1-13-08

I love dove Sunday. It is nice to remember our baptisms of the previous year, and to give those families a keepsake, something visible and tangible, as well as adorable, to remind them of their baptism. I remind you it is Donna Dawson who makes our doves, and I thank her for her time and talent.

It is not by accident that we celebrate our dove Sunday at the top of a new year and during the season of Epiphany. You see, Epiphany as a season is associated with two events. We covered the one event last Sunday, the revelation of the Christ child to the Wise Men.

The other event which is tied to Epiphany, more strongly by the Orthodox Church than the Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches, but, hey, we are all family, is the baptism of Jesus.

So feel good about ourselves as we continue to be liturgically correct around here, aligning our lives with the Christian calendar year, as centuries of saints have done before us. May their cloud of witness shine down upon us.

This is the Second Sunday of Epiphany, and we look at the baptism of our Lord. Admittedly, this is moving quite quickly through the life of Jesus. From the magi of last week who arrived with their gifts on the thirteenth day of the Lord's life, to the Lord's baptism as an adult today, we have gone from infant to adult in a week.

We can surmise, I believe correctly, the point of Matthew's Gospel is not Jesus' childhood, though the birth is a blessed beginning, but his adulthood. Matthew wants us to know what Jesus did with his adult life. Which is good news for some of us, and some of your children - Jesus was a late bloomer also.

Each of the four gospels tells the story of Jesus' baptism. This is not true with many of the events of Jesus' life. Some gospels record one thing and others another. But of the baptismal beginning, as well as the cross, they all agree. This is what the gospels have most in common.

The baptism is told in some detail, indicating the significance of the event. There is this curious exchange between John the baptizer and Jesus, where John tries to decline his role, saying, "I am the one who should be baptized by you. And yet you come to me."

This was the church's way of clarifying an early debate. You see, in the earliest church there were still disciples of John running around saying John was bigger than Jesus. You know, the "my dad can beat your dad" kind of comment. Arguable if you think about John's death.   John, too, was martyred, even more dramatically, his head served on a platter for calling the conduct of King Herod into question.

But this baptismal exchange makes clear that John understands his unworthiness before Jesus, and that John accepts Jesus as Lord, and his own role as "preparer of the way," even if later some of John's disciples debate this.

But the importance of the baptism is not the Jesus-John relationship, though it is curious and touching, inasmuch as their mothers were cousins and pregnant together with their sons. But this is not the point, only a side light that the early church chose to address.

Nor are the specifics as to how the baptism went down a big deal. Did John dunk Jesus, or just sprinkle him?    If it was important, we would have been given the details, though we can presume the gospel author's original audience needed no explanation as to this Hebrew cleansing custom which John was performing, for as Jews they would have known it.

No, the important thing about the baptism is what happened following the baptism. And on this all four gospels agree. They each say at the conclusion of the baptism, "The heavens opened up, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus like a dove. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."

This is what was really important. This is what Jesus must have talked about. Which is why all four gospels can agree on this, because Jesus told his disciples about it, which is how they knew. Remember, none of them were there. It was not the mechanics of the baptism which was important, sprinkled or dunked, young or old, let the church argue about that later. It was the meaning of the baptism which was important, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."

What we have here in the baptism is a crowning or a commissioning or a calling, if you will. Or better yet, a naming and a claiming. With the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus like a dove, God is naming Jesus, "This is my Son, the Beloved" and God is claiming Jesus, "with whom I am well pleased." This is an anointing ceremony, the Hebrews knew about that, or better this is an adoption ceremony. I know about this. God is naming and claiming Jesus.

Your baptism is the same. Whether sprinkled or dunked, whether infant or adult, our baptism is the same. It is a commissioning, a calling, a naming and a claiming by God.

There was a fire one night at the St. Charles Street Christian Church in New Orleans. After it was extinguished, the battalion chief was surveying the damage inside the sanctuary. Now bear in mind, this is a Christian or Disciples of Christ Church, like Central Christian Church here in town, with whom we shared facilities in the early 1970s before moving here. The Disciples believe in adult baptism by immersion.

Anyway, the battalion chief, shuffling around in the smoke-filled sanctuary, is inspecting the ceiling with a flashlight, when he trips over the baptistery and plunges into the water. Outside, dripping wet, he sees the fire department chaplain, and asks, "Father, what kind of church is this?" To which the chaplain replies, "Disciples of Christ."   "Well," says the chief, "I don't know anything about the Disciples of Christ, but I guess I am one of them now."

