Reflections on "Baptsim - a life giving ritual" Exodus 12: 1-14; Romans 6: 1-4

Another week on rituals.  this week, we had a live sermon illustration with two baptisms taking place after the sermon.   I was free-lancing quite a bit in the sermon, so what is written below is only an approximation of what was preached.

“Baptism- a life-giving ritual” March 31, 2019; St. Andrew; Richard B. Culp; Exodus 12; Lenten series on rituals, 2019

Romans 6: 1-4:  What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

Introduction:  We continue reflecting on rituals.  This morning we consider the ritual of baptism.

Move 1:  More than a ritual.

a.  We read about the first Passover in the Exodus passage.

1.  Instituted not as a way to remember, but as an of God which gives life to the Israelites in the midst of their struggle to escape slavery in Egypt.

2.  Struck by 

b.  Baptism is a similar ritual.

1.  Not just doing something from which we derive meaning.

2.  God is at work in baptism.

3. Ritual helps us remember;  the ritual reminds us;  but it also reveals the God who is not done with, the God who is at work in the waters of baptism.

Move 2:  Baptism is a ritual, and a bit of a mystery.

a.  Sacrament is the Latin word that was used to translate the Greek word “mysterium,” when the Bible was translated into Latin.

1.  Mysterium was used is into biblical text to describe God’s presence.

2.  Mysterium can be translated into the English, as you might guess, as mystery.

3. Sacraments reveal the mystery of God’s presence.

b.  Some of you may remember the movie Tender Mercies. It tells the story of Rosa Lee, the owner of the Mariposa Motel located on a deserted stretch of dusty road somewhere between Austin and San Antonio, and her relationship with her son Sonny and her husband Mac Sledge, a formerly down-and-out songwriter into whom she had breathed new life through words of encouragement and acts of hospitality.  In one of the scenes they are on the way home from church in pickup, on the way from the church service where Sonny and Mac were baptized.

this conversation takes place between Mac and Sonny. 

 “Well, we done it, Mac. We were baptized.” 

“Yeah, we are,” Mac responds. 

“Everybody said I was gonna feel like a changed person,” Sonny continues. “I guess I do feel a little different, but I don’t feel a whole lot different, do you?” 

“Not yet.”

Sonny strains to check himself in the rear view mirror, “You don’t look any different. You think I look any different?” 

Mac smiles and shrugs, “Not yet.” (Tender Mercies, Screenplay by Horton Foote, quoted by H. Virginia Jackson-Adams in Word and Witness, January 10, 1988, 5)

1. We cannot easily or fully describe what takes place as in baptism or what it means fully to have new life.

2. But we baptize trusting that God is at work in the waters of baptism and as a sign to the ourselves and the world that God is indeed present in our midst, claiming people and calling people to new life.

3.  the ritual marks the moment - not the ending, but a beginning of new life.  A beginning to which we are called again and again.

Move 3:  Finally, the ritual of baptism defines us.

a.  In a world where individualism seems to be one of our most important values, baptism defines us as people connected - connected to community of faith and to Christ.

b.  In the early church, they “believed that they were a distinct people with a special vocation. Their form of life was dictated by no criterion other than faithfulness to Christ. Their identity was expressed in baptism” (Samuel Wells, Improvisation: The Drama of Christian Ethics, 24-25; referenced in Milton Brasher-Cunningham’s blog Don’t Eat Alone, December 4, 2007, http://donteatalone.com/advent-journal-do-try-and-keep-up/)

1. Baptism was tied to entry into the early church.

2. Still true for us.  If you have not been baptized, you are when you choose to join the church. 

3. likewise, we do not understand baptism outside the community of faith.  Always baptized into a community of faith.

4.  Johnny's Mother looked out the window and noticed him 'playing church' with their cat.  He had the cat sitting quietly and he was preaching to it.  She smiled and went about her work.

A while later she heard loud meowing and hissing and ran back to the open window to see Johnny baptizing the cat in a tub of water.  She called out, 'Johnny, stop that! The cat is afraid of water!'  Johnny looked up at her and said, 'He should have thought about that before he joined my church.'  

b.  Baptism also defines us as people connected to Christ, who find their hope in the new life Christ offers them.

1. Paul lays that out in his letter to the Romans.

2.  In baptism, we are united with Christ in his death.

3. In baptism, we are united with Christ in his resurrection.

4.  That has both immediate and long term implications.

5. in baptism, we are the new creations God calls us to be.

5. Everyday we are called to live out our baptism and live into the new life in Christ to which we are called.  

6. Baptism also gives us the hope of eternal life because we are united with Christ in his resurrection.

7.  Part of our ritual here at St. Andrew for funeral or memorial services,  when we witness to the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, is the Incorporation of  baptism imagery.

We going at the baptismal font proclaiming that in so and so’s baptism she was united with Christ in his death and resurrection.

We finish at the baptismal font proclaiming that her baptism is complete.  

New life giving way to new life we call eternal life.

Conclusion:   Baptism - a life-giving ritual in life and in death.