Baptism: Putting Down Roots

Scripture and Introduction

Colossians 2:6–7 NIV

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Colossians 2:11–15 NIV

In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Putting down roots:

When we first moved here there was a remaking of ourselves. We slowly and intentionally considered friendships and learned about this new part of life. We did not jump head first into each opportunity but guarded it and invested in some key relationships. We did small things like seek out restaurants, grocery store of choice, we explored the city. We looked for a house and where we wanted to live. we joined the church, we began to give to the church. We began putting down roots so to speak.

When ever we get somewhere we think of putting down roots. Or at least that is a phrase we understand. Some of us may revile at such a thing because you dont want to be tied down. However, for the most part what do you think about when you consider what it means to put down roots?

Unfortunately, today we can go a long time without putting down roots, without investing in relationships. Furthermore, when it comes to church we are too guilty in staying surface level. Overcommitment requires too much time or sacrificing a critical part of our privacy.

Putting down roots is important though, isn’t it?

longevity

strength

protection

community

life (I would argue without putting down roots you are missing something)

Book of Colossians

Colossians: Background of writing. One of the shortest of Paul’s letters and is one of the most exciting as he writes to a young church discovering what it was like to believe in Jesus Christ and follow him. Likely one of the prison letters that Paul wrote though that is debated. The force of the letter is likely a polemic to encourage these new Christians to not waiver by influence of the pagan syncretism around them and even from inappropriate Jewish influence. Syncretism is the blending of all types of religions. Christianity getting spun in with the rest. Perhaps Jewish synagogues pressuring Christians to leave their faith and come to the “real faith,” thus the discussion Paul has about circumcision in our text.

What does this all have to do with me?

Putting down roots....live the faith. The first step in this process is baptism, committing that Jesus is Lord.

What is baptism?

Our definition: Rob Staples:

“Baptism is an outward sign of an inward and spiritual grace.” -Rob Staples

Water being something material that God’s grace is available in. Communion elements are the same. Something we can touch and feel.

What happened back there becomes real in the present....

First Baptism:

Imagine it is the night before Easter, sometime in the third century. The city sleeps. But deep in the earth — in a cave, a tomb-like chamber beneath a house — a small group of people is gathered by lamplight.

They have been waiting for this night for three years.

Three years earlier, someone had brought them to the edge of the community. Maybe a neighbor, a fellow merchant, a freed slave who worked in the same household. They had heard something — a rumor about a teacher who rose from the dead, a community that ate together across every social boundary, a God who was not like the gods. And they had wanted to know more.

But they were not let in. Not yet.

They were welcomed as catechumens — learners, literally those being instructed by word of mouth. They could attend the first part of the service, hear the scriptures read, listen to the sermon. But when the doors opened and the unbaptized were dismissed, they had to leave. The prayers, the kiss of peace, the Eucharist — these belonged to another world they had not yet entered.

For three years — sometimes less, sometimes more, depending on the bishop's judgment of their readiness — they were formed. They learned to pray the hours. They fasted on Wednesdays and Fridays. They were examined: not just on what they believed, but on how they lived. Did they treat their servants well? Had they left behind their former occupation if it was shameful? Were they growing in love of neighbor? The faith was not a set of propositions to be memorized but a life to be inhabited, and the church took seriously the question of whether it was taking root.

In the weeks before Easter, the intensity deepened. The bishop laid hands on them repeatedly, praying over them, making the sign of the cross on their foreheads. On Good Friday they fasted completely — no food, no water — keeping vigil with Christ in the tomb. By Saturday night, they had been without sleep, without food, stripped down to their most basic selves.

And then: the water.

One by one, they step forward. They renounce the devil — out loud, facing west, the direction of darkness. They turn east, toward the rising sun. They are stripped of their clothes. They descend into the water. A hand presses them under. Three times. In the name of the Father. The Son. The Spirit. They come up gasping, shaking, alive.

Then they are clothed in white. Anointed with oil. Led upstairs into the light for the first time as full members of the body. And for the first time, they share in the bread and the cup — the meal they had only watched from a distance until now.

The early Christians called this the great mystery. Not a formality. Not a church policy. A death and a resurrection, enacted in water, in the body, in the dark before dawn.