Which is not a bad definition of baptism. In baptism we become "one of them." Now by "one of them" I do not mean a Disciple or a Presbyterian, a Catholic or a Congregationalist. But we become "one of them," a follower of the Way, commissioned and called to be a Christian.
Later in life we can choose which denomination.   Baptism is into the church universal, where God chooses us. This is what happened to Jesus. "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased." Jesus is chosen by God. Again, I say, adopted.

And "immediately," as our gospels tell us, "immediately" following his naming and claiming, Jesus is sent out into the wilderness for forty days and forty nights to figure out what this means and find out if he is up to the call. Will he serve God or, as tempted, will he serve himself as God's beloved son?

Our baptism is no different. Like Jesus, we are named and claimed by God, a beloved son, a beloved daughter. We receive our Christian adoption, which is salvific, an eighty cent theological word meaning it saves us from sin, a self-absorbed, self-indulgent life separated from God.

It does not matter when it happens, whether as a child or as an adult. It does not matter where it happens, whether in church or down by the riverside. It does not matter how it happens, whether sprinkled or immersed. The meaning is the same. We are named, claimed, called, and commissioned to new life as a child of God.

It may take a while for us to discover this. It may come as a surprise. We may not even want it. We may say, "I don't buy this." Or "I'm too busy."

But the fact remains, if we are baptized, we are named and claimed, once and for all.   It means there is a reason for us to be here - greater than ourselves. It means there is a purpose for our life - greater than ourselves. It means God has something for us to do - greater than ourselves.

It may not always be pleasant. It may not always be convenient. And it may take us to places and actions we would not otherwise do.

For we are called to care, to share, and to show the world God's love. This is what pleases God. That we would do God's will. Of course, there is always the temptation not to do God's will.

A college English professor assigned an essay to his freshman class, five hundred words, "Why did you come to college?" He was generally disappointed in the papers, with the most frequent response being "to get a good job and make money" with "to party and have a good time" a close second.

Two of the papers stood out, however. Though both were written in rather rough English, both in vocabulary and grammar, neither paper wrote about riches or pleasures. Instead they wrote about what it meant to be a human being. That humans were not just a bundle of appetites, but that we have dreams and visions beyond ourselves.

In addition, both papers said we have an obligation to the world to contribute something good. One of them concluded with these words, "May God help me, and strengthen me mentally, physically, and spiritually, so as to become a fruitful citizen, and to help my country and my people."

The professor said he was both impressed and disturbed by this, for the two papers were written by the only two foreign students in the class, one from Angola and the other from Lebanon.

He was disappointed the American students seemed to have no vision, no sense that their life was claimed for a higher calling, a purpose that was greater than themselves and not of their own choosing. Instead they believed they were on earth to do whatever they wanted to do.

The foreign students seemed to have a different take on life. They accepted a higher authority than themselves, and sought a purpose that contributed to the greater good.

As Christians we ought to understand this. For in our baptism we are named and claimed to count for something, and that something is greater than ourselves.

We hand out doves that we might remember this. For God does not name us and claim us "once upon a time." God names us and claims us for every time, for every new year and every new day, calling us to the best life we have to offer, for "we are God's beloved children, with whom God is well pleased."

Back in the mid-80s there was a familiar sight on the campus of the College of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. For five years a slender woman in tennis shoes pushed the wheelchair of a young man with a reddish-brown beard to his classrooms, to the library, to the student union building, to his computer labs, well, to wherever he went on campus.

She not only attended all his classes, she took notes for him, wrote his papers and tests for him as he dictated them to her, and even dissected a frog in his biology class. Furthermore, she helped him dress every morning before driving him to campus in his specialized van.

Richard McCarthy, overcoming his severe cerebral palsy, maintained a B+ average, and graduated with his B.A. from the College of St. Thomas in 1985.

Standing at Richard's side at the graduation ceremony was his grandmother, Margaret Barnard. College officials awarded her an honorary bachelor's degree in English, including the citation: "It has been said that behind every successful man is a competent, self-sacrificing, invisible woman. The College of St. Thomas honors a competent and self-sacrificing but certainly not invisible woman. In helping her grandson achieve his goals, she has helped each of us advance toward ours as well. She has made it easier for us to see that it is in giving that we receive."

Margaret Barnard, named and claimed by God, answered a higher calling in life, with "whom God was well pleased." May we remember our baptisms and receive our honorary degrees as well by the grace and to the glory of God.

AMEN.