“Why Baptism?” Text: Galatians 3:26-29
Elpis Christian Church
April 17, 2011
Well I thought today, since we’ve had our baptismal service as part of our morning worship, it would be good timing to talk a little bit about this ancient ritual. Baptism is one of those things that, if you ask a half-dozen average persons to explain its meaning, you might get a half-dozen answers. There’s good reason for that really. One is that everyone experiences baptism in slightly different ways – especially if you’re the one being baptized.
Some of us here today were baptized as infants. It was an act of faith entered into by their parents – and they had little to do with it at the time. No one asks a baby – “Hey, is it O.K. with you if next Sunday we dress you up in a frilly white dress, hold you up in front of a room full of people, and pour some water over your head? It’s sort of a religious thing . . . you O.K. with that?” Parents just do it – and only later do some of those individuals come forward, enter into what their church calls “confirmation classes,” then finally become members of their church body through formal expression of their faith.
Still others of us were baptized like our candidates today – having made a formal confession of faith on their own accord. Four youth and one adult were immersed in our baptismal pool, according to ancient, New Testament tradition. Or, to put it a little less formally – when it comes to our baptismal experience - some of us have been “dunked.”
For some, it’s a very meaningful, holy moment. For others, it’s more of a rite of passage – something they do because they just think they have to – and only later may they come to appreciate its full significance. For still others – it’s kind of mixed bag. Take my own mother, for instance, sprinkled as an infant in the Methodist church; immersed into the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) as an adult. And not just immersed – but dunked into a pool of over-heated water, thanks to a faulty water heating system. She always said afterward, “Now I know what those lobsters feel like.”
Finally, there are those who have never experienced baptism personally – and maybe find the whole thing more than a little strange. “What’s this all about, anyway?” they say. “Sprinkling, dunking, what’s the difference and what does it matter?” Well, those are good questions. And today I want to take a stab at answering them.
So let’s start with the word itself – baptism. It is translated from the Greek – where we find it as baptizo (bap-tid-zo.) It means, “to dip repeatedly, to submerge, to cleanse by dipping or submerging, to wash, to make clean with water, or to wash one’s self, to bathe.” It also can mean, interestingly enough, to “overwhelm.”
According to James Montgomery Boice, writing in BIBLE STUDY MAGAZINE in May 1989, the “clearest example that shows the meaning of baptizo is a text from the Greek poet and physician Nicander, who lived about 200 B.C.” What’s funny though is that it’s not a religious text in which we find the word used. It’s not even a Greek tragedy about the sinking of a mighty war ship. It’s a recipe – for making pickles. Nicander says that in order to make a pickle (and let’s see if you ladies agree) – the vegetable should first be ‘dipped’ (bapto) into boiling water and then ‘baptized’ (baptizo) in the vinegar solution. But the first – the dipping - is temporary. The second, the act of baptizing the vegetable, produces a permanent change.” Maybe what happened to my Mom isn’t so unusual after all.
Well, I know our candidates today are glad that we didn’t dip them into boiling water and baptize them in vinegar solution afterward. But it’s interesting that – spiritually speaking – they experienced something akin to those pickles in question. You see – we dipped them in the water – that part, as significant as we try to make it – is only temporary; only symbolic. The real change, the permanent one, is what happens thanks to God’s grace. And it has nothing to do with vinegar. It has everything to do with love.
There’s a legend that when Saint Patrick baptized King Aengus (eengus) of Ireland, at some time during the rite St. Patrick leaned on his sharp-pointed staff and inadvertently stabbed the king’s foot. After the baptism was over, St. Patrick looked down at all the blood, realized what he had done, and begged the king’s forgiveness. “Why did you suffer this pain in silence,” the Saint wanted to know. The king replied, “I thought it was part of the ritual.”
Sometimes we too, don’t understand everything about the ritual. Whether we are participating in it ourselves or just onlookers, it can seem strange and foreboding. But in spite of that, we need to remember this has nothing to do with suffering, at least not our own. Baptism is about new life. It’s about the Savior who loves us so much that He died for us. Just so, we are buried – symbolically with him – in the waters of the baptismal pool. And, like Him, we are symbolically raised from that grave to new life.
The baptism waters also cleanse us – but it’s not about how dirty our physical body is or isn’t. We are cleansed spiritually in this ancient, beautiful process. Borrowed from the practices of the Jewish community; bringing to mind the ritual cleansing that was done on various occasions; we have come to see baptism as cleansing too. We recall Naaman’s dipping in the Jordan River seven times for cleansing from his skin disease; we think of the Qumran sect which produced the Dead Sea scrolls and how they were concerned with ritual cleansing and purifying rites. We think of John the Baptist – whom some have said may have been part of that Essene community at Qumran which emphasized repentance and submission to God’s will. Most of all, we think of how Jesus himself came to “fulfill all righteousness” being baptized himself – though he clearly needed no spiritual cleansing. And of how the ancient church, and the church through the ages, faithfully followed His instruction to not only be baptized in His name, but to go “into all the world, baptizing others in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” All of this swirls around in the mysterious waters of the baptismal pool. And all of us calls us and speaks to us intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, and as a part of this community we call the body of Christ. Baptism is all of this – and more.
Like almost everything else in the history of the Church, it has been a bone of contention. Churches have split many times over questions of what baptism was and how it should be practiced. The debate has been hot and heavy. But the rite itself remains. And, thankfully, in more recent years the debates over the specific practice have waned. And we have returned to a renewed appreciation of the fact that baptism should be something that brings us together as believers, not divide us. Our own denomination, as an example, once adamantly opposed to the practice of infant baptism, now fully recognizes both infant and immersion as acceptable and no cause for conflict. What it comes down to is this. Sprinkling, dunking that is of little consequence; but being brought into full communion and participation with the one, worldwide, body of Christ – that is everything. Our scripture today goes to the heart of it. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” And the words I spoke over each candidate today call them – and not just them, but us all – to something powerful and important:
“Do you promise by the grace of God, to be Christ’s disciple to follow in the way of our Savior, to resist oppression and evil, to show love and justice, and to witness to the work and word of Jesus Christ as best you are able?”
As best you are able – we aren’t perfect. We never will be. But we are called. And we are His. And that is enough.
Philip Henry, father of the 18th century, the Presbyterian minister and scholar Matthew Henry, wrote for his children some words that became their baptismal statement. They are words we should all take to heart. And as we reflect on what Baptism means – they call us to devotion and to action.
I take God to be my chief end and highest good.
I take God the Son to be my prince and Savior.
I take God the Holy Spirit to be my sanctifier,
teacher, guide, and comforter.
I take the Word of God to be the rule in all my actions
and the people of God to be my people
under all conditions.
I do hereby dedicate and devote to the Lord all that I am,
all that I have,
and all that I can do.
And all this I do deliberately, freely, and forever.
Why baptism? Because it is so much more than just sprinkling, or dunking, or a rite of passage, or a funny, religious ritual. It is accepting God’s grace, once and for all, and loving Him as we have first been loved.
Take some time this Lenten and Easter season to reflect on what baptism means to you. If you’ve never been baptized – consider it. If you have – re-claim it and celebrate it: the waters, clear and pure; God’s grace abounding; God’s church calling. That’s what baptism is about. And to God be the glory.
