Acts 10:34-43
Matthew 3:13-17
Last week I shared that it is time for the Church to
"come out of the closet". We
must reinvigorate ourselves in the
Holy Spirit because we cannot do this alone, renew or begin anew our commitment to discipleship because it is
our God-given, Christ-commanded mission from which no one has been exempted, and
reinvest ourselves in mission as the
Body of Christ because we need one another. I proposed to you no one is going to follow a
God whose own followers are more devoted to their own interests and in
following some pop-culture icon; and that when we withhold any portion of
ourselves, our witness and our testimony and perhaps even our salvation all become
lies.
It is true that the salvation of all is the goal and
mission of the Church as the will of our Holy Father, but we too often stop
short of helping others (and ourselves) to understand WHY we are justified
before the Lord and why sanctification (becoming more and more Christ-like) is
so important and must never be taken
for granted as a "given" just because we think we are "good
people". These are not multiple
choice issues; they are two sides of the same coin in the fullness of life.
By the same token we emphasize the necessity of
baptism as initiation into the Covenant and the Church, but we lose our way
when we get hung up on the "how" in exactly what must be done or in defending
our own superstitions. Thus we miss altogether
the "why" of what baptism is about.
So rather than devote ourselves to exploring the fullest meaning of baptism, we get stuck
in needless disputes about the method
of baptism. This helps no one.
The method is probably the biggest hang-up for many,
beginning at the River's bank. Is it possible the Baptizer was fully immersing
those who came to him? Of course it
is. Is it also possible John was
scooping water with his hands and pouring it over their heads? Of course it is. We cannot know which way it was being done
because it is not written for us to know; we can only speculate. So I would suggest that because there is no precise
written prescription we must follow, we should pay more attention to what is written for us to know.
The word "baptism" in the Greek can mean
to "immerse" or "to dip", but it can also mean simply "to
wash". In the Gospel accounts we
are reading a "record" of what happened at the River and clearly not
a "prescription" as to how baptism must be done simply because it is
not told or even inferred.
So when we read about John's baptism of repentance, we
must remember John did not fall from Elizabeth's womb onto the river's bank. Like the rest of us, John had a background
that informed this practice he was offering; and what we are reading in Matthew's gospel has a much broader
context than these few words written on a page.
It is believed, for instance, that John came from
the Qumran community where an ascetic Jewish sect called "Essenes" lived
(like our idea of the Amish); a people who chose to remove themselves from what
had been deemed a "godless" urban culture under pagan (the Romans)
rule. Qumran is near caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947
(perhaps buried there for safe-keeping in AD68 when Roman invasion was imminent?).
Within these scrolls was found a Manual of Discipline, or the
"community rule". Like our own
United Methodist Book of Discipline,
it may not have been considered scriptural since as Jews, they had the Tanakh (First Testament) as their
scriptures. Rather, this Manual, like our own Discipline, served as their community
covenant in how they would live and work and worship together as a community of
faith. Religion was not incidental to
their being and their living.
This manual, then, stated that a person could not
become clean if one failed to obey the Lord's commandments. The manual states, "It is through the
spirit of God's true counsel concerning the ways of man that all his sins be
expiated (atoned for); and when his flesh is sprinkled (emphasis mine) with purifying water, it shall be made
clean by the humble submission of his soul to all the precepts of God."
Baptism by "purifying water"
was the point of interest rather than the method itself. Even as the Manual John may have been familiar with seems to stipulate
"sprinkling", we would still miss the entire point of baptism if we
allow ourselves to get hung up on a single word rather than appreciate the much
broader context. The method of delivery
of that water does not seem to be emphasized as much as the water itself - AND THEN -
what must necessarily follow. It clearly
does not end at baptism; for baptism is only the beginning of a whole new life.
This is the context of John's baptism of repentance. His discourse beginning in verse 7 (Mt 3) in
calling people to "bear fruit worthy of repentance" seems to come
from the community whose standards he embraced for himself; that baptism can cleanse us from past sins,
but it cannot save us from ourselves if we have no intent to commit. "Bearing fruit worthy of
repentance" to prove our commitment is very much a part of a much broader and
more all-encompassing context.
The Essenes also shared an apocalyptic vision of the
future which looked to the coming of Messiah as the Manual also requires: "[those wishing to enter the Qumran
community] shall go into the wilderness to prepare the way of Him, as it is
written, 'Prepare in the wilderness the way of the Lord; make straight in the
desert a path for our God'."
This seems to be what John was doing; not
establishing a new "Christian practice" with no instructions but
rather practicing what had long been established. And since Jesus Himself refers to John as the
"greatest", we have to more seriously consider what John was saying and not getting hung up on
what we can only guess he may have been doing.
Perhaps more importantly, we should more seriously consider why Jesus
found it necessary to go to John.
Commitment is key, I think, to a fuller
understanding of baptism as the beginning
rather than as a singular event;
whether we are talking about the commitment of the Church, the parents, and the
godparents at the baptism of an infant in preparing that child for life and
service in the Church; or the commitment of a new believer, sponsors, and the
Church in preparing that person for life in the Church, the issue is the same
because if there is no commitment, no discipline, no accountability, no
instruction, no follow through, and no intent to follow through, people just
get wet. And when vows are spoken and
then disregarded, there is blasphemy.
Although there is no definitive interdenominational consensus,
the one dominant opinion for Jesus' baptism that is consistent with His life,
His ministry, His love for all of humanity, and that "fulfills all
righteousness" is His willingness to identify with sinful humanity
and take upon Himself the sins of the world - as St. Paul describes it to the
Corinthians (2 Cor 5:21): "God
made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the
righteousness of God."
To "fulfill all righteousness". That is Messiah's commitment to the Holy
Father AND to us. Shall our commitment
be any less to Him who "became sin for us"?
So our "first step" out of the closet this
New Year as disciples of Christ is to reconnect and recommit ourselves to our
Lord. Put aside the superstitions and
remember the only thing required is commitment to a life beyond oneself and toward
the fullness of life in Christ Jesus.
Let the Holy Name be glorified in your life, in my
life, and in the life of the United Methodist Church! In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
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