Baptism is .....

A Sermon preached on Advent III, December 16, at St. Augustine’s Wiesbaden

Zephaniah 3:14-20, Philippians 4:4-7, Luke 3:7-18

For the second week running we have a reading about John the Baptist. Last week he was introduced, this week we hear him preach about selfless sharing as a sign of true repentance. And as we have a Baptism today, of Theodore Christopher Wallace, this must be a very appropriate passage. Perhaps, but I’m not sure about the opening. How would you have felt if I had opened the service not with the words, “Bless the Lord who forgives all our sins” but with instead with “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance.” You would have been at least surprised.

And yet, as Douglas told us last week, Baptism is all about repentance. Theodore does not yet have much to repent of, except perhaps keeping his parents awake at night, and that is still entirely innocent. But still, in Baptism Theodore’s parents and, on behalf of the godparents, grandparents will repent on his behalf. They promise to turn away from evil and sin and turn to Christ and to God’s love made human. This is part and parcel of the “Christian faith and life” that they will promise to be responsible for seeing that Theodore is brought up in.

Theodore may have no need to repent now, unlike the rest of us, but he will. In baptizing him, we are both giving him guidance and the instruments of repentance and giving him a new birth and a new life in Christ, even though his first birth is only a month and a half ago!

Let’s look at how those two elements are already introduced to us in John’ Baptism.

In his “welcoming” sentence, John tells the crowds to “bear fruits worthy of repentance.” They want to change. They know they have to change. But how? “What then should we do?” they ask. His answer is very practical: not sacrifices or fasting or additional rituals, but patterns of behavior and ways of showing selfless concern for others.

For every example he gives them, we will meet someone later in Luke’s Gospel who shows repentance in this way. Zacchaeus promises Jesus “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor.” (Luke 19:8) Jesus welcomes him, and many other repentant tax collectors. In a parable that Jesus tells later, it is the tax collector, who when praying in the Temple “would not even look up to heaven, but was … saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” who is justified, rather than the Pharisee. (Luke 19:9-14)

And we also meet many soldiers, including Roman ones, who go beyond John’s advice just to not extort money. For example, the Centurion who comes to Jesus to have his servant healed, is described by the Jewish elders as being “worthy of having you do this for him, for he loves our people.” (Luke 7:1-10) And in Acts, the Centurion Cornelius, who asks Peter to baptize him, is described as “a devout man who feared God with all his household; he gave alms generously to the people and prayed constantly to God.” (Acts 10:2) What these additional examples show, is that John’s demands are not impossible. They are fulfilled, even exceeded by people who encounter and want to follow Jesus.

The fruits worthy of repentance in our service of Baptism are also possible, challenging yes, but still possible. Come to church, pray, share in the Eucharist, share the Good News, love God and your neighbor, strive for justice and peace. I’ve left one out: “Persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord.” One of the fruits of repentance is to repent. Because God knows that even with God’s help, we will make mistakes, and will miss the mark. What God wants, and what John was preaching, is a change of heart. A desire to follow God in Jesus, the willingness to try and live a life following in his footsteps, but also the knowledge of where to turn and what to do when we fall short.

But Baptism is more than just instruction, guidance, and a list of things for us to do, although these are important, which is why we all reaffirm our Baptismal Covenant at every Baptism, and do not just let to the candidates or their sponsors speak.

Baptism is also about what God does to and for us. “I baptize you with water,” John says. But Jesus, the one who comes after John, “will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Theodore will also be baptized both by water and the Holy Spirit. Water you will see and he and the children who help me will also feel. The presence of the Holy Spirit on the other hand is symbolized by the oil by which he will be signed, and which has been specially blessed for this occasion. Fire is of course another symbol of the Holy Spirit, think of the tongues of flame that appear over the disciples’ heads at Pentecost. Fire is present in the candle; the Paschal candle and the one Theodore will receive. In Baptism, God promises to be with us always.

Both water and fire are also cleansing and purifying agents. And they can be dangerous. But they are not meant to sound frightening or threatening. We may say that in the water of Baptism we are buried with Christ in his death. But we also share in his resurrection and in his risen life. In the context of the reading from Luke I don’t think that the burning of the chaff, which are the husks of corn separated by winnowing or threshing, is about separating good from bad people, but like the “drowning” it is about a symbolic cleansing us from sin, from our own chaff.

But the most important thing that happens and that God does for us in Baptism is to make us members of the Church, of the Body of Christ. Once and for all we are welcomed into the kingdom. This cannot be and does not have to be repeated. But we are not made perfect and so we need the Baptismal Covenant, as a description of the new life we will spend the rest of our lives growing into. They are the outward signs of the inner transformation that God has begun on this day.

John proclaimed the good news to the people, is how the Gospel extract ends. That good news was Jesus whose coming he announced and whose coming we will celebrate in just over a week, and in whose life and ministry we all share through Baptism: soon including Theodore who will now receive this Sacrament in God’s name.  

Amen.