The Church of St.
Paul & Incarnation, Jersey City NJ
January 12, 2020
Year A: The First
Sunday after Epiphany – The Baptism of Our Lord
Isaiah 42:1-9
Psalm 29
Acts 10:34-43
Matthew 3:13-17
The Moment of Baptism
If
you’ve been here more than a few times you have probably heard me talk about
how much I love baptizing people.
It
is just about my most favorite thing that I get to do as a priest.
But,
there’s something that I don’t think I’ve ever really talked about and that’s
the moment of Baptism.
As
most of you know, our baptisms here usually take place right in the middle of the
10:00 service.
After
I’m done with my sermon, I invite the family and friends and everyone else to
join us in the back of the church, gathering around the font.
Gail
provides a little musical cover for what is typically a kind of chaotic scene
as the family of the person (usually a child) to be baptized aren’t always sure
about what’s happening and what’s the right thing to do, and other people have
to decide if they’re going to make the move or just stay put
But,
somehow we all get where we’re going, though before I continue the service I
always have to make sure that the soon to be baptized person and the parents
and godparents haven’t gotten lost in the crowd.
We
try to perform baptisms, like we try to do everything else in this sacred
place, with solemnity and dignity, but the truth is it can get a little messy
as people try to find their place in the bulletin, people in the back strain to
see and hear, and of course lots of people jockey for the best position, trying
to capture the whole thing using their cellphone cameras, meanwhile missing out
on the actual experience.
But,
no matter how chaotic and confusing, there is always the moment of Baptism.
It doesn’t matter if the child sleeps through
the whole thing or screams her head off, it doesn’t matter if the adult seems a
little embarrassed or is moved to tears, no matter if this place is packed or
there’s just a few of us, in the moment of baptism I can see or feel something
happen between God and the baptized:
God makes an
unbreakable, indissoluble bond.
God says, you are
loved, you are mine forever.
God encourages, live
your life knowing that I will never let go of you.
It’s all very amazing.
And, part of what
makes baptism amazing is that this is an experience that we share with Jesus
himself.
All four gospels
tell the story of Jesus’ baptism, though they tell it in somewhat different
ways.
And, right up
front, we have to acknowledge that there is awkwardness to the fact that Jesus
was baptized by John the Baptist.
It’s a little
awkward because we know that John preached a baptism of repentance but we
believe that Jesus the Son of God was without sin, so there was no need for
repentance.
Today we heard the
account of Jesus’ baptism that’s in the Gospel of Matthew.
And, if you
notice, Matthew tells us that John recognizes that Jesus is his superior. John
acknowledges the awkwardness of the scene. John tries to “prevent” Jesus from
presenting himself for baptism, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do
you come to me?”
And Jesus responds
in a way that’s a little hard for us to understand, saying:
“Let it be so now,
for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.”
This baptism isn’t
about repentance but yet it seems that in some way Jesus needed to be baptized.
And, maybe, God
needed Jesus to be baptized.
God and Jesus
needed that moment of baptism, when all the distractions of the world faded
into the background, when all the noise of the world grew silent, that moment
when God was able to speak loud and clear:
“This is my Son,
the Beloved, with whom I well pleased.”
If he didn’t know
before, now in the moment of baptism, Jesus knows who he is and whose he is.
Which is a very
good thing, because three of the four gospels tell us that immediately after
his baptism, Jesus is alone in the wilderness for forty days – or, actually,
not quite alone because the devil is there tempting him.
But, Jesus is able
to withstand those temptations, is able to endure hunger and thirst, able to
stay strong in times of trouble, because of that moment of baptism.
Now, you and I may
not spend days and nights alone in the wilderness, but it sure feels that way
sometimes, doesn’t it?
It feels like
we’re in the wilderness when we’re burdened by trouble and fear and grief, when
we’re tempted to do what we know what’s not right, when the very foundations of
our life and our world prove to be not as solid as we had thought.
But, like Jesus,
we are able to withstand, able to endure, able to stay strong, because of that
moment of baptism.
The only problem
is that, unlike Jesus, most of us were baptized as babies.
That doesn’t make
our baptism any less real, doesn’t make the moment of baptism any less important,
but it does mean that we need to be reminded.
I was baptized
downtown at St. Boniface Church which today is condos, so I guess the place of
my baptism is now in someone’s apartment, but I can be reminded of my baptism
every time I walk in here and see the font, every time we make our way in a
chaotic procession to the rear of the church, every time we hear and see the
moment of baptism.
Just as in the
River Jordan long ago…
God makes
unbreakable, indissoluble bond with us.
God says to us,
you are loved, you are mine forever.
And, God
encourages us, live your life knowing that I will never let go of you.
The moment of
baptism.
Amen.
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