January 10, 2010
 
Scripture:         Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
 
Sermon:           “Immerse Yourself”
 
            I remember the day that I was baptized.  I’ll never forget it.
            Now, let me say this.  We’re talking about baptism this morning.  And not everyone was baptized in the same way, you know.  Some folks here were baptized, like me, at a time in their youth.  And some of you were baptized later in life, even.  And then there are some of you that were baptized when you were infants in other churches.  A few of you have even been baptized several times in your life believing that you’d messed up so badly that you needed a fresh start.  Or you joined a church that didn’t believe the baptism you had counted and they made you get baptized again.
            It would be easy for me, then, to speak about what was beautiful and powerful in my own experience of baptism and unknowingly make you feel as if your different kind of experience was somehow not what it should have been.  And that is not my point at all.  Every baptism in an amazing encounter with God!
            I remember the day that I was baptized.  I’ll never forget it.  My family was part of a new church start when I was younger.  And we didn’t have a building to meet in.  We met in the community room of a local bank.  So, you can see that we certainly did not have a fancy baptistery built into the sanctuary.  And we couldn’t even have baptisms as part of our Sunday morning worship services.  We were Disciples.  And we need a lot of water to baptize people.  We immerse people in the water—which is fancy way of saying that we dunk them under it completely.
            I remember the day that I was baptized.  My church had a picnic out at someone’s house when the weather was warm.  They had a swimming pool.  And I was baptized right there in it.  The preacher, who was a big, burly man with a curly beard, hand his strong hands behind my back and over my forehead.  He spoke with tenderness about my new birth into the body of Christ.  And I think that I saw tears in the eyes of this large man.
            I remember the sound of water rushing past my ears.  I couldn’t see or hear or feel anything for a moment.  And then the first sounds to reach my ears as a new creation was the applause of everyone who was there to witness it.
            Jesus once said that “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”  It may have been the applause of my church.  But, you know, it may have been the joy of heaven that I heard.
            I remember the day that I was baptized.  And I can tell you some of the details of it.  But, what I really remember…what I really remember is this amazing energy and meaning and purpose in my life because of my faith in Jesus.  I believed at that time in my life that…I was sure at that time in my life that I would follow this man no matter what.  I would do whatever this Jesus called me to do.  And there was nothing that I could think of that would get in the way of that.
            Oh, those were powerful days.
            Now, you’ve had those moments, too.  When you decided to commit your life to following this Jesus, those were times in your life when nothing else seemed to matter at all.  Remember that?  And it felt like everything made sense?  You got baptized.  Or, if you were baptized as an infant, you went through Confirmation.
            Here is what we remember about the day that Jesus himself was baptized.  Like a whole lot of people that were searching for something more in life, Jesus went down to the river where John was baptizing them.  Now, some folks say that Jesus was one of John’s followers.  The Bible doesn’t us that.  But, it could be.  It could be that Jesus spent some time following John and listening to him.  And one day he determined that this was for him.  This is what the Bible says:
            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 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.”
            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.”
            I commented last week about how the Bible is almost completely silent about the years between Jesus’ birth and the day that he was baptized.  Thirty years.  And the only story it tells about that time is from when he was twelve years.
            What do you think that means?  The gospel story of Jesus’ life is told 4 times in the Bible.  And not one of them tells us much of anything about him until this day in his life when John took him under the waters of the Jordan River and baptized him.
            It almost says that Jesus’ life didn’t really seem to have its mission and purpose until that moment.  Doesn’t it?  And maybe that was the time when Jesus, too, was so full of faith and energy and resolve—just like you and me at one time or another—to do whatever it was that God was calling him to.
            It almost tells us that Jesus, too, had this powerful moment in his life when it all made sense.  It was all clear.  Like a voice from heaven that said, “You are my Son, the Beloved.  With you I am well pleased.”
            Baptism must have been a very powerful event in the life of Jesus.  It was the very beginning of everything that he did.  It was the thing that focused him.  It was the thing that determined what he would spend his life doing.  It was the thing that empowered him to give up his own life on the cross.
            Goodness, I long to have the kind of passion and meaning and purpose that I felt in the days that I was baptized.  Do you ever long to recapture that kind of passion, too?  You’d just love to feel that you’d follow this man anywhere?  You’d just love to sense that your very life meant something so much bigger?
            It seems to me that the beginning of a new year makes a great deal of sense to consider a way to reconnect to the depth and passion of our faith.  And I’d like to invite you, if you like, to join me in touching again the water, which is a symbol of cleansing and a symbol of birth.  And remember the flame inside you that was kindled during the days of your baptism or confirmation.  Let us use this time as a way to remember and recommit our lives to faith—that we may continue to let Christ use us to the mission and ministry to which he has called each one of us.
            As you come forward, remember, too, the vows of baptism that have been passed down to us from generation to generation from the very beginning.
 
Do you renounce evil, repent of your sins, and turn to Christ?
 
Do you confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and do you accept and proclaim him to be Lord and Savior of the world?
 
Looking to your baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, do you, in the company of all Christians, believe and trust in god the Father, who made the world; and in his Son Jesus Christ, who redeemed humankind; and in the Holy Spirit, who gives life to the people of God?
 
Prayer:
Gracious God, we thank you that in every age you have made water a sign of your presence.  In the beginning your Spirit brooded over the waters and they became the source of all creation.  You led your people Israel through the waters of the Red Sea to their new land of freedom and hope.  In the waters of the Jordan, your Son was baptized by John and anointed with your Spirit for his ministry of reconciliation.  May this same Spirit bless the water we use today, that it may serve as a remembrance of our deliverance and new creation.  Remind us that the water has washed away the sins of all who have entered it.  Remind us that your Spirit has been poured out on us that we may be agents of reconciling love.  Remind us that we have been made one with Christ, buried and raised in the power of his reconciliation.  It is in his name that we pray.  Amen.
           
Rev. David James Brown
Park Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)