BAPTISM OF JESUS - (1ST SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY)

TEXT: GOSPEL of LUKE 3: 15-22

IN THE NAME OF GOD: CREATOR, PAINBEARER AND SPIRIT OF LIFE AND LOVE.

“kalee-mera!” “Ti kan-etay?”

You are all looking slightly vague and perplexed!!!

Your response should be – either “kala” (fine) or “etsi ketsi” (so –so)

Perhaps it’s all Greek to you? Well that’s just what it is!

When Meredith and I travelled in Greece in 2008 we had to recite these and other phrases as we travelled along. They did come in useful – I must say. People respond positively when they see an attempt to use their language – no matter how bad the accent! This applies especially in France where it is imperative to differentiate oneself from the English tourist. Greeks are much more laid back and frankly opportunistic when it comes to meeting foreign tourists – it’s also surprising how many people speak perfect English. That aside however, it’s always good to address people in their own tongue if at all possible – It puts aside much of the arrogance often displayed by the ignorant archetypal tourist who thinks that if one speaks slowly and loudly enough in English - often with a funny accent, the poor hearer will understand.

I felt led to speak about language today in the light of this being the day when the church celebrates Jesus’ baptism. In reflecting on this word which is so familiar to us all I realised that it was not an English word at all but GREEK! Hence my greeting in Greek!

In ordinary everyday secular usage ‘baptizein’ or ‘baptisma’ translates to English as “to dip” or “to plunge”. In the passive it is used in the sense of “be drowned”, or to” sink”.

It’s hardly surprisingly the word found its way into Christianity and hence the English language via John the Baptist. John’s practice of plunging his converted into the waters of the river Jordan gave him his nickname – “the Baptist”. The practice was utilised by the early Christian church as an initiation rite and hence the word came into our vocabulary. John Baptised, as we are told, “for the forgiveness of sins”. It was a Jewish symbolic washing away of guilt arising from a person’s perceived wrongdoing.

It soon came to mean more than that, however, as the early church assumed it as their rite of initiation and a public indication of a conversion to what became known as “the way” of Jesus.

There is no doubt that in, and before the early church, the rite was confined to responsible adult persons who had indicated their acceptance of the teachings of John and then Jesus as interpreted by the early church apostles such as Paul and others.

In the mid 50’s Paul writes in Romans, Galatians and 1 Corinthians concerning baptism but tantalisingly for us, offers no explanation. His readers and hearers knew what he was talking about.

It is also in the little book called “The Didache” which, published around 80ce, sets out the practices of the early church. Sadly we can but guess at detail whilst trying to piece together the jigsaw puzzle.

Without getting involved in a deep theological discussion I would suggest that there are two ends of the spectrum of Baptism. On one end we have a rite involving water and which is definitely a human initiated action.

On the other we have God’s involvement in the form of bestowed grace. A theologian by the name of James Dunn states that the initiative for baptism is human. Philip Tolliday from the Adelaide College of Divinity and Flinders University agrees, stating that God’s “divine action is of a different kind” to that of the human component and not in competition or conflict.

So, baptism was for adults, was an initiatory rite, was unrepeatable and set a person into the church community. It brings about a “rebirth” in the candidate – a regeneration. The ancient Tertullian observed, “Christians are made – not born”.

Baptism is a sacrament of the church – it is not magical – it is meant to be a public initiatory rite – which is why I believe baptism should only be administered within the regular service of the church and in the midst of the Christian community.

So called “private’ baptisms are in direct conflict with this and are, in my opinion, to be strenuously avoided. The presence of the church community is needed as it is the community that is asked to respond “WE WILL” to the question, “You have heard these brothers and sisters respond to Christ. Will you support them in this calling?” The community is a vital and integral part of the service.

Baptism is also an action closely bound with daily human life – and it is symbolic of and demands a change. It can be seen as the human response to gracious and undeserved forgiveness. The act of pouring the water is an indication of ‘living water’ – water that is in motion rather than still and dead – and symbolic of the ‘Living water” mentioned by Jesus.

The Gospel reading today raises another interesting point. John is reported as saying that Jesus will not baptise with water but with the Holy Spirit and fire – This perhaps being a reference to the day of Pentecost experience when this same writer of Luke describes a scene where tongues of fire seemed to appear on the gathered disciples resulting in a resurgence of courage and purpose that took them into the streets effectively preaching Jesus as having been the very revelation of God to humanity.