Baptism Themes

Today I want to do a little work on baptism. This is the first step of putting down roots and an opportunity for us to discover or rediscover what we believe about baptism. So if you are brand new, or visiting today…I am not simply presenting a Methodist view of baptism but want to give us NT and early church images about what baptism. Robin Jensen a church historian has a neat book on Baptismal imagery in Early Christianity, I will be referencing her findings. So what are the early church and NT themes of baptism? In other words, what do we believe happens in baptism?

1) Baptism as Cleansing from Sin and Sickness

Freedom from sin and sickness

There are hints of it here in the passage but we can find it very pronounced in the NT and the early church knew this. They would draw on texts like

1 Corinthians 6:11 NIV

And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

In the passage comparing the sinners to the ones that were washed. Ephesians compares baptism to the bride that is given a purifying bath before the wedding day, a ritual ceremony of the time. Or thoughts of

Hebrews 10:22 NIV

let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

Probably all of these have in mind Ezekiel

Ezekiel 36:25 NIV

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.

Baptism is the grace of God that purifies, cleans, washes away.

2) Incorporation into the Community

Freedom from sin, freedom for community

I think this is a subtle theme with the dialogue of circumcision in our passage. There is the obvious imagery of what takes place in circumcision compared to a circumcision of the heart. But circumcision meant you belonged to the Jewish faith. That you were in the family. Baptism is the same seal, the same promise that you are a part of the family.

“When you received Christ Jesus as Lord....

Jesus is Lord is the communal declaration before the family. Early baptism stories tell of the celebration of these experiences. The first meal together after this....

Then they were given a sponsor and put into place of continual accountability.

Jensen:

“Like little fish, they needed to remain in the water of their baptism to survive. Like sheep in a flock governed by a loving shepherd they were protected and cherished, rescued when in danger, and persistently herded toward their place of safety.”

This is putting down roots.

3) Baptism as Sanctifying and Illuminating

Freedom from Sin, freedom for community, freedom by the power of the Holy Spirit

This is the Empowerment of God. Logical beginning point of sanctifying grace.

2 Corinthians 1:21–22 NIV

Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

Ephesians 1:13–14 NIV

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

Baptism is the launching pad of the journey of grace. In baptism you are marked a child, but then you become a child.

4) Baptism as Dying and Rising

baptism into and under the cross. and also out of the grave

we can see this imagery best in our passage....

Colossians 2:12 NIV

having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

and later....

Colossians 2:13–14 NIV

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.

What happened back there, becomes real in the present. The cross of Christ becomes our cross. Not the cross you are on, but the one He is on for you. We are putting ourselves under that. And we do not simply stay in the water but we come up again because we are raised to life in Christ.

Robin Jensen: “The font into which [you] step is, simultaneously, a watery tomb and a watery womb.”

This is important yall....we have too many baptized walking around like they are still under the water. All of these have conditions, consequences for what life should be like. Sickness is gone, community restored around you, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the promise of life.

If you believe Jesus can take away sin, brokenness, then why dont you believe He can restore life?!

5) Baptism as the Beginning of the New creation.

(John Wesley resonates strongly here). participating in the new creation and reign of Christ.

“He gives us heaven in exchange for earth, and bestows paradise with a bounteous hand, and makes us more honorable than the angels… Didymus (4th century Alexandrian catechist)

Baptism is a firstfruits, a restoration to Genesis’ eden and a vision of what is to come. Baptism is a launching point for people to have a new lens for the world and to see hope where there is darkness. This is missional and brings calling to us all.

The first step of putting down roots is moving to town. It is declaring that Jesus is Lord. It is being baptized. Dying to self and walking in life. Joining the community.

If you have not been baptized, what is stopping you?

2. Second, maybe you have been baptized and this is challenging you again. I know there is some inclination to want to get rebaptized when these moments come along. But let me tell you something, if you were baptized yesterday or as a baby, God’s work was good and complete…you do not need to go through that again....you have an opportunity to choose life today. To allow the promise to come alive in you.

Graduation image….

2012…graduation from SHSU. I have had the privledge of walking across a few stages.

Now, I did not need to talk the stage. They would have mailed the certificate to me.

It was a communal celebration. Friends and Family gathered to mark this moment. The school is making a public declaration that you now are marked by their institution.

Baptism:

God is marking you

You are making a public proclamation

it is communal

It signifies the moment you join the alumni

Means of Grace

Closing:

The invitation today: Do you need to put down roots? Have you been baptized?

Recommitment?

Walk in life: The goal of church is that you would be little Christ’s