Jesus And John The Baptist Transcript

This morning we are talking about baptism. And baptism, as we talk about it in the Christian church, now there are many ways that different traditions think about baptism. Various ways that we understand what is going on, trying to make sense of two things in the passage that we just read. Because we have John the Baptist who is out in the wilderness drawing people to him by this weird thing he's doing and people wanting to find out what he's doing and how to get involved in it.

And they're asking him powerful questions of what should we do to flee the wrath to come? And John is doing a baptism of repentance saying, come forward, repent of your sin and be baptized. And so some churches, some traditions, denominations look at baptism as a believer's baptism, something you do when you're of age, your teenage years, your adult years, you confess your sins, you be baptized. It's a cleansing ritual, and it's something that you can do more than once.

And my sister was one person who was baptized. I mean, there was this desire to cleanse herself, to cleanse themselves of the sin that they felt they had been committed to and recommit themselves to God. And so they come forward for baptism again. And that's how some traditions look at baptism, not necessarily how Methodists do.

Other traditions look at it entirely different, like us Methodists, who see it as something that God, Jesus has commanded us Jesus said, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And there are stories of baptism in Scripture where a man, the Ethiopian eunuch, who had heard all of the Scriptures and said, okay, what's stopping me from being baptized right now? And he gets baptized.

The sticking point is that comes from this understanding of baptism, whether it's for repentance or something else or something different, is the fact that Jesus was baptized. Jesus had nothing to repent of. He was born sinless. He lived a life without sin. There was no need for him to have a repentant baptism.

So there obviously must be something going on here that works for Jesus that also applies to us. And I think this is where we Methodists get to our understanding of baptism, not as a believer's baptism, not as a cleansing baptism of sin, though that does happen, but something entirely different. And it's why we are one of a few traditions in the Christian church that still baptize infants rather than saving it for adults. It's one of the reasons why we only baptize people once in their life rather than having re-baptisms.

Instead, we have baptismal remembrances and things like that to signify remembering the baptism that's already occurred, but we don't actually re-baptize. It's this reason that it was because Jesus was baptized that we've got to figure out what it means. Now again, in the early church, there were people who would delay baptism because they didn't want to lose its effects.

There were heads of households who would, because of their business, would have to make sacrifices to idols as a part of a business signing contract. There were things going on that they said, if I get baptized and I can only do it once and it cleanses me of my sin but I can accumulate sin after that, then I want to delay it to my deathbed. so that I can still participate in society. And so there are stories in the early church where entire households would get baptized, but the head of the household would wait until they were close to death because of that fear of losing the effect of what baptism was doing.

As Methodists, we don't believe that you can lose the effect of baptism. And so to understand baptism, we turn to our words in the call to worship. One of the things that we understand baptism doing is that when Jesus was baptized, God proclaims Jesus as his beloved son with whom he is well pleased. Baptism is ultimately a recognition of something that God is already doing, something that God has already done.

God is already at work in people's lives, in the lives of infants through adulthood, calling them to himself, renewing them with the Holy Spirit, renewing their minds, renewing their hearts long before they're even aware of it. In the Methodists, we call that provenient grace. Grace that happens before. Grace that happens before we're aware of it, before we deserve it.

And so in our lives, in the lives of infants, before we're baptized, God is already at work cleansing and reclaiming and renewing. And so a baptism that we do with infants or anyone really is saying God has already claimed you. God has already claimed you as this child. God has already welcomed you and God is already at work within you.

And so there is nothing that you can do to cause God to do that because God's already doing it. There's nothing that you can do to make God want to do it more. God is already at work. And so we baptize infants recognizing in that fullness of sense that God's already at work. And just as an infant could do nothing to merit God's grace, neither can we.

So first, baptism is something that God is doing. It's a recognition of what God has already done and is doing. And because of that, God's words, God's actions cannot fail. And so it's not a matter of we can lose our baptism. It's not a matter of we can separate ourselves of the effects of baptism because it's recognizing what God has already done and God cannot fail and God's work and God's redeeming grace never ends. for in Christ there is no east or west.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God, so nothing can undo the grace that God has shown in baptism, which is why we baptize once in a lifetime. The other thing that baptism does is it brings, it's a recognition of those who are baptized as being a part of the beloved community. It is enveloping and welcoming him in and recognizing, again, what God has already done, saying you are a part of us. You are a part of God's kingdom. You are a part of God's community.

You are a part of God's church. And when we baptize infants, and I know it's been a little while since we've done that in these walls, and I hope we can break our baptismal font out sooner than later. We make that promise. And we make that promise for adults as well. As a congregation saying, we will do our part to help you grow in your faith. We will do our part to help you become who God made you to be.

