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January 13, 2008

Beth Foote - January 13, 2008

The Rev. Beth Foote January 13, 2008
Isaiah 42: 1-9 Matthew 3:13-17

I love baptisms. Being newly ordained, baptizing is one of the things I’m most excited about doing in the coming years. In the last year and a half it’s often seemed like my seminary training was all theory and not enough practical knowledge, but they did teach us at least one practical thing: when baptizing babies, make sure the water is nice and warm! And I can guarantee the water for the font is nice and warm.

Baptisms are always happy occasions, with gathered friends and relatives, and godparents. Today is the feast of the Baptism of Our Lord, one of the traditional days on the church calendar for baptisms, and all over the world people are being baptized this morning. We have two candidates for Holy Baptism, Tyler and Francesca. I’d like to welcome the Corbett and Timar families and all their friends to Trinity. It’s a pleasure to have you here with us.
I also love it when we baptize older children and adults. If you are thinking about becoming baptized, please talk to one of the clergy. If you’re feeling self-conscious about it because we mostly see infants being baptized, remember that Jesus himself was a grown man of thirty when he entered the River Jordan to be baptized.

Of course that is the story we just heard from the gospel of Matthew. And this story is so important that it’s found in all four gospels. In the Jewish tradition at that time ritual cleansing was a common thing, although mostly in the context of special stone baths called mikvahs. Jesus’ baptism was totally different, an alternative kind thing. Jesus’ baptism was out in the wilderness, in the free-flowing Jordan river. It was conducted by the John the Baptist, wild man prophet who lived on the margins out in the desert, wore camels hair clothing and a leather belt, and who ate locusts and wild honey. Probably not a seminary graduate.

In today’s sanitary era of daily showers, baby wipes, antiseptic hand cleaners, vacuum cleaners, and swiffers, being clean is something that we take for granted, it’s a constant state of being for us.

Yet in the ancient world, cleanliness was unusual enough to be the mark of something important. By cleansing, we rinse away dirt or other impurities. And after the cleansing process, the person or thing, is transformed in some way, fresh and ready for a new chapter. Something like this happened with Jesus baptism. This ritual cleansing was a marker of transformation After his baptism, he began his ministry. Something like this will happen for our baptismal candidates. Baptism is a marker of transformation.

This story also shows us Christ’s approach to ministry. Consider that he wades into the water and asks to be baptized. He insists on being one of the baptized, not the baptizer. As Isaiah writes in our reading today, God says, “Here is my servant…” Throughout his life, Jesus ministers to others as the servant. He asks the lepers and the blind, “What can I do for you?” And at the end of his life, he took a bowl of water, and washed his disciples feet like a servant. It is a surprising thing…Isaiah also says, “the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare.” In his servanthood, he becomes the New Covenant between the people and God that Isaiah talks about, and calls us to take on his servant ministry today.

Matthew writes that when Jesus emerged up out of the water, Jesus saw the Holy Spirit come down like a dove and heard God’s voice say, “This is my Son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” Here we have echoes from Isaiah, “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him.” God blesses Jesus with words of love, and if we connect the dots, we can see the Trinity: God, the Father speaks, God the Holy Spirit comes down like a dove, and God the Son is baptized and his ministry begins. The holy becomes visible.

We participate in this holiness made visible at every baptism. The Book of Common Prayer says,” In Baptism, “God adopts us as his children and makes us members of Christ’s body, the Church, and inheritors of the kingdom of God.”

This means that through ordinary things: a water bath, a prayer, words of love, a touch, the holy becomes real among us here today. Like Jesus’ baptism, these baptisms today are markers, once in a lifetime milestones of transformation, making Tyler and Francesca full members of the Church and “marked as Christ’s own forever.”

And remember, in our tradition, they are both now eligible to gum down a Communion wafer as soon as their parents decide they’re ready to safely do so.

Several weeks ago we celebrated our annual 4:00 Christmas Eve pageant here at Trinity. The children acted out the Nativity Story, and this year we had a real three month old baby for our baby Jesus. At 3:45 or so, it was pandemonium in here, with angels and shepherds arriving with their families, and the band was setting up. Right then, Emily, the mother of our young 4:00 Jesus asked me if I wanted to hold her baby son. She handed him to me and I held him—so light—Ahhh! A beautiful moment of peace for me. It reminded me that with a baby that age, just holding is important work. I could feel the tension, the frenzied buildup to Christmas fall away. This was what Christmas was about, God coming into the world as a tiny baby.

Babies teach us about servant ministry, about love, what it means to “be love” to a tiny person and to “be loved” in return. Holding our baby Jesus reminded me that we all began as babies, even Jesus. It reminded me that this is what the real baby Jesus felt like on Christmas Eve.

Holding our baby Jesus on Christmas Eve, I was reminded how vulnerable the real baby Jesus was, and how much trust God had in Mary and Joseph to be the holy parents. Holding our baby Jesus on Christmas Eve reminded me of how much Jesus trusts us to be holy parents to our own children, to children we nurture in our church community, and in the wider world.

In a few minutes, in the course of the Baptism ceremony, the whole Trinity community will stand and we will renew our own Baptismal Covenant. In that rich and challenging litany God calls all of us, not just the parents and godparents of Tyler and Francesca, to support them as they grow, and to follow Christ and take on the ministries each of us is called to exercise.

When we are baptized we begin a lifelong process of growing into our faith and following Christ. Baptism is a onetime thing, but it is the beginning of an all the time process of ministering in Christ’s name. Baptism is our common ground as Christians.

Christ calls all of us to take up this holy work. It sometimes feels heavy when use these large words like “covenant,” “ministry” and “forever.”

But Christ promises us that his burden is light, like the featherweight of a baby, because He is with us every step of the way, and He is an everflowing source of strength, like the running river of the Jordan, the font of every blessing.

And after we greet the newly baptized, and share the sign of Peace, we will continue with that other ancient Sacrament, the Holy Eucharist, which feeds us spiritually, and supports us in everything we do. Remember that God, the source of life everlasting said to Jesus, “You are my beloved. With you I am well-pleased,” and as we continue on our baptismal journeys, remember that he says the same to you. Amen.

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