Mark 1:4-11
I am Baptized!
Am I safe in assuming that you are already aware of the events which transpired this past Wednesday? I do realize that we each have our preferred media sources, but the events of Wednesday were sufficiently significant that I hope they were noted in the places you turn for information and commentary.
Those events changed the world forever. What happened puts into perspective the plotting and scheming of humanly crafted structures by juxtaposing them with the cosmic actions of the God who created us.
I am, obviously, not referring to the events which are unlikely to even merit a sidebar in cosmic history. I am speaking of the Feast Day of the Epiphany. This past Wednesday we reaffirmed the eternal realities expressed by the visit of the wisemen to the place where the infant Jesus was lying.
The ELCA Bishops elected in 2019, joined together to offer an online worship service. Their reminder to the Church was not to become distracted by the noise and chatter of a world too often lured into falsehood and hate. They encouraged us to see in the events of this past Wednesday an invitation to look to the heavens from whence comes our guiding star.
This past Wednesday was the Feast Day of the Epiphany of Our Lord. January 6 will continue to be the day on which Christians will assembly, remember, and commemorate that we may sometimes loose our way God remains active in the heavens and will call into service the stars of the universe in order to guide us to the eternal truth and to the tender compassion of a mother caring for her child.
Our worship service last Sunday called attention to these things. We had decided to use the lessons and prayers for Wednesday last Sunday. We marked the events of the Epiphany in order to acknowledge that there is but one who leads and guides the paths of Christians. Legends propose that those magi from the east could no longer follow the ways and beliefs of their childhood. There are stories and traditions which say they abandoned the convictions of their youth and embraced the truths associated with what they had seen and experienced.
The events of Epiphany present an opportunity for each of us to affirm that it is the star of Bethlehem which will guide us and our journey.
Today is another feast day – today is the Baptism of Our Lord. And just as with last week, this day is an invitation to make known what lies at the core of our identity.
First some perspective. The baptism experienced by Jesus differs from the baptisms we celebrate in this place, at that font. While God had other things in mind, the words and the water poured over Jesus’ head were little more than a symbol of one’s desire to purify their hearts and their way of living. John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. It was a choice to do the things which would please God, to set aside selfish and self-serving aspirations.
The baptism we celebrate in this place is not a baptism of repentance. It is a sacrament of inclusion. When we baptize, we are announcing that God has given the one baptized a new name and new identity. A Christian baptism is a baptism into the death and resurrection of Jesus.
This coming Wednesday, a group of us are going to start a seven-session study of Martin Luther’s Small Catechism. Before we get into the five parts of the Catechism, there are a few things we need to remember and discuss. Among them is the timing of baptism. When ought followers of Jesus be baptized?
In the days immediately after Jesus’ resurrection, persons were baptized on the spot. The Ethiopian eunuch didn’t even know the name of Jesus and a few minutes (perhaps hours) later he sees a pool of water and asked to be baptized. In the first and second centuries, baptism came at the end of a three-year process of catechesis and spiritual discernment. The final forty days of which would overlap with the fasting and praying and acts of charity associated with the Lenten season.
Our textbook tells us that it was Emperor Justinian I who ordered that every citizen of the Roman Empire was to be baptized. This happens somewhere around the end of the 5th century.
Obviously, I somewhat agree with Justinian. I officiate over the baptisms of persons who do not make the request to be baptized and will only know this happened if someone tells them. It is theologically desirable that each child be made aware of the identity given to them by the same God who knitted them together in the womb. This is who they are – they are a child of God. And no other claims on their identity will erase or erode the identity God has bestowed upon them.
Do not doubt that I will continue to baptize every citizen of our community of faith.
But I am not so blind in my convictions that I will fail to realize that the pressure exerted on one’s God-given identity will be trumped by other identities.
I say that my Christian name is Chris, but I am more likely to talk to you about the meaning of my family name. I am a Heavner from western North Carolina, whose mother was a descendant of John Teeter Beam. (As a side bar, have you heard that my work on St Michael’s parish register revealed to me that I am a fifth cousin-once removed of Ann Huffman? Yep, me and Charles Huffman are blood kin!)
Other identities I have chosen and are more inclined to discuss than my baptismal identity include being a Tiger fan, being a southerner. And don’t forget that prior to my being asked to serve as Interim Pastor there was a discussion of my choose to identify as a yellow-dog Democrat.
The identities which we choose and choose to feed become the stronger animals in the pen. And while baptizing infants is a powerful affirmation that nothing they can do will ever separate them from the love of God, those baptized in this conviction will only grow into an understanding of what it means if they are encouraged and nurtured and reminded and able to see the example of those around them.
Every time there is a baptism in this place the gathered congregation promises to support that child in its growth of faith. Every time. Now ask yourself to place in the scales the number of times you have spoken to the one baptized about the meaning of baptism in your life – as contrasted with – the number of conversations about what it means to be a conservative or a liberal.
When we baptize at this font, we promise to teach the one being baptized the 10 Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer. Let’s just take the first of those. Most of you are at home. In the margins of your bulletin write down the 10 Commandments.
There are Lutherans in Germany who are beginning to ponder whether we ought to baptize babies. In their experience, the identities we are encouraged to form in youth and emerging adulthood have proven to be the stronger in determining one’s life-long convictions. If the community of Christ is unable to assist the individual to grow into that God-given identity, then why would we pretend it is the most significant? If we ourselves are going to do more to encourage those other identities are we not making a mockery out of the ritual which has previously united Christians?
The Feast Day of the Epiphany, this past Wednesday, was Christianity’s announcement to the world that no earthly events can prevent the God of the heavens from revealing the path wisemen are going to follow.
The Baptism of Our Lord is the Feast which asks us whether the identity given to us through our baptism is the single most significant aspect of who we are and how we will live our lives.
These weeks are challenging. They are fraught with apprehension and fear. These weeks will determine our future.
Amen.
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