Remember Your Baptism
Let me begin my sermon this morning with a brief prologue: I will not be directly addressing the chaotic events that have taken place over this past week, but I will do my very best to peach the Gospel. For I believe that the Gospel of Jesus Christ and us as his body living fully into our baptismal covenant to be the only remedy to heal our fragile predicament.
Remember your baptism…
A phrase I was quite unfamiliar with until this past week when it appeared in our Godly Play lesson on Holy Baptism. After baptizing a baby doll we named Bobby in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and sealing his baptism by oil, Bobby was marked as Christ’s forever. Then I said to the baby doll, “Bobby, remember your baptism.”
I remember my baptism quite vividly to this day. I was baptized on a warm Spring day in Lake Tobesofkee twenty-three years ago by pastor Reginald Williams. I was not an Episcopalian back then, so I was completely submerged, or dunked in the lake before I emerged a new creation. What I remember most about my baptism was wading out of the lake and onto the beach where I was embraced, hugged, and kissed by every single member of Vision of Jesus, a charismatic, store-front church in the inner-city of Macon Georgia. I was the only white person who attended VJC at the time. It was truly remarkable moment in my life that has made a long and lasting impact upon my spiritual journey.
Yet I do not think it’s quite enough to simply recall my baptismal story when remembering my baptism. For what if I was to remember that today is my anniversary, yet never do anything to convey that special day to my wife. As my daughter likes to say, Dad would be in the dog house. It would serve me and wife much better if upon remembering my anniversary, I took action to celebrate the special day by giving cards and gifts and flowers and chocolates. Perhaps even a nice candle lit dinner and a time of expressing to my wife everything about her that makes me fall in love with her all over again. This would be more in-line with the Hebrew concept of remembering, which goes further than just cognitively recalling an event. This type of remembering calls for action. In this way, my wife and I may even reenact our wedding by renewing our wedding vows and experiencing that special day anew, yet now in the present tense.
In the remembering there is some kind of physical doing rooted in past memory, and made alive and present in symbolic action. In this way, one might even say, let’s go do the act of remembering our anniversary together. I believe this concept of remembrance is more in-line with the command to remember your baptism. We truly remember our baptism by recalling our own unique stories and then living
fully into the action of our baptismal covenant. Hence this is why today, on the baptism of our Lord, we revisit and respond in word to our baptismal covenant.
In response we remember our faith in the reading of the Nicene Creed. In response we remember to continue to live our lives together in community. We remember to continue living into the apostle’s teachings, in the breaking of bread, in fellowship, and in daily prayer.
In remembering our baptism we promise to resist evil, and when we fall into temptation and sin, we remember to repent and return to God. We remember to proclaim by word and example the good news of God in Christ. We remember to seek loving Christ in all persons and loving our neighbor as ourselves. And we remember to strive for justice and peace among all people, and to respect the dignity of every human being.
Yet one could argue that today, just in proclaiming in remembrance our baptismal covenant, we are not actually doing anything to live into it. And this is true. Not only are we to remember the words of this covenant, we are to reenact them in our lives. In this sense you might say that I need to be baptized every day, that is to wake up and remember what I am called to do by putting Christ’s love into action all throughout my day. And this brings me to my favorite part of remembering my baptismal covenant: I will remember it with God’s help. That is I will actively take part in putting Christ’s works into action, with God’s help. And how does God help us to live fully into our baptismal covenant? He helps us by including us in his one baptism for the forgiveness of sin.
In the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 6, (This) is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace—a new life in a new land! That’s what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we’re going in our new grace-sovereign country.
So now you could even say that by remembering your baptism, you remember the exact point in time when you were baptized, you remember to live into the words of your baptismal covenant, with God’s help, and you remember that you were baptized into the one holy baptism of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.
Now I’m an English major, and I can get super geeky about words, so here let’s ponder upon one little word, one tiny preposition, "into". Listen to what’s going on in our lesson this morning from the book of Acts: Paul, having run into some disciples in Corinth, asked them if they had received the Holy Spirit. And they were like, um what is the Holy Spirit? So Paul asks them, into what then were you baptized? They responded, into John the Baptist baptism. And then Paul is like OK, hold my beer. Let me catch you up to date and he tells them about the baptism of Jesus. Upon hearing this, they were baptized into the name of Jesus and the Holy Spirit came upon them.
This little preposition (into) is conveying so much to us about relationship. Let’s go back and revisit our collect for the day:
"Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan proclaimed him your beloved Son and anointed him with the Holy Spirit: Grant that all who are baptized into his Name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly confess him as Lord and Savior; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen."
In our Godly play story Saturday morning, we talked about how in baptism, we are included in relationship with the Son. To illustrate this, we lit candles for each of our lives to show how we now all carry the light and love of God in our hearts.
At the end of the story, I asked the children as always, where do you see yourself in this story? To this Collin responded, I am in the candle. Then Connor responded, I am Bobby the baby doll. Such a precious and accurate theological response to our personal baptism.
Having been included into the baptism of Jesus, we are living in the very heart of the triune God. We are in Christ, the Holy Spirit is in us, and we are marked by the Sprit as the Father’s very own children. Hence we are baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit (Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer).
And finally, and perhaps most importantly, included in the baptism of Christ, we are to hear the words of God today, ringing out from all eternity, words meant for us in Christ, you are my beloved, with you I am well pleased. Let that sink in for a moment. You are God’s beloved. With you, God is well pleased.
I have one more silly story that I believe puts these powerful words, You are my Beloved, into context for us. As some of you know we have two dachshund puppies are half sisters, Daisy Mae and Lily Rae. They are the sunshine of my life. Their love and loyalty brings me so much pleasure every day. At the end of a long day, I can’t wait to get home and see my puppies. When I wake up, it is by their sweet kisses. They are my beloved.
However, they have one really bad quality. They sometimes eat poop. I don’t think there is anything as gross as the thought of my beloved pups eating poo-poo. The thought sickens my stomach and makes me question their pure bred show dog pedigree. But know this is true: it doesn’t change how much I love them a single bit. They are my beloved, who sometimes eat their own poop, and with them I am well pleased.
I know this is a silly and even gross analogy, but isn’t it true for us all. We may not eat poop, but you better believe that some of our behavior is appalling to God. Yet because we have been included into the baptism of Jesus, there’s nothing we can do, or think, or eat, that would make God love us any less.
Think of your own children. They are your beloved. Yes they make mistakes, yes they can be irritating if not down right exhausting sometimes, but nothing can change the way you love them… with (my children) I am well pleased.
So today, let us remember our baptism in its full and cosmic scope. And like Bobby the baby doll, may you know that you are sealed by the Holy Spirit in his baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever. You are God’s beloved, with you he is well pleased.
In closing, let me share the tender words of the late great Toni Morrison,
Beloved,
You are my sister,
You are my daughter,
You are my face; you are me.
I have found you again; you have come back to me.
You are my beloved.
Amen.
References:
Morrison, Tony. “Beloved.” 1987.
Peterson, Eugene. “The NIV/Message Parallel Study Bible.” Copyright 2008 by Zondervan Publishing, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The Book of Common Prayer. Church Publishing Inc. 1979.
Godly Play. “Holy Baptism.”
Comments