Trinity Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Sermons 

Isn’t it interesting that even the earliest church …

and believers before there even was anything called "church" …

had different ideas about baptism?

It isn’t just us today who quarrel about

things like whether we baptize infants, or only adults …

and whether you should sprinkle the water, or pour it,

or whether it doesn’t count at all unless you’re completely dunked under.

In the earliest church, those questions were clear:

adults only, and in the river you went.

But there seems to be a distinction made in our two texts today

In Luke’s gospel, we hear a contrast being drawn between baptism with water,

like John the baptizer was doing,

and baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire,

as Jesus was supposed to bring …

In Acts – which was also written by Luke, remember –

there is a distinction made between

baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus,

and receiving the Holy Spirit.

Is this anything that’s meaningful to us today?

Or is it theological hairsplitting that may have mattered in its own time –

like, how many angels can dance on the head of a pin? –

but basically irrelevant to those of us

who live in the 21^st century?

Well, this is the kind of question that comes into much clearer focus

after one has had the chance to visit Christians in another part of the world.

And I’m quite sure you will hear more about those travels in the weeks ahead,

but let me just say for today that spending 10 days with Presbyterians in Ghana

makes quite clear to me that there is a difference between

being baptized with water,

and being baptized with fire, or with the Holy Spirit.

I don’t mean that literally, necessarily …

while we didn’t get to observe a baptism,

I don’t suppose that there are significant differences

between their liturgical practice and ours.

We did get to participate in the ordination and installation of elders,

or "presbyters," as they are called in Ghana,

and that had some differences in practice but not in theology.

So I suspect that much the same

would be true about baptism.

No, what I’m talking about is something less tangible.

What I’m talking about is visible differences in the way people live in the world

because they are followers of Jesus Christ.

It’s not just that we get baptized with water,

whether as children or adults,

and have the words said over us,

and make promises about our discipleship,

or have our parents make them on our behalf.

It’s the conscious choice to live, as adults,

as people for whom our baptism makes a difference.

I have long since forgotten who said this,

but that doesn’t make it any less true:

"You can live your whole life in the garage,

but that doesn’t make you a car.

And you can attend church for your whole life,

but that doesn’t make you a Christian."

The water, by itself, isn’t enough.

We have to be willing to accept the fire along with it.

I’m going to make a distinction here

that we have to be careful with,

or we’ll fall over the line into heresy!

But stick with me for a few minutes,

and see if I’m making sense!

We might think about "baptism with water"

as being the aspect of baptism that is God’s action toward us.

The reason that many Christian traditions are willing to baptize infants

is not because we think that they are somehow

making a statement of faith at that early point in their lives.

Nor, of course, is it because we think they will go to hell

if they die unbaptized.

Rather, we are willing to baptize tiny babies as a sign

that God reaches out to us and claims us and wants us

long before we are even capable of making a response.

In way, therefore, we can think about baptism with water

as a phase one.

It is the acknowledgment of God’s claim on our lives,

a confession that we belong to God,

even before we are able to speak God’s name

or to respond in any way at all.

So in a sense, that’s "phase one" of our baptism.

The phase in which God acts,

in reaching out to us.

But the second phase is equally important,

and it has to do with our response,

our "yes" to God’s invitation.

Even if we are baptized as infants,

there has to come a time when we claim that baptism

as being something meaningful in the living of our life.

Otherwise, we become like those who think that

living in the garage makes them a car!

Phase one is important, and necessary, and it does come first.

But we also must be baptized with fire,

we must agree to receive the Holy Spirit,

in order for our baptism to be completed.

And while that baptism is in a sense a very private matter,

just between us and our God,

if it’s for real, it can’t help but show up

in ways that are visible, and public.

Since we’re having communion this morning

and don’t want to be here until mid-afternoon,

let me give you just two examples that I saw from our travels,

of the ways in which baptism "by fire"

shows up in the Presbyterian Church of Ghana.

In good meddling-preacher fashion,

let’s talk about an area of life in which American Christians

are probably the least likely to be willing

to accept God’s transforming message: money.

As best as I can tell, in the Presbyterian Church in Ghana,

if you’re not tithing, you don’t receive communion.

You are supposed to come to the church some time during the week to pay your tithe …

Friday seems to be what is most common;

perhaps people get paid on Friday.

You come and pay your tithe,

and it’s entered into the record that you have done so,

so that you can participate.

Now, there’s also a time in the worship service

when people who didn’t make it there during the week

can make their tithe.

But it’s separate from the offering time,

and the offerings that people make during worship

are usually over and above their tithe.

More about that in a minute.

We tried to get a little information about how this actually works, in practice:

does the church really know what people’s incomes are,

and check up to see whether they really are giving 10%?

Our informant couldn’t quite even grasp the question.

"It’s in the Bible," he said, as if he couldn’t believe

that we didn’t get it.

