Remember You are Baptized

Based on Matthew 3:13-17
First delivered Jan. 12, 2020
Rev. Dr. Kevin Orr 

            If you had to tell your life story, what would you include and what would you leave out? That can be a tough assignment, especially if you have lived a long and eventful life. One way to do this would be to think back over your life and make a list of the big events, those moments that were turning points: your birth, of course, places you lived, where you went to school, your first job, starting a family, the death of your parents, etc. I bet if we all took the time to sit down and list the big events that have happened in our lives, me may be surprised how many there are.

            Recently, at the Golden Globe Awards, Ellen DeGeneres received the Carol Burnett award. In her acceptance speech, she cracked a few jokes. She then told the audience that if they don’t mind she would share a little about her life, how she got to this point to receive this prestigious award. She promised us it wouldn’t take long. Then she said, “I was born January 26, 1958…” which made everyone start laughing. She went on and on for a couple minutes drawing out the details about her birth. And then she said, “Then, I got my own comedy show on T.V.” She skipped a lot!

            As far as we know, Jesus never wrote anything, much less his life story. We are left with the accounts of the gospel writers. They each tell the life story of Jesus, hitting many of the same big events but with some slight changes in detail. Some include events that others leave out. They each made their choices about which events in Jesus’ life to include and which to leave out. One of the events that they all include is the baptism of Jesus.

            Why was the baptism of Jesus such a big deal? It may have to do with at what point in Jesus’ life it took place. The gospel of John is a little bit of an exception, but with the other gospel writers Jesus is baptized by John before he starts his public ministry. In fact, the stages are in this way: Jesus is baptized by John, the Spirit drives him into the wilderness where he is tempted by Satan, and then he begins his public ministry of proclaiming the good news and healing people. I think we can say that for Jesus, his baptism is a big deal because it marked the beginning of something. After Jesus was baptized, in a way, his life story really begins.

            For example, look at how Matthew lines out Jesus’ story. Prior to his baptism, the last mention of Jesus in Matthew’s gospel was when he, along with Mary and Joseph, settled in Nazareth in Galilee after returning from their time as refugees in Egypt to avoid Jesus being assassinated by Herod. I choose that word carefully. Matthew makes it clear that Herod saw Jesus as a political threat, having been told by the magi that this child was the king of Israel, which threatened the power of Herod and his family. Anyway, after noting that Jesus moved to Nazareth as a child, the next time we hear of Jesus is when he showed up to be baptized by John. That was a major gap, perhaps twenty-five years or so. Luke gave us some info about Jesus going to the temple when he was a boy to argue and discuss with the religious teachers, but other than that we don’t know hardly anything about Jesus’ childhood or young adult years. We basically fast-forward to when Jesus is believed to have been around 30 when he asks John to baptize him.

            Why did Jesus need to be baptized? And why from John? John wanted to know. He thought Jesus should baptize him instead. We know that John’s baptism was done as a part of a ritual of repentance. People would come to him with penitent hearts and mark their confession with the cleansing waters of a repentance baptism. What did Jesus need to repent from? If anything, it would be John that would need to receive baptism from the more pure and holy Jesus. But Jesus says that it is the righteous thing to do for John to baptize him. Even though it didn’t seem right to John, the one who he knew to be the messiah, the son of God, was telling him to baptize him in the Jordan, so John did it.

            Why did Jesus need to be baptized? We may never know for sure except to state that it was what God wanted him to do. Whatever the Father told him to do, Jesus did. So, the Father must have instructed him to be baptized by John. Doing so would fulfill all righteousness, that is, fulfill God’s intention for Jesus. John, being a righteous person, was willing to cooperate with Jesus in the fulfillment of God’s intentions. Maybe God wanted Jesus to get baptized in order to set an example for us. If Jesus was baptized, so should we. Maybe the baptism was meant by God to symbolize the turning point for when Jesus came out, if you will, into his public ministry. It wasn’t enough for Jesus to suddenly appear to proclaim his message and heal people. There needed to be some public, ritual expression of this major turn in Jesus’ life. Maybe there are other reasons. We are left to ponder.

            Whatever the reasons were, we learn that after Jesus was baptized, he saw the sky crack open, and saw the Spirit descend on him in the appearance of a dove and alight on him, and he heard a voice from heaven saying, “This is my Son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” What an amazing experience! It was an experience brimming with empowerment and affirmation. You know how when people receive their diplomas from college, they are handed the certificate and shake the hand of the president of the school and told, “Good job. Congratulations.” The graduate now has the credential to go out into the world to do what they have been trained to do. But the experience of Jesus’ baptism is ten times more intense. This is no receiving of a certificate and a pat on the back from God. This is a powerful spiritual experience that surely is meant to give the impression that something has fundamentally shifted in how Jesus will interact with the world going forward. That is the impression I get of his baptism, what it meant for him.

            What about you? For those of you who have experienced baptism, was your experience as profound as the one Jesus had? Probably not. For those of us who were baptized as babies I imagine it had no impact on us at all that we can remember. Maybe some of us cried when our parent handed us over to someone else and then had water splashed on our heads. Other than that, there was no sky cracking open, doves landing on us or voices booming from above. In comparison to the baptism of Jesus, ours was likely pretty mundane. Perhaps some of us were baptized as young people or adults. Maybe it was in a river or pond, or a baptistry or even a swimming pool. We have more memories. I suspect that the moment of baptism has left a mark on you, that it was a high point of your life. Jesus level? Maybe not. But still, when someone asks you to remember your baptism you at least have an image that you can come to in your mind.

            Whether baptized as a baby or an older person, what does baptism mean to you? As Jesus was baptized before he started his public ministry, our baptism marks a beginning of some kind. As babies perhaps it marks the beginning of your life being raised up in the church. As an adult, perhaps your baptism marked the beginning of your public commitment to serve Jesus in the world. Baptism marks a beginning point, or better a turning point. It certainly impacts our identity. We once were not baptized and now we are and always will be. There are no take backs when it comes to baptism. So, baptism can be understood as a mark of one’s identity as well as a mark of one’s beginning in the journey of living out the Christian faith.

            This leads to my last point: how might we remember our baptism? This is a particularly difficult question for those of us who were baptized as babies. We have no memory of the experience. We can only remember that our parents told us we were baptized. Those who have a memory of the experience seem to have a leg up on the task of remembering our baptism. But can remembering our baptism mean more than conjuring up an image of the experience or remembering what our parents told us about the experience, if they told us anything at all about it?

            Perhaps remembering your baptism is about more than remembering the event. Instead, to remember your baptism is to remember that you are baptized. This has to do with remembering who you are, a matter of identity. As United Methodists, we believe that at baptism you receive the Holy Spirit and you are claimed by God as one of God’s children. We get this by reflecting back on Jesus’ baptism, when the Spirit descended on him in the form of a dove and he heard a voice from heaven claiming him as God’s beloved son with whom God is well pleased. Jesus’ baptism is a pattern of our own. This is what we are invited to remember: that we have been baptized, that we have been given the Holy Spirit, that we are claimed as God’s beloved sons and daughters. These are aspects of identity, a significant part of who you are. And just as Jesus walked in the world differently after his baptism, proclaiming the message he was sent to give and backing that message up with working healings and miracles, so we can walk in the world differently, as those who possess the Spirit and who are beloved of God. This makes a difference in how we live.

            I want to share with you a story shared by our D.S., Tim Bias, who is sharing it from Fred Craddock. It goes like this: Fred Craddock tells of a conversation he had with a man in a restaurant in the Great Smoky Mountains. The man said, “I grew up in these mountains. My mother was not married, and the whole community knew it. I was called an “illegitimate” child. In those days that was a shame, and I was ashamed. The reproach that fell on her, fell on me. When I went into town with her, I could see people staring at me, making guesses as to who my father was. At school the children said ugly things to me. So, I stayed to myself during recess and I ate my lunch alone.”

            He said, “In my early teens I began to attend a little church back in the mountains. It had a minister who was both attractive and frightening. He had a chiseled face, a heavy beard, and a deep voice. I went to hear him preach. I don’t know exactly why, but it did something for me. But when I would go, I was afraid I would not be welcome. So, I would go just in time for the sermon, and when it was over, I would leave because I was afraid that someone would say, ‘What’s a boy like you doing in church’.”

            “One Sunday some people moved into the aisle before I could get out, and I was trapped. Before I could make my way through the group, I felt a heavy hand on my shoulder. It was that minister. I saw him out of the corner of my eye. I caught a glimpse of his beard and his chin. I trembled in fear.” 

            “He turned his face around so he could see mine. I knew what he was doing. He was going to make a guess as to who my father was. A moment later he said, “Well, son, you are a child of…” and he paused there. And I knew what was coming. I knew I would have my feelings hurt. I knew I would not go back again. 

            He said, ‘Son, you are a child of God. I see a striking resemblance.’ Then he said, ‘Now you go claim your inheritance.’”

            The man said, “I left that church building a different person. In fact, that was really the beginning of my life.”

            This morning, we are going to experience together an opportunity to remember our baptism. You will be invited to come forward to touch the baptismal waters and be reminded that you are baptized. Or, in the words of that old preacher, “You are a child of God. Now you go claim your inheritance.” If you have not been baptized, don’t let that prevent you from coming forward. Please come down anyway and touch the waters in anticipation of that experience. Following worship, speak with me. I will be happy to share with you more about what baptism means and then we can plan for an opportunity some time in the future for you to experience this powerful sacrament.

            As we begin this new year, this new decade, let us begin anew with the memory that we are baptized, empowered, and affirmed by God.