Today many communities of the charismatic evangelical persuasion maintain that they must see the evidence of the Holy Spirit’s presence in a person in the form of untranslatable language and other psychological phenomena, as evidence of the baptism by and presence of the Holy Spirit.

That interpretation is one with which I cannot agree. I have no doubt that such overt demonstrations have their source in the psychological disturbance of susceptible people. Of course, you are entitled to disagree with me.

I however would prefer to search for evidence of the deep inner peace of mind, and the strength to face life’s inevitable challenges that only the spirit of God can bring into a life. This is something that does not ‘magically appear’ as a result of some human initiated rite. It is something that comes, sometimes dramatically, sometimes slowly over time, to settle like a refreshing morning mist that comes with the long awaited change after days of dry heatwave.

As I see it, the value that is to be found in baptism, particularly of an infant, is not some perceived ‘magic’ but a resounding call for the family and the community to support that person and ensure that all possible is done to surround them with the love that is found in the spirit of God and should be found in the church community.

Sadly we all too often fail abysmally in this regard.

Let me remind you of the exhortation from the Prayer book for Australia which is said during the gathering and preparation segment of the Baptism service;

Baptism is the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ.

When he had risen from the dead, he commanded his followers to go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. We have come together to obey that command. Baptism with water signifies the cleansing from sin that Jesus’ death makes possible, and the new life that God gives us through the Holy Spirit.

In baptism, the promises of God are visibly signed and sealed for us. We are joined to Christ, and made members of his body, the Church universal.

So it’s not about the rite itself – the pouring of water over the head of a person – or the immersion of a person into water – it’s more about the question that is difficult to answer. That is, has God here acted in a human life? Has the spirit of God come into that person’s life – not as a result of some magic that a human has performed in a rite – but as a result of humble prayer arising from a genuine desire to turn around an unsatisfactory and unsatisfying life?

So as evidenced in Acts 10 the dynamic is from the Spirit towards baptism rather than out of baptism emerges the spirit. Here is the question then,” How may we better recognize the grace of God in a human life?”

The answer is not about judging another person at all. It is rather being able to recognise what Paul called ‘the fruits of the spirit’ in Galatians 5: 22 - Love, Joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

There would appear to be no difficulty in recognising such traits in any person. There is no doubt that out of this comes a mighty challenge to us all. We might well have been subjected to or subjected ourselves to the rite of baptism but are we able to confidently assert that the spirit of God resides in us?

Food for thought!

The Lord be with you!

John the Baptist

IN THE NAME OF GOD – CREATOR, PAINBEARER AND SPIRIT OF LIFE AND LOVE.

3rd Sunday of Advent 2009

John the Baptist (or Baptiser) – what a character!

His ministry pre-dates the work and ministry of Jesus.

Here John is portrayed as an Old Testament prophet in the style of Isaiah and Jeremiah.

In fact he is the last of the Old Testament prophets – when Jesus came upon the scene there was to be no going back – no returning to the old ways of the law and the prophets for the people of Israel.

They were offered another way – an alternative to the rigours of the Torah.

If we look back into last week’s reading we see in verse 3 that John was in the vicinity of the Jordan river ‘proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins’. The text of the ancient prophet Isaiah in chapter 40 is quoted - “all flesh shall see the salvation of God”.

The salvation of God was not to be limited to a select few – not the religious elite – not the king and the aristocracy – but ‘all flesh’ – everyone – of high estate or of no estate – rich or poor – the whole gamut of humanity.

The ‘salvation of God’ that John was talking about offered a chance to start life anew – to clear the decks of the mind and conscience from the accumulated detritus of wrong-doing and careless living. To put aside the things that were troubling the conscience and dragging the person down into the depths of remorse and possibly depression.

Here was a chance to be helped up – to be able to stand again on one’s own two feet and renew relationships in a re-invigorated life.

John was dealing here with the lower end of society – the poor (whose poverty would make our poor of the 21st Century look rich) – the bent tax collectors who had the reputation of extracting more than was required and pocketing the difference – and the Jewish mercenary soldiers working within the Roman army who often ‘stood over’ people and bullied them into giving protection money (and we think Al Capone of the 1920’s had invented something new!).

Let’s make no mistake – these were generally an unsavoury lot – people about whom you would think very hard before inviting them into your home.

They did have their traditions and hopes though.

It’s all very contemporary. “Surely God will accept us as we are Jews – the chosen people of God!’ it doesn’t matter about our lifestyles – it doesn’t matter that we are a bit crooked – it doesn’t matter that we hardly have enough to get by and feed our families – we are all descended from Abraham – the Abraham who received the promises from God that his descendants would be favoured for ever”.

