Matthew 3:13-17
Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness." Then he consented. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased." + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
I still remember my baptism. Probably funny words to hear in an Episcopal church since most people are baptized as infants. But I didn’t grow up in this church. I grew up in my grandfather’s small community church which practiced believer’s baptism which simply meant that you couldn’t be baptized until you’d made a public profession of faith.
I was eight years old and a few weeks before my scheduled baptism, I was a little nervous. You see they practiced baptism by immersion – it didn’t count unless your whole body was submerged and buried with Christ in his death. A little daunting for someone who has a fear of drowning. And I’m sure my grandfather knew what a miserable sinner I was, so I wasn’t too sure that he’d hold me under a little longer than was required to make sure my baptism “stuck.”
So my dad would practice with me every now and then. Demonstrating how my grandfather would put his hand in the small of my back and all I had to do was bend the trunk of my body backwards into the water, and then raise back up. Easier said than done, right?
But truth be told everything went off without a hitch when the moment arrived. As soon as my foot touched the warm water of the baptistery and I looked at my grandfather I knew everything was going to be okay.
I wonder what happened on that day when Jesus was baptized. While I had the comforts of a nice clean baptistery with warm water to be baptized in, Jesus didn’t. He was baptized in a river and a dirty muddy river at that. I wonder what the water was like that day. Was it as smooth as glass without much movement or was it like the water of a river you’d whitewater raft in? Was it calm and serene as many moviemakers have imagined or were John the Baptist and Jesus doing all they could simply to stand in the roaring currents of the river? Was the Spirit of God moving so mightily in that spot that they could hardly stand? I wonder.
The other things I wondered about this week as I sat with this text are the way in which John the Baptist tries to discourage Jesus from being baptized. I wondered why? Jesus’ baptism is recorded in all four of the Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – yet only Matthew has John inviting Jesus to rethink what baptism means.
I wonder if John didn’t want Jesus to get dirty. I don’t know about you, but I need a Messiah who is willing to get dirty in the messiness of human life. A Jesus who was born in a stable. A Jesus who was born like any other child with all the blood and mess that comes with being born. A Jesus who cried as an infant when he was hungry, had a dirty diaper, or was in pain. A Jesus who made mistakes, disobeyed his parents at the age of 12. The church has taught for centuries that Jesus was fully God and fully human. I believe in order for Jesus to be fully human he needed to be baptized by John the Baptist in the River Jordan. He needed to get into that dark, dirty, murky water filled with the sins of those who had been baptized before to understand what it meant to be fully human. To feel the guilt and shame of carrying things around and then to feel the release of being forgiven.
The other thing I wondered about this week was what the voice of God sounded like. Was is strong like thunder? Was it gentle like a still, small voice? I’m not so sure it matters what God’s voice sounded like as much as the words that were uttered: “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
I believe if we take seriously the Lord’s Prayer which we say each and every Sunday in this church, particularly those first words, “Our Father,” we remember that if God is our Father that each and every one of us are siblings. Now you might not like the idea that the person sitting next to you in the pew is your brother or sister in Christ – but the fact of the matter is we are all brothers and sisters in Christ through the waters of baptism. Each of us had the same words said by God over us at our baptism as was said at Jesus’ baptism: “You are my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
Out of the waters of baptism flow each of our calls to ministry. Your call won’t look like mine. Perhaps you’re called to serve on one of our lay pastoral care teams. Maybe God is calling you to serve as a reader, acolyte, server, or chalicist. Maybe God is calling you to start a Sunday School class. Maybe God is calling you to serve on our outreach committee and serve those on the margins.
So I invite you in this new year to sit down and to remember your baptism. To remember that you are claimed by God and loved by God more than you could ever imagine. Then I want you to pray about what ministry God is calling you to. You might be saying, “But I’m too young.” “But I’m too old.” “Someone else would do a better job.”
Stop making excuses. The kingdom of God and the Church are not voluntary organizations. Every person is called and commissioned to a task by virtue of our baptism. The word Church in Greek is ecclesia which literally means a community that has been “called out.” So what is God calling you out to do in 2011? I can’t answer that question for you. Your spouse or partner can’t answer that question for you. Your parents nor children can answer that question for you. No one, no matter how well they know you, can answer that question for you. You’ve got to answer it for yourself after a lot of prayer and inner searching.
So today remember your baptism and be thankful and ask God to reveal to you what God is calling you out to do in 2011. Amen.
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