The Sacrament of Baptism

I have preached so frequently on today’s Gospel reading,

         the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan.

And I’ve also been to the Jordan River several times 

         and have gotten wet each time.

I think to myself, what can I preach about this 

         that hasn’t already been said many times over

                  and in more eloquent ways than I have done.

 

And I’ve also been thinking about the fires in the Los Angeles area,

         the extent of the fires and ferocity of the winds

                  that overwhelmed the ability to contain the destruction,

and I was deeply drawn to a particular news report 

         about a group of Latino immigrants of mixed status

                  who rushed in to help put out smoldering spots 

                                                                                  after the fire teams moved on.

This group, who did not live in the areas burned,

                  knew what it is like to lose a home                  

         and they came to help because it was the right thing for them to do,

                                    they said.

Using garden hoses and buckets that they had brought with them

          in one case, they had kept a fire from spreading to a neighboring house.

One of them said, 

         "Because we immigrants who are not from this country, 

                  we often need help ourselves, 

                           and that's why we always want to help others."

 

Now hold that thought, while we go back to the focus for today.

 

It is customary for this Sunday in our liturgy 

         that we once again renew our Baptismal Covenant 

                  in place of reciting the Nicene Creed. 

We will once again respond to the five questions 

         which summarize  our side of the Covenant, our response.

We will once again pledge to love our neighbors as ourselves,

         the second commandment which comes right after 

                  loving God as the greatest commandment.

 

So now I would like to go deeper into what the Sacrament of Baptism is 

         and how we experience it.

Because unless our faith is experiential, it is just a set of beliefs.

         Is it life changing or just a mental assent to a creed?

 

So I will ask you a question,          and it’s a trick question:

         When did your baptism happen?

I am guessing that most of you 

                                are trying to remember the date of your baptism, 

         whether that occurred when your were an infant or older.

 

We think of baptism as a one time occurrence

         at a specific location with specific witnesses.

You may or may not have a memory of it,

                  depending on your age, 

         but it was a one time occurrence.                  Over and done.

 

But what is a Sacrament?

We have two main Sacraments – Baptism and Eucharist.

Eucharist gets repeated every time we gather as a faith community

         indicating that this is essential for the life of the community.

                           Baptism is just once per person.

                           Eucharist  -- many, many times repeated.

 

(The other five sacraments – marriage, ordination, unction for the sick, confession, confirmation – happen occasionally as needed.)

 

Has the question every come up for you 

                  about why Eucharist so many times and Baptism only once?

Back to my trick question:           When does Baptism happen?

 

Now things get mystical,

         because we are stepping out of ordinary, linear time

                  and crossing over into eternal time

where everything that ever was and everything that ever will be

                           are present here and now.

 

You maybe have heard it said that when we celebrate the Eucharist

         this is a joining in the eternal moment of the Last Supper.

There is only one Eucharist eternally remembered and recalled.

 

The Eternal Christ is here with us now 

         and the words that I will speak over the bread and wine 

                  are spoken simultaneously and in harmony with 

                           Jesus uttering these words 2000 years ago.

And not only that, the congregation has expanded greatly

         for we are joining with angels and archangels 

                  and all the choirs of heaven as we sing, “Holy, holy, holy…”

 

Now Baptism – you maybe have not heard this before,

         but Baptism has the same spiritual, mystical reality about it.

How can I say that?

         Because it is right there in the Bible all over the place:

                  “You are baptized into Christ.”

Galatians 3:27, Romans 5:18-21, Romans 6:3-4, Colossians 2:12, Romans 8:17, Galatians 4:17, Ephesians 4:5. 1 Peter 3:21

                                             and in all four Gospels

         and especially 1 Corinthians 12:13          

“For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body

                  — whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—

         and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.”

 

Hmm.  That’s an interesting thought: 

                  we are all given the one Spirit to drink.

Besides immersing in the waters of Baptism

                           or having the water poured over the head,

         we might also then drink some of that holy water

                  to point out that the Holy Spirit is also within us.

