Baptism of Our Lord                      

Luke 3:2-9

During the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,

‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

“Prepare the way of the Lord,

   make his paths straight.

Every valley shall be filled,

   and every mountain and hill shall be made low,

and the crooked shall be made straight,

   and the rough ways made smooth;

and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” ’

John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor”; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.’

Luke 3:15-17

As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing-fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’

Luke 3:21-22

Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’

Sacraments

We recognize two sacraments in the United Church of Christ: communion and baptism. But, what is a sacrament, you might ask. Here is the Google definition: A sacrament is a religious ceremony or ritual regarded as imparting divine grace. This is the understanding for many Christians, and what is taught in many denominations. But, I think many of us in the UCC would use a slightly different definition. I would define a sacrament as a religious ceremony or ritual through which we recognize an already present grace within us, freely given and unearned, from God. It’s a small distinction, but an important one, and it has a huge effect on the way that sacraments are observed.

Believing certain things about the sacraments makes some people think that they can withhold them for various reasons. This turns the sacraments into something that can be used as a tool to control people. If everyone is going up for communion and you aren’t allowed to, people are going to notice. If you believe that the only way to get into heaven is through baptism, and the person in charge of administering that can refuse to baptize you, think about how much power that person has over you. I don’t think God ever intended for the sacraments to be used in that way. The sacraments are supposed to be used to reveal God’s love for us.

Of the two sacraments that we recognize, communion is arguably the more familiar, because we celebrate it every month. It is also in my opinion, the more straightforward of the two. In many traditions, communion is recognized as having evolved from the Passover Feast, when the Jewish people remember when their ancestors were rescued out of slavery in Egypt. Our scripture last week was about the time when Jesus was twelve, and his family traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival, like they did every year. Many years later, on the night when Jesus was arrested, he was presiding over a Passover meal, the Last Supper, when he took the elements of the Passover, which represented freedom from slavery, and transformed them into the elements that Christian communities all over the world use now to celebrate communion, elements that represent freedom from the slavery of sin. There’s a throughline here, from Passover to communion, that helps us to understand what it is.

But, just because communion might be more easily understood than baptism, that doesn’t mean that it is actually easy to understand. Communion is one of the reasons why there are so many different Christian denominations today. People can’t agree on what it means, or how it should be done, or how often we should do it, and instead of coming to a compromise or agreeing to disagree, entire communities split, and instead of one denomination, we have two.

A similar thing has happened throughout history with the sacrament of baptism. People can’t agree about what it means, how it should be done, when it should be done. And again, instead of working through their differences, the denomination splits.

For me, baptism is the more complicated one. It doesn’t have that narrative arc that communion does. All of a sudden, we have John in the desert, baptizing people, when that really wasn’t a thing that was done before, at least as far as is explained in the Bible. Some scholars suggest that the practice of baptism arose from the practice of ritual cleansing that Jewish people had to do before entering the temple, but even those scholars will say that is just a guess. So, what is baptism all about?

Our gospel reading today, of John baptizing Jesus in the Jordan River, is one of the defining moments of our faith. “The heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon [Jesus] in bodily form, like a dove. And, a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’” It’s one of my favorite scenes in the Bible, because it’s one of the few times in the Bible that all three persons of the Trinity are mention in the same scene. It’s the scene that inspired the mosaic that I made while I was in seminary, the replica of which is currently hanging up in the Fireside Room. When I first started planning to do the mosaic, I was only thinking of doing this one scene, the Baptism of Christ. But, the only place on campus that made sense for a mosaic was on a 30’ wall in one of the common rooms. So, instead of just having a mosaic in the middle of the wall, I decided to spend three years covering the entire wall, depicting the biblical story from the creation of the world to Jesus ascending into heaven. Jesus, in the baptism scene is the exact center of the mosaic, because, as I said, that is one of the defining moments of our faith, and I wanted Jesus, in the Jordan river, with the Holy Spirit flying down, and the hand of Creator pointing down at both of them, to be the central image for the whole thing.

I like to talk about cosmic events, eternal events, these events that happened, and are happening, and will always happen. The baptism of Christ is one of those moments. By receiving the baptism while in human form, Jesus bound himself to us for all of eternity…so that he could share in our suffering and our fear, so that he could experience our celebration and our joy, so that when he was raised from the dead and entered into eternal life, we would be given eternal life as well.

Now, is baptism required, to have eternal life? Some people would say yes; if you believe that baptism is one of the ways that we receive God’s grace, then it makes sense that some people might think that. But, if you believe that baptism is the recognition of grace, then no, you don’t need to be baptized in order to receive God’s gift of eternal life. Baptism isn’t transactional, it’s celebratory, it’s us looking at someone and saying, yes, we see you. Yes, we see God in you and we accept you as a part of our community. It’s remembering Christ’s baptism and recognizing our connection to him. The way that I’ve come to understand baptism is it’s kind of like a birthday party. We have birthday parties to recognize and celebrate that we’re another year older. But, even if you didn’t have a birthday party to recognize it, you would still be another year older. It’s good to have birthday parties, to celebrate, to bring the family together and have a special day for someone. We should have birthday parties, and we should have baptisms.

But, there is no such thing as a perfect metaphor, because baptism is not just recognition and it’s not just a symbol, in the same way that communion isn’t just a symbol. Sacraments are powerful. Sacraments are mysterious. As much as we try to understand what actually happens during a sacrament, we are limited in what we are able to see and know. That’s where all of the arguments come from. It’s just beyond our understanding. We can know some of it, we can feel some of it, but these things are cosmic and eternal in a way that we simply aren’t, at least not now, before we enter eternity.

What I do know is what I feel when I see someone being baptized. I am overwhelmed with joy, and I feel a deep peace throughout my being. Something special happens when someone is baptized. Yes, we are recognizing God’s grace, yes, we are welcoming that person into our community, but it’s more than that. It is miraculous and good and beyond our understanding. And, I can’t help but imagine the heavenly host rejoicing whenever someone is baptized.

The sacraments are gifts that God has given to us to help facilitate our relationship with the divine. They are rituals that we use to mark special occasions and to remember important things. And, they connect us to God. They help to remind us that we are God’s people and that God loves us. And, the way that we practice the sacraments in this church emphasizes God’s sovereignty and forgiveness, which is why we try to be as inclusive as possible. I would never presume to come between another person and their relationship with God.

Theology is important because it affects the way that we think about and treat people, including ourselves. We need to look critically at the things we believe, whether it’s rumors that we’ve heard, stereotypes, the things we see in media, politics, our traditions, or what we believe about God. Do our beliefs line up with what Jesus taught? Do our beliefs line up with what we understand about an all-loving God? Will our beliefs help the environment to thrive so that it can sustain future generations? Do our beliefs help to take care of all the people around us, not just some of them? Do our beliefs help us to be more loving to ourselves? If the answer to any of these questions is no, then I think we need to examine that belief a little more carefully.

I urge you to use the intelligence and the wisdom that God has given you to test your beliefs, and if any of them are found wanting, to let them go. Depending on how deeply ingrained they are, some of these beliefs might be hard to let go of. But, God is with you. God’s grace is with you. And, you have God’s blessing to let go of any harmful beliefs that you might be holding onto. Amen.

~ Rev. Charles Wei