We will do our part and commit ourselves and our gifts and our talents to make sure that you have a place where your faith can grow. where you can belong, where you can feel loved, and where you can express your gifts as someone created and commissioned by the Holy Spirit to go out into the world proclaiming the good news, both in word and deed. So just as Jesus was baptized and then immediately sent into the wilderness... where he was tempted by the Spirit, the baptism in every gospel that records it is the beginning of Jesus' ministry.

It marks that beginning, that first sermon, those first miracles, to say Jesus has been recognized and proclaimed as God's own and then commissioned for the work he's about to do and empowered by the Spirit to do it. It says the Holy Spirit drove him into the wilderness. And so when we are baptized, when we remember our baptism, we remember that we are enveloped and incorporated into a community, the beloved kingdom of God, not to sit and rest and wait, but to be commissioned to go and sent by the Holy Spirit.

And I think these two things go together because going about God's work is exhausting. It's tiring. It wears us out as we encounter the sins of the world, the brokenness of the world that wears us down for over weeping over the state of things. We must come back together. We must gather together with the people of God to be rejuvenated, re-energized, and recharged.

So that when we leave this place after Sunday morning services are over, our Bible studies, our prayer sessions, whatever that may be, we leave recharged to go back into the world that is broken. And the last thing that baptism does is fitting in line with the historic understanding of baptism as a cleansing of sin, a rejuvenation of heart and mind. is that when we are gathered in community, when we remember our baptism, when we are baptized ourselves, it is intended to set us out to a life of transformation, a life of growth, a life of renewal, a life of reflection, of rejecting sin and rejecting all that we can do that works against God's kingdom and growing more like Christ.

It is that starting point where I hope that we take those steps. In the Methodist Church, for children that were baptized, we have confirmation where they learn the faith, they grow in the faith, and they eventually proclaim it for themselves. And right now I'm working with Paola United Methodist Church and St. Matt's to do a combined confirmation class. Partly selfishly because I have two kids that need to go through confirmation and Paoli has a couple and St. Matt's has a couple.

We don't have enough to do it on our own, but we can do it together. And so I'm going to reach out and share ways that you might get involved in that, whether it's making a meal for a gathering or being a mentor or some other way where you can get involved in the life of these children as they learn the faith and claim it for themselves. But that baptism... whether for infants. And we do baptize adults. It's just unlikely.

It's becoming more likely as people didn't grow up in the church and were never baptized before. We will baptize more adults, I pray, as they come and want to join what God is doing here at Berwyn United Methodist Church. But that baptism is a recognition of that starting point of that lifetime journey of faith that we all embark on, that we all consciously have to make a decision each day to be more like Christ than the day before, to grow together, to pray together, to become the fullness of Christ within us.

It's the beginning of our ministry together. And when we remember our baptism, we should remember that calling to be holy. Just like the people in that passage from Luke, the ones that said, well, what must we do? I like how there's the regular people and they say, give a cloak away, give some food. There's the tax collectors. They say, what must we do? John says, well, don't collect more than what you're told to collect. There's the soldiers. Don't extort any money. Be happy with your wages.

I mean, there were people of all walks of life who had been gathered by John the Baptist, who had been baptized in the wilderness, wondering what they need to do themselves to flee the wrath to come, to live out this baptismal repentance. And John has an answer for each one of them, just as there is one for each one of us. But it takes reflection. It takes desire to grow. It takes intention. It takes a willingness to be vulnerable and honest with one another and with ourselves.

But that baptism moment sets us up for a potential lifetime journey with Christ. Not everyone takes it. Not everyone follows through with it. But the love and the proclamation of God that happens in that moment does not go away. And God is still at work. In each of our lives and each of those lives that have been baptized, just in that font itself. And we praise God for that. And we long to see more.

Welcomed into the beloved community of God, proclaimed to be forgiven, And reconciled with God. To be a part of God's community. And to be a part of God's favor. Not because of anything they have done or left undone. Not because they were baptized or not baptized. But simply because they are a beloved child of God.

So I hope this has helped you understand what Methodists think about baptism and why, why we practice what we do, why we do the things we do, infant baptism, once a lifetime, why we do remembrances, why we do all of these moments, different from other Christian traditions, but still in line with the stories of baptism in the Scripture, the story of Jesus' baptism, the longer portion in Luke of what John was doing in the wilderness. And above all, may we see ourselves as a part of God's beloved community and that expression of it here in Berwyn. Amen.