The Baptism of the Lord Sunday is a good time for us to remember our baptism, which is something we share with Jesus. He was baptized by John in the Jordan River. John didn’t actually want to baptize Jesus, He protested, “I should be baptized by you! Why are you coming to be baptized by me?”
John wasn’t wrong about this. But Jesus was doing something new. With his life, Jesus was writing a story – a story about who we are as human beings. A story about a family knit together by love and faith. A story that began long before he was born and continues long after we are gone.
Jesus submitted to John, letting himself be submerged in the river, and when he rose up from the water a voice from the heavens was heard saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
I can imagine standing along the shore watching, along with so many others, seeing him rise up from the water, hearing these words from the heavens, and feeling such an indescribable yearning. I, too, long to be loved. I, too, long to bring someone happiness.
It is the kind of thing anyone wants and needs to hear. It is the kind of thing we all need to know – that someone finds us delightful, that someone feels happiness because of us. And there is good news: This is the kind of thing that God offers to each one of us – and one of the ways God does this is through baptism – but perhaps most importantly, by placing us in a community of the baptized.
When we are baptized we each become a part of the story. We are adopted into the family of God, brothers and sisters to Jesus who is the firstborn in a very large family. As adopted members, we begin to learn the customs and the values of this new family. We learn that in the family of God we share one another’s burdens and celebrate one another’s joys. We learn that the needs of one become the shared needs of all, and the wealth of one contributes to the wealth of all – this is what it is to be the church. We work together, we grieve together, we celebrate together. When we are baptized we have this amazing gift poured out upon us: the gift of loving community.
In our baptism we make promises to be Christ’s faithful disciples, obeying his word and showing his love. For many of us these promises were made by others on our behalf. Nonetheless, these are the promises each one of us is meant to grow into. No one, no matter their age, comes into this family fully formed. Each one of us, with the loving support of this community, is fashioned into the image of Christ.
The community is essential for this. Not one of us can walk this walk alone. We need the whole community – for support and encouragement, for strength and accountability. And it is for this reason that it is not only the baptized who make promises. The entire gathered community makes promises too. Each time we baptize a child of God, we promise to be there for them.
Because this walk of discipleship is not a self-guided tour. It is not an independent study we design for ourselves. The walk of discipleship is a team effort that we all promise to be a part of. It is truly a beautiful thing.
And it is the core of our identity. When we are baptized and become a part of this community of faith, we are, in certain ways, setting ourselves apart. Please understand, this apartness is not about being special or better than anyone else. We set ourselves apart only in the sense that we are committed to a special way of life. As it says on every package of Hebrew National kosher beef hot dogs, we answer to a higher calling.
When we follow in Jesus’ path, the rules include the things we remember he taught. Love not only your friends but also your enemies. Treat others in the way you would want to be treated. Practice radical forgiveness.
Following this way of Jesus means setting ourselves apart from the ways of the world. And that is not easy. But the community we are baptized into gives us strength to resist when we need to.
The courage to stand up against evil when we see it.
And I will tell you honestly that the events in Minneapolis this past week, the killing of Renee Good and so much of what was said afterward just feels drenched with evil.
There are stories about Martin Luther, about how much he valued baptism as a sign of God’s grace and blessing. On his journey of faith. Luther found himself standing against the authorities who were executing injustices against the people for whom they were responsible. Luther’s faith and conscience would not let him stay silent on this. And so he put his own safety on the line to speak the truth against evil.
He often felt the burden of this, the sheer terror of being in a fight against the forces of evil. In these moments Luther’s response was to stand and shout to the evil around him, “I am baptized!”
Knowing that his baptism equipped him with all he needed to stay on this way.
There are moments in our lives when we feel the weight of evil. To stand alone against it can feel like an impossible ask. But this is when the community of the baptized is most important. To hold one another up, to remind one another of the power in our baptism to follow the way of Jesus and stand against evil.
When you are called to the waters of baptism you are called into this beautiful community in which we share our strength, our hope, our love. We walk this way together.
The baptismal promises we make are all about that. As God said to Israel: Do not fear. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; when you walk through the fire, I will be with you. “Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you.” So it is that, through Christ Jesus, God says this very thing to all of us too.
And through our baptism, our adoption into God’s family, we make the same promises to one another: Do not fear. When you pass through the waters, when you walk through the fire, we will be there for you. You are loved, just as you are.
This is the story Jesus was writing when he stepped into the Jordan and walked toward John.
This is the story we are adding to whenever we baptize a beloved child of God.
This is the story of who we are, and we must continually tell the story about who we are, in what we say – but even more in what we do. The world will be a brighter place when we let God’s mercy flow through us.
It all begins with water.
Where there is life. There is love. Where we come together and remember who we are.
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