 

“For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body…”

 

When we are baptized our identity is that we are IN Christ,

         not separate from him.

We in Christ and Christ in us,

         the Holy Spirit, the Presence of God, in us,

                  and, my brothers and sisters, we can actually experience that.

We can become aware of this Presence, 

         we can sense this Presence, we can feel this Presence, 

                  we can know this Presence.

 

This is the way reciting a creed can make sense,

         that we first experience it.

 

When did the Sacrament of Baptism begin in us?

     When did this Baptism begin?     How about when Jesus was baptized.

 

If our minds can grasp this          -- and even if they can’t --

         the Sacrament of Baptism is like the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.

It is an eternal moment occurring NOW.

 

We live in the state of Baptism.         Ongoing, ever present.

What if our awareness of this state could become continuous?

We would be in a continual process of spiritual wakefulness

     that could change us, heal us, and grow us into our full potential of being.

 

So when does baptism begin?

         at that moment when water is poured on the head or one is immersed?

Or perhaps we could say that baptism begins in our realization

         of the effectiveness of baptism at work within us.

That is, our awareness of being in baptism has a beginning point,

         but this then indicates that baptism has already been at work within us.

 

And we can take it farther back to Jesus at the Jordan River

         taking us all with him into the waters.

We have been baptized into Christ.         That is our identity.

 

Today we remind ourselves of what we are then to be about,

         individually and as a community.

And we too might just as readily as those Latino immigrants

         rush to the aid of those we don’t know but recognize as neighbor.

Their example can remind us of our own identity and calling.

 

I believe that the Church is on the verge of a new awakening,

  the Holy Spirit breathing new life especially into small faith communities

                  decentralized, the work of lay people, 

a natural progression out of what the Church used to be

     into what we are meant to be as those who are baptized into Christ. 

Origin Story and Incarnation

On this 5^th day of the 12 Days of Christmas

I will briefly tell you about the birth narrative of Jesus according to John,

         for that is what this Gospel reading is – a birth narrative.

         

Yes, we have the origin story as related in 

                  Luke’s Gospel and Matthew’s Gospel, none in Mark’s Gospel,

         but here in John the origin story goes cosmic.

The effect/the impact it has on me is to drive me to step back from 

                  the shepherds and angels, and stable,

         and consider the bigger picture in time and space 

                  within which this Incarnation took place.

 

In the First Century of the Common Era, 

         the geopolitical reality of the Roman Empire is that it had taken over 

                  the earlier expansive conquest of Alexander “the Great.”

The Roman Empire had imposed the “Pax Romana” 

         over the entire Mediterranean region and beyond

                  from Britain and Gaul in the North to Egypt in the South 

         and eastward swallowing up all of what was known as Asia Minor.

Pax Romana “peace” provided stability for this vast region

         but what sort of stability?

 It was a military presence to suppress any attempts 

         to break free and be independent 

         and escape the costs of this Peace that Rome was imposing

         to create an economic Peace – 

so that goods and resources could be extracted with impunity

                  throughout the Empire 

         doing this through an extensive imbedded tax system

impoverishing the peoples upon whom the taxes were imposed.

 

And God wants to incarnate specifically into human existence 

         in the midst of this abomination of creation?

Of course.                  That’s exactly what God would do:

         choose the worst possible set of circumstances and show up there.

 

Think of it this way:  everything/the whole universe in a sense 

         is incarnation – God with us.

Creation is the first Gospel – the origin story to top all origin stories.

But this is a specific Incarnation for a very specific purpose –

         to show us all for all time just how much God is with us, 

                  that it is God in us, or more accurately we are IN God.

  “in whom we live and move and have our being.” 

                                                               as it says in Acts 17:28.

 

So this specific, highly concentrated Incarnation event

         happens in a crude shelter in a small town of a small country 

         engulfed in a much larger and more powerful 

                                             military and economically exploitative power, 

where locally the Roman vassal Herod has his own pitiful reign of terror                            that includes mass murder of children.

