Reading: Luke 3:15-16, 21-22 Epiphany 1C
January 7, 2001
The Rev. Karen Siegfriedt
St. Jude the Apostle Church, Cupertino CA,
"The glory of God is the human person fully alive." So said Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, France during the 2nd century. What I would like to talk about today is baptism: Initiation into the Christian community of Faith for the purpose of preparing a person to become fully alive.
Have you ever started a physical fitness program only to have it sizzle out after a few months? I did. About four years ago, there was a gym in Los Gatos that was offering memberships for only $19/month. What a deal! If a person paid the annual membership all at once, the initiation fee was waved. I couldn't wait to get out my Visa Card and pay the whole fee up front so that I could become a member, lose 10 lbs., and develop my strength. During my first week at the gym, I was oriented to the facility. I arranged a time with a trainer who showed me how to use the equipment. I opted for the treadmill over the stationary bicycle for the aerobic part of my training and finished off my routine with 20 laps in an undersized, over-chlorinated pool. This lasted for about three months.
Then I began to make excuses justifying why I could not "work out." It seemed as if the George Brown Fitness Center had sold too many memberships such that the parking lot was always full. I had to wait too long to use the showers and the pool was much too cold once the temperature outside had dropped. Then there were times when I was too tired, too busy, or not feeling up to par when it came time to drive over to the gym. Before long, I lost interest, and the weight that I had planned to lose and the strength that I had planned to develop, vanished like a pipe dream.
I think the act of baptism can sometimes be compared to joining a gym. Baptism is membership into the Christian Faith. It is usually a time of excitement, celebration, hope, and goodwill. It is a time when the person being baptized is given the grace and the opportunity to develop the faith that will allow God to mold him or her into the person that God wills for them to be. Baptism lays out the possibility of becoming a fully alive human being.
Unfortunately, many people think that by simply sprinkling water on the forehead of a baby, that this will somehow do the trick without any further participation, such that the baby will be "saved" (from what I do not know), and all will be well in the future. This kind of thinking is not much different from joining a gym, paying the monthly fee, and expecting to become fit without doing any physical activity. It is a pipe dream.
During the 1950's, it was the practice in my neighborhood to baptize a baby about two months after birth. Godparents were assigned, some of whom would attend the baptism, never to be seen again. There was a sense that if the baby died before being baptized, the baby would not go to heaven. So rushing off to the priest to be baptized was par for the course. Some families took the baptismal vows seriously and made sure that the child was brought up in the faith, attended worship each week, and was schooled in the Holy Scriptures and the traditions of the church. Others, simply threw a big party after the baptism, attended church only on Christmas and Easter, yet felt that the mystery of the ritual was enough for the child to develop a meaningful relationship with God. It is this kind of thinking that has produced mediocre Christians today; marginal Christians who have little impact on transforming our society to become one where justice reigns and the dignity of every human being is respected. This kind of thinking makes me very sad and has impacted my ministry such that I feel strongly that those who desire to be baptized, take the vows seriously.
In today's gospel from St. Luke, we hear the story about Jesus' baptism. Some people wonder why Jesus needed to be baptized if he were already the son of God. This is a good question and we can only speculate. However, I want to say that if we are to going to make any sense out these Scriptures, if these stories are to have any impact on our lives (rather than simply being a story about Jesus), then we must remember that Jesus was a human being like us. He was not a superhuman hero who could do magic. Like us, he had feelings of anger, pain, fatigue, and disappointments. Although he was never alienated from God (which is the true definition of sin), he made mistakes, including misquoting Scripture.
Like each one of us, Jesus was endowed with certain spiritual gifts. He had the gifts of healing, of wisdom, of miracles, and of prophecy. On the other hand, he did not have the spiritual gift of administration and would have been fired from any human resource department for picking the wrong kind of workers. He did not seem to have the gift of craftsmanship and removed himself from his family's carpentry business. He did not have the gift of hospitality, and depended on others to care for him and his disciples in providing food and shelter. But the gifts that he did have, he offered them without hesitation to the building up of God's kingdom. This greatly impacted the world in the same way we could impact the world if we were to share our gifts freely.
I think that what struck me most about the baptism of Jesus, was that he did not receive the Holy Spirit until sometime after the baptism. That gives me some encouragement for my own journey of faith. Luke tells us that after Jesus was baptized, he immersed himself in prayer. And it was only until he was in this state of prayer that he received the Holy Spirit and began his ministry. Not all of us seem to receive the Holy Spirit at the same time in our spiritual journeys. Some receive the Holy Spirit before baptism, are converted, and then decide to be baptized. A few are filled with the Holy Spirit during their baptism when their lives are changed forever. But it seems that for most Episcopalians, we are first baptized and then later perceive the reception of the Holy Spirit as our hearts are slowly converted. This is the process of sanctification, whereby we experience small epiphanies, manifestations of God, that slowly chisel away at our fear and move us into a place of love. Some people are baptized and are never converted. Perhaps they need to spend more time in prayer.
Ultimately, the goal of the Christian life is not to become a good person or to practice works of charity. The goal of the Christian life is to become like Christ; to become sons and daughters of God such that our wills are knit together with God's will, so that we develop and share our spiritual gifts for the building up of the kingdom of God.
Many Episcopalians set their sites too low and do not aim for this state of union with God. Many do not think that conversion is possible. Many do not equate the Christian life with having a heart so filled with love and a certainty of God's presence that acts of charity and goodness become a natural way of walking in the world rather than conscious acts of the ego. This is why a life of prayer and worship is vital in being transformed into a person who is full alive. "The glory of God is the human person fully alive." As we renew our own baptismal covenant on this 1st Sunday of Epiphany, may we as a congregation pray for the reception of the Holy Spirit, so that we can experience that glory together.