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Sermon - The First Sunday in Lent (B) - 1st March 2009
St Alban's Anglican Church Epping 7 and 8am
Readings: Genesis 9:8-17, Psalm 25:1-10, 1 Peter 3:18-22, Mark 1:9-15
The three readings, excluding the Psalm, mention water. The theme for today the First Sunday in Lent is covenant between God and humanity; the principal covenant is the baptismal covenant. In the first reading we have the covenant between Noah and God of which we are reminded each time we see a rainbow in the sky. The second covenant is the baptismal covenant between Jesus and his father, illustrated in the account of his baptism. Finally, we have Peter’s statement of the importance of our baptism how it is our safety net as we live out our lives here in the world. Baptism is also the sacrament of evangelism for we are told to go into all the world and make disciples of all people for we cannot rest on our own laurels and say I am saved. We need to go out and tell all whom we meet that God loves and accepts them no matter who and what they are or have been. Remembering at all times what St Francis said something like this; I preach the gospel at all times and sometimes I use words!
The word baptism comes form the Greek word to plunge or to dip. The outward sign of the sacrament of baptism is cleansing or bathing of the candidate with water. The New Testament writers looked back to the significance of water in the Hebrew scriptures such as we see in Genesis and Peter and who saw in it a clue to understanding the meaning of baptism. The waters of the flood destroyed the old wicked world but also sustained the ark for the preservation and renewal of life. The Church is often spoken of as a ship. The main part of this building I called architecturally the nave, a Latin word for ship. Correspondingly, baptism now saves us not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The earliest baptisms in the New Testament were the pre-christian baptisms of John the Baptist. Jesus was baptised by John in the River Jordan. The distinction between baptising with water and baptising with the Holy Spirit was seen to be the major difference between baptising with water and Christian baptism. The decent of the Spirit in our account points out the difference. It seems to me that is clearly a subjective experience, private to Jesus himself.
The dramatic scenes witnessed on the Day of Pentecost and on other occasions that followed must seem strange to us, for whom baptism has become a quiet and somewhat routine family affair, when nothing much seems to be happening.
The inward reality of baptism is the entry into the Christian life. The conviction of sin is the presupposition of baptism. We have a sense that something is not well with us. In its inward content Christian baptism includes the baptism of John, as a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. This is the beginning of Christian baptism, a turning away from sin. The affirmative nature of turning is made concrete and given depth in Christian baptism is when we turn to Christ. In the baptism service the candidate is asked, Do you turn to Christ? It is not only a turning to Christ but also a turning with Christ or in Christ. Christ is the representative human being, the man sent from God to reconcile his fellow human beings to God, so that it is union with him that we turn in the direction that he chose in his own baptism. This in turn means that the baptised person is incorporated into Christ, made a member of the body of Christ, lifted out of the fallen society into which we have been born an given a new identity. Every time we meet together we say the body Christ.
This sharing in Christ’s own baptism, being buried and rising with him, is also kind of ordination, a call to be a lay apostle, to share in the general priesthood of the church. It is also a sharing in the Holy Spirit who rested in all it fullness on Jesus.
The inward reality of baptism is very rich. It includes a whole lot of moments. Conviction of sin, repentance, awareness of forgiveness, being embraced in the new community, being called to service or ministry, receiving the Holy Spirit is part of the git of baptism.
This all seems logically impossible for little children to be baptised however, the baptism of young children seems to have begun very early in the history of the church, for we read in the New Testament of whole families being baptised. I for one was baptised as a child and I have never known of a time when I did not consider myself to be a full member of the church. If the sponsors of a child take they promises seriously then young children growing up in the community of faith will surely be touched by its life and strengthened in the faith into which they were baptised. Such formation is indispensable. Even adults do not come through baptism an already complete Christian. There is still much to learn. If it is true for an adult it is surely true for a child. All humans are a work in progress. None of us are complete this side of heaven. God’s activity is not bound by our expectations, though on the other hand he is not arbitrary.
So this the week in this Lent let us reconsider our own baptism and recommit ourselves to the God who created us, redeems us and makes us holy.
This sermon produced with reference to A Guide to the sacraments, John Macquarrie, SCM Press, London 1997.