The Baptism of our Lord
January 7, 2007
Isaiah 42:1-9
Psalm 89:1-29
Acts 10:34-38
Luke 3:15-16, 21-22
In the movie, The Lion King, there is a wonderful scene in which Mufassa, the king of all forest creatures, takes his baby cub to the bank of a river for a ritual which looks much like our own Christian ritual of baptism. The holy one, Rafiki, touches the cub’s forehead with water and names him Simba. How important is that? Well, later in the movie, as Simba encounters serious challenges which face him and his leadership of this creature community, he hears his deceased father call him by name, and this is what Mufassa says: “Simba, remember who you are…you are my son, and the one true King.”
Now, if you are a practicing Christian, this is a moment which promises true epiphany for those who understand the nature and importance of baptism for their life. I have to admit it was powerful moment for me because when I heard Mufassa call Simba by name to remind him of who he was by his birth and by his baptism I was in the midst responding to God’s calling me to become a priest of his Church. My own epiphany at that moment in the film came in a heightened awareness of that call, a call which I believe began at my baptism. The moment I was called by my name and covered by water. The moment I was sealed in baptism by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever. However, if your experience of baptism was like mine, you do not remember it because you were an infant or a small child. In the movie it is clear that Simba does not remember his baptism, either, and this is why his father must call him to remember. Mufassa helps Simba remember who he is by his birth and by his baptism. And that remembering is what changes Simba’s life and it changes his world.
Remembering who we are by our birth and by our baptism is no less important to people like us who call ourselves Christians. It is important for two reasons. First, because no one can take away our life or our identity as a child of God; and second, our life and our identity matter in this world. Just as Simba’s life and identity mattered to the creatures of his kingdom. But Simba had to be reminded that his life and identity mattered. He had to remember who he was to know that that would make a difference. And the difference it makes for Simba’s life is profound. He no longer feels lost and alone in the complexity of his life. He is no longer anxious nor does he feel helpless in the challenges he faces; he no longer shrinks from his world in fear because he can face it with the faithfulness and confidence of one who knows he is loved--the love which guided his own father to rule his kingdom with great wisdom and strength. But first Simba must be reminded that he was given everything he needed to live such a life. He needed to remember that he was the son of a Father who gave him that life and who gave him his identity by his baptism.
It doesn’t take a great leap of imagination or faith to realize that his is the message of our gospel lesson today as we witness Jesus’ baptism by John in the Jordan River. Jesus comes up out of the waters of his baptism and he receives his identity as God’s beloved Son in whom God is well pleased. At this moment Jesus’ life will take a dramatic turn; after 30 years of living in relative obscurity, he will inaugurate his ministry and he will become known throughout the ages by the difference he will make in the world. But the difference between Simba and Jesus, the difference between Jesus and baptized Christians like us is that Jesus will not forget who he is and who he belongs to. He will never need to be reminded in order to remember. All that Jesus is and all that he does will reflect his identity as God’s beloved Son by his baptism. But how are we to remember? Like Simba, we all have a tendency to forget who we are and who we belong to, and we forget how that can make a difference in our life. And like Simba the fear and anxieties of our life are evidence of how far we can stray from the promises of new birth in our baptism and new life in our world. So how do we remember? Simba had a father to remind him; and Jesus needs no reminder; But how about us? How do we remember?
Well, one thing is for sure; we can be reminded of who we are whenever we engage our life in religious and spiritual practices. Practices which remind us that we are more than just human creatures born into the world to occupy time and space until we die; we are beloved children of a God who calls us by name at our baptism. Practices which remind us that our life is larger than the life we get ourselves into; that by our baptism our life becomes a place of possibility by the life we live in God. It was easy for Jesus to remember who he was and the life he had in God. He didn’t get bogged down by the issues of his life and the volume of work he had to do. He never lost his focus by the myriad distractions he encountered in the world. He didn’t fear the consequences of the words he needed to speak and the actions he needed to take in the face of the challenges he met. Because Jesus always knew who he was and he always remembered Who he belonged to. But even for Jesus, that didn’t just happen. His ability to handle life situations was not a given just because he was God’s son. Because Jesus was also human. And it was his human nature which required the same thing of him that our human nature requires of us if we are to live into the promises of our baptism. Jesus knew the importance of engaging religious and spiritual practices throughout his life to keep him mindful of who he was and who he was to become by his baptism. Practices which would demonstrate to the world that he was, indeed, God’s beloved Son. And we have been given the same power to become the children God created us to be by our baptism. But it doesn’t just happen. We, too, must engage in religious and spiritual practices which keep us mindful of the life which is possible for us when God is with us in it. The life which becomes possible for us when we follow the example of Christ in the ways we live it. The life which becomes possible for Simba when he begins to follow the example of his own father in the ways he will live his life and rule his kingdom.
Today we remember the baptism of our Lord. We also remember our own baptism. And we recognize how central our baptism is to our life in Christ, but we also know that a life lived after the example of Christ in sure and certain identity with God as his beloved child does not just happen. And that is why it is so important that the religious and spiritual practice recently set forth in our Anglican/Episcopal tradition recognize baptism for what it was meant to be by the example of Jesus’ baptism and by the example of baptism as it was practiced in the early Church. Unfortunately, baptism became something it was not intended to be as the Church became a world power in the early Middle Ages, and the purpose of baptism became skewed by a theology which developed out of an inaccurate interpretation of today’s gospel. The residue of such baptismal legacies remains with us today making it difficult for any church to stay centered in the intentions of Jesus’ baptism and the practice of baptism in the early Church.
