25th Sunday After Pentecost
Nov. 10, 2024
Baptism
Today we are celebrating a baptism. A new life is being dedicated to God, the church, and to us; to say yes to this child’s formation into the mystery of Christ’s birth, death, and resurrection. Holy Baptism is one of the most important Sacraments of the Church, since it is the means whereby a person or child begins a new life, through the mystery of the gift of God’s grace. We who are gathered here together also say yes, as we have countless times, at the renewal of our own baptismal vows. To be welcomed into the household of God through the rite of baptism, is a one time sacrament. Many of us have come and gone in the church but when we do return, it is much like the prodigal son, God’s children are always welcomed home no matter how far they stray. Like the prodigal son, they are never disowned, but always waited for in love. God flings wide the door of God’s kingdom, it is never to be locked against us.
Forms of baptisms have been around for a long time. It is an ancient rite practiced since before Christ and in other faith traditions. Christians did not come up with baptism out of the blue. When John the Baptist was in the river baptizing people, people didn’t walk by and say, “What’s he doing? That looks weird!” They were accustomed to the idea of ritual immersion that existed in Judaism long before John showed up. Jews had been practicing ritual immersion in the form of entering into a mikveh, immersing oneself, and then emerging from those waters, purified. There are over thirty Psalms that make reference to water and are all part of the worship the Church offers to God.
After Jesus’ Resurrection, a triumphal act over death, the ritual came to mean something more for Christians. Being baptized with water we still remember the waters of chaos from the beginning of time when God created the world and all that is, and we still remember the waters that parted at the Red Sea and like the Jewish mikveh, baptism came to mean freedom from oppression and slavery. Through the waters of the Jordan River, Jesus received the baptism of John and was anointed by the Holy Spirit as the Messiah, the Christ. Through the waters of baptism we are received into the household of God with Christ.
Water is life. More than 70% of the earth’s surface is covered by ocean water. Half to three-quarters of the human body is made up of water. A child’s first home is in the water of the mother’s womb. Our everyday vocabulary conveys the power of water to shape and misshape our daily life: tsunamis and hurricanes, spring rains and relentless drought, contention over water rights, and the call for universal access to clean water. Without water there is no life. More than food and clothing and shelter, water is needed if life is to survive. From the womb to the last sips taken by a person close to death, water is our close companion whose presence is all too often taken for granted but whose absence is dreaded. Water in all its life-sustaining abundance and awesome beauty is God’s gift to all living things. It should never be denied to anyone.
In baptism we pour the water of life over the head of a child or adult, a ritual act that is one of the two principal sacraments of the church. The sacraments as defined by our catechism are outward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual grace, given by Christ as sure and certain means by which we receive that grace.
This outward sign for baptism is the water with which the person is baptized. The shell, which comes from the ocean waters, which we use to dip in the water, has been used since ancient times as it holds more water than a hand. We see images of it being used in baptism in paintings in the catacombs in Rome. Holy Baptism is the sacrament by which God adopts us as his children and makes us members of Christ’s Body, the Church, and inheritors of the kingdom of God. We are God’s beloved children and we don’t have to keep coming back begging for entry into the kingdom of God, Jesus’ swung wide the doors and they remain open to us. Do not let anyone be denied entry that wish to walk through those doors into the house of God.
In a few minutes we will recite the vows of our baptism again to God and to each other as witnesses. And I think this is a good Sunday for us all to take a look at the vows most of us have already made to God at some point in our lives. Vows we repeat several times throughout the year. God is always asking us to remember and so on this day we do just that. We remember the covenant we have made with God and each other. As we recite these vows with Charlotte’s family and godparents, we need to reach deep down into our hearts and souls and ask, do I mean this? We may even ask, what does it really mean for me to reaffirm this vow, this covenant that I have made with God in the presence of God’s people? It takes a lifetime to figure out what your baptism means but today is a good day to remember what a Christian is asked to do and be in this world.
So hear these vows again. Think about what they mean in your life now. How will these vows be seen by the world around us? By our neighbors? By all who may come to us looking for a safe place that sees them as a child of God? What does that look like?
So, let’s all take a minute to pause and reflect on what you have vowed to do and be. Because these vows are not for the faint of heart nor the complacent. Three times you will be asked if you believe–in God, in Christ, and in the Holy Spirit. You will be asked if you will continue in the apostles’ teaching, if you will continue in the breaking of the bread, if you will continue in prayer.
You will be asked if you will persevere in resisting evil and if you fail in that endeavor, that you will admit that you were wrong, that you will repent, turn around and come back to God. You will be asked if you will proclaim the Good News, not only by word but by example, by your character.
You will be asked if you will seek and serve Christ in all persons, everyone regardless of your approval, all persons, and you will be asked to learn to love yourself so that you can love them more fully. And the last question you will be asked is if you will strive (strive is a strong word) for justice and peace for everyone and respect their dignity as human beings.
Just pause for a moment about this implication of those vows. If you can still say yes to these questions, you say yes to God and you say no to the world. And every single response is I will, with God’s help. Because living the Good News is hard work folks. That Way of Love is a tough path to trod. And you can’t give up when it gets tough. You can’t do it on your own and that’s why we say our vows, I will with God’s help. So when you have no answers for what is happening in your lives and in the world around you, you lean into Jesus. You ask God and the Holy Spirit to help you in your confusion and sorrow and you let the Spirit guide you when you are lost and can’t find the path. I will, with God’s help is the promise you made.
Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself? Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being? I will with God’s help is a binding covenant. It’s Jesus’ mandate to his followers. He came here to reclaim us back to himself, back to God, take us back to the garden and those of us who have said yes to the way of Christ are to actively participate in that work no matter what is happening. That, my friends, is the cost of discipleship. If you are a baptized Christian you have made a vow with God and the whole assembly gathered as the Body of Christ that you have made a commitment to this way of life. There is no caveat. There is no amendment in the back of the Bible or your prayer book. It’s such hard work that you will need God’s help. And we will need each other. We are the Body of Christ as one, not individuals because to fulfill these vows we are going to have to hold each other up, support each other. That’s what we are collectively saying to Charlotte today. We’ve got you, little one. We will be there and will not turn our backs on you.
We will invoke the power of the Holy Spirit to descend into those waters of baptism and we will be reminded that through those waters, we are transformed. And that is precisely what baptism is all about. Transformation. The ongoing work of Christ in our hearts and minds and souls. God welcomes us as we are, but God’s welcome never leaves us as we are, thankfully. This water is life. When you leave today put your fingers in the water and touch them to your head and heart and remember. Remember the waters of your baptism, whisper the words to yourself, “I will with God’s help” and be renewed.
Magdalena's Musings 