If it is not too indulgent, today I post a sermon I preached on baptism in March 2014.
What has happened here today? What have we witnessed and experienced? Some might say that what has happened here this morning is an ancient initiation rite, it’s the means that the church requires for people to join the club, to become an insider. And this is not untrue. Aimee through her baptism has become part of the body of Christ, a member of God’s people. Some might say that what has happened here this morning is the declaration of what somebody believes, they have announced in public their faith in God. And this is also not untrue. Aimee has made a confession of faith, she was asked four questions and shared her story of why she believes and felt it was right to come to baptism.
But I want to suggest something else has happened here this morning which does not begin with the church or with Aimee, but with God. I want to talk about what baptism does to you and more specifically what God in baptism does to you. So this is a sermon for Aimee, to say something of what has happened to her in the water. This is a sermon for all those here, who are baptised, to say something of what happened to you, when you went into the water. And this is a sermon for those who are here as the curious, to say something of what, as a church, we pray, will be your baptism.
I’ve got six things baptism does to us.
Number one, baptism makes you odd. Now some of you may be thinking Aimee’s always been odd, which I find hard to believe, but if true, baptism makes her odder. Baptism is not a normal part of life, especially believers’ baptism. To be baptised is to be made different, the Bible says we a ‘strangers and aliens’ (1 Pet 2.11) we are different because the baptised person now lives by a different story, with a different purpose and a different Lord. In baptism we identify with the story of Jesus and that story becomes the story of our life it is a story that tells of invitation and challenge, friendship and betrayal, suffering and death, resurrection and hope. The purpose of our life, odd as it may well appear is to tell that story as faithfully as we can because we have declared that Jesus is Lord that as odd as it may sound, Jesus is the key, the point, the centre, the reason, the beginning, the end of everything. Baptism makes you odd.
Number two, baptism means you’ve died. We’ve just witnessed a funeral. We’ve just heard it read. It’s in the Bible: to be baptised is to die – but it is a certain kind of death: it is to die with Christ. And it is a certain kind of funeral: it is to be buried with Christ (Rom 6.4). If that is so, death is no longer something to be feared or something to be denied or something that hangs over over us. Baptism says we have died, death is behind us, life is ahead of us, life in Christ.* Aimee has died, but she has also been raised; she was lifted out of the water, and so she has been lifted out of death to a new life, a life in Christ. Baptism means you’re a “dead person walking.”
Number three, baptism makes you royalty. Now as far as I know Aimee is not a member of the royal family and isn’t married into the royal family. But baptism takes us from being nobodies to being somebodies (1 Pet. 2.10) from being plebs – those in the ancient world who had no status or standing, no name or fame to royalty – those who are children of God, those who are member’s of God’s household, those who are given the royal name of Jesus. Baptism is a coronation we are crowned, we are set apart, we are anointed. Where the world can conspire to make us believe we are worthless, that we are no good, baptism reminds us we are made in God’s image. No ifs or buts, just this is who you are.
Number four, baptism means you’re found. It’s not that we find God, but that he has found us (Luke 19.10). It’s not that we choose God, but that he has chosen us (John 15.16). It’s not that we love God, but that he has first loved us (1 John 4.19). It’s not that Aimee said ‘I want to be baptised’, but that God said ‘Be baptised!’ Baptism gives us a new name ‘I am not.’ I am not the answer to every problem the author of my life, the centre of everything, God is.
The gospel says we’re sick and baptism says I am not the doctor. Jesus is. The gospel says we’re lost and baptism says I am not the detective. Jesus is. The gospel says we’re stuck and baptism says I am not the one who can set free. Jesus is. The gospel says we’re broken and baptism says I am not the one who can mend. Jesus is. Baptism give us a new name ‘I am not, but I know I am’** I am not God, but God knows me: God the creator, the saviour, the finisher, God the author, the rescuer, the healer. Baptism means we’re found.
Number five, baptism marks the beginning of an adventure you’re not in control of. God said to Abraham and Sarah ‘Go.’ Jesus says ‘Follow me.’ After baptism, the question we ask is not what am I going to do with life, but what is God going to do with my life? One pastor said this to one person he had baptised:
“By this act of baptism, we welcome you to a journey that will take your whole life.This isn’t the end. It’s the beginning of God’s experiment with your life. What God will make of you, we know not. Where God will take you, surprise you, we cannot say. This we do know and this we say – God is with you.”*
By being baptised, you’ve made yourself open to God’s call, you’ve become an actor in a drama, that’s been performing for a quite a while and unless Christ returns, will continue after you, but in which, for the rest of your life, you are called to perform the script God is writing for you. This gospel adventure is not one we live alone. All of us who have baptised are in it together, we’re one body being led to offer our lives as a letter of Christ to the world.
Number six, baptism means you’ve got a new wardrobe. Now this isn’t to suggest that Aimee is without fashion sense I’m neither that brave, or, probably more importantly, in any place to be giving out fashion advice. But baptism, says the Bible, is where we get clothed with Christ (Gal 3.27). In the early church, you would have been baptised naked and then as you came out of the waters you would have been give a new robe as a sign and symbol of new life in Christ. The wardrobe in baptism is not a set of clothes – sorry Aimee we’ve got no T-shirt with Jesus on it for you – the wardrobe in baptism is not a set of clothes, but the practice of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience and most importantly, the practice of love (Col 3.12). In baptism we take off and leave behind anger, rage, malice, slander, abusive language, lying and put on the new wardrobe modelled by Christ.
So baptism makes you odd, means you’ve died, makes you royalty, means you’re found, marks the beginning of a life-long adventure you’re not in control and gives you a new wardrobe to wear. That is what’s happened today and at every baptism. That is what God is about: calling, naming, saving, creating a people who know what being human is really about and who exist to tell the world. Today, Jesus says, ‘Aimee, welcome to my world.’ Indeed God’s invitation is always open to everyone to enter this to strange new world of being Christian. May be one of you have heard the summons today. Amen.
* I owe this way of putting things to Kim Fabricus’ sermon ‘Welcome to my world’ http://www.faith-theology.com/2010/07/welcome-to-my-world-baptismal-sermon.html
** I owe this phrase to Louie Giglio, I Am Not, but I Know I Am (2006)
*** Stanley Hauerwas & William Willimon, Resident Aliens (1989), pp.52-53.
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