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| The First Sacrament Matthew 28: 16 – 20 & Acts 16: 20 – 33 March 18, 2007 I saw Franklin Graham on TV last week. It was a real nostalgia trip for those of us who remember the Billy Graham Crusades of decades past beginning way back in the 1940s. Franklin looks a lot like his dad even though his dress was more casual and the music was more up to date than George Beverly Shea accompanied by an electronic organ. Franklin is not as passionate as his father in his preaching but the message was identical. Bible stories; nothing complex; and the call to commitment at the end. The people who filled the stadium were invited to leave their seats, go down and stand in front of the platform, and there they were to tell God they were sorry for their sins, ask Jesus to come into their hearts and he would save them. I’ve been to a Billy Graham Crusade and I have heard lots of evangelists, live or on TV, and that is pretty much the standard formula for salvation. And, let me hastily add that I have no problem with it as far as it goes; but it is short of Biblical. The Bible includes baptism in that formula and none of the evangelists ever mention that. When Jesus gave the great commission at the end of the gospel of Matthew, he said to proclaim the gospel to the whole world, baptizing them… On the day of Pentecost when Peter preached that powerful sermon, the Bible says that the people were cut to the heart and asked “What shall we do?” Peter answered, “Repent and be baptized.” After Paul’s miraculous deliverance from prison, the jailor asked what he had to do to be saved and Paul said to believe in Jesus. Then he baptized him, immediately according to the story: him and his entire household. I think the reason the evangelists leave it out is because their events are supported by lots of different churches and churches don’t agree on what baptism means or even how it should be done. Some churches believe that unless you are fully immersed it’s not baptism. Some of us doubt whether the amount of water or the mode of application are at issue. There is a story that came out of World War II about a group of soldiers in North Africa who got cut off from their division. They were stranded, lost and had no water. It looked like certain death and one of the young soldiers wanted to be baptized. So the chaplain baptized him with sand. Somehow I am convinced that it took in spite of the complete absence of water. The oldest Christian art is that found in the cataco9mbs of Rome, and in those drawings baptisms are pictured. In every case the method is neither immersion nor sprinkling, it is pouring. The candidate is pictured standing in the river while the baptizer pours the water from a bowl. The Baptists insist on immersion because Paul described baptism as being symbolic of death and resurrection. That’s why people are baptized face up, because that’s how people are buried. The other way would be better because you wouldn’t be so likely to get water up your nose. Baptism is also symbolic of the coming of the Spirit, so falling water is also appropriate. The reason baptism is the first sacrament is because it predates Christianity by two millennia. The Hebrews practiced the ritual as far back as the founding of the nation. The line from Psalm 51 is about that. “Purge me with Hyssop and I shall be clean.” Hyssop was a small bush and the priest would take a branch, dip it in the water and swish the worshipers. So, there is a forth method of baptizing – pouring, sprinkling, emersion and swishing. The Orthodox churches practice it a lot. And it is a great way of keeping people from dozing off. I was at the Orthodox Cathedral in Moscow at Easter once. People brought loaves of bread to be served at their Easter dinners. They were all placed on a big table and the priest came by with a branch of Hyssop and blessed them with a swish; then for good measure he swished all of us as well. For the Hebrews, baptism was a ritual cleansing. For the Christians, it was that and more. Jesus was baptized by John. Certainly he didn’t need cleansing being sinless. John preached a baptism of repentance, so what was Jesus doing in line? It was a ritual to mark the beginning of his ministry, the public proclamation of a new era. So with all Christian baptism, it marks the beginning of a new life, life in Christ. And it is a commissioning for the beginning of your ministry and your empowerment for that ministry by the Spirit of Christ. In fact, Paul will speak of that several times; when we are baptized we “put on Christ.” – like a new garment. The line from the old gospel song goes, “I’ll tell you the best thing I ever did do, I took off the old coat and put on the new.” Also we are initiated into the community of faith. When we perform the sacrament today it won’t be just the recipient or the parent who is asked to make a commitment, it is all of us. These persons are becoming family members and you have to approve the adoption. There is more. Paul said that the waters of baptism wash away boundaries: age, class, race, all those artificial barriers we put between ourselves. We become one in Christ. Furthermore, both Paul and Peter insist that there is a connection between baptism and the presence of the Holy Spirit. Which is one reason why the church why the church has always baptized infants; everyone knows that no one has more of the Spirit of God than do children. Emily frequently tells Isla and me what heaven is like, and I don’t doubt her insight. She isn’t so cluttered with other worldly stuff that she has forgotten what home looks like. When Paul baptized the jailor he also baptized his household: that means his children, his servants and their children. They all became one in Christ. Finally we must acknowledge that baptism is like the other sacrament, it is a mystery. We do it because Jesus said to, and we have the confidence that when we perform this simple act with common water, along side that God is adding a blessing and God’s grace flows like water poured from a flask into a bowl. That’s what the word
means. Sacrament comes from the same word as sacred. When we perform
this sacred ritual, the Holy One sanctifies the one whom we baptize
and all of us who participate in it. The water we use isn’t
holy water, just the common, ubiquitous, life-giving stuff. What
we do is common and so are those of us who do it; it is God that
turns our simple actions into a sacrament full of mystery and grace. As always you can get a DVD of this sermon. Contact the church office.
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