Isaiah 42.1-9, Matthew 3.13-17
The Baptism of Christ, 12 January 2020
Keasden, Clapham, Austwick
In today’s gospel reading we find John and Jesus thrashing out whether or not Jesus should be baptised and if so by whom. It’s a dialogue which many of our families have had over our newborns, or which some of us have had when as adults we’ve reached a point of decision about the Christian faith. Like Jesus they’ve reached a decision that it is the right thing to do.
It is clear that from the very beginnings of the church, different people have been baptised in different ways. There’s infant baptism, and there’s adult baptism. There’s the baptism of water, and the baptism of the spirit. And there's the baptism of water and the spirit.
John's was a baptism of water. 'John baptised with the baptism of repentance,' said Paul. Those who went down under the water in the safe hands of John went down conscious of the wrong things in their life, and wanting to get right with God. When they came up out of the water they believed - as John had taught them - that God had cleansed them, that God had made them new.
The baptism of John was like a believers' baptism. It was something which grown-up people did when they had reached a decision in their minds and their hearts, to turn to God.
This sort of baptism is practiced in many of our churches today. Some of you know that I was brought up in a Baptist church, which practiced believers' baptism, and that I was baptised at the age of 17 on a cold November morning by full immersion in a pool of pretty chilly water, in a special Baptism service at the same time as one or two other people.
In those services going under the water is a sign of being buried with Jesus through baptism. Coming back up out of the water a sign of the new life we have begun. It all happens because we have come to the waters, to make that commitment. This is how it is with the churches who emphasise believers' baptism.
Interestingly though the Baptist churches also acknowledge that ‘Baptism is also about receiving God's Spirit for service in the church and in the world. It is often accompanied by the laying on of hands as a sign of commissioning, and by being received into membership of the church.’ [1]
John told those who came to be baptised by him, 'I have baptised you with water; but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.' When Paul baptised the believers in Ephesus in the name of Jesus by laying his hands on them, 'the Holy Spirit came upon them'. And so we could say that the baptism of Jesus is a baptism of the spirit.
Some Christian groups today assert that Spirit baptism is more important in the life of a believer than 'an outward symbol with water'.The Society of Friends (the Quakers) are not so much opposed to water-baptism as indifferent to it. They say it is irrelevant because they continually seek to practise 'a sacramental life through the living presence of Christ'. The Quaker baptism affirms the life of the Spirit in the heart of a person. It is not concerned with ceremony but with the words of Jesus (in John 4.24), that "God is Spirit. And those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth." [2]
Other churches - particularly the pentecostal and charismatic ones - value the baptism by water but also insist on a baptism in the spirit. They ask what Paul asked the Ephesian believers, 'Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?' If they said no then Paul laid hands on them and they received the Spirit in Jesus' name.
In John 3:5 Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.” If you have been baptised in the Anglican way, or the Catholic way, or the Methodist or the Baptist way, then you will have been baptised by water and the Spirit. For in these services prayers are said inviting the Spirit to fill the baptised person’s life, from that moment on.
For some, this will have been a believer's baptism; having come into the church later in life and made a decision to be baptised as a sign of faith, a decision to live a new life in Christ, and receiving the sign of the Holy Spirit to help and strengthen you to do that.
For others, this will have happened at or not long after birth. Maybe it was more of a Christening, the baby getting their Christian name. It was still a believers' baptism: the belief of the parents, the belief of the family was what what brought the young one to the church. And it was still a baptism in the Spirit; because in our churches baptism is seen as God's ceremony, God's opportunity to touch the baptised person with the blessing and the presence of that Spirit who will never leave that person throughout their lives.
Jesus himself was baptised by water and the Spirit when he stood in the River Jordan with John. Mark describes what happened very dramatically. Just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. Our baptism services don’t usually seem as dramatic as that, but the same drama is in fact taking place each and every time - heaven is opened to those taking part, God comes to us in the person of the Holy Spirit, the world unalterably changes.
This is the sign of a baptised person - a person whose life is different because God has come into that life and will not let go. If we live every day aware that we are baptised people then
we are permitting God, by his ever-present Spirit, to play an active part in making a difference to the way we go about our lives.
Whatever tradition or belief has led to your particular sort of baptism, in baptism you or your family reach out to God and God comes close to you. That’s something for us to remember, to hold in our hearts as we start a new year in faith and hope in God, praying for that Spirit who has been with us from the moment of our Baptism, to guide us through each day.
Notes
Adapted from Into what were you baptised? preached at the Good Shepherd, Liverpool, 2009
[1] Baptist Union of Great Britain, What is Baptism? Accessed 2009 but (in 2020) no longer available. However, see the current Baptist Union of Great Britain webpage, Believers Baptism.
[2] Gordon Kuhrt, Believing in Baptism : Christian Baptism, Its Theology and Practice, p.98, quoting Max Thurian, Ecumenical perspectives on Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry, p.161
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