Or don’t you
know that all who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4 Therefore, we were buried together with him through baptism into
his death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of
the Father, we too can walk in newness of life. 5 If we were united
together in a death like his, we will also be united together in a resurrection
like his. 6 This is what we know: the person that we used to be was
crucified with him in order to get rid of the corpse that had been controlled
by sin.
13 We were all
baptized by one Spirit into one body, whether Jew or Greek, or slave or free,
and we all were given one Spirit to drink.
Today, we are continuing in a
series we began last week, entitled, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Grace.” We
started with the premise that as hitchhikers are dependent on someone else to
make their journey, so too are we spiritual hitchhikers - dependent on God’s
grace to make our spiritual journey.
Throughout these messages, I’m
asking you to keep an image in your mind, of God driving around in a great big
bus just overflowing with grace. But how
do we get grace? Along the way, God
stops at various places where people can get on board for the ride of their
lives, and each week, we’re exploring the grace that’s available at one of
these stops.
Last week we said there were two
things we each have to do in order to receive the grace that’s available. If you were here last Sunday, do you remember
what they were? 1. Show up, and 2. Have
an open and willing heart, and those are the only two things I’m asking of you
through this series - to show up, and have an open heart. Today, our journey continues as we come to
the next stop along the way: baptism. May we pray.
The lay of the land
Let me say at the outset that you
are in a United Methodist Church today, where we preach and teach United
Methodist theology. In eight years of
ministry, every time I have preached or taught about baptism, I always get
someone who is deeply distressed, confused, maybe even a little angry because
what I’ve just said is different than the way they’ve always understood
baptism. Let me repeat this - this is a
United Methodist Church, so when I talk about baptism today, it’s going to be
from that particular perspective, which means that the emphasis in baptism is
going to have less to do with us and more to do with God. Other groups emphasize the person more, and
that’s their prerogative. We’re just not
one of those groups. They are not right
or wrong, just different. You wouldn’t
get mad at an oak tree for making acorns and not walnuts. If you want walnuts, go shake a walnut tree,
but let the oak tree make all the acorns it can.
What you need to know about
baptism in our tradition can be summed up in one word: covenant. That’s a hard word to work with and
understand, and I quickly realized that I don’t have enough time this morning
to even scratch the surface. In the
Bible, covenants go back all the way to Noah, and then Abraham, and then
Israel, and then the followers of Jesus, which is where our baptism comes in. And yet, just reading the Bible closely, or
even reading our own hearts closely, it’s clear that in over 6000 years of
practice, we’re still trying to figure out how to participate fully in covenant
with God. Let’s see if we can’t cover a
6000+ year history of Biblical covenant in about the next 12 minutes.
Baptism is a covenant, initiated
by God, binding us to God with water on the outside, and grace on the
inside. A covenant is an agreement
between two or more parties, which sounds an awful lot like a contract. The difference between a covenant and a
contract is this: whereas we design and make contracts, covenants actually make
us. For example, the covenant of marriage makes me a different person than I
was before. I have different
obligations, priorities, and accountability, so my wife tells me. I don’t define the covenant of marriage; the
covenant of marriage defines me.
Likewise, and in an even more powerful way, we don’t define baptism
because baptism defines us.
Baptism is a covenant
relationship, initiated by God so that God might define our lives. That’s a
really important point for all of us to remember: God initiated the
covenant. Write that down: God initiated
the covenant. God started it. God sought us out, inviting us into the
relationship. Baptism seals that
covenant. It’s all God’s doing! Long before any of us made a move toward God,
God was already moving toward us. Thanks
be to God!
A means of grace
In our tradition, baptism is a
means of grace. By that, we mean that it
is a tried and true channel where God shows up in a real and tangible way. In baptism, God is present and active,
imparting the indwelling Holy Spirit to define the lives of those being
baptized, whatever their age or ability.
What that means is baptism is a
starting point, not a final destination.
Here is a picture of me that was taken within a few weeks of my
baptism. I know what you’re thinking,
too: “What an adorable kid - what happened?”
Now, as you look at that picture, do you think that when this picture
was taken, I was closer to the beginning of my life’s journey or the end of
it? Clearly, I was at the beginning of
the journey. So it is with baptism. It is a beginning, which is why the age of
the one being baptized really doesn’t matter.
It’s not about knowing what we’re doing, it’s about taking a first step.
Take a look at this picture
again. Do you think I could explain
nutrition to you at that age? Of course
not - but that didn’t stop my parents from feeding me - look at me, I was
obviously not a starving child! Do you
think I could have explained the importance of bathing and good hygiene to
you? Of course not - but that didn’t
stop my parents from cleaning me up. Do
you think I could have explained love to you?
Of course not - but that didn’t stop my family from loving me. I didn’t know anything about a lot of things,
but my lack of understanding didn’t stop my parents from giving me the things I
needed to be a healthy and happy part of the family.
So let me put that back in the
context of faith. Can small children
explain grace? No, but they can
experience it, and they do, as a happy and healthy part of God’s family. Not only that, but they can show grace -
often more thoroughly, readily, and effectively than we adults can.
