A Sermon for the 1st Sunday after Epiphany All Saints’ Church, Southern
Shores, N.C. January 13, 2013 Thomas
E. Wilson Rector
This is the first Sunday of Epiphany and which is also called the Baptism
of Jesus. We have the opportunity to look at the nature of Baptism, and we see
in the Acts’ lesson that there are two different kinds of Baptism. Now, I know
that some of you are saying “Whoop-de-do! Just what I wanted to hear about - how
theologians argue with each other! Maybe if I’m lucky, the Mayans will turn out
to have been right, and the rapture will take place right now and spare me
this.”
Well no, the Mayans were wrong, and yes, there is a difference between the
two different ideas of Baptism. The first idea of Baptism is that it is all
about me getting Baptized, where the person being baptized is the actor. And the second idea is that it is all about
God’s Holy Spirit Baptizing us, where the person being baptized is the
re-actor.
In the first idea of Baptism, which we will call the “Baptism of
John”, the point was to change a person’s life so that s/he will be a better
person and a better religious person in the Kingdom of God on earth. People
looked at their lives and were disappointed in their behavior and felt guilty
and wanted to put the past behind them. In this case Baptism was a way to wash
off one’s sins. John the Baptizer set up camp on the edge of the country on the
border marked by the Jordan River. As the Hebrew children coming back from
slavery in Egypt around 1200 BC and later the Jewish exiles coming back from
Babylon in the 500-400’s BC did, they had to cross through the Jordan River to
get back home. They went through the water, washing off all the dust from their
wanderings. In the same way, sinners could symbolically leave their homeland
and go outside Israel and start all over again by meeting John in the river and
washing the past away. There is nothing wrong with that kind of ceremony if you
want to lead a better life and be part of a better community and be a better
person who is trusted and respected for one’s religious sensitivity. In
essence, it is all about me, being a better me and about the rewards I might be
able to get from being a better me. We see this view in popular culture when
people say things like “S/He was a good wo/man and, God loves good people and
s/he will get into heaven when s/he dies because s/he lived a good life.” In
this view Baptism is about earning God’s love by living a good life. In this view of Baptism where it is
all about me, God's love can be marketed into benefits in this life - I can
become rich, or score touchdowns, or be famous, or have a big church. This view
runs into trouble when things go wrong in life, because when it is all about
me, then bad things are a sign that I have failed, am not good enough, or God
doesn't love me anymore.
In the first idea of Baptism, which we will call the “Baptism of
John”, the point was to change a person’s life so that s/he will be a better
person and a better religious person in the Kingdom of God on earth. People
looked at their lives and were disappointed in their behavior and felt guilty
and wanted to put the past behind them. In this case Baptism was a way to wash
off one’s sins. John the Baptizer set up camp on the edge of the country on the
border marked by the Jordan River. As the Hebrew children coming back from
slavery in Egypt around 1200 BC and later the Jewish exiles coming back from
Babylon in the 500-400’s BC did, they had to cross through the Jordan River to
get back home. They went through the water, washing off all the dust from their
wanderings. In the same way, sinners could symbolically leave their homeland
and go outside Israel and start all over again by meeting John in the river and
washing the past away. There is nothing wrong with that kind of ceremony if you
want to lead a better life and be part of a better community and be a better
person who is trusted and respected for one’s religious sensitivity. In
essence, it is all about me, being a better me and about the rewards I might be
able to get from being a better me. We see this view in popular culture when
people say things like “S/He was a good wo/man and, God loves good people and
s/he will get into heaven when s/he dies because s/he lived a good life.” In
this view Baptism is about earning God’s love by living a good life. In this view of Baptism where it is
all about me, God's love can be marketed into benefits in this life - I can
become rich, or score touchdowns, or be famous, or have a big church. This view
runs into trouble when things go wrong in life, because when it is all about
me, then bad things are a sign that I have failed, am not good enough, or God
doesn't love me anymore.
The second view of Baptism, which we call the “Baptism of Christ”, is not
about goodness at all but about dying to one’s self. The metaphor is not about
washing away the past but about going through the breaking waters of birth.
Before a person is born, they live in a womb and they are loved fully and
completely by God, growing each day. Into this peaceful existence, suddenly
there is a change in their lives, and the waters of the womb break, and they
are thrust out into a new way of living. They have to see the new creation in a
different way. They have to hear the world in a whole different way. They move
from a place of comfort to a place of strife. They learn how to die to the old
life so they can begin to live in a world which does not fully revolve around
them. Their lives become a series of choices to try to return to a womb –something
that is no longer possible - thereby trying to find ways to replicate the womb
experience of safety without risk and change. In this attempt life becomes a
fearful, alien space that must be manipulated and conquered so that it can be
“mine”. The other option is to embrace this new life and go deeper into the new
reality, accepting the death of the old life and seeing a full life as a dying
to oneself on a daily basis so that a new creation can be fully known. In this
view, all of life is a gift, and all of space is sacred space, which is not
ours to own but ours of which to become faithful stewards and co-creators with
a power greater than ourselves.
The early church combined the birth trauma with the death to self in the
Baptism of Christ, asking God’s Holy Spirit to be the new breath in the new
life, God’s vision to be the new sight in the new life, God’s passion to be the
animating principle in the new life, God’s spirit to fill every moment as we
join with God in being co-creators of the universe. They called it being born
again as we were lifted out of the waters of birth.
When Jesus comes out of the water in the Jordan, he does not become a
good person. Rather he is filled with God’s
Holy Spirit and begins to die to the old self and live in the new creation
which he called the Kingdom of Heaven. For him heaven was not after one dies
but right here and right now, where the space between and within people,
friends, neighbors, even enemies, is holy space, filled with God’s animating
spirit. He teaches his disciples a prayer where they live so that God’s heaven
will come on earth, where not my will but God’s will is done, where we eat
God’s bread lovingly, given on a daily basis.
We are nourished to die to our own egos on a daily basis, where
forgiveness and love are the norms rather than revenge and hate, where God is
the power, the Kingdom and the glory. He teaches them to stand up to the
corrupt ways of this world and to die to this world so that we can better live
together as sons and daughters of the divine in God’s creation.
It is not about us being masters of our own domain but being servants,
where we do not own people, places, and things but we care for them. We are
stewards who do not complain about having to give 10% of our earnings and time
as rent, but are pleased to make 100% of all that we are and all that we have
sacred. We were not baptized to be good;
we were baptized to live into being born into being God’s beloved children in
whom God is well pleased. Paul says in Romans, “If
we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then,
whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”
In this baptism where we learn how to die to our own egos, we no longer
need to be afraid of what is called the “second death” at the end of our
earthly life. From Isaiah’s prophecy is the promise
“the God who made you in the first place, the
One who got you started: “Don’t be afraid, I’ve redeemed you. I’ve called your
name. You’re mine. When you’re in over your head, I’ll be there with you. When
you’re in rough waters, you will not go down. When you’re between a rock and a
hard place, it won’t be a dead end.” The river of God’s love enveloped
us in God’s womb before we were conceived, surrounded us in our mother’s womb,
flowed with us into new life, swept us into deeper life, and brings us finally
to the sea of God, where all streams find their source.
Let us remember our own Baptismal covenant, turning to page 305 in the
Book of Common Prayer.
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