IT’S ALL ABOUT LIVING OUR BAPTISM

A sermon by the Rev. Dr. James G. Kirk

Harundale Presbyterian Church

Glen Burnie, Maryland

March 9, 2003

Text: “And baptism…now saves you.” (1 Peter 3:21)

First Reading: Genesis 9:8-17

Second Reading: Mark 1:9-15

In a former church the staff was divided over whether or not the Session should allow children of non-members to be baptized. One of the associate pastors was dead set against it. She believed baptism should be limited to children of members of the congregation. In fact, she believed so strongly that she would not participate in a service where such a baptism occurred. For example, this morning when we baptized Dylan she’d be nowhere to be found. In her opinion baptism was a welcome into the household of God. We used that very language a moment ago. “Baptism is a sign and a seal of our cleansing, of our engrafting into Christ, and of our welcome into the household of God.” She argued over and over again that if the parents of the child had no intention of committing themselves to the congregation then the words meant nothing.

Others of us on the staff disagreed with her. We argued that baptism had nothing to do with what we believed about parents’ intentions. We were merely acting as God’s agents. It’s God who’s done everything. It’s God who’s taken the initiative. Inevitably it will be the family who’ll have to work out their relationship with God. All we’re doing in baptism is passing on the gifts of God for the people of God. Of course, nothing we said changed her mind, but it at least kept the conversation lively, and the Session did take the position that it would allow anyone who requested it to have their children baptized.

All three of our scriptures this morning have baptism as the common thread. We hear how God takes the initiative with Noah. We hear how God takes the initiative with Jesus. We hear how God takes the initiative with baptism, and they all have to do with water. God takes the initiative with Noah when God says that never again will water be used to destroy the creation. In fact, whenever it rains all you have to do is look for the rainbow and you know that soon the rain will end.

Flying back from Louisville last year, we were delayed on the runway because of this terrific storm front that was passing through. When at last there was a break in the clouds the pilot said that we were going to make a run for it. Off we went, through the clouds until finally we were above the storm. When I looked out the window, down at the storm clouds, there was this beautiful rainbow with the shadow of the plane directly in the middle of it. It was as though God was putting God’s stamp of approval on the captain’s choice and we would have a safe journey.

God takes the initiative with Jesus. Last week God spoke through the clouds during Jesus’ transfiguration. Today, we hear a similar message. Jesus is baptized by John and as soon as he comes out of the water God speaks again with the same message we heard last week: “You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.” For those of you who weren’t with us during the Ash Wednesday service, everyone there had a pencil and a blank piece of paper.

During the service, we were told to write on the paper something that keeps us from living our baptism. It could be anything. I’m sure that no two people wrote the same thing. We then took that piece of paper to the front where we put it in a basin and burned it. In other words, we were told to give it over to God and during this Lenten season concentrate on working towards a resolution of whatever keeps us from living our baptism.

All of those burnt testimonies were then blended together with the palms that had been left over from last year’s Palm Sunday and we placed those ashes on one another’s hand. In other words, we, as a community of faithful people would support one another in our common quest to live our baptism. Then a damp cloth was passed among us to clean the spot where the ashes had been imprinted, a sign again of the new life we have in Christ.

First there was the rainbow on the return trip from Louisville and then the burned ashes of those things that keep us from living our baptism. When we read Peter, we’re told for the third time how God takes the initiative. Here, Peter sums up what we’ve already heard in Genesis and Mark in that “baptism…now saves you.” However, let me digress for a moment and have you concentrate on the number eight. Peter tells us how “a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water.” It’s hard to know what Peter had in mind when he mentions the eight, other than he wanted to clarify what he meant by “a few.” But what’s happened in the meantime is that the number eight has taken on a life of its own.

Originally, the eight were understood to be Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives. Those are the eight who were saved from the waters of the flood and would go on to people the earth. Since then, however, the number eight has come to imply anything that has to do with the renewal of life. When we baptized Dylan the water we used was in the baptismal font that has eight sides. Most baptismal fonts in the country will have eight sides. Again, the reference goes back to Peter’s mention of the eight. Circumcision was normally done on the eighth day after the child was born. (Gen.17: 12; Luke 2:21) A leper was declared clean on the eighth day after his healing. (Leviticus 23:36; John 7:37) When Jesus rose from the dead some people called that the Eighth Day of Creation, and since then Sunday, the Lord’s Day, has become the day of resurrection, or the first day of the rest of our lives.

The water bearer in India would carry two large earthenware pots on his shoulders the two and a half miles each morning from his master’s house to the stream and back again. The pots hung down on each side from a pole that the water bearer carried across his back. The one pot was perfectly shaped according to the master’s design, but the other had a crack in the side of it. By the time each day the water bearer reached his master’s house he would have only one and a half pots full of water because of the pot with a crack in it.

One day the cracked pot decided to confront the water bearer with its plight and said quite honestly, “master, I’m ashamed of myself.” “Why?” asked the water bearer. “I’m ashamed of myself because of this crack in my side. All the while you carry the water you only return with one and a half pots full of water. I am unworthy to be in your service.”

The water bearer listened to the pot’s tale and decided to take its concern into his own hands. On one of the journeys to the stream the water bearer told the pot to notice the beautiful wild flowers that grew along its side of the path. Sure enough, when they came to that part of the path there along its side the sun shone down on a beautiful array of wild flowers. The water bearer said to the pot, “I have always known of that crack in your side and your feelings of unworthiness, but long ago I did something about it. I scattered seeds along the path and every day when we went to the stream to fetch water, all along the way home you watered the seeds and the flowers grew. Because of you I was able to adorn my masters table with beautiful wild flowers each day.”

In that story God is the master, Christ is the water bearer and we’re the cracked pots. To live our baptism is to water the seeds Christ throws along the path of life, so that in the end Christ may gather the flowers to adorn the master’s table. To God be the glory forever and ever!

Thanks be to God,

Amen