God is big enough, and grace is
abundant enough, to assure us that God is at work in our lives, even when we
don’t know what we’re doing. Baptism
isn’t about what we know, what we have chosen, what we believe, what we have
decided. Baptism is about God giving
grace, a grace which is for all people. It is that means of grace that starts
us on the journey.
The role of the community
And because this is just the
beginning, God makes sure we are equipped with the support we need for our
lives to be defined by God. When we are baptized, it is not simply a private
matter between us and God. Baptism is
never private or in solitude, but something that happens in the context of a
community because it unites us not only to God, but to the family of faith, the
Church, the body of Christ. The role of
the community is so important in baptism, even more important than the response
of the individual. Our society places
such a high premium on individualism, yet baptism dares us to believe that we
participate in something bigger than ourselves.
God initiates the covenant of
grace and the faith community surrounds us with God’s grace. For its part, the community promises to
uphold us and care for us, to teach us the story of faith, to live out their
faith in such a way that we can live out ours.
The congregation promises to be a community of love and forgiveness -
that’s no small promise! - so that the seeds sown in baptism might grow to full
maturity. The congregation makes this
promise - to God, to each other, and to the newly-baptized person - to be sort
of community where grace is experienced and expected, so that the love of
Christ and the joy of the Lord may flow freely in all we do, whether inside or
outside these walls.
The community of faith also helps
us remember our baptism. At every
baptism, I encourage lots of photos to be taken, because that’s one way a
community helps a person remember their baptism. I think we should pay attention to the
details of the day - what was the weather like?
What was the worship service like?
Who was there? What did the
person being baptized do - did they cry, did they smile at everyone? The community often gives gifts - a
certificate, a baptismal candle, special clothes, the shell the water was
poured with. Then, as the person grows -
whether they were an infant or adult at the time of their baptism - we in the
community tell those stories, show those photos, and share those gifts, in
order to help a person remember their baptism.
There is another aspect of
remembering that the community plays when it comes to baptism. Others in the community of faith not only
help us remember the specifics of our own baptism event, they also remind us
that we are baptized - a constant reminder of who we are and to whom we
belong. A community helps us remember that
our truest identity is in our baptism, that we belong to God, that we are
people of God’s covenant, that we are dependent on God’s grace rather than our
own good works. Make no mistake, our
response to grace and our growth in grace is vitally important, but our first
emphasis is upon God - what God does, what God promises, who God is.
It really is all about God
The baptismal covenant reminds us
that God is sorta like Motel 6 - he leaves the light on for us. No matter where we go, no matter what we do,
no matter how far we try to turn from God or run away from God, God never
abandons God’s part of the covenant. God remains faithful to us even when we’re
less than faithful to God.
The covenant made in baptism is
still good because when God makes a promise, God always keeps it, which is why
Methodists do reaffirmations of faith rather than re-baptizing. On one hand, we recognize how much we mess up
in holding up our end of the covenant with God, but God never fails on God’s
part. And since it’s about God, the
baptism is still good! We just need to
recommit ourselves to it. Reaffirmation
gives us a chance to say, “God, I need a new start. I can’t do this on my own. I can’t live for
myself, so I need you in my life and I’m dependent on your grace. And with your
help, I’m gonna live my life for you.”
Even if we haven’t really messed
up all that big (or think we haven’t), the reaffirmation of our baptismal faith
is something we’re called to every day.
Now, let me say that I am aware that there are people here who may have
never been baptized before. If that’s
you and you’re sitting here thinking, “He’s just assuming we’ve all been
baptized and I’ve never been baptized and I’m missing out on something and I
want to be baptized!” - if that’s you, talk to me after worship and I’ve got a
stack of these booklets - “What United Methodists should know about Baptism” -
and I’d love to give you one so you can take it home and learn more about what
we’ve been talking about all morning.
Then, I want us to find a time to sit down and talk about scheduling a
date for your baptism as soon as humanly possible. It is a great thing, and I don’t want anyone
here to miss out on God’s transforming grace that is given to us in baptism.
For those who have been baptized,
today you have the opportunity to reaffirm your commitment to the baptismal
covenant. This is something we
Christians need to do often. Baptism is
a means of grace - both when it happens initially, and every time we remember
it. Today, I invite all those who have
been baptized, whether recently or long ago, whether in this church or
somewhere else, to remember your baptism and experience God’s grace.
Here’s what will happen. We will sing a song of preparation
together. Then, we will go through the
liturgy in our hymnal designed for the congregational reaffirmation of the
baptismal covenant. Don’t just go
through words and responses. Think about
them and what they mean, and let the words themselves shape you. I will pour the water into the font, and
invite all those who wish to reaffirm their baptism to come forward, where I
will touch the water to your forehead, make the sign of the cross, and say,
“Remember your baptism, and be thankful.”
As you hear those words and feel the water on your brow, may the Holy
Spirit work within you, fill you with grace, and remind you who you are, and to
whom you belong.
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