In a few
weeks, we will be treated to pictures of the christening of the new little Princess
Charlotte – daughter of Prince William and Duchess Kate. Everyone will look beautiful in their dressy
suits and hats, little Prince George will wear a charming outfit, and Princess
Charlotte will no doubt be clad in a long baptismal dress which will flow over
her mother’s arms nearly to the floor. The official photographs will be flashed
‘round the world, and everyone will ooh
and ahh – and what’s not to ooh and ahh over, with such a lovely young family for whom surely everyone
wishes only the best?
But one
thing we will probably not hear referenced on the news or read in People Magazine will be an explanation
of what the little princess’s baptism is all about. It will be treated as a secular event which
happens to take place in a church – a dress-up day for great happiness – but we
will hear little, if anything, of it as a solemn religious occasion.
What is baptism, anyway? Most of us probably don’t know much more
about it than do the People Magazine
writers. We’re talking about baptism
today because it’s the second topic in our summer Bible study, Come to the Waters – the second Biblical
water subject for these warm days when water seems extremely appealing. But appealing as water, and the whole idea of
baptism are – what is baptism all about?
During Bible
study on Thursday, one of our members described baptism as a welcome. I think that’s a great description. In
baptism we are welcomed into the Christian life, and into Christian
community.
What’s the
best welcome you’ve ever had?
I often
remember welcomes from my grandmother.
As you know, I grew up in the country, in southern Ohio. To get to my house, you first turned into a
paved lane and drove up a hill to my grandparents’ house, and then went on down
a gravel road behind their place, leading to ours. That meant that as a little girl hopping off
the school bus at the bottom of the hill, my first destination was my
grandmother’s – with her offerings of ice cream and late afternoon television
shows – and that as a young career woman, my first stop was my grandmother’s,
often to drink a glass of lemonade on her brick terrace and tell her about my
life – and that as a young mother I drove to my grandmother’s before anyplace
else in southwestern Ohio, so that my children could tumble out of the van into
the same warmth and love that I had always known there
And you know
what was wonderful about my grandmother’s welcomes?
That she
always had time. Always – time for each
of us.
My
grandmother lived in an era in which homemaking was considered an art – and so
she baked bread, and canned tomato juice, and cooked wholesome dinners from
scratch each night, and was an expert knitter and intent student of nature –
but she always had time to put everything down and turn her attention to us. She was not the least bit intrusive – there
were always treats and games available, but she also left us to our own devices
when we preferred that, and was always willing to listen to whatever we had to
share. She was quite willing to interact
with us, and guide us, and equally willing to step back and let us grow into
ourselves.
Welcome
welcome welcome. How was school? How’s your dog? Tell me about the new Beatles album. I have something to show you! Welcome!
Isn’t the
welcome of baptism something like my grandmother’s welcome?
Here you
are! Welcome to the church! Welcome to a community in which you may grow
and be nurtured! How is your life? We have something to show you! Come and live into the time and space God
makes for you! Come and see!
Welcome to
that for which you thirst – whether or not you know it. Welcome into the
presence of the God who loves you!
Baptism is
something we call a sacrament.
Sacraments – and in the Presbyterian Church, the sacraments we celebrate
are baptism and communion, the Lord’s Supper – are those rituals which we
particularly acknowledge to be signs of God’s grace, of God’s gift of love in
our lives. Sacraments are gifts of God
to us in response to our thirst for an experience of the holy, our thirst for
moments in which we know that God is present to us in the community of faith.
The water of baptism is a sign, a symbol, of God’s love for us. For all of
us.
John Calvin,
that early Protestant reformer whose ideas and writings and leadership set much
of the foundation for our church, tells us that God gives us concrete, tangible
signs and symbols of God’s love for us because we need them. We are bodily creatures, not creatures of
air, or of intangible spirit – we are solid creatures of a solid earthly world
– and we require solid, palpable, material symbols by which to understand who
we are and what we are about.
