God Doesn't Forget
Lord of the Flood, was us with your Spirit that we may be your ark of life, your peace in the sea of violence. Water is life; water cleans; water kills. Frightened, we are tempted to make a permanent home one the ark. But you force us to seek dry ground. We can do so only because you have taught us to cling to our baptisms, where we are drowned and reborn by the water and fire of your Spirit. So, reborn, make us unafraid. Amen. - Stanley Hauerwas, Prayers Plainly Spoken
My mom tells me I was baptized at Faith United Methodist Church in Rockville, MD. I have not set foot in that church in over 30 years. I do not remember playing in the nursery of Faith UMC or being shushed in the sanctuary. I could not tell you where the baptismal font is placed in the sanctuary. I have no idea during which worship service I was baptized or what songs the choir sang.
I do not remember my baptism.
This is not an uncommon confession for those of us baptized as infants or children. Many of us do not remember our parents’ pledge to nurture us “in Christ’s holy church,” or the congregation’s response to “surround us with a community of love and forgiveness” so that we might grow in our service to others. I do not remember the water dripping into my eyes.
Was I sprinkled or a pour-over?
Did I cry?
Today, reading Matthew’s account of Jesus’ baptism, we remember our own. During this impromptu therapy session with you this morning it seems ridiculous to ask you to remember your baptism if you cannot remember what you did last week, year, or a decade, let alone remember the when and where of being baptized. In asking you to remember your baptism and be thankful, are Pastor Ed and I being unfair and setting unrealistic expectations? Are we inviting you to lie during worship? To lie in the sanctuary?
The gospels disagree on a lot of things. Details of events - location and timing - do not match from book to book. Entire events are contradicted or worse, omitted altogether. All four of the gospels do tell us Jesus was baptized by John alongside empire colluding tax collectors, thieves, and religious hypocrites.
The Gospel of John leaves out the Nativity and Mark leaves out Easter. Matthew and Luke add to what Mark left out while John is off doing his own thing. But all four of the gospels agree on Jesus’ baptism and crucifixion.
Jesus arrived at the banks of the Jordan River and asked John to baptize him. John’s response to the first words spoken by Jesus recorded in the Gospel of Matthew reflect John’s understanding of who Jesus is:
“‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’”
Icon of the Theophany of the Lord
John had been calling people to repent - to turn away from their sins and towards the righteousness of God. John’s invitation was to a human act. John’s offering of baptism in the Jordan River was a symbolic act and would not make you righteous before God. As the waters of John’s baptism washed over the recipients the weight and guilt of their sins remained.
John knew who Jesus was.
John knew Jesus was without sin.
John knew Jesus was righteous - the righteous one.
Jesus was insistent that he be baptized by John, not because Jesus needed to repent and turn towards God but because he was the righteous one, the one without sin and his baptism would “fulfill righteousness,” fulfill our need for righteousness. The judgment preached by John - “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near… His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” - this judgment is precisely what Jesus took upon himself as the water in the Jordan passed over his body. Entering into the Jordan River, Jesus entered into the depth of our unrighteousness. In doing so, the connection between his baptism and death - the two things all four gospels agree on - becomes clearer as Jesus emerged from the water and began his ministry.
Assuming our unrighteousness upon himself, Jesus will take our unrighteousness with him to the cross - by the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection, Christ has done for us that which we were and continues to be unable to do for ourselves.
We have been made righteous.
We are right before God.
Our justification began in the Jordan River and was realized on the cross when Jesus died for the empire colluders, thieves, and religious hypocrites. John’s baptism of repentance was about soliciting a pardon for us from God. Jesus baptism and our baptism into his death and resurrection is about the work completed by God. The waters of baptism are not a solicitation, no, we are celebrating that in Christ we have received the pardon we could have only hoped for and have claimed the name beloved child of God.
The water we sprinkle or plunge into may look sentimental. After all, on most Sundays our baptismal font is well-places so family photos catch the sun shining from the east side of the building. But this water is outrageous - the grace extended to us and to others is offensive. Attached to these waters, so much that it cannot be strained or filtered, is that because you have been baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection you are forgiven.
You are clean.
You are righteous.
Your sins, all of them, including that one you cannot forgive yourself for committing, has been washed away.
It is done.
Once and for all.
For everything, full stop.
No asterisk.
No, if/then prerequisites.
Because you have been baptized into Christ you are no longer your sin.
You are no longer what sin and death call you.
In these waters, God has clothed you with the righteousness of Christ and given you a full pardon. Not because of the one doing the sprinkling or pouring but because Christ took your, took my unrighteousness upon himself, was nailed to the cross, walked out of the empty tomb, leaving our sin and unrighteousness behind.
Professor James Torrance put it best:
“But it is not the water, not the church, not the minister, not my faith, not my dying and rising, which forgives and heals. It is Christ who has done this for us and in us by the Spirit. So we are baptized ‘in the name of Christ’ - not our own name - and we are baptized into a life of union with Christ, of dying and rising with Christ, in a life of communion.”
I remember my kids’ baptism - Camden in February 2014 at Aldersgate United Methodist Church and Nora in November 2018 here at Mount Olivet. I remember pouring water over their heads and making the sign of the cross on their foreheads. I remember pledging to nurture each of them “in Christ’s holy church.” I remember their cries and I have pictures in my office.
On Friday I spoke with the Pastor of Faith United Methodist Church. Rev. Norvell told me I was baptized on August 19, 1984. I was not yet two months old. After talking with Rev. Norvell, no memories were jogged and I did not expect them to be.
Not remembering our actual baptism is squared when we remember that the water we entered into and the pastor pouring, sprinkling, and praying was not the point. In your baptism, you were raised to new life in Christ. You received the pardon, not because of anything you did or because the correct prayer and words were spoken. Not because of the severity of your sins or lack of, no, you have been pardoned and made clean because of everything Christ has done for you. The grace you have received begins exactly where you and others tell you it should end.
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