Being Reoriented (Baptism of the Lord)

Revised Common Lectionary 1-12-2025: Baptism of the Lord

GOSPEL

Luke 3:15–17, 21–22

15 As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 16 John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

Let’s work together on this passage, a bit.

Who are the major players in the text? John, the people, Jesus, the Holy Spirit / Dove, the Voice

What is the “vibe” or feeling you get from the people in the crowd?

hopeful, wondering, earnest?

Reminder, the ancient practice of baptism is rooted in an even deeper tradition of ceremonial cleansing. It was believed that we become unclean, by God’s standards, many ways, including by what we eat, who we associate with, what time of the month it is, among other things. To receive the water cleansing is to complete the ritual of renewal that was required before participating in worship and the life of holiness.

Did you wash up this morning?

We have our own standards of cleanliness. We make sure to wash our hair and brush our teeth. We make sure our clothes are clean and don’t smell.

Sometimes our standards are beyond what is necessary, but for the most part, practices of hygiene are expected in our culture. Do you ever feel self-conscious about how your hair looks or breath smells? Well, that’s part of our culture of self cleaning. And not to judge it good or bad, but it’s simply a reality we need to name.

The great thing, I find, is that through regular washing and self-care, we reorient our bodies. I cannot tell you how many days in my life have been made many many times better by my simple, sometimes reluctantly made decision to just take a shower. As one of my favorite songwriters sings, “I thought for a bit there I wouldn’t be able to deal. But I take a shower, I drink some coffee, and I start to heal.”

Let’s consider the people who have come to see John at the river. Why are they there?

They think he’s the Messiah, perhaps. They’re wondering if he will finally reveal his mission and tell them what God’s up to.

People crowd around a spectacle. This is the wild man from the wilderness, out there performing ritual washings to prepare people to worship. Seems like he might be worth following.

We all know what it’s like to gravitate to a person or an idea that seems to be inviting in a new way of being, a new orientation to the world. We recognize that we’re longing for more and, so often, we’ll follow pretty much anyone who will help us see a clearer direction.

But John is not here for this. John makes it very clear that he is not the one they are looking for. John knows the parameters he operates within — he’s there to prepare the way. And so, of course, he’s there washing people, getting them ready to worship. Ritual cleansing, remember, is more than a bath — it’s a preparation to be in the presence of the holy. It realigns us.

Something important we must also note is that the kind of washing John does is different than what Jesus offers us. John continues the tradition of ritual cleansing, but with a modified purpose of preparing for the coming king. Jesus’ baptism, which we witness in our text today, completes this modification and adjustment of the practice to now be something done once, for the glory of God through all time. What I mean is, that as we see Jesus baptized, we see a change from this being a practice that must be done repeatedly to ward off sin and cleanse from unrighteousness. Now, baptism is a complete death to that old self, once and for all, and a reception of a new life. A reoriented, restructured, resurrected life.

In baptism, we receive a new self, a whole self, a restored self. Nothing can take this away.

Jesus is preparing to enter his formal ministry. By receiving the waters of baptism, his calling and purpose are made public. Our text says after his baptism, while he was praying, there was a voice from the heavens that called out. Hear that: as the washing takes place, so then the voice calls out — cleansing leads us to witness God.

And, of course, what does God say in this moment? You are my beloved, in whom I am well-pleased.

What would it be like to hear those words, yourself? You are my beloved. I am well-pleased with you. To put an even finer point on it, think about emerging from the cleansing waters. You pat your body off, you huddle to get warm again, you feel the refreshment of your soul — and then you hear this word of affirmation — you are enough, you are beloved, you are my child.

Can you imagine that? Can you accept that?

For many of us, we were baptized when we were very young. Maybe you don’t remember it. And so while these stories of cleansing and affirmation are nice to listen to, maybe they feel far off and detached from your daily reality. I’m pretty sure I was baptized in the August of my first year of life. I would have been about 9 months old. I have no recollection of it, besides pictures and a certificate.

Because of this, we need practices of remembrance. We must remember our baptism. And that is what we are meant to do every time we gather in worship. We remember our baptism, not in detail, but in a renewal of the sacrament. It’s like how we celebrate communion — we remember Christ’s life and death and resurrection — not because we were there, but because the church enacts and reenacts the memory of Jesus as if he were with us here and now. So too, in baptism, it was a moment in time, but also IS a moment that reverberates through all time, cleansing us, restoring us. We are called to remember our baptism, constantly reminding ourselves and each other that we are marked by God’s cleansing hands and called beloved.

We cannot leave this text without also noting the words of John, which speak of Jesus baptising with the Spirit and with fire.

This differentiates John’s baptism from the reorienting way Jesus practices the washing. John watched to complete the preparation ritual. Jesus washes to purify to the core. As the spirit comes upon us, we are made new, inside and out. Have you experienced this?

And to baptize with fire — how can we speak of this without acknowledging how our world is burning? Our world is on fire, literally. It’s warming and groaning and crying out with water and fire and wind. We must see this as a baptism, and take heed. It is time to make dramatic changes to our life together, to be reoriented and adapt to the world as it is. It is time to act on climate change and receive the beloved baptism of renewing our collective efforts to make a sustainable way forward. This is the non-negotiable response to baptism by fire — it must call us to be made new again, renewed, revived, but never looking back. Baptism of the Spirit and fire calls us forward, onward, beyond all that has held us back, all that we have ignored, all that we have taken for granted, all that we know must be let go of and made into something new.

We are all called to be baptized. To be washed clean and anointed.

This bears reminding: spiritual practices like baptism can seem overly simple or perhaps even inconsequential. It’s just water.

But dismissing this as “just water” is to ignore the deeply symbolic and meaningful way that the waters of baptism mark us out and reorient us in the world. If God does not meet us in these simple acts, in places of earthy wonder like water and dirt and cleansing — then where can God meet us? Only in vaulted cathedrals? Only in the perfect sunset? Only in formalized worship settings?

Baptism expands our imagination for how God is at work. And it is the first thing that followers of Jesus do, publically, to reorient themselves as followers of the way. God is in the washing of the body and the freshness of this renewal.

[Go down to baptismal font and finish, talking about baptism and oil]

I would like invite us each into a practice today, as we continue in our worship. At any time during the rest of the service, if you would like to come forward to dip your fingers in the baptismal font and mark your own head once more with the cross of baptism, you are welcome do come up and do so. Perhaps you want to do this during the offertory or the postlude. You are welcome.

Also, if you would prefer to be anointed in oil, which is something of a sibling practice to baptism, I would be happy to anoint you if you come forward. This can happen after the service and is a reminder of how we are each set apart and anointed by God to be ambassadors of God’s reorienting Kingdom.

Finally, if you have not been baptised, I would like to talk with you about making that public statement of your faith. In the next couple of months, we will have a time to instruct and invite in new members to our congregation. If you are ready to make that commitment, we invite you also to be baptized, if you have not, as a part of that process. Baptism is the public marker of our communal faith. All who are baptized present themselves before the community, saying “I choose to follow Jesus.” If you would like to talk more about this, please see me.

So, people of God, be reoriented. Be reminded of who you are and to whom you belong. You are beloved children of God, called by God’s spirit to love your neighbors, your enemies, and pursue the well-being and shalom of all creation. Before all things, remember this.

Amen.