Water
throughout the Bible, is such a symbol -- of God’s deep love all of creation,
and for us; of God’s covenant: God’s promise, to care for us, to protect us,
and to make it possible for us to flourish; and of God’s Spirit, who encourages
and enliven us.
Last week,
we pondered the waters of creation – the waters of the deep, the waters of
chaos, out of which God created – everything.
Through those roiling, turbulent waters, God gave birth to the entire
world.
In our first
reading today, God is tending to God’s people, the Israelites, who have escaped
slavery in Egypt only to find themselves wandering in the desert. They are literally parched, expecting to die
of thirst n the hot, dry desert, trapped in an inhospitable environment far
from the homes they have known. So
miserable are they that they turn their anger on Moses, their leader, and
threaten to kill him. And in response, God
tells Moses to take his staff and strike the rock, and water for the people
will pour from the rock.
The people
need water, actual water, in response to their physical thirst –but they also
need material evidence of God’s care for them.
They are so lost, so disoriented, so frightened – and the water they
receive in such a surprising way becomes a symbol for them that God is with
them, a symbol of God’s care and promises remembered to this day.
For Jesus,
baptized in the Jordan River in today’s gospel reading, the water is an even
more profound symbol: a symbol of the Holy Spiri,t and of identity.
Jesus comes
to the Jordan River to be baptize like any other Jew of his time and place, to
engage in this ritual of cleansing conducted by his cousin, John the
Baptist. John is surprised to see him –
because John knows that Jesus is not
like any other person of his time and place – but Jesus is insistent that he
should engage in the ritual common to all.
And thus Jesus makes common to all in baptism what happens to him in
baptism: the Spirit of God alights upon him and the voice of God identifies
him: “This is my Son, the beloved.”
What a
welcome! And what a welcome available to all of us through baptism. This welcome goes well beyond lemonade on the
terrace, and even beyond nurture and promise in the desert. This welcome to Jesus splashes over all of
us, and tells us that we, too, are people in whom God’s Spirit dwells, and that
we, too, are beloved.
Water in
Biblical interactions is not merely about refreshment, or even
hospitality. Water is about identity.
When the
little princess is baptized, much will be made of her names – Charlotte
Elizabeth Diana – and how they reflect her identity in the line and heritage of
the royal family. We do much the same,
don’t we? If we have children, we choose names for them that are of
significance to ourselves and our families, and hope that those names will come
to bear meaning for the tiny babies who will grow into them. But those names, however beautiful and
meaningful – those names are not nearly as marvelous as the name and identity
given us in baptism: Beloved. Those
names, however much they symbolize family history and parental dreams, do not
completely reflect the sign and symbol of the water of baptism: God’s
beloved. Welcome, beloved one, into
God’s community.
Welcome to a
love that precedes you, a love that surrounds you, a love that is not dependent
upon you or on your gifts or achievements -- a love that flows from God’s
spirit just as the water flows from the Jordan or from the baptismal font.
Welcome to a
love that will always have time for you. Welcome to a love that desires you to flourish
– as you are, who you are, in your deepest self.
Welcome to a
love which propels you into the world to share, with generosity and hope, this
love, in whatever way you are called to do so by those gifts unique to you.
Welcome to a
deep love in which you are claimed by God – whether you know it or not, before can
know it, when you are convinced that it has nothing to do with you, when you
have turned away from it – in all the
circumstances of your life, the love which pours into your life from your baptism
surrounds and supports you, and draws you into relationship with God and with
the people of God. With all people, because
all people are the people of God.
The waters
of baptism are the waters in which you are named – God’s Beloved – and called
to share – God’s belovedness. No matter what happens to you in this life, no
matter how many wrong turns you make, no matter how confusing your hopes or
broken your plans, the waters of God’s love flow through your days and your
nights. Through baptism the Spirit
welcomes you into Christ’s community and gives you God’s name for you: Beloved
One. Amen.
