Second Sunday of Advent
December 8, 2024
Luke 3:1-6

“John the Baptist went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin” (Luke 3:3). This begs the simplest of questions – what is baptism? We do it all the time. We get our kids baptized. Clearly, it’s in the Bible. But what is it?

First of all, the word “baptism” means “to dip,” “to immerse.” Yes, you baptize your Oreos in a glass of milk. You baptize your donut in a cup of coffee. Your welcome for that image that you will never forget.

Now, in ancient Jewish practice, it was customary to bathe in water to wash away uncleanness. Say you had touched a dead body, and you had become ritually unclean for reason, you would wash in these giant vats, filled with water. And it wasn’t necessarily that you had done anything wrong. We know that washing our bodies with water makes your body clean. So it’s a symbol – washing was a way to make you physically, emotionally, and spiritually clean.

And then comes John the Baptist, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin. This is different. John the Baptist shows up and starts telling people, oh yes, you’ve definitely done things wrong. So John baptized, he dunked people, dipped them, immersed them, as a symbol for dying to your old self and rising as someone new. Down goes your old life of sin, up comes your new life of grace. Baptism was a form of repentance.

Then along comes Jesus. And Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist in the River Jordan.  But when Jesus is baptized, it’s not so much about ritual purity; it’s not about the forgiveness of sins; it’s about the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God descends upon Jesus at his baptism. This is a sign, a symbol, an event in which Jesus’ purpose is revealed. It’s through the waters of baptism that Jesus is shown to us as the Son of God.    

So already, by the time Jesus is baptized, we have three very different ideas about baptism. It’s about the Spirit of God, it’s about a new way of life, it’s about being made clean. And then along comes the Church. Oh boy. You know, the Church always makes things clearer. Baptism for the early church becomes about joining the community. Baptism becomes a rite of passage; baptism is the sign of membership for the early church. And it’s actually then, within a few years of Jesus, that we have the first indications of infants being baptized.

So consider this. In the Bible, there are at least four different reasons that people would pray and be washed with water – to purify, to repent, to receive a new Spirit, and to join a community. This took place in vats of water, it took place in rivers and creeks, and yes, even in buildings, like churches. And as Christianity has spread, so have the customs and traditions of baptism multiplied. So today you have people getting dunked in the Gulf of Mexico, I’ve seen people get water poured on them in a horse trough, and we sprinkle some water here for baptisms inside the church. I’ve baptized adults, I’ve baptized teenagers, I’ve baptized infants wearing white gowns.

All of this gets to a point – there is no “right way” to be baptized. Clearly, from the Bible itself, there is no “right way” to be baptized, because the Bible doesn’t even agree with itself on the matter. A baptism in a church with a splash of water is no better or worse than a full dunking in the Jordan River. You can’t tell me that God requires a certain volume of water in order to work. That’s just silly. You also can’t tell me that you have to be of a certain age, or you have to be able to confess your faith with reason. Because then you would be saying that people with mental disabilities, who cannot articulate a faith, should also not be baptized. I refuse to believe in a God who would only love certain people; that’s just callous. That’s not God, that’s a monster made in the image of humanity’s worst instincts. And, you can’t tell me that baptism is your ticket into heaven; like baptism is some sort of afterlife insurance policy. Because God is not, I repeat is not, a risk mitigation agent.

Baptism is an outward and visible of an inward and spiritual grace – that God knows us, even with our faults. God claims us, and gathers us into this community. Baptism is not magic, no. Baptism is a gift, a sacramental sign of who we are – God’s beloved children. And, baptism is a call, because it means that we are now supposed to live like Jesus. It is a gift of love, yes; but it is also a commitment. So, I think that all the fretting about the how and the when and the where is a distraction. Because by getting all wound up about the human things, we forget why we are doing it in the first place. Which is to somehow, in some way, offer a life to God. Through baptism, we are called to be better, holier, more gracious people.

That is a lot of theology this early in the morning. And I know that for some for you, this probably sounds awfully foreign. And not at all how you were raised. All I can say – “Welcome to the Episcopal Church.” I know, I know that this can sound mealy-mouthed. And in the world today, people want to know. People want to know exactly what we think. They want us to put it down on paper, to define it in black and white terms. But I think that is actually a disservice. We as Episcopalians we read the Bible, we think about history, and we consider the facts of humanity in order to honor God. Again, that’s the key. This is not about us and our little foibles; it is about honoring the Lord God who is revealed to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And by receiving this sacrament from God, we turn around and offer ourselves as a sacramental presence to the world.

Except for the few of you that I have personally baptized, I don’t presume to know when, or how, or where you were baptized. I don’t know what it was like for you to be “dipped” like a chip into a bowl of salsa, like a French fry into ketchup. And I can’t wait for you to email me all your baptism and food jokes this week. 

But in the midst of all the things we don’t know about God, this one thing we do trust – to be made clean, to repent of our sins, to receive new life, to join a community, to acknowledge this life we have with Christ – we come before God with water and prayer. That’s why you were baptized. So thank God for all of it. Thank God that you have been made clean, that you have a new life, that you have received the Spirit of God, that you have this community. And when you hear about John the Baptist, when you see a baptism, when you walk by that font, remember that despite our best efforts to make it all terribly confusing, we know one thing. That through water and the Holy Spirit, we are claimed as God’s own.