It all began in the fourth century, when the pagan Roman emperor Constantine came to rule world of his time. It happened when he had his own religious epiphany. And that had significant consequences for the Church. In a dream Constantine saw a symbolic vision of Christ leading him to victory in battle and that vision prompted him to require that all citizens of his empire be baptized. Baptism became not so much a new birth and identity in Christ as it became membership in a universal or Catholic Church whose See was established in Rome. Adults were baptized in droves over the next few centuries and by extension baptism made them a citizen of a pseudo religious empire, and one’s identity was formed by those memberships. It was not long before an uncommon practice became a common. After all the adults in the empire were sufficiently baptized, children became the focus of baptism and a new theology supported the necessity for infants to be baptized. That new theology was rooted in an ancient practice of baptism which John was calling people to in his ministry in today’s Gospel. For Jews baptism became a way by which one’s sins could be washed away. The water of baptism would cleanse a person of his sin. So it was that sin became the new necessity for baptism of infants who were thought to born with the original sin of Adam and Eve. Some of you might be old enough to remember a time when after a baby was born to Roman Catholic parent they were not allowed to take the child out of the home until the day of its baptism out of fear that the child might die before it was cleansed of its sin. That theology of baptism is no longer practiced by the Church of Rome, but it still lingers for parents who believe it is a viable reason to have their infants baptized.
Jesus’ baptism, however, was not about the cleansing of sin. Even John new that. He told the people who came to him for baptism that day that Jesus’ baptism would be different. He would be baptized by water and the Spirit. Jesus’ baptism would be about his identity as God’s Son, and how his life would make a difference in the world because of the ways he would reveal God to us. The early church understood the nature and purpose of Jesus’ baptism, and they took it very seriously. The nature of baptism was to form one’s identity as a child of God and a follower of Christ. The purpose of baptism was to prepare you for the religious and spiritual practices which would enable you to live into the promises of your baptism throughout your life. Baptism required a rigorous three-year program of instruction and learning to live by the example of Christ. One would not be baptized if her life did not reflect the desire and commitment for becoming a practicing Christian. People who made it through such a rigorous program for baptism could experience their life changing within them and around them. And when they were brought to Easter Vigil for their baptism, their lives were already formed and transformed in Christ. So we are not surprised that in the time of the early Church pagan citizens or inhabitants of the Roman empire observed Christians to be so different from themselves. Historians record how Christians managed to live difficult lives in peace and loving relationship with each other; they sang a lot and prayed a lot, and they always seemed content. Later when Christians were becoming martyred for their faith, they went to their death with the courage and dignity which became the mark of their baptism. Early Christians were able to live IN the world without being OF the world. Their baptism made a difference in their life and their life made a difference in the world.
The lives of baptized, practicing Christians still make a difference in our world. But the key word in that difference is “practicing.” I can’t tell you how important it is for me to know as a baptized Christian and a priest of the Church that in our Anglican/Episcopal tradition we have returned to many of the practices of the baptism in the early Church. We no longer baptize anyone for the sole purpose of membership in the Church or any other institution. We no longer baptize children to cleanse them of their natural state of sinfulness. In fact, we no longer encourage the baptism of children. Not unless their parents and sponsors show a desire and willingness to uphold the vows of baptism for their children until their children are able to assume them for themselves. We have returned to the notion that baptism is about being formed as a Christian to become a follower of Christ in the world. Being formed in baptism requires that we grow in knowledge and understanding of God and live a after the example of Christ. Formation also requires the development of skill in religious and spiritual practices. The early Church knew that formation is necessary for remembering our baptism; for remembering that we are children of God who belong to God—not to the church or to the state. The early Church knew that formation is important for remembering that we are followers of Christ, not just when it is convenient, but in every moment of our life.
What people need to know when they come for baptism, either their own or the baptism of a child is this: We are baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and that is where where we receive our name and our identity. We recognize that we belong to them. The priest or bishop who baptizes us declares that we are sealed in baptism by the Holy Spirit and we are marked as Christ’s own forever. There is nothing which can undo our baptism. There is no one who can take away our identity as a child of God and a follower of Christ, and there is no one who can keep us from fulfilling all that is possible for our lives. Except for one person—ourself.
There is so much which can keep us from remembering our baptism and how the practice of our baptismal vows can make a difference in our life. There are people who come to be baptized who rarely if ever return to worship in a community of the baptized—well, they will not remember. There are parents who baptize their children and don’t see to it that they attend worship and receive religious instruction to form them in faith and in the practices of their religious tradition—those children will not remember. There are people who do not engage religious and spiritual practices in their personal life—they will not remember. And there are people who will not share with those in need out of the abundance of what God has given them. Gifts of time, talent and skill, money and material resources—they will not remember. (You get my point.) And because they will not remember, they will need to be reminded. But how? And when? And where? That is the great challenge of the Church and it is a huge challenge, given that even practicing Christians like ourselves need to be reminded regularly who we are and who we belong to. That is why on every feast day of the church and at every baptism we renew our baptismal vows. So that we can remember who we are as children of God, and who we might become as baptized Christians and followers of Christ in the world.
In the movie, The Lion King, Mufassa says to his son, “Remember who you are…you are my son…and that will make all the difference in Simba’s life and in his world. Today as we celebrate the baptism of our Lord we remember our own baptism. We remember who we are and who we belong to. And that will make all the difference.