January 9, 2005
Rev. Rick Haverly
Crossing Over
Today we celebrate the baptism of Jesus and in conjunction with that remembrance we also celebrate the baptisms of Robin and Ryan Ferguson and Ocean Huang. And, hopefully we remember our own baptisms at whatever age they took place. Jesus’ baptism is a central event in his life if not the central event in his life. It is so important that all four of the gospel writers include it in their biographies. And they all include it despite it being embarrassing for the early church that Jesus was baptized by John because it could be interpreted as a sign of John’s superiority to Jesus. But this baptism event was too important to be left out.
We know very little about Jesus’ early life before his baptism. We have the birth stories of Christmas in Matthew and Luke but besides the name of the child and parents and the virgin birth they are so different that they could be stories about two different children. And Luke tells us the story of Jesus being presented in the Temple as an infant and then lost there as a twelve year old. While we know virtually nothing about Jesus before his baptism we know virtually everything about Jesus after his baptism. His baptism at the age of 30 is the central event in his life. It is from that point that Jesus’ ministry begins and Mark even begins his gospel with the baptism.
Baptism is the turning point in Jesus’ life. And in parallel, our baptisms are turning points in our life. For Jesus, it is a combination of John administering the water, God’s Spirit descending on him and then the voice of approval from the sky. We celebrate that Christian baptism is a gift of water and the spirit and our own approval given by God through Christ. It is an incredible change in the lives of those who receive it.
It is through baptism that we cross over from life in this world to life in God’s kingdom, from life on our own, to life in God’s Spirit. It is a continuation of the way God works through water. It was the Spirit of God moving over the waters of chaos that brought forth the world and all creation. It was water used by God in attempt to cleanse the world of evil at the time of Noah and offer a new beginning. It was the water of the Red Sea that the Hebrew people passed through to leave slavery behind and find freedom. It was the water of the Jordan River that the Hebrew people passed through to escape the desert and enter the Promised Land. It was the water of the Jordan River that Jesus passed through to move from anonymity into public ministry. And it is the waters of baptism that we pass through to move out of a world of death to the world of life brought by God’s Spirit. The movie, The Truman Show, provides a wonderful metaphor for baptism. Truman is the original reality show. He has had his entire life broadcast form birth, everyday. But he’s the only one who doesn’t know this. Everyone else in his life has been cast and hired to play their part, his schoolmates, his family, everyone. He begins to realize it’s not real and finds himself trapped in the town where he lives because it’s a closed set. Finally, he escapes across the water and finds the sky at the horizon is actually a painted set wall and there is a stair in on that wall that leads up to a door marked exit. He chooses to leave that false life of security and familiarity and walk out into the real world that is unknown and full of risk.
We become new people in baptism. We proclaim that in baptism we share in Jesus’ death and resurrection. We die to this world and are resurrected to God’s kingdom, even now. Sometimes we miss the symbolism in the sacrament because it is so subtle. There is a church in Central America that makes it much more obvious. Their baptismal font is a small coffin and infants are immersed in the water filling that coffin demonstrating that coffin illustrating we go down in death and come up to new life. It is an end of a life lived to our own interests and selfishness. It is an end to a life that is enslaved in the latest fads and the values of this world. It is the beginning of a life lived for the interest of God and where we are able to freely choose God’s values. But it is a life that continues to challenge us as we make our decisions. Paul Vivian is leading a session tonight with our Confirmation class and their mentors that reminds us that we are continually bombarded by value messages from our culture. Sometimes it is hard to resist the appeal of the old values and to keep moving forward. The Hebrew’s escaping Egypt had times where they longed for the familiarity and security of slavery. They wanted to return across the waters, to go back to the old ways. It is a continual challenge to trust God and to live God’s values even on this side of the baptismal waters. There is an attractive allure of our old patterns.
We become God’s people in baptism. Just as Jesus heard the voice of God’s approval, we receive God’s approval in baptism. We become God’s children in a special way. That is an incredibly powerful statement. We become God’s. We no longer belong to ourselves, we belong to God. Can you that are parents imagine dropping your children off at daycare? Do you expect the daycare providers to reinforce your values or do you expect them to teach your children things contrary to your wishes? You want the daycare providers to reinforce your wishes and values don’t you. Just so, when we bring our children for baptism and declare that before they are our children, they are God’s children, we are accepting a responsibility to raise them as God would want them raised because God is their true parent. And we, as adults, have to continually remind ourselves that we are God’s. That despite the talk about gaining our independence so no one can tell us what to do, that we are God’s and try to shape our choices by what God would want for us.
We need to grow and serve after our baptisms. As central as baptism is in Jesus’ life, it is only a beginning. Here it is recorded as a mere four verses. It’s the rest of the gospel that is a living out of that baptism. Jesus’ ministry, teaching and service while the result of baptism are the true meaning of the baptism. Baptism is not an end goal but a beginning kick off. It is a new birth and it is the lives of growth and service that we strive for. Too many people see it as an end… “Are you born again?” But actually they are still births. They don’t develop a life in God’s Spirit that matures and demonstrates God’s values. One Christian teacher even emphasizes this by saying we shouldn’t take pride in our new birth. We only achieve it by God’s grace. It is our growing up as Christians in service to this world, living out the teachings of Jesus that are important. When Jesus accepts his fate in the Garden of Gethsemane is really an affirmation of his baptism that he belongs more to God than to himself. And isn’t just about every major event in our life a beginning. We don’t get married and then say we don’t have to work at our relationship anymore, the work is just beginning. We bring home our new baby and the work is just beginning. We get the promotion and we have to grow into the new position. Even our graduation is called commencement.
We cross over through the waters of baptism into new life in Christ. Let us move from birth to maturity in that life, learning God’s ways and practicing God’s values. May the water remind us to give thanks for God’s grace and to move forward in God’s kingdom.