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Sunday August 24, 2008 "The Cost of Baptism" John 1:19-29 |
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Location: Blogs Brad's BlogBrad's Sermons |
 | | Posted by: Brad Miller | 8/25/2008 10:22 AM | So, just what was John the Baptist doing?
I think the Pharisees had a logical question. What is this thing called “baptism” and what power did it hold over these people who had experienced it? If John wasn’t the messiah, then exactly what was he doing?
Baptism is seen as a uniquely Christian event by many, but it has it’s roots in Jewish tradition. Ritual cleansing baths were required before people could take part in certain ceremonies. The Assenes, a Jewish sect that lived in the desert surrounding the Dead Sea are one of those groups who believed in ritual baths as part of their spiritual disciplines. The Assenes were thought to be the orignators of the Dead Sea Scrolls found in Qumran in Palestine in the late 1940’s and subsequent excavation has yielded much information about their daily lives and their faith practices. One of those was the use of a ritual bath, possibly as a prelude to every meal that they ate. The purpose of the daily baths is not entirely clear, but some scholars believe that the Assenes used the ritual to cleanse their bodies and beings before they partook of the bounty of God’s creation. It is almost as if they had to be pure to receive the blessing of nourishment.
There is also evidence that leads some to believe that the Assenes used the bathing ritual in ceremonies welcoming new members to the community. It was seen as a rite of passage, an initiation rite, that signified the cleansing of the person as they entered this new life.
Oh, and I almost forgot. Many scholars believe that John the Baptist was a member of the Assene sect at Qumran.
Well, that would explain a lot.
If what John was doing was a sort of initiation into a new way of life, membership in a new community of faith, just what was that community of faith? What was that new life?
John, after all, didn’t have a church. He is never identified as leading a congregation. He is not using this rite as a way to sign up members. He’s out wandering in the wilderness. He’s roaming the countryside and after he baptizes, he leaves, and the newly initiated folks are left to pursue this new life on their own.
Just what is John doing?
His answer is that he is preparing the way. His preaching of repentance of sins and devotion to God; his baptizing of those whom his words touched; his ministry out and among the people are all aimed at preparing the way for the messiah to come. He told the Pharisees that he had not met the messiah. But that as sure as the prophets told of the messiah’s coming, John was there to help people get ready to welcome that messiah. And the best way to do that was to purify oneself, repent of ones sins and prepare to follow the one who was to come. The one whom John recognized as soon as he laid eyes on him: Jesus of Nazareth.
Do you remember where the story goes from here?
Jesus asks John (who happens to be Jesus’ cousin) to baptize him. John at first refuses, saying that it is Jesus who should baptize John. But Jesus insists, saying that this is the way God intends it to be. And so, John baptized Jesus in the waters of the River Jordan in Galilee.
And as John brought Jesus back up out of the water…well, let’s hear what John had to say about it: “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” And I myself have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.” (John 1:31-34)
This is where the ministry of John the Baptist was fulfilled. This is where the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth begins.
John was preparing people for the messiah to come. John was initiating people into the new life that was to follow. The messiah, Jesus, was baptized by John as a final act of preparation for his earthly ministry. The messiah Jesus was himself initiated into the new life that he heralded.
In the preparation and the initiation, God’s Holy Spirit makes it clear that to be part of this new life is to be part of God’s grace filled kingdom.
It is no surprise to us then, that we initiate people into membership of the church, that we welcome people into the community of faith that is the body of Christ by baptizing with water, just as Jesus was baptized with water by John.
It is also no surprise to learn that there have been disagreements over the years as to the proper form of baptism, let alone it’s full and true meaning. And with a faith tradition like ours in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), a tradition born of religious freedom and an encouragement to ask questions and debate answers, it is certainly no surprise that those discussions have been long and at times, loud.
