Trinity Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

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Sermons

January 2002 (click here to return to "January 2002 Sermons" page)

Baptism of the Lord (January 13, 2002)

    "Baptism -- Then What?"        Phyllis Danhof Speck

        Texts:  Isaiah 42:1-9, Matthew 3:13-17, Psalm 29

SERMON

(Sermon Sentence:  We have been baptized by water and the Holy Spirit, incorporated into the baptism and the life of Jesus Christ, to be God’s servants in bringing the radical newness of God’s kingdom of righteousness into the here and now.)

It is customary in Protestant churches to celebrate the baptism of Jesus on the Sunday following Epiphany Sunday.  That is exactly what we are doing today, because the baptism of Jesus is a very important event in the life of Jesus and for us.  Jesus’ baptism is a sign that proclaims that even before Jesus was born he belonged to God and was called to do God’s work in the world.

As I look over the congregation this morning, it appears to me that most of us who are present were baptized at some point in our lives.

We may not think about the significance of our baptism very often, but just as Jesus’ baptism was important, our baptism, too, is indeed an extremely significant event in our lives.   Our baptism is a sign that proclaims that even before we were born, we belonged to God and were called to do God’s work in the world.

Do you remember your baptism?  I don’t.  I was only three months old when I was baptized.  But my baptism must have been considered significant enough to be talked about in the family, because I know the name of the minister who officiated.  In fact, in the box of family pictures I received when my mother died, there is a snapshot of Rev. Carson and his family.  Every time we look through those old photos, I point and tell my children and grandchildren,  ”He is the one who officiated at my baptism.”

I also remember how touched I was when my mother-in-law died.  Apparently, during her last illness, she had carefully placed all of her important papers in the drawer of her bedside table.  These included the deed to her house, the title to her car, her life insurance policy, her bank account records, and the baptismal certificates of her two children.

A few weeks ago we left John the Baptist, dressed in a camel skin, shouting to the flocks of people who came to hear him proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”  We read that flocks of people came to be baptized by John in the River Jordan.  And now, this week Matthew reminds us that Jesus, too, came from Galilee to be baptized by John the Baptist.

What is going on here?  Jesus was a Jew and most certainly was circumcised as an infant to signify his membership into the community of God’s covenant people.  Wasn’t circumcision enough?  Why in the world does Jesus, at 30 years of age, come to John to be baptized?  Bible scholars are not really sure of the origin of baptism in the Jewish community.  However, the Old Testament does contain instructions for a variety of purification rites involving water.  But those rites were not the same as Christian baptism.          

Why was Jesus baptized?  Some scholars have long associated both John the Baptist and Jesus with a group called the Essenes, who later settled near Qumran in Palestine and are remembered for the Dead Sea Scrolls.  The Essenes observed Jewish laws and studied the scriptures.  They discouraged marriage.  They looked for a future time when the Jewish religious life would be in the hands of righteous priests instead of self-serving Pharisees and Sadducees.  One thing that made the Essenes publicly unique was their daily worship.  It consisted of prayers and daily bathing for ritual purification.  Essenes were called “Morning Bathers.”  John, the cousin and forerunner of Jesus, was called John the Baptist. 

So, why did Jesus come to John to be baptized?  Was it because of the Essene connection?  Surely, Jesus was not baptized to repent of sins, for he is without sin.  In our reading from Matthew, Jesus himself explains, “It is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.”  What righteousness is Jesus talking about? 

Today’s Old Testament reading from Isaiah may help us out here.  Jesus, as God’s Son, takes on the role of a servant type of king, who receives power to bring forth righteousness to the people.  John the Baptist recognizes Jesus as God’s servant who inaugurates a new rule of righteousness when the eyes of the blind are opened, and all those who sit in darkness are brought out.   

Did you notice in the Matthew reading that John’s baptism of repentance with water was not the only thing Jesus received?  In Matt. 3:11, John the Baptist tells his followers, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but one is coming who is more powerful than I am.  He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”  So often in our religious tradition we concentrate so heavily on the public sacrament of Baptism itself, that we lose sight of the deeper significance of the rite of Baptism.  We concentrate on the water ritual of Baptism as the act, thinking that the ritual itself is something that guarantees forgiveness of sins.  But….we read in Matthew that when Jesus was baptized by John, just as Jesus came up from the water, the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove. We are talking here about Baptism by water and the Spirit.  ( Point to stained glass window.)  Too often we forget about that Holy Spirit part of our Baptism. 

We also read in Matthew that suddenly the heavens were opened and a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”   I just love that!  In that statement the Almighty Creator God  identifies with Jesus and with us in a family relationship (“This is my Son”). God reveals an emotional relationship (“the Beloved”).  We see God in the role of a righteous judge, who sees us as forgiven children (“with whom I am well pleased”).

We see then, that by being baptized, Jesus identifies himself with all humanity.  In his baptism Jesus identifies himself with us.  Jesus is our Savior, and he is also our brother. 

Paul, in writing to the church at Rome, tells us that we (Yes, we who are seated here this morning.), “We are baptized into Christ.”  Our public baptism, like Jesus’ baptism, is a sign that proclaims to the world that we belong to God, and we are called to do God’s work in the world.  Because of Jesus’ baptism God claims us as God’s sons and daughters.  We are the ones God loves. Furthermore, God no longer holds our sins against us. 

