestments, and the whole works. The 9 o’clock service was followed by Christian Education. Then the clergy, organist, and I jumped in our cars, fully vested and drove, or more accurately, sped, to the second campus for the 11 o’clock service, where, if we were lucky, there was available parking waiting for us. On the second campus, which sat right across the road from Lake Michigan, there was a larger church with all the trimmings and then some.

While in some way that church was unlike any church I had ever experienced, in other ways, it was exactly the same. The roof leaked. People sat in the same pews Sunday after Sunday. Everyone almost always attended the same service each week. There were occasions of great sadness, and there were occasions of great joy. One of the occasions of great joy in any parish is a baptism and this church was no different. But no matter what service a family normally went to, or where they sat Sunday after Sunday, when the time came to baptize their children most of them opted for the 9 o’clock service in the summer. Because the church was literally on the north shore of Chicago, every summer the 9 o’clock service was held outside on the shores of Lake Michigan. Every Sunday, June-August, we all brought our lawn chairs and set up church right in the middle of the park. At that service, when there was a baptism, we all took off our shoes and went down to the water. Not only did we all renew our baptismal covenant, we could all get wet as the person was baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, then sealed with the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever.

I am reminded of those services this morning as we see the crowds of people who have flocked to the wilderness to hear John the Baptist call them a brood of wipers and warn them of the wrath to come, then repent and be baptized in the Jordan River. This morning we hear that, despite John’s harsh words, the people were filled with expectation and wondered whether John himself was the Messiah. As scary as John looks and as unpleasant as his message seems to be, the Messiah John describes sounds even worse. John says "His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear the threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." Those words do not make me long for the coming of the Messiah.

If we just listen to John the Baptist, we could easily think that baptism is a simple matter of eternal fire insurance. We want to make sure that we are not the chaff that will burn with unquenchable fire, and so we are baptized. But Jesus’ own baptism seems to be something different. There is no winnowing fork involved as the heavens open and the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus like a dove. There is no mention of wheat or chaff as the voice from heaven says "You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased."

What do the words from heaven mean? "You are my Son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased?" What do the words we hear at Jesus’ baptism tell us about our own baptism?

Our reading from Isaiah this morning is addressed to a people in exile and feeling God’s absence far more deeply than God’s presence. In that passage, God tells the people what it means to be God’s beloved. "I have called you by name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; when you walk through the fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you." Those verses do not say "I have called you by name, you are mine. You will never have to pass through deep water or walk through the fire." Jesus’ own life will be testimony to that. As Jesus moves through his ministry, he will pass through plenty of deep water and walk through raging fire. But neither the water nor the fire will have the final word.

Likewise, in baptism, we hear God’s voice, through the Church, tell us we are God’s beloved child. Because we are not Jesus, our baptism does include the forgiveness of sins and the promise of eternal life with God. But that is not all baptism is. Baptism gives us our identity as children of God. The promise of baptism is not that we will never face challenges or that no harm will ever come to us or those we love. The promise of baptism is that we are God’s beloved children and we will never walk alone.

Armed with nothing more than the knowledge that he was God’s beloved child, Jesus began his ministry. Jesus’ baptism propelled him into the world, not into special privilege, as we will hear in a few weeks in the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. Jesus did not stay in the river, hoping to hear God’s voice again. Jesus left the waters of baptism to make a difference in the lives of the people around him, even when he had to walk through the fire to do so. Likewise, the knowledge that we are God’s beloved children, that we will never walk alone, and that the challenges of life will never have the final word propels us into the world with a boldness we might not otherwise have as we seek to make a gospel difference in the world around us. We may not always win. We may not always be right. We may not always succeed. Baptism promises none of those things. The promise of Jesus’ baptism and the promise of our baptism is that we belong to God who will never desert us, and that life will always have the final word. In the words from Isaiah "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine."

Amen.