Baptism; Cute Little Sprinkling of Babies or Way of Life

1 Epiphany  c       January 13, 2013    

Isaiah 43:1-7                Psalm 29       

Acts 8:14-17       Luke 3:15-17,21-22

Lectionary Link

  Today is the Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ and obviously an occasion to speak about baptism.  And one can think about the question asked by the young child regarding the baptism of Jesus.  Did Jesus become a Christian at his baptism?  There was of course, no Christianity at the time of the baptism of Jesus.  A more relevant question would have to do with the community of John the Baptist.  Did the baptism of Jesus signal a connection between Jesus and the community of John the Baptist?  What was the meaning of the baptism of John the Baptist for all who were baptized by him and what is the meaning of the baptism of Jesus?  What is the meaning of baptism?  In Judaism, there was the practice of proselyte baptism when someone converted to Judaism.  It would be true to say that baptism has accrued meanings and a variety of practices in its history in the religions of the world.

  Baptism involves the use of water, a truly universal substance.  We cannot help but be “water” people, even if we live in the desert.  Our bodies are 50 to 65 percent water,  so getting external water converted into body water is important for our survival.  But our use of water externally is very important too.  For bathing; water is necessary for keeping ourselves clean.  But then there is also irrigation for farming and there are large bodies of water for transportation, not to mention our use of water in our play.

  We also can know water as a threat and it can kill; the flood, the storm and water as a barrier to cross are prominent themes in the Scriptures.  Water can symbolize the Void, the Abyss and the chaotic.

  Living by and with and for water is perhaps a major feature of human life.  It is not surprising that water would be the substance used for our orientation into the community that helps to form our identity.  As humans, we are not technically amphibians; we are voluntary amphibians in that we selective choose how we want to live with and in the water.

  If amphibians are water and land beings, what kind of beings are human beings?  The sweeping biblical cosmology proclaims human beings as land and spirit beings.  Being made of dust and deity sums up the human spiritual psychology.  From dust we have our bodies; from the breath of God’s Spirit we have our interior life of the Word, the life that we call our soul-life.  We live in a physical world and we live in and from an interior world of Word.

  To become fully human means that we discover ourselves to be more than our physical existence; we discover ourselves to be more than our instinctual existence; we discover ourselves to be made to live with the sublime, the uncanny, the wonderful and the awesome.

  In the Christian baptismal rite, we celebrate our birth, our very existence in the two realms of life.  And baptism is always a baptism of repentance; a baptism of education.  In baptism we proclaim that we are not perfect but perfectible; we can always become better.  Perfection always has a future for us.  In baptism we proclaim that we are ready to live towards our spiritual identity with God even while we do not deny our bodies; we bring them along too as the houses to be dwelling places for God on this earth.

  In the baptismal rite we proclaim what our cosmology is; what we believe about God and what we believe about our destiny.  We proclaim that being perfectible is enhanced by the practice of forgiveness.  We proclaim that we can imagine a glorious future of endless possibilities even as we accept daily the limitation of what becomes actual in our lives towards the realization of hope.  In baptism we practice the dynamic interaction of person within community.  As a person who is not isolated we ask the community to teach, inculcate, educate, mark, impress, us with its very best values.  In baptism, each of us says to the community, “move over and make room for me and the gifts that I have to offer.”  In baptism, the community says to us, “Check your ego at the door and let others into your life and join with them to prove that more than be done together than can be done in isolation.”  Baptism is a recognition of this person in community dynamic that defines our entire life. So baptism is not a cute little sprinkling of water on a baby’s head as a photo op for the baby book.  It is a proclamation and a launching of a person into the basic dynamic of life, namely, person within community.

  So how indeed is the baptism of Jesus different than ours?  If Jesus did not become a Christian at his baptism, what did he become, or what do we believe is expressed in the baptism of Jesus?

  The Orthodox Church has an expression: In Christ God become human so that humans might become divinized.  The baptism of Jesus is part of the narrative of solidarity of God with humanity.  Our belief in the incarnation; our belief that Christ is God is the narrative expression of the acceptance of human experience as a valid way for us to come to know the extra-human life of God through God’s Spirit.  In the narrative of Jesus Christ we proclaim that there is a way to live human life like amphibians or as those who live in two realms.  In the narrative of Jesus Christ, we accept the parallel existence of an inner Spirit-Word realm which can flood our physical lives with a quality of living that can only be expressed with words loaded with extreme meaning, words such as love, joy, hope, peace and faith.  And though such experiences that bring us the sublime occasions to use such words can never be fully spiritual, we know that our physical world can be flooded with the Spirit so that we can know an elevation towards hope, love, joy and peace.

  Our lives are fulfilled in the discovery of our being in this world as Spirit and Body. And this discovery has a community narrative in the event of the baptism of Jesus.  The celebration of this event and the practice of baptism provide the occasions for us to remember always our spiritual destiny in life.

  It is not enough to just regard baptism as a church requirement; we need to see the profound meaning that surfaces in the event of the baptism of Jesus and in the practice of the rite of Christian baptism.

  May God grant us grace as we live as persons within community.  May we bless our communities with our gifts.  May we join our gifts with the gifts of other to multiply the possible good outcomes.  May we have the humility to check our egos at the door; and may the community not force upon our lives cookie cutter limited stereo-types of what people should be.  And may God bless us as we endeavor to make creative advances in love and justice in our world.  This is the life of baptism as given to us by Jesus who himself was baptized.  Amen.