The Bible says it, people do it;

what could possibly be complicated about that?

But see, here’s where the contrast comes.

Most of us in this country believe that we can’t possibly tithe;

that we couldn’t live on what was left

if we gave 10%,

whether it was to our church,

or the homeless guy at the street corner,

or whatever.

We simply think it’s impossible,

and that God is being unreasonable.

That’s because too many of us are baptized

with water only, and not with fire.

Imagine tithing of your income in a country where

a good wage for a laborer is eight dollars a day …

and then compare that to us.

Only those are baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire

trust God enough to believe

that the economics of such a choice can possibly work out.

The other place where I watched Ghanaian Presbyterians "on fire"

is during the worship service when they receive the offering.

Keep in mind, now, that church members have already paid their tithe.

The Sunday-morning offering is over-and-above giving,

so it may not be a whole lot of money.

But you should see the spirit in which it is offered.

Imagine this:

first, the music is provided not by the church choir,

which tends to sing more traditional, European-style church music,

but by the "Singing Band," who sing and lead the congregation in singing

music that is more African in flavor,

more rhythmic, more upbeat-sounding,

generally accompanied by drum and other percussion.

Then, imagine this:

there are no "offering plates" to be passed by the ushers.

Rather, there is a large wooden container of some sort

that’s placed front and center in the sanctuary,

and then everyone comes forward to put something in the box.

Not like when the plate comes by in the pew,

and you might or might not put something in this week.

Everyone comes forward.

You come out of your pew in the side aisle,

around to the back, then down the center aisle

to put your offering into the container,

and then you return to your seat back down the side aisle.

Oh, and while you’re doing this,

not only are you singing and maybe even clapping your hands

along with the Singing Band …

you are also dancing.

Imagine that,

being so on fire with your love and commitment to God

that every week, when you make your offering

that is over and above the tithe you already gave,

you dance forward to make that offering.

Can we even wrap our minds around that?

Oh, and the choir didn’t get out of this, either;

in fact, they were the first …

came down out of the balcony in the back to make their offerings,

then, back up they went.

Nor were those of us in the chancel area exempt:

there were about a dozen of us leading various parts of worship,

and when our turn came,

we went out and danced all the way down the side aisle

and back up the center aisle, to make our gifts.

Sunday morning at Epiphany, the Fiases’ former church,

it took 15 minutes to receive the offering.

In many ways, it’s the highlight of the service,

rather than the way we tend to treat it,

as a kind of embarrassing moment of "doing business."

Sunday evening, in fact, in the "Watch Night" service

at Eben-Ezer church, Abraham’s home congregation,

the offering required an hour and five minutes.

Nobody minded.

They were too busy singing and dancing.

Even the people who had arrived too late to get a seat inside the sanctuary,

and who were crowded around the building,

listening from the outside through the open windows.

It is not surprising to me that

the Presbyterian Church of Ghana is growing,

while the Presbyterian Church (USA) is not.

They are on fire with the Holy Spirit.

I don’t mean that they speak in tongues, or any of that …

Ghanaian Presbyterians are just as puzzled by the charismatics and Pentecostals

as we American Presbyterians tend to be.

But they are joyful about their relationship with God,

not only God’s commitment and promises to them,

but also their commitments and obligations to God.

We saw no "frozen chosen"

in the Presbyterian churches of Ghana.

Indeed, one can hardly remain frozen

after being baptized with fire!

What will we do with ourselves,

those of us who are baptized with water and claimed by God,

but a little afraid of that baptism by fire and the Holy Spirit?

Can we find joy,

not only in the gifts God offers and the promises God makes to us,

but also in the demands that God places on us?

Can we serve, and give, and commit ourselves,

not from a gloomy sense that we somehow "have to"

in order to save ourselves,

but in a spirit of song and dance and gratitude?

It is foreign to us … but not to God.

Do you remember that wonderful story in the Old Testament

where the Ark of the Covenant has been brought into Jerusalem,

and placed in the Temple,

and King David is so thrilled about the whole thing

that he dances before the Ark,

"clothed only in a linen ephod"?

And Michal, his first wife, sees him at it,

and despises him because of it.

She may be the first Presbyterian in the Bible.

Seriously …

or maybe not "seriously"; we tend to be too serious already …

Are we baptized with fire,

or only with water?

If our answer is "only with water,"

then are we willing to be "fired up" for God?

If our answer is, we believe that we are baptized with fire,

then in what ways are we exhibiting that fire

in service and commitment to God?

Do people who observe us

see that we are on fire for God?

When they do see it, hallelujah.

When they cannot see it …

will we let the Holy Spirit change us so that they can?

We know that, like Jesus,

we are beloved children of God.

May we complete our baptism with fire and the Holy Spirit,

so that we will also hear God’s voice saying,

"With you I am well pleased."

Amen.

© 2007 Julie Adkins (e-mail: DrJAdkins@trinitypresdallas.org)