As we continue this sermon series on our faith traditions entitled “We Call Ourselves Disciples”, the topic of baptism is one that we must explore if we want to understand many things about the movement to which we belong. We need to understand how we came to sort out the practice of baptism as we know it. We need to understand how the rite of initiation has taken on the role of sacrament. We need to understand how the power of the Holy Spirit is at work in this sacrament. And we need to understand the cost of baptism to each and every one of us.
There are two widely accepted forms of baptism in Orthodox Christianity: infant baptism, and believers baptism. In infant baptism, parents make the vows on behalf of the infant while in believers baptism, the vows are taken by the person being baptized. Within these two forms, there are two methods of baptism: sprinkling with water, and immersion in water.
The two founders of our movement were raised in the Presbyterian Church, which practiced and practices, infant baptism by sprinkling. This is not to say that you cannot be baptized as an adult in the Presbyterian tradition, but the overwhelming majority of such rites involve infants. Both Alexander Campbell and Barton Stone were baptized as infants, their parents taking the sacramental vows on their behalf. Both later came to embrace believers baptism as the “proper” form of baptism, but of the two, only Campbell was “rebaptized” by immersion. And that divergence speaks volumes as to what we practice today.
Though both were baptized as infants, as adults, they both started having some questions about the meaning of baptism and whether infant baptism fit their understanding of the meaning of baptism.
Both Campbell and Stone, along with many, many others, saw baptism as a rite whereby a believer would publicly repent of their sins followed by the symbolic cleansing. The practice of infant baptism, therefore, would be problematic for Stone and Campbell. Infants cannot make a decision to join a church; infants cannot make a decision to repent of their sins and follow Christ’s example in the world; infants simply aren’t capable of rational decision making, or, for that matter, sin! If sin is a turning away from God, it seems clear that an understanding of God and the ability to make a rational choice would be of paramount importance for baptism.
Alexander Campbell believed this so deeply that he asked a Baptist minister to immerse him on Campbell’s simple profession of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord, and his Baptist friend complied.
Barton Stone was never rebaptized because he believed that while technically an infant could not make the decisions to repent and become part of Christ’s church, the Presbyterian rite of confirmation, where the Baptismal vows taken by the parents on behalf of their child are then “confirmed” by the child when they have reached “the age of reason” at 12 or 13, served that same purpose. In this manner, Stone argued, the vows have been transferred to the child through their enlightened confession of faith and repentance of sin.
Ahhh, the repentance of sin. This is something that we must pay attention to if we are to fully grasp the importance of baptism.
The fact is that most of us here, and most Christians around the world, do not believe that baptism is simply an initiation rite. The baptism of Jesus changed all that. The rite of initiation becomes a sacrament of the church when we turn to this issue of sin. As human beings, we are all sinners. But Jesus held out the promise that we could be forgiven of our sins, and orthodox Christianity believes that Jesus death and resurrection made that real for all believers. But orthodox Christianity does not posit that because Jesus died and was resurrected, we are all off the hook. No, we must face up to our own sin, and repent. We must admit our guilt and turn back toward the path that God has for us. When we make that admission of guilt and we accept Jesus as savior, we are forgiven. And baptism is the sign of that forgiveness.
The Holy Spirit alighted on Jesus and changed his life. John said that he baptized with water, but the messiah would baptize with the Holy Spirit. Most Christians believe that in our acceptance of Christ, in our repentance of sin, we are the recipients of the Spirit’s presence and our lives are changed, forever.
Which of course, leads to something else for us to argue about: if baptism finds its power and efficacy through the actions of the Spirit, do we even need the ritual of the cleansing represented by the act of baptism? In other words, is the sacramental act the immersion, or is the sacramental act the change in our life because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit? Sacraments are typically defined as “an outward and visible sign of an inward INVISIBLE grace.” If we use that definition, which I think is a pretty good one, then the answer to our above question is a resounding “Yes!”
