January 10, 2010: The Baptism of Jesus
The Rev. Connie Reinhardt
So: who here was baptized as an infant? That would be most of us. This means that we had no say in whether we were baptized. Here’s a question for you: why were you baptized – why do you think your parents/godparents decided to baptize you?
Some possible answers:
It’s what they were supposed to do;
It’s tradition; It’s just what you do.
Popular in past generations, It’s an inoculation against hell. Or is it limbo?
But there are some better answers. Like. . . baptism is an act of love, of wanting to share with one’s child the gift that one has received– the gift of faith, the gift of a relationship with God, and a community. I know I’m glad my parents had me baptized because it started me on a journey of faith that has ended up here – and this is a good and blessed place to be.
I have another question for us: what happens when one is baptized? What do you think transpires in that moment and process of baptism?
Here’s what the baptismal liturgy from our prayer book says happens: in the water of baptism, “we are buried with Christ in his death; we share in his resurrection; we are reborn by the Holy Spirit.” That’s a lot, if you think about it: being buried with Christ, being raised with Christ, being reborn by the Holy Spirit. It’s a very metaphorical and significant way to talk about this entry onto a spiritual path, that happens in our baptism. And it happens, we believe, by water and the Holy Spirit - these are the means through which the gifts of baptism are bestowed upon us. Something happens as we participate in this sacrament, something that the water symbolizes, this recognition that the Holy Spirit lives in us, breathes in us. I always find deeply meaningful the act of making the sign of the cross in the sacred oil on the head of the newly baptized and saying, ‘you are sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever.’
It’s clear that whatever happens in baptism, the Holy Spirit is a key player. And this is true not just in our Episcopal liturgy, but also in our holy scriptures. Each of the gospels references Jesus’ baptism - in more or less detail - and all four agree that when Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit came upon him.
Here’s Luke’s description of this moment: “the heavens opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus like a dove, and a voice came from heaven saying ‘You are my son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
Now baptism is a sacrament in our church, which means that it is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. The outward sign is the water; the inward grace is the gift of the Holy Spirit. Our liturgy is very clear about this, and the scriptures are as well . . . more or less. Because there’s an interesting exception to this connection of baptism and Holy Spirit which can be found in today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles. Here’s what this morning’s lesson from Acts tells us: “When the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. The two went down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit (for as yet the Spirit had not come upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus). Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.”
So what’s up with this?
The people of Samaria are baptized – but they didn’t receive the Holy Spirit? They were only baptized in the name of Jesus? What’s that about? It seems odd.
Now, this is going to seem like a non sequitur, but stay with me:
Is there anyone here besides me who was not allowed to take Holy Communion until they were confirmed? Lots of us. Does anyone know why? Well, the church doesn’t do this anymore, but it used to be that baptism was only step 1 – you were baptized, generally as an infant, but you couldn’t receive Communion until step 2 – confirmation. As if the baptismal act were not complete until confirmation, as if baptism was only about the water, and confirmation was the giving of the Holy Spirit. Thankfully the church went back to the earlier Christian tradition of baptism as full initiation – once and for all, complete unto itself.
But it does bring up a question: why the split in this Acts lesson? The people are baptized in the name of Jesus, but don’t receive the Holy Spirit until Peter and John lay hands on them. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, and there isn’t a clear and obvious answer from the scriptures. The best we could say perhaps is that we know there are a variety of ways in Acts in which the Holy Spirit is given. It happens with baptism; it happens without baptism; it happens after baptism. What we know for sure is that the Spirit is always present and always part of the process; and according to our faith tradition, baptism and the Holy Spirit come in a package, both at once.
We receive the Holy Spirit in baptism, and we renew and reawaken the Spirit in us throughout our lives of faith. The Holy Spirit is an essential part of our faith, our lives, our church, because it enlivens our community and continually breathes new life into us, God’s people, and us, God’s community: the Spirit sustains our very existence as a community of faith.
The Holy Spirit is essential to our faith, to baptism, and also to confirmation – even though we no longer practice confirmation as the completion of baptism. Rather, we understand confirmation as the affirmation of our baptism – when we are baptized as infants, in confirmation we make for ourselves the promises our parents and godparents made on our behalf. We’ve just begun a new confirmation class at St. George’s, the largest class since I’ve been here, with eleven students. Four of them are previously confirmed and are re-affirming their commitment, and the others will be confirmed or received in May.
Technicalities about confirmation, reception, and reaffirmation aside, there is something about the prayers at those rites that are revealing when it comes to what we believe and know about the Holy Spirit.
The prayer for confirmation says this: ‘strengthen O Lord your servant with your Holy Spirit; empower her or him for your service and sustain her all the days of her life.’ The prayer for reaffirmation goes like this: ‘May the Holy Spirit, who has begun a good work in you, direct and uphold you in the service of Christ and his kingdom.’
Listen for what we are asking the Holy Spirit to do when we confirm or reaffirm: strengthen us; empower us for service; sustain us all the days of our lives; direct us; uphold us in the service of Christ. These are big things. Strengthen, empower, sustain, direct, uphold. Big verbs. And not just actions that the Holy Spirit takes in confirmation or reaffirmation. True, the act of going through the confirmation process will make a difference in the lives of faith of the eleven who are choosing this path at this time. But aren’t these actions of the Holy Spirit things that we also want for all of us, and for our entire church community? We want God, through the Holy Spirit, to empower each one of us for service. We want God, through the Holy Spirit, to sustain us and our community. We want God, through the Holy Spirit, to direct us and our church. And we want God, through the Holy Spirit, to uphold us, support us, in our service to Christ. These are big things. These are things that can change us and can help St. George’s as we enter this next phase of our life together.
Today is the Sunday after the Epiphany, the year of our Lord two thousand and ten. We have just come through a year of merger exploration and all it taught us about ourselves; Jesus was just born again to us at Christmas, and we have just started the season of Epiphany, the season of light, with this story of Jesus’ baptism and the reminder of our own – and the reminder of the power of the Holy Spirit, in our lessons and in our liturgy. As we enter this new year and this new season, perhaps we are being encouraged to call up on the Holy Spirit for us, for St. George’s, for our future, as we strive to live into our baptism and draw on the gifts the Spirit gives us. Amen.
