“Do as I do”

Matthew 3:13-17

January 13, 2008- Baptism of the Lord

One of my favorite movies is made by the Coen Brothers. It is called “O Brother, Where Art Thou.” It features George Clooney and John Turturro as escaped convicts during the depression of the 1930’s. They escape from a road crew and at one point a few days after their escape, they are in the woods and they behold a most strange sight. All these people dressed in white gowns come walking by them towards the river where a minister is baptizing folks. Moved by the sight and overwhelmed by the opportunity for forgiveness, one of the convicts runs to the bank of the river and takes his turn being dunked.

Immediately when he comes up, he calls to his friends and tells them that the minister said all his sins had been washed away, even the sin of stealing that pig that he was convicted for. George Clooney, puzzled, says, “I thought you told me you were innocent?” The newly baptized convict says, “Well…I lied. And that’s been forgiven too!” Then he stretches out his arms and says to his friends on the river bank, “Come on in boys…the water’s fine.”

I wonder if that’s what Jesus said after he was baptized.  I am always fascinated by this story of the baptism of Jesus. It is one of the few stories that all four gospels contain. I am fascinated by this story because it is so hard to understand. If baptism is about forgiveness and the washing away of sin, then why was a sinless Jesus in need of baptism? It’s because Jesus isn’t one of those, “Do as I say, not as I do” people.  Jesus shows us by his example that all of us need to be initiated into God’s family, and that there is something special about being baptized.  So, Jesus says to us, “Do as I do.”

Well, today on the church calendar is known as “Baptism of the Lord” Sunday.  It’s the Sunday which follows Epiphany of the Lord, which we talked about last week.  Today, we’re going to discuss what baptism is and what our baptism means for us. 

Much of what I’m going to talk about today comes from this pamphlet, “A United Methodist Understanding of Baptism.”  This is a great source of information for you, and they are always available in the information rack by the front door, and I encourage you to take one home with you.

I suppose that the first question we should ask is, what is baptism?  In a nutshell, baptism celebrates becoming a new person: we die to our old selves, and become a new creation in Jesus Christ.  That’s why the baptismal liturgy begins with renouncing sin and pledging our loyalty to Christ.  But baptism goes much deeper than this.

We also believe that in baptism God initiates a covenant with us, announced with the words, “The Holy Spirit work within you, that being born through water and the Spirit, you may be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.”  The word covenant is a biblical word describing God’s initiative in choosing Israel to be a people with a special mission in the world, and Israel ’s response is to lead a life of faithfulness.  The baptismal covenant calls us to a similar vocation.

You see, we understand our baptism in light of Jesus’ baptism that we read about today.  At Jesus’ baptism, God said, “This is my son.”  While Jesus’ relation to God as Son is unique, for Christians baptism means that God has also chosen us as daughters and sons.  We have a new calling, a new identity as children of God.  That’s why the introduction to the service says, “Through the Sacrament of Baptism, we are initiated into Christ’s holy church.”

So, in a sense, baptism is the door through which one enters the life of the church.  As the “Body of Christ” in the world, baptism commissions us to use our gifts to strengthen the church and to transform the world.  In other words, the gift of baptism not only grants us a place in God’s family, but like being a member of any other family, it also gives us a duty to serve in that family as well.

Another question that folks have sometimes is, “Why do we baptize babies when some other churches don’t?”  The short answer is that, while in the Bible there is no explicit evidence of babies being baptized, many scholars cite Jesus’ words, “Let the children come to me…for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs” (Mark 10:14), as the scriptural authority for this ancient tradition. 

As United Methodists, we acknowledge baptism as a means of grace, signifying God’s initiation in the process of salvation.  We speak of prevenient grace, the grace that works in our lives even before we are aware of it, which brings us to faith.  The baptism of children and their inclusion in the church before they can respond with their own confirmation of faith is an example of prevenient grace.

