Trinity Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Sermons 

Title: "What Difference Does a Little Water Make, Anyway?"

Text: Acts 10:44-48

two texts that talk about baptism.

One of them rather directly,

with Peter saying "Here’s some water,

let’s baptize these folks!" …

the other more obliquely,

by describing how we become children of God

by water, though not by water only.

If you follow the argument in these two, really,

you can see that the gospel reading also has a lot to do with baptism,

even though it never mentions the word itself.

The earliest church obviously thought

that baptism was very important.

Crucial, and life-changing.

And they wanted to understand it,

not just to do it.

This business about "being a Christian"

may have been something new,

but it was far more than just a novelty.

Getting baptized and becoming a Christian was a big change,

and needed to be considered and weighed carefully

in terms of all its implications.

One might wish that we, today, on the average,

took baptism that seriously.

Oh, quite a few of us do,

but for many others, it’s just a quaint ritual

that we do because the church says we should,

or it’s an occasion for a family gathering,

and lots of adults acting gaga over a really cute baby.

But it isn’t just infant baptism

that we sometimes get sloppy about.

A Presbyterian clergy-friend of mine told me once about

a woman who had made an appointment and come to see him,

to ask if he would baptize her.

Well, they were already acquainted,

and he knew that she attended an Episcopal church,

so he asked, why me? What’s going on?

Well, she said,

some friends of mine just had a baby,

and it’s going to be baptized soon,

and they’ve asked me to be the baby’s godmother,

only in the Episcopal Church,

you can’t be a godparent unless you’re baptized.

Okay, said my friend,

but why not ask the Episcopal priest to baptize you?

After a great deal of hemming and hawing,

the reason finally became clear.

She simply could not agree to make the statement,

"Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior."

A great teacher, yes; a good man, of course;

a positive role model, absolutely;

but not her Lord and Savior.

Whereupon my friend told her

that while he knew her to be a fine person,

it would be out of the question to baptize her.

She didn’t get upset or angry … but she didn’t get the point, either,

because a couple of days later,

she approached another Presbyterian minister,

and asked him to baptize her!

Not realizing, I suppose,

that we do all talk to one another and share stories!

Anyway, he didn’t baptize her, either.

And I’ve never been sure whether to laugh or to cry

over this poor woman

who wanted to persuade someone

to do a meaningless ritual over her

so that she could stand up and make vows

to help parents raise their child

into a faith that she herself didn’t believe in.

No, baptism is not just an empty ritual action

with sprinkles of water and magic words …

or even, a river of water and the same words.

Whether we baptize an infant, or an adult,

or someone in between,

baptism has power.

We may at times disagree about

exactly what kind of power it is,

or how much, or how it works …

But to accept baptism, for ourself or our child,

means that we have agreed to let God shape us,

transform us, use us,

however God sees fit.

Now let’s be clear about one thing:

baptism doesn’t change God.

That may seem completely obvious at first,

except that for many centuries,

that’s basically what the church did teach.

They didn’t say it quite that way.

But for lots of years, the church taught

that if you died before being baptized,

you went straight to hell.

Didn’t matter if you were a tiny baby,

didn’t matter if you’d been good all your life.

Not baptized?

Down you go.

Notice how that places a limit on God.

Under that theological system,

God is not permitted to save you

unless a priest has sprinkled some water on you,

and said the proper words along with it.

Only after you are baptized,

will God turn from hating you

and begin to love you.

Now of course, that is not what we believe any more!

But it’s important for us to recognize

that the power that lies in baptism

does not mean power given to us to pull God’s strings,

and to jerk God around for our benefit.

No, the power of baptism

is to change us.

Not always spectacularly,

and not always right away.

But in our baptism we are claimed by God,

and sooner or later,

that claim starts to work itself out

in the living of our life.

I think I’ve told you the story before

from Will Willimon, university chaplain at Duke University,

about the call he got one day from an irate father.

"It’s all your fault!" said the student’s father.

"What’s my fault?" says Willimon,

who has no idea what the man is talking about.

"My daughter! It’s all your fault!"

Well, Willimon knows it’s not what that sounds like …

but he still has no clue what the issue is.

"My daughter is a pre-med major!

She was supposed to go to medical school and become a doctor,

just like me and others in our family.

"But now she’s gotten this dang-fool idea

about becoming a missionary instead.

"It’s all your fault."

"Wait a minute," says our hero.

"Your daughter grew up in the church, didn’t she?"

"Well, yes, but …"

"And you had her baptized, right?"

"Well, yes, but we didn’t mean for it to do any harm."

"Congratulations," says Willimon to Dr. Dad:

"You just helped God make a missionary."

Baptism has the power to change us.

At a presbytery meeting long ago,

I heard the story of a young pastor

serving in her first church,

who was trying to offer comfort to a family

at the time of a funeral.

Only this was a difficult one,

because the person had been killed by a drunk driver,

so not only was the family grieving,

but they were also terribly angry.

One of them finally said to the pastor,

"You tell me.

God says we should forgive.

I want to know why.

This one irresponsible drunk

has destroyed our lives forever.

Why should we ever forgive him?"

To her astonishment,

the minister heard herself say,

"Because you are baptized."

Now of course, there are also

numerous other compelling reasons to forgive.

But at the very root, this is it.

Because we are baptized.

Because we ourselves have been forgiven.

But notice that,

not only does baptism place on us

the obligation to forgive …

it also gifts us with the power and the grace

to be able to forgive.

Both parts of that puzzle are important.

When I think of the two people in my life

that it has been the most difficult for me to forgive,

both sides of the equation came into play.

At first, I needed to hear God’s command

that I would, in time –

not necessarily right away, but in time –

I would need to forgive both of these people

whom I would rather have nit with a baseball bat!

But when that time came,

I promise you that it was only

because of God’s power and God’s grace

that I was able to forgive at all.

Otherwise, I’d probably still be waiting

for my chance to get at ‘em with that baseball bat.

Baptism has the power to change us.

I think that must be what John means in the epistle

when he says that God’s commandments are not burdensome.

I’ve always had trouble with that remark,

because it seems to me that most of us

do find it difficult to do what God expects of us.

But baptism is the key.

Yes, God has given us certain commandments to obey …

like forgiving one another,

laying down our lives for our friends,

stuff like that.

But because we are baptized,

we have the grace and the power to obey.

Baptism enables us to live as the people of God

without finding that burdensome.

As John wrote,

"whatever is born of God conquers the world."

…the world and its temptations,

the world and its pitfalls,

the world and its suffering.

That little bit of water

makes a huge bit of difference.

In those times when life is difficult,

remember your baptism, and give thanks.

Thanks to God, whose power we claim,

who has set us free to overcome the world.

Amen.

© 2006 Julie Adkins (e-mail: DrJAdkins@trinitypresdallas.org)