 

As I said,

    under the worst possible conditions God incarnates as a helpless infant.

 

A helpless infant who provides the way for hope for the world,

         for every hopeless situation that ever was or ever will be.

Hope – Light – revealing, as incarnations do, the Love of the Creator

         that washes the blindness of our hearts out of us

         that liberates us from our desperately narrow self-interest,

         that expands our vision, 

         that saves us from ourselves.

 

Christmas, the way we might observe it,

   provides us the opportunity for experiencing what we call the Incarnation.

Another name for Jesus is Emmanuel – God with us.

But let’s take it a step further – God IN us.

         Or flip that – Us in God.

How many of you are familiar with the Chronicles of Narnia

         that favorite series of children’s books by C. S. Lewis?

         and the scene from book 6, The Magician’s Nephew,

                           which is the origin story for the whole series.

 

Aslan, the Lion, the Christ figure, 

         does not just speaks the words of creation, like in Genesis 1.

He sings them.

And everything comes into being in response to 

         tempo, key signatures, 

         and the dynamics of the melodies, themes and variations.

The energetics of sound, like primal light, produce the glory of creation.

Everything that exists flowed out of the mind, 

         out of the imagination of the Maker 

                  and bears the DNA of the Creator.  God in us and we in God.

 

Now, here’s the thing:

         Creation was not a one off event.

No deist theology of a cosmic clock maker 

         who puts all the stars and galaxies and plants together, 

         wound them up to run on their own 

                           and then retired for a Sabbath rest.

No, creation is a continuing process of coming into being,

         living, dying, decomposing, recombining and evolving life –

                           a continuous creative process.

And we all are elemental in this process.

We all exist within the infinite space of divine creativity, 

         and we are invited to join in the song of creation.

This is the glory – the wonder, the splendor – of it all.

This all is Incarnation.

 

Think of it this way.

         All that is coming into being is through the Incarnate Word.

A continuing process of birth, but with an astounding fact – 

         that this process of being born is not time sensitive, 

                  not limited by linear time,

                  but is infinitely / always happening.

All that is occurs within the womb of the Creator,

         and, if that is so, 

                  then this implies that the umbilical cord has yet to be cut.

         We are still being born.

         We are partaking in the Incarnation, even in this very moment.

 

And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us

and we beheld the glory of the only begotten of God.  

Apocalypse

Blessed Lord,

who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:

Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, 

that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope

given us in our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

You may have noticed that my sermons are always Scripture based,

         and that I usually focus on the Gospel reading.

I do that on purpose,

         in part, because I have been greatly influenced by the Collect for today.

 

Growing up in the Episcopal Church I wasn’t always taught much 

                  about what was IN the Bible, 

but this ancient collect from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer 

         was held up as our ideal for how to regard the Bible.

 

Hear, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest.

In other words, 

         go at it with thorough intent until it becomes a part of you.

 

Personally I first seriously took that on in my life 

         when I had an experience as a child 

                  attending a friend’s church of a different denomination 

         for their summer vacation Bible school, 

         where everyone but me knew the story about the Good Samaritan.

We were going to act out the parable, and no one wanted to be the priest.  But I thought the priest must be a good guy, so I volunteered, 

         only to discover that the priest was one of those 

                  who walked away from the person so desperately in need.  

That embarrassment was the beginning point for a deep dive

         into the whole of the Bible.

Whatever it takes to prod us, we all need to 

         hear, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest the words of Scripture.

 

So THIS Gospel reading for today.

         We get just the first 8 verses of the Chapter, 

but the rest of chapter goes on and on and on  with a total deconstruction 

         of history and culture and social order and religion, 

                  as well as the created order.

It is apocalyptic to the nth degree.                    Everything comes apart. 

 

And so, would you believe, this is a perfect reading for us today.

 

First of all, its placement in the outline of the Church liturgical calendar is apt.

Next Sunday is the last in this liturgical year, 

         and then we have the beginning of the new year 

                  with the first Sunday in Advent.