But whether you are baptized as a child or an adult, baptism does not mark the end of a journey, but a beginning.  It is the beginning of a lifelong journey of faith.  For a child, the journey begins in the nurturing community of the church, where he or she learns what it means that God loves you.  That’s why it is so imperative that we be able to staff our Sunday school with teachers who can teach the children, touching their lives for eternity.  That’s why it is so imperative that parents bring their children to Sunday school, so that the children may learn of God’s love. 

Every time we baptize a child, the parents and sponsors enter into this covenant and promise God that this is what they will do.  And every time we baptize a child, you, the congregation, promise God that this is what you will provide, a Sunday school and teachers, so that at the appropriate time, the child will make his or her first confession of faith in the ritual of confirmation, usually around the age of 13 years old.

If you experienced God’s grace and were baptized as an adult, and I know that we have a few here today, baptism still marks the beginning of a journey here in the nurturing fellowship of the caring, learning, worshiping, serving congregation.  In fact, every time we have a baptism, we all promise God that we will proclaim the good news of Christ’s love, and live according to his example; and that we will encourage, pray for, and support those being baptized that they may grow in service to others and be a true disciple of Christ.

At each baptism, we also reaffirm our pledge and commitment to Christ, and we renew our covenant with God to faithfully participate in the ministries of the Church by our prayers, our presence, our gifts, and our service.  So you see, the promise and grace initiated at our baptism is a lifelong journey for all of us, as we mature in our faith and serve Christ, and bring others along for the journey as well.  And it doesn’t matter when we are baptized or the method by which we are baptized—whether it is by sprinkling water, pouring water, or by full immersion.

The story is told of a young new minister fresh from Bible college wanted everybody in the new town where he was preaching to be baptized.
One day he was walking through a section in town and spotted a homeless man sitting in an alley. He strolled up to the man and asked him if he knew Jesus. The man informed him that he did not. The minister asked him if he wanted to be baptized and the man said, "Sure why not". So the two men went down to the river and the minister proceeded with the baptism. He put the man under and after bringing him up the minister said, "Did you see Jesus?" The man said, "No sir I didn’t". The preacher figured he had done something wrong so he re-did the process and again asked him, "Did you see Jesus." The man responded the same way, "No sir I didn’t". Finally the preacher tried once more this time holding the man under the water longer, in hopes this time it would take effect. After bringing the man out of the water he asked again, "Did you see Jesus?” This time the man said, as he was gasping for air, "No!! Are you sure this is where He fell in?"   

One other question I hear is, “I was a baby when I was baptized and I don’t remember it.  Can I be baptized again to make it more meaningful?”  While I certainly relate to the question, baptism is a sacrament of God’s grace and a covenant that God has initiated, and therefore should not be repeated, unless we dare say that God did it wrong the first time.  However, God’s continuing and patient forgiveness, God’s prevenient grace, will from time to time prompt us to renew the commitment first made at our baptism.  We will desire to recommit ourselves to our faith.  And today is one such time.  The United Methodist ritual of reaffirmation of baptismal vows implies that, while God remains faithful to God’s half of the covenant made at our baptism or confirmation, we are not always faithful to our promise to God.  Our half of the covenant is to confess Christ as our Savior, to trust in his grace, to serve him as Lord in the church, and to carry out his mission in the world, and we’re not always good at doing it.  This is an opportunity then, to start over, to recommit ourselves to the calling on our lives initiated in our baptism.

And so in a few moments you will have the opportunity to renew your baptismal vows. Again, this is not re-baptism, but it is a way of reclaiming the meaning of the covenant which we have already made at our baptism. I invite you all to come forward, and if you haven’t been baptized and desire to do so, just let me know and we can make that a part of our celebration today, or we can meet and schedule your baptism for another time.  But either way, still come forward to receive a blessing today.  In the words of a baptized convict on the run from the law, “Come on in boys (and girls)…the water’s fine.”