Matthew 28:19,20; Acts 2:37-42
April 11, 2010
Resurrection Life: The Call to Baptism!
Rev. Meagan Boozer
Have you ever heard the phrase “baptism by fire?” What if a young couple is excited about welcoming a baby into their home, and then all of a sudden they find out that they are going to have quadruplets? It could be said that they are being baptized by fire into parenthood! Once Dennis graduates from seminary, what if the church he is called to, in the first week, has 3 funerals and a wedding? It could be said he is being baptized by fire into pastoral ministry! In September of this year, in their second game of the season, the Penn State football team will be playing Alabama. Baptism by fire!
What is meant by this phrase, “baptism by fire?” We’re talking about a heated beginning. Starting parenthood with 4 babies! Starting a pastorate with 3 funerals and a wedding! Starting a football season against the defending national champions! A heated beginning, right?
And so we agree, as we begin, that baptism is about beginning something. On the day we were baptized, something started that is continuing 2, 5, 10, 30, 50, 80 years later.
In my preparation for ministry, I had to attend retreats each August with the Presbytery’s Committee on Preparation for Ministry. This committee liked to have “mock” exams for the ministry candidates – supposedly to try to prepare us for being examined on the floor of Presbytery as the final piece of the process towards being ordained. The first year I attended the retreat, they put the 4 or 5 candidates up on a platform, and the committee sat below and fired questions at us. Talk about baptism by fire! I was asked this question: “Who initiates baptism?” Well, many answers seemed reasonable. The pastor calls the parents; the parents call the pastor; the grandparents talk to the parents and encourage them to call the pastor…etc. Who initiates baptism? Who starts it? I knew the answer. “God,” I said. “God initiates baptism.” Sigh of relief. One down. More to go. The next year, the same thing happened with questions being fired at the candidates. The committee had some of the same people, but also had new members. One of the new members asked me the first question. I’ll never forget it because it was so funny (to me). “Meagan, who initiates baptism?” I remember thinking, is this déjà vu? No one seemed to remember that was my first question the year before! I knew the right answer then, I knew it the year before, and I want us all to know the answer today: Who initiates baptism? GOD! God initiates baptism. Baptism is God’s action! Baptism is about God starting something inside us – and if God is doing it, it must be something only God can do, and it must be very, very important. Let’s pray together:
O God of Grace, thank you for calling us together this morning. That you for your gift of baptism in our lives. Thank you for what you started in us on that day, and what continues even now. Help us submit to you and your truth in our lives – may we attend to your voice, and be ready to follow where you lead. This we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.
In the beginning of the Gospel of Mark, we read about John the baptizer who was proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The Scripture tells us in 1:5, “And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.” It is into this activity that Jesus came from Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
At the end of Jesus’ time on earth after his resurrection, the risen Christ met his disciples on a mountaintop in Galilee and gave these instructions: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
It’s sort of like a sandwich. We begin with a piece of bread that includes John the Baptist participating in the baptism of Jesus. We have a lot of amazing stuff in the middle. And we end with another piece of bread that includes Jesus instructing us to continue the practice of baptism.
The call to baptism is clear. “Go and baptize,” Jesus said. Not, “It would be nice if you keep baptizing,” or “Maybe you should think about baptizing people after I’m gone…” No. Jesus commanded, “Go and baptize.” And from then until now, we fulfill this command through the ministry of the Church.
But let’s be honest: baptism has been a controversial subject for many; the “correct” practice of baptism has been debated throughout the centuries. Some denominations have split because of strong beliefs one way or the other. I want to read a couple of paragraphs from Introducing the Reformed Faith by Donald McKim, p. 130, “One basic question facing a Christian family occurs when children are born. Should the child be baptized? For some families the answer is “yes.” For others, “no.” Baptism occurs in Christian churches as a sacrament or an ordinance. Some churches administer “adult baptism” exclusively; others practice “infant baptism” as well as “adult baptism.” Still others reject water baptism as an outward act altogether and insist that the only needed baptism is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. There are also varieties in the modes by which baptism is carried out. The three historic modes have been sprinkling, pouring, and immersion. Some churches do not specify which mode is to be used. Others regard the only valid baptism as being carried out by immersion.”
Certainly it is true that the practice of baptism has a variety of beliefs that surround it. McKim concludes his introductory section on baptism with these words, “Most generally, however, it is possible to say that for all Christian communions: “Baptism is the distinct act, instituted by Christ, by which human beings are incorporated into the community of the church.”
For Presbyterians, we hold to the mystery and the unwavering faithfulness of God. We believe that God cannot be fully understood, just as we believe that God’s faithfulness cannot be fully modeled in our own lives. We believe that it is the sovereign God who initiates baptism. Mark and Brooke, you might think that it was your idea to have Levi baptized, but it really wasn’t. God, through the Holy Spirit, put that desire within you. God started the conversation. God brought you here today with Levi.
