"The Way"

    Extremes are difficult to prepare for.
    Think about the extremes of last year for example.  How does one prepare for:
-    A devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan
-    A wave of change in North Africa called the “Arab Spring”
-    The size and scope of the “Occupy Movement”
-    The extremely tasteless behavior of politicians and TV stars…
Which, seems to have been in the extreme last year, for some reason.
    Of course looking back we know there ARE ways to prepare for these unpredictable extremes. There are things we can do to be more ready for a tsunami on our own coast. There are ways to prepare politically and economically for global changes and crisis.
And of course we could just turn off the TV the internet and our smart phones.
        Or could we…?
    Whether we could or should…it seems to me that there are two kinds of extremes and we have only considered one to this point: the unpredictable extremes; the crisis extremes. There is another kind of extreme that is years in the making. Something prepared for and hoped for and waited for.
-    Something like the royal wedding.
-    Or the Ducks winning the Rose Bowl.
-    Or the capture and execution of Osama Bin Laden
in the same year we remember the 10th anniversary of September 11th.    
    These are all extremes too. There are good extremes and bad ones. But more and more, extreme seems to be the new normal. Or at least it was last year.
    Last year began with unprecedented snow everywhere in the country except here. This year there is no snow anywhere. And just this December two extremely different political figures died within 24 hours of one another: Kim Jong Il and Vaclav Havel. Tell me that’s not extreme on some level!
    So…if all this is even sort of true…how do we prepare?
    How do we prepare to live this extreme life?
    Well as I said, I think extremes are difficult to prepare for. Good ones or bad ones. And we’re not really used to preparing for the unpredictable extremes of global weather and economic and political crisis. But maybe we need to start figuring that one out: finding new ways to prepare. In any case, the other kind of extreme, the longed for one like a Royal Wedding or a Rose Bowl are not easy to prepare for either. Lots of preparation goes into these. We’re just a little more used to that kind of preparation.
    But either way, there’s also a problem with preparation. Call it preparation paralysis. Sometimes we just keep preparing, and then we can get caught in the endless work of preparation, and never actually live out what we are preparing for. Maybe we’re so freaked out by the extreme nature of life that we seek refuge in preparation. Or we prepare in the wrong ways for things we can handle and never really prepare for the extreme reality in which we actually live. Whatever the reason for preparation paralysis it can be a distraction from the reality of life.   
    This sort of problem is illustrated by a boy on a diving board...in a poem by Shel Silverstein. The poem is called ‘Diving Board’;  
    You’ve been up on that diving board
    Making sure that it’s nice and straight.
    You’ve made sure that it’s not too slick.
    You’ve made sure it can stand the weight.
    You’ve made sure that the spring is tight.
    You’ve made sure that the cloth won’t slip.
    You’ve made sure that it bounces right,
        And that your toes can get a grip –
    And you’ve been up there since half past five…
    Doin’ everything…but DIVE!
    Which brings us to this morning’s Scripture reading from the book of Acts:
    Paul is in Ephesus. And he has just met a group of disciples who are up on that diving board, but they don’t actually seem to even know it’s a diving board. They have been baptized by the Preparer. They were baptized by John the Baptist. But what they didn’t realize was that the baptism of John was only preparatory. It’s like they made a lot of plans but forgot what they were planning for and why.
    So Paul explains to them that they are only HALF way. They’ve only completed the first half of the plan. There’s more left to do. And the MORE is the whole reason they followed John the Baptist in the first place. The more is: to receive the Holy Spirit and to receive Jesus. Which they do.
    In this chapter of Acts what they really do is they COMPLETE their baptism.   
    They finally complete what they had been preparing for.    
    It’s not really their fault they are confused. If we step back and look at the whole story of the book of Acts in chapters 18 through 20 we see that there is more to the story.
    Just before Paul went to Ephesus he was in Corinth. And there he discovered a man named Apollos who had been in Ephesus. And this guy was an eloquent speaker, and convincing, and outspoken. But he was also wrong.
    Just like the disciples in Ephesus that Paul met, this guy only knew the first half of the story. And so if he was the one who baptized them, and he probably was, then no wonder they got it wrong too.  
    This guy Apollos maybe is a little like Yogi Berra taking a wrong turn on his way to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in 1972. In his famous quote he said, “We’re lost, but we’re making good time”.
    Apollos and these disciples were making good time. They had prepared. But they were lost. Because they forgot what they were preparing for…and why they had prepared.
    This is an important word of caution for us all on this day.
    Today we remember the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan river. Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist too. And Jesus is at the center of our baptism too.
    Our baptism is not just about us and our plans and preparations.
    It is about preparing us…for a life with Jesus at the center.
    And it is about how the EXTREME grace of Jesus will prepare US to live.
    And the main question for all of us as we think about baptism is this:
        What does it really mean to live a life…that puts Jesus at the center of it?
    There are lots of other things we could put at the center of our lives.
    There are all sorts of seemingly extreme demands on our lives:
        We are bombarded by media images, family and work concerns…
    How do we stay focused on what is really important?
    A story about a river helps me answer this question:
    While reflecting on the life of Thomas Merton, Joan Chittister tells the story of a Sufi master who sat by a river. The disciples of this Master begged him not to leave them. “But if I do not go, how will you ever see?” the Master said to them. “But what is it we can possibly see when you are gone?”, they asked. With a twinkle in his eye, the Master answered, “All I ever did in my entire life was to sit on the river bank handing out river water. After I’m gone, I trust you will notice the river.”
    So what is the river that Jesus wants us to notice in our lives?
    This Master in the story by Joan Chittister was only doing preparation. But he was preparing his disciples to really see the world around them with different eyes.
    Similarly, our baptism is a way to prepare us to see the world in a new and different way.
    So instead of asking how can we prepare for this extreme life…which we can’t really totally do…instead ask this question:      So what is baptism really preparing us for?
    The answer to that question is found back in the book of Acts. Over and over in the second half of the book of Acts, Paul’s whole mission is described as ‘The Way”. Paul is calling all these disciples to something described as “The Way”. Baptism is into a Way. Which means, I believe, that baptism is NOT a SINGLE moment in time. Baptism is a way of life. Baptism is a movement toward Jesus, and to what it means to live life with Jesus at the center…day after day.
    Baptism is the answer to the question:
How are we being prepared to live this EXTREME life?
Not how do we prepare…but how are we being prepared?
    And the answer begins with the EXTREME grace of God in Jesus.
    Extremes are not new. In spite of what I said at the beginning of this sermon.
    Yes, extremes might characterize something of this modern life.
    But the most extreme thing to ever happen - - happened in Jesus.
    Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist as a sign of God’s amazing grace.
    And when we are baptized, or when a child is baptized, we remember that.
    A child baptized helps prepare the world in some small way, to understand and receive that amazing grace and love of God a little bit more than before.
    We celebrate the extreme wonder of God today as we baptize these children.
    And the only way we can really prepare for that is to receive it.
    But then, after we receive it, it begins to prepare us. And there are all sorts of ways we can respond by how we live our lives. The question is: how will we prepare our lives and our world to live into that extreme grace?
        That is a life-long quest.  That is the life-long quest of living the life of baptism.
        That is the life-long quest of living life, in “the Way”.
            Followers of the Way…Prepare…as much as you can…
            Prepare for the extreme…when that’s possible…
            But more importantly, and first, let The Extreme One - - - prepare you!