"Well Pleased" - Sermon, January 12, 2020
Community UMC, Quincy
“Well Pleased”
Rev. Andrew Davis
January 12, 2020
Matthew 3: 13-17
Acts 10: 34-43
As much as I love the services around the season of Advent and Christmas, Epiphany and Baptism of the Lord are among a couple of my favorite services. This might be one of those impossible to answer questions, but how many of you remember your baptism? I wish I could recall mine, although I was an infant, so it’s okay if you don’t remember it. Whether baptized as an infant, youth, or adult, Baptism is one of the most sacred moments in the church and both a solemn and joyous occasion. Solemn in that we come to the water to renounce our sins and to live into a new life in Christ, yet joyous because we are coming into a new life in Christ through the waters of Baptism. Back in the early church, the season of Lent, or forty days before Easter was a time of preparation for Baptism, which included intense preparation and instruction.
During seminary in introduction to Christian worship class, I remember reading an early church document describing a baptism that took place one Easter morning. During the forty days of Lent, the candidates were instructed and taught about the ways of the church and what baptism means. When the big weekend arrived, the candidates gathered the night before Easter, fasting and praying until just before daybreak, when the deacons of the church led the group to the baptistry, a building with a pool of water flowing inside. Once inside the baptistry, the bishop presided over the baptism, as the men and women were separated, stripped naked, then one by one, each were immersed and brought up three times in the water, almost like dying and rising again each time. After emerging from the water, each newly baptized person was anointed with oil, dressed in white garments, then entered the church for worship followed by a grand feast on Easter morning.
Baptism today might not be as elaborate back then it is still a momentous occasion. In our Gospel reading from Matthew this morning, we fast forward some 30-ish years after the Magi’s visit, as Jesus is now grown up and has gone to the wilderness to be baptized by his cousin John. Remember back in December, we encountered John the Baptist as this rough looking dude, proclaiming “prepare the way of the Lord,” followed by a bold statement of “one more powerful coming who will baptize with the spirit?” In today’s reading, we have come full circle, as Jesus, the one more powerful than John has arrived. This short reading from Matthew’s gospel is the only place where we see the conversation with Jesus and John, as John really felt that it should be Jesus baptizing him in verse 14.[i] Yet, Jesus insists that John baptizes him and John does so after Jesus explained that this was to fulfill God’s plan and as an act of solidarity with the people he would ultimately be ministering to. When Jesus says in verse 15, “let it be so for now,”
Now is about the identification with humanity, not about the essential nature of the Christ. Or rather, Christ’s essential nature is about that identification. The “righteousness” he is fulfilling is the righteousness of the mission. I can be who I need to be in this way, perhaps. I can do what I am here to do in this way.[ii]
During his baptism, when Jesus comes up from the water, we encounter this theophany, or physical, direct encounter with God when we see the Holy Spirit descending from the clouds and hearing the voice from heaven saying, “this is my son, with whom I am pleased” (Matt. 3: 15, GNT). God is well pleased with Jesus here and even in our own baptisms, God claims us as God’s child, with whom God is well pleased. In order to stand in solidarity with humanity, Jesus chose to be baptized in the same way as everyone else who came to the wilderness to be baptized by John with water, as Jesus’s baptism would show the Holy Spirit at work.
When we are baptized and sealed by the Holy Spirit, knowing that God is well-pleased, it’s only a beginning and not a means to an end. Baptism puts us on a new journey, as “it’s the relationship [with God] being established in that sacrament – a relationship with the God who pours down grace and a relationship with the community that receives the grace-filled new member of the body of Christ.”[iii]Baptism is meant to be communal, or in the presence of the church, the which is the body of Christ here on earth today. In The United Methodist Church’s official document on Baptism, By Water and the Spirit, it is explained that
Through the work of the Holy Spirit -- the continuing presence of Christ on earth -- the Church is instituted to be the community of the new covenant. Within this community, baptism is by water and the Spirit (John 3:5, Acts 2:38). In God’s work of salvation, the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection is inseparably linked with the gift of the Holy Spirit given on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2). Likewise, participation in Christ’s death and resurrection is inseparably linked with receiving the Spirit (Romans 6:1-11, 8:9-14). The Holy Spirit who is the power of creation (Genesis 1:2) is also the giver of new life. Working in the lives of people before, during, and after their baptisms, the Spirit is the effective agent of salvation. God bestows upon baptized persons the presence of the Holy Spirit, marks them with an identifying seal as God’s own, and implants in their hearts the first installment of their inheritance as sons and daughters of God (2 Corinthians 1:21-22). It is through the Spirit that the life of faith is nourished until the final deliverance when they will enter into the fullness of salvation (Ephesians 1:13-14).[iv]
When we receive the water of Baptism, we are washed of our sins and experience one of the several means of God’s grace, as baptism is a new beginning that can be re-affirmed, but not repeated. I’ve been asked a couple times about re-baptizing and the simple answer is that baptism is a one-time event because this act of God’s grace cannot be undone. However, we can re-affirm our baptism. For children who were baptized as infants or young children, when they are old enough to speak for themselves, can re-affirm their baptism through confirmation after a period of instruction and learning about the church. And like confirmation, when the time comes for my ordination, it will be another re-affirmation of my baptism just as commissioning by Bishop Carcaño as a provisional elder was a re-affirmation of my baptism a couple years ago, or confirmation 24 years ago.
This morning, as we remember Jesus’s baptism, remember that God is well pleased with you, God gives you another chance through baptism. At this time, we have this opportunity to remember your baptism by coming forward, then dipping your fingers into the water in the baptismal shell if you wish to do so. If you have yet to be baptized, I would love to talk about baptism if you are interested in being baptized. There are signup sheets on each side of the shell, in which I encourage you to leave your contact information so we can set a time to have a conversation. Let us take out the insert in your bulletin as we remember our baptism and our common ministry…
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