Sermon 1/8/06
Come to the Water - Mark 1:4-11
(view lectionary notes for this text)
In my ministry, one of my greatest joys is in sharing the sacrament of baptism with you, the church family of St. Paul’s. Captured in this act is so much hope and promise. Captured in the water is the promise of God’s love and the sharing of God’s spirit breathed out into human lives. Today, we’ll have a chance to remember our own baptisms, and renew the vows that were taken on the day when we were baptized. If you’ve not yet been baptized, it’s a chance for you to listen and learn and anticipate, as you hear the commitments and hopes that come with the celebration of baptism. We share in this act today because today is the day we celebrate Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist.
Today, we tie together the groundings of Advent with new directions for our new year, as we revisit a text from the gospel of Mark about John the Baptist. In our second week of Advent, we read the first part of this passage together, and heard John the Baptist preparing the way for his cousin Jesus. Here we read again of him calling the people to be baptized as a symbol of repentance, a symbol of readiness to change the direction of one’s life, a symbol of forgiveness for sins. And then John tells the crowds about one who is coming, one who John is not even worthy to serve as a slave untying the master’s sandals. John talks about another baptism, a baptism not just with water, but a baptism with the Holy Spirit that this other one will bring. And then, Jesus appears on the scene. In Mark’s short and sweet style, the baptism of Jesus takes up just three short verses. Jesus comes to be baptized by John. And as Jesus is coming up out of the water, he sees the heavens torn apart, and the Spirit coming down as like a dove on him. And then, God’s voice: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
This is an important scene – recorded in slightly different ways in all four gospels. And it raises for us some important questions. If John was urging people to be baptized as an act of repentance, if he meant people to come to him to receive a symbol of forgiveness for sins – why was Jesus there? Why did Jesus need to be baptized at all? Surely Jesus didn’t need repentance, or forgiveness, right? So what is this scene all about?
In the United Methodist Church, we practice infant baptism. As long as churches have existed, those within the church have disagreed on whether or not infants and children should be baptized, or if individuals should wait until they are old enough to be baptized at their own request before receiving the sacrament. Our belief in the United Methodist Church is that baptism is primarily a symbol of what God is doing for us, not what we are doing for God. Baptism, as we understand it, is an outward symbol of God’s grace working within us. So this grace is working in us before we are even aware of it. From day one and before day one, God is already working grace through our hearts and souls, calling us into a relationship with God. When we are ready to accept God’s grace on our own, with our own voice, we go through confirmation, our public acceptance of the grace that has been at work within us, our public declaration that we’re going to do our part in this relationship with God.
This understanding of baptism as a symbol of God’s grace helps answer our questions about why Jesus comes here to see John, to be baptized. Why does Jesus need to be baptized? He doesn’t need to repent in the same way we do, but “to repent,” in its literal meaning, means to turn around, to turn back, to go a new direction – God’s direction. Jesus doesn’t need to turn a new direction in the same way we do – he doesn’t need to get off a wayward course. But his baptism does mark a change in direction for him, in that now he begins his ministry of preaching and teaching. Now he changes his identity from Jesus, child of Mary and Joseph, to Jesus, Son of Man and Son of God.
So he does prepare for a new phase in his life, and he marks this with his own baptism. Why? Because, I think, Jesus needs that outward sign of God’s grace and love working within him. Jesus is at the beginning of a journey that ends with a cross and his death. He’s at the beginning of a time of ministry that will have him constantly pursued by those who would harm him, constantly harassed by those who disagree with him, constantly on call for those who need his healing, his caring. Jesus will spend much of his ministry seeking places to draw away so that he can talk to God. Even Jesus needed these times of centering, focusing on his purpose. So, even Jesus must have been comforted by God’s clear voice declaring that he is loved by God, affirmation at the beginning of a difficult journey, that God is with him and in him and blessing him in his ministry, guiding him, touching us through him.
We hear again and again that God loves us and showers us with grace. God loves us unconditionally. But do we believe it? Sometimes, I think that we, like Jesus, can find comfort in an outward symbol that reminds us of the love of God we always carry within us. Next week, we’ll celebrate the baptism of Evan Newton. And as we do, I’m guessing that as we shower him with an outward symbol of God’s grace, you will all be sure of the inward grace and love that God is showering on him. As sure as we are of God’s love for baby Evan, we can be sure of God’s love for us, for you and for me. It’s that simple, and that certain.
This last week I’ve been sharing with some of you a photo my grandmother rediscovered for me – a photo of my baptism, when I was five months old. My great uncle Bob, now a retired United Methodist pastor, performed my baptism, and I can tell you it is a bond that he shares with me to this day. The bond is special, of course, because of our relationship, and because of the path I’ve taken to become a pastor, as he was. But it is more than that. As a pastor, I’m bound to every person – child and adult – I baptize. How can one not be bound to another when one witnesses God’s grace and love outpoured upon another? In the same way, then, every time you witness a baptism, every time you recite with me the vows of the congregation to support and nourish one baptized, you too are binding yourself in this sacrament, through our mutual witnessing of God’s grace.
Today you have an opportunity to remember, if you’ve forgotten, the love that God has for you. You have an opportunity to remind yourself that you are God’s child, that God pours grace upon grace out into your life, and into your heart. You have an opportunity to commit yourself again to God’s plan for your life, by joining me in the baptismal vows. You have an opportunity for a beginning, a change of direction, a parting of the heavens as God smiles upon you to remind you that you are Beloved. Let us come to the waters and remember together.
Amen.