What Jesus received at his baptism was the demonstration of the power of God to begin his ministry of establishing righteousness on the earth.  We share in Christ’s baptism that same Holy Spirit and fire. We share in Christ’s power.  Are we aware of this tremendous power we have received?  We share in Christ’s power and in the servant work of establishing the kingdom of heaven on earth here and now.  Are we really aware that it is our task to continue the work Jesus began when he was on earth in human form?   Are we really aware that what follows our water baptism is the power and the privilege of bringing Jesus’ ministry into our communities into the year 2002?

I cannot speak to you of the power of Jesus’ baptism and our own baptism without sharing with you the most meaningful experience I had last summer while serving as a Student Chaplain at Parkland Hospital here in Dallas.  A 17-year-old Hispanic girl, named Rosita, was brought into the hospital. Rosita had been injured in an automobile accident that left her with a spinal injury and paralysis in both of her legs.  Rosita was married and five months pregnant.

After a week or so of tests, doctors determined that the anticipated growth of the fetus would place a pressure on Rosita’s spine that was incompatible with treatment of her back injury.  The medical staff determined that the pregnancy would have to be terminated.  The baby would have to be aborted.  The young patient and her husband and parents were devastated.  They had already begun to furnish a nursery and had accumulated a supply of baby clothes.

I went to pray with Rosita and her family when the doctors induced labor about 5 p.m. on a Saturday evening when I was on duty.  About ten hours later at 3 a.m. on Sunday morning, I received a call from the maternity nurse that Rosita had delivered and wanted a visit from the chaplain to discuss the baptism of her dead fetus.  

I was not prepared for the horror and miracle of what awaited me.  I entered the room and found Rosita cuddling the dead fetus lying in her arms on a soft, folded flannel blanket.  The little girl baby was about 8 inches long.  Its head was about the size of a golf ball.  Its skin was the color of raw hamburger meat.  A maternity nurse had placed a tiny pink doll’s bonnet on the head.  The baby’s body was naked.  The baby’s face looked like E.T., the movie creature from outer space.  I never in my life had seen anything as grotesque-looking as that tiny fetus. 

As Rosita looked lovingly at her dead infant, the angelic look of love and grief on Rosita’s face reminded me of the similar look on the face of Mary on Michelangelo’s statue,  “The Pieta” in St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome.  Mary, the mother of Jesus, is holding the dead body of her son, the crucified Jesus.  In the hospital, holding her dead baby, Rosita said to me, “Isn’t my baby beautiful?  I love her so much!  Look, she even has tiny little fingernails.  I wanted her so much.  I don’t understand why she had to die.  I never knew before how I could love someone so much.  I will never stop loving her.  Chaplain, would you like to hold my baby?”

I absolutely did not want to hold that baby!  I absolutely did not want to touch that baby!  However, I said to Rosita, “Yes, I would love to hold her.”  I picked up that tiny bundle, and looked into the E.T. face.  I could actually feel the warmth of the mother’s love through the little blanket. The warmth had been generated from Rosita’s holding the baby so long.  After I regained my composure, I said to Rosita, “I can see why you love her so much.  She is just beautiful.  Look, she even has tiny little fingernails.”  The three of us were silent for about ten minutes while I continued to hold the baby and marvel at the love that the mother felt for her child.  I marveled at the love that God feels for us.

  After a while I began to explain to Rosita that the church does not baptize those who have already died.   We talked about how the life that had lived within her for such a short time was a gift from God and how that same God continues to be with Rosita and her dead infant and with all of us.  We talked about how God is also grieving with us.

 I explained to her that the next day we could celebrate the life of the baby with a naming ceremony.  Rosita said she and her husband would like that.  I handed the baby back to her.  The next day we held the naming ceremony with Rosita and her family.  We gave the young parents the Parkland Hospital Naming Certificate complete with the baby’s tiny footprints.  The footprints were about 5/8” in length.  Rosita named her dead baby, “Esperanza.”  Esperanza is a Spanish name that means, “Hope.” 

In that brief encounter with life and death, I felt the profound presence of the power of the Holy Spirit in my life, putting me in intimate contact with the sufferings and triumphs of human life.  I witnessed the tragic death of a child for the well being of another, in this case her mother.  In that encounter I realized that at one time I, too, was an 8” long fetus with a golf-ball sized head and footprints 5/8” in length, with a face that looked like ET.    We all were!  In love God saw fit to bring those of us seated here this morning into a world of suffering, potential, power, and hope.    

 Christian baptism is not something we can place in a photo album.  Christian baptism is not something we can keep in a bedside table.  The nature of Christian baptism is more than a naming ceremony for a dead infant.  Through the baptism of Jesus by water and the Holy Spirit, the good news of the gospel is that we, through our baptism, receive the power of the Holy Spirit of God.  The good news of the gospel is that we receive a commission to follow the path of servanthood as Jesus did.  Our task, like that of the Servant Jesus, has to do with establishing a radical new righteousness in a needy world for all peoples.

Look about you!  Can you imagine how much Spirit-given power exists within those of us who are baptized and seated in this sanctuary?  This church is located in a city where many people are hungry for physical necessities, for forgiveness of sins, and for the light of God’s righteousness. We are invited as privileged, baptized sons and daughters to be servants in God’s world. 

And all praise, honor, and glory be unto the God who creates, Jesus Christ who saves, and the Holy Spirit who gives us the call and the power to be servants, to bring in the righteousness of God on earth.   Amen.

© 2002 Phyllis Danhof Speck