Baptized into what?

Baptized into what?

Back in the day of the gospel reading, the world is a mess, the gap between rich and poor is unconscionable, the religious leaders and institutions are self-serving, and the people haven’t had a decent prophet in generations….prophet: one who proclaims God’s word to reclaim God’s people.   Then comes John the Baptist – he clearly fits the prophet mold, and we hear they are “expectant and questioning” as they gather together….expectant that God is up to something and wondering, questioning, if John might be more than a prophet, he might be the messiah God has promised.

When we gather, do we come expectant and wondering?  Open to possibilities or new insights? Or have we, as the religious people and institution, become self satisfied and self serving?   Have we succumbed to comfort and forgotten to expect God to act and be ready to participate in that action?

And into this hubbub of politics and spiritual yearning steps Jesus.  As far as we know, so far he hasn’t done anything miraculous, he hasn’t taught or preached or led people into a new movement.   He just steps into the water to be baptized, ordinary guy, just like everyone else.

It was “While he was praying” that something unusual happened….heaven opened, vision of a dove descending on him, and a voice comes from nowhere.   While he was praying…..Chris told us last week that it is often in prayer, even simple silent contemplation, that we have an experience of the holy.  Clearly so for Jesus.

Only Luke mentions this act of praying.   In Mark’s and Matthew’s gospels, it’s the act of baptism that spawns the vision….in the gospel of John, it’s not Jesus’ vision at all, but John’s.  

Before we know much about this character Jesus, before we know anything dogmatic or doctrinal, we know of two spiritual experiences he has: baptism and prayer.

Seems to me we could base our faith on those two things, and stop fighting about all the other details of doctrine that the church has created over the centuries.  Experience of God is far more significant than knowledge about God……the experience of baptism and the experience of prayer are more than enough to keep our spiritual lives growing and to offer our world healing.

You see, the faith life is about relationship, not doctrine, both relationship with the Divine and with one another in community.   Jesus was baptized into a relationship made public: you are my son, I love you, you give me pleasure.    This echoes lots of stuff in the Hebrew Bible that would have been familiar, including today’s reading from Isaiah: God says I created you, name you, honour you, love you; you are precious to me.   And I promise I will be with you, and be active in your life.

Relationship.   That’s what we’re baptized into….to a life lived—and lived out-- in the cosmic energy of God’s love.

And experiencing prayer is one way we can keep that relationship growing—not just private prayer, but worshipful prayer in community, but that’s a whole other sermon.

When I asked one of our small groups this week what their baptism meant to them, in terms of how they live their life, they said things like

Being brought IN: Belonging to a community …..companionship, so I am not alone…. into courage ……being brought OUT:  out of fear….out of the desire to fit in or be liked….….freedom from burden …washed and given a new identity

 I have the same question for you…if you haven’t been baptized, what stops you? But for those who are baptized what does it mean, in terms of how you live YOUR life?  I know many of you were baptized as infants, and may have been taught ABOUT Jesus, but so what?  How do you live out that identity, that relationship with the Divine?

Take a moment or two of silence, and think about that….could you come up with a sentence, or even a phrase, that you could state if someone asked you why you are baptized?   (silence)

At the beginning of a new calendar year, here is water – we are invited into wondering, questioning, expecting God to be at work, just like those who gathered by the Jordan river.   We yearn to belong, to hear God call us beloved, precious, we long to have purpose as God’s people.   So we offer one this opportunity to reaffirm, or to affirm for the first time, even in the midst of questions and uncertainty about dogma, to say yes to our primary relationship with the Divine, yes to being beloved and precious, to say yes to the Jesus life, yes to the call out of religiosity and into faith. 

Ritual questions and instructions…..