Let us pray: Come Holy Spirit, speak to us of our beloved status and new life of grace in Jesus Christ your son. Amen.
I love this story of the baptism of Jesus and it’s one that I often share with people who are struggling to find worth or forgiveness. In today’s gospel Jesus comes to be baptized by John. At first, John protests, but Jesus insists and John baptizes him in the river Jordan. And just as Jesus is coming up out of the water the heavens break open and the Holy Spirit comes down like a dove fluttering above Jesus’ head. And the voice of God speaks: “This is my son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” In this scene we have all of the members of the Trinity assembled. Jesus coming up out of the water, the Holy Spirit coming down and resting on Jesus, and the voice of the parent and creator God affirming, claiming, and assuring Jesus. What’s so powerful about Jesus’ baptism and this amazing Trinity moment, is that it’s an example and prototype for each and every one of us.
I LOVE baptisms. They’re such joyous events, aren’t they? Welcoming a new member into the body of Christ on this earth, the church. Happy family and friends, smiles, pictures, candles, maybe even tears of joy. The prayer just after baptism has a lot to say about what’s going in the sacrament of baptism:
Heavenly Father, we thank you that by water and the Holy Spirit you have bestowed upon these your servants the forgiveness of sin, and have raised them to the new life of grace. Sustain them, O Lord, in your Holy Spirit. Give them an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to persevere, a spirit to know and to love you, and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works. Amen. (Prayer after baptism, B.C.P., p. 308)
At out baptism we receive the Holy Spirit. At our baptism we receive forgiveness of our sins. At our baptism we receive the grace of God.
Just after the baptism we welcome the newly baptized with these words:
We receive you into the household of God. Confess the faith of Christ crucified, proclaim his resurrection, and share with us in his eternal priesthood (B.C.P., p. 308)
Welcome! You’re a part of God’s family, the Christian community. Together, with us, trust in the power of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. Join in sharing God’s love forever. Did you notice the verbs here? Confess, proclaim, join. These are all commands. Ok, here we go, join us, it’s time to get to work.
In the back of the prayer book, starting on p. 845 is An Outline of the Faith commonly called the Catechism. Page 858 lays out for us the amazing transformation that takes place at baptism. I invite you to turn to page 858 with me now…
Q. What is Holy Baptism?
A. Holy Baptism is the sacrament by which God adopts us as his children and makes us members of Christ's Body, the Church, and inheritors of the kingdom of God. We are adopted by God. The Creator of the universe has invited us to be full members of the family with all the rights and privileges of membership. We are inheritors of the amazing dream that God has in store for all of humankind. Through our baptism with water, in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, we also receive spiritual grace.
Q. What is the inward and spiritual grace in Baptism?
A. The inward and spiritual grace in Baptism is union with Christ in his death and resurrection, birth into God's family the Church, forgiveness of sins, and new life in the Holy Spirit. (From the Catechism/Outline of the Faith, B.C.P., p. 858)
In our baptism we are united with Jesus in his death AND in his resurrection. With him we conquer death, like him, NOTHING, not even death, can separate us from the love of God. In baptism we are adopted, forgiven, and filled with the gift of the Holy Spirit to guide, comfort, and accompany us. There is a rarely used prayer for a baptism NOT followed by Eucharist, that sums it up quite well.
All praise and thanks to you, most merciful Father, for adopting us as your own children, for incorporating us into your holy Church, and for making us worthy to share in the inheritance of the saints in light; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (B.C.P., p. 311).
I encourage and invite any of you who are considering baptism for yourselves or for a child, grandchild or other relative, to reach out to me or to Bingham to schedule a time for preparation for this amazing celebration. In the church year, Lent is a great time for baptism preparation and the Easter vigil or the Easter season are great times for baptisms. For those who are already baptized, I remind you that the anointing with the Holy Spirit and the words of God to Jesus are also for you. When you or someone you know is feeling down, feeling like they’re not enough, beyond forgiveness, not worthy to be welcomed or loved, nowhere to belong …these words are for us, ALL of us:
You are my child, my beloved, with you I am well pleased. The God of love, who is love, speaks these words to us again and again. Can you hear them and take them into your heart? You are my child. I know you. I love you. I claim you. You are mine, now and forever. When I think of you, I smile. When I think of you, I am ever so proud.
I close with a poem from author Kate Bowler:
A Blessing for What’s True about You
by Kate Bowler
When God thought you up, it was a good day,
a lovely dream realized in God’s imagination,
a celebration from before you were born.
You were made out of God’s overflowing love,
in who you were, and are, and would become.
God saw it all, from way before the beginning, ‘til way past the end.
And saw that it was good.
This one, God said, this one I love.
I delight in the beauty, and the promise,
the wonder and the glory that is this one whom I have made.
And my gaze is ever upon them,
constant, and warm like the sun at golden hour,
gentle as starlight, transforming and continuing,
calling forth all the growing, all the becoming that is to be done.
Remember this truth:
You were made by love, for love, to love.
Amen.