Oh, wait, that was an “or” question wasn’t it? We have to pick one. Well, Stone believed that the actual conversion moment had to do with our repentance and our confession of faith, not the actual act of immersion. Campbell disagreed. For him, the act of the cleansing of the body, the immersing of the body, was akin to Jesus dying, being buried and arising from the dead. When we are baptized, Campbell argued, we die to sin, and when we emerge, we are resurrected into a new life as followers of Christ. While he believed, like Stone, that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit preceded the actual act of baptism, Campbell held fast to the belief that it was that indwelling that led the individual to be baptized, and that the rite of baptism took on true meaning as a sacrament, not simply a physical act.
So where does that leave us today?
In the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) we have leaned on both Campbell and Stone in our practice of baptism. Like both Campbell and Stone, we generally accept that the Holy Spirit leads us to that place where we can make an informed decision to repent of our sins and follow Christ, and thus, celebrate “believers baptism.”
Like Campbell, we believe in baptism by immersion as the most “scriptural” of forms. Just as Jesus was immersed in the River Jordan, we also choose immersion.
But like Stone, we do not believe in “re-baptism”. When people come to join our church who were baptized as infants, we do not require that they do it our way. No, we accept that the Spirit works in ways that are beyond our imagination, and any baptism that was undertaken in good faith and with God’s will in mind, is something to be celebrated.
We believe in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and that fact takes this rite of initiation into the realm of sacrament whereby God’s grace is celebrated in each of our lives.
But there is something that we have not even touched on yet. What happens after the rite is over?
Let’s step back just a moment. If I can briefly reiterate where we have been this morning and wrap up in a brief sentence our common understanding of baptism, it would be this: Baptism is a culmination of a Spirit-led process of salvation begun with faith in Jesus Christ, repentance of sin, and public confession of faith in Christ. But there is one more point that both Campbell and Stone and others emphasized strongly: It is followed by faithful service to Christ as part a congregation of believers.
Faithful service to Christ as part of a congregation of believers.
This then, is the cost of baptism. We are not simply cleansed and turned loose. We are cleansed to bring the good news to a world in need of salvation.
We aren’t asked to do this alone. We are expected to do it together! I have no doubt of the power of baptism in our personal lives, but it is also a rite of passage into a community of believers where we work together to become a stronger and stronger witness for Jesus Christ. I have baptized people who were baptized and then disappeared, never to be seen or heard from again. I am happy to do that, but I pray that they have found a community of faith because the cost of baptism is not easily borne alone. We need each other. Our baptism into the body of Christ, our membership in a congregation means that together we will move forward, Spirit-led and God willing.
The cost of baptism is high. We are expected to live as changed people, in Christ’s service, to God’s glory. Hear the vows that are asked of those seeking baptism in the Anglican tradition:
“Do you renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God? Do you renounce the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God? Do you renounce all sinful desires that draw you from the love of God? Do you turn to Jesus Christ and accept him as your Savior? Do you put your whole trust in his grace and love? Do you promise to follow and obey him as your Lord?”
Wow, talk about a changed life! While this may not be the wording that we use in our tradition, the point is the same: baptism is not simply the end of some process of discernment or study. It is the beginning of a life dedicated to God’s will in all we do.
I’ll let Alexander Campbell have the last word on this notion of the cost of baptism. Writing in his most famous work, “The Christian System”, Campbell dealt with why and how our lives should change upon our baptism.
“Because we are forgiven, we should forgive. Because we are justified, we should live righteously; because we are sanctified, we should live holy and unblamably; because we are reconciled to God, we should cultivate peace with all and act benevolently toward all; because we are adopted, we should walk in the dignity and purity of children of God; because we are saved, we should abound in thanksgivings, praises and rejoicings, living soberly, righteously, and godly, looking forward to the blessed hope.”
Just what was John the Baptist doing? Preparing the way, for the messiah, for salvation, for us. It comes with a cost.
But oh, what a reward! Thanks be to God.
Let us pray: Humbled, human, perplexed and needy, we come before you, Lord. In your grace and love, you welcome us into your loving arms, into this community of faith, into the body of Christ, so that we might know the hope that you hold out for us, so that we might become closer to being the people you would have us be, so that we might be cleansed and purified, ready to do your will in your world. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Amen.
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