Baptism by water, baptism by Spirit

Sermon for the first Sunday after Epiphany, or Jesus' baptism, delivered at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Louisville, KY

Text: Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

Everyone here this morning has been baptized, I assume. If you haven’t, come see me and we can arrange that. But it’s a safe assumption that everyone here has been baptized once in their life. Yet, we participate in other people’s baptisms, and if there aren’t any, we will recite and renew our baptismal covenant at least once a year, on this, the first Sunday after Epiphany. It’s not that our baptism has expired or gone stale. There’s no time limit on God’s eternal grace given to us. We perform this renewal to remind ourselves of the importance of baptism in our life, and review our part of the relationship with God that begins with baptism.

As we will hear throughout this year in reading the Gospel of Luke, the kingdom of God is a central theme, which for Luke is imminent and nearby. We can almost reach out and touch i, it is that close. One of the very first steps toward entering or building the kingdom, if not the first step, is to be baptized. Baptism doesn’t open the door to the kingdom - that is done through living the life that Jesus taught us to live. What it does is to prepare us to step into the kingdom by building a foundation that supports our life of faith. That foundation is laid out by being baptized in the name of the Trinity, Father Son, and Holy Spirit, and this is universal here all churches baptize in the name of the Trinity. Baptism includes all of the mystery surrounding the Trinity. It is a sturdy foundation that does not look like the foundation of a building that can be measured and tested for durability. It is a foundation built of faith, trust, and commitment that comes from embracing the mystery of the Trinity and of the Holy Spirit that accompanies us day to day.

This being the season of Epiphany, we have a specific context in which we read Luke’s story of Jesus’ baptism. In the moment when Jesus was baptized, to onlookers it would have appeared like the other baptisms that were happening. There would have been nothing different about Jesus being immersed in the water and then standing up in it. It would have appeared to be a very personal, intimate moment between a penitent person and a forgiving God. I have to pause here to point out something that may not seem obvious at first, but it needs to be resolved. If Jesus was God’s son, born sinless, why was he baptized? What was happening in that river if he didn’t need to be forgiven for the sin that he didn’t have? For me, his baptism was an epiphany that everyone present experienced when they heard the voice of God announce that Jesus was God’s son. This revelation changed their perception of what had just happened and to whom, and it meant that the baptism in water was not all that there was to a faithful life. As Jesus’ disciples and followers learned later on, there was a baptism of the Holy Spirit that happened after John’s baptism as they became aware of the movement of the Spirit in themselves.

What that means is there is a disconnect between John’s baptism and being baptized in Jesus’ name. That disconnect is not theological, but temporal. People sought out John first for absolution, the forgiveness of their sins. That is a step in our preparation for entering the kingdom of God, and a step that becomes part of our life-long worship - the confessional prayer of our sins followed by the absolution promised by Jesus. The second step, baptism by the Holy Spirit can come at the font, especially when teens or adults are baptized. For infants and children, it comes later, when they become aware of that indescribable presence that draws them toward expressing love, moving them to compassion, and building the courage to do what is right in the face of wrong. Baptism for forgiveness and baptism in the Holy Spirit are linked by John’s and Jesus’ relationship in a specific time and place. For us, though, those two experiences of baptism are the result of a maturing relationship we have with God. Our baptism by the Holy Spirit takes time, and there is nothing wrong with that. It may seem anticlimactic without the tongues of fire suddenly appearing and hovering over our heads, or doves descending on us. That doesn’t make that baptism any less real or significant. And when it happens, there is no question about what is going on.

Being filled with the Holy Spirit is hard enough to describe or understand for adults, much less for children. It is hard to understand where the Spirit leads us because it communicates to us through emotion, or a drive to do or say something, or a feeling that we are not alone. This is where the baptismal vows come in as an attempt to express the inexpressible in words and concepts. We vow to turn our backs on our old life of brokenness; Join the body of Christ in worship; Fearlessly admit our faults and sins; Show God’s unconditional love and forgiveness by words and works; Share God’s love for us with our neighbors; Build the kingdom of God wherever we go by seeking peace and justice that upholds the dignity of every person. These are the nuts and bolts of the foundation we begin to build at our baptism. This is what we build a life in Jesus on, faith that what he taught us to value and expect of ourselves is real, and it works. That foundation needs to be revealed to the world to make it real, to become a permanent part of our life. That revealing is to say, out loud, here and outside these walls, our baptismal vows. Baptism and the vows with it is our epiphany to the world that we are children of God, loved, forgiven, and cherished, and that we bring those to the world.

We baptize J this morning so that he can begin to build his foundation with our help. At some point he will take on more and more of that responsibility as he is able. At some point, he will experience the power of the Holy Spirit and he will know what to do with it because of the vows said for him this morning and the reminders of them that he will receive from parents and Godparents and his faith community. Welcome, J to your new life in the risen Jesus, welcome to the church, and welcome to the body of Christ.