Today is Baptism of the Lord Sunday, and because we’re spending this year in the gospel according to Matthew with the Lectionary, we’ll be hearing Matthew’s version of this story.
It’s four whole verses long, and it’s squished in between two much more intense stories, so this is a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ kind of story.
Just before this, we meet John the Baptist in the desert, preaching repentance and forgiveness, clearing the way for the Messiah, and immersing folks in the Jordan River as a symbol of their repentance. This is the story we heard during Advent, where some religious leaders show up to be baptized and he calls them snakes and hypocrites to their faces, and says “if you’re going to be baptized, you’d better have some changes to show for it!”
Just after this, the Holy Spirit compels Jesus to go out into the desert beyond the Jordan, where he fasts for 40 days, and then is tempted by Satan. We’ll hear that story in just about a month, as we begin Lent.
We pick up the story toward the end of chapter 3, just after John finishes his fiery sermon.
Scripture: Matthew 3:13-17
Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he consented. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’
Jesus never explicitly explains why he wants John to baptize him. In fact, his entire reasoning for doing this seems to be “trust me, bro.”
But what has become clear since that moment is that Jesus’ baptism is the model, the prototype, for our baptisms. We are baptized because Jesus was, and because baptism is where God invites each of us to begin our own ministries.
Whether you are baptized as an infant, an adult, or somewhere in between, baptism is always a beginning.
The Presbyterian Book of Common Worship describes the sacrament of baptism very neatly: “In baptism, the love of God is poured out for us, through Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit. In baptism, we are called to pour out our lives for others, until we see ‘justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.’”[1]
In the last couple-thousand years, for many denominations anyway, baptism has become more stylized, more ceremonial and often more formal than what John was doing, hanging out in the desert.
One of the hallmarks of the reformed tradition, at least – I can’t really speak for any other traditions – is a round of questions: for the person being baptized or their parents, for the sponsors or godparents, and for the congregation that’s present. These are questions we ask, but more than that, they are promises made.
In baptism, we meet God’s promises of life, love, and presence with promises of our own.
There’s one question asked, one vow made in the baptismal process, that always feels a teensy bit awkward, especially when we’re baptizing adorable, sweet babies.
It’s asked either of the parents (if we’re baptizing a little one) or the person being baptized. It goes like this:
Trusting in the gracious mercy of God, do you turn from the ways of sin and renounce evil and its power in the world?
When there are parents and godparents standing around this font, sometimes with an increasingly fussy little one wearing a beautiful little outfit, this question does not seem to fit. We tend to zoom right by it and chalk it up as a strangely-worded church-y formality.
But when we hear this question in the context of a week like this one, a year like this one, it suddenly makes all the sense in the world. In order to fully embrace the life and love of Jesus poured out for us, we have to be willing to give up our hold on all that is evil: revenge, greed, hatred, violence, self-centeredness, and everything else that Jesus rebukes in his ministry.
We ask this question at baptism because we acknowledge that there are things we must say ‘no’ to in this world if we’re going to call ourselves followers of Jesus. We ask it so that when the choice comes – when we have to choose what is good or what is evil – we can’t say that we weren’t warned.
Some of those choices are easy/simple. In my own life, and usually just in my head, I like to call those my ‘Not Today, Satan’ moments.
For example: my previous church in Ohio had a Clothes Closet. We would take donations of kids’ clothes and once a month we would set everything out on tables in the fellowship hall – and parents, grandparents, caregivers of all shapes and sizes would come and they could take as much as they needed absolutely free of charge. No questions asked. It was well-used and well-loved.
We also had some deep connections to the local school district, and all four of the district’s school buildings were only about a mile down the road from the church. So once in a blue moon, we would get an emergency call from one of the secretaries saying that someone desperately needed clothes, and could we go check for these specific sizes so someone could come pick them up.
One day, the elementary school called and said they had a 4th grader who showed up in her pajamas, which she’d been wearing for several days. She had been removed from her home in the middle of the night and placed with her grandmother on the other side of the county. Grandma had to work, so she had to be enrolled in this new school first thing in the morning, but she didn’t have any clothes for her – or the money to get her anything on such short notice.
So they asked if we would go check our bins and see if we had things in these specific sizes. The admin assistant and I went into the storage space and looked, and oddly enough we had absolutely nothing that would fit this child.
She was about to go back upstairs and say we couldn’t help, and I had this flash of fire in my bones and said “don’t you dare. I have to go into town anyway this afternoon, so you call and tell them that I’ll be there by 2pm with a bag of clothes.”
And I hopped in my little car and drove the 25 minutes into town and rolled into Target with my list of sizes. I came out with three days’ worth of clothes and a gift receipt, and dropped them wordlessly at the school office.
I did not reform the entire child welfare system that allowed this child to show up to school with nothing. I didn’t undo the situation with her parent that brought her to this place. I did not have the time machine to go and prevent the opioid epidemic, or the means to single-handedly improve her grandma’s financial situation.
But I did have a car and $50 to spend at Target so that this one traumatized child would have clean clothes that fit her.
The question does not ask if we will simply refrain from actively doing evil – it says “do you renounce evil and its power in the world?”.
When I said ‘yes’ to her dignity and worth as a beloved child of God, I was not just saying ‘no’ to the cute little pumpkin at the dollar spot and the 50th pair of earrings. I was saying ‘no’ to the consequences of MANY systemic failures and injustices that all came to bear on this one little life.
Some choices are not this simple. Some choices have much more dire consequences. Saying ‘no’ to sin and evil always starts small, but if we keep at it, if we follow these choices to their natural conclusions, we will eventually find ourselves pushing back against empires and institutions with all kinds of power, risking much more than $50.
That’s why we ask: will you turn away from sin and evil, and turn toward Jesus and his grace and mercy?
Because this baptismal moment is not just about me and Jesus, making big promises that I know I won’t be able to keep on my own. Baptism is also the moment we are brought into the community of faith, this giant web of grace and mercy and compassion.
Thankfully, that community makes promises to us as well. We make the same promises to babies and grown adults alike, and they go like this:
Do you, as members of the church of Jesus Christ, promise to guide and nurture [this person] by word and deed, with love and prayer?
Will you encourage them to know and follow Christ, and to be faithful members of his church?
These questions remind all of us that our ministry also begins again every time we gather at this font.
Here, we are reminded that faith and faithfulness are not a spectator sport, but a web of support and relationship and learning and prayer. And every time we welcome someone in baptism, we are beginning again, together.
I want you to remember for a second – think back across your own life. Who has encouraged you the most? Who have been your best cheerleaders as you’ve struggled away from evil and towards good? How much of that encouragement and support happened within the four walls of the church building?
I’m guessing it’s some – I’m hoping it’s some – but I’m also guessing it’s not all.
Sunday morning is not the only day of the week we can make good on these baptismal promises.
You want to teach a group of 10-year-old boys how to love their enemies?
Teach them good sportsmanship, like shaking hands or high-fiving the other team after a game. (And be a little more enthusiastic about it than the Bears/Packers coaches were last night!)
You want to practice compassion?
Take a friend or coworker out for coffee and ask how they’re really doing, and pray with them.
You want to encourage and nurture the world?
Introduce yourself to that neighbor who’s been living two doors down for five years, but you still don’t know each other’s names.
Y’all, we don’t have to go far at all to be able to make a difference with love, compassion, encouragement, and nurture. We have plenty of opportunities to teach and to live the values of Jesus right here, right now. To practice radical welcome and inclusion, to preach the amazing and pervasive love of God in Christ Jesus. To lament the sin and evil we see every day. It doesn’t have to be big or world-changing.
Even if it only changes you for the better, that work is worth it.
Baptism is a beginning, and it’s no coincidence that we begin, every time, with love.
As we emerge from the waters of baptism, we are greeted with the same voice Jesus heard that day so long ago outside of Jerusalem:
“This is my child, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
Thanks be to God.
Remembrance of Baptism:
Friends, baptism is the way we mark our recognition that God has made a claim on our lives. God has embraced us, named us Beloved, and called us to a particular kind of life.
So now, I am going to invite you to reaffirm the promises made at your baptism, as a reminder of who you are and who you are called to be.
Please rise as you’re able, and join me in remembering our baptisms.
Trusting in the gracious mercy of God, do you turn from the ways of sin and renounce evil and its power in the world? I do.
Do you turn to Jesus Christ and accept him as your Lord and Savior, trusting in his grace and love? I do.
Will you be Christ’s faithful disciple, obeying his Word and showing his love? I will, with God’s help.
The Christian life is not a solo venture. When we baptize someone, we also welcome them into a community of faith, reminding us that we are not alone in this journey of faith and faithfulness. I invite you to take a moment to look around you, and renew also the promises we make to one another in baptism.
Do you, as members of the church of Jesus Christ, promise to guide and nurture these people by word and deed, with love and prayer? We do.
Will you encourage them to know and follow Christ and to be faithful members of his church? We will.
Let us pray. Glory to You, o God. Your voice is over the waters – full of power and majesty. Your word shakes the wilderness and blesses us with peace.
We give you thanks and praise for the new thing you have done in Jesus Christ our Savior. Baptized by John in the Jordan, you anointed him with your Holy Spirit and claimed him as your beloved Son.
We give you thanks and praise that by the grace of our baptism, you have claimed us as well and poured out the gifts of your Spirit so that we might be dead to sin and alive to you in Christ Jesus. Continue to pour out your Spirit upon us.
Empower us to love and serve you and live as your faithful people, bearing witness to the good news of Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Beloved people of God, remember your baptism and be thankful, and know that the Holy Spirit is at work within you.
Thanks be to God.
[1] Presbyterian Church. Book of Common Worship (p. 402). Presbyterian Publishing. Kindle Edition.