Title: Remember Your Baptism

Date: 2008-01-13

Reference: Matthew 3:13-17

A Methodist Minister contacted the pastor of a Baptist Church with an unusual request. He had several folks who were preparing to join the church and who preferred to be baptized by immersion rather than by sprinkling. The Methodist Minister requested not only use of the baptistry but that the Baptist pastor himself officiate at the service. This posed a dilemma. What if those being baptized weren’t born again? The pastor’s conviction was only Christians should be baptized. He realized he couldn’t in good conscience cooperate with the plan. But he wished to be a good neighbor. So he wrote a humorous note to his Methodist Colleague. The note said: “We don’t take in the laundry, but we’ll be happy to loan you our tub.”

The biggest difference in baptism is how much water we use. I heard it was so dry in Georgia last Summer that the Baptist Church started to baptize by sprinkling. The Methodists began using wet-wipes. The Presbyterians issued rain checks. And the Catholic Church began praying for the wine to change back to water.

This second Sunday of Epiphany, we remember the Baptism of Jesus, and we pause to remember our own baptism as well. Some of us remember exactly when we were baptized, others don’t remember. I don’t know the date, without looking, that I was baptized as a child along with my brother. I was so young I have no memory of that service. Years later I decided I wanted to be immersed, and that date was June 12th 1984.

It is more important to remember what was done for us at our baptism than to remember the exact date and hour of our baptism.

At our baptism, our sins were symbolically washed away. Our names were linked forever with God’s name. We were brought into the family of God as God’s son or daughter. As we remember our baptism this day, we accept the fact that we are accepted. Accepted by God. Baptism is the seal of approval noting that truth. God offers each of us a personal relationship. So far as that relationship with God goes, we don’t have to qualify. There is no prerequisite. We don’t have to earn, beg, borrow, or steal our way in. We’re invited in.

We are all able to remember a time of rejection in life. A time we were overlooked and not chosen. For a ball team, a cheer squad, a promotion at work. Most of us can remember the pain of being rejected by another person. In the same way we know the thrill of being chosen. God chose us for salvation before the foundation of the world. God always had us in mind. Such undeserved love staggers us, humbles us, drives us to our knees. God chose you. Think of the value that places upon your life. You have been chosen by God and are His forever.

Baptism represents a gift from God and our response to the gift. God freely offers us active grace and saving love, a spiritual home in the church and a new life as God’s child. God offers forgiveness of sins, the promise of salvation, gifts of love, joy, peace, and kindness.

Our response is to accept the gracious gift of God, to obey the instructions of Christ. To live Christian lives and to be in loving service to the world. We respond by making a personal commitment to Christ.

Baptism is the sacrament of initiation into the Body of Christ which joins a person with Christians everywhere. Baptism is the beginning of a lifelong process of growth in Jesus Christ, and pictures our identification with Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. Baptism is an outward symbol of an inward experience, a picture of what the spirit has already done in our lives.

Baptisms usually happen in a church but can happen anywhere. I read about an American Army Chaplain who recently baptized several American Troops with water from his canteen.

Several years ago I conducted a baptism in the Animas River in Durango.

We had just completed a study on Baptism and eleven folks decided they would like to be baptized by immersion. We went down to the river one Spring day. The water was still very cold from the run off in the mountains. When the candidates went into that icy water it was cold enough to take their breath away. I remember how numb and cold my legs felt. We were all glad to get back to the safety and warmth of the shore. That service became a very real reminder of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

Today we remember our own baptisms and the baptism of Jesus. Jesus left Galilee and went to the Jordan River to be baptized by his cousin John. John kept objecting saying: “I ought to be baptized by you.” Jesus was baptized. As soon as he came out of the water the sky opened up and the Spirit of God came down upon him like a dove. The voice of God said: “This is my own son. And I am very pleased with him.”

Unlike anyone of us, Jesus was not baptized because he was a repentant sinner. In his baptism, Jesus identified himself with sinners, the very people he came to save.

Isn’t it wonderful to know we have a God who understands? Who loves unconditionally? Who is ready, willing, and able to forgive us and accept us? Again, baptism reminds us of the fact that we are accepted by God, and is our response to that acceptance. Baptismal waters are often referred to as cleansing waters, symbolically reminding us of how our sins are washed away in the waters of baptism. Baptism is an outward sign of something that has already happened in one’s heart.

We often view baptism as a rite of passage. Many children are christened in the same way we would christen a ship. In many nations in Europe and South America

80% of the population are baptized but the vast majority never set foot inside a church or attend a worship service of any kind.

During the dark days of Communism in Eastern Europe, the church was restricted as far as it’s outreach. In Romania many Communist operatives were instructed to become baptized and join the church in order to infiltrate the church. On more than one occasion a communist plant went through the catechism required for baptism and was solidly, soundly, sincerely converted to faith in Jesus Christ.

Baptism is an outward sign of what the Holy Spirit has already done in our hearts. I know many of us have been baptized as children. The fact that we are still actively involved in the church is a testimony to the fact our parents were sincere when they presented us for baptism. They raised us in the faith as they promised they would. When we joined the church we accepted for ourselves the promise our parents made for us years before. In that case we don’t remember our actual baptism, but today to pause to remember and affirm our baptism.

Martin Luther said: “There is no greater comfort for a Christian than baptism.” Baptism is an ever present reminder that our nearness to God is a result of what God has done. The same God who reached out and claims us in our baptism continues to hold us throughout life.

Luther often went through times of despair, depression, and confusion. He would receive comfort by reaching out and touching his forehead and saying: “Martin Be calm, I am baptized.”

Baptism is a sign, a pledge, a seal. It reminds me of a wedding ring. Both symbolize transactions. The ring symbolizes marriage just as baptism symbolizes salvation. Just wearing a wedding ring doesn’t mean a person is married anymore than being baptized means he or she is saved. Baptism is a symbol of salvation, only a symbol. There is nothing magical about the act itself. Like the wedding ring it is a symbol of what has already taken place in one’s life and heart.

When we are baptized our name is linked with God’s name. In the Lumber regions of the Great N.W. it was customary to place a mark of ownership on one’s logs. The owner clears a small spot on the log and initials the log and sends the log down river with hundreds of others. The logs float hundreds of miles unprotected. The mark of ownership is always respected. The Holy Spirit is God’s mark of ownership stamped on His people. The seal is placed on us at Baptism.

Whatever age we enter the graceful waters of baptism we emerge rising from darkness to light from loneliness to acceptance. Baptism is a sign, a promise kept, a pledge, a seal.

Baptism is God’s mark on us. Baptism indicates we belong to God. And so on this day as we remember the baptism of Jesus, we remember our own baptism as well. Remember Your Baptism.