John’s instruction to these people is all too clear.

John is scathing – ‘God is able to from these stones to raise up children to Abraham”.

Don’t think you are anything special – God will judge you not on your ancestry or place in human society but on who you really are underneath all that.

I am reminded that the author of this gospel of Luke also wrote the Acts of the Apostles – remember the scene in acts where peter addressed a derisive crowd on the morning of Pentacost?

He preached a sermon that would be the envy of any aspiring preacher and evangelist – the result – Acts 2: 37 – “they (the people) were cut to the heart and said to peter and the other Apostles, “brothers, what should we do?”

This phrase – ‘what should we do?’ is repeated here by the people listening to John.

But what strikes me most powerfully about this piece of the gospel is the virulent attack by John on these people as they came to seek him out.

He abuses them in the most violent language possible. There is nothing genteel here! How often we Anglicans want to close our eyes at this sort of language?

It doesn’t belong in church! It is offensive in the extreme – we don’t use language like that – one doesn’t swear in church!

During the course of the last 2000 years the church has carefully wrapped the Gospel stories and Jesus in particular in many layers of cotton wool. The base reality of these stories and situations has long been forgotten – it was dirty and people smelt!!

John’s attack comes because he knew these people were not genuine in their approach to him. They came because they had seen others come and thought that ‘we might as well join in’. They came because it seemed like a bit of fun at the time - they came because they were curious about this amazing spectacle of a ludicrous eccentric who seemed to be ranting about some new way that was to come.

People still attempt to come to God today – they think that maybe God is to be found in the church so they timidly come into church and more often than not sit quietly at the back so as not to become too involved in something they either do not understand or only have vague memories of from a distant childhood. They often come at major festival times which are widely known in what is now the post-Christian community of Adelaide.

The festivals of Easter and more so Christmas are so widely celebrated and commercialised that people cannot fail to become aware of them.

Christmas particularly appeals. The lovely gentle story of a woman giving birth in a stable surrounded by animals – shepherds in the fields – wise kings from the east – angels singing in the heavens – guiding stars – what more could we want for the ingredients of a beautiful story - very appealing!

So some people will be intrigued and want to find out a bit more – they gather their courage and come into church.

What is the response from us who own this story that people want to know more of?

In our genteel age of political correctness and fear of litigation it would be most rare to see the reaction that John dished out to the crowd in the story this morning – we don’t turn on these seekers with violent words of abuse – we don’t tell them to – ‘get out and go away as you are not worthy to be here in this church – you are not one of us’!

No - we have a much more subtle approach – we can simply ignore them – treat them with coolness – they are different after all – not one of us.

Or there is another approach – we take them aside and quietly tell them all the problems that our church community is currently struggling with – basically saying in effect – “you won’t want to become involved with all this –the priest is a ratbag – the church council is trying to rebuild the old hall and we don’t have the money – Mrs so and so is nothing but a hypocrite – etc etc.

The crowd berated by John were not to be intimidated however – they were not to be put off. They hung around and in genuine repentance asked what they should be doing. John told them in no uncertain terms.

His answer did not require them to renounce anything in their lives nor to enter into some sort of ascetic lifestyle. They were not asked to undertake a pilgrimage to some shrine nor go to the temple and make expensive sacrifices. No, God’s kingdom was to be available to them there and then – all they needed was to have faith and to understand what was really sacred in life – their relationship with others and with God could be mended.

The answer was all too easy – “share –even if you have little – be fair and honest in all your dealings – don’t use the power given to you to intimidate others for your own advantage – don’t bully!

It did not mean that they had to become heroes – it was something they could do. It was something, when you think about it, that anyone can do. That means it is something that we can do, too.

Does it not concern you that our churches are at best stable in numbers but more likely set on a gentle downward slope? Can we dare ask ourselves the hard questions that are so discomforting?

That is, why have the strangers who have dared to come into our midst not remained to become one of our communities – why is our church not growing? Why have we seen families come and then disappear without word or further comment?

Is it because they could not find God here? We are comfortable in the knowledge that our God is here but is that the God of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth – the all welcoming and all-embracing and loving God we wish we knew better? It’s a good question isn’t it?

I ask you to pray with me that this Christmas season will see our hearts opened to welcome the stranger who comes into our midst.

If you should think about this selfishly – our rewards will be great and our community can only be richly blessed.

The Lord be with you!