So thematically this is part of a bringing to the close of the year, 

                           the end of the story, 

         with next Sunday a supposed glorious climax 

                                                      with the theme of Christ the King.

However, NOT the glory of any worldly reigning monarch.

 

The Kingdom, the Reign of God, looks quite different.

         In the Kingdom of Heaven the first shall be last and the last first.

         The King is crucified and reigns from the cross.

         The Lion lays down with the Lamb and becomes a vegetarian.

         And the Good News is for the poor,

                  and for release of captives and recovery of sight to the blind,

                  and liberty for those who are oppressed.

 

This Gospel passage for today ends with the words:

         “These are the beginning of birth-pangs.”

 

All the deconstruction, the decomposition, the falling apart and coming undone 

         are part of the process necessary for something new to be born, 

                  to come into being, 

                  to emerge from the chaotic ruble.

These are not the birth-pangs for a devastation 

                                    of political or military upheaval or destruction,

         but for something new and entirely different.

And what is to be born is not at all like what has come before.

         If we just try to repair and reconstruct what has been there before,                            we will have missed the point 

                  and the great opportunity that apocalypse offers us.

 

Let’s take this out of the upper atmosphere 

         and bring it down to earth into today, here in the present.

Did you notice that we just came through an election 

                  that had a lot of anxiety hovering over it?

Did you notice that 

                  although some may have breathed a sigh of relief 

                  and others felt the depths of grief, 

         that, for the most part, life went on as it had and as it will.

Lessons are learned and plans for going forward are taking place.

Where will each of us engage in the world around us,

         and how will our faith inform our words and actions?

That is the same question we faced prior to the election.

 

But notice this in the Gospel reading:

         The disciples were gawking at the magnificent temple in Jerusalem.

It was the biggest and most impressive structure in the whole country.

It was the center of their faith and religious observances.

It was the place of all their religious functions.

It was their very identity as a people.

And it was all going to come down – not one stone left on stone.

 

The Christian Church today as an institution is fragmented,

         and has been for centuries.

The word Christian has been compromised.

It has been compromised by using it 

         as an adjective to describe a political form of exclusion.

         I’ll say it out loud: Christian Nationalism.

The word Christian for too many people is associated with 

         doctrines that judge and condemn 

                  others who do not believe the same doctrines, 

                  others who do not live life styles that fit a constrained moral law, 

The word Christian is sometimes associated with places of worship 

         where abuses of various forms were actually harbored .

Think boarding schools for indigenous children taken from their parents,          sexual misconduct by those who had been trusted faith leaders,          suppression of women or those of other races, 

         judgment and exclusion of anyone deviating from binary sexual identity.  

Do I need to go on?

There are some members who have come to this church –

         this denomination and this particular congregation – 

         from places where they no longer felt that they fit or were welcome.

 

And indeed, ever since the pandemic gave all the churches 

                  a good kick in the attendance records, 

         we have had to REALLY look at who we are 

                  and what is our purpose 

                  and what is our mission 

                  and what makes us real and relevant in the world today 

         so that we can come here and be welcomed, nourished, 

and equipped to face the world as it is outside this space of religious comfort.

The apocalypse is a deconstruction, 

                  an intentional disordering of the way things have been,

         so that there can be a re-ordering of the way we do church,

                           of the way we are church,

         so that we become more solidly grounded in our faith,

                  in our prayers, in our actions, 

                  and in the ways we love one another.

 

I love that what you have done here is to pitch in together

         and how you did a massive house cleaning of those rooms downstairs.

You actually put into action through that very concrete and tangible work

         what needed to be done in order to shift how you define yourselves

                           as a faith community.

It wasn’t just de-cluttering, but also creating an open space 

         for the Holy Spirit to move among you.

What you did is a metaphor for what needs to happen spiritually 

         for the community and for each of you individually.

Well done!

 

And don’t stop.

See and accept the grace and mercy and love given eternally to you.

And then live that grace and love and mercy,

         and in serving others pass on the love, mercy and grace                  

                in a world that really needs it now.