Water Everywhere

Sermon

As I went down in the river to pray
Studying about that good old way
And who shall wear the robe and crown
Good Lord, show me the way!
O brothers let’s go down
Let’s go down, come on down
Come on brothers let’s go down
Down in the river to pray

Today we’re going to hear about baptism—the baptism of John, the baptism of Jesus, and the sacrament of baptism. And because we’re going to hear about baptism, I’m going to talk about water, the thing we absolutely cannot live without.

We met John the Baptist during Advent and heard his birth story as Luke tells it. Then, in the story the gospel writer Matthew tells us, John is introduced as a fiery prophet, warning people of their need to repent and baptizing them in the Jordan river. It’s important to note that baptism is not a Christian invention; the Jews had a practice of a ritual bath for the purpose of purification. And then John comes along, offering baptism for the repentance of sins.

Our word “baptism” is from the Greek word baptidzo, which really means to dip, to dip several times. Of course, the beauty of baptism loses some of its shine when we call it dipping. I’ll stick with the original.

So John is doing his thing in the wilderness along the shores of the Jordan. And his cousin Jesus comes along, seeking to be baptized. But John, being John, knows who Jesus is and understands that his cousin is greater than he is. And John doesn’t want to do it, but Jesus insists. So into the water both men go, and John dips Jesus in. As Jesus emerges, this disembodied voice, a voice from the spirit-world, a voice identified as belonging to God, proclaims, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well-pleased.”

What child doesn’t love to hear their parents say, “You are my beloved, and I am so pleased with you.” What person of faith wouldn’t love to hear God say that. “You are my beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

For those of us who remember our baptisms, we heard no such voice from the spirit-world, at least not one that others would have also heard. That doesn’t diminish our baptisms at all. We might understand why Jesus got to hear those words the rest of us don’t. He is special, and perhaps he more than any of us needs that reassurance and encouragement before he sets out on his ministry.

Because his baptism is just the beginning. In Matthew’s telling of things, we go from the birth of Jesus, to the visit by the wise men, to the holy family running away to Egypt. Next thing we know, thirty years have passed and Jesus is all grown up. There have been some wonderful fictions about what Jesus was doing in those thirty years, but the gospel writers are silent. What we know is that this fully mature man, no longer depending on his parents, has a call from God, and he begins that call with this ritual dip in the holy river.

After his baptism, his ministry begins in earnest. He goes deeper into the wilderness where he resists temptation, returns to Capernaum by the sea, calls his first disciples, and is on his way. But he begins with baptism.

We had an interesting discussion in our staff meeting about whether Jesus had to be baptized. He was without sin, so if this is a purification ritual, he alone did not need it. That is what John was getting at in his reluctance to baptize his cousin. But if Jesus came, in part, to fully identify with the human experience, then participating in a ritual dip would be part of the whole shebang (as it were). Perhaps we are wise if we simply leave it at “Jesus knew what he was doing and let’s not Monday-morning quarterback it 2,000 years later.”

But… maybe Jesus was baptized as part of showing his disciples how to follow him. It’s interesting—none of the gospels mention that Jesus ever baptized anyone. But in the Book of Acts and in the letters of Paul, we see the early Christian community has adopted baptism as its initiation rite. Two millennia later, we’re still at it.

Now you may or may not know that we Presbyterians have only two sacraments. People guess all sort of numbers, thinking maybe marriage is a sacrament for us – it isn’t – or a memorial is a sacrament – nope – or confirmation is a sacrament. No. We just have two: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. One reason I’ve heard is that our sacraments are things that Jesus participated in. So we have two.

And the first is baptism, which really is our welcome ritual. We don’t go down to the Willamette or the Columbia rivers, and we don’t plunge people all the way in, and so maybe we’ve lost a little of the drama of it all. Sprinkling doesn’t get too exciting except when a startled baby shrieks into the pastor’s microphone.

We may have lost some of the drama of baptism as we sprinkle water. But baptism is more than a sweet thing we do with the babies that we love. Water is powerful, and we’ve diminished some of that power. We—and really I should say “I”—have backed away from the image of dying as we descend into the water and rising into new life with Christ. In baptism, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit; we become part of the body of Christ. God washes us clean.

And those are all beautiful, theological meanings to this sacrament, but I want to take a step back. Baptism is a sacrament, and a sacrament is an outward and visible sign—a person dipped in water—of an inward and spiritual reality. And what is that spiritual reality? That God has claimed the baptized person; that God calls this person “beloved.”

Here’s the catch: all of that has already happened. God doesn’t wait until some congregation or some pastor baptizes someone. Baptism is our public acknowledgement of what God has already done. So do we need to baptized so we don’t go to hell when we die? No. Absolutely not. That is an old, outdated, rather cruel theology, seen in Catholic cemeteries that used to have a section of unhallowed space for babies who died before they were baptized.

Do we have to get baptized? No. I think there are fewer “have-to’s” in Christianity than we think there are. But we get baptized, and we have our children baptized, because we want to publicly express our faith, express our hope and belief that God really does love us, that God really is pleased with us. And yes, for some adults who are baptized, there is a sense of saying goodbye to an old life and welcoming a new one.

Often in the baptism liturgy a pastor invites the congregation to remember with joy their own baptisms. In that is an invitation to remember that God calls you beloved, that God claims you, that you belong to God, and that absolutely nothing you do, and nothing that is done to you, can undo that love, that claim, that belonging.

But I’d like to offer another invitation related to all of this. Every time you encounter water, remember your baptism. Well, maybe not every time….

But when you’ve been really thirsty after a long bike ride or walk on a hot day, and you drink refreshing water, remember your baptism.

And after you’ve been about some dirty, messy work—gardening or cleaning the gutters or making finger paintings—and you wash up, remember your baptism.

Maybe in the morning or the evening when you shower or bathe, and you wake up or you start to relax, remember your baptism.

When you’re on the Marquam or Fremont or Glenn Jackson bridge over the Willamette or Columbia, remember your baptism.

One last thing about water. Water is the most basic element essential for our life—our physical life and maybe our spiritual life as well. We have brothers and sisters and siblings, fellow Americans, who do not have access to clean water.

In 2016, 97 schools in Portland Public Schools were tested for lead in the water, and it was found in all but one of those schools. Thankfully, the district has since taken care of the problem. But the people of Flint, Michigan, have been without safe water since 2014. Tens of thousands of people in the city, including children, have been exposed to dangerously high levels of lead, and outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease have killed at least 12 people. The water company Ice Mountain is still providing Flint residents with water.

Last August, flooding in Jackson, Mississippi, affected the local water treatment plant, and 150,000 people had no access to safe drinking water. This was not the first crisis with water in Jackson, and I fear it will not be the last.

Part of our baptismal identity is as beloved children of God, and as followers of Christ. So maybe when we drink water or wash our hands, and remember our baptism, we also remember our kin in our country and around the world without clean water. And maybe we even do what we can about it.

Today when you leave worship, the font will be open and there will be a bowl of water on the table in the narthex, and I invite you to dip your hand in the water, and remember your baptism as you go about the rest of your Sunday. May water always remind you of the grace and love of God.

O, sinners, let’s go down,
Let’s go down, don’t you wanna go down,
O sinner, let’s go down,
Down in the river to pray.