You, Me, Ebenezer, and Baptism

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 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. 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.” Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, 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.”

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Death and rebirth are one of the classic plot archetypes used in storytelling. You can find this storytelling device in tales old and new, with Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol being the most well-known. The fourth stave of Dickens' classic depicts a trembling Ebenezer Scrooge who stands above his own grave begging the final spirit, "Assure me that I yet may change these shadows you have shown me, by an altered life." Soon after, we find Scrooge rising out of his bed a changed man, someone who encountered a life-altering moment, a brush with death that led to rebirth. The imagery of death and resurrection is what the early Christians clung to as they administered the rite of baptism. Today, do we allow ourselves to come face to face with moments of such transformation in our daily lives? 

You, me, and Ebenezer Scrooge, we're in the same boat; we require a moment of transformation. Luckily, we don't require a visit from three specters, but God does require something of us. God requires us to possess hearts that are open to change, open to something divine, which will radically change our spiritual and physical cores. These moments are necessary if we are to live fully into our baptismal covenant and these words that we so often use during the rite of baptism: "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 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." Our task is to live into the newness of life. How we live into that newness is what we need to ask ourselves. 

We should note that not all transformation is positive. It is possible that this cycle of death and rebirth does not lead to our desired outcome if our heart is not rooted in something outside ourselves. You can find an example of this in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Gatsby undergoes a transition from someone who is penniless to someone to a mysterious debonair who is well versed in the ways of the rich and powerful. He becomes someone else in order to impress a love that never existed in the past except in a distant memory. Transformation in this instance was detrimental, as it was founded on selfish desires instead of a greater force that existed outside of himself. Again we know what this force is; what it comes down to is whether we will choose to believe that it has the power to change us and the world around us. 

This message of transformation is often lost in our contemporary conversations around faith. Instead of diving deep, we go through the motions of baptizing babies and sprinkling water from the font, and that is where the discussions appear to end; in communities of faith, both big and small, this is where we've struggled as Christians. Our current habits run contrary to the message of John the Baptist, who preached that baptism is not the end of our spiritual journey but just the beginning, the starting point for our walk with the Spirit of God and one another. When was the last time you thought about your baptism? When was the last time you talked about the changes you've seen God enable in your life with someone else? Our baptism is a living moment that is calling us to continually live out a life of faith that is proactive. 

Living out our faith in this manner will mean that we will ask questions and feel like we won't have all the answers. However, not having answers to our questions is okay. It's not an indication that we are somehow "less faithful," but instead a sign that we are anticipating something unknown, something that has not yet manifested itself, which can lead us to feel anxious, excited, or unsure of what is coming next. And it is a part of what it looks like for us to allow our baptism to transform us and lead us to a place where we can take to heart and embody the exact words that God spoke to Jesus at his baptism, "You are my beloved; with you, I am well pleased." In remembering these words and claiming them for ourselves, we might embrace the process of authentically engaging the baptismal covenant. 

In the beginning, I asked if we allow ourselves to come face to face with moments of divine transformation in our daily lives because baptism is a visible, visceral sign that calls us to live a renewed life in God. Our current climate indicates that we aren't the only ones needing transformation. The culture that surrounds this community of faith and is a part of this community of faith is yearning for these moments where life-giving change takes place. Our reading for today tells us that we already possess this life-giving means of change through the rite of baptism. In these sacred waters, we find tangible evidence that God calls us to a new life. We can profess a transformation joy like Ebenezer, who at the end of his story exclaims, "the shadows of the things that would have been, may be dispelled. They will be! I know they will."

Our baptisms dispel the ultimate shadow of death, to reveal the life of God that dwells inside each and every one of us. As John and we today baptize with water, we are all blessed by the baptism Christ gives to all that comes from the Holy Spirit that urges us to cast off the chaff that keeps us from growing. So let us go and understand the story of transformation and tell our story of transformation, of change. Continually contemplating and growing into our baptism, I leave us with part of a baptismal prayer: "We rejoice that you claimed us in our baptism, and that by your grace we are born anew. By your Holy Spirit renew us, that we may be empowered to do your will and continue forever in the risen life of Christ, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be all glory and honor, now and forever. Amen." (Book of Common Worship)