Rev. Tom Sorenson, Pastor
January 18, 2009

Scripture:

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

The Christian tradition certainly does make a big deal out of baptism, doesn’t it? Christians used to believe that only people who had received Christian baptism could be saved. They even believed that newborn infants who died without being baptized would spend eternity in limbo and could never get to heaven. Most of us don’t believe that superstitious nonsense any more, but we still make a big deal out of baptism. We say that it is the sacrament through which a person becomes a member of the church, a part of the body of Christ. Some churches—not ours but some others—offer Communion only to people who have been baptized. All in all, baptism is a pretty big deal for us.

And appropriately so. Baptism is one of only two rituals that we in the Protestant tradition call sacraments. We see it is “an outward sign of an inward grace,” to quote a famous definition of a sacrament. It is a primary identifying mark of the Christian community. It helps set our identity. It is something that differentiates us from non-Christians. Not that it makes us better than non-Christians. It doesn’t. But it is something different about us. Baptism is indeed a big deal with us.

And yet. There’s always an “and yet,” isn’t there. And yet there is a danger in the way we make such a big deal out of baptism. We make such a big deal out of baptism that it is easy to get the idea that once we’re baptized that’s all there is to being a Christian. There’s a temptation to say: I’m baptized. OK. Good. That’s taken care of. Now I can go on with my life like before. Baptism made me a Christian. That’s what matters. I don’t have to do anything else. And that’s a problem. It’s a problem because it badly misunderstands baptism. It both overestimates baptism and, to quote our soon to be former President, “misunderestimates” it. It says that baptism is all that matters, and it says that baptism doesn’t really change anything about our lives. That, my friends, is not the Biblical understanding of baptism.

We see that it is not the Biblical understanding of baptism in our two New Testament readings this morning. Let’s start with the Acts. There Paul tells the Christians in Ephesus that the baptism of John the Baptist was insufficient. So Paul baptizes the people in the name of Jesus. Then, when he lays hands on them, the Holy Spirit comes upon them, and they begin to speak in tongues, something they couldn’t do before. Something quite similar happens with Jesus himself. In our reading from Mark he receives the baptism of John the Baptism. That’s the first thing that happens to him. But then something else happens, something far more important. The Holy Spirit descends upon him like a dove. Only after he has thus received the Holy Spirit does the voice from heaven say “You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.” Only then does Jesus begin his public ministry. Both of these readings present the Christian life as a two stage process. In both readings baptism is followed by the ones baptized receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, and it is the gift of the Holy Spirit that actually changes them. It is the second act in the drama that leads to their transformation. Baptism is the beginning, but it is only the beginning.

There’s a passage in Romans that wasn’t included in the lectionary for today that perhaps makes the point more clearly. There Paul uses the metaphor of death to explain the meaning of baptism:

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. Romans 6:3-4

Here Paul too sees baptism as a two-step process. It involves first a dying to an old way of being. We are baptized into death, specifically into Christ’s death, which is death to the world’s way of being. Then we rise into what Paul here calls “newness of life.” Again, baptism is only the beginning. It is followed by transformation into a new way of being.

So in a few minutes here, as we reaffirm our baptismal vows, please keep in mind that baptism is only a beginning. It doesn’t mean much unless it is followed by the second act of the drama. In baptism we acknowledge, or our parents acknowledge for us in a way that we can later affirm and claim as our own, that we belong to God, that we belong to Jesus Christ. That’s important. But Scripture teaches us that it is important because it acts to open us to the possibility of transformation, to the possibility of walking in newness of life as Paul says or to the possibility of life in the Holy Spirit as Acts says.

Baptism can easily be a dead letter. It can be a meaningless act. It will be a meaningless act unless we see it as a beginning, as an opening, as creating the possibility of something new in our lives and in the world. Baptism makes us part of the Body of Christ, and the mission of the Body of Christ is precisely to be Christ in the world. That means that our mission as Christians, both individually and collectively, is to live forth into the world Christ’s Gospel of peace and justice for all people. Our mission as Christians both individually and collectively is to proclaim God’s grace for all people and be instruments of that grace in God’s world. That is the task the we take on when we are baptized or when we reaffirm out baptism. Baptism calls us to the work of transformation both of our lives and of God’s world. Baptism calls us to a life free from the disordered priorities of the world, the priorities of wealth and power. It calls is to a life transformed into the life of Christ, the life of service, justice, and peace.

Baptism is important, but is only a beginning. Today, as we reaffirm our baptismal vows, let us open our hearts and our minds to the work of transformation to which our baptism calls us. Let us recommit ourselves to life transformed by the grace of God. Let us recommit ourselves to being agents of transformation in God’s world, working for peace, seeking to alleviate suffering, demanding justice for all of the world’s poor and oppressed wherever they might be. If we will do that our act of reaffirming our baptismal vows will not be an empty ritual. It will indeed make of our baptisms the beginning of something wonderful. It will make of our baptisms the beginning of newness of life, of life transformed by Holy Spirit into holy life, life the way God intends life to be. So, in a few minutes, when I invite you to come forward, come. Come in the hope of a new beginning. This is a time of new beginnings for our country. May today be a time of new beginnings for us too, new beginnings inspired by the Holy Spirit and committed to making Christ’s vision of the Kingdom of God a reality in the world. Amen.