Remember Your Baptism, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY, 1/8/2012 by Rev Steven R Mitchell

Remember Your Baptism
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 1/8/2012
Based on Mark 1: 4-11

Last week we read about Jesus being presented at the temple for the ritual of purification, which was required in the Law of Moses. It was at the temple that Simeon and Anna, two individuals who were faithful in their commitment to God, finally received the fulfillment of God’s promise to them of being able to see the “hope” of Israel before they died. The theme of last week’s scripture focused on “vision” and living through that vision in hope, waiting for God’s timing.
This week, we are thrust forward many years, and we now see Jesus as a fully grown man, who is at the start of his ministry, a timely spot to start as we begin another new year within our own lives. In this morning’s story, we are told about this guy named John, coming from the dessert into the wilderness outside of the city of Jerusalem. This man was very unorthodox in his manor, he wore camel’s hair robes, was a vegan, and said, “Repent from your sins and be baptized in water.”
Take just a minute and think about how we, who live out our faith within the walls of the “established church” {of who we will call “Main-line denominations” such as the Episcopal, the Lutherans, the Methodists, the Presbyterians, the American Baptists, the United Church of Christ}, would react to a guy who just hit town and started holding prayer meetings down in the Bitter Creek River bed. The guy is wearing sandals, wearing blue jeans, a polo shirt, has a shaved head, and is speaking at the top of his lungs like a used car salesman, telling people that they need to repent from their sins, follow a new path and leave the old behind. Funny thing is, thousands of people in Rock Springs are hearing about this, wondering out to where he is at and for some reason are buying into what this guys is saying, being baptized in the dirty waters of Bitter Creek and having changed lives. This guys church is growing in leaps and bounds, reaching out to all sorts of people, that we in the “main-line” denominational churches, those established institutions, have never been able to reach. What would be our first reactions to all this, when we out of curiosity, go out to see for ourselves, what is going on, to see what is being said to bring such a change to the general population? Would we rejoice in what we observe? Or would we grumble and try to discount the validity of what these people are experiencing? My guess is that as part of the established religious groups in town, we would have the latter reaction to what this up start preacher was doing.
What we are reading in this first chapter of Mark is a revolutionary event going on. The whole description about John the Baptizer puts him as the outsider of the establishment. (The Joe Blow, down at Bitter Creek baptizing people.) His location alone – is announcing that God can live outside of the temple, that Jerusalem is not the only place that faith is acted out. John was telling a population that was spiritually hungry that there was something more that was needed beyond being a Hebrew, a biological part of father Abraham, that just because you are a descendant of Abraham, you are not necessarily living in the spiritual path that God is hoping for.
The need to repent, which tends to be more associated with the season of Lent, is brought up at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. When we hear this word, we tend to think about the turning away from sin, or sinful acts. The word for us, tends to mean, “Being sorry, or remorseful, or even penitent”, but there is a deeper meaning within Jesus’ Judaism. Repent, is more closely associated with the idea of returning from exile; ‘to repent is to return, to follow ‘the way of the Lord’ that leads from exile to the Promised Land.” The Greek roots of the word suggest an additional meaning; to repent is to 'go beyond the mind that you have' - to go beyond conventional understandings of what life with God is about" (Jesus: Uncovering the Life, Teachings, and Relevance of a Religious Revolutionary).
When we read that Jesus also came out to the river Jordan and was baptized as well, this begs some questions that scholars have argued about for the past several thousand years. Questions such as: “Why did Jesus need to be baptized”? “If John’s baptism was for repentance, then why would Jesus need to be baptized, if he were in truth sinless?” But if you think in respect to what Mark is describing with the whole story of John the Baptizer, the message that God is found not only in the temple but outside where daily life takes place, that repentance wasn’t so much about “remorse for actions, or a turning away from specific actions” but rather a refocusing on returning from exile, that idea of being imprisoned or enslaved and breaking away from what has kept you away from God’s promise, then for Jesus, it would be a natural statement for him to be making. A statement that says, “I want to move beyond the understanding that I currently have about my relationship with God, to move into a new aspect of living in that promise that God has made.”

Theologian Marcus Borg reflects further on this story in his book, Jesus: A New Vision - Spirit, Culture, and The Life of Discipleship: "Renowned for his eloquent and passionate call for repentance, John proclaimed that it was not sufficient to be 'children of Abraham,' but called the Jewish people to a more intense relationship with God sealed by a ritual of initiation. Crowds flocked to this charismatic, some to be baptized. Jesus was among them." Not only does this story place Jesus "in the Spirit-filled heart of Judaism," but it also puts him right in the midst of a renewal movement. Elton Brown quotes The New Oxford Annotated Bible: "Jesus himself is baptized into the renewal movement that began before him." Therefore, Brown observes, "In part this reminds us that in Jesus Christ [God] does a new thing, but not a brand-new thing. Israel, Torah, the prophets, John the baptizer all prepare the way" (Feasting on the Word). Found in the Sermon Seed UCC 1/8/2012
In a few minutes we are going to remember our baptism. This is something that we do yearly. But before we celebrate our life in Christ, as members of this faith community, I ask that you think about “what does your baptism mean to you?” Some of us were baptized as infants, so we can’t remember the actual event, for you I would ask you to think about, “what feelings are evoked when you witness a baby being baptized?” For those who have been baptized as young adults or later in life, I ask that you take a few moments and reflect on that event and recall feelings or possibly impressions of that special time in your life. (pause)
Baptism is a bond that uniquely shapes us as a community. God has formed us in love and found us good, yet much too often we see ourselves and one another as flawed and deficient. What would happen if we saw ourselves as created for God's glory (Isaiah 43:7)? What if we saw ourselves and others as God saw Jesus the day that he was baptized, with the heavens being torn open and a voice saying:”You are my child, the beloved; with you I am well pleased.” How much stronger, do you think we as a body of faith would be able to love not only those around us, here in this sanctuary, but to those who have not yet started on that road that will return them to the promised land of God? Remember your Baptism. Amen