As Presbyterians, because we believe that baptism is God’s action, we don’t support a person being baptized more than once. If God did it once, it does not need to be repeated. Also, because we believe baptism is God’s action, we believe that the mode of baptism and the age of the baptized does not matter. It doesn’t matter if we sprinkle, pour, or immerse. As a pastor, I’ve participated in all three modes with people of all ages, and personally I think that to put so much emphasis on “baptism must be done in this way, and this way only,” teeters on idolatry (putting more emphasis on anything other than God). When we baptize with water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we fulfill Jesus’ command, and God mysteriously and faithfully releases newness and eternal promise into the life of the baptized.
Listen to these verses from the book of Acts, 2:37-42, “37Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” 38Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” 40And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” 41So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. 42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”
In Acts 16, we read about Lydia, who came to faith in Jesus Christ, and whose whole household was baptized into Christ; and we read about the jailer who was so influenced by Paul & Silas’ faith, that he asked them, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They answered him, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” And so the jailer took Paul and Silas and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay (16:33).
It is partly because of these Scriptures that Presbyterians do not hold to one particular age for baptism. A household means a household – youngest to oldest – believing that God has started the conversation! In John Burgess’ book After Baptism, he writes, “The power of infant baptism lies precisely in its dramatic proclamation that God has claimed us before we could say or do anything about it. The baby grows into a child, the child into a woman. Someday she tries to imagine to herself what that moment was like so many years ago – when a father and mother, a baby, a minister, and a congregation gathered at a font on a Sunday morning. She tries to understand what she could not understand at the time: that God held her in his loving arms at the beginning of her life, while she was still weak and powerless. By God’s grace she may now know that she can trust in this God, who honored her with life and new life before she knew how to honor herself, let alone God or others. She may be confident that God will cradle her at the end of her life, when she is weak and powerless again.”
Friends – brothers and sisters in Christ – we are not called to baptism because we believe. We are not called to baptism because we are good. We are not called to baptism because of anything we have done, can do, or will do. We are called to baptism by a God who loves us. He comes to those who are weak and helpless. In Deut. 7:7-9, Moses spoke the following to the Israelite people: “It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the LORD set his heart on you and chose you—for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8It was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your ancestors, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who maintains covenant loyalty with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.”
In 1 Corinthians 1:27-31, the apostle Paul said (The Message): 27Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, 28chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”? 29That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. 30Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. 31That’s why we have the saying, “If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.”
In 1 Peter 2:10 we read, “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
Without God giving us a new life and a new identity as his people, without God starting something in us in our baptisms, we would be a people without name, home, or identity.
How then should we live as the baptized? We can see it in the Acts 2 passage: 42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” As the baptized, in grateful response to what God started in us through the activity of the Holy Spirit in and around the waters and words of baptism, we should be devoted to learning about the Lord, loving and caring for one another, sharing communion, and praying for one another. In grateful response for what God has done in us, we should do whatever it takes to be together in worship. It shouldn’t be a Sunday morning decision, “Well, are we going to church today, or not?” Corporate worship should be a natural and irreplaceable part of the rhythm of our lives. As part of the people of God, those whom God has called to himself through the waters of baptism, nothing should keep us away from continuing to live out (every day of our lives) what God started! One year ago today, the baptisms of Mary Hart and Eleanor Fogal were completed as they entered into their eternal joy and rest. Thanks be to God!
This past Thursday was John and my 32nd wedding anniversary. When I got home from work, Katy was visiting with Riley and Luke to give us an anniversary card. I put Riley on my lap and we looked at our wedding pictures. I asked her if she’d like to see my wedding dress, and she was amazed that I still had it. And so I got it out of the closet. Riley tried it on, and we took some pictures. After putting it away, John and I were standing in the kitchen, and all of a sudden, Riley (age 6) appeared with an Our Daily Bread in her hand. She cleared her throat and said, “Do you want to be married?” (she was pretending to be the minister). “Yes,” I said. “Mamaw, you’re supposed to say, “I do.” “Oh, okay. I do!” “Do you want to live together in the same house?” “We do!” “Were you boyfriend and girlfriend when you were in school?” “We were!” “Then you may now dance!” And so John and I did a little dance around the kitchen.
It wasn’t quite the way a wedding goes. Riley’s questions weren’t exactly the same questions a minister usually asks the bride and groom. But having attended a couple of family weddings, she remembered that at a wedding questions are asked that have a bearing on what life is supposed to look like after the wedding day. The same is true for baptism. Whether the questions are asked of someone able to answer for him/herself, or whether the questions are asked of the parents on behalf of the child, the questions should have a bearing on what life looks like after we leave the building. It should be a resurrection life! The life of the baptized should not be a life enslaved by sinful pursuits, but a life filled with faith in God, filled with hope in the promises God has made to his people, and filled with love for God and love, compassion, and forgiveness for others in the name of Jesus to the glory of God.
As we move to the Sacrament of Baptism now, I hope two things:
1. If you have been baptized, I hope that you will celebrate what God started in you in your baptism, that you will give thanks in worship to him, and that you will choose to recommit yourself to living out what he started.
2. I also hope that if you are a believing adult and have not been baptized, that you will not continue to resist or reject what God wants to begin in you through this beautiful, mysterious, and powerful act of claiming love.
All this I hope and pray in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
