SETTING THE CONTEXT

The wise men went home. Joseph, Mary and Jesus ran away to safety in Egypt and lived there until King Herod died. Upon his death an angel sent the Holy Family to Nazareth. There is a break of many years and the story picks up with the ministry of John the Baptist. John was a firebrand preacher calling people to repent or to change for God’s reign was near. Crowds of people came to the Jordon River to be baptized by him even as he acknowledged that there was someone with greater power coming to baptize with even greater forces. Then the day came…

Read Matthew 3:13-17

There was a Roman soldier, a centurion of the Italian Cohort who lived in Caesarea; he was part of the forces occupying Israel. He was a devout man who loved God. An angel interceded to bring this soldier together with the apostle Peter. Peter was a good Jewish man and it was, as the Scripture tells us, unlawful for him to visit with this soldier who was a Gentile. God though had different plans and made it very clear to Peter that he needed to be obedient to God’s new plan and not his old beliefs. Cornelius and his household were anxious to hear this Good News that Peter was commanded to proclaim.

Read Acts 10:34-43

After Peter’s sermon the power of the Holy Spirit fell upon Cornelius’ household and with that evidence of God’s touch upon them, Peter baptized them.

THE SERMON

People come to water for different reasons. I see folks in a water aerobics class regularly who come to the water to exercise while keeping their joints supported by the water. I see people come to the water to get physical therapy as wounded bodies are strengthened and supported at the same time. Most of us come to water daily to cleanse ourselves and to drink. There is nothing like a nice hot shower on a cold morning or a cold glass of water on a hot, thirsty day. People came to the water where John was preaching to be baptized.

What is baptism and what does it mean? There are twenty-one references to baptism in the Book of Acts alone, so that tells us that baptism was a common practice in the life of the early church.^[i] John Wesley the founder of our denomination explained it saying, “In baptism, we are cleansed of the guilt of original sin; initiated into the covenant with God; admitted into the church (the world-wide church, not a specific church); made an heir of the divine kingdom; and spiritually regenerated.”^[ii] Boy, that’s a lot of impact from a little water!

The waters of baptism cleanse us. Whether or not you accept the doctrine of original sin, the fact that we sin shouldn’t be a matter of debate. We need God’s initiating, enabling and empowering grace in our lives so we can receive forgiveness and be released from our sin and live as God intended us to live. We need it if our community stands a chance of reflecting God’s intention. In baptism, we publicly accept this marvelous gift of grace and enter into covenant with God. A covenant is a very serious agreement made in trust and pledged faithfulness. Even if the parties are unequal in power a covenant still assumes mutual responsibility. In the covenant between God and Abraham the deal was “I’ll be your God and bless you and your part is to obey me and be a blessing to others.” Circumcision was the sign of that covenant, but as our Acts passage showed us baptism became the sign of the new covenant through Jesus. I’m guessing you men are thankful for that change! Obedience and being a blessing are still our part of the covenant that we accept at our baptism. The complex statement that Jesus makes in our reading from Matthew says “For now this is how it should be, because we must do all that God wants us to do.” Jesus was obedient to God from the beginning to the end. He blessed others and sought a world where especially the disadvantaged were blessed throughout his life from the beginning to the end. And in our baptism we, too, agree to be obedient to God and to bless others as Jesus did and God gives us the Holy Spirit to help us honor our promises.

Baptism is a sacrament of belonging. I love that image because through baptism we join the church and I’m not talking about this church but all churches everywhere and in every generation. We are embraced by a community with a common desire to follow Christ where we nurture, support and challenge each other to grow in and practice our part of the covenant.  We become a part of the Christian family with all our spiritual ancestors, brothers and sisters and descendants and are heirs of God’s promises. We hear God’s proclamation at the baptism of Jesus, “this is my Son, my Beloved.”

When we come to the water in baptism we are spiritually renewed. An image that I have heard is that our old selves drown in the water and our new selves arise out of the water. It is a rather graphic way of thinking of dying to the old and rising to the new. John the Baptist preached a baptism of repentance and repentance means a change of heart or direction and that does involve dying to an old way of being and embracing a new way of being. This is not a one time thing. I don’t know anyone who has become completely Christ-like in an instant. It is a process of growth involving repentance and renewal, repentance and renewal as we become more and more like Christ. I think of trees along a river that draw the river’s water through their roots. Each year the trees grow in the spring and summer then die back a little in the winter and grow taller and taller. For us the process does not involve seasons of weather but of repentance and renewal coming to the water ready to die to the old and rise to the new.

As United Methodists we will only baptize a person once because God is always faithful to God’s promises. So once that covenant has been made God will not break it even if we do. God’s faithfulness allows us the opportunity to repent. It’s like being in a family, in most cases just because a loved one ceases communication and walks away from the relationship, it doesn’t mean they are no longer a part of the family. Their place is waiting when they are ready to return.

We do baptize infants because we believe that God’s initiating grace is working in a child’s life even before they are fully aware of that presence. There is ample evidence including the baptism of Cornelius’ entire household from our Acts reading that children were baptized in early Christian practice and doctrine. “God claims infants as well as adults to be participants in the gracious covenant.”^[iii] The baptism of infants and children though places a greater responsibility on the parents and church community to ensure that the child is raised knowing the Good News and knowing Jesus for baptism always involves these three parties: God, the church community and the individual being baptized. The importance of the community is the main reason we do not do private baptisms. There must always be at least representatives of the faith community to agree to the promises made in our name. This coming to the water involves more than a little splish splash!

As scholar William Willimon said, “Baptism is a once and for all experience, requiring only a few minutes to initiate, but taking our whole lives to finish.”^[iv] We experience and live out this baptismal covenant in our daily walk with God and our daily discipleship. On this day when we remember Jesus’ own baptism, we invite you to remember the ongoing significance of your own baptism. We invite you to come to the water and celebrate God’s faithfulness. Come and rededicate yourselves to the covenant accepting God’s graceful gifts and renewing our commitment to be obedient and a blessing. Come to the waters rejoicing in the community of faith. Come get drenched again in the promises made and the power given. Amen. 

Sermon delived by Rev. Nancy